Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Thursday, February 16, 2012

NVIDIA reports Q4 2012 earnings: annual revenue up 12.8 percent, net income doubles

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/15/nvidia-q4-2012-earnings/

NVIDIA Q4 earnings

If you thought we were done with the numbers game, think again. NVIDIA has just pushed out its figures for Q4 of FY 2012 and things are looking good. Revenue for the quarter was $953 million, a 10.6 percent decline over Q3, but if you look over the entire year revenue increased 12.8 percent over fiscal 2011. Net income, too, was down compared to Q3, but looking annually, when compared to 2011 income more than doubled, from 253 million to 581. CEO Jen-Hsun Huang was predictably pleased with the outcome, saying: "We expect continued growth ahead, as Tegra 3 powers a new wave of quad-core super phones and Kepler, our next-generation GPU architecture, sets new standards in visual and parallel computing." We're expecting plenty of great devices too -- the Transformer Prime TF700T in particular.

Continue reading NVIDIA reports Q4 2012 earnings: annual revenue up 12.8 percent, net income doubles

NVIDIA reports Q4 2012 earnings: annual revenue up 12.8 percent, net income doubles originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T's hungry eyes turning toward Leap, Dish or MetroPCS?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/16/att-eyeing-dish-metropcs-leap/

AT&T's hungry eyes turning toward Leap, Dish or MetroPCS?

Publicly, at least, AT&T is bursting at the seams as it runs out of space to put all of its customers. The failed $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile was all about trying to match (or better) Verizon's reserves of wireless spectrum. Given the FCC's block of LightSquared and stymieing future spectrum auctions for the time being, AT&T needs to make some more purchases (it bought Qualcomm's small slice of the airwaves for $1.9 billion). If the Wall Street Journal is to be believed, there's a whiteboard in Whitacre Tower with Dish, Leap and MetroPCS written all over it. Reportedly, a purchase of Leap is the nearest to fruition, with "under the table" talks already underway. However, the Cricket Wireless operator would only provide a short term solution to Ma Bell's very long term woes. The other big target is Dish Network's reserved spectrum, kept back for its own planned broadband network, but i! f it fai ls to get Government approval, it might look to offload it. Third on the roster and marked as "highly unlikely" is a purchase of MetroPCS. The carrier was bitterly opposed to the T-Mo merger and pouted at the idea of purchasing some of Big Blue's divested assets, so if those two met around a table, they'd have a lot of awkward apologizing to do.

Image courtesy of Fierce Mobile Content

AT&T's hungry eyes turning toward Leap, Dish or MetroPCS? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Feb 2012 06:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Transparency - http://kred.com/acfou #kred @kred - always beats No Transparency - http://klout.com/acfou

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Photoshop CS6 Can Magically Move Around Any Object In Your Photos [Video]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5885285/photoshop-cs6-can-magically-move-around-any-object-in-your-photos

When Adobe Photoshop Senior Product Manager Bryan O'Neil Hughes showed me the new content-aware features of CS6, my mouth opened like an imbecile out of complete disbelief. You can basically move objects around your image freely and effortless. It's black magic!

Here's a video of what I saw. First you see the new clone-stamp like content-ware fill, which basically allows you to define a part of the image as a source to easily erase something from an image. This is impressive enough and a timesaver, but what is even more zomg-what-the-hell-did-just-happen impressive is using the same technology to move any object around the image.

Jump to minute 1:00 and see how it works. While this could have taken hours of hard work in the current version of Photoshop, the new version just makes it a matter of seconds. Literally.

An Even Bigger (!) Galaxy Note Is Coming [Galaxy Note]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5885308/an-even-bigger-galaxy-note-is-coming

Remember yesterday, when you thought the 5.4-inch screen-having Samsung Galaxy Note was gigantic? It's tiny. TINY, I say! Why? Because rumor has it that Samsung is preparing to unleash the Galaxy Note 10.1 at MWC. Yes, that's almost twice as big.

An Even Bigger (!) Galaxy Note Is Coming SlashGear spotted this little oopsie on Samsung's official blog. In the company's Guide to Samsung Developer Day, developers are invited to experience the Wave 3, the Wave Y, the Galaxy Note, and the Galaxy Note 10.1. The last of which, of course, doesn't officially exist—yet. While Samsung realized its error and has removed the page, this image still exists for posterity.

What's curious to me is not that Samsung is going to launch a full-sized tablet that works with an S-Pen, it's that it can't just make its current suite of many-sized tablets just work with the S-Pen. Samsung's already got a 10.1-inch tablet, so unless the Note 10.1 takes a massive jump in specs—which it should, since the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been around for a year now—this seems silly. Samsung already "augments" Android with its custom user-interface (TouchWiz), so why it couldn't just develop a Bluetooth stylus and build in the integration to all of its tablets, I don't know. [SlashGear]

AMD releases Radeon HD 7750 and 7770 GPUs, reviewers like and don't like

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/15/amd-releases-radeon-hd-7750-and-7770-gpus/

Not into that whole $500 fuse-melting monster graphics card thing? Then good news for you: AMD has finally brought out two more affordable models in its 28nm Radeon HD range. The 7770 is priced at $169 and claims to be the world's first reference GPU that comes factory over-clocked to 1GHz. Meanwhile, the 7750 comes in at $109 and boasts a low enough wattage (75W, versus 100W for the 7770) that it doesn't require its own power connector. Both cards pack 1GB RAM and run on AMD's Cape Verde architecture, which makes them slightly different to the Tahiti-powered 7900 series, although they do inherit key top-end features like ZeroCore Power, PowerTune and Eyefinity 2.0.

Reviewers have mixed opinions, as befits a healthy blogosphere, but the low-power 7750 generally comes off slightly better, especially for those looking to build a budget or HTPC rig. AnandTech likes the power-to-performance ratio of both cards, but dislikes the price-to-performance of the 7770, noting that the older 6850 still offers more in this respect -- at least for gamers. HotHardware concludes that AMD might have "technically" priced both cards "just right," considering how they stack up against NVIDIA's GeForce GTX560 and 550, but in practice those NVIDIA cards deliver a lot more punch for just a few extra dollars. Feel free to glean further details for yourself via the PR and review links below.

Continue reading AMD releases Radeon HD 7750 and 7770 GPUs, reviewers like and don't li! ke< /a>

AMD releases Radeon HD 7750 and 7770 GPUs, reviewers like and don't like originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SanDisk launches Extreme SSDs: $190 for 120GB, $400 for 240GB

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/15/sandisk-launches-extreme-ssds/

SanDisk is hauling its consumer SSD range into the SATAIII era, offering a pair of Extreme branded drives that deliver performance broadly on-par with other 6Gbps rivals. The 120GB and 240GB variants are available now priced at $190 and $400, while a 480GB version will ship "later this year" with a $750 asking price. Random reads / writes are claimed to reach 83,000 / 44,000 IOPS, with 550MB/s and 520MB/s sequential speeds. The PR after the break also mentions a new X100 OEM drive for PC manufacturers, just any of them happen to read it.

Continue reading SanDisk launches Extreme SSDs: $190 for 120GB, $400 for 240GB

SanDisk launches Extreme SSDs: $190 for 120GB, $400 for 240GB originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon Wants to Recycle Your Old Phones [Wireless]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5885187/verizon-wants-to-recycle-your-old-phones

Verizon Wants to Recycle Your Old Phones Valentine's Day seems an odd time to get environmentally responsible, but Verizon has done just that. The carrier has just announced a new nationwide trade-in disposal program for its old handsets and is giving away gift cards in exchange.

Any Verizon customer can turn in a used mobile at the company's stores or kiosks. There Verizon staff will evaluate the mobile for its make, model, and condition, then issue a Verizon gift card that can be used immediately. What's more, the card's balance can also be used to pay monthly bills, not just new merchandise. According to the carrier, certain phone models can fetch up to $300—though I doubt I'll get that much for my old StarTac. All trade-ins will be disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner, according to the company.

If you are feeling magnanimous, you can also donate the phone's value to Verizon's ongoing HopeLine project. This program redistributes used cellphones and unclaimed minutes to victims of domestic violence.

I'm curios as to how the valuation prices from Verizon stack up against those of online trade-in sites like Gazelle or Flipswap especially since it does have the advantage of immediate payouts rather than making you wait 2-4 weeks for a posted check. [VZW via IntoMobile]

Time Warner Cable's TWC TV launches for PC, brings live TV streaming to the desktop

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/14/time-warner-cables-twc-tv-launches-for-pc-brings-live-tv-strea/

After expanding its live TV streaming from iPads to iPhones, Time Warner Cable is going in the other direction and offering the service on PCs. The PC version of TWC TV launched today in beta -- still no word on streaming to Android devices or HDTVs yet -- but the Silverlight player will work on Windows and OS X, in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Chrome. According to the official blog it has more than just streaming, with remote control over compatible set-top boxes and DVR scheduling also included. Of course, the same restrictions still apply here as they have on tablets and phones, with playback only while connected to your home network. If you're a Time Warner customer, hit the link below to sign in and try it out, or hit the blog for more details on what works where.

Time Warner Cable's TWC TV launches for PC, brings live TV streaming to the desktop originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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H2O Bolt promises unlimited 4G internet for $50, pretends it's never heard of Clear

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/15/h2o-bolt-unlimited-4g-internet/

H2O Bolt promises unlimited 4G internet for $50, pretends it's never heard of Clear

It's not everyday that an MVNO decides to offer up unlimited data courtesy of Clearwire's WiMAX network, but H2O's latest entrant known as Bolt makes us wish the practice were far less frequent. The $50 no-contract service essentially replicates Clear's own offering at the very same price point that's been available to customers for years. Furthermore, both companies share Best Buy as their most significant retail channel. Now, for whatever reason, H2O's Bolt Flash (the $100 USB modem) and Bolt Spider (the $150 mobile hotspot) will sit side-by-side Clear's own offerings at the big box retailer, where it'll be up to those in Smurf shirts to explain the difference -- there's none. You'll find the PR after the break, but if you're living in Detroit, Phoenix, Indianapolis, Louisville, New Orleans, Memphis or Albuquerque, none of this even remotely matters. Frustrating, isn't it?

Continue reading H2O Bolt promises unlimited 4G internet for $50, pretends it's never heard of Clear

H2O Bolt promises unlimited 4G internet for $50, pretends it's never heard of Clear originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kinect for Media Center released, why not wave and shout at your HTPC?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/15/kinect-for-media-center/

Kinect hacks previously brought gesture and voice control to Boxee and XBMC, and now that the Kinect for Windows hardware has been released we've got a solution for Windows Media Center. The aptly named Kinect for Media Center brings all the normal playback controls (for WMC and add-ins like Netflix) to your fingertips and lips, at the cost of $6.99. While its control scheme seems to be fully featured there are unfortunately some limitations -- it doesn't work with the Xbox 360 Kinect due to Microsoft's restrictions, and it also doesn't work with WMC extenders. What is included are filters to keep your content from accidentally triggering the voice controls (something some of us have had problems with on the Xbox 360), and configurable settings for right or left hand dominance or sensitivity. You can check out a video demo of the beta version (compare to a demo we saw last year from the makers of the Amulet voice control remotes) embedded after the break, or head directly to the site to try it out yourself if you're sure that finding the remote has simply become to much of a hassle.

Continue reading Kinect for Media Center released, why not wave and shout at your HTPC?

Kinect for Media Center released, ! why not wave and shout at your HTPC? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GE turns butterfly-inspired tech into cheap, accurate thermal sensors (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/15/ge-turns-butterfly-inspired-tech-into-cheap-accurate-thermal-se/

GE butterfly sensor

When last we heard from GE and its Morpho-butterfly inspired sensors, all the talk was about detecting chemicals. And, with $6.3 million in funding coming from DARPA, we're not surprised. In the latest issue of Nature Photonics, however, the company's researchers show that the wing-like structures are just as good at detecting heat as they are ricin attacks. By coating them with carbon nanotubes the team was able to create a sensor sensitive to temperature changes as small as 0.02 degrees Celsius with a response rate of 1/40 of a second. The sensors could eventually find their way into imaging devices and medical equipment, and are expected to cost just a fraction of similar technologies currently on the market. Of course, since DARPA is still involved with the project, there are some potential security uses as well -- such as screening devices and fire detection. Head after the break for a video and some PR.

Continue reading GE turns butterfly-inspired tech into cheap, accurate thermal sensors (video)

GE turns butterfly-inspired tech into cheap, accurate thermal sensors (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Feb 2012 02:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gartner: Apple leads the way among smartphone vendors, Android sees slight decline

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/15/gartner-q4-2011-apple-android-smartphone/

Gartner's latest bundle of smartphone stats has just hit the wires, bringing with it some encouraging news for the folks in Cupertino. According to the firm's Q4 report, Apple finished 2011 as the world's top smartphone vendor by market share (19 percent), thanks to a Q4 that saw the company grab 23.8 percent of the market. During the quarter, Apple sold some 35.5 million handsets to end users, marking a mildly insane 121.4 percent increase from Q4 2010. This surge also helped Apple overtake LG to become the world's third largest seller of all mobile phones, with a 7.4 percent market share last quarter, trailing only Nokia (23.4 percent) and Samsung (19.4 percent). Nokia, in fact, saw some of its lead wither away during Q4, with sales dropping 8.7 percent over the year, to 111.7 million units. On the OS front, meanwhile, Android continues to dominate Q4 with 50.9 percent of the smartphone market, but that's slightly down from the previous quarter, when it grabbed a little less than 53 percent. Gartner attributes some of this to increased sales of the iPhone 4S, though it expects iOS' share to decline over the next "couple of quarters," as fewer users upgrade to the company's latest handset. For more insight and analysis, check out the full press release, after the break.

Continue reading Gartner: ! Apple le ads the way among smartphone vendors, Android sees slight decline

Gartner: Apple leads the way among smartphone vendors, Android sees slight decline originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Feb 2012 04:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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