Earlier today NVIDIA announced that it would begin licensing its Kepler GPU architecture to 3rd parties. This is a sensible next step for NVIDIA, but an unprecedented one among the two remaining discrete PC GPU suppliers. Note that what NVIDIA is announcing today is contrary to AMD’s semi-custom approach to SoC production. AMD is offering to build (semi) custom tailored silicon to customer needs, while NVIDIA is taking a more ARM-like approach and offering its GPU IP to 3rd parties for integration on their own. In other words, NVIDIA is looking to compete with ARM and Imagination Technologies rather than AMD or Qualcomm. In addition to its GPU architecture, NVIDIA is now also open to licensing its visual computing patents to 3rd parties. The visual computing...
Amazon Kindle Fire Review
I'll be honest here (I always am?): I don't understand the iPad comparison. The Kindle Fire and iPad 2 couldn't be more different. They are vastly different sizes, shapes...
71 by Anand Lal Shimpi & Vivek Gowri on 11/29/2011
NVIDIA Demos Ice Cream Sandwich Running on ASUS Transformer Prime
Two days after the public release of Android 4.0.1 (Ice Cream Sandwich), NVIDIA had it up and running on ASUS' announced but not-yet-released Eee Pad Transformer Prime. NVIDIA sent...
8 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/22/2011
Amazon's Silk Browser Acceleration Tested: Less Bandwidth Consumed, But Slower Performance
We've been working on our Kindle Fire review over the weekend but I thought I'd break out a particularly interesting section of the review for release a bit early...
49 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/21/2011
Understanding Wireless Storage: Kingston Wi-Drive and Seagate GoFlex Satellite
Let me pose a hypothetical situation: say you bought an iPhone or iPad, but cheaped out and got a 16GB model. You’ve got around 10GB worth of music, a...
31 by Vivek Gowri on 11/21/2011
Amazon Kindle Fire Teardown
Thanks iFixit for the image! As we work on our Kindle Fire review, iFixit dissected Amazon's first entry into the tablet space. The internals aren't surprising - there's an OMAP...
7 by Kristian Vättö on 11/16/2011
Amazon Kindle Fire Teardown
Thanks iFixit for the image! As we work on our Kindle Fire review, iFixit dissected Amazon's first entry into the tablet space. The internals aren't surprising - there's an OMAP...
7 by Kristian Vättö on 11/16/2011
Netflix Updates User Interface For Android Tablet App, iPad coming
A completely revamped user interface was released by Netflix today for all Android tablets. The redesign has been available on the Kindle Fire and Nook, but is now expanded...
1 by Amman Sood on 11/15/2011
Android 4.0.1 (Ice Cream Sandwich) Coming to AOSP
Jean-Baptiste Queru, a software engineer working on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), just confirmed that Android 4.0.1 source is now available. This is the version of Android that...
9 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/14/2011
Samsung Licenses PowerVR SGX MP from Imagination Technologies
Samsung is a bit of a mobile GPU conoisseur it seems. Its previous flagship, Hummingbird, used a PowerVR SGX 540 GPU. Its most recent high-end SoC, the Exynos 4210...
18 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/10/2011
Understanding Intel's Android 4.0 x86 Optimizations
Earlier this week Computer World published a story about Intel adding x86 optimizations to the Ice Cream Sandwich release of Android (4.0). The story itself was fine but a...
11 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/9/2011
ARM's Mali-T658 GPU in 2013, Up to 10x Faster than Mali-400
ARM's licensed CPU cores dominate the mobile space. This year the core of choice for high-end smartphones and tablets is ARM's Cortex A9 and late next year it'll be...
21 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/9/2011
Adobe Kills Mobile Flash Plug-In
Adobe announced via a press release today that it would cease development of the Flash Player for smartphones and tablets, and would shift its focus to HTML5 support for...
40 by Andrew Cunningham on 11/9/2011
NVIDIA's Tegra 3 Launched: Architecture Revealed
Originally announced in February of this year at MWC, NVIDIA is finally officially launching its next-generation SoC. Previously known under the code name Kal-El, the official name is Tegra...
94 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/9/2011
ASUS' Transformer Prime Detailed: Quad-Core Tegra 3 Tablet
Alongside NVIDIA's last remaining architecture disclosures about Tegra 3, ASUS is revealing more information about the world's first Tegra 3 tablet. The Prime is much thinner than its predecessor...
26 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/9/2011
T-Mobile Introduce HSPA+ Equipped Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus
With the WiFi SKU just a week from release, we knew we'd see a cellular radio sporting SKU crop up sooner or later. And so, T-Mobile and Samsung announced...
5 by Jason Inofuentes on 11/8/2011
Barnes & Noble Introduces Nook Tablet
Barnes & Noble today unveiling its new Nook Tablet, the follow-up to its modestly successful Nook Color tablet. Like the Nook Color and Amazon's upcoming Kindle Fire, the device...
8 by Andrew Cunningham on 11/7/2011_carousel.jpg)
Confirmed: Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus Uses Exynos SoC
In August, at the TouchWiz UX event, we asked a Samsung representative when we would see Exynos in a tablet, he promised it would be within the year. They've...
23 by Jason Inofuentes on 11/2/2011
Dell Introduces Latitude ST Business Tablet
Dell today announced its Latitude ST, a 10.1" 1.8 pound Windows 7 tablet aimed directly at Windows-centric IT shops. There's nothing particularly inspiring about the Latitude ST's hardware: a 1.5...
9 by Andrew Cunningham on 10/27/2011
Toshiba Releases 6.1" Display with Resolution of 2560x1600
Pretty much ever since the iPhone 4 with retina display was launched, resolutions have played a major role in smartphone market. In September, Samsung unveiled Galaxy S II HD...
50 by Kristian Vättö on 10/22/2011_carousel.jpg)
Samsung Bringing Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus To US: 1.2 GHz Dual-Core Tablet For $399
Samsung hasn't been shy about pumping out Android tablets abroad, and so far we've seen them trickling our way steadily but surely. And so, today Samsung announced that the...
13 by Jason Inofuentes on 10/21/2011