There are only a few days to go until Nokia World 2010, but over at the company’s blog they’re already getting in on the crystal ball gazing fun with their Nokia U concept.  The product of a “Design by Community” effort, it seemingly demonstrates that when you ask Nokia fans for their ideal device they throw in every high-end specification of recent months in a chassis that looks like a slimmed down N8.

According to the group consensus, the Nokia U would have a 4-inch capacitive touchscreen, WiFi b/g/n, USB 3.0 and HDMI connectivity, all in a waifish 60 x 110 x 6-10mm monoblock form-factor crafted from soft-touch aluminum.  They also want an 8-megapixel camera with both Xenon and LED flash options, a 4x optical zoom and HD video recording: oh, and they’d like to be able to upgrade the image sensor at a later date too.

Unsurprisingly Nokia has no plans to actually produce the Nokia U, which is likely to be a relief to the company’s engineers since there’s no way you could actually fit all of that tech into such a slim body.  If you can take away anything from the exercise, it’s that the Nokia faithful are calling out for a big-screen, high-resolution device to take on the EVO 4Gs, DROID Xs and Galaxy S’ of this world.

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Premises across Europe, including a Swedish university, have been raided by police in a piracy crackdown

Galaxy Tab? Who needs that overpriced prima donna? Here's the tablet the economical among us have been waiting for. Alright, so the Elocity A7 didn't elicit the highest of praise when it made its cameo on The Engadget Show, but let's congratulate its makers on achieving a pair of feats. Firstly, StreamTV has managed to get its Froyo tablet listed for pre-order on Amazon -- which is no mean feat in itself, just ask Notion Ink -- and secondly, it's done so at an even lower price point than promised, with an encouraging $370 tag. Even if you're like us and not entirely blown away by its performance, you've got root for this little slate to complete the narrative and start selling -- if for no other reason than that it might incite others to stoop to the same price point.

Elocity A7 goes up for pre-order on Amazon with Android 2.2, Tegra 2, and a $370 price tag originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD has outed its latest professional graphics card, the ATI FirePro V9800, with a full 1,600 stream processors and whopping 4GB of GDDR5 memory.  The FirePro V9800 has six Mini DisplayPort outputs – using ATI EyeFinity to drive the half-dozen displays – and supports DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.0, ATI CrossFire Pro and a 256-bit memory interface.

While the V9800 is based on the same Cyprus GPU as AMD used in the V8800 professional card, here it’s capable of 2.72 terraflops versus 2.64 terraflops in its predecessor.  Despite that – and despite having double the memory and more ports – it uses less power, down to 199W.

We’re yet to see the first reviews come in, but AMD’s own benchmarks suggest the FirePro V9800 slightly exceeds the V8800 in Viewperf 10 testing, but manages more than double what an NVIDIA Quadro 5000 could manage.  MRSP for the two-slot card is a hefty $3,499.

[via Phoronix]

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• ATI FirePro 2450: quad WUXGA from one card
• ATI FirePro V8750 flagship 3D video card with CrossFire Pro [Video]

If you just want to send e-mail or get access to the Web from your phone, there are many entry-level devices to peruse.

New museum apps for New York demonstrate the potential for technology to help people make the most of a museum visit.

Not willing to wait for the genuine R2-D2 edition Droid 2 later this month? Then it looks like you can now get the next best thing -- the Star Wars-themed boot animation and live wallpapers from the phone have already been dug out from the recently leaked ROM and made available for download. Those include the Millennium Falcon flying through an asteroid field, the always exciting jump to lightspeed, an interactive R2-D2, and everyone's favorite: the space slug. Head on past the break for a pair of videos, and hit up the links below to check out the rest (and download them).

Continue reading Droid 2 R2-D2 boot animation, live wallpapers leak out at light speed

Droid 2 R2-D2 boot animation, live wallpapers leak out at light speed originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 03:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Researchers say they may have found further evidence for the existence of an unusual type of black hole.

A kind of "auto-tune for data" developed by a European team may help increase the capacities of long-haul fibre optic cables.

ARM has been muttering about their upcoming Eagle processor for some time, and now the chip has made its official debut.  Confirmed as the ARM Cortex A15, it’s a quad-core processor running at up to 2.5GHz and offers, ARM reckon, five times the performance of current generation smartphone chipsets.

However it’s also fully compatible with previous ARM Cortex A-series applications, smoothing out upgrade potential for existing hardware and software developers.  That’ll include Android, Adobe Flash Player, Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE), JavaFX, Linux, Windows Embedded Compact 7, Symbian and Ubuntu.

ARM are targeting not only mobile computers and smartphones but low-power servers and high-end digital home entertainment systems with the Cortex A15, with smartphones using 1-1.5GHz versions of Eagle while home servers might get the 1.5-2.5GHz chips.  That’s more a limitation of power consumption than anything else.  The first ARM Cortex A15 chips are expected in 2013 from TI and others.

Press Release:

ARM Unveils Cortex-A15 Mpcore Processor to Dramatically Accelerate Capabilities of Mobile, Consumer and Infrastructure Applications

Unprecedented levels of performance, power-efficiency, and technology leadership accelerate industry momentum to deliver extraordinarily innovative products

CAMBRIDGE, UK– SEPT 8, 2010 – ARM today introduced the Cortex™-A15 MPCore processor that delivers a 5x performance improvement over today’s advanced smartphone processors, within a comparable energy footprint. In advanced infrastructure applications the Cortex-A15 processor running at up to 2.5GHz will enable highly scalable solutions within constantly shrinking energy, thermal and cost budgets. The Cortex-A15 processor is available for licensing today and is targeted at manufacture in 32nm, 28nm, and future geometries.

As the latest addition to ARM’s Cortex-A family of processors, the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor will enable a new and vast array of products ranging from next-generation smartphones, tablets, large-screen mobile computing and high-end digital home entertainment devices through to wireless basestations and enterprise infrastructure products.

“The launch of the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor marks the beginning of an entirely new era for the ARM Partnership. It brings together more than 20 years of ARM expertise in low-power design with a host of new and very aggressive high-performance technologies,” said Mike Inglis, EVP and GM, Processor Division, ARM. “The Cortex-A15 MPCore processor will become the next major step along the industry’s energy efficient computing roadmap and open up a wide range of new application possibilities for our Partners.”

The debut of the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor enhances the ARM Cortex-A Series of processors by providing the electronics industry with the broadest range of software and feature-set compatible processors. The Cortex-A15 extends the capabilities of the ARM Cortex-A Series by adding efficient hardware support for OS virtualization, soft-error recovery, larger memory addressability and system coherency. While remaining true to ARM’s power-efficient design heritage, the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor brings a new level of performance scalability as well as a feature set that enables ARM Partners to address a range of innovative and traditional markets with a single processor architecture.

The Cortex-A15 also enjoys full application compatibility with all of the other highly acclaimed Cortex-A processors. This enables immediate access to an established developer and software ecosystem including Android™, Adobe® Flash® Player, Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE), JavaFX, Linux, Microsoft® Windows® Embedded Compact 7, Symbian® and Ubuntu, along with more than 700 ARM Connected Community™ members providing applications software, hardware and software development tools, middleware and SoC design services.

“The operational and economic benefits of cloud computing will transform the high-tech industry over the next decade. Everything from the handheld devices to the network infrastructure will require more performance and efficiency to handle the increasing amounts of information that will emerge from the use of remote resources,” said Jim McGregor, Chief Technology Strategist at In-Stat. “ARM has been at the core of the mobile industry and the Cortex-A15 MPCore and accompanying technologies extends the potential for this highly efficient and flexible architecture to other applications critical to our connected world.”

Collaborative differentiation through partnership continues to be the main driver of the ARM business model and the launch of the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor is the result of ARM’s work with lead licensee partners Samsung, ST Ericsson and Texas Instruments, who were key drivers of the definition of the processor, ensuring it meets the key challenges faced by the industry.

“The market’s demand for more functionality and connectivity with low power consumption requires ever more advanced processor, system and chip design. By combining the advanced CPU technology from ARM with Samsung’s world leading chip design and manufacturing capabilities, Samsung has already achieved considerable success in offering high performances and low power Application Processor products to the market place,” said Yiwan Wong, VP of SoC Marketing, System LSI Division, Samsung Electronics. “We believe this new Cortex-A15 MPCore processor core from ARM, with its quantum leap in processing capabilities, will successfully enable many next-generation electronic products and redefine the level of experience consumers will demand from their smartphones and mobile computing devices.”

“We have entered a new era for smart devices where wireless computing solutions bring 3D navigation, augmented reality, HD video filming, high speed broadband and other advanced capabilities to more consumers, enabling our vision of an all-connected world,” said Edgar Auslander, Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning at ST-Ericsson. “Following our pioneering single die integration of modem and application engine featuring a dual Cortex-A9 processor, we are pleased to continue to work with ARM as a lead partner for the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor. Integrated into our leading-edge system-on-chip solutions, the new ARM core will enable our customers to build extremely power-efficient devices with an unprecedented level of performance.”

“As a long-term key partner, TI has worked with ARM for 17 years to innovate and deliver more than 3 billion ARM processor-based system-on-chip (SoC) devices. As an advanced lead partner and first licensee of the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor, we look forward to leveraging the Cortex-A15 core to deliver industry-leading processors that will provide the high performance demanded by the next generation of connected devices, all within a low power envelope. When pairing the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor with TI’s SmartReflex™ 3 technology, future OMAP applications processors will yield a 60 percent reduction in power, enabling TI to continue delivering the industry’s most energy-efficient, high performing solutions. We also see the potential for broader market implementations, leveraging the Cortex-A15 core for home entertainment and multimedia applications,” said Remi El-Ouazzane, vice president, OMAP platform business unit, TI.

Supporting Technology

The Cortex-A15 MPCore processor will be supported by specifically optimized ARM Physical IP that was developed jointly with the processor. These optimizations enable rapid development of leadership physical implementations, initially targeting 32nm and 28nm technologies with a roadmap extending to 20nm.

The processor is also supported by a broad range of ARM technology including the AMBA 4 compliant CoreLink™ system IP, CoreSight™ debug and trace IP, Mali Graphics, and a robust set of development tools. This technology is complemented by a broad range of SoC and software design solutions, tools and services from the ARM Connected Community™ ecosystem to provide ARM Partners with a smooth path through the development, verification and production of full function, compelling devices while significantly reducing time-to-market.

For details on the specific new features and capabilities of the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor and the supporting technology go to http://www.arm.com/products/processors/cortex-a/cortex-a15.php

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Jimmy Eat World didn't concoct the masterpiece that is The Middle for nothing, you know. In yet another example of the middle muddying up the waters for everyone else, DisplaySearch has found that the vast majority of systems sold in America fall into the 15.6-inch category, despite the fact that many offer no gain in resolution over 12- and 13-inch ultraportables with 1,366 x 768 panels. The reason? For one, supply and demand. The sheer quantity of 15-inch machines on the market pushes prices south, and on days like Black Friday, rarely is any size as discounted as the tried-and-true 15-incher. The numbers here would show an even greater difference if the tablets were yanked, but what's made clear is just how little interest is being shown by the masses to the outliers. In fact, Laptop found that MSI is officially putting the kibosh on its plans to ship the 13-inch X360 stateside, and a number of other manufacturers are mulling similar decisions (though "off the record"). So, are you helping to jumble up the middle, or are you a loud-and-proud 5-percenter?

Lessons in Bell Curves: 15-inch laptops still king, despite wealth of portable alternatives originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 02:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Having been teased back in August, the T-Mobile G2 has finally made its official debut.  The successor to the original T-Mobile G1, the G2 packs a full QWERTY hardware keyboard, a 3.7-inch WVGA with an unusual hinge design, and a Qualcomm MSM7230 800MHz chipset which also includes HSPA+ connectivity.

There’s also a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash, 720p HD video recording and an 8GB microSD card.  The G2 runs Android 2.2 Froyo – and so has Flash Player support – and includes Voice Actions support, allowing users to control the smartphone by spoken commands.

A 3.5mm headphone jack, optical trackpad and Swype round out the main specs.  T-Mobile USA says the G2 will be available “in limited quantities” later on in September, though they’re not saying exactly what it might cost.

Press Release:

Introducing the T-Mobile G2 with Google — the First Smartphone Delivering 4G Speeds on T-Mobile’s Super-Fast HSPA+ Network

T-Mobile, Google and HTC re-team to deliver the groundbreaking successor to the T-Mobile G1; Exclusive preorder for current T-Mobile customers begins later this month

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Sept. 9, 2010 — T-Mobile USA, Inc. today unveiled the T-Mobile® G2™ with Google™, delivering downloads at 4G speeds1, a blazing fast web browsing experience and tight integration with Google services. The G2 breaks new ground as the first smartphone specifically designed for T-Mobile’s new HSPA+ network2, which covers 100 million Americans in more than 55 major metropolitan areas across the country. The G2 is an ultra-powerful smartphone designed by HTC and is the highly anticipated successor to the
T-Mobile G1, the world’s first Android™-powered mobile phone, pairing a large 3.7-inch screen with a unique hinge design that opens to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. Current T-Mobile customers will get exclusive access to preorder the G2 starting later this month.

“T-Mobile ignited the spark that set the Android world ablaze two years ago with the launch of the world’s first Android-powered mobile phone, the T-Mobile G1, which remains an important milestone for both T-Mobile and the Android operating system,” said Cole Brodman, chief technology and innovation officer, T-Mobile USA. “Now, with the launch of the T-Mobile G2, we are re-teaming with our partners at Google and HTC to provide T-Mobile customers with another first — the first Android smartphone designed to deliver 4G speeds on our new network.”

“One of the advantages of an open platform is the opportunity for developers to create rich mobile experiences and seamlessly get those experiences into the hands of consumers,” said Andy Rubin, vice president, engineering, Google. “From new services, such as Voice Actions, to mobile applications, developer-led Android innovation is flourishing. On Android Market alone, the number of applications available to consumers has grown from just 50 applications two years ago to more than 80,000 applications today.”

“Two years ago, HTC and T-Mobile worked together to deliver the world’s first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1. From that start, Android has grown to be the leading smartphone platform in the U.S., and one of the most popular globally,” said Peter Chou, chief executive officer, HTC Corporation. “With today’s announcement of the G2, HTC and T-Mobile are once again bringing a breakthrough Android product to market.”

The first smartphone specifically designed to deliver 4G speeds on T-Mobile’s new HSPA+ network, the G2 is optimized for performance to provide customers with blazing fast access to a world of information through websites, applications, videos, file downloads and more. Built on Android 2.2, the G2 offers seven customizable home screen panels, including a dedicated panel with one-click access to your favorite Google applications such as Android Market™, which currently offers more than 80,000 applications.

The T-Mobile G2 delivers a powerful mobile data experience that is tightly integrated with Google Voice™, as well as packed with Google applications such as Voice Actions™ from Google, Google Goggles™ and more. It is one of the first smartphones in the industry to offer the new Voice Actions feature of Google Search™, which allows you to control your phone with your voice for calling contacts and businesses, sending messages, browsing the Web, listening to music and completing common tasks. It is also the first smartphone to offer integrated access to Google Voice™, allowing customers to create a new account using their current mobile number right from the home screen. Google Voice then automatically transcribes voicemails to text so customers can read them like an e-mail or text message from their phone or online. Additional pre-loaded Google services include Google Search, Gmail™, Google Maps™ with Places and Navigation, YouTube™, Google Talk™ and Google Earth™, among others.

Adding fuel to the G2’s speed is its Snapdragon™ MSM7230 mobile processor which combines Qualcomm’s new HSPA+ capabilities and second generation applications processor. The Snapdragon MSM7230 offers an 800 MHz CPU and is optimized to deliver exceptional performance, long battery life and leading edge multimedia and web browsing — with download speeds faster than other solutions currently in the market.

The G2 delivers advanced smartphone features including an HD video camera for recording crystal-clear, high-definition (720p) videos that can be automatically uploaded to your Photobucket account and a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus. The G2 also offers smartphone essentials such as easy access to personal and work e-mail, including support for Microsoft® Exchange e-mail, contacts and calendar; social networking; and instant messaging. In addition, the G2 features a pre-installed 8GB microSD memory card with support for up to 32 GB, as well as a music player.

Additional features of the G2 include the following:
· Dedicated Quick Keys for one-touch access to your favorite Google shortcuts and applications
Adobe FlashPlayer enabled Web browsing experience
Pinch and zoom functionality for Web browsing and photo gallery
· 4GB internal memory with pre-installed 8GB micro SD card, with support for up to 32 GB of external memory
· Built-in 3.5mm headphone jack, stereo headset and Bluetooth support
· Swype® text input for fast, accurate communication

Availability
The T-Mobile G2 with Google will be available in the U.S. exclusively from T-Mobile, and current T-Mobile customers will have the opportunity to preorder the G2 in limited quantities later this month. Additional availability details will be shared in the coming weeks. Visit http://g2.t-mobile.com to register for updates.

About T-Mobile’s HSPA+ Network
T-Mobile continues to expand its super-fast HSPA+ mobile broadband network, which now covers 100 million Americans in more than 55 major metropolitan areas. T-Mobile’s new HSPA+ network — which offers theoretical peak throughput speeds of 21 Mbps — offers today’s available 4G speeds to more people than any other wireless network in the country, with plans to reach more than 200 million people this year. For more information on where
T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network service is available, please visit http://t-mobile.com/coverage.

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• T-Mobile HSPA+ HTC Vanguard due September? Carrier 2010 roadmap leaks

Marc Tessier-Lavigne will be the first to leave Genentech’s top scientific ranks since its acquisition by Roche in March 2009.

Marc Tessier-Lavigne will be the first to leave Genentech’s top scientific ranks since its acquisition by Roche in March 2009.

Google’s change may save users time, but may also affect the many businesses that have been built around placing search ads on the site.

The 'censored' bar, which acted as a symbolic protest against the removal of Craigslist's Adult Services section on Friday, has now itself been removed.

Way to take the wind out of our sails, ARM -- no sooner does your dual-core Cortex-A9 finally ship, do you reveal an even more powerful smartphone, smartbook and server-slaying beast. The Cortex-A15 MPCore picks up where the A9 left off, but with reportedly five times the power of existing SOCs, raising the bar for ARM-based single- and dual-core cell phone processors up to 1.5GHz... or as high as 2.5GHz in quad-core server-friendly rigs with hardware virtualization baked in and support for well over 4GB of memory. One terabyte, actually. Like we'd heard, the ARMv7-A "Eagle" chips are destined for Texas Instruments, but ST-Ericsson and Samsung as also named as "lead licensees," so we fully expect to see some badass silicon powering a Galaxy when the 32nm and 28nm parts ship in 2013. Press release and video after the break, replete with ARM partner companies fawning over the new hotness. We can't really blame them.

Continue reading ARM reveals Eagle core as Cortex-A15, capable of quad-core computing at up to 2.5GHz

ARM reveals Eagle core as Cortex-A15, capable of quad-core computing at up to 2.5GHz originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 01:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Politico will run weekly opinion columns by Joe Scarborough, the MSNBC host, and Michael Kinsley, a columnist for The Atlantic, starting on Oct. 1.

When a DSLR screams "colorful" in the headline of the press release, you can usually guess the target audience. Sure enough, the multicolored Pentax K-r brings a compact, lightweight body to the entry-level DSLR market. Specs include a 12.4 megapixel CMOS sensor, a PRIME (Pentax Real Image Engine) II imaging engine, claimed 100-25600 ISO range, a 6fps high-speed mode, an 11-point AF system, Pentax's own Shake Reduction and dust removal mechanisms, a 3-inch LCD monitor with Live View mode, and the option to source power from four AA batteries once you exhaust the rechargeable. As a modern DSLR it also records 720p video at 25fps and even offers some obscure IrSimple high-speed infrared data transmission capabilites for all those IrSimple-compatible devices you don't own. The K-r body lists for $799.95 or as much as $999.95 when bundled with an 18-55 and 55-300 lens kit. Ships in October.

Gallery: Pentax's K-r entry-level DSLR looks like a toy

Continue reading Pentax's K-r entry-level DSLR looks like a toy

Pentax's K-r entry-level DSLR looks like a toy originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 01:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The decision could have a broad impact if it establishes that any deal involving Indian assets is subject to local taxes even when made overseas.