Logitech K480 Multi-Device Bluetooth Keyboard Capsule Review
Logitech recently introduced an innovative Bluetooth keyboard, the K480. While traditional Bluetooth keyboards have aimed to differentiate with aesthetics, in-built rechargeable batteries and support for multiple devices at the $100+ price points, Logitech's K480 aims to bring in a set of 'sweet-spot' features for $50.
The salient features of the K480 include:
- Support for up to three different Bluetooth devices, with easy switching between device profiles with a rotary dial on the top left corner
- Recess to allow placement of smartphones / tablets in a position suitable for viewing while typing on the keyboard
- Keyboard support for both Mac and Windows / Android ecosystems
- Explicit power on/off switch for conserving battery life
After extensive use, we found that the keyboard fulfills most of its promises. It is cross-platform and does support pairing to multiple devices. The sequence of steps to get the device paired is outlined pictorially in the top half - This ensures that even the tablet-only non-tech savvy consumers can get up and running quickly with the unit. There is no need for a dongle, and as long as the target device has Bluetooth capabilities, the keyboard is good to go. Range is not an issue due to the use-case (mobile devices in close proximity). The unit feels quite solid, and is heavy (in order to ensure stability when heavy tablets are placed in the recess). The function keys are multiplexed with some multimedia / mobile specific buttons (such as single keypress to home). In addition, on Android devices, an app can be installed to provide additional keyboard layouts.
In terms of key feel and the typing experience, it has to be said that the keyboard is suitable for usage in bursts (again, the typical smartphone / tablet usage), and not prolonged typing. The shape of the keys, as well as the keypress feedback, seem to have been decided more with the looks and aesthetics in mind, rather than the typing experience. Fortunately, there is nothing to complain about the keyboard layout itself (from the viewpoint of Windows and Android systems, at least). Other than that, it would have been nice to have an adjustable tilt option for ergonomic considerations.
| HTPC & Mobile Keyboards Bench | ||
| Aspect | Logitech K480 | |
| Device Type | Keyboard Only | Keyboard Only |
| Dimensions | 11.77" x 7.68" x 0.79" | 11.77" x 7.68" x 0.79" |
| Weight | 1.81 lbs / 820 g | 1.81 lbs / 820 g |
| Power Source | 2x AAA | 2x AAA |
| Communication | Bluetooth | Bluetooth |
| Power Saver | Explicit On/Off Switch | Explicit On/Off Switch |
| Keys Count | 79 (with multiplexed multimedia and mobile-specific keys) | 79 (with multiplexed multimedia and mobile-specific keys) |
| Touchpad Dimensions (Diagonal) | N/A | N/A |
| USB Receiver Storage Compartment | N/A | N/A |
| Backlight | No | No |
| Keyboard Layout | 8/10 | 8/10 |
| Ergonomics | 8/10 | 8/10 |
| Build Quality | 9/10 | 9/10 |
| MSRP (USD) | $49.99 | $49.99 |
| Warranty | 1 year | 1 year |
In terms of future improvements at this price point, it would be nice to have a trackball (in case of an unchanged form factor) or a trackpad. This would enable standalone usage with a PC (similar to the Adesso Bluetooth Keyboard WKB-4000BB). The Bluetooth keyboard market for mobile devices is heavily commoditized. So, it is refreshing to see Logitech integrating some nifty and interesting features in the K480 to make it stand out in the crowd.
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Motorola and Verizon Announce the Droid Turbo
| Motorola Droid Turbo | Motorola Moto X (2014) | |
| SoC | APQ8084 2.7GHz Snapdragon 805 with 4 x Krait 450 + Adreno 420 | MSM8974 2.5 GHz Snapdragon 801 with 4 x Krait 400 + Adreno 330 |
| RAM/NAND | 3 GB LPDDR3, 32/64GB NAND | 2GB LPDDR3, 16/32GB NAND |
| Display | 5.2” 2560x1440 AMOLED at 565ppi | 5.2” 1080p Super AMOLED |
| Network | 2G / 3G / 4G LTE Listed as Category 4 | 2G / 3G / 4G LTE Listed as Category 4 |
| Dimensions | 143.5 x 73.3 x 11.2 mm, 176 grams (Black Nylon) 143.5 x 73.3 x 10.6mm, 169g (Metallic Red/Black) |
140.8 x 72.4 x 3.8-9.9 mm, 144 grams |
| Camera | 21MP (5248x3936) Rear Camera with F/2.0 aperture, 2MP Front Camera | 13MP Rear Facing, 1/3.06" CMOS size (Sony IMX135), 2.1MP FFC |
| Battery | 3900 mAh | 2300 mAh, 3.8V, 8.74 Whr |
| OS | Android 4.4.4 KitKat | Android 4.4.4 KitKat |
| Connectivity | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac + BT 4.0, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, DLNA, NFC | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac + BT 4.0, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, DLNA, NFC |
| SIM Size | NanoSIM | NanoSIM |
It's interesting that this is a Verizon exclusive device, as it has significantly better specifications than the Moto X which is Motorola's current widely available flagship. Like many of the other recently released flagship phones, the Droid Turbo uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon 805 with four Krait 450 cores at 2.7GHz and 3GB of LPDDR3 memory. The front of the device sports a 2560x1440 AMOLED display, which is also quickly becoming the norm for Android flagship smartphones. Above it is a 2MP front-facing camera capable of recording 1080p video, and below it lies three capacitive navigation buttons which is a departure from the on-screen buttons that Motorola has been using on their other devices for some time now.
The back of the device is home to the 21MP rear-facing camera which Motorola states is capable of recording 4K video at 24fps, with 1080p recording still topping out at 30fps. The design of the back is somewhat similar to the Moto X and Moto G, but it appears to be far less curvy. There's a great deal of branding, with a logo for Verizon, the Droid brand, and Motorola's. Even without those, it's would still be clear to anyone familiar with Motorola's style of hardware design that this is a Motorola device. The curved back, centered camera, and crosshatch pattern on the back are all reminiscent of past and current Motorola phones. However, there is no lip at the top for the 3.5mm headphone jack like on Motorola's other current devices.
The big point of differentiation is the battery capacity. Motorola has not stated the voltage of the battery, but states that it has a 3900mAh capacity and claims it will last up to 48 hours of usage. While there is always some degree of variance from a manufacturer's claims based on how a user uses their device, if the Droid Turbo approaches anywhere close to that claim in battery testing it will be very far ahead of competing smartphones with regards to battery life.
One possible issue I noticed with Motorola's listed specifications is in the network section which classifies the device as supporting category 4 LTE. This may be referring to Verizon's network certification, but the Droid Turbo should be rated for category 6 LTE.
The Droid Turbo will come with two choices of materials. There is a metallic finish which comes in black or red, and is the lighter and thinner of the two variants. These will all have a 32GB capacity. The 64GB version will only be available in the Nylon Ballistic Black finish which is slightly thicker and heavier. It will be launching this Thursday for $199 and $249 for the 32GB and 64GB variants respectively on a two year term.
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Razer Announces The Leviathan Sound Bar
Razer
has traditionally been a gaming peripheral company, which started with
the Boomslang mouse in 1998. Over the years, they have expanded their
portfolio to cover more of a gamer’s needs, adding keyboards, keypads,
mouse mats, and headphones as well as complete systems. Today, Razer has
expanded their product family again with the launch of the Razer
Leviathan sound bar.The Leviathan is able to produce 5.1 virtual surround sound using Dolby Virtual Speakers and accepts Dolby Digital and Pro Logic II multichannel audio. The bar itself contains four tuned drivers, with two 2.5” full range and two 0.74” tweeters, which are powered by a 30 watt RMS amplifier. Frequency response is quoted as 180 Hz to 20 KHz on the sound bar itself. Complementing the bar and filling in the remainder of the audio range is a 5.25” 30 watt RMS subwoofer with a downward firing driver, which has a quoted response of 20 Hz to 180 Hz.
The sound bar supports analog, optical, or Bluetooth inputs, with the Leviathan supporting any Bluetooth 4.0 device streaming over A2DP, and Razer has also made sure to include aptX audio codec support for higher quality A2DP streaming. To make the connection to the sound bar as easy as possible the Leviathan also includes NFC to configure the Bluetooth pairing. The bar also supports several tilt angles (0°, 15°, and 18°) to ensure it works well in a variety of situations.
If the idea of virtual surround sound through the use of a sound bar seems like something you might be interested in, the Razer Leviathan will be available for pre-order on razerzone.com with worldwide availability starting in November. Prices are USA: $199/EUR: €199.
Source: Razer
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Alienware's Graphics Amplifier Announced - An External Video Card Chassis Shipping Soon
Thankfully it looks like the PC industry is finally going to turn the corner on the concept thanks to Alienware. Today Alienware is introducing their own PCIe video card chassis, the Alienware Graphics Amplifier.
Alienware’s amplifier is a fairly typical take on the concept – there are only so many ways to build an external PCIe chassis – however Alienware has been able to put together something that is clearly tuned for video cards. The chassis itself houses a PSU and a single x16 PCIe slot for a video card, along with a quartet of USB 3.0 ports for any other I/O needs. Notably, Alienware has designed the amplifier to be able to handle double-wide video cards up to 375W, which is quite a bit more power than professional grade external PCIe chassis, and this means it can conceivably run just about any self-contained video card on the market. That said, like many small form factor computers the amplifier is also clearly designed for video cards with fully exhausting blowers, so it’s going to be best paired with reference model video cards since blowers are nearly non-existent in custom cards these days.
More interesting perhaps is the PCIe interface, which up until now has always been the sticking point in getting a video card chassis to market. The good news is that Alienware has more or less solved the problem, but the bad news is that the interface is a proprietary Alienware/Dell design that is only available on their laptops. Alienware notes that the interface is actually a PCIe + USB interface – apparently carrying USB over from the host rather than using PCIe to power a separate controller – and in the meantime we’re still working to determine just how many PCIe lanes the interface is carrying. Even if it’s not a full 8 lanes (the Haswell U series CPUs don’t support 16 lanes), given the severe bandwidth limitations of ExpressCard and Thunderbolt, even a 4 lane setup would represent a significant improvement in bandwidth. Like Thunderbolt however this interface does appear to use active cabling (it would be very difficult to carry that much bandwidth externally without it), in which case the cable is going to be an expensive part of the entire setup.
On the host side, the amplifier is being launched alongside the Alienware 13, which will be the first of what will presumably be a series of Alienware laptops to support the amplifier’s interface. Rather than hanging off of spare PCIe lanes, we suspect some kind of MUX is in play here, as Alienware has noted that the 13’s internal dGPU (a GeForce 860M) has to be shut off to use the amplifier interface. Most likely Alienware is rerouting the GPU’s lanes to the interface when it’s in use. Activating or deactivating the interface does require a reboot, which although not especially convenient bypasses some very messy issues that could occur when hot-plugging an active GPU, and we suspect would otherwise be a show-stopper.
Meanwhile it’s interesting to note that in their development process Alienware has been able to solve some of the technical issues around an external video card in the process to better integrate it with the host. The video card in an amplifier can be used to drive both external and internal displays, meaning that it’s possible to use the amplifier to drive the 13’s built-in display and still reap the benefits, even without an external monitor. The overall non-portability of the 7lb+ amplifier and the USB ports strongly drives the amplifier towards being used as a docking station with an external monitor, but if you want to use it to drive the internal display that is going to be a viable option.
Moving on, Alienware is taking a vendor agnostic approach with the amplifier and will be supporting NVIDIA as well as AMD GPUs. There are still some additional technical details we’re chasing down on how this will work with the internal display capabilities, but ultimately it means the amplifier can be used with a wide range of cards from both vendors. That said, since the amplifier is going to be best paired with a blower type video card, NVIDIA’s cards are going to be the more natural fit at this time. Alienware has been showing the amplifier off with the GTX 980, and next to being the most powerful single-GPU video card on the market it also has a reference blower that is an excellent match for the amplifier’s cooling capabilities.
Finally and perhaps most importantly, Alienware has made it clear that the amplifier isn’t a prototype and won’t be vaporware, and that we’re looking at an external video card chassis that is actually going to ship. Alienware will begin taking orders for the amplifier today alongside the Alienware 13 laptop, with the hardware shipping in November. Even the price is decent (especially compared to DIY attempts), with the amplifier set to cost $299. This is on top of the price of the Alienware 13 laptop and the video card to fill the amplifier with, so the total cost of a setup is still going to be significant, but despite being the first shipping consumer solution it’s not priced through the roof.
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Alienware Launches The Alienware 13 Gaming Laptop With A Twist
Let us take a quick look at the new Alienware 13 though. While not as small as an ultrabook, it is significantly thinner than the 14 inch model, coming in at just under 1 inch thick. This, coupled with the two pounds less weight than the larger model, should make it a lot more portable.
The CPU will be Intel i5 and i7 Haswell U series parts, and the GPU offerings will be up to the NVIDIA GTX 860M. This will power a display, which at the default configuration is a lowly 1366x768 IPS panel, but luckily the display can be upgraded significantly with 1920x1080, and 2560x1440 options, as well as optional touch.
The base $999 model also comes with a 5400 rpm 1 TB hard drive as the base option, however the laptop can be outfitted with SSDs as well. In late 2014, it seems hard to believe that a $999 computer can still come with a slow mechanical hard drive, so hopefully the upgrade to SSD storage does not break the bank.
The star or the show though is the Alienware Graphics Amplifier, which is a first for this segment. Ryan will be covering this in full, but this $300 add-on is certainly a unique offering from Dell. With a dedicated 460 watt power supply just for the GPU, the amplifier should help the Alienware 13 with thermals when gaming on the discrete GPU. However, you can fall back to the GPU built into the laptop when you are on the go. Hopefully this adapter gets added to the entire Dell laptop line.
Unfortunately, details are light on this launch, with Alienware not releasing any press releases at the time of this writing. Check in to www.alienware.com starting today to check out all of the available pricing and options for the Alienware 13.
Sources: Gizmodo Hexus
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ARM Announces Mali 800 Series GPUs - T860, T830, & T820
This brings us to the matter of ARM and today’s announcements. As a massive ISA, CPU, and GPU licenser, ARM’s product lineup is the textbook case for early visibility. At a time when the first high-end 20nm SoCs are just now hitting consumer devices in products such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 International and Apple iPhone 6, ARM’s development pipeline and product marketing teams are already looking at next year’s products and what processor designs to prepare for them. For ARM’s GPU group in particular, whom now functionally operates on a yearly release cadence, the roll-out of Mali 700 equipped devices means that it’s time to announce the designs for next year’s GPUs.
To that end, today ARM is announcing the Mali 800 series. Designed for inclusion in 2015+ SoCs, the Mali 800 series is the immediate successor to the current Mali 700 series. From an architectural standpoint Mali 800 is still based on the same common Midgard architecture that the Mali 600 and Mali 700 series are based on, and as a result from an architectural standpoint there isn’t much to discuss. Midgard and its unusual all-ILP/no-TLP architecture is still a modern GPU architecture that supports up to OpenGL ES 3.1, the Android Extension Pack, and Direct3D 11.1, so from that standpoint ARM has little reason to change.
Consequently while still based on Midgard, the 800 series is a successive round of optimization for the Midgard designs. For this generation ARM has focused on further improving Midgard’s area and power efficiency while adding a handful of new features not found in the existing Mali 700 series. This refresh spans from ARM’s highest-end designs to lowest-end designs, and coupled with Mali’s multi-core scalability spans the SoC GPU market from top to bottom.
The Midgard Shader Core
| ARM Mali 800 Series | |||||
| T860 | T830 | T820 | |||
| Core Configurations | 1-16 | 1-4 | 1-4 | ||
| ALU Pipes Per Core | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Texture Units Per Core | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| FLOPs (FP32 MAD) | 20 - 320 FLOPs | 20 - 80 FLOPs | 10 - 40 FLOPs | ||
| OpenGL ES | ES 3.1 + AEP | ES 3.1 + AEP | ES 3.1 + AEP | ||
| Direct3D | FL 11_1 | FL 9_3 | FL 9_3 | ||
| 10-Bit YUV | Yes | Optional | Optional | ||
Mali-T860
We’ll start off with ARM’s new high-end Mali design, the Mali-T860. With ARM reforming their product naming with the Mali 700 series ARM’s lineup is now much easier to follow, and as given away by the T860’s design it’s the immediate successor to the T760.
Like T760 before it, T860 is ARM’s most feature packed and most powerful Mali design. The underlying design uses the more common Midgard 2 arithmetic pipelines per core configuration, with the overall design being scalable to up to 16 cores. Coupled with the single texture unit per core, the throughput of a T860 design can scale from 20 FLOPs (10 MADs) and 1 texel per clock up to 320 FLOPs and 16 texels per clock. As a result this design can also be scaled up and down as needed to cover both phones and tablets just by varying the number of cores.
From a functionality standpoint, T860 will be the only Mali 800 part to support the 800 series’ fullest feature set. Specifically, support for Direct3D feature level 11_1 is limited to T860. Otherwise common to the entire 800 series, T860 also supports OpenGL ES 3.1, the Android Extension Pack, and OpenCL 1.2.
Meanwhile one notable feature addition for the Mali 800 family is support for native (and full speed) 10-bit YUV input and output. At the moment this feature addition is going to be of limited value, but HEVC is expected to make significant use of 10-bit YUV, so adding support here is laying the groundwork for HEVC in future products, and for that matter will go hand-in-hand with ARM’s new video processing block and display controller block, which are also being announced today.
Elsewhere from a performance standpoint ARM is offering the usual high level performance estimates. However it should be noted that these are compared to the two-generation old T628, and there aren’t similar numbers to work from for T760. In any case, compared to T628 ARM expects an equal configuration T860 to be some 45% more energy efficient on the same process node. And seeing as how mobile performance gains are almost entirely an exercise in energy efficiency, this would represent a very significant increase in energy efficiency (and ultimately sustainable performance) for their designs.
That said, by making a two-generation old comparison ARM also gets to roll up the benefits of their AFBC frame buffer compression technology, which was first introduced on the Mali 700 series. AFBC is something the company is significantly banking on due to the high bandwidth savings, and ARM considers one of their greatest feature advantages for the 800 series as well as the 700 series.
Finally, something to also keep in mind though is that while ARM’s same-node comparison is the fairest way to look at architectural efficiency, you’re highly unlikely to see T628 manufactured on 20nm+ processes. So on top of the architectural gains over the years, the real world performance gains for T860 should be better still due to the newer process node.
Mali-T830 & Mali-T820
Also being announced today alongside the T860 and rounding out the new Mali 800 family are the T830 and T820. These parts are best described as ARM’s low-end and mainstream designs, and are the successors to the T720. With Mali T860 essentially scaling down to cover most of the mid-range, the T820 and T830 are intended to be lower performance, lower power consuming parts that are optimized around power and die size needs.
For the Mali 800 series ARM is bifurcating the T720’s market a bit to offer different blends of die size and performance. The T720’s immediate successor is the T820, and like its predecessor is a one arithmetic pipeline design that is focused first and foremost on die size. Meanwhile new to the 800 series, though still a successor of sorts to the T720, is the Mali-T830. This is a more powerful design that while still focused on die size efficiency brings the number of pipelines to two per core (like T860), offering better performance in exchange for a slightly larger die size.
Other than the difference in the number of pipelines, the T820 and T830 designs are extremely similar. Both of them can be scaled up to 4 cores, allowing for some performance scaling. This puts the throughput of T820 designs at a range of 10 FLOPs and 1 texel per clock to 40 FLOPs and 4 texels per clock, while T830 will scale from 20/1 to 80/4 respectively.
From a feature standpoint, as previously mentioned only T860 gets the fullest Mali feature set while the other Mali 800 parts will be a bit more modest. T830 and T820 only support Direct3D up to feature level 9_3, while for the more mobile-centric world they will be on par with the T860 and support OpenGL ES 3.1 and the Android Extension Pack. Meanwhile 10-bit YUV support is present here, however for T820 and T830 it is an optional feature that will depend on which specific version of the core is licensed, so we will likely see a mix of retail products that do and do not include it.
Finally from a performance standpoint ARM is once again offering some high level guidance compared to the Mali 600 series, specifically the Mali-T622 in this case. Depending on the 800 design used, ARM tells us that performance should be up to 55% better or area efficiency will be 50% better. Presumably the area efficiency comparison is for T820 while the performance comparison is for T830.
Closing Thoughts
Launching alongside the new Mali GPUs today are a series of updates for the rest of ARM’s graphics stack, which will see the Mali-V video block and Mali-DP display controllers updated respectively. Along with the general strength of the Mali GPUs, expect to see ARM focus heavy on the synergy between these parts, including their common support for AFBC and of course the benefits of having all graphics components developed together. We’re covering these in another article, but we wanted to quickly point out where the Mali GPUs fit in the bigger picture of ARM’s announcements today.
Finally, while ARM doesn't have complete control over consumer devices (since they only sell designs to chipmakers) they are providing a rough estimate of when to expect Mali 800 GPUs to begin appearing in devices. According to ARM we should expect to start seeing Mali 800 devices starting in late 2015, or roughly a year from now. This is consistent with the Mali 700 series, which having been announced almost a year ago to this day has started to show up in consumer devices very recently. To that end we would expect to start seeing Mali 800 SoC designs announced in the first half of next year, with consumer designs to follow as per ARM's timetable.
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ARM Announces Mali-V550 Video Processor & Mali-DP550 Display Processor
As ARM seeks to be a nearly top-to-bottom processor IP vendor, alongside their well-known Cortex CPU designs and Mali-T GPU designs the company also offers the other processors needed to complete the graphics stack. Alongside the GPU designs these are the Mali-V video processors for real-time video encode and decode, and the Mali-DP display processors. In the scope of today’s announcements both parts are receiving feature updates to add new functionality and to keep them up to par with the capabilities of the new Mali GPUs. Overall ARM is making a significant emphasis on 4K this year, lining up the hardware necessary to decode and render to 4K, and to do so within the bandwidth constrains of an SoC.
Mali-V550
Starting things off we have ARM’s new video processor, the Mali-V550. With the V550 ARM is introducing full HEVC support into their video processor, building off of the H.264 support present in the earlier V500. Like the V500 the V550 is a video decode and encode processor, so with today’s update ARM’s product stack gains the ability to do both HEVC decoding and encoding.
Overall V550 retains V500’s basic architectural design, which not unlike ARM’s GPUs is based around the concept of cores. In this case the number of cores can be scaled up to support additional streams or higher resolutions/framerates, with ARM supporting 1080p60 on a single core and scaling up to 2160p120 on the largest 8 core configuration. This of course goes for both encode and decode performance.
Along with the addition of HEVC support, V550 also introduces a couple of other new features to the Mali video processor. ARM can now process 10-bit YUV video, which is expected to see significant usage with HEVC and goes hand-in-hand with the 10-bit YUV support added to the Mali 800 GPUs.
Meanwhile ARM is introducing a new video encoding feature for V550 dubbed Motion Search Elimination, which is intended to reduce video latency and power requirements. MSE borrows heavily from ARM’s transaction elimination technology, which was introduced on the Mali 700 series and reduced memory bandwidth by using CRCs to identify unchanged screen tiles and to avoid writing those redundant tiles out to the frame buffer. In the case of MSE the idea is quite similar, only this time ARM applies the tile principle to video encoding instead of rendering. By identifying unchanged tiles, ARM can then skip the motion estimation step of H.264 video encoding for those tiles, which saves on time and power doing what would otherwise be a redundant encoding step.
Eliminating motion estimation should have an immediate impact on power consumption, as it’s generally considered the most time consuming step of the encoding process. However along with the power savings from skipping motion estimation, ARM is also touting this as a means of reducing encoding latency, something which would be very important for wireless display technologies such as Miracast. The benefits would be variable at best, but for transmitting desktops and other semi-static content it should have an impact on encode latency and therefore overall input lag on such setups.
One thing to note though is that like 10-bit YUV, MSE will require the rest of the processing pipeline to support this feature. In this case the display processor (which is piping the display output back to the video processor) needs to support the technology.
Mali-DP550
And speaking of the display processor, we have ARM’s final announcement of the day, which is the Mali-DP550 display controller. Like the V550 video processor, the DP550 is an ecosystem play that sees some general feature enhancements along with reciprocal support for other new features introduced on ARM’s latest GPUs and video processors.
From a high level overview, ARM’s display processors serve as both a display controller and a sort of simple GPU of their own, handling basic operations such as scaling and layer composition along with interfacing with the display itself. By doing this in fixed function hardware as opposed to the more flexible but power hungry GPU, ARM is able to save some power by avoiding sending off this simple work to the GPU.
For DP550, ARM has scaled up its performance to handle 4K resolutions along with more complex composition tasks. Whereas DP500 could only composite up to 3 layers and work with sub-4K panels, DP550 can drive 4K panels while compositing up to 7 layers. From a phone and tablet perspective it seems questionable if we’re going to see 4K in those devices any time soon, but for ARM’s secondary TV market, being 4K capable on DP550 will be a big deal.
Meanwhile DP550 adds reciprocal support for other features added to the Mali 800 GPUs and Mali-V550 video processor, including motion search elimination and 10-bit YUV for video. Also of note, ARM has added a co-processor interface to DP550 to allow it to directly interface with 3rd party processor blocks, though ARM hasn’t gone into detail on what they expect those 3rd party blocks to be.
Finally, like the Mali 800 GPUs, ARM is releasing these designs to SoC integrators today. Which means we should start seeing the V550 and DP550 appear in retail products by the end of next year.
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OneDrive Will Offer Unlimited Storage For Office 365 Subscribers
| Consumer Cloud Offerings | ||||||
| OneDrive | Google Drive | iCloud Drive | DropBox | Box | Amazon Cloud Drive | |
| Free Storage | 15 GB | 15 GB | 5 GB | 2 GB | 10 GB | 5 GB |
| Paid Storage (USD/year) | 100 GB - $24 200 GB - $48 Unlimited - $70 (With Office 365 Personal) Unlimited x 5 users - $100 (Office 365 Home) |
100 GB - $24 1 TB - $120 10 TB - $1200 20 TB - $2400 30 TB - $3600 |
20 GB - $12 200 GB - $50 500 GB - $120 1 TB - $240 |
1 TB - $100 | 100 GB - $120 | 20 GB - $10 50 GB - $25 100 GB - $50 200 GB - $100 500 GB - $250 1 TB - $500 |
| Versioning | Office files (30 days) | Yes (30 days) | No | Yes (30 days) Unlimited with PackRat addon |
No (Personal Tier) | No |
| File Restore | Yes (1 year) | Yes (30 days) | No | Yes (30 days) Unlimited with PackRat addon |
Yes (30 days) | Yes |
| Operating System Support | Windows OS X Android iOS Windows Phone |
Windows OS X Chrome OS Android iOS |
Windows OS X iOS |
Windows OS X Linux Android iOS BlackBerry Kindle Fire |
Windows OS X Android iOS Windows Phone BlackBerry |
Windows OS X Android iOS Kindle Fire |
That is not to say that there is still not room for improvement with OneDrive. In September, Microsoft announced an increase in the maximum file size for OneDrive, which now sits at 10 GB per file. That is a great increase over the relatively tiny 2 GB file size limit that was imposed before, but when you offer unlimited file space, it would be nice if unlimited file size was offered as well.
When you are talking about allowing users to store all of their data forever, I believe some more work needs to be done on the Recycle Bin as well. The increase in Recycle Bin time from thirty days to one year is a good step, but OneDrive only supports versioning for Office Files, which may leave someone stuck if they accidentaly save over their original photos as an example. More emphasis needs to be placed on the recovery tools now that cloud storage is offering so much capacity.
Still, Microsoft has a very tempting offer, and you can see why their transition to Office 365 on both the consumer and business end have seen such large gains in their quarter end results. For less than 60% of the cost of 1 TB of Google Drive, Office 365 personal gives unlimited storage as well as the full Office Suite for both the desktop and tablet. For the household, Office 365 Home allows the same benefits but expands it to five users.
There are still advantages to other platforms though. Some people love the ease of use and API features available in Dropbox, whereas others live and work in the Google ecosystem and would therefore be more likely to opt for Google Drive. Apple, though late to the Cloud Drive party, now offers iCloud Drive as well for those in the Apple ecosystem.
It will be interesting what happens next. Many of the cloud drive solutions leverage third party data storage (AWS, Rackspace, Azure, and the like) and they will have difficulty competing on price alone.
The new storage caps will increase from the current 1 TB limit over the next couple of months for all users, but if you want to jump in as quick as you can you can visit this link to get on the wait list. Office 365 for Business customers will need to wait a bit longer to move past 1 TB, with rollout expected starting in 2015.
Competition in this space has been intense, and while I do not see anyone competing any longer on price, features and api support may well be the next battleground for your cloud storage dollars.
Update: One of our readers let us know that the Recycle Bin has changed from 30 days to 1 year, so the story and table have been updated to reflect this. Thanks deeksterjay!
Source: OneDrive blog
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Amazon Announces the Fire TV Stick
The real appeal of the Fire TV Stick is for buyers in Amazon's ecosystem. The Fire TV Stick supports popular streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, and includes expected features like streaming content from mobile devices. On top of all that, it includes the wealth of content available for Amazon Prime subscribers. Anyone who wants to try out Amazon Prime will receive a 30 day trial along with their Fire TV Stick.
At $39 the Fire TV Stick essentially matches the Chromecast on price and provides Amazon users a good alternative to other HDMI sticks. Amazon is also running a promotion for today and tomorrow that allows current Amazon Prime subscribers to purchase the Fire TV Stick for only $19. At less than $20, I can expect many prime users may purchase one simply to try it out.
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A Look At OS X Yosemite And iOS 8.1
It has been a busy year for Apple, although one could argue it has been more of a busy few months. The yearly updates for most of Apple's products now occur in September and October, and as a result we've seen the release of a number of new products and services in a very short period of time. On the hardware side we have the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, the iPad Air 2 and Mini 3, the iMac with Retina 5K display, and a preview of the upcoming Apple Watch. The software side has arguably been even more exciting with the release of iOS 8 and its first major update iOS 8.1, OS X Yosemite, and Apple Pay.
The theme this year appears to be integration and the power of a software and hardware ecosystem. Apple has always had some level of integration between iOS and OS X. As time went on, both operating systems began to share a core set of applications like Reminders, Calendar, and Notes. The iPad extended this even further by bringing the iWork and iLife suites to mobile. iCloud also played a key role in integrating both systems, by synchronizing documents and photos between all of a user's devices. However, the launch of iOS 7 with its visual and functional enhancements left many of the shared features and applications on OS X feeling left behind. Read on for a look at how Apple has brought OS X up to speed, and integrated both of their operating systems together.
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Orbital's Rocket Explodes in Spectacular Fashion, Heavily Damaging NASA Launch Site
Contractor's hodge-podge rocket was behind schedule, but appeared to be staging an unlikely comeback since 2013 -- until now
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Elon Musk on AI: "We Are Summoning the Demon... We Should Be Very Careful"
Musk says the government should stay away from killing robots and should keep a watchful eye on consumer AI industry lest it kill
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Samsung's Remote Wipe Could Let Hackers Hold Your Phone Ransom
NIST advisory is latest clue to suggest remote administration features in consumer smartphones are a foolish feature
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Update: FTC Sues AT&T for Misleading Customers on “Unlimited” Data Plans
“The issue here is simple: ‘unlimited’ means unlimited.” -- FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez
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$199 Motorola Droid Turbo Gets Official with 48-hour Battery Life, 5.2” QHD Display
The Droid Turbo is basically a souped up Moto X
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T-Mobile’s John Legere: Your Wireless Carrier “Is S**t” Without the iPhone
iPhone or bust? Legere says grovel if you have to in order to carry the iPhone
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1 Million Credit Card Activated on Apple Pay Within 72 Hours, Walmart CEO Hopes Visa "Suffers"
The mobile payment wars have just begun
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Microsoft Offers Consumers Free "Unlimited" Storage with Office 365 Subscription
Not even Google or DropBox are bold enough to offer that to consumers, yet
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Fitbit's $249 Surge Fitness Watch Packs 7-Day Battery Life, Two Other Models Also Air
Fitbit thinks it's finally worked out its annoyances that plagued previous designs and claims it has a smartwatch for every pricepoint
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Microsoft's Figures Show Desktop Users Flocking to Windows 10 Preview
There's actually more desktop testers than laptop testers
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Amazon Announces $39 Fire TV Stick, Prime Members Can Pay $19 for a Limited Time
Amazon looks to burn the competition with its new Fire TV Stick
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Apple iPhone 6, 6 Plus Pre-orders Outpace Samsung Galaxy Note 4 3-to-1 in South Korea
Apple puts up a strong showing with its new iPhones in South Korea
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Reports: Porsche Working on Tesla Model S Competitor, All 991.2 911s to Get Turbo Engines
Porsche's Model S competitor to match it in performance, range
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Microsoft’s Xbox One Gets a Temporary Price Cut to $349
New pricing starts November 2
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