Tuesday, June 18, 2013

AMD details first ARM-based server chip: up to 16 helpings of Cortex-A57 clocked at 2GHz

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/18/amd-seattle-arm-server-chip/

AMD plans lowpower server chips based on ARM CortexA57, new Steamroller design

It's hardly a secret that AMD has stepped out of its x86 comfort zone to develop an ARM-based server chip, but now we know a little more about it. Going by the name of "Seattle" and scheduled for launch in the second half of next year, it'll be built around ARM's 64-bit Cortex-A57 in either 8- or 16-core configurations, which will likely be clocked at a minimum of 2GHz. In an apparent acknowledgement of ARM's superiority at low wattages, we're told that this design has the potential to deliver 4x the performance of AMD's current Opteron X processors, with improved compute-per-watt. There's a clear limit to AMD's reliance on ARM, however, as it'll use Seattle to up against Intel's little Atoms, but will continue to sell its own x86 designs for higher-power applications. Meanwhile, we're still waiting on something more interesting from this union, which might be an ARM CPU paired with a Radeon HD graphics processor in some sort of mobile-class SoC. Guess we'll just have to be patient.

Filed under: , ,

Comments

Read More...

Next3D's plan to bring recorded video to the Oculus Rift

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/18/next3d-recorded-video-plans-oculus-rift-virtual-reality/

Next3D's plan to bring recorded video to the Oculus Rift

The dream of wearing a lightweight headset, like the Oculus Rift, in order to simulate physical presence isn't limited to the imaginary worlds of video games. One man's vision is that of immersive TV shows, movies and live sports. In fact, David Cole, co-founder of Next3D and an industry veteran who helps content creators and providers produce and deliver 3D, has been using his Rift dev kit to bring TV and film to life since the kits started shipping in March. The company is combining its video processing and compression technology with its experience in content production and stereoscopic delivery to offer what it's called Full-Court.

Next3D hopes to leverage its existing relationships with creators and providers to assist them in jumping into the world of live-action VR content. This includes both pre-recorded and live broadcasts. We wanted to see this firsthand, so we jumped at the opportunity to witness the creation of content and experience the results. This trial run of Next3D's stereoscopic, 180-degree field-of-view camera rig, and the post-processing to adapt it to VR, was part of the production of the paranormal investigation show, Anomaly, at Castle Warden in St. Augustine, Fla. Being nearby, we braved the perils of the haunted surroundings to tell you about what we hope is only the beginning of virtual reality content.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Read More...

Report: AMD Is Making Its First Ever ARM Chip

Source: http://gizmodo.com/report-amd-is-making-its-first-ever-arm-chip-513977438

Report: AMD Is Making Its First Ever ARM Chip

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that AMD is taking a leap into unknown waters, as it readies its first ever ARM chip.

The new chip—codenamed 'Seattle' and previously hinted at—is apparently based on the architecture designed by ARM which is now prolific in smartphones and tablets. Interestingly though, according to the Wall Street Journal, the chips will be aimed at server systems—where the same power savings required by mobile applications are becoming increasingly attractive.

It won't be the first time a company has offered up an ARM chip for use in servers—Applied Micro Circuits has done something similar before with the X-Gene server-on-a-chip—but AMD does carry enough weight to make the scheme potentially successful. That's a fairly big "potentially": there are enough question marks here—does the world want ARM in servers, can AMD offer a decent ARM products, blah, blah, blah—that success is far from guaranteed.

The Journal claims the processors will come in several versions, first with eight processor cores and later with the option of 16, all ticking by at 2GHz or higher. The Journal expects AMD to officially announce the chip later today, though also suggests it won't be available until the first half of 2014. [WSJ]

Image by Eye of Wolf under Creative Commons license

Read More...

GEAK unveils Eye and Mars smartphones with 13MP cameras, budget prices

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/17/geak-unveils-eye-and-mars/

GEAK Eye and Mars smartphones

GEAK may be focusing its attention on wearable tech like the Ring and Watch, but it still has a pair of new offerings for those who like old-fashioned smartphones: meet the 5-inch Eye and 5.8-inch Mars. Both are tailored to photo junkies with 13MP, backside-illuminated rear cameras as well as strong front cameras that shoot at 8MP (Eye) and 2MP (Mars). Differences between the handsets revolve mostly around performance and screen size. The Eye keeps things modest with a 720p IPS display, a quad-core MediaTek MT6589, HSPA+ data, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. Spring for the extra-large Mars and you'll upgrade to a 1080p IPS LCD, a Snapdragon 600 and 2GB of RAM. Either way, you won't be paying a lot for the imaging prowess -- when pre-orders start on June 25th, GEAK will ask ¥1,999 ($326) off-contract for the Eye and ¥2,999 ($490) for the Mars. Just don't expect either to leave China when there's no word of international plans.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Via: Engadget Chinese (translated)

Source: GEAK (1), (2)

Read More...

Raspbmc's June build brings a slew of tweaks: cloud backups and more coming in July

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/18/raspbmcs-june-build-brings-a-slew-of-tweaks-cloud-backups-and/

The Raspberry Pi-focused XBMC port Raspbmc's June changelog is a lengthy one. Among the changes are new settings, new skins, support for the Stealth Nighthawk F117A device and changes to make booting up faster, among many other things. Getting this month's update should only require rebooting one's Raspberry Pi, and a few new mirrors that have joined the network should make downloading the updated software even faster. That's not all however, because the July update is promising Linux kernel updates, Raspbmc "Cloud" features with automatic settings backup / restore across multiple devices and an unspecified "special announcement."

Filed under: ,

Comments

Source: Raspbmc

Read More...

Monday, June 17, 2013

Raytheon's updated JTACs situational awareness system eyes-on (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/17/raytheons-updated-jtacs-situational-awareness-system-eyes-on/

Raytheon's updated JTACs system lets soldiers call in airstrike targets by looking at them

Though you may think drones do all the fighting these days, actual soldiers on the ground are still used to call in airstrikes. Sometimes it's still necessary to visually confirm targets before the flyboys create a smoking crater. Though the army has toyed with smartphones and other means to connect soldiers, Raytheon has created a new JTACs (Joint Tactical Air Controller system) prototype for ground forces to let them separate friendlies from enemies and relay the information to strike forces. The system consists of a chest-worn computer, heads-up monocle viewer and wrist-worn display, which together let the solider select a target merely by looking at it and pressing a button. They can also tag friendly forces the same way or send update situational data to the rest of the team, whether they're on the ground or flying a fighter overhead. That assistance from the ground will make it easier for those at the yoke to differentiate between friendlies and targets.

We tried the prototype ourselves in a limited, 2D environment here at the 2013 Paris Air Show and, without any help getting set up, were able to tag targets as red diamonds and friendly forces as amber squares. Everything we did was also displayed on second screen, simulating the ability to send live updates to other soldiers or the base. Impressive as it was, the whole thing is merely a prototype for now, though, that could eventually change. The military AR system is part of a larger platform called AWARE, which Raytheon hopes to eventually deploy. For a detailed explanation about how it works, check out the video after the break.

Filed under:

Comments

Read More...

GEAK Ring puts NFC on your finger, unlocks phones and shares your contact card

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/17/geak-ring-nfc-finger/

GEAK Ring is the one ring to

Some say NFC is dead, but GEAK from Shanghai wants to prove them wrong. Announced alongside the GEAK Watch earlier today was this GEAK Ring, a tiny NFC-enabled wearable device that stores your identity. The ring's pitched as an intuitive way to unlock your phone -- just hold it with the hand that's wearing the ring, and it'll unlock without having to type in the password; plus it'll stay awake as long as it's held in the same hand. Another feature is that since the ring has your contact details stored (presumably rewritable), you can also use it to share your contact card with other NFC-enabled devices. But of course, given the risk of NFC cloning, you should treat GEAK's solution as a convenience rather than a more secure method.

At launch, this ring will only be compatible with the GEAK Eye and GEAK Mars quad-core phones that were also announced today, but it'll support other devices from the likes of Samsung, Xiaomi and Oppo starting in November. GEAK will be taking pre-orders from August 8th, and it'll cost Chinese buyers ¥199 or about $30 each. It'll sure go nicely alongside that Google ring.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Via: Engadget Chinese

Source: GEAK (Chinese)

Read More...

What A Map Of Kickstarter Usage Tells Us About America

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/map-of-the-day-what-kickstarter-tells-us-about-invention-in-the-united-states-2013-6

There's an outstanding new paper out on NBER today by Ajay Agrawal, Christian Catalini and Avi Goldfarb that looks at the simple economics of crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, where people post project ideas that they hope to get funded from the masses.. 

While the whole paper is absolutely worth a read, one map at the end gave us a fascinating look at who is getting all that Kickstarter money and for what. 

Check it out:

kickstarter map

 

Some of the more interesting findings:

  • California and New York dominate when it comes to funding, especially in both the arts and technology. Minnesota is also a hub of tech funding, and Texas has kickstarted games. 
  • Massachusetts is evidently a hub of fashion
  • Tennessee has a lot of musicians looking for startup funding. 
  • People are really into the food from North Carolina.

See the whole paper here >

Join the conversation about this story »

    


Read More...

Skype video messaging officially launches on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android -- but not Windows Phone

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/17/skype-video-messaging-launches-free-unlimited/

Sky video messaging officially launches for free on Windows, Mac, iOS and Android

Out of beta and free, Skype today launches its video messaging service across all its major platforms. Previously, video missives were limited to 20 free attempts during early testing, but free on premium subscriptions. You can now send unlimited video messages to your Skype contacts on Windows 8, Windows desktop or Mac, while mobile options encompass iOS, Android and BlackBerry. A Windows Phone version is, however, conspicuously MIA. To remind yourself how it all works, check out our early hands-on here.

Filed under: , , , ,

Comments

Source: Skype

Read More...

Digg's Google Reader replacement beta opens on June 26th, friends and family get access on the 19th

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/17/digg-rss-reader-june-26/

Digg's Google Reader replacement beta access opens on June 25th, friends and family on the 19th

Digg -- yes, that Digg -- has a replacement in the works for Google Reader, and it looks like it'll arrive just ahead of the final days of Google's RSS aggregation service. The service, which uses the same API as Reader, is planning a public beta starting on June 26th; a "friends and family" beta will open this Wednesday, the 19th, with limited access.

During beta, the Digg RSS reader is free. In a survey Digg published last month on its blog, however, the company found that over 40 percent of respondents are "willing to pay for a Google Reader replacement." The company noted alongside the finding that, "Free products on the Internet don't have a great track record. They tend to disappear, leaving users in a lurch. We need to build a product that people can rely on and trust will always be there for them. We're not sure how pricing might work, but we do know that we'd like our users to be our customers, not our product."

That said, Digg's latest blog post seemingly assuages our worry. "We mentioned in a prior post that Digg Reader will ultimately be a 'freemium' product," the post reads. "But we're not going to bait-and-switch. All of the features introduced next week, as well as many others yet to come, will be part of the free experience." Those features include the standard RSS reader experience, "easy migration and onboarding from Google Reader," "useful mobile apps that sync with the web experience" (there's an iOS one pictured, and Android is promised in the 60 days post-launch) and "support for ... subscribing, sharing, saving and organizing."

Filed under: ,

Comments

Source: Digg Blog

Read More...

This Fitness Startup Is Betting 'Wearable Tech' Is A Fad That Won't Catch On

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/moves-tracks-2-billion-steps-per-day-2013-6

lululemon man runner running

Wearable technology has led everyday people and fitness buffs alike to track every aspect of their lives.

It's part of an increasingly growing movement dubbed the "Quantified Self."

But startup Moves is betting that wearable tech won't be the thing to make the Quantified Self movement go mainstream. 

"We think the phone is a great existing platform for activity tracking," Moves CEO and Designer Sampo Karjalainen says. "The fact that so many people are already carrying their phones with them, that helps a lot. If you buy these [wearable fitness] gadgets, you need to remember to charge and carry one more gadget. It's a big behavioral change you have to do."

Moves is a free iPhone app that runs in the background for tracking a variety of activities like walking, running, cycling, and driving. Based on some early stats, it seems like Karjalainen may be right about the smartphone being the optimal tool for activity tracking. 

To date, Moves has been downloaded over 1.9 million times on iOS and tracks 2 billion steps per day. Compare that to the Jawbone Up, which tracks more than 1 billion steps per day, according to data released in April

Moves is geared toward those who aren't that physically active, but want a general understanding of their health and fitness. Karjalaien says there will be use cases for those wearable tech gadgets, but phones are what will make the fitness tracking market go mainstream. 

Earlier this year, Moves raised $1.6 million from PROfounders Capital and Lifeline Ventures. Just last month, Moves released its API for developers to integrate Moves into preexisting apps and services. Moves plans to release its Android app this summer. 

Disclosure: Finnish funding a! gency Te kes and Finnfacts, a non-profit media service organization in Finland, paid for my trip to Helsinki to explore the startup scene.  

SEE ALSO: GARBAGE IS SEXY: It's A $1 Trillion Market That Finnish Startup Enevo Wants To Disrupt

Join the conversation about this story »

    


Read More...

Wow, a 4K TV For $1080 Is Simply Bonkers

Source: http://gizmodo.com/wow-a-4k-tv-for-1080-is-simply-bonkers-513578198

Wow, a 4K TV For $1080 Is Simply Bonkers

A couple of months ago, Seiki announced a 50-inch 4K TV with a suggested MSRP of $1500—which is still an absurd price point for a 4K TV. The price has continued to drop, and now Amazon's selling it for $1081.

Sure, $1080 for a TV isn't cheap, but other competing televisions sporting 3840 x 2160 resolutions still cost basically the price of a car, so if you wanted to be an early 4K adopter, this is probably the least expensive LED TV that can get you in the game. You might not get perfect color or clarity, like you would with a $6000 Sony, but when Mario was able to gaze on one of these sets he left impressed. There might not be much 4k content out there yet, but this panel would look great as a monitor.

So to summarize: a 50-inch, 4K resolution TV for $1080 with free shipping. Bonkers. Especially since 3D TV seems to be dead, if you wanted to future-proof your home theatre, this might be a television to check out. [Amazon]

Update: Amazon's now listing the television for $969. If you bought it yesterday, you can get the difference refunded.

Read More...

Home Lohas brings hydroponic gardening into your room, rabbit guard not included

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/16/home-lohas-hydroponic-gardening-vegetable/

Home Lohas brings hydroponic plantation to your living room

While running between booths at Computex earlier this month, we were momentarily distracted by these vegetable boxes (maybe it was lunch time as well). As it turned out, this product was launched by Taiwan-based Home Lohas around the same time as when the expo started. The company pitches its hydroponic gardening appliance -- so the vegetables rely on nutritious water instead of soil -- as a hassle-free, low-power solution for growing your own greens, plus it's apparently the only solution in the market that doesn't need water circulation. With its full spectrum LED light, air pump and timers, harvest time can apparently be reduced by about 30 percent. It's simply a matter of filling up the water tank, adding the necessary nutrients and placing the seeded sponge on the tray (the package includes three types of organic fertilizers and some seeds).

The only downside is that this system costs NT$15,800 (about US$530) in Taiwan, and for some reason, it'll eventually be priced at US$680 in other markets. If that's too much, then stay tuned for a half-size model that's due Q4 this year.

Filed under:

Comments

Source: Home Lohas (Chinese)

Read More...

Spot Global Phone review: a satellite phone for the masses

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/16/spot-global-phone-review/

Spot Global Phone review a satellite phone for the masses

Finally, a phone made in the year 2013 that Zack Morris can approve of. All kidding aside, Spot's aptly titled Global Phone isn't the most -- shall we say, svelte -- of handsets, but it's capable of communicating in places that your iPhone could only dream of. Spot is actually a subsidiary of satellite communications giant Globalstar, who is no stranger to providing satellite-based service to argonauts the world over. The Global Phone is one of the company's first consumer-facing phones, taking the intrigue and mystery out of procuring one of those fancy sat phones -- you know, the ones that can seemingly only be acquired by James Bond's nemeses.

The target market for this handset is obvious: if you're an avid hiker, explorer, boater or adventurer, there's a high likelihood that you'll end up in a locale where traditional cell networks provide no coverage. In fact, it's shockingly easy to find dead zones these days -- just head to your nearest national park and stroll up a marked trail for a bit. At $499 for the device itself and month-to-month plans starting at $25, it's actually a reasonably priced addition to one's off-the-grid arsenal. (Have you seen the prices on subzero sleeping bags these days?)

But, is it a worthwhile addition? I recently traversed 1,600 miles of mostly desolate territory in the US Southwest in order to find out, and the answer lies just after the break.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Source: Spot Global Phone product page

Read More...

Samsung makes first PCIe-based SSD for Ultrabooks, we see one likely customer

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/17/samsung-makes-first-pcie-based-ssd-for-ultrabooks/

Samsung starts making first PCIe SSD for Ultrabooks

Solid-state drives are so speedy these days that that even a SATA interface might not have the bandwidth to cope. It's a good thing that Samsung has started mass-producing the first PCI Express-based SSDs for Ultrabooks, then. The new XP941 series uses PCIe's wider data path to read at nearly 1.4GB/s -- that's 2.5 times faster than the quickest SATA SSDs, and nimble enough to move 500GB in six minutes. It also ships in a tinier M.2 format that makes past card-based SSDs look gargantuan, even when there's up to 512GB of storage. Samsung hasn't named laptop makers receiving the XP941, although it doesn't take strong deductive skills to spot one of the (probable) first customers. When Apple is shipping a new 13-inch MacBook Air that just happens to use a very similar PCIe SSD from Samsung, there's likely more than coincidence at work.

Filed under: , , ,

Comments

Source: Samsung

Read More...