The Smart Tab 1: A budget Jelly Bean tablet
If a $200 Nexus 7 tablet is too much for you to swallow, you might find solace in the second Jelly Bean tablet hitting the market – the $125 Smart Tab 1.
The problem? You'll have to be in India to buy it.
The Smart Tab 1 is being released by India's Karbonn Mobiles, sporting a similar form factor to Google's popular seven-inch Nexus 7 tablet.
However, before you just assume that this is some non-Google-branded Nexus knockoff, consider that part of the reasoning for lower price point on the Smart Tab 1 is a direct result of the lesser specs found inside Karbonn's tablet.
The Smart Tab 1: Compared
The major difference between Google's Nexus 7 tablet and the Smart Tab 1 is the processor: Specifically, the Smart Tab 1 only sports a single-core MIPS processor running at 1.2 GHz.That's in contrast to the Nexus 7's speedier quad-core Tegra 3 processor which runs at a maximum speed of anywhere from 1.2 to 1.3 GHz, depending on how many cores are being tapped.
However, the Smart Tab 1 does beat out the Nexus 7 in a few areas: The tablet's two-megapixel camera offers a bit more to work with than the 1.2-megapixel camera found on the Nexus 7.
Additionally, the Smart Tab 1 will allegedly support up to 32 gigabytes of expandable storage (likely via a micro-SD slot); Google's Nexus 7 tablet only supports 8 or 16 gigabytes of internal storage, period.
The Nexus 7 tablet offers a bit more battery than the Smart Tab 1: 4,325 mAh compared to the Smart Tab 1's 3,700 mAh battery.
That translates to roughly seven to eight hours of battery life when browsing the Web or watching video on the Smart Tab 1 compared to the Nexus 7's 10 hours of Web-browsing battery life and 9 hours of "HD video playback," as described on Google's site.
Processor and Purchasing
The Smart Tab 1 is the first Jelly Bean tablet (Android 4.1) to run a MIPS processor, which has presented some app compatibility issues for those who have already picked up previously released MIPS-based tablets – it's an ARM-driven world for tablets, after all.There's no word yet on when interested (India-based) customers will be able to pick up a Smart Tab 1 with Jelly Bean (the Smart Tab 1 itself has been on the market since July, running Ice Cream Sandwich), but Karbonn is currently accepting "bookings" for the device on its website.
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HP wins Itanium case against Oracle
HP won a legal victory today in its ongoing case with Oracle over breach of contract complaints.
Santa Clara Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg ruled in favor of HP's claim that Oracle violated a contract between the two companies when it decided to discontinue support for HP's Itanium-based servers.
The ruling states that Oracle is required to continue software support for servers using Intel's Itanium processor so long as HP continues to sell servers using the chip.
Additionally, Oracle must port its products for use on Itanium-based servers at no charge to HP.
HP has a contract
The root of the case goes back to a 2010 settlement between the two firms concerning former HP chief executive Mark Hurd's transition to working at Oracle.Hurd's departure from HP came following unproven harassment allegations, which HP feared would breed animosity between the two companies as he moved to Oracle.
"My concern was he knew our financials. He knew our dependence on Itanium. He knew lots and lots of things," HP board member and former HP enterprise chief Ann Livermore said earlier this week in court.
Judge Kleinberg's ruling today indicates that the 2010 settlement addressed those concerns, including a contract to continue support for Itanium-based servers.
It could cost Oracle billions
The case is not closed yet, as HP and Oracle now prepare for a second trial to determine whether Oracle should pay damages.HP filed the suit seeking up to $4 billion in damages, which it claimed would be the loss of server sales through 2020 without Oracle support for the Itanium processor.
Oracle recently lost another major legal battle against Google over infringement of Java code in the Android OS.
Though a jury ruled that Google had infringed on Java APIs, a judge determined that the case had no merit since the APIs could not fall under copyright.
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AT&T stores allegedly instructed to sell 'anything but iPhones'
The "which is better" war between Apple and Android may have been getting some one-sided help from AT&T stores, if a recent report gathered by BGR is true.
The report, which cites anonymous regional AT&T store managers for the cellular carrier, alleges the managers instructed employees to steer customers interested in iPhones first towards Android and Windows smartphones.
These same sources, culled from multiple unnamed AT&T stores, also state employees are no longer allowed to purchase the iPhone as their company phone.
Instead, AT&T store employees must choose between an Android or Windows device.
It's all in the numbers
While the employees may have been helping customers make "informed decisions," the iPhone's numbers at AT&T suffered.One store manager said that prior to this reported directive, iPhone sales made up nearly 80 percent of all smartphone sales at the manager's store.
Since the directive was put in place, the store manager said iPhone sales dropped to between 50 percent - 60 percent of all smartphone activations at his location.
AT&T's second quarter sales numbers for fiscal year 2012 revealed the 3.7 million iPhones activated by the carrier accounted for 72 percent of all smartphone sales.
Though it sounds like an impressive number, iPhone sales have only grown 3 percent from the same period a year ago.
TechRadar contacted AT&T and received this statement from one of their spokespersons:
"The idea that we would steer any customer away from a particular device couldn't be more far fetched. Our reps do what it takes to align customer needs with the best device for them.
"iPhone remains one of our most popular devices, which doesn't happen by steering people away from it. Our reps are encouraged to try all devices so they are more knowledgeable on our industry-leading smartphone lineup."
The iPhone 5's purportedly immanent arrival may have something to do with the small sales growth.
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Philips launches monstrous Mini Hi-Fi system with nod to iPhone-toting DJs
Philips has outed one of the more unique hi-fi systems we've seen recently with the FWP3200D capable of docking two iPhones in a pair of DJ turntables.
The striking Mini Hi-Fi sound system, available to buy now for £300 ($466), features a twin-deck docking system that enables the mixing and scratching of tunes from the music libraries on a pair of iOS devices.
The 300W speaker dock, which features 5.25-inch woofers and 2-inch tweeters, will also hook up with the popular Algoriddim djay application and thus facilitate the fine-tuning and recording of your mixes.
Built-in lighting effects
The party-centric FWP3200D can by flipped for control from behind or in-front of the system (ideal for communal use) and also boasts integrated lighting effects within the speaker rings.The red, blue and purple lights pulse to the beat of the music and can also be controlled using the remote control. There's also a microphone jack for would-be emcees.
Naturally all basic DJ controls are present and accounted for the requisite sliders and channel faders alongside treble and base controls.
The system can also spew out a further 240W of power with the addition of the FWP100 speaker dock which is available for a supplementary £200 ($310).
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Apple asks for court sanctions against Samsung
The Apple vs. Samsung patent trial is heating up as Apple made an emergency motion for sanctions against its juristic opponent Wednesday.
Apple is seeking punishment for Samsung's alleged breach of court protocol by leaking excluded evidence from the patent trial and releasing a statement to the press Tuesday.
The company has yet to specify what penalties it's seeking, though those will be made in a soon-to-come filing.
Apple wasn't pleased with the revelation, citing fears the information could influence jurors, and pointed the breach to the trial's judge, Lucy Koh.
The Judge trying to plug the leak
Koh, reportedly perturbed, asked Samsung's legal counsel to file an explanation revealing who drafted the statement and who OKed the public comments.In response, Samsung said Wednesday the information is public domain and is therefore not at fault for releasing it. The company's legal team called Apple's accusations "false representations."
Apple, unsatisfied with Samsung's explanation, proceed with its emergency motion. The company's legal counsel also expressed displeasure with Samsung's lawyers' reported repeated references to the jury.
Evidence at the center of it
The evidence Samsung leaked were slides of the company's phone designs and an except from the deposition of former Apple designer Shin Nishibori.In its media statement, Samsung said the excluded evidence would have established without a doubt that Samsung did not copy the iPhone design.
Samsung has not returned calls from TechRadar for comment.
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Motorola's Electrify 2 and Defy XT arriving in stores this week
Two brand-new Android-powered smartphones are arriving at US Cellular stores this week.
Motorola's Electrify 2 is actually available online today, and will hit stores tomorrow, while the Motorola Defy XT will be made available online August 2 and in US Cellular stores the following day.
Jeff Miller, corporate vice president, North America Go-to-Market, Motorola Mobility, shared his excitement about the smartphones making their way to stores.
"Motorola is excited to bring the next evolution of Electrify to US Cellular customers and Motorola Electrify 2 is ideal for those who crave premium features," he said.
"Motorola Defy XT packs innovative specs into a resilient design that can withstand whatever life throws your way. These two products provide unique experiences and give consumers choice."
Sleek, sturdy, smartaction
The Electrify 2 is a mere 8.4 millimeters thin, has a 4.3 inch ColorBoost display and features a 1.2GHz dual-core processor running Android 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich.Along with a rear-facing 8 megapixel camera and a Kevlar exterior, the Electrify 2 will be the first US Cellular phone offered to utilize Motorola's Smartactions app.
The equally durable Defy XT features a slightly smaller 3.7 inch touchscreen, along with a five megapixel camera.
The water resistant and dustproof Defy XT adds a front-facing webcam as well, which should make staying connected to friends and family even easier.
US Cellular's vice president of sales and marketing operations Edward Perez added, "Customers who purchase Motorola Electrify 2 or Defy XT will not only enjoy a new cutting-edge Android-powered smartphone, but will also get the best customer experience."
Prices on both phones will vary by region, but those interested can find more details at USCellular.com.
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Apple accrues more streaming video with Amazon Instant on iPad
Apple continues to beef up its streaming media options with the addition of Amazon Instant Video for iPad.
Amazon launched the streaming Instant Video service in February 2011, and since then it's expanded to the Amazon Kindle Fire, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 gaming consoles, Roku, Mac and Windows PCs, smart TVs and Blu-ray players, and now, Apple's iPad.
This announcement comes just a day after Apple covertly employed a new partnership with Hulu to bring the Hulu Plus stream to second- and third-generation Apple TV boxes.
With Netflix and Hulu Plus already available on the iPad, Apple's streaming video offerings are becoming quite robust.
Amazon Instant's offerings
Amazon Instant's expansion to non-Kindle devices comes with plenty of benefits for users.The iPad app offers several useful features, including a "Your Watchlist" function that allows users to queue up videos to watch or purchase later regardless of whether they own them.
Like other Amazon Instant apps, the iPad version also uses "Whispersync" to remember playback positions across multiple devices.
And naturally, iPad users will have access to their entire library of Amazon Instant Video purchases and subscriptions.
Users with a $79 Amazon Prime membership can access a selection of more than 17,000 free streaming TV show episodes and movies, and an additional 100,000 or so are available for individual purchase.
Amazon Instant's lacking functionality
At the time of its launch in May, the Xbox 360's Amazon Instant Video app didn't allow users to purchase individual titles from within, instead referring them to the service's website.An Amazon spokesperson confirmed today that the iPad app similarly won't allow users to purchase video from with the app, though content purchased from a web browser is instantly added to users' libraries.
"You could use Safari to scan the Instant Video library and then purchase the titles that you want to watch, and then once you purchase them, they'll automatically go into the app," the spokesperson told TechRadar.
"You can't actually purchase via the app," the spokesperson emphasized, but "there's not a step in between purchasing and it getting to the app, so once you purchase, it'll just automatically be there."
There's no word on whether Amazon plans to add that functionality, but even with this slightly annoying extra step, Amazon Instant is surely robust enough to offer a decent alternative to Netflix and Hulu Plus.
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Sir Jony Ive says Apple came close to scrapping the iPhone
Apple's Head of Industrial Design Sir Jonathan Ive says the company came close to scrapping iPhone on several occasions during its development stages.
The recently-anointed Knight of the Realm told an audience at the British Business Embassy that Apple considered abandoning the idea as it wasn't good enough to be considered great.
"There were multiple times where we nearly shelved the phone because we thought there were fundamental problems that we can't solve," he said.
The Essex-native says Apple often reaches the point in the production process where: "we were pursuing something that we think 'that's really incredibly compelling', but we're really struggling to solve the problem that it represents."
In the case of the iPhone Sir Jony referenced one problem where putting the prototype to his ear would result in said extremity dialling a number.
It's good, but it's not right
Ive says that the bravest points in Apple's history have coincided with the moments where the company has admitted it needs to revisit a good idea in order to make it a great one.He added: "We have been, on a number of occasions, preparing for mass production and in a room and realised we are talking a little too loud about the virtues of something.
"That to me is always the danger, if I'm trying to talk a little too loud about something and realising I'm trying to convince myself that something's good.
"You have that horrible, horrible feeling deep down in your tummy and you know that it's OK but it's not great.
"And I think some of the bravest things we've ever done are really at that point when you say, 'that's good and it's competent, but it not's great'."
Roy Walker, of Catchphrase fame, would be proud.
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Roku reveals Streaming Stick partners, release date 'soon'
Roku announced Wednesday a slew of new partners producing HDTVs that will be compatible with its upcoming Roku Streaming Stick, a USB-sized device that turns certain TVs into SmartTVs.
Nine manufacturers are now on board with MHL-enabled HDTVs including Element Electronics, GlobalVue International, Haier, Hitachi, Insignia, Mitsubishi Electric, Onkyo and Integra, OPPO and TMAX Digital.
The Streaming Stick may be small but it works by plugging into a TV's HDMI port. Specifically, it requires a Mobile High-Definition (MHL) enabled link to devices with the port.
No specific products were named in Roku's announcement, nor were their release dates, but they will stand out on store shelves with a special "Roku Ready" logo on their packaging to indicate they're compatible with the stick.
Some products will also come bundled with the device, though no specific product examples were given by Roku.
Streaming soon in a tiny package, but when?
The Roku Streaming Stick was first announced earlier this year and packages all of the smart TV apps associated with the regular-sized Roku players into a USB-sized stick.The stick itself features a Wi-Fi receiver, an onboard processor, memory and the Roku software to stream the service's moe than 500 channels including Pandora, Netflix, Hulu Plus and HBO Go.
It requires an MHL-enabled port to provide sufficient power to the stick, which doesn't transfer through a regular HDMI port.
Roku hasn't announced the exact release date or price for the Roku Streaming Stick, but has said it will arrive in stores in the "coming weeks."
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Lenovo's Windows 8 ThinkPad Tablet 2 going head-to-head with iPad
Lenovo's been teasing the Windows 8-equipped ThinkPad Tablet 2 for some time and now a mysterious source leaked the device's official specs sheet to the internet at large.
The Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet successor will run Windows 8 and come packed with a pen stylus, an optional physical keyboard dock much like the Microsoft Surface's Type Cover keyboard.
The Tablet 2 also sports an Intel dual-core Clover Trail processor, a 10.1-inch WXGA touchscreen, 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.
And, in case the specs themselves don't make it clear enough what Lenovo is going for, one leaked chart even compares Lenovo's tablet side-by-side with Apple's iPad.
Stiff competition
The chart, titled "Best in Class," compares the ThinkPad Tablet 2 and iPad in categories including OS, available apps, resolution, input methods, speakers, cameras and more.The tablet comes out on top in more areas, although even Lenovo has to admit that the iPad's 2048 x 1548 resolution is superior to the ThinkPad's 1366 x 768 ratio, and that Siri is leagues ahead of Windows Voice Control.
But Lenovo's ThinkPad Tablet 2 includes HSPA+/LTE compatibility and optional NFC and fingerprint reading, as well as Mini HDMI, microSD and USB 2.0 connectors, propelling it further ahead of the current iPad's offerings.
The ThinkPad 2's cameras are also superior to the iPad's, at 8MP for the rear and 2MP for the front, both with LED flash.
Its stereo speakers also trump the iPad's mono noise emitter while, on the opposite end of the spectrum, it offers a dual microphone with digital noise reduction.
Size-wise, the ThinkPad Tablet 2 measures 262.6 x 164 x 9.8mm and weighs 650g.
Biting the Apple
Lenovo's ThinkPad Tablet 2 compares favorably with Apple's current iPad, but what about the Apple tablet's yet-unrevealed fourth iteration?The next iPad could blow the ThinkPad Tablet 2 out of the water and Lenovo might never see it coming.
Then again, who knows when Apple will actually announce a new tablet?
A Lenovo spokesperson declined TechRadar's request to comment on ThinkPad Tablet 2, saying only that the company hasn't announced any new products.
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AMD welcomes ex-Apple chip guru
Semiconductor design manufacturer AMD has brought ex-Apple employee Jim Keller onboard as its new corporate vice president and chief architect of microprocessor cores, the company announced Wednesday.
Keller formerly worked as a director in Apple's platform architecture group, primarily focusing on mobile products.
He's credited as having "architected" several generations of mobile processors, including the Ax chips found in iPads, iPhones, iPods and Apple TVs.
"Jim is one of the most widely respected and sought-after innovators in the industry and a very strong addition to our engineering team," said Mark Papermaster, AMD's chief technology officer and senior vice president of technology and engineering, in a media release.
"He has contributed to processing innovations that have delivered tremendous compute advances for millions of people all over the world, and we expect that his innovative spirit, low-power design expertise, creativity and drive for success will help us shape our future and fuel our growth," he continued.
Abandoning mobile, venturing to tablets?
According to the release, Keller will lead AMD's microprocessor core design efforts aligned with the company's "ambidextrous strategy with a focus on developing both high-performance and low-power processor cores that will be the foundation of AMD's future products."This comes at a time when AMD has essentially admitted it's getting out of the smartphone game, conceding the market to its larger competitors. These same competitors, such as Apple, appear to be exploring other markets as well.
In July, former AMD processing expert, who's credited with spearheading AMD's Trinity APU, joined Apple as a "systems architect." Rumor has it Apple is moving towards developing its own mobile and desktop processors.
The acquisition of Keller is likely a move to counter Apple's foray into the processor-sphere and to push further into PCs and tablets.
TechRadar reported in June that AMD has been changing its design methodology to make it easier to include third-party solutions like ARM's TrustZone architecture in their chips.
ARM has been highly successful in breaking into the tablet market and AMD, armed with its most recent hire, looks to be readying itself to compete with the big boys.
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