IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (AnandTech) 01/09/2011

Sony Preparing New 3D Headset for Japanese Release
The HMZ-T1, the first iteration of a concept Sony demoed this past CES, will release in Japan on November 11, says Sony Japan.
Japan will serve as a test market for the futuristic piece of headgear, which boasts two 0.7-inch OLED panels each with a resolution of 1280x780. Sony says the experience compares to watching a 750-inch 3D screen from 20 meters away. The device, which also includes integrated 5.1 surround sound headphones, isn’t mobile, of course. It will need to be be tethered to its HDMI-ready processing unit.
Sony is expected to price the device at 60,000 yen ($783 US). The company’s currently mum about a release in other markets. Performance in Japan could make that decision for them.
Source: Sony, Engadget

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Microsoft Explains Relationship Between Windows 8 User Interfaces
Today's Building Windows 8 blog post, written by Steven Sinofsky, isn't really about a new Windows 8 feature or tweak, but rather about how the new-style Metro tablet UI will interact with the traditional Windows desktop.
Specifically, Sinofsky says that the Metro UI won't sit on top of the Windows desktop on tablets, but that the Windows desktop wouldn't even load unless specifically invoked by the user - "you can think of the Windows desktop as just another app," he says. At the same time, Sinofsky affirmed that Microsoft understands the importance of the standard Windows desktop, and acknowledged that the traditional mouse-and-keyboard interface was just better for certain tasks, including the running of legacy apps. He sums all of this up best toward the end of the piece:
"Our design goal was clear: no compromises. If you want to, you can seamlessly switch between Metro style apps and the improved Windows desktop. Existing apps, devices, and tools all remain and are improved in Windows 8. On the other hand, if you prefer to immerse yourself in only Metro style apps (and platform) and the new user experience, you can do that as well! Developers can target the APIs that make sense for the software they wish to deliver."
If Microsoft can deliver on this promise and give us one device that can serve as a satisfactory tablet and a satisfactory PC, I for one would definitely be interested.
Source: Building Windows 8 Blog

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Sony Enters Tablet Market - Announces Two Tablets
Sony has finally made it official, they are entering the tablet business. This move has been anticipated for a while now so this may not be a big surprise. At first, Sony will release two tablets: Sony Tablet S and Sony Tablet P. Both will be running Google's Android "Honeycomb" operating system. Tablet S will be available for pre-order starting today and shipments should start late next month. The availability of Tablet P is still open but Sony is stating later this year.

	Tablet S	Tablet P
Screen size	9.4"	2x 5.5"
Resolution	1280x800	N/A
Processor	NVIDIA Tegra 2 @ 1GHz	NVIDIA Tegra 2 @ 1GHz
Memory	1GB	1GB (?)
Storage	16GB or 32GB	4GB
Ports	Headphone, micro-USB, SD card slot	Micro-USB, SD card slot
Camera	5MP rear + VGA front-facing	5MP rear + VGA front-facing
Connectivity	WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1	WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 (?), 4G
Battery	5000mAh	3080mAh
Weight	1.33lb	0.83lb
Price	$499 (16GB) and $599 (32GB)	N/A

Tablet S - courtesy of Engadget

Tablet P - courtesy of Ubergizmo

Tablet S is pretty much a standard tablet and it doesn't look too different from the other Android tablets. However, Tablet P is something totally new. It consists of two 5.5" LCDs which can be folded. This is a bit similar to Nintendo 3DS. We have seen all kinds of different designs by now, such as ASUS Eee Pad Transformer and PadPhone, but Sony takes yet another new approach. The design allows one display to be used for example email and the other as a virtual keyboard. They can also operate as one big display.
Tablet S is relying solely on WiFi. For some, this might be a bummer considering that most of the other tablets have at least an option for 3G. Maybe Sony is relying on WiFi hotspots or tethering. As for the Tablet P, it supports 4G and will be limited to AT&T.
To make Tablet S a bit more than just one more Android tablet, Sony has added some exclusive content. Sony offers a service called Video and Music Unlimited. The former is a video store, pretty much like iTunes. Music Unlimited is a little more intriguing, it offers you a library of over 10 million songs which you can sync to your Sony Tablet (some other Android devices are also compatible). The service is subcription based so it appears that you can sync as many songs as you like without paying extra (similar to Spotify but hopefully with broader music coverage). Video Unlimited, on the other hand, charges for each movie. Every Sony Tablet comes with a six month trial of Music Unlimited and one free download from Video Unlimited.
As Sony has always cared about gamers too, there will be some exclusive titles. For example Crash Bandicoot will be pre-installed on Tablet S. Sony claims that their tablets are the first Playstation Certified tablets so these titles may not be limited to just Sony's tablets (although it looks like they will be at first).
As a whole, Sony's tablet announcement is positive. Sony has at least tried to be creative and come up with something new instead of just joining the already huge number of Android OEMs. Whether consumers will buy Sony's approach or not, remains to be seen.

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Department of Justice Files to Block AT&T-T-Mobile Merger
The United States Justice Department has filed to block AT&T's proposed buyout of T-Mobile today, saying that the merger would "remove a significant competitive force from the market."
The potential deal, a $39 billion dollar affair which would have made AT&T the US's largest wireless carrier, was first announced in March, and would have greatly expanded AT&T's network and subscriber base. Opponents of the deal concluded, as did the DoJ, that the deal would leave too few competitors in the market, and would leave Sprint (a distant third to AT&T and Verizon) much less able to compete with the larger companies.
Source: Bloomberg

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Samsung Releases Series 7 Laptops: Aluminum Body and SSD Caching
Samsung has released four new laptops today. They are branded as Series 7 and will be available in October. These are also the first laptops with SSD caching.
Read on for the full specs and our analysis!

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Hands on with the US-bound Samsung Galaxy S IIs
Samsung has already sold 5 million of them in 85 days in Korea and Europe, but until now the Galaxy S II has been just a dream in a US phone buyers eye. All that was rectified tonight when Samsung announced three Galaxy S II variants that will be entering the US market on Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile. Brian already ran through the specifications but we thought we'd provide some hands-on impressions from our time with them and a little overview. TouchWiz 4.0 was also showed off, and the skin is comprehensive enough that we'll devote some time in the future to flesh it out. First, a gallery from the event. Apologies for some of the shots, but lining up the best shot in this evironment is impossible.
{gallery 1339}

Sprint Epic 4G Touch

Sprint will be first out of the gates with the Epic 4G Touch, launching on September 16th for $199 on contract. The device is one of two 4.5" slates whose WVGA (800x480) Super AMOLED Plus display is bright and vivid, and surprisingly crisp given the relatively low resolution. There's no denying that pixel density enthusiasts would have been thrilled at 720p or even qHD, but in the hand the only real effect was to make the icons comically large. Horizontal size not withstanding these devices are light and thin, though Sprint's variant is not the thinnest clocking in nearly a millimeter thicker than AT&T's at 9.65 mm. On first grab the lightness gave the impression I was holding a mock-up and not the real thing, but this WiMAX equipped featherweight was smooth and fast in navigating the device's UI. Nenamark was loaded on the device so we ran it through its paces and though the benchmark is not one we regularly feature the device smoothly ran it at 46+FPS. For those thinking of joining The Now Network, this phone will be hard to pass up.

AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II

Ma Bell has foregone alternate naming for their variant, and as the pictures bear out, this is also the closest to the international version that has made the rounds through out Asia and Europe. The 4.3" device lends itself better to the WVGA resolution, and feels noticeably smaller in the hand. Absent in all of these devices is the physical home button so prominent in the international version, but each feels solid in the hand despite a glossy plastic exterior that doesn't feel as premium as the soft touch or metal frames found on recent HTC phones. AT&T's SGSII shares the Exynos SoC and Mali GPU of the Epic 4G Touch and international version so while it is smaller it is no less fast. An NFC radio is on hand, though it was not mentioned at the event it's confirmed by FCC documentation. Release and pricing have not been announced, but we imagine they won't stray far from Sprint's date and pricing. Though it wasn't listed in the specifications released tonight, the phone is rated for HSPA+ at 21.1 Mbps, matching the international version and most likely indicating that both are using the same X-Gold 626 baseband. So, with AT&T's model so closely aping the already shipping internation version, why not be the first out the door? Not sure, but we hope it means it's not long coming.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile is joining Sprint in the 4.5" form factor, though the demo models they had on hand presented rounder corners than Sprint's variant. And that's pretty much all we can say. Samsung and T-Mobile representatives committed to a dual-core processor but would go no further with launch date, pricing or specifications. Indeed, the demo models were kept under glass and not even the representatives were allowed to handle them, except to turn them on periodically so we could appreciate the display. As Brian pointed out in the earlier piece, this could end up being Qualcomm powered, in particular given that a dual core Snapdragon paired with Qualcomm's MDM8220 could make this T-Mo's first DC-HSPA+ 42 Mbps device.

Overview

Since its announcement back at Mobile World Congress in February, the Samsung Galaxy S II has generated a lot of excitement and that excitement has lead to impressive sales figures. This, of course, follows in the success of their first generation Galaxy S devices. But what is it about these phone's that is lighting the world on fire? In a big way, this has to do with Exynos, Samsung's succesor to Hummingbird. The two components of Exynos are a dual-core Cortex A9 clocked at 1.2 GHz and the Mali-400 GPU, both ARM designs. ARM states that clock-for-clock a single-core Cortex-A9 should outperform a Cortex-A8 by about 20%. Give that same A9 a 20% clock bump, and a 40% performance improvement is possible before the second core even comes into the picture. But that only tells us why the Galaxy S II is such a huge improvement over, say, the Nexus S.
What makes the Galaxy S II seem to drastically outpace newer devices like the Droid 3, whose 1 GHz OMAP 4 SoC also features an A9 processor? The special sauce, as Brian will delve into further in his upcoming review of the international Galaxy S II, is Samsung's ability to leverage the Mali-400 to accelerate UI elements and even elements of the browsing experience, as well.
September 16th is fast approaching, so we'll know soon just how well the US variants will perform relative to their international siblings. In the meanwhile, stay tuned for our review and some more Samsung news at the IFA Unpacked event on Thursday.

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Why I Believe T-Mobile's Galaxy S II Uses a Qualcomm SoC
Earlier tonight Samsung announced all three US variants of the Galaxy S II: the Galaxy S II on AT&T, the Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch on Sprint and the Galaxy S II on T-Mobile. The first two are based on the same 1.2GHz Exynos 4210 SoC that Samsung used in the international version of the Galaxy S II. The T-Mobile version, on the other hand, ships with an unnamed dual-core SoC also running at 1.2GHz. In our story earlier tonight we listed the T-Mobile version as having a Qualcomm SoC. I wanted to clarify my reasoning for suspecting that Qualcomm is inside the third US-bound Galaxy S II.
To begin with, T-Mobile has been very scant on details about their variant, noting only that the device exists and (through Samsung's more general Galaxy S 2 announcement) that it has a 1.2 GHz dual core SoC. Note that there's no direct announcement that the T-Mobile version has or doesn't have an Exynos SoC. Our own Jason I. asked reps as well who declined to comment for or against Exynos. Further, the device was off limits for hands-on, instead housed in a glass case where only the home screen was permitted to be shown. That's certainly one way to raise an eyebrow and draw attention to the fact that one of the three US Galaxy S 2 devices isn't quite like the others. But without much more, it seems circumstantial at best.
So what's the next clue? The next major piece of evidence is that we've been expecting a similarly-specced device for some time now. Back in May, This is my next noted that a top-tier Samsung device would soon arrive on T-Mobile soil with an APQ8060 SoC and MDM8220 baseband. Qualcomm's MDM8220 is a 45nm 3GPP Release 8 DC-HSPA+ HSDPA Category 24 (42 Mbps) modem. APQ8060 is merely an MSM8x60 dual core snapdragon minus the modem.
As a refresher, the DC in DC-HSPA+ stands for dual-carrier (or dual-cell), and effectively means that the air interface supports using the bandwidth of two WCDMA channels, which are 5 MHz wide. Dual-carrier HSPA+ effectively aggregates traffic across two 5 MHz WCDMA channels, resulting in close to a doubling of performance. Recall now that T-Mobile has been upgrading its network to DC-HSPA+ in markets where it has the bandwidth, and no doubt has been looking for a smartphone to rightfully take advantage of it.
The question you should be asking now is why all of that that matters for the SoC choice - shouldn't Samsung be able to pair any modem with any SoC? In almost every circumstance, that's absolutely the case, however what's interesting about MDM8220 is that it isn't natively voice enabled. Instead, MDM8220 (unlike other voice-enabled Qualcomm basebands used in smartphones, like MDM6600 or even MDM8200A) is only voice enabled through "fusion" with a Qualcomm SoC. Like we've seen in the past, most fancy new air interfaces start out being data-focused at first (for dongles or portable hotspots), and then become voice enabled later for use in handsets. MDM8220 is one of those kinds of parts, much like MDM9x00 - designed primarily as a data device baseband, but able to do voice with the right Qualcomm SoC.
With that factored in, it becomes easy to see how and why Samsung would go for an APQ8060 alongside MDM8220 - it really is the only means to a DC-HSPA+ smartphone until the next generation of DC-HSPA+ enabled basebands.

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The Crucial m4 SSD Update: Faster with FW0009
When we first reviewed Crucial's m4 SSD we came away with mixed feelings on the drive. In some cases it was the first or second fastest drive we'd reviewed, while in others it struggled to outperform last year's C300. While Crucial has been diligent in updating the m4 to fix compatibility issues, we haven't seen any of the performance increases Crucial promised at the drive's introduction.
That all changed last week as Crucial posted the latest 0009 firmware for the m4 and Micron C400. Read on for our analysis of the performance update and a quick recap of the m4's role in the marketplace.

OnLive Now Streaming Game Demos on GameSpot
GameSpot unveiled a new feature today: free streaming game demos courtesy of OnLive. Demos courtesy of the cloud gaming service are integrated right into GameSpot’s game profiles, alongside reviews, screenshots and videos. In return, some GameSpot videos will appear within the OnLive client.
OnLive CEO Steve Perlman told Gamasutra that the move is "in some ways the first large-scale announcement of OnLive's B2B [business-to-business] offering. The pieces have always been there, but it's such a new animal.”

The process is simple. After downloading the OnLive client and creating a free account (no credit card required, just an email address), I was able to stream a Red Faction: Guerrilla demo by clicking on the button (see below).

GameSpot may not be the only site or retailer to integrate OnLive demos. “You'll be seeing announcements from retailers and other sites,” Perlman told Gamasutra. Business-to-business deals like this one and a recent partnership with Juniper Networks show OnLive adapting their cloud computing tech for audiences other than simply gamers.
This announcement comes less than a week after OnLive made headlines by offering free game coupons with boxed PC copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The move irked GameStop (not to be confused with GameSpot), who promptly removed the coupons – and then the games themselves.
Source: Gamasutra, GameSpot

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USA Samsung Galaxy S II Variants Announced
Right on schedule, Samsung Mobile announced variants of the already-popular Samsung Galaxy S II destined for T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T. As rumored, there was no word of a Verizon-bound variant at this point, but we now have official details on the devices headed to the other major carriers.

Left to right: AT&T SGS2, T-Mobile SGS2, Sprint SGS2 Epic 4G Touch (not to scale)

We've put together a small table based on what information Samsung has made available at this point, and our own Jason Inofuentes is on the ground in New York at the launch event getting a hands-on look. There's information out about Sprint and AT&T versions, but T-Mobile is being relatively light on detail about their SGS2 variant. It goes without saying, but all three versions are running Android 2.3.

USA Samsung Galaxy S II Variants
Carrier	T-Mobile	Sprint	AT&T
Name	Samsung Galaxy S II on T-Mobile	Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch	Samsung Galaxy S II
SoC	Dual-Core Snapdragon 1.2 GHz (?)	Exynos 4210 1.2 GHz	Exynos 4210 1.2 GHz
Network Support	DC-HSPA+ (MDM8220?)	WiMAX + CDMA2000 1x/EVDO	HSPA+ GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz) UMTS Tri-band (850/1900/2100MHz)
Display Size	4.52" SAMOLED+ WVGA	4.52" SAMOLED+ WVGA	4.3" SAMOLED+ WVGA
Size	?	2.7" x 5.1" x 0.38"	? x ? x 8.89 mm
Storage	16 GB Internal, up to 32 GB microSD
Cameras	8 MP Rear Facing w/LED,AF, 2 MP Front Facing, 1080p30 H.264 High Profile
WiFi/BT	?	802.11a/b/g/n, BT 3.0	802.11a/b/g/n, BT 3.0
Battery	?	1800 mAh	1650 mAh

All three of the variants get names which differ from the previously leaked codenames, though surprisingly enough T-Mobile and AT&T have gone with fairly sane ones this time. Sprint is the odd man out, continuing its Epic 4G branding which it with the original SGS variant.
The T-Mobile SGS2 remains something of an enigma, and the carrier has released close to nothing about the device beyond simple specifications and the name, and notably no word of it carrying an Exynos SoC. It remains very likely the device uses a dual-core snapdragon SoC and MDM8220 DC-HSPA+ (dual-carrier) baseband, which would make it T-Mobile's first HSDPA Cat. 24 (42 Mbps) smartphone.
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AMD's Trinity Officially Branded as Radeon HD 7000 Products
It's not a surprise, but nevertheless: AMD's next GPUs will be branded the AMD Radeon HD 7000 series, as indicated by a GlobalFoundries slide shown in a presentation today.
The slide specifically references the upcoming Trinity APUs, 32nm parts that are slated to replace current Llano A-series APUs when they're released in 2012. AMD says that Trinity APUs should outperform Llano APUs by about 50 percent (at least, when measured in teraflops).
Like the existing Radeon HD 6000 series, the 7000 series will eventually include both on-board APU graphics and more traditional dedicated graphics cards - these dedicated GPUs are currently codenamed Southern Islands, and are expected to be manufactured on a 28nm process.
Source: Fudzilla

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HP to Produce One More Run of Touchpads
The HP Touchpad's saga continues: after being introduced, discontinued, and liquidated, HP now says that it will be manufacturing a "limited quantity" of the tablets before the end of October to meet demand. This is likely being done mostly to get rid of excess Touchpad components, rather than to revive the tablet in the wake of its post-mortem success.
Discontinued or not, plenty of people are finding reasons to snap up the ill-fated tablet at the clearance price - HP is issuing a few updates and a handful of free apps to users of the device, while devs from more adventurous corners of the Internet are trying to get a build of Android running on it.
If you're still in the market for a cheap tablet, you've still got a chance - keep an eye on the Twitter accounts mentioned in HP's announcement for the most up-to-date information on Touchpad inventory.
Source: HP, DigiTimes

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Minecraft Creator Explains Game’s Absence on Steam
In a recent entry on his blog, Markus “notch” Persson explained why Minecraft has yet to appear on Valve’s Steam platform, citing an “ inherent incompatibility” between his company Mojang’s goals and Valve’s.
“Being on Steam limits a lot of what we’re allowed to do with the game, and how we’re allowed to talk to our users,” Persson said. “We (probably?) wouldn’t be able to, say, sell capes or have a map market place on minecraft.net that works with Steam customers in a way that keeps Valve happy.”
Minecraft’s thrived in part due to the direct access players have to Persson’s development whims, such as the creation of the creepy-looking Endermen (seen above) scheduled for the next update. Putting a barrier like Steam, no matter how “awesome” Persson thinks it is, disrupts that process and could potentially split the userbase.
Persson isn’t ruling Steam out entirely, however. “We are talking to Valve about this,” he said. The sheer enormity of Steam makes this optimism practical business sense. It’s the same reason EA won’t swear off Steam entirely, even after all of the fighting over Battlefield 3. When people enter a store every time they launch a game, it behooves you to have your product in that store.
Source: Notch

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Windows 8 Improves Native Support for ISO, VHD Files
Today's Building Windows 8 blog post is from Rajeev Nagar, and describes how Windows 8 can natively mount and work with files stored in ISO and VHD files.
For those of you who don't know, ISO files are images of CDs or DVDs that can be stored on your hard drive and burned to a disc - many install disks, including Windows and most Linux distros, come in ISO format when they're downloaded. Windows 7 introduced the ability to burn ISO files natively, but you still have to download a third-party program to actually mount them without burning them to a CD. ISO mounting in Windows 8 replaces those third-party programs with similar functionality - Windows will assign a drive letter to a virtual optical drive, at which point you can browse the ISO and do what you need to with the files, and the unmount it when you're done.
Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) files are similar to ISOs, except that they store the contents of an entire hard drive. Virtual machines created using programs like Virtual PC, VMWare, and VirtualBox use (or can use) VHD files to store an entire bootable OS without the need of a physical disk. Working with VHD files in Windows 8 is a lot like working with ISOs - they're assigned a drive letter and then treated as a physical hard drive by the OS, allowing for viewing, adding, or modifying of files.
None of this is ground-breaking technology, but I like to keep my OSes as clean as possible, and I always appreciate it when new Windows features obviate the need for third-party plugins.
Source: Building Windows 8 Blog

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More TouchPad News: QuickOffice HD and Forthcoming System Updates
If you're enjoying your $99 TouchPad, there continue to be new updates on the software side that keep the now-dead platform in the news. When the TouchPad launched it had the ability to open Word and Excel files via QuickOffice. Document creation and editing both weren't supported at the time. The QuickOffice developers indicated that a future version of the software would enable creation/editing support, but that was prior to HP's announcement to discontinue webOS hardware. Yesterday, via the HP App Catalog, QuickOffice saw an update that brought forward new features and performance improvements, including the ability to create and edit Word/Excel documents on the TouchPad. To get the new version simply update your existing copy of QuickOffice on the TouchPad.
That's not the only good news. Today HP told Brooke Crothers at cnet that TouchPad users should expect another OTA update that will "enhance the platform and add functionality". Although the 3.0.2 update fixed some of the issues we saw in our review, the TouchPad is far from bug-free and still needs some serious work on the performance side. In my eyes the 3.0.2 update was fairly minor. Both the scope of this update and the timing of release are unknown.
Now the reality check. Both the QuickOffice and TouchPad OS updates were likely mostly complete when HP made the announcement to kill off the webOS hardware devision. While it's great to see updates to this platform, I'm not sure how long we'll continue to see this sort of support. The webOS software division is still active, but I'm guessing HP isn't going to be pouring tons of resources into it. Our best hope continues to be an outright acquisition of webOS by an eager partner or the continued development efforts of the webOS community.

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HighPoint's RocketU 1144A PCIe x4 USB 3.0 Controller: A Big Back-end
Most USB 3.0 controller cards available on the market today utilize the PCIe x1 interface. With a maximum theoretical bandwidth of 5Gbps, it is possible that these controllers could bottleneck performance when transferring data between, say, multiple SSDs, HDD arrays, and high-performance USB 3.0 flash drives. We take a look at HighPoint's RocketU 1144 PCIe x4 USB 3.0 controller card. Its utilization of PCIe x4 promises 20Gbps of bandwidth. Is this enough to satiate even the most demanding transfers?

Thursday, September 1, 2011

IT News Head Lines (AnandTech) 01/09/2011

Sprint Epic 4G Touch

AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II

T-Mobile

Overview

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