IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (AnandTech) 10/31/2013

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

IT News Head Lines (AnandTech) 10/31/2013

AnandTech

The iPad Air Review
It seemed like a foregone conclusion that the 10-inch tablet market was done for, with all interest and excitement shifting to smaller, but equally capable 7 or 8-inch tablets instead. It also seemed like 15-inch notebook computers were done for a couple of years ago, then Apple launched the MacBook Pro with Retina Display. In a similar vein, last week Apple introduced the iPad Air.
A significant re-imagining of the original 9.7-inch iPad, the Air breathes new life into the platform. Much like the rMBP, the iPad Air borrows a lot of the learnings from its more popular ultraportable counterpart. I don’t know that it will curb enthusiasm over the iPad mini, particularly now that the new mini shares the same hardware platform (including display), but it levels the playing field between the two models.
Read on for our full review.

The Next Generation of Micro Server SoCs: ECX-2000 vs Atom 2000
Calxeda has announced its second generation SoC, the ARM Cortex™ A15 based EnergyCore™ ECX-2000. We try to estimate how this new Server SoC compares to the latest Intel Atom C2000 server SoCs.

Motorola's Project Ara: Phonebloks from an OEM

Phonebloks was a campaign that focused upon attracting the interest of OEMs by showing that there was an incredible amount of interest for a modular phone. This was mostly for reasons of reducing electronics waste, the potential for incredible customization, and the potential for reduced upgrade costs associated with the 1-2 year upgrade cycle. As the current model requires the purchase of an entire phone, upgrading a single “module”, or a set of modules that would update the device would reduce the cost of upgrading to the consumer, much like the current desktop PC system of upgrading individual components.

However, at the time it seemed unlikely that such a campaign would ever produce a meaningful result in the industry. Now, it might be less so as Motorola announced Project Ara, a platform that promises the same modularity that the Phonebloks campaign was promoting, and has also partnered with the creator of the Phonebloks campaign for this project.The concept is largely the same, with an endoskeleton and modules that make up the phone. The display, following the Phonebloks concept, is also likely to be its own module. While actual details of the concept are effectively nil, there are still an enormous number of challenges that such a design would face.

The first would be from a purely hardware perspective, as there is an unavoidable tradeoff between volumetric efficiency and modularity in such a design. While modern smartphones are effectively a tight stack of PCB, battery, and display, this adds in an entire interface for each module that connects them together. This means that the memory module would effectively go from the size of an average eMMC chip to around a full-size SD card due to the need for a durable interface that would connect it to the rest of the phone. This is most readily seen by the differences between the international and Korean LG G2, as the international variant has a ~15% larger battery by virtue of the sealed design that allowed for LG Chemicon’s curved battery pack with thinner walls to allow for more battery capacity.
The second issue in this case would be regulatory, as the FCC only tests single configurations for approval. Such a design would be incredibly challenging to get approval for as there could easily be unpredictable RF behavior from unexpected behavior from a specific setup of modules, or issues with the endoskeleton portion because the modules aren't all part of a single PCB that is unlikely to suffer issues with short circuits or other connection issues, while a modular design would face such challenges.

The final major issue is that of history, as the failure of Intel’s Whitebook initiative from 2006 makes it much harder to see a similar initiative succeeding in the smartphone space. As the Whitebook initiative promised a DIY, modular laptop, much like Phonebloks and Project Ara, and failed due to the rise of completely integrated laptop designs such as the Apple rMBP line, it seems unlikely that such a project would succeed without significant compromise, either in modularity or in competitiveness with the more integrated smartphones. While laptops like the rMBP are effectively impossible for the user to repair, much less open, they have become incredibly popular, and the PC OEMs have followed Apple’s lead in this regard, with consumer demand generally tending towards thinner and lighter laptops, just as the same demand seems to occur in the smartphone space, it is difficult to see such an initiative succeeding. While such initiatives are sure to garner widespread enthusiast support, enthusiasts generally lose their ability to influence the market once a market segment becomes popular with general consumers, as can be seen by the PC industry. However, it remains to be seen whether there is mass-market appeal for such a phone, and it may well be that Motorola is tapping a niche with enormous potential.

Lenovo Announces "Convertible" Yoga Tablets with 18-Hour Battery Life
Lenovo's new 8" and 10" Android tablets feature three operating modes

Dell's Mission to Go Private is Complete
The deal is valued at about $24.9 billion

Nokia Sells 8.8 Million Windows Phones in Q3, Transitions to Telecom Sales
Nokia refocuses on NSN (telecom equipment), advanced technology, and mapping services as a leaner firm

Report: Samsung Prepping 14 nm, 64-Bit Exynos 6 Chip for Galaxy S5
Samsung hopes to make up for previous load-balancing flaws with new fully independent octacore chip

Quick Note: Microsoft Offers Government Technical Assistance for HealthCare.gov
So far, no services have been provided by Microsoft

Googlerola Backs Modular "LEGO" Style Build-it-Yourself Smartphone Push
Motorola's Project Ara partners with PhoneBloks to roll out build-it-yourself smartphones

Netflix Looks to Make Movies, Offer them in Theaters and Home at the Same Time
Netflix continues disrupting traditional models

Amazon Offers Low-Cost Kindle Versions of Print Books with "MatchBook"
The Kindle versions through MatchBook will only be $2.99, $1.99, $.99 or free

Senator Feinstein: Spying on Americans is Okay, But Spying on Foreign Leaders is Wrong
Senator Feinstein feels the NSA should do the opposite of what the law says, focus its efforts on Americans

WSJ Source Claims Google Smartwatch is in Late Stage Development
Google said to be in talks with Asian manufacturers for mass production

EA and Tiger Woods Part ways, EA Sports Offers First Look at Next Gen Golf Game
No more Tiger Woods games coming from EA Sports

Cranking it up to 11 Proves Ineffective When Tapping Spinal Nerves
Researchers make major progress in lower spine stimulation but are slowed by lack of equipment

Available Tags:iPad , Server , Lenovo , Windows Phone , Nokia , Windows , Samsung , Galaxy , Microsoft , Smartphone , Amazon , Kindle , Google , EA , EA ,

No comments:

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)