IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (AnandTech) 10/4/2013

They're (Almost) All Dirty: The State of Cheating in Android Benchmarks
Thanks to AndreiF7's excellent work on discovering it, we kicked off our investigations into Samsung’s CPU/GPU optimizations around the international Galaxy S 4 in July and came away with a couple of conclusions:

1) On the Exynos 5410, Samsung was detecting the presence of certain benchmarks and raising thermal limits (and thus max GPU frequency) in order to gain an edge on those benchmarks, and
2) On both Snapdragon 600 and Exynos 5410 SGS4 platforms, Samsung was detecting the presence of certain benchmarks and automatically driving CPU voltage/frequency to their highest state right away. Also on Snapdragon platforms, all cores are plugged in immediately upon benchmark detect.

The first point applied exclusively to the Exynos 5410 equipped version of the Galaxy S 4. We did a lot of digging to confirm that max GPU frequency (450MHz) was never exceeded on the Snapdragon 600 version. The second point however applied to many, many more platforms.

Western Digital Launches My Cloud Consumer NAS Platform

The network attached storage market is growing by leaps and bounds. While the SMB (small and medium business) / enterprise market is driven by speed, IOPS and concurrent access support, the consumer segment is primarily driven by capacity and ease of use. Vendors have typically targeted the consumer / SOHO NAS platform with RISC-based chipsets, while Atom-based units target the higher-end SOHO and SMB market. Western Digital's SMB NAS units run Windows Storage Server (the Sentinel series), but they also have a Debian Linux platform for consumer units. We have evaluated the Linux-based My Book Live before. Running on the Applied Micro APM82181 PowerPC-based platform, the unit earned our recommendation for the extreme ease-of-use and mobile app ecosystem.
Today, Western Digital is announcing a very ambitious update to the My Book Live. At launch, the new My Cloud lineup will have only one member. This member, a network attached hard-disk, will come in 2, 3 and 4 TB capacities priced at $150, $180 and $250 respectively. However, under the same lineup, Western Digital also plans to bring out two and four-drive configurations to the market soon.
The My Cloud units sport a single Gigabit Ethernet connection and a dual-core processor (WD refused to disclose the identity, but it should become apparent when we receive units in hand). The units are backed by free iOS and Android apps (with direct upload from the mobile device to the NAS as the main feature) as well as well as the WD SmartWare Pro software for PC backups. Time Machine support is also available for Mac users. The units are also compatible with DLNA devices as a DMS (Digital Media Server).
The launch of the My Cloud lineup will definitely heat up the competition in the consumer NAS segment. WD's storage background will also help in making the units hit an optimal price point. Interesting aspects to look forward to would be whether the two and four-drive units will have removable drives and/or hot-swap capabilities. We are looking forward to review one of these when the multiple-drive versions hit the market.

Microsoft Investors Want Bill Gates to Resign From Post Amidst Windows 8 Woes
After successfully kicking Ballmer out, the sharks want more blood

Nokia Looks to Ban HTC Androids From U.S.
Nokia looks to either score licensing fees, or force HTC onto Windows Phone

Qualcomm Executive Dismisses Apple's 64-Bit A7 Chip, Dislikes Google Glass
He said it brings nothing to the table at this point for consumers, but plans to release a 64-bit chip for Android/Windows Phones

Ford Sees Annual Increase in EV, Hybrid Sales; Says People Want Hybrids that "Don't Look Like a Prius"
Ford boosted its electric/hybrid market share from 3 percent to 15 percent in the past year

Windows 8.1 Available for Pre-Order
Windows Vista or XP users will need to purchase Windows 8 first

Report: iPad Mini with Retina Display Availability to be Limited at Launch
Source didn't say what was causing the production delay

Quick Note: Apple Hires Cable Industry Engineer/Spokesperson, May Boost Apple TV
Some believe that Mulé may be a key part in Apple's quest to make deals with existing cable providers

New DNA Computer Opens Door to Future Medical Breakthroughs
Method uses linear-DNA -- compatible with standard cell enzymes -- to process signals and produce outputs

Available Tags:Android , Western Digital , Windows 8 , Microsoft , Windows , Nokia , HTC , Google , Ford , Windows 8 , iPad , Apple TV , Apple , Apple , TV ,

Thursday, October 3, 2013

IT News Head Lines (AnandTech) 10/4/2013

No comments: