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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Intel: Optical Thunderbolt cables arriving this year

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/13/optical-thunderbolt-this-year/

Intel's Dave Salvator has been talking about Thunderbolt's future, promising that optical versions of the high-speed interconnect will arrive this year. The copper version currently available is cheaper and can carry 10 watts of power, but it can only be run a maximum distance of six meters. While the fiber version loses the ability to power devices, it's reportedly far faster and capable of running to the "tens of meters." ~~Dave~~ Mr. Salvator wouldn't commit to a release date, or how much more we'll be expected to pay for the cables, but given that we're also expecting to see PCI-Express 3.0 bolted on to the standard soon, we'll start saving today.

Intel: Optical Thunderbolt cables arriving this year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ARM Cortex-M0+ is a low-power, low cost 32-bit processor for the 'internet of things'

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/13/arm-cortex-ultra-low-power-32-bit-processor/

The "internet of things" is quite the buzzed about phenomena these days and everyone wants in on the action. But, much of the hype so far has been associated with that DIY staple, the Arduino, and its admittedly under-powered 8-bit MCU. ARM is looking to put more power at developers fingertips, though, with the Cortex-M0+, an ultra low-power processor designed for embedded applications. The 32-bit chip is based on the existing M0, but with significant tweaks that greatly improve performance while keeping power draw to a minimum. Freescale and NXP should be first out the box with licensed processors and, while we wouldn't anticipate these showing up in a refrigerator or printer just yet, we wouldn't be shocked if they drew some interest from hobbyists. Check out the complete PR after the break.

Continue reading ARM Cortex-M0+ is a low-power, low cost 32-bit processor for the 'internet of things'

ARM Cortex-M0+ is a low-power, low cost 32-bit processor for the 'internet of things' originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We Demand Ikea's Magical Touchscreen Thread In America Now Now Now [Video]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5892612/we-demand-ikeas-magical-touchscreen-thread-in-america-now-now-now

Winter and touchscreens don't mix because gloves and mittens aren't so capacitive. Ikea's Beröra sewing kit could change the world forever, had they not decided to only produce 12000 of the thread kits. We demand Ikea bring it back.

Beröra is an über-simple solution to the wooly-handed problems of winter. It's a sewing kit with a piece of conductive thread which turns the glove of your choice into a touchscreen-ready glove. We've seen touchscreen gloves before, but the idea that any glove could be a touchscreen glove is the kind of bigger hammer thinking we've come to expect from Ikea. Well done.

Unfortunately, this brilliant idea wasn never intended for a long lifespan on the shelves of Ikea—It was a short-lived marketing campaign designed to promote Ikea's new iPad catalog in Norway. The catalog came out in mid-Winter, and the Beröra kits sold out in under two weeks.

This is an injustice. We demand that like Sweedish meatballs before it, the Beröra be brought to Americans so that next winter we might all touchscreen-enable our gloves. There is a bright future ahead in which winter will no longer dominate my tablet usage. It's up to Ikea to make this right. Do the right thing Ikea. [PSFK via Laughing Squid]

Canon EOS 5D Mark III high-ISO sample images (hands-on)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/12/canon-eos-5d-mark-iii-high-iso-sample-images/

Canon unveiled its highly-anticipated EOS 5D Mark III just 10 days ago, but we already have a pre-production sample in-hand, and will be putting it through its paces over the next week. Today's installment focuses on high-sensitivity still image shooting, which we conducted at Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul, South Korea. We chose a dimly lit temple as our test subject, shooting a handful of images at ISO settings ranging from 800 to the camera's top native sensitivity of 25,600, and extended modes of ISO 51,200 and ISO 102,400. All images were captured at f/8 with a 24-105mm L lens.

As expected, the camera offered excellent performance at all of the native settings -- as you can see from the image above, there's some noise noticeable when viewing an image at full size, though considering the camera's top resolution of 22.3 megapixels, we hardly see ISO 25,600 being an issue. Jumping beyond the top native range did yield significant noise, but assuming you're shooting for the web, even these settings are usable. Chances are, you won't often be examining images at a 1:1 pixel view, so jump past the break to see how each of the four frames represented above will look when scaled to a web-friendly 600-pixels-wide resolution, then hit up our source link to grab full-res JPEGs of each image captured during the shoot.

Continue reading Canon EOS 5D Mark III high-ISO sample images (hands-on)

Canon EOS 5D Mark III high-ISO sample ima! ges (han ds-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gartner pegs Samsung as China's top smartphone maker, ranks Apple fifth overall

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/12/gartner-samsung-top-smartphone-maker-china/

Analysts at the research firm Gartner have come out and crowned Samsung as the most popular smartphone producer in China. The Korean manufacturer beat out others such as Nokia, Huawei, ZTE and Apple to score the title, and now boasts a rather impressive 24.3 percent market share in the country. While the iPhone 4S is portrayed as the most desired handset in China, Gartner suggests its limited availability with carriers played a large role in Samsung's achievement. The report provides a stark contrast with Apple's global success, which was recently named by Gartner as the top smartphone manufacturer in the world. The importance of China can't be overlooked, however, which is now projected to overtake the United States as the largest smartphone market. Until Apple further expands its carrier reach, it appears to be smooth sailing for Samsung -- unless Nokia is able to apply some pressure from its new Windows Phone handsets, that is.

Gartner pegs Samsung as China's top smartphone maker, ranks Apple fifth overall originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Mar 2012 23:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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