Fraunhofer's Full-HD Voice brings high fidelity VoLTE to Android smartphones

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/24/fraunhofer-full-hd-voice-for-volte/

The audio nerds at Fraunhofer are set to raise the bar for Voice over LTE next week in Barcelona, as the company has announced a new technology known as Full-HD Voice. By leveraging the AAC-ELD codec, Fraunhofer claims that consumers will experience audio quality that rivals the experience of chatting face-to-face. Technically speaking, it's said the codec offers four times the audio bandwidth of regular phone calls and twice the bandwidth of HD voice services, all without an increase in bit rate. The technology will only be available for Android phones initially, but that seems like a fine place to start. The full PR is after the break -- presented in Full HD, of course.

Continue reading Fraunhofer's Full-HD Voice brings high fidelity VoLTE to Android smartphones

Fraunhofer's Full-HD Voice brings high fidelity VoLTE to Android smartphones originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel joins the Document Foundation, pimps LibreOffice

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/24/intel-joins-the-document-foundation-pimps-libreoffice/

You're forgiven if you missed this little blip on the news radar: Intel has joined the advisory board of the Document Foundation and added the coalition's LibreOffice to the AppUp market. What's more, Chipzilla actually worked with SUSE to help optimize the free and open source office suite for Intel hardware and, as part of the advisory board, will be providing the project with significant monetary support. This is good news for fans of LibreOffice, but it's probably not sitting well with Microsoft -- normally Intel's ally and current king of the office suite hill.

Intel joins the Document Foundation, pimps LibreOffice originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Feb 2012 11:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OMAP 5's dual A15 cores wipe the floor with four A9s in browsing benchmark

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/23/omap-5s-dual-a15-cores-wipe-the-floor-with-four-a9s/

We've seen Texas Instrument's OMAP 5 in action, but we haven't been able to pit it directly against a competitor. The Dallas company must be growing more and more confident in its product however, as its posted a video demoing its pair of A15 cores alongside an unspecified quad-core A9 part -- presumably the Tegra 3. The video shows the next-gen TI part powering through the EEMBC BrowsingBench in 95 seconds, while its opposition takes a whopping 201. What's more, this thrashing was performed by an 800MHz part -- the four A9s were clocked at 1.3GHz. Of course, Tegra 3s are already in shipping products, while the OMAP 5 might not find a home in consumer devices before 2013. It's also unclear just how much of a hit these new high-powered ARM cores will have on battery life or how much the pair of M4 companion cores helped in the benchmark. Head on after the break to watch a pair of tablets load up 20 websites in quick succession.

Continue reading OMAP 5's dual A15 cores wipe the floor with four A9s in browsing benchmark

OMAP 5's dual A15 cores wipe the floor with four A9s in browsing benchmark originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lumus' OE-31 optical engine turns motorcycle helmets, other eyewear into wearable displays

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/23/lumus-oe-31-optical-engine-turns-motorcycle-helmets-other-eyew/

After showing off a duo of wearable, see-through displays at CES, Lumus is back with a second optical engine -- one that could be used in any style of frames, from prescription glasses to ski goggles. Available in binocular and monocular configurations, the tiny OE-31 sensor weighs just 10 grams (.35 ounces), allowing it to accommodate a variety of form factors besides your run-of-the mill (and quite dorky-looking) 3D glasses. As always, Lumus' hook is its ability to combine head up content, augmented reality and see-through displays, though this time around the sensor allows for a 19-degree field of view and a full-color, 640 x 360 picture. Though that's not as impressive as the 720p, 3D-capable frames on offer at CES, the company argues it should be adequate for reading text, particularly since the viewing experience will be comparable to staring at a 40-inch screen from 10 feet away. No word, of course, on what products might incorporate these discreet head up displays, though maybe, just maybe, we'll catch a demo in Barcelona. For now, we've got photos below along with a handful of demo videos after the break.

Gallery: Lumus OE-31 optical engine

Continue reading Lumus' OE-31 optical engine turns motorcycle helmets, other eyewear into wearable displays

Lumus' OE-31 optical engine turns motorcycle helmets, other eyewear into wearable displays originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google, Microsoft and Netflix want DRM-like encryption in HTML5

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/23/google-microsoft-and-netflix-want-drm-like-encryption-in-html5/

HTML5 is supposed to set the web free. Free to deliver and shape online media in any web browser. However, several of the standard's greatest champions want to be able to restrict the use of audio and video tags through encrypted media extensions. A draft proposal has been submitted by Google, Microsoft, and Netflix to the W3C -- the curators of HTML5 -- to add encrypted media extensions to the web standard's spec. The proposed system works using a key-based content decryption system controlled by applications, thusly providing the copy protection that so many content owners desire. Naturally, the proposal specifically states that "no DRM is added to the HTML5 specification" if it's adopted, but letting apps lock up audio and video content sure sounds like digital rights management to us. However, there's already some discord amongst the W3C's members as to whether the proposal will work as promised, so its addition to HTML5 is far from assured. You can read the full proposal at the source below, and check out the more coverage links for some added perspective.

Google, Microsoft and Netflix want DRM-like encryption in HTML5 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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