smartphone News - Page 61 of 74 - CNX Software

July 31, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

$219 Kwikset Kevo Bluetooth Low Energy Dead Bolt

With RFDuino, BLEDuino, SensorTag, etc…, we know have several low cost Bluetooth Low Energy development boards / kits, however there are just a few Bluetooth SMART peripherals available right now, although many are currently being developed. One application of BLE will be the ability to use your phone to interact with objects around you, and Kwikset has just done that with its Kevo BLE Deadbolt that can be pre-ordered for $219 on Amazon with delivery scheduled by the end of October 2013. All you need to do is to load Kevo mobile app unto your iOS or Android smartphone to turn it into an electronic key (eKey), and unlock the deadbolt by simply touching it with your finger without having to remove the phone from your pocket or purse. That looks highly practical, but at the same time very unsafe, so let’s have a look at some others features of […]

July 29, 2013July 30, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Mediatek Boasts True Octa-core MT6592, and GTS big.LITTLE MT8135 SoCs

We already knew Mediatek was working on MT6592, an Octa-core Cortex A7 processor for smartphones, and MT8135, a quad core bit.LITTLE processor for tablets, but in the last few days, the company revealed a bit more information about its two new application processors, mainly to show how better there are compared to the competition. Mediatek MT6592 Octa-core Cortex A7 With Exynos Octa (5410), Samsung was the first company to release an ARM powered Octa-core application processor, but Meditak explains their solution is better because MT6592 can use all 8 cores simultaneously whereas Exynos 5410 is limited to 4 at at time, and the claim is true because Samsung big.LITTLE implementation choice. Exynos 5420 will change that however, as soon as this month, but Mediatek obviously did not feel necessary to mention this details. The company expected those 8 cores to improve current applications such as : Advanced web browsing – […]

July 26, 2013July 26, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

149 Euros Geeksphone Peak+ Phone Running Firefox OS (B2G) is Available for Pre-order

The first Firefox OS phone, ZTE Open, has been selling in Spain since the beginning of the month, and Alcatel One Touch Fire has been available a few days later in Germany. Both of those phones have low hardware specs with a single core processor, and 256 MB RAM. There’s now a more powerful alternative, Geeksphone Peak+, based on Geeksphone Peak Developer Preview phone, featuring Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8255 dual-core processor with 1GB RAM. Here are the specs of the phone: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 (MSM8225) dual-core processor @ 1.2 GHz with Adreno GPU System Memory – 1 GB RAM Storage – 4 GB Flash + micro SD card slot Display – 4.3 inch, 960 x 540 pixel IPS display Camera – 8MP rear camera and 2MP front camera Connectivity – WiFi, Bluetooth, FM radio, GPS Networks – GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (2G EDGE), UMTS 850/1900/2100 (3G HSPA). Sensors – Light […]

July 26, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

LG Optimus L4II is a Triple SIM Smartphone Powered by Mediatek Technology

There’s already an impressive number of mobile phones with dual SIM card slots, but LG and Mediatek went a step further with the Optimus L4II that sports triple SIM card support thanks to Mediatek 3G Triple-SIM technology. All three SIM cards can be “used simultaneously, and receive calls, transmit data, send SMS messages and remain in standby mode concurrently without consuming excessive battery life”, according to Mediatek. If case you wonder why people would ever need multiple SIM card use cases include roaming between different countries (e.g. Hong Kong, Macau and China) where you don’t want to change SIM cards each time you cross the border, using prepaid SIM cards from different telco to benefit from promotion, etc… I could not find the other specs for the device, but the company has recently launched LG Optimus L4II Dual (dual SIM card support) which may be similar, with the following specifications: […]

July 25, 2013July 25, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Google Releases Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, Unveils New Nexus 7 Tablet

Yesterday was a big day for Google with several important announcements, including the Chromecast HDMI TV dongle, an updated version of Nexus 7 tablet, and the release of Android 4.3, still codenamed Jelly Bean. In this post, I’ll start with the hardware, and move to explain what’s new with Android 4.3, and where you can download source and images for your device. New Nexus 7 The new Nexus 7 tablet will run Android 4.3 on the following hardware: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 quad-core processor @ 1.5GHz with Adreno 320 GPU @ 400MHz System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16GB to 32GB of storage Display – 7″ IPS display (1920 x 1200) Connectivity – Dual band 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi (2.4G/5G), Bluetooth 4.0, and NFC Camera – 5MP rear camera and 1.2MP front camera Video Output – HDMI output (via SlimPort) Audio – Stereo speakers, 3.5mm headphone jack, microphone USB – […]

July 24, 2013July 24, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

$359 Red Pitaya Board Combines an Oscilloscope, a Spectrum Analyser, a Waveform Generator and More

If you need to setup an electronics lab, the cost of equipment such as an oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer, can quickly add up and become expensive. There are already some attempts at low cost measurement devices such as the $35 ExpEyes Junior or pocket size digital storage oscilloscopes (~$200), but those are far from the performance achieved with regular measurement devices. Red Pitaya measurement board brings the performance level and flexibility a bit higher, and stays relatively low cost at $359, with a Linux-based solution based on Xilinx Zynq dual Cortex A9 + FPGA SoC. Hardware Specifications: SoC – Xilinx Zynq Z7010 dual core Cortex A9 CPU + FPGA System Memory – 1GB DDR2 RAM Storage – microSD card slot (For system and FPGA images, and data) Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet USB – 2x micro USB ports (1 for power, 1 for console), and 1x USB 2.0 Host port Signals: 2x […]

July 23, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Ubuntu Edge Smartphone PC Hits Indiegogo

Canonical has announced Ubuntu for Phones and Ubuntu for Tablets at the beginning of the year, with the goal of bringing Ubuntu operating system to mobile devices, and transform high-end devices into the new PC when they are connected to an HDMI display. It turns out mobile phone manufacturers may not be ready to take the risk launching a completely new high-end platform to the market, so Canonical decided to leverage the power of crowdfunding but launching an Indiegogo campaign for Ubuntu Edge, a smartphone with hardware specs like no others, capable of running both Android and Ubuntu, and fully replacing your PC when docked. Ubuntu Edge Preliminary/Targeted Specifications: SoC – “Fastest Multicore Processor Available” System Memory – At least 4 GB RAM Storage – 128 GB flash Display – 4.5″ display with the best balance of resolution (720p), dynamic range and color accuracy, covered with sapphire crystal glass (Unscratchable, […]

July 22, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Mediatek Smartphone and Tablet SoC Product Line (Mess) Explained

This week-end, I have been tipped about a $91 Mediatek MT8317 based 7″ Phablet, but I really did not know what to think about it as Mediatek seems to have so many SoCs, and really felt lazy trying to dig information about this. Yet, in the back of my head, I had decided to eventually make a post trying to clarifying Mediatek SoCs. This morning, I felt relieved not to have to spend hours investigating, as AndroidPC.es found an analyst paper doing just that, at least for recent and upcoming Mediatek processors. Mediatek Smartphone SoCs Roadmap MT6589 is certainly the most common SoC for cheap quad core smartphones, and starting this month, it will be available in MT6589M and MT6589T versions, the former with a weak video processing unit (VPU) and ISP, and GPU frequency, and the latter with higher GPU and CPU frequencies. Contrary to the table below, MT6589 […]