Exynos 5 Octa by Samsung reportedly features PowerVR SGX 544MP3

Samsung announced this CES the Exynos 5 Octa which has 4 ARM Cortex A15 cores and 4 ARM Cortex A7 cores for power management with whats called as Big little configuration. Now Samsung is known to boast their GPUs, but during their Octa announcement, they did not talk about the GPU they were using and Anandtech is now reporting that Samsung is using the PowerVR SGX 544MP3 GPU at 533 MHz.

           

Now we should note that Samsung has not used PowerVR GPUs in their top end SoCs after the first Samsung Galaxy S. All the other top chipsets had ARM’s Mali. In fact the dual core version of Exynos 5 also ran on ARM Mali-T604 GPU. AnandTech reports that the graphic performance of the Exynos 5 Octa will be somewhere in between the Apple’s A5X and A6X with DirectX like texturing hardware.

This means that the devices which will run on Octa will not have better graphic output than the latest iPad 4. The iPad 4 uses the A6X chipset which has the PowerVR SGX 554MP4 GPU which is better than the PowerVR 544MP3 used in the Exynos 5 Octa. The usage of this GPU tather than the same one used in dual core version beats me, but we will wait for Samsung to confirm and give us more light on the GPU they are using for this chipset.

Source:anandtech

Google releases Chrome Beta channel for Android

Google has released Chrome Beta channel for Android phones and Tablets. This would let Android users try out upcoming features and also provide feedback. The beta channel also adds new features including faster Octane performance, CSS Filters for developers and more. Google launched chrome for Android last February.

New features in Chrome Beta for Android

• Improved the Octane performance benchmark by 25-30% with the new V8 version 3.15
• CSS Filters for developers to add visual effects like grayscale, blur, and contrast adjustment to the mobile web
• New Flexible Box Layout Module simplifies the styling of complex layouts
• Improved Text Autosizing that is consistent with other browsers.
• Updated stack of Developer Tools

Since this is a separate app, you can install the Beta alongside the current version of Chrome for Android.

BlackBerry 10 sees 15,000 app submissions in less than two days

RIM will be facing an uphill battle when it does eventually launch BlackBerry 10, but the company is making sure it’ll have a healthy selection of apps from the get-go by incentivizing developers. RIM recently hosted two Port-a-Thon events to encourage developers to submit their games and general apps for BlackBerry 10, offering $100 for any app approved to the store. Naturally, the promise of cash seems to have worked: 15,000 apps were submitted over the course of 37.5 hours.

Money wasn’t the only incentive, though, as BlackBerry hardware was also on offer. The first developers submitting between two and five approved apps were promised a free PlayBook, while those writing more than five approved apps were entered into a random draw to receive a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device. It’s doubtful that every app will be approved for the store, but RIM needs as many submissions as possible if the company hopes for a successful launch.

Samsung Galaxy S series smartphone sales surpass 100 million units globally

Samsung has announced that the combined sales (supply chain) of the Samsung Galaxy S, the Galaxy S2 and the Galaxy S3 has crossed 100 million globally. The combined sales of the Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy S2 crossed 50 million back in June 2012. The Samsung Galaxy S was introduced back in May 2010, and it took 2 years and 7 months for the S series phones to reach 100 million sales mark.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 that was released back in May 2012 took just 50 days to reach 10 million mark, 5 months to reach 30 million sales mark, and now Samsung has announced that the sales of the Galaxy S3 has crossed 40 million mark, 7 months after the launch. The Galaxy S2 sales has reached 40 million mark in 20 months and the Galaxy S has reached 25 million, which takes the combined sales of the S series phones to 100 million mark.

Source: Samsung (Korean)

1TB flashdrive at CES 2013

Kingston Technology will soon launch the world's first 1TB flash drive, a USB 3.0 device that is likely to cost more than most computers do.

The company said its "DataTraveler HyperX Predator" will go on sale this quarter, and it is for "users who work with large video or graphics files, or gamers who like to travel with their entire library."

Kingston has already launched a 512GB version, which is currently available on its website for $1,337.

The flash drives feature a metallic casing made from a zinc alloy, and are 72mm long and 27mm across.

Both drives support the current USB 3.0 standard, with read speeds of up to 240MBps and write speeds up to 160MBps. They can also revert to the USB 2.0 standard.

Kingston said the pricey peripherals are backed by a five-year warranty.

The current USB 3.0 standard allows for transfer speeds of up to 5Gbps.An enhanced version of USB 3.0  was announced earlier this week by the USB 3.0 Promoter Group that will enable data transfers at up to 10Gbps, twice the current standard.

Sony unveils monster phones in CES 2013

Sony unveiled the Z and ZL at CES this year.Both phones sport 1080p screens.The pixel density puts many phones to shame.
The difference between Z and ZL is that Z is water and dust resistance while ZL is not.
The screen is a beast though viewing angles could have been better.Stay tuned for more as we get our hands on these beasts.

BlackBerry 10 ads surface ahead of announcement

The new ad shows the BlackBerry Z10 in black and white and displays some of the new features of the mobile OS.

For Images refer herehttp://st.gsmarena.com/vv/newsimg/13/01/bb-10-os-press-pics-leak/gsmarena_009.jpg

Among the new features, visible on the ad, is the video calling with device screen sharing, the Balance feature, which allows for switching between a work-time setup and a free-time setup, and the revamped BlackBerry keyboard.