Tag: mobilepostcross

AT&T now offering FaceTime over Cellular on all tiered data plans

It’s been a slow process, but AT&T is gradually making FaceTime over Cellular (Apple’s video chat service) available to more people. The feature was introduced with iOS 6, but it was up to carriers on how they wanted to implement the service — if at all. AT&T chose to offer it to only shared data customers at first, to ensure that the carrier’s network could handle the additional load. Finally, the top GSM operator in the US has announced that it will now allow the feature on all tiered data plans, and it should be rolling out to customers over the course of the next two weeks. There’s still no word on grandfathered unlimited plans, but don’t get your hopes up on that happening any time soon. To get the full explanation, head to the source link below. Filed under: Cellphones , Mobile , Apple , AT&T Comments Via: TechCrunch Source: AT&T

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AT&T now offering FaceTime over Cellular on all tiered data plans

Firefox 18 launched with Retina support, Android browser also updated

We took a look at Mozilla’s mobile OS at the final pre-proper CES event yesterday, and little did we know the official release of its Firefox 18 browser was dropping today. The update adds the new Javascript compiler IonMonkey, which is said to make wep apps “perform up to 25 percent faster.” Mac users who will settle for nothing less than high-res browsing will be happy to know Retina display support has been implemented, as long as you’re on OS X 10.7 or above. Preliminary support for WebRTC has also been added. The upgrade is available now, but if you’re reading this on FF, you’ve probably got it already. The Android version of the Firefox browser has received a little TLC alongside its computer-based counterpart. The IonMonkey compiler is also new to this version, the Google Now search widget has been integrated, and Mozilla suggests mobile browsing has never been safer. Head to the source link for the release notes for both versions. Filed under: Internet , Software , Mobile Comments Source: Mozilla (1) , (2)

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Firefox 18 launched with Retina support, Android browser also updated

Sofant SmartAntenna could double battery life, ease network congestion

Battery life on your mobile can be a constant source of anxiety if, like us, you’re pretty much “always on.” Scottish-based firm Sofant thinks it might have the answer, or at the very least, a soothing tonic with its SmartAntenna technology. It’s claimed that the tiny antenna you see above consume 90 percent less energy, and can potentially double battery life of devices. It’s not just the dwindling power that gets a boost, with Sofant claiming it can also ease network congestion and dropped connections by reducing the number of devices with weak signals. SmartAntenna complements the firm’s existing technologies, but can also be used individually. It’s something that manufacturers will be able to license, so it’s hard to predict what uptake will be like. But if the claims above hold true, it seems too good to pass up. Continue reading Sofant SmartAntenna could double battery life, ease network congestion Filed under: Cellphones , Mobile Comments

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Sofant SmartAntenna could double battery life, ease network congestion

NVIDIA unveils Project Shield, a Tegra 4-powered Android gaming handheld

A video shown on-stage during NVIDIA’s press conference just unveiled “Project Shield,” a gaming controller / portable console running the just announced Tegra 4 . The controller looks an awful lot like a PlayStation 3 DualShock 3, albeit with an HD screen attached. NVIDIA’s promising 38 hours of gaming out of the rechargeable lithium ion batteries built-in, a swanky audio system “on par with” jamboxes, and a full-on Android gaming experience. A micro SD sits next to an HDMI output, one USB port, and a standard eighth inch audio jack, directly below the customizable 5-inch “retinal display” touchscreen. Update : It’s a 1,280 x 720 screen at 294 dpi, for the record. NVIDIA’s hoping Shield will replace your average controller as well — perhaps with that newly detailed Grid system ? — and company CEO Jen-Hsun Huang showed off its use in-tandem with a swanky LG 4K television on-stage, navigating through media without pause. He also gave us a taste of a few games running on it ( Blood Sword: Sword of Ruin and a boxing title) via NVIDIA’s Tegrazone gaming store. But beyond just Android games we’ve already seen, still-in-development Unreal Engine 3 title Hawken was also given a multiplayer run, and looked notably more attractive than the previous two titles. As good as the handheld’s newfangled Tegra 4 chip seems to be, it still can’t hold a candle to Nvidia’s own GTX 680 — Huang explained that the Shield can play more than just Tegrazone games — it can take over your gaming PC, too. He explained that Nvidia’s GeForce Experience software can pipe PC gaming to the handheld over your local network, giving Shield owners access to their Steam library ( navigatable by Big Picture Mode , of course) directly from the device. It looks like users will be able to purchase PC games through Tegrazone, too. Huang showed the crowd Need for Speed: Most Wanted running in real-time on the device. It’s … well, it’s really impressive. There’s little (if any) perceptible lag, and this is a racing game we’re seeing (as in that lag really matters). The next game up is Assassin’s Creed 3 , which looks similarly impressive on the Shield’s 5-inch screen. Finally, we’re seeing Steam launched directly from Tegrazone, and it launches directly into Big Picture Mode. Beyond just playing games via streaming, it looks like we’ll be able to buy them directly on Steam, through Shield. We’ll be getting a closer look at Project Shield later this week, and we’ll be sure to put it through its paces. Oh, and we’ll ask for a price and release window, as we’ve yet to hear official word on either . Can’t wait? Tide yourself over with NVIDIA’s official press release after the break. Update 2: NVIDIA tells us Project Shield’s roughly in the beta stage of development, and currently doesn’t include an LTE radio (WiFi only). It’s running Jelly Bean at the moment, but may change by the time it’s expected to ship, in “Q2 2013.” Still no word on pricing, sadly. Gallery: NVIDIA Project Shield Joseph Volpe and Sean Buckley contributed to this report Continue reading NVIDIA unveils Project Shield, a Tegra 4-powered Android gaming handheld Filed under: Gaming , Handhelds , HD , Mobile , NVIDIA Comments

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NVIDIA unveils Project Shield, a Tegra 4-powered Android gaming handheld

NVIDIA officially unveils Tegra 4: offers quad-core Cortex A15, 72 GPU cores, LTE support

One new SoC per year? That’s what NVIDIA pledged back in the fall of 2010 and today at its CES 2013 presser, it delivered with the Tegra 4’s official unveiling. The chip, which retains the same 4-plus-1 arrangement of its predecessor, arrives with a whopping 72 GeForce GPU cores — effectively offering six times the Tegra 3’s visual output and is based on the 28nm process. It also is the first quad-core processor with Cortex A15 cores on-board, and offers compatibility with LTE networks through an optional chip. NVIDIA claims this piece of silicon is the world’s fastest mobile processor, and showed a demonstration in which a Tegra 4 went head-to-head against a Nexus 10 in loading websites (you can guess which one won). The Tegra 4 also introduces new computational photography architecture, which adds a new engine to drive the image processing and significantly improve the amount of time it takes to calculate the necessary mathematics 10 times faster than current platforms. To show off its power, NVIDIA demonstrated HDR rendering on live video. The chip is also capable of implementing HDR in burst shots and with LED flash. The idea, NVIDIA says, is to eventually make our mobile cameras more powerful than DSLRs, and this is certainly a step in the right direction. Gallery: NVIDIA CES 2013 press event Joseph Volpe contributed to this report. Continue reading NVIDIA officially unveils Tegra 4: offers quad-core Cortex A15, 72 GPU cores, LTE support Filed under: Cellphones , Tablets , Wireless , Mobile , NVIDIA Comments

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NVIDIA officially unveils Tegra 4: offers quad-core Cortex A15, 72 GPU cores, LTE support

Google Play Magazines offers free digital versions to print subscribers

Google Play’s magazine subscriptions have always, sadly, existed separate from a publications print offerings. Meaning, even if you already had the paper edition of Beer Advocate delivered to your home, you still had to cough up for the digital version . That’s finally changed, however, which should make many magazine hounds quite happy. Now when you select a new periodical, you’ll be offered the standard monthly and yearly subscription options, along with the new “free for print subscribers.” You’ll need to verify your subscription before Google will allow you to download issues, but that’s one less barrier to entry for those looking to dip their toes in the digital magazine pool. For a bit more info check out the source link. Filed under: Software , Mobile , Google Comments Via: Droid Life Source: Google

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Google Play Magazines offers free digital versions to print subscribers

Corning introduces Gorilla Glass 3, promises ape-sized improvements in durability

Once , twice , three times a gorilla? Corning’s primate-themed glass is ready for a third go-round, and as you’d expect, it’s even tougher than the first two iterations. Gorilla Glass 3 has been improved at the molecular level, incorporating a proprietary feature called Native Damage Resistance (NDR). According to Corning, NDR reduces the propagation of flaws, the appearance of scratches and does a better job of maintaining the overall retained strength of the glass. As a result, GG3 claims a three-fold improvement in scratch resistance, 40 percent reduction in the number of visible scratches and 50 percent boost in retained strength after the glass becomes flawed. None of this actually means your phone or tablet will survive a five-foot drop onto concrete, granted, but you’ll at least feel more comfortable keeping your keys somewhere close by. The full press release can be found below. Continue reading Corning introduces Gorilla Glass 3, promises ape-sized improvements in durability Filed under: Cellphones , Displays , Tablets , Mobile Comments

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Corning introduces Gorilla Glass 3, promises ape-sized improvements in durability

Google Music gains scan and match feature in the US

It wasn’t very long ago that Google Music landed in Europe — to the delight of local music lovers, we’re sure. On its trip across the pond, the service gained a unique new feature called scan and match, wherein Google scans your local music library and makes the songs it matches instantly available in the cloud — no upload required. Until now the feature, which is similar to iTunes Match , was only available in Europe, but it’s coming to the US starting today. From now on, any US Google Play users who upload their music collection will benefit from this new feature. Over time, the company will also upgrade users with existing cloud libraries. It’s a free service and it’s automatic — you’re unlikely to notice that it’s even happening. The upside is that entire collections will be uploaded faster. We’re not aware of any downsides yet — matched songs will be available for streaming at 320Kbps like regular Google Play purchases, while re-downloaded music will be available at or close to the bitrate of the original file. Update: Google confirmed that any VBR files matched by the service will be re-downloaded as CBR files with a bitrate that’s slightly higher than the average bitrate of the original song. This is obviously a drawback if you’re currently relying on the service to backup your music collection. Filed under: Cellphones , Tablets , Mobile , Google Comments Source: Google Play (Google+)

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Google Music gains scan and match feature in the US

NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor details leaked: 4-plus-1 cores, 28nm, six times the power of Tegra 3

NVIDIA’s next superhero-themed mobile chipset has possibly made an early appearance in a leaked side in China, and it looks like it wants to go toe-to-toe with the latest processors from Samsung and Qualcomm. The Tegra 4 (codenamed Wayne) will apparently offer the same power-efficient 28nm process found on its Snapdragon rival and according to the slide from Chip Hell , there’s a dizzying 72-core graphics setup. That’s apparently 20 times the power found the Tegra 2 and six times that in the last-generation Tegra 3, which powered, among other devices, the Nexus 7 . Those graphics cores will be able to power screens up to 2,560 x 1600, with 1080p output at 120Hz, while the leak also mentions 4K — if only in passing. We won’t see any increase in CPU cores this time, with the same 4-plus-1 setup , but we are likely seeing a move to ARM’s latest design, the Cortex-A15 . It’ll also catch up with USB 3.0, being NVIDIA’s first mobile chip to do so, alongside dual-channel DDR3L memory. We’ve reached out to chipmaker and we’ll let you know when we hear more, but it’s highly likely we’ll be seeing this next-generation processor early next year — say, at a mobile trade show . Filed under: Cellphones , Tablets , Mobile , NVIDIA Comments Via: Mobile Geeks Source: Chip Hell

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NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor details leaked: 4-plus-1 cores, 28nm, six times the power of Tegra 3

Russian site shows off 5-inch Sony ‘Yuga’ with 1080p display, S4 Pro CPU, 12MP camera

The folks at Mobile-review have been dropping hints that they have an unannounced Sony handset in their possession, and now they’ve released a gabble of specs and images to prove it. Sony’s “Yuga C6603” bears all the potential hallmarks of a flagship, sporting a 5-inch screen running at full HD resolution (1,920 x 1,080), although some of that real estate is occupied by on-screen buttons. The display is loaded with an impressive 440 ppi, just like HTC’s Droid DNA , and Sony’s Mobile Bravia Engine has been employed for color reproduction. Under that screen we find a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU with Adreno 320 graphics, and 2 gigs of RAM for Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean to take advantage of. In terms of connectivity, it’s got USB host and micro-HDMI ports, Bluetooth 4.0, standard WiFi, NFC and a Qualcomm modem of the LTE variety. A 12-megapixel shooter can be found on the back (perhaps using the same HDR sensor as the Oppo Find 5 ), a microSD slot supporting up to 128GB cards on the side, and a non-removable battery of unknown capacity hiding within. That’s pretty much it for now — but judging by how final this hardware looks, there’s a chance we might see more of it at CES . Filed under: Cellphones , Mobile , Sony Comments Source: Mobile-review

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Russian site shows off 5-inch Sony ‘Yuga’ with 1080p display, S4 Pro CPU, 12MP camera