ECS Geforce GT 240 Review
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Rumor: Opera Mini headed to the iPhone
According to TechCrunch Opera Software will unveil a version of their Opera Mini browser for the iPhone next week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. While there has been no app submitted to Apple's App Store at this time, Opera has hopes that Apple will not deny "users the choice in web browsing experience." Don't get excited just yet, currently the only other web browsers Apple allows on the iPhone are WebKit based (the engine that powers Safari and Google Chrome) whereas Opera's browsers (desktop, mobile, mini, and Wii) all use the Presto engine.
Apple has been heavily criticized for their App Store policies, most recently with the rejection and removal of Google Voice apps allegedly at the request of AT&T. Other apps have been rejected for simply mimicking the functionality or existing features of the iPhone. Could we soon see a major change to the App Store, perhaps with the 3.2 or 4.0 version of the iPhone (and iPad) OS?
This will ultimately end with one of two possible outcomes.
- If the Opera Mini app is rejected, Opera and others (Microsoft, Mozilla, and possibly Google) will file anti-trust or anti-competitive suits against Apple for locking the iPhone to WebKit only browsers. Unlike the Microsoft Windows & IE lawsuits, Apple may actually be in a better position since WebKit is open source (GNU LGPL and BSD licenses) and anyone can create a WebKit based browser and submit it to the App Store. - In fact, there should be no reason why we cannot have Google Chrome on the iPhone right now, assuming Google wanted to make it.
- If the Opera Mini app is approved, this would signal the other players to develop their browsers for Apple's Smartphone. Mozilla could bring Feenic (mobile Firefox) and Microsoft could bring IE. As crazy as IE sounds on the iPhone, it could be possible. Microsoft already has a few iPhone apps, including a Bing Search App. Of course, even if Apple did allow other browsers on the iPhone, we most likely will never see Adobe Flash plugin support. Apple is adamant on pushing the web towards HTML5 and away from Flash.
The Mobile World Congress kicks off on February 15, 2010. Apple is not on the list of exhibitors.
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AMD Llano Sampling to Partners in the First Half of This Year
AMD has long talked about 'Fusion' processors integrating CPU and GPU functions in the same package. Intel has since beaten them to the punch and already has its own chips available that do just that, but that doesn't mean AMD's first hybrid part will be any less interesting. For a start, Llano will integrate a DX11 class GPU derived from the Evergreen line-up on the same die, which we can also expect to see from Intel's Sandy Bridge architecture (rather than the current two die Nehalem solution). It is difficult to see Intel offering DX11 graphics with Sandy Bridge though, so we can likely expect AMD to have an advantage when it comes to GPU performance. When it comes to the CPU, the first Llano chip will pack in four Phenom II derived cores (plus that on-die GPU), with the whole thing being built on a Global Foundries 32nm process. We can also expect to see power-gating (à la Nehalem) to reduce idle power consumption by powering down inactive cores (and maybe something akin to Intel's Turbo Boost technology?), along with other features to improve power efficiency.
AMD is aiming for operation at over 3GHz for Llano, with each core being paired with 1MB of L2 cache. It says that sampling to partners will start in the first half of this year and that we can expect OEMs to ship systems in 2011 (though when in 2011 isn't clear). That means it could be ready sometime around Intel's Q1 Sandy Bridge launch, but anything in the first half of the year would be nice to see from a competition perspective (and we all know that competition is good for all of us). You can check out more information in AMD's presentation slides over at Anandtech.
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Google Tries Social Networking, Again
With the immense popularity of sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace, it is understandable that Google wants to hop on the social networking bandwagon. However, Google has tried its hand at this arena before and wasn't as successful as its other ventures. The newest venture by Google was announced today, and is known as Buzz. If Google were able to create a popular site with a large following, it would be able to take advantage of the tremendous advertising potential. Google said it planned to integrate it into other products such as Wave, but integration with Facebook and Twitter won't be included.
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