Qualcomm’s 205 Mobile Platform brings 4G connectivity to feature phones

Qualcomm will roll out sub-$50 feature phones with Category 4 LTE.

Qualcomm announced last week that it would move away from the Snapdragon branding for its lower-end platforms, and we’re now getting a first look at what that entails.

At an event in New Delhi, Qualcomm has introduced its latest product, an entry-level SoC aimed at the feature phone segment in emerging markets. The Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform is designed primarily to bring 4G connectivity to feature phones, with the SoC featuring the X5 Category 4 LTE modem with a download speed of 150Mbps.

The platform also supports Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, VoLTE and VoWIFI, 720p video streaming at 30fps, and an ISP that can handle a front VGA camera and a 3MP rear camera. The chipset offers a dual-core CPU clocked at 1.1GHz and an Adreno 304 GPU, and supports eMMC 4.5 flash storage and LPDDR2/LPDDR3 RAM.

There’s also dual-SIM connectivity, support for location services (GPS, GLONASS, and Beidou), and Qualcomm’s hardware-based SecureMSM security platform.

Although sub-$100 smartphones have been on the rise in markets like India, there is still a considerable demand for feature phones in the country. The rise of affordable 4G services with the launch of Jio — which offers 1GB a day of LTE data and free calls for just ₹303 ($4.60) a month — has catalysed the entire market, drastically lowering the barrier to entry for 4G.

Jio has been offering its services for absolutely free to its customers for the last seven months, amassing 100 million customers in the process. The “Jio effect,” as it’s called, has led to incumbents Airtel and Vodafone making their own 4G plans more affordable to stay competitive while improving their quality of service.

Feature phones still account for a majority of handset sales in India.

The proliferation of 4G has also resulted in an increase in sales of 4G-enabled devices, with 70% of devices sold in India in Q3 2016 offering LTE. We’ve seen phones that offer great value for money in recent months, including the likes of the Xiaomi Redmi 3S and Lenovo’s K6 Power. Although these phones cost under $150, their pricing puts them out of reach for millions of Indian customers, and that’s where the Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform comes in.

With the entry-level chipset, Qualcomm is paving the way for sub-$50 feature phones that offer 4G connectivity. Feature phones account for 56% of the handset segment in India, and there’s continued demand for phones that offer dual-SIM connectivity and multi-day battery life. By throwing in a Category 4 LTE modem, Qualcomm is now making these devices make the switch from 2G to 4G. In addition to calls, feature phones will now be able to carry out “enhanced experiences” that include mobile payment solutions and access to music and video streaming apps.

Phones powered by the 205 platform will be available sometime next quarter, with Qualcomm partnering with the likes of Jio, Micromax, TCL, and others:

• Borqs
• CKT
• Flex
• FIH/Megafone
• HiPad
• Huiye
• LYF
• Micromax
• Reliance Jio
• TCL
• TSM
• Uniscope
• Viroyal/Feixun

Xiaomi Redmi 4A goes live in India with 720p display, Snapdragon 425 for just $90

The Redmi 4A shows that sub-$100 phones don’t have to be boring.

At a media event in New Delhi, Xiaomi rolled out the latest product in the Redmi series, the Redmi 4A. The phone will be sold exclusively on Amazon India for ₹5,999 ($90), making it the most affordable phone launched by the Chinese manufacturer in the country.

You get a lot for the asking price, including a 5-inch 720p display, Snapdragon 425 SoC with four 1.4GHz Cortex A53 cores and an Adreno 308 GPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB storage (a variant with 32GB storage will also be sold), 13MP camera, 5MP front shooter, and a 3120mAh battery. On the software front, the Redmi 4A comes with the latest version of MIUI 8 (8.1.4.0) atop Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow along with the December security patch.

Like earlier Redmi devices, the Redmi 4A is manufactured in India, with Xiaomi stating that over 95% of its devices sold in the country are locally manufactured. The company is also rolling out a second manufacturing plant in India, increasing its production capacity to one phone per second.

As for the phone itself, the Redmi 4A will be going up for sale starting March 23 on Amazon India. The phone certainly has a lot to offer considering its price tag, and the blue color option (which I’m reviewing) in particular looks incredible. What are your thoughts on the device? Let us know in the comments below.

See at Amazon

Galaxy S8 breaks cover in blue, white and silver

Some GS8 models may have colored front panels, if latest leak is to be believed.

The most recent Galaxy S8 render leaks may have given us the impression that Samsung’s next major phone will use black front panels, even if the rest of the phone is silver, grey or some other color. However fresh live photos of the phone, scooped up from Chinese social network Weibo by Dutch outlet Techtastic, suggests that at the very least some GS8 models may feature colored front panels as well.

Behold, the Galaxy S8 in blue, white (we think — though it may be gold) and silver:

The shots appear to show legitimate, functioning Galaxy S8 models — though it’s tough to get a feel for which of these might be the larger GS8 Plus. At the very least, it shows that Samsung is considering colored bezels for some GS8s, even as it reduces the screen borders to almost nothing.

So if you’d like a little more color in your, it appears that may well be an option. And if you’d prefer to not be looking at seven very obvious cut-outs in the top bezel (for various cameras and sensors), it seems that’ll be an option too.

Multiple color options for the GS8 would be in line with the past few release cycles for Samsung flagships — even if they don’t reach all regions. A purple hue has also been rumored in recent days.

We’ll know more when the Galaxy S8 officially launches in New York on March 29.

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Tiny liquid battery cools chips while powering them

Scientists from IBM and ETH Zurich university have built a tiny “flow” battery that has the dual benefit of supplying power to chips and cooling them at the same time. Even taking pumping into account, it produces enough energy to power a chip while dissipating much more heat than it generates. The result could be smaller, more efficient chips, solar cells that store their own energy or devices used for remote monitoring that don’t require external power sources.

“Redox flow” batteries that use liquid electrolytes are normally used on a large scale to store energy. For instance, Harvard Researchers recently created one that can last over ten years with very little degradation, making it ideal to store solar or wind energy.

Building them on a scale tiny enough for chips is another matter, however. The team from ETH Zurich and IBM managed to find two liquids that are suitable both as flow-battery electrolytes and cooling agents that can dissipate heat from chips in the same circuit. “We are the first scientists to build such a small flow battery so as to combine energy supply and cooling,” says doctoral student Julian Marschewski.

Using 3D printing, the team developed a wedge-shaped micro-channel system that supplies the system with electrolytes using very little pumping power. The resulting electrodes press liquid into the membrane layer where ions can flow, generating power. The result is a system that generates 1.4 watts per square centimeter, with 1 watt left over to power the battery after taking pumping into account. Moreover, it gets rid of a lot more heat than it makes, pulling off the neat trick of powering and cooling chips at the same time.

The battery needs to generate more electricity than it does right now, so the idea now needs to shift from the research into the engineering stages. However, the team thinks that it has a lot of potential for not just chips, but also lasers that require internal cooling, solar cells that store electricity directly in the battery cell and even large flow batteries optimized with liquid cooling channels.

Source: Eth Zurich

Guess’ Android Wear smartwatch is classically styled

Guess, the fashion brand that’s perfect for annoying people when they ask what you’re wearing, is launching a new smartwatch. This time, however, the company is going all-in on Android Wear 2.0 with the Guess Connect. The timepiece comes packing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor and comes in eight styles, five designed for men and three intended for women.

The company hasn’t released a spec list, but given that Android Wear’s system requirements are fairly set in stone, we can probably guess. In many ways, the common software and hardware platforms mean that any of the new Android Wear watches announced recently are all, pretty much the same. In the end, it’ll come down to which brand you have a particular affinity for, and can afford, that winds up getting your cash.

Of course, Guess has been “making” smartwatches (in partnership with Martian) for longer than many of its rivals. But the first generation of the Guess Connect wasn’t exactly elegant, with a janky letterbox dot matrix display embedded into the dial. It’s worth nothing, however, that the company did slap Amazon Alexa into its most recent range, although the Gc Connect, when it arrives this Fall, will come with Google Instant instead.

iPhone user died from electrocution as he charged his handset while in the bath

Why it matters to you

It’s a sad reminder to think twice before taking electrical items close to water.

Some folks simply can’t resist taking their smartphone into the bathtub to check their social media feeds or play games, and occasional reports of fatal accidents suggest a small percentage may be going one step further and also charging their device while in the tub.

One such person, Briton Richard Bull, died from electrocution recently when his iPhone charger touched the water of the bath he was in. The coroner examining the case, Dr Sean Cummings, last week ruled the death as accidental, but said he intended to ask Apple to take steps to help prevent further such incidents.

Dr Cummings said that while smartphones “seem like innocuous devices … they can be as dangerous as a hairdryer in a bathroom,” adding that handset makers companies “should attach warnings” to the devices to warn of the risks.

The postmortem into the fatal accident, which happened in December 2016, revealed burns on the right arm and right hand of 32-year-old Bull, the coroner said. His wife had called for help but he was already dead when first responders arrived at their London home. Police who investigated the scene said they found an extension cord running between the hallway and the bathroom.

More: Woman dies of electrocution as she used a smartphone that was charging

Sheila Merrill of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents told the BBC that while such incidents are rare, “people need to be aware of taking an electrical appliance into the bathroom.”

“If you have got any appliance attached to the mains electricity circuit, you have to be aware there is a danger there,” Merrill said. “Electricity and water don’t mix, but particularly with phones, people don’t … always think about it. It’s not advisable to use them while they’re plugged in, particularly in a bathroom situation.”

Richard Bull’s mother, Carole, told The Sun, “I worry so many people, and especially teenagers who can’t be separated from their phones, don’t know how dangerous it is.”

Rogers and Telus now rolling out Nougat update to the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge

Nougat update is now live for most Galaxy S7 and S7 edge variants in Canada.

The Android 7.0 Nougat update for the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge made its way to Canadian carriers SaskTell, Bell, Virgin Mobile, Eastlink, Videotron and Freedom Mobile last week, and the 1.2GB OTA update is now rolling out to Rogers and Telus subscribers.

The update brings a slew of new features, including a redesigned UI, display scaling options, multi-window mode, in-line notification replies, and much more. If you’re rocking either an S7 or S7 edge from Rogers or Telus, head into your phone’s settings to see if an update is available for your device.

Already picked up the Nougat update? How are you liking the changes?

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SXSW’s gaming awards celebrate ‘Uncharted 4’ and indie hits

South by Southwest isn’t just about cool tech, movies and music… gaming is a big deal, too. The Austin festival has unveiled its fourth annual gaming award winners, and the top picks definitely reflect SXSW’s emphases on storytelling and out-of-the-ordinary concepts. The leader, by far, was Uncharted 4. Naughty Dog’s swashbuckling action game took home five prizes, including video game of the year as well as excellence awards for a memorable character, narrative, animation and visuals. It’s not surprising, to be honest — U4 has been an awards darling for months, and its combination of sophisticated characterization with breathtaking vistas was bound to be appealing to SXSW’s panel.

Other big multi-award winners include Overwatch (eSports, most promising new property, multiplayer and trending), Battlefield 1 (sound effects and technical achievement) and Doom (gameplay and music). Dishonored 2 also claimed a design award, while the seemingly inescapable Pokémon Go was the mobile game of the year. Telltale’s Batman series, meanwhile, won an award for converging the famous comic book hero with the studio’s distinctive take on adventure gaming.

However, the SXSW awards were as much about indies and fan-driven efforts as the mainstream. The Gamer’s Voice awards went to the cult multiplayer favorite Arena Gods as well as the solo-oriented Owlboy, while the short-but-sweet Firewatch was the SXSW panel’s art winner. The build-and-survive title Starbound was the most “fulfilling” community-backed game, and the special Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award went to the heartrending That Dragon, Cancer. Even a user mod got its due recognition, as the over-the-top Brutal Doom was the fan creation of the year. No, these titles didn’t have much luck getting into SXSW’s regular award categories, but they do illustrate that there’s plenty of innovation outside of the mainstream.

Source: SXSW

This Valkyrie R5 humanoid robot is put to the test with Mars colonization on the horizon

Why it matters to you

These Valkyrie R5 robots will help pave the way for future Mars colonization.

NASA’s Space Robotics Challenge awarded Northeastern University with a $2-million Valkyrie Robonaut 5 (R5) robot, which is now undergoing tests in a Massachusetts warehouse to prepare for the finalist round this June in a virtual simulation of a red-planet landing.

The robot arrived at Northeastern in 2015 as part of a proposal that Engineering Professor Taskin Padir sent to NASA for the Space Robotics Challenge software testing, reports Tech Crunch.

More: Surprise! Biofuels reduce jet engine pollution in the atmosphere, NASA says

“They’ve done all of the hardware and we’re developing these high-level capabilities so Valkyrie does more than just move limbs,” Northeastern PhD student, Murphy Wonsick told Tech Crunch. “She can autonomously make decisions, move around, and accomplish tasks.”

Researchers moved the R5 to “NERVE (New England Robotics Validation and Experimentation) Center, a large warehouse space operated by UMass Lowell that houses large obstacle courses designed to put test robots and drones through their paces,” just outside of Boston.

On-board vision systems, bipedal locomotion, and navigation in tight spaces are some the criteria being tested at the NERVE research site, according to the same report.

NASA reportedly produced three other R5 models. One was held in-house, and  NASA “awarded two as research loans to Northeastern University and nearby MIT, while a fourth was acquired by Scotland’s University of Edinburgh.”

According to NASA, in the finalist round, “each team’s R5 will be challenged with resolving the aftermath of a dust storm that has damaged a Martian habitat. This involves three objectives: aligning a communications dish, repairing a solar array, and fixing a habitat leak.”

The Space Robotics Challenge is part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges program set to award $1 million to the team that can “develop capabilities of humanoid robot dexterity to better enable them to work alongside and independent of astronauts in preparation for future space exploration.”

NASA announced the 20 finalists in February.

AMD claims LG and Vizio are violating its graphics patents

AMD is one of the few remaining companies with a big stake in graphics hardware (it’s powering the PS4 and Xbox One in addition to PCs), and it’s determined to hold on to that stake however it can. In the wake of an earlier filing, the US International Trade Commission has agreed to investigate LG, MediaTek, Sigma Designs and Vizio for allegedly violating AMD’s graphics patents. Allegedly, the visual processing in their devices (including phones, mobile CPUs and TVs) treads on AMD’s concepts for unified graphics shaders and parallel graphics pipelines. AMD is hoping for a sales ban on any offending products.

As AnandTech points out, the complaint is really a proxy war against the likes of ARM and Imagination Technologies (think PowerVR), both of which design graphics cores but don’t actually manufacture them. It’s much easier to target the hardware companies, since they’re the ones selling tangible products — AMD can profit from its patent collection (which it planned to do back in 2014) more easily than it can if it sues over fuzzier concepts like chip architecture. Both Samsung and AMD’s former manufacturing wing GlobalFoundries are already licensing the patents, so AMD may already have an advantage here.

We’ve asked AMD for comment on the investigation and will let you know if it has something to add. With that in mind, even a successful ITC campaign might only have a limited effect. While ITC cases tend to move relatively quickly (typically about 15 months), that’s a long time in the tech world. Some of the disputed gadgets could be off store shelves by then. As it is, there are already ARM-based chips using a newer architecture (Bifrost) that might not be affected by AMD’s complaint. Although a victory could easily hurt companies like LG and Vizio, it won’t necessarily be a crippling blow.

Via: Reuters

Source: USITC