HP CEO : Meg Whitman, Addressing a conference in Northern California, made it very clear that HP plans on bringing a new line of tablets to the mixup. Intel Based tablets are going to be a big hit in 2012 especially because of the new mobile platform chips made by Intel. HP will use this chips and introduce Windows 8 tablets this year.
Author: AdityaT
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Nokia will bring two new Lumia devices at MWC 2012
Nokia is ready to step up to the Windows Phone Plate and is now readying a series of devices to announce at MWC in the coming days. Nokia is expected to launch two new Lumia phones with impressive specs during the conference. The first of the lot is expected to be a global version of the Lumia 900, the other is expected to be a budget friendly Nokia 610. More details when we get them.
[Reuters]
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Samsung sells 20 Million Galaxy S II units
Samsung has just announced that they have sold over 20 million Galaxy S II phones till date since launch. After crossing the 10 Mil mark back in September, the overly popular device crossed the 20 million mark in Feb 2012. The device was the most prominent phones of 2011, simply because of the mix of the amazing specs and hardware, along with great customizations from Samsung. If you are still considering the device you can see our review here.
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LG Launches three new L Series Phone pre-MWC (PR)
LG has launched three new L series phones ahead of MWC 2012, the L3, L5 and L7. Identical to the LG Prada phone, the L series are essentially based on that particular device. The L3 is a budget device whereas the L5 and L7 feature 4-inch and 4.3-inch displays respectively. All three devices are supposedly very thin,or so claims LG. No real specs or pricing has been outed for the three.
Read the full Release below.
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LG’S NEW DESIGN STRATEGY FOR MOBILE DEVICES TO BE REVEALED AT 2012 MWC
LG Takes Design Philosophy to the Next Level
with Line-up of Stylish SmartphonesSEOUL, Feb. 21, 2012 – LG Electronics (LG) makes its boldest move yet in its strategy to attain smartphone leadership with the launch of its new design identity, L-Style, at the 2012 Mobile World Congress (MWC).
The core essence of L-Style involves a timeless design with finer details that further differentiate LG’s mobile devices from the competition. LG’s design leadership has been well established in the past with a successful track-record that includes the Black Label Series phones such as the Chocolate and Shine.
“Design is consistently the top or second most important factor for customers when choosing a mobile phone,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Mobile Communications Company. “With smartphones, we sometimes took a more functional approach to design but with L-Style we’re going back to our roots as a company focused on how our products fit into the lifestyle of our customers.”
L-Style’s design philosophy is comprised of five aesthetic elements: Modern Square Style for a comfortable grip, Floating Mass Technology for a slimmer look, Seamless Layout for a more intuitive arrangement of keys, Harmonized Design Contrast utilizing metallic accents and Sensuous Slim Shape that naturally draws one’s attention.
Three new smartphones to be unveiled at MWC will initially feature the L-Style look. The Optimus L3, with a 3.2-inch display, will first launch in Europe this March. This smartphone will be followed by two other devices in the first half of the year running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich: Optimus L5 with a 4.0-inch display and Optimus L7 featuring a 4.3-inch screen.
Market availability and additional hardware specifications of all three models will be announced at a future date.
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[LG]
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Qualcomm Krait S4 SoC Benchmark results out
Qualcomm’s next SoC is about to hit devices soon, but the company is already trying to spark buyer interest by benchmarking the bad boy. They sent the SoC to AnandTech and those guys ran a solid benchmark that clearly shows that the chip may actually be a great next upgrade for devices. A dual-core 1.5GHz MSM8960-powered device scored a near 240 percent result on the CPU benchmarks. The SoC has a advanced GPU which allows the Adreno 225 GPU to run at up to 400MHz.
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New Technology by Nokia Siemens could end network drop problems (PR)
Nokia and Siemens HSPA+ Multiflow may offer some relief for those pesky tower to tower transitions during transit. delivering double the data speed and up to 50 percent faster response compared to existing HSPA+ networks, says Nokia Siemens.
Multiflow allows compatible devices on the edge of a cell to connect to two sites simultaneously, letting your device send and receive data between two base stations at once. The technology need not be changed, infact Multiflow will be available as a software update for Single RAN systems, as soon as Nokia Siemens pushes it in the second half of 2013
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Mobile World Congress,
Barcelona, Spain – February 20, 2012Presents first ever demo of HSPA+ Multiflow on commercial infrastructure equipment, delivering up to double the cell edge data speed
Operators will be able to offer enhanced mobile broadband with a new feature for HSPA+ networks from Nokia Siemens Networks and Qualcomm*. Known as HSPA+ Multiflow, it allows devices located close to the edge of a mobile base station’s cell to connect with a second base station serving a neighboring cell. The ‘Multiflow’ name refers to the two different paths data can then take to reach a device. The feature makes far more efficient use of network resources, delivering up to double the data speed and up to 50% faster response compared to existing HSPA+ networks.
A live demonstration** at Mobile World Congress 2012 of the feature will be based on Nokia Siemens Networks’ commercial Single RAN offering and Qualcomm’s prototype USB dongles.
“With 100 million smart devices being added every month, we see a consequent increase in ‘smart’ applications that make use of their advanced capabilities. Not only is network traffic rising dramatically, much of it is also unpredictable in nature, and this can impact user experience,” said Keith Sutton, head of the WCDMA business line for Nokia Siemens Networks. “This is where HSPA+ Multiflow helps operators – it reduces imbalances that typically occur in network resource usage, and increases HSPA+ speed and capacity.”
HSPA+ Multiflow enables simultaneous transmission of two data streams from base stations in two adjacent cells to a single user device instead of one data stream from one base station as is the case with HSPA+*** today. Overall, this can up to double throughput (data speeds) for users at cell edge. Due to Nokia Siemens Networks’ highly scalable Single RAN equipment, operators can protect their earlier network investments, by evolving their existing HSPA networks to the new technology with a simple software upgrade.
“We are working with Nokia Siemens Networks to drive the evolution and deployment of technologies like HSPA+,” said Serge Willenegger, vice president of product management at Qualcomm. “This demonstration confirms that HSPA+ Multiflow will enable us to further enhance the HSPA+ mobile broadband user experience, and is thus a valuable contribution toward enhancing the HSPA+ value proposition and further expanding global mobile broadband coverage.”
The HSPA+ Multiflow feature is expected to be 3GPP standardized**** by mid 2012, and will be available commercially from Nokia Siemens Networks by second half of 2013.
To share your thoughts on the topic, join the discussion on Twitter using #MWC12, #HSPA+ and #mobilebroadband.
About Nokia Siemens Networks
Nokia Siemens Networks is the world’s specialist in mobile broadband. From the first ever call on GSM, to the first call on LTE, we operate at the forefront of each generation of mobile technology. Our global experts invent the new capabilities our customers need in their networks. We provide the world’s most efficient mobile networks, the intelligence to maximize the value of those networks, and the services to make it all work seamlessly.
With headquarters in Espoo, Finland, we operate in over 150 countries and had revenues of over 14 billion euros in 2011. http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com
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Intel ‘Lynx Point’ chipsets leaked
Intel plans on releasing Haswell architecture-based microprocessors, sometime in 2013, these chipsets will replace the existing Sandy Bridge lineup. The upcoming chipset plans have been leaked courtesy a chinese website. The new platform will be based on a new socket the LGA 1150 that will replace the existing LGA 1155 socket. Existing coolers will be compatible with the socket however the pin count will be different. The chipset will now handle only analog video signals, whereas the digital signals, like DisplayPort is moved to the CPU.
The chipset will support six USB 3.0 ports as well as power and performance optimizations for Rapid Storage Technology driver and vPro enhancements. The new design will cause less power consumption and hence less heat.
Intel has not confirmed any of these tidbits, so its safe to say that they can be had with a pick of salt and a late glass of soda to gulp it down, till the official announcement is made.
[ZOL]
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VLC 2.0 released, faster decoding new look, Windows and Mac
The next revision of everyone’s favorite open-source VLC player has gone out of Beta and Release Candidate to now officially available. VideoLan calls it the major software revision that includes a bucket load of fixes and changes that were due since the release of multiple new OS upgrades. VLC 2.0 also brings with it faster decoding on multi-core processors, GPUs, and mobile hardware, and the ability to open yet more file formats, including a number HD formats used by professional users.
Of course if you haven’t already done it download the official stable version from the link at the bottom.
Changes and Features:VIDEO- Rewritten video output core and modules, allowing subpicture blending in GPU.
- Shader support in the OpenGL output, for colorspace conversion, including 10bits.
- New video outputs for Windows 7, Android, iOS and OS/2.
- New debanding, grain, denoising and anti-flickering filters.
- New deinterlacing filter, including an Inverse Telecine algorithm.
AUDIO- New resamplers for higher quality audio.
- New dynamic range compressor and karaoke filters.
- Simplification of the audio core for faster processing.
- New audio outputs for iOS, Android and OS/2.
FORMATS- Multi-threaded decoding for H.264, MPEG-4/Xvid and WebM.
- Support for 10bits codecs, WMV image and some other codecs.
- Rewritten support for images, including jpeg, png, xcf, bmp…
- Important changes in RealVideo and Real Format support.
- CrystalHD cards and Android OpenMAX support for hardware decoding.
INPUT AND DEVICES- Experimental support for BluRay discs:
– Menus are deactivated in this release (will come soon).
– AACS and BD+ DRM libraries and keys are not shipped, for legal reasons. - Support for SDI capture cards and QTKit devices.
- Support for new adaptive streaming protocols, like HLS and DASH.
FOR MAC USERS- Completely new, single window interface:
– Available in 2 colors: Lion grey and QTX black.
– Extensions support and better Lion integration. - Support for all QTKit devices through qtcapture and qtsound modules.
- Continued support for X 10.5 and PPC users (1080p and ProRes on Dual-G5!).
FOR ANIME FANS- Vastly improved MKV demuxer.
- Rewritten linked segments and ordered chapter files support.
- Correct support for FLAC, RV and Hi10p in MKV.
- Rewritten seeking support in cue files.
- Various ASS subtitles improvements.
FOR PROFESSIONAL USERS- Support for ProRes 422 and 4444, AVC/Intra.
- Support for Jpeg-2000 and DNxHD/VC-3 in 10bits.
- Support for EBU subtitles (stl) and EIA-608.
- SDI and HD-SDI card support for input on Linux.
- New Dirac/VC-2 encoder, faster than the previous one.
FOR DEVELOPERS- libVLC, libVLCcore and libcompat have switched from GPL to LGPLv2.1+.
- New libVLC examples are available: media player, photobooth and mediainfo clones.
- New JSON requests on the web interface to control running VLC instances.
- Implementation of the MPRIS2 interface to control media players.
- VLC’s web plugins have been rewritten for better integration and stability in all browsers.
[VideoLAN] -
Asus postpones ICS for Transformer
Asus has pushed the dates for the ICS release for their Transformer tablet to end of FEB -March 2012. The update is however, happening and will be seeded via an OTA download directly on the transformer. As always we will have a hands on preview of the OS on the tablet.
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Sony Ericsson split complete : Sony Mobile Communication is the new name
The big split is finally, final. Sony and Ericsson have finally spilt up, to name the new company Sony Mobile Communications. Sony has finally taken over Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson’s 50-percent stake in the pair’s former joint venture, reported to have cost €1.05 billion ($1.37 billion). The reports of this split started to appear in the last months of 2011.
PRESS RELESE :
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The previously announced divestment of Ericsson’s share of Sony Ericsson to Sony, including the broad IP cross-licensing agreement, completed on February 15, 2012
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Ericsson’s gain on the transaction will be approximately SEK 7.5 billion and reported as ‘Other operating income’
Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) has today completed the divestment of its 50 percent stake in Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB (“Sony Ericsson”), including the broad IP cross-licensing agreement, jointly announced by Sony Corporation (“Sony”) and Ericsson on October 27, 2011. This makes Sony Ericsson a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony. The agreed cash consideration for the transaction is EUR 1.05 billion.
Ericsson’s gain on the transaction will be approximately SEK 7.5 billion and will be reported in the first quarter result on April 25, 2012, as ‘Other operating income’ in the income statement.
[via]
[Sony]
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Angry Birds Comes to Facebook
The overly popular mobile platform game Angry Birds has come to overly popular social network Facebook. The Facebook variant features the same game play as the original mobile app along with added social components, new power-ups and exclusive new levels. The game itself is free to play, with a 20-use power up costing $1.
“Angry Birds” on Facebook — which uses Flash Player 11 — supports 3D graphics, according to tech news site ZDNet.
Angry Birds has been downloaded more than 700 million times since its release for Apple’s iOS in December 2009, and with Facebook’s 800 million users, it’s bound to hit 1 billion soon.
Thanks to the success of Angry Birds, game maker Rovio emerged as a gaming powerhouse, and it’s looking to go public as soon as 2012. Right now, the company is worth more than $1 billion, according to CMO Peter Vesterbacka.
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VLC Player gets to RC1 stage – Download links
Possible the most popular open-source video player that works cross platforms. VLC Player, has attained the much desired upgrade to version 2. Although still in its prime stage with the RC1 both Windows and Mac users will be greeted with a fresh new UI. Mac users will especially identify to the new Lion look styling. There’s also a new subtitle manager and support for multiple videos inside RAR files.
The iOS version is all set to be returned with a bang, whereas Android app gets a development update. The new VLC 2.0 RC1 is currently not available for Windows 64bit platform.
[VideoLAN]
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US and EU give their approval to the Google Motorola Deal
Both the United States Justice Department and European regulators have given the Google Motorola deal their sign of approval. The proposed takeover that was decided mid 2011 had gaining concerns from interested parties, other android using manufacturers and some non related manufacturers as well. Major play for Motorola will give google a huge chunk of patents to play with in the fight ahead with companies like Apple.
The US department of Justice has clarified that the takeover /merger poses no real threat to competition and that it “will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action to stop any anticompetitive use of SEP (standard essential patent) rights.”
More approvals are still needed from China, Israel and Taiwan, but, with the two superpowers out of the way, minorities may to really matter.
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Microsoft India Store hacked, Passwords were stored in plain text
The Microsoft India Store was hacked in India earlier today and users who visited the site were met with a “Anonymous” like image and the name of the hacker group called Evil Shadow Team, who, in addition to putting a new face on Windows products, revealed that user passwords were saved in plain text.
The intentions of the group are unknown , but since the attack the site has gone down and is now under tinkering from Microsoft for improved security measures.
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Google finally getting into free cloud store options : Google Drive
Google is preparing to launch a new cloud storage service that will compete directly with the likes of Dropbox, pogo plug, Rapidshare et all. The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday evening reported that Google is almost ready to announce the new service, which will be called Google Drive. Similar to Dropbox, which creates a virtual drive containing files that are mirrored on a user’s local hard drive and on cloud servers, Google Drive will allow users to store photos, videos, documents and other files in the cloud, and it will be accessible from computers as well as Android tablets and smartphones.
Expect at least 8 Gig of Free storage from the company and this number can be as high as 15 if you consider how generous Google is usually.
[WSJ]
