Rumors about the upcoming iPad 3 --- which we know is coming, but not when or what --- are beginning to fly. That alone seems to point to a release in the next few months, with March in the bulls-eye right now, as that would match the normal one-year refresh cycle since the iPad 2 was launched.
The latest rumor, this time from Bloomberg, confirms earlier rumors from other sources. Earlier rumors said that Apple's Pegatron and Foxconn manufacturers had begun building iPad 3s for a March launch, and that an LTE version would be coming this year.
The newest report sticks with the March launch date, and also claims Apple will launch an LTE version as well. The earlier LTE report, though, estimated a launch date of mid-year for the LTE iPad 3. That actually makes more sense, as second-generation --- and thus more real-estate and battery friendly LTE chipsets are not expected until Q2 2012. Apple is very focused on battery life, and despite the iPad's much-larger-than-a-smartphone battery, it's hard to believe they would sacrifice battery life on the new device.
Of course, that late a launch would break the iPad's annual refresh cycle, but since Apple showed with the iPhone 4S that going off-schedule, or rather, the off-the-schedule-Apple-has-kept-thus-far won't hurt sales.
The tablet will also use a quad-core chip, two of Bloomberg's sources said. The first Android tablet with a quad-core chip, the Transformer Prime with the NVIDIA Tegra 3 SoC (system-on-a-chip) launched late last year, but the iPad's success, and Android tablets' lack, has shown that specs are not exactly a sales point with many consumers.
The report also stated that the iPad 3 will carry a high-definition screen. While not specifying the resolution, it's already been rumored that Apple will double the current iPad 2 resolution with a 2,048 x 1,536 screen on the new iPad 3.
Earlier rumors also said the iPad 3 would be visually nearly indistinguishable from the iPad 2, although it be thicker by about 1mm.
Snapseed, which Apple earlier named its top iPad app of 2011, is coming to Android tablets, or at least some of them. The app will also be coming to the Mac, as well.
Just as with The Daily, the roll-out will be to select Android tablets. In the case of Snapseed, the app will hit NVIDIA Tegra-powered tablets running Ice Cream Sandwich. For now, that means the Transformer Prime only will be seeing the app ... no other tablet has a non-custom version of ICS --- yet.
Strangely, that includes the Xoom, which Motorola has already promised will see ICS, and which is stock Android. You would have expected it to get ICS faster than any other tablet. We'd guess Asus was working on the ICS build even as it was trying to get the Transformer Prime, which shipped in late 2011, out the door.
Snapseed is an easy-to-use photo-editing app with typical image editing features, various effects and filters. However, Snapseed uses its own (Nik Software) U-Point technology to do so. For exsample, instead of what you might expect if you compare this with say, PhotoShop, you use swiping to modify attributes (brightness, saturation, etc.).
It makes things far, far easier for an end user.
Michael J. Slater, President and CEO of Nik Software said, "We're very pleased to bring Snapseed to the Android tablet market. Offering Snapseed for Android tablets is a great opportunity for more users to experience the fun and creativity of photo editing and sharing. We worked with NVIDIA to make Snapseed fast and responsive for Android users everywhere."
Neil Trevett, Vice President of Mobile Content at NVIDIA added, "Snapseed delivers a photo experience that’s enormously capable, incredibly responsive, and initially available only on Tegra-based tablets. Our teams have worked closely to ensure that the app fully harnesses Tegra’s power and efficiency to provide a magical experience."
The Mac app will retail for $19.99 in the Mac App Store and will be compatible with Mac OS 10.6.8 and later. The Android version will cost $4.99. Both versions are slated for the typically vague early 2012 release.
At the same price as the iPad version, we'll see if Snapseed can break through the "Android users won't buy anything" barrier.
A look deep inside the latest iOS 5.1 beta seems to show that Apple is working on making its iOS mobile device platform work on quad-core processors. While it's already almost a given that the next-generation iPad and iPhone will use the A6 processor, up from the dual-core A5, it hasn't been clear that the chip would be quad-core.
Apple always places battery life first on its list of desires (despite what people have been saying about iOS 5). NVIDIA, which already launched a quad-core processor, the Tegra 3, has a stealth low-power fifth core, which is used for low priority tasks, increasing battery life. How Apple will address battery life in its own quad-core SoC (system-on-a-chip) is still unknown.
However, with NVIDIA and Asus having just released a quad core Android tablet, the legally-challenged Transformer Prime, it is unlikely that Apple would release the iPad 3 without a similar quad-core SoC.
The question of when exactly Apple will release the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 still remains, but early signs still point to the annual refresh cycles of March for a new iPad and late fall for a new iPhone.
The ASUS Transformer Prime super-tablet is now available for pre-order, at several locations. Among the Internet retailers with the device available are Amazon.com, Best Buy, and TigerDirect.com.
Prices are all around $499 for 32GB and $599 for 64GB; you're not getting a discount on this baby. However, Amazon.com and TigerDirect.com don't collect sales tax in many states.
The Transformer Prime will ship with Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) but is already slated to get Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0). It will sport a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 display, 1GB of RAM, along with 1.2MP front-facing and 8MP rear-facing cameras.
More importantly to those who love specs, the super-fast 1.3GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3. Of course, we know that Apple laughs at specs, as the iPad 2 isn't the most spec-heavy, but it has destroyed Android tablets in terms of sales.
There's still no release date, at least not a confirmed one, but the Transformer Prime is expected to ship in December.
Watch a demo of ICS on the ASUS Transformer Prime, below.
The long-anticipated Tegra 3 processor (previously, code-named Kal-El) was officially unveiled by NVIDIA on Wednesday. It is the world's first quad-core processor aimed specifically at mobile devices.
The Tegra 3 SoC (system on a chip) is a quad-core ARM A9-based processor, and includes a 12-core GeForce graphics unit. The Tegra 3 boasts 5x the performance of the dual-core Tegra 2, NVIDIA claims, but won't suck your battery dry, the company claims, because of NVIDIA's new patented Variable SMP (vSMP) architecture.
NVIDIA's press release highlights the following bullet points:
Tegra 3 is NVIDIA’s new mobile processor – the world’s first quad-core mobile processor for tablets and super phones. It delivers up to 5x the performance of the first dual-core processor - Tegra 2 - which powers many of today’s most popular Android tablets and phones.
Tegra 3 combines a PC-class CPU and 3X faster GPU with stereo 3D support to deliver BOTH high performance and low power consumption.
Tegra 3’s new patented Variable SMP (vSMP) architecture provides the best combination of high performance and extended battery life by switching between the four main CPU cores and a fifth lower-power "Companion" CPU core that is used for less stressful tasks and active standby mode.
Consumers will see the fastest web experience, applications, multitasking and high quality gaming, and long battery life.
We covered vSMP earlier. NVIDIA uses a "stealth" lower-power fifth core for tasks like checking emails, performing notifications, running the operating system in sleep mode, and keeping the system alive when you are reading a book, playing media files, etc., etc.
Those tasks don't require a high-powered CPU to run. When the "stealth core" is working, the four high-performance Tegra 3 cores are shut down.
When will we see a Tegra 3 device? The new SoC will make its debut in the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime. Basically, it's a upspec'ed version of Asus' Eee Pad Transformer which, in addition to a 1.3GHz Tegra 3 chip, will include better cameras (an 8MP rear-facing camera, and a 1.2MP front-facing camera), and 32GB and 64GB storage tiers, among other items.
That Prime shows off the Tegra 3's vSMP power savings: despite all the extra horsepower, Asus claims users will be able to watch up to 12 hours of HD video on a single charge.
According to Asus, the Prime will be available in December, hopefully in time for the holiday shopping season, running Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) at a starting price of $500. Asus has promised the Transformer Prime will be upgraded to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), at a later date.
We can't wait to see the first Tegra 3 powered handsets (earlier, the HTC Edge was rumored to be the first one, coming in Q1 or Q2 in 2012.
NVIDIA has released a series of videos, spotlighting a number of things about the Tegra 3, including gaming, performance, and battery life. You can watch them below.
Since NVIDIA announced its quad-core mobile ARM processors earlier in the year, we've been waiting for the first quad-core smartphone, and this may be it.
It's the HTC Edge, which will reportedly launch in the Q1 or Q2 2012 sporting an NVIDIA 1.5GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor. In addition, it may, or may not, carry a 4.7-inch display with 720p resolution, 1GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with an F/2.2 lens, 32GB of internal storage and support for 21Mbps HSDPA networks.
That last item seems strange: no LTE? We'd also hope to see some better specs in other areas, as well, such as a display that could blow away the resolution on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and maybe 2GB RAM, something not seen yet in an Android device.
It's likely the phone may also ship with Beats Audio, which makes sense: HTC just announced the Rezound, its first Beats Audio-equipped phone, and in August, HTC became a majority stakeholder in Beats.
Since NVIDIA announced its quad-core mobile ARM processors earlier in the year, we've been waiting for the first quad-core smartphone, and this may be it.
It's the HTC Edge, which will reportedly launch in the Q1 or Q2 2012 sporting an NVIDIA 1.5GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor. In addition, it may, or may not, carry a 4.7-inch display with 720p resolution, 1GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with an F/2.2 lens, 32GB of internal storage and support for 21Mbps HSDPA networks.
That last item seems strange: no LTE? We'd also hope to see some better specs in other areas, as well, such as a display that could blow away the resolution on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and maybe 2GB RAM, something not seen yet in an Android device.
It's likely the phone may also ship with Beats Audio, which makes sense: HTC just announced the Rezound, its first Beats Audio-equipped phone, and in August, HTC became a majority stakeholder in Beats.
Is this the second coming of the Motorola Xoom? Best Buy and Motorola are set to unveil a cheaper version of the Honeycomb-based tablet, one designed to be family-friendlier, and not just because of the a lower price.
The Motorola Xoom Family Edition will be a Best Buy exclusive. While the price will be downsized to $379, it will also be downsized in storage, from 32GB on the normal edition to 16GB. As a plus, the Family Edition will include nearly $40 worth of applications and features the award-winning Kid Mode by Zoodles app, which locks the home button, allowing children to only access the content their parents deem acceptable, like educational games and movies.
Aside from that, not much has changed. The Xoom Family Edition will still be have 10.1-inch screen, and feature a 1Ghz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core SoC, along with a 720p-enabled 5-megapixel rear-facing camera.
It's also embarrassingly thick in comparison with the iPad 2 or the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, but that's another issue.
Motorola and Best Buy's press release says the $379 is a "limited time value price." Eventually, the price will rise to $399, still $100 less than the lowest-priced iPad 2.
It's hard to say how the $379 price will resonate with consumers. The Kindle Fire is possibly the strongest-selling single Android tablet, despite lacking some features such as any camera at all, but that device is priced at almost half the price of the Xoom Family Edition, at $199.
We discussed NVIDIA's Tegra 3 (Kal-El) SOC back in February, when it was introduced, and we labeled it a quad-core chip. On Tuesday, NVIDIA revealed that there's a fifth core, as well, which it called a "stealth" core designed to improve battery life.
[Although we understand why NVIDIA chose the codename Kal-El for its next-gen mobile SOC, really: the Flash is faster than Superman (we assume you know Kal-El is Supes' Kryptonian name). There is, of course, the problem that there have been many Flashes, like Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West, Bart Allen, and back to Barry Allen. That complicates things, and besides, Kal-El is way cooler than Barry Allen.]
How is the fifth core doing this? This is the heart of NVIDIA’s Variable Symmetric Multiprocessing (vSMP), which it has patented. The fifth core will handle "low-power" tasks like checking emails, performing notificationw, running the operating system in sleep mode, and keeping the system alive when you are reading a book, playing media files, etc. etc. When the "stealth core" is working, the four high-performance cores can be shut down.
The frequency of the stealth core is set to a range between 0 and 500MHz. If the core becomes swamped with work to do, one or more of the high-performance cores will wake up and pick up the slack. All five cores are ARM Cortex A9 CPUs, incidentally.
NVIDIA made vSMP platform-transparent. By adding special management functions in vSMP, the company eliminated the need for the OS to know about the special "hidden core." That's a good thing, as Android is already device-specific and fragmented enough; this move means there won't be any need for NVIDIA to help Google tweak any code for a new Android version.
Benchmarking the Tegra 3 against the TI OMAP 4 and the Qualcomm QC8660, those running their cores at 1GHz and 1.2GHz respectively, the Tegra 3 could achieve the same performance while using about 50 - 60 percent less power (running each core at 480Mhz). Running at full speed, the Tegra 3 used about 10 - 15 percent less power while producing nearly double the performance.
Compared to NVIDIA's Tegra 2 chipset, used on tablets and some smartphones, the Tegra 3 SOC uses 61 percent less power during video playback, and 34 percent less power while gaming.
Naturally, the real test will be in the real world, as these are benchmarks. Still, while it might seem counter-intuitive, it seems that the much more powerful Kal-El will be not as thirsty with power as you might expect.
An apparently genuine MacBook Pro prototype that includes a built-in cellular modem has made its way to eBay. The laptop, circa 2007, reportedly has Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) installed, and the seller believes it will work with Lion (and it probably will). Unfortunately, although there's a SIM slot and the cellular modem shows up in the OS, the seller can't seem to get it to connect to data.
The seller, abhw752579, has 197 auctions under his belt and 100 percent positive reviews. The auction already has 64 bids and is currently up to $6,400 with 4 days left on the auction.
The machine was originally purchased by abhw752579 for parts, but after opening up the case he noticed that "this was no normal Macbook Pro: the circuit boards inside were bright red as opposed to the normal blue! [Apple prototypes typically use red circuit boards]"
"Further inspection found multiple differences from the stock version, most notably a feature never seen in a Macbook laptop of any kind: what appears to be a fully integrated cellular modem and SIM slot. There is an extendable cellular antenna located at the right top side of the display assembly (The antenna is marked with "Tyco Proto / #006" when slid out), and a standard size SIM card slot located underneath the memory cover on the bottom of the machine."
That said, abhw752579 then repaired the machine. It has a new 320GB hard drive, 2GB of new RAM, an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz Dual-Core Processor, and a NVIDIA GeForce 8600m video card with 256MB Dedicated RAM. The MagSafe power adapter is also new, and so is the battery, although is is a third-party battery.
It's not 100 percent certain that the Dynastream ANT2USB device shown in the actual is the cellular modem, though. Searching for that on the Web turns up posts from around the right timeframe, but referencing Garmin hardware. Clearly, however, there is a SIM slot, so perhaps someone with the right drivers can get it working.
Either way, how much would you spend for a one of a kind prototype like this?
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