NVIDIA CEO talks Quad-cores and the future of mobile CPU’s

In a recent sit-down, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang broke down all sorts of good news for the mobile industry and Android. Not afraid to talk about business or revenue Huang safely discussed the future of Android tablets, quad-core processors and NVIDIA’s role as a hardware manufacturer for Android and mobile devices.

Moving on to revenues, Huang said analysts had predicted $4.45 billion for NVIDIA and the company is expected to post figures in the $4.7 billion to $5 billion range and beat most expectations. Then moving on to the future he also noted that new devices running the Kal-El quad-core NVIDIA chips should hit stores in Q4 putting them in time for the holiday season, but slightly later than the original projections. This is both good and bad news because at least we have official word that they are coming this year, but bad because they might be later than expected.
With mobile markets and the mobile processor industry only getting bigger and bigger NVIDIA will continue to aim more focus on these markets. With big plans for Q4 2011 and even more for 2012 they have some exciting things ahead of them. With the recent acquisition of Icera, NVIDIA will be integrating 3G/4G wireless modem chipsets into their Tegra processors for an all-in-one solution to better compete with the likes of Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments.
Huang briefly mentions part of the initial delays for the quad-core Kal-El is for changes as they continue to make improvements to increase efficiency and performance. I have a feeling NVIDIA has more than just quad-core tablets and phone planned for 2012 but we will just have to wait and see. The next few months should be really exciting in the world of Android. Then again isn’t every month exciting?
[via SlashGear]

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HP TouchPad CyanogenMod 7 Build THIS CLOSE to Complete

If you thought you’d never see CyanogenMod 7 working on that $99 TouchPad you picked up a few weeks ago, you’ve clearly got no faith in the awesomeness of others. Last we heard, the TouchPad had been given multitouch support for an Android port, but now we know the CyanogenMod 7 build to be a few steps ahead, nearly ready for a full release! All they’ve got left to get working, apparently, is Wi-fi support and a few other tinier bugs. Sound like the system for you?

Certainly John Sheible isn’t looking back at his multi-pad purchase with regret as CyanogenMod 7 makes this tablet a fully functional and fully awesome Android tablet to behold! Touchscreen support is working, accelerometer is working, and all graphics drivers are ready to roll. And if you’re feeling adventurous, you can get internet over a USB cable like the rest of the weirdos using alternate means for internet. You’ll be working hard on your unique 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor, appearing to work faster here than it ever did in review units before Android was planted.


Also note that with this release comes dual-boot to both Android and webOS, this meaning of course that you wont have to uninstall this tablet’s original operating system to get the newly minted CyanogenMod 7 build working inside. As for the touchscreen issues, which appear to be at the forefront of development woes here on the device as far as Android goes, the CyanogenMod developer in the video does not reveal the driver that was used to make this build work, but does note that it was originally, of course, another CyanogenMod build that made it happen.
Stay tuned as we ramp up to a final build.
[via Liliputing]

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Ice Cream Sandwich coming October or November says Eric Schmidt

Well folks, this makes things sound a bit more official. We have been hearing rumors of an October or November launch for a long time for the net version of Android, but today Google’s own Eric Schmidt was nice enough to confirm the same time frame. Ever since we first saw ICS at Google I/O we’ve been patiently waiting for more details.


Remember the leaked Ice Cream Sandwich screenshots? Those got everyone excited but we’ve seen nothing since then. During a sit-down at Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce conference, Schmidt was talking about our favorite green robot Android and let it slip that ICS was coming in October or November.

His remarks are about 30:00 minutes into the video

We have a new operating system, internally known as Ice Cream Sandwich for some reason, which is being released in October/November, which everyone’s really excited about.

While this isn’t anything extremely new or details we didn’t already know or were assuming, it’s always nice to hear something like this right from Google themselves. Now I just wish they’d confirm the Samsung Nexus Prime already, and if it’s headed to Verizon or not.
We can expect tons of details and news regarding ICS to start flooding the news and Android Community soon so stay tuned as those dates get closer.
[via androidandme]

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HTC EVO 4G looks great with Sense UI 3.5 [Video]

I know many readers have already seen HTC Sense UI 3.5 Thanks to a leaked RUU of the HTC Bliss running with the new HTC Sense UI 3.5 developers are starting to port the awesome UI to all the popular phones. The HTC EVO 4G being one of the biggest HTC devices it was only natural it would be one of the first. We have a full video and all the details below.

First we saw the Desire HD get Sense 3.5 and even the DROID Incredible we reported on yesterday. Now it’s time for the big boys to get some of the new user interface. Thanks to Team Nocturnal at XDA we have HTC Sense UI 3.5 for the EVO 4G.




As always this is a fully custom ROM with Sense UI 3.5 ported and working with the EVO 4G. This is still a work in progress and most likely you’ll spot a few bugs but as their name suggests, Team Nocturnal has been working day and night to bring this to the masses and things are moving along plenty quick. The build looks extremely stable and smooth from the video above and you can get all the details you’d need over at the XDA thread.
Like I said this is still in beta and very much a work in progress. They mention the occasional Wi-Fi and camera issue, as well as SD card mounting problems but are quickly working to address everything and get this completely stable. If I still had my EVO 4G I’d have flashed this yesterday just for fun, but sadly I’ll have to wait. For another video of Sense 3.5 on the EVO 4G click here.

Device Specifications and Information

Device Info

Device Name : EVO 4G

Manufactuer : HTC

Carrier : Unknown

Announced Date : March 23, 2010

Release Date : June 04, 2010

Also Known As :

Display

• Screen Size : 4.30 Inch
• Resolution : 480x800
• Screen Type : TFT

Dimension & Weight

• Height : 4.80 Inch
• Width : 2.60 Inch
• Depth : 0.50 Inch
• Weight : 170 Grams

Battery & Power

• Battery Type:
• Lithium Ion

• Battery Capacity : 1500 mAh
• Talk Time : NA
• Stand By Time : 144 hours

Software

• Android OS:
• 2.3.x

• Audio Playback:
• AAC
• AAC+
• AMR
• MID
• MP3
• WMA

• Video Playback:
• h.263
• h.264 / AVC
• MPEG-4 (MP4)

• Messaging:
• SMS
• MMS

Hardware

CPU : Snapdragon

CPU Clock Speed : 1000 Mhz

Core : 1

Ram : 512 MB

Internal Storage : 1 GB

Front Facing Camera :

Camera Resolution :8 MP

• External Storage:
• MicroSD
• MicroSDHC

• Camera Features:
• Auto focus
• Flash
• 720p Video Recording

• Sensors:
• Accelerometer
• Ambient light
• Proximity

QWERTY :

Cellular Network

• Network Technology:
• CDMA

• CDMA Band:
• 800
• 1900

Device Connectivity

• Wi-Fi:
• 802.11b
• 802.11g
• 802.11n

• Bluetooth:
• Bluetooth 2.0

• Location Features:
• Compass
• GPS
• Cellular location
• Wi-Fi location

FM Radio :

[via XDA Forums]

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AT&T Impulse 4G gets official price and launch date

The last time we mentioned the Impulse 4G smartphone we knew the Android device was heading to AT&T, but we didn’t know when it would land or how much it would cost. AT&T has now gone official with the price of the smartphone and when you can walk into a store and pick one up. The phone is made by Huawei and is one of the cheapest Android devices out there.

You can get the phone with a 2-year contract from AT&T for only $29.99. The smartphone will support Quad Band GSM/Tri Band UMTS/Edge networks at up to 14.4Mbps. The operating system on the phone is Android 2.2. It uses a MSM7230 chipset and a Scorpion 800MHz processor. The internal storage is about 512MB and it has a microSD card slot supporting up to 32GB more storage.
The rear camera on the smartphone is a 5MP unit with automatic focus and flash that can record 720p HD video. The screen size for the phone is 3.8-inches with a resolution of 800×480. The phone uses Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and EDR. It also supports WiFi networks and has a 720p video output. The phone will be in stores on September 18.

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HTC Titan and HTC Radar to be released on October 15th in the UK

We’ve previously revealed the recently announced second generation of Windows Phone 7 devices from HTC, the TITAN and the Radar, and have revealed their prices but we didn’t get a release date except a vague October. Now, it has been reported that Amazon UK has put up the phones for pre-order and has given them a delivery date of 15^th October.
In case you forgot, the HTC TITIAN and the HTC Radar are WP7-Mango phones, with the TITAN featuring a huge 4.7″ display, with a 1.5GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, an 8-megapixel rear camera, 1.3-megapixel front facing camera, 16GB of storage, DLNA support, Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPS. The Radar will have a smaller 3.8″ display, a 1GHz processor, a 5-megapixel rear camera, a VGA front facing camera, 512MB of RAM, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS as well. Head over to Amazon UK to pre-order the phones now.

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HTC DROID Incredible’s Gingerbread Update Now Rolling Out to More People

Late last week, a smattering of reports from DROID Incredible users suggested an OTA update was rolling out, but it seems it was a slight test from Verizon and HTC as users had trouble pulling it down themselves. It looks like the rollout may be launching for the majority of you, though. See if you can’t pull it down from the cloud and let us know if you are able to. And if you are, be sure to head back here with your impressions and discuss the update with fellow owners in the DROID Incredible section at AndroidForums.com.

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HTC enables bootloader unlock for EVO 3D in Europe and Canada

HTC has added two additional flavors of EVO 3D to its bootloader unlocking site, following in the footsteps of the Sprint version, which become unlockable last month. If you own an unbranded European EVO 3D, or a Rogers-branded device in Canada, then you can begin your quest by using the web tool over on the HTCDev site.

Unlocking your bootloader will allow you to monkey around with custom firmware and the like, though you'll void your warranty by doing so, even if you use the official HTC unlocking tools. Still interested? Hit the link below to begin.

Source: HTCDev

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Yahoo fires CEO, puts company up for sale

Here is the email that Carol Bartz, who has just been ousted at Yahoo, sent to the entire staff of the Silicon Valley giant.
It is, like her, a doozy, titled simply as “Goodbye”:

From: “Carol Bartz”
To: “all-worldwide@yahoo-inc.com”
Subject: Goodbye
To all,
I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board. It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward.
Carol

The best detail she lays out there as a slap to Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock: By phone.
But, as usual with her, it is a little more complex than that.
Bartz was apparently on a plane today on the East coast, as was Bostock coming West, so there was no chance to meet in person. As is her tough-as-nails nature, she went for the dig anyway.
No more need be said, I think, except that she has been the gift that keeps on giving for the press.
Actually, mostly me. So, thanks, Carol, for the parting shot.

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