Smartphones

Samsung is announcing today that it has begun mass production of 12 GB and 16 GB LPDDR5X modules in the industry's thinnest package. Samsung's shrunken memory packages measure approximately 0.65 mm in thickness, making them 0.06 mm (~9%) thinner than standard LPDDR5X packages. The company expects the new DRAM devices to be used to make for thinner smartphones, or improve their performance by enabling better airflow inside. According to the company's press release, Samsung achieved this ultra-thin design by employing new packaging methods, such as optimized printed circuit boards (PCBs) and epoxy molding compound (EMC). Additionally, an optimized back-lapping process was used to further reduce the height of the packages. The newly developed DRAM packages are not only thinner by 9% compared to previous models...

Samsung Launches KNOX 2.0

Samsung today announced the worldwide commercial availability of its updated Enterprise Security and Management suite for Android - KNOX 2.0 - which is available first on the Galaxy S5...

17 by Brett Howse on 5/7/2014

Huawei Launches Ascend P7 Based on Custom HiSilicon SoC

Today Huawei announced the Ascend P7, its new flagship smartphone. The P7 replaces last year’s Ascend P6 and brings significant improvements across the board. Huawei is positioning the device...

17 by Brandon Chester on 5/7/2014

Google Updates Maps for Android and iOS with Improvements to Offline Maps, Navigation, and More

Today Google updated its maps application for Android and iOS. Google seems confident enough in the updates that it decided to call this major release version 8.0 on Android...

30 by Brandon Chester on 5/6/2014

ARM Expects ~1B Entry Level Smartphones in 2018, $20 Smartphones Coming This Year

When we first started covering mobile, nearly every silicon vendor I spoke with issued the same statement: eventually, all phones are smartphones. Continued scaling on process technology, combined continued...

31 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 5/6/2014

A Discussion on Material Choices in Mobile

Within the past four years, the smartphone market has changed drastically. Displays have dramatically increased in quality. Battery life has increased. As OEMs converge on largely similar platforms, the...

77 by Joshua Ho on 5/5/2014

A quick look at Google’s new Google Docs and Sheets mobile apps

Today Google released two new applications on Google Play and the iOS App Store. The new apps are called Google Sheets and Google Docs and they are essentially standalone...

12 by Brandon Chester on 4/30/2014

Samsung Unveils the Galaxy K Zoom with 20.7MP Camera

In June of last year Samsung released the Galaxy S4 Zoom. The phone was related most closely to the Galaxy Camera and the Galaxy S4 Mini. While its specifications...

19 by Brandon Chester on 4/29/2014

Microsoft Closes Nokia Acquisition

Back on September 3rd 2013, Microsoft announced its intentions to purchase Nokia's mobile phone business, and after several extra months of waiting for regulatory approval, that deal officially closes...

22 by Brett Howse on 4/25/2014

Samsung Galaxy Beam 2 Revealed on Samsung China Website

Back in 2010 Samsung launched the original Samsung Galaxy Beam i8520. The phone ran Android 2.1 which was a bit outdated at the time as Android 2.2 launched just...

14 by Brandon Chester on 4/24/2014

Apple Q2 2014 Fiscal Results

Today Apple announced its Q2 results, and sales of the iPhone continue to dominate revenue and earnings for the company. Revenue for the quarter came in at $45.6B – a...

27 by Brett Howse on 4/23/2014

OnePlus launches the OnePlus One: Initial Thoughts

Edit: In the time since the initial launch, there's been confirmation that the OnePlus One does in fact support 802.11ac. It's a single spatial stream part, Qualcomm's WCN3680. In what...

67 by Joshua Ho on 4/23/2014

Apple Releases iOS 7.1.1 Update: Addresses Touch ID and Keyboard Issues

Hot on the heels of the major 7.1 release, Apple released a new update for iOS on iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad. The iOS 7.1.1 update focuses primarily on...

13 by Brandon Chester on 4/22/2014

Google Updates Hangouts: Merging IM and SMS

Today, Google announced an update to Hangouts that brings some new features. The first mentioned is merging conversations, which brings feature parity with iMessage in that regard. Google has...

15 by Joshua Ho on 4/21/2014

HTC Adds Sense 6 Progress to Software Update Page

HTC has updated their software update status page with a section that displays the current status of the HTC Sense 6.0 upgrade. The page indicates that they intend to...

7 by Brandon Chester on 4/21/2014

Galaxy S5 Follow-Up: Water Resistance, Adobe RGB Testing and More

A Closer Look at Water Resistance Recently on the podcast, Anand mentioned that I was looking at how the Galaxy S5 performed when running benchmarks underwater. This ultimately started after...

45 by Joshua Ho on 4/19/2014

Windows Phone 8.1 Review

I was an early fan of Windows Phone 7. I remember completely switching over to the platform for about a month back in 2010, and being relatively happy. It...

111 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 4/14/2014

Samsung Galaxy S 5 Review

Samsung is now the undisputed king of the Android smartphone space. It was only a few years ago that the general public referred to every Android phone as a...

298 by Anand Lal Shimpi & Joshua Ho on 4/8/2014

Nokia Lumia Updates - New High End, New Markets

During the day 1 keynote at the Microsoft BUILD developer’s conference, Stephen Elop took the stage to announce some new Nokia Lumia phones with Windows Phone 8.1. First up was...

40 by Brett Howse on 4/3/2014

Microsoft Announces Windows Phone 8.1

This morning at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Microsoft kicked off its semi-annual BUILD developer conference with a keynote address detailing what’s coming now and in the near...

48 by Brett Howse on 4/2/2014

ARM Partners Ship 50 Billion Chips Since 1991 - Where Did They Go?

A few weeks ago ARM celebrated its partners shipping over 10 billion ARM based chips in 2013. As ARM makes a royalty on every IP license shipped, it was...

35 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 3/31/2014

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