Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Samsung starts production of 20nm 4Gb LPDDR3 mobile DRAM

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/30/samsung-20nm-4gb-lpddr3-ram/

What is it that you want to know about the RAM in your mobile device? Usually, how much of it there is, and if you're a little more demanding of your hardware, maybe what type it is, too. Well, folk in the latter category might interested to know that Samsung has started production of 20nm 4Gb LPDDR3 mobile DRAM. As is the nature of smaller, more efficient components, the new chips promise to be faster (2,133 Mbps per pin, over LPDDR2's 800 Mbps), and -- so claims Samsung -- a 20 percent drop in power consumption. With just four of these new chips, OEMs can have a 2GB offering that's still just a slick 0.8mm in height.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

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Belkin's Thunderbolt Express dock is finally shipping, offers its ports for $299

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/30/belkin-thunderbolt-express-dock-finally-shipsoffers-it/

Remember the Belkin Thunderbolt Express dock that we first laid our peepers on back at CES 2012? Well, the device that looks to lend a hand to your desktop setup is now available. After upgrading the unit back in the summer of 2012, pre-orders went live in February with a ship date expected shortly thereafter. No word on the cause of the delay, but the $299 dock still offers dual Thunderbolt ports for daisy-chaining up to five gadgets, FireWire 800, Ethernet, and both 3.5mm audio input and output. If the wait hasn't swayed your interest, grab one immediately via the source link below, and in stores before the end of May.

Filed under: Peripherals

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Source: Belkin

Jawbone acquires health-tracking pioneer BodyMedia, opens API to developers

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/30/jawbone-acquires-bodymedia-opens-its-api-for-ios-developers/

Did your vibrating fitness bracelet wake you up on time? Good, because Jawbone has not one, but two pieces of news to share this morning. First off, getting the corporate news out of the way, the company's buying BodyMedia, perhaps best known for its wearable fitness trackers (yep, similar to what Jawbone's already making). In fact, though, BodyMedia's been in the health-data business since 1999, with a particularly strong foothold in the medical industry -- a market Jawbone hasn't reached yet, but would like to. As you can imagine, once the deal is finalized and Jawbone brings on BodyMedia's 60-odd employees, the plan will be to improve Jawbone's existing apps, and maybe even break into healthcare. In the meantime, we're told Jawbone will continue to sell BodyMedia's existing fitness monitors, but it's making no promises to keep them around indefinitely.

Speaking of improving the current Jawbone apps, the company is also opening up its API to developers so that they can use Jawbone stats in their applications, as well as share their own data back with Jawbone. For now, the Up platform is open only for iOS, though a company rep told us they're planning on adding Android too. (No exact ETA there, sorry.) At launch, there will be 10 apps on board, including notables like RunKeeper, Withings and MapMyFitness. What's neat is that users can manually disa! ble a co nnection with these apps anytime they want, and when they do, these third-party developers are required to delete user data from their servers. Again, no word on when this will be available for Android, but for now, at least, the iOS platform is open to developers worldwide. Hit the break for more info, along with a full list of the apps you can sync with your Up band right away.

Gallery: Jawbone Up platform for iOS

Filed under: Wearables

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drag2share: This Is What A Google Self-Driving Car 'Sees' At A Stoplight (GOOG)

source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/aYmVuI_GxA8/this-is-what-a-google-self-driving-car-sees-at-a-stoplight-2013-4

This Is What A Google Self-Driving Car 'Sees' At A Stoplight (GOOG)

Apr 30, 2013

According to Idea Lab's Bill Gross, Google's self-driving cars gather 1 gigabyte of information every single second.

He says this is what a self-driving car "sees" at a stoplight:

google self driving car

Gross doesn't say where he got the image.

The idea of self-driving cars being on the road scares some people.

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Global Tablet Shipments Topped 40 Million Last Quarter

Source: https://intelligence.businessinsider.com/welcome

Tablets had a strong first quarter, shipping 40.6 million units, according to Strategy Analytics.

That's a 23% drop compared to the prior quarter, but it's an 143% increase over the same quarter in 2012.

The sequential drop shouldn't come as a surprise because the holiday quarter is historically the tablet market's strongest, so sales naturally dip in the first quarter.

The important thing, however, is that the dip is becoming less pronounced. Last year the decline between the fourth quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012 was 41%. This year, it was nearly half that.

Furthermore, there is reason to believe that there is a substantial grey market for tablets in China that is flying under the radar of data research firms.

In terms of tablet platforms, Apple's iOS once again leads the tablet market, accounting for a 48% share of tablet shipments in the first quarter. That's a slight improvement over the fourth quarter, when it stumbled to a 44% share.

Google's Android was second, with a 43% share, according to Strategy Analytics.

Note, however, that Strategy Analytics places tablets like the Kindle Fire into the Android category, even though it doesn't really make sense to categorize them as such. Kindle tablets run on software that is a "fork" of the Android operating system, and they don't come pre-installed with Google's services and software.

Microsoft shipped 3 million tablets, up from 1 million a quarter prior, for a 7 percent share. Microsoft tablets may be showing signs of life, but the company's two-in-one Windows 8 interface — designed to work seamlessly across tablets and PCs — is not a rousing success just yet.

Click here to view a larger version of this chart.

BII global tablet shipments