IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (AnandTech) 12/10/2011

WD My Book Live Network Attached Hard Disk Review
The rise of powerful home networking solutions have led to the shift in consumer focus from DAS (Direct Attached Storage) units to NAS (Network Attached Storage) units in the home space. Storage solution vendors such as Western Digital and Seagate were quick to identify the needs of the consumers. We have NAS solutions ranging from simple network attached hard disks to multi-bay SMB / SOHO NAS units from both of them.

Today, we will take a look at the recently introduced My Book Live from Western Digital. It is not advertised as a full blown 1-bay NAS solution, but more as a network attached hard disk. Western Digital stresses the personal cloud nature of the unit (after all, cloud is the hot keyword right now!) and provides smartphone apps to enhance this experience. Read on to find out how the My Book Live performs.

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CTIA: AT&T Outs 5 New Android Phones, Atrix 2 for $99 on-contract
The Fall hits just keep coming. Today AT&T joined partners Motorola, Samsung, Pantech and newcomer ZTE to announce 5 new Android handsets due out this Fall. The line-up includes big announcements, like the Atrix 2 we saw hints of previously, and some bargain phones including just their second Android GoPhone, the ZTE built AT&T Avail. Lots to cover so let's get right to it.

The Motorola Atrix 2

We first got a peak at this device when a Chinese leaker nabbed some hands-on time with a device whose model number (MB865) mirrored that of the Droid Bionic's original model number (XT865). This lead to the hopeful assumption that the device would be among AT&T's first LTE devices. Sadly, LTE has been left on the table, and though the Bionic's model number is no longer quite so similar (XT875) there's still much in common between these devices. The Atrix 2 is powered by TI's OMAP 4430, as in the Bionic, and backed by 1 GB of RAM. The PowerVR SGX 540 is clocked at 304 MHz, higher than in last generation's phones, and pushes a 4.3" qHD display that based on reports from This is my next lacks any sort of PenTile matrix.
The Atrix 2 will be a WebTop enabled phone, and though it will sport HSPA+, LTE is nowhere to be found. With 8GB of on-board storage and a 2GB microSD card in place, there's plenty of room for apps and images or videos from the 8 MP shooter on the back and the VGA front-facing camera, likely the same pair as found on the Bionic.
What really sets the Atrix 2 apart, is the price, which is reported to be $99 on-contract and available on October 16th. That's plenty of bargain for a modern dual-core chipset and what is surely going to be an impressive screen, even if real 4G isn't in the cards.

Samsung Captivate Glide and DoubleTime

The Samsung Captivate Glide could be categorized as a Galaxy R phone as it uses a Tegra 2 SoC and not one from Samsung's stable and joins the ranks of recent QWERTY devices from Samsung. The 4" devices uses a WVGA SuperAMOLED display and, as expected from a Tegra 2 device, is running its cores at 1 GHz and is backed by 1 GB of RAM. The phone sports 8 MP rear-facing and VGA front-facing cameras and is laden with the enterprise software that has become de rigueur from Samsung of late. Given the aggressive pricing on the Atrix 2, I'd be surprised if this phone was priced higher, but availability and pricing are TBA.

The Samsung DoubleTime is almost sure to be among AT&T's cheapest smartphones, though it has its market, to be sure. The colorful body (available in pink and white) and flip keyboard harkens back to the LG Envy series making this a push towards the text heavy youth market. Like the Envy of old, the DoubleTime features two screens, one touchscreen, and another non-touchscreen only visible when the clamshell is opened to reveal the ful QWERTY keyboard. Each screen is just 3.2" HVGA (320x480) and the rest of the specs won't impress anyone with just 600 MHz on tap from a Qualcomm chipset. Froyo is the Android flavor of choice, and the 3.2 MP shooter isn't likely to impress camera snobs. But if you've got a few tweens looking to stay in touch with friends, this could be the right phone at the right price. We just don't know what that price is yet, nor when you'll have it in hand.

Pantech Pocket

The Pantech Pocket is another value play from AT&T, this time in a slim, device whose ergonomics target one handed operation. What's most immediately striking about the device is its screen, a 4" SVGA vanilla LCD with a 4:3 aspect ratio. For those born after 1990, SVGA is 800x600 resolution and was last seen in the CRT era of PC displays. The extra horizontal pixels (when held in portrait) provide more browsing room, while the small form factor makes the device easy to handle with one hand. There's not much else to say, the phone looks like a grown up Tomagotchi, and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Pricing and availability are TBA.

AT&T Avail

The last entrant is AT&T's second Android prepaid handset, and their first ZTE handset. China's ZTE is set to grow its presence in the States but, like the Pocket and the DoubleTime, this is a bargain bin device that's not likely to wow anyone. No details on chipset or performance were given, simply that the phone has a 3.5" capacitive touch screen, a 5 MP shooter, 512 MB of onboard storage and a 2 GB microSD card preinstalled, and would be running Gingerbread. If you're looking to try out Android without a 2-year commitment, we can think of better ways, but travelers looking for a cheap back-up phone might just appreciate the Avail.
AT&T's Android line-up seems to have something for everone, though things seem a little iffy at the bottom end. On top you'll have devices like the Galaxy S II, the Atrix 2 and the Captivate Glide. On the lower end we'll now be seeing more Gingerbread devices with the Pocket and the Avail. CTIA's just getting started so we can expect more announcements in the coming days. Stay tuned.

Gallery: CTIA: AT&T Outs 5 New Android Phones, Atrix 2 for $99 on-contract

iPhone 4S Preliminary Benchmarks: ~800MHz A5, Slightly Slower GPU than iPad 2, Still Very Fast

Apple's ability to control the entire information chain, down to the point of limiting leaks, appears to be gradually slipping as it grows as a company. Case in point are the numerous hardware and performance leaks surrounding the newly launched iPhone 4S. Little did we know that several weeks ago we were staring at photos of the 4S' PCB, and more recently we've seen the first performance results from Apple's first A5 based smartphone thanks to a few eager users around the web. We've compiled these results here from various sources (all linked below) and compared them to our existing database of tests.
The results are pretty much as expected. Javascript performance finally catches up to Tegra 2 based Honeycomb devices, while general CPU performance is significantly higher than the iPhone 4. I suspect Ice Cream Sandwich will bridge the Android smartphone gap (the Honeycomb equipped Gtab 8.9 is here to give you an idea of where a more modern Android browser ends up).
Keep in mind that all of these tests measure performance of the software stack in addition to the hardware. In particular the web browser tests depend largely on browser optimizations, which is why we see differences between similar hardware running different browser versions. Also note that all results were run at stock, with the stock browser. Finally, although these browser tests were captured on video we'll still be running our official tests once our 4Ses arrive and will update accordingly.

Using some of the integer and fp tests of published Geekbench scores we can already conclude that Apple is shipping a lower clocked A5 in the iPhone 4S than it does in the iPad 2. This naturally makes sense as the iPhone 4S has a much smaller 5.25 Whr battery. Based on the Geekbench results it looks like the iPad 2 is clocked around 25% higher than the iPhone 4S, pegging the latter's clock speed at 800MHz.

Geekbench - Processor integer performance

A lower clock not only means higher yields from the factory, but likely a lower operating voltage as well. Dropping a CPU's core voltage, yields a greater-than-linear decrease in power consumption, making the marginal loss in clock speed a good choice. At a lower operating frequency than its Android competitors, Apple does have to exploit its strengths in software to avoid any tangible performance penalties. Apple has traditionally done this very well in the past, so I don't expect the loss of frequency to be a huge deal to the few who do cross-shop iOS and Android.
Unsurprisingly, memory bandwidth doesn't appear to have gone up either compared to the iPad 2's A5 (taking into account scaling due to CPU clock increases). The Samsung part number on the iPad 2's A5 indicates two LPDDR2-800 die on package, it's safe to assume that whatever Apple clocked the memory interface at in the iPad 2 remains unchanged in the iPhone 4S.
The GPU results tell a similar story courtesy of some early GLBenchmark 2.1 results. The 960 x 640 results are useless as they are bound by vsync at ~60 fps. Luckly GLBenchmark 2.1 added an off-screen render mode at 1280 x 720 where we can really see the differences between the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S A5 implementations:

Here the iPad 2 holds a ~21% performance advantage, which once again I assume to be all related to clock speed. Also note the huge advantage over the existing iPhone 4. The GPU power in the 4S should be more than enough to run any well written, current generation title at well north of 30 fps on its display.
We'll be reviewing the iPhone 4S in the coming weeks, stay tuned!
Source: GLBenchmark Database, Geekbench Database, Macrumors

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Motorola Droid Bionic Review - Dual Core with 4G LTE
It is something of an understatement to start out by mentioning that the Motorola Droid Bionic was easily this summer’s most anticipated smartphone. The story of the Bionic started at CES, where it immediately attracted attention thanks to its combination of 4G LTE connectivity and a Tegra 2 SoC.

The new Motorola Droid Bionic (codename Targa)

That Bionic doesn’t exist anymore, instead the phone that launched in its stead is codename Targa, which was further down the roadmap and no doubt accelerated to take the Bionic’s place. Until now, 4G LTE and dual core SoCs have been mutually exclusive, and the result is performance now gated by the SoC instead of the last mile of air between you and a base station.
Finally with the Bionic things change, and we have a smartphone that combines a dual core SoC with the fastest air interface around, 4G LTE. It’s been a long and arduous wait for the Bionic, but it’s finally here. The only lingering question is whether the wait has been worth it.

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Intel Focuses on Tablets, Winds Down Digital Home Group

Intel's Digital Home Group (DHG) is responsible for the consumer electronics versions of the Atom SoC family. Last year we saw the launch of the Boxee Box and Google TV, both based on the Intel DHG's CE4100 Atom SoC. At the time Intel had grand plans for the Atom CE line, however today things have changed.
The DHG as we knew it is no more. Intel will continue to focus on CE applications of its SoCs however it will focus exclusively on the IP set-top media processor and gateway/cable businesses. Intel's information is somewhat vague but it's my understanding that the Digital TV processor business is what's being axed, and this is the group that ultimately sold into Boxee/Google TV.
The engineers working in the DHG have since been folded up into the newly formed tablet organization under Doug Davis. The folks working on the Atom CE parts arguably had even more mindshare penetration than those working on the smartphone/tablet Atom SoCs, so the move can only be a good one as the two groups will be able to combine expertise and experience.
This move could also be a sign of things to come. Intel sees synergy between the tablet and the TV. Perhaps Intel sees the future of Boxee Box/Google TV offerings as being driven by a tablet rather than a stationary set-top box? It seems odd at first glance for sure, since there's obviously a benefit to having something permanent outside of your TV. But if you've already got a cable box, maybe a tablet is a better way to extend its functionality rather than adding another box to the stack.

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Mass Effect 3 To Include Cooperative Multiplayer

The third and final leg of Commander Shepard’s journey won’t be a lonely one. BioWare confirmed today that Mass Effect 3 will include four-player co-op gameplay via Mass Effect 3: Galaxy at War.
According to an official forum post by BioWare’s Chris Priestly, “Players can choose from a variety of classes and races, form an elite Special Forces squad, and combine their weapons, powers and abilities to devastating effect as they fight together to liberate key territories from enemy control.” The “entirely optional” Galaxy at War system will have players teaming up to on missions to impact Shepard’s “Galactic Readiness” level, which will affect the final battle against the Reapers.
Aware of fan anxiety that the addition of a multiplayer mode might negatively affect the core of Mass Effect 3, Priestly reiterated that a separate Montreal studio was opened to handle Galaxy at War’s development and that players will be able to reach the “the highest levels of success in the single player experience alone.”
BioWare plans to reveal more particulars of the multiplayer and Galaxy at War as we approach Mass Effect 3’s March 2012 release.
Source: BioWare

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Remote Desktop Beta Extension Brings Remote Access to Chrome

Google today introduced a beta version of its Chrome Remote Desktop functionality for the Chrome browser and Chrome OS. This functionality, news of which first made the rounds several months ago during Chrome OS's debut, comes in the form of an extension now, but Google's intent is to eventually roll it into the stable builds of its browser and OS.
Once downloaded and installed, the 19MB extension is added to the list of Apps on Chrome's default home page. After giving it permission to view your email address, you can establish a connection between any two computers running Chrome (whether Windows, OS X, Linux, or Chrome OS) and the extension by using a twelve digit number provided by the host computer.
In my brief test connecting my Windows computer to my Mac, the software worked as intended, though input was a bit laggier than using Microsoft's Remote Desktop protocol or Apple's Screen Sharing. Google suggests that the software could be used both in a help desk capacity, where an expert would share the user's screen to provide technical assistance, or to run legacy or "fat client" apps on Chrome OS. If Google can improve the functionality's responsiveness, it may just give enterprises another reason to consider Chrome.
Source: Chrome Web Store

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SilverStone Strider Plus - 500W Modular Power

SilverStone is a well known brand for high-quality (and expensive) cases. Beyond that they offer a large selection of power supplies. They have SFX-PSUs for HTPCs, redundant PSUs for server and workstations, and standard ATX PSUs for "normal" PCs. Today we take a look at a product from the latter category. The SilverStone Strider Plus 500W is a fully modular PSU with 80 Plus Bronze certification, going for a very affordable $60. That sounds interesting so far, so let us see if the internal design and measurements can satisfy.

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Acer Aspire S3 Available This Week for $899

Acer hasn't had the best year, falling behind in global PC sales from its former perch at No. 2, just behind HP. Their announcement today that their first Ultrabook, the Aspire S3 would be available this week, and at a positively cut rate $899 is a strong move to build itself back up. You'll recall Ultrabooks are an Intel backed initiative to produce thin, lightweight laptops based around their CULV Sandy Bridge processors. By "Intel backed" this isn't just a name and a concept, Intel has committed $300M to help companies develop and market their variants. The power-sipping, modern processors are just one part of the concept; SSDs feature prominently in all models, as does a target price of $999, and a target battery life of 5 hours. Rapid sleep and wake times are also notable, though the speed of these seems very manufacturer dependent.
The 13.3" S3 delivers a 1366x768 resolution on its LED backlit display, in an aluminum/magnesium chassis just a tick over half an inch thick at its thinnest point, and weighing just under 3 lbs. These are all characteristics that we'll encounter repeatedly as other Ultrabook models become available. The thin frame finds room for two USB ports along with a full size HDMI port on its back side, while audio jacks and a card reader grace its sides. The full size chiclet keyboard and large multitouch trackpad are par for the course and the system is being offered in a metallic grey with a fingerprint resistant finish. Connectivity comes in the form of 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless along with Bluetooth 4.0+HS, and a 1.3MP webcam rounds out the exterior specs.
Inside the S3-951, you'll find the Core i5-2467 whose two cores can operate at 1.6GHz, or up to 2.3GHz on a single core, along with 4GB of RAM on the Intel UM67 chipset. Acer's Ultrabook will feature not just an SSD, 20GB in size, but also a 320GB HDD for expanded mobile storage. It's unclear whether the SSD will serve as a boot drive or exclusively to store sleep state. Note that the UM67 chipset does not support the Z68's Smart Response Technology that Anand discussed previously, but all ultrabooks sport enhanced wake from sleep times thanks to their SSD requirement and some chipset optimizations.
In the case of the S3, we're looking at a 2 second wake from sleep time (which really doesn't seem like that big a deal--resume from hibernation is what typically requires 30+ seconds). Another highlight is the 50 day stand by time. This is where the SSD's non-volatile memory really comes in handy. When left in sleep for longer than 8 hours, or a user definable time, the S3 will enter a Deep Sleep state that allows for this absurd stand by time. It can wake from Deep Sleep in just 6 seconds. Stand by times aren't the only area where the S3 should excel, the 3-cell 3280 mAh integrated battery is said to be good for 6 hours continuous usage. We can't wait to get our hands on one to test these battery life figures (though we'll likely pass on testing that stand by number).
All of this will be available this week for that tempting $899 MSRP, a welcome value when not that long ago thicker, heavier and less potent machines were competing in the same price range for the "thin and light" crown. This is only the start though, with many OEMs expected to announce their products in the coming days and weeks.

Gallery: Acer Aspire S3 Available This Week for $899

Samsung Stratosphere: LTE and QWERTY for $149 [UPDATED]

With Palm essentially dead, and RIM undergoing a less than smooth transition, it seems at times that more companies are going after the suits and ties crowd that have been ardent devotees the the former mobile giants. And so, in the press release today announcing the Samsung Stratosphere, the first LTE device on Verizon Wireless to include a QWERTY keyboard, the bulk of the text involves the business features of the device, with just a few lines to discuss media features and a single mention of playing games. Nonbusiness types might have a few nice things to say about the Stratosphere, though.
Sporting a 4" SuperAMOLED WVGA display, a 1 GHz Hummingbird SoC, 1.3 MP front-facing and 5 MP rear-facing cameras and running Gingerbread, the Stratosphere is basically, a Galaxy S. So, this may be last years internals, but the reportedly slim form factor, keyboard and LTE may strike a note for those itching to upgrade. There's no mention of TouchWiz, though the press stills feature its familiar home screen. Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync is present for e-mail, calendar and contacts. Cisco's AnyConnect provides corporate VPN connectivity, and Sybase Afaria provides remote device management, so work issued phones can be wiped by IT when you leave yours in a cab.
We're curious just how thin the device might be, certainly Samsung has experience building devices that compete on thin, but thin QWERTY is hard to do. To find out, check your local Verizon store Oct. 13th, and if the upgrade bug bites you this'll ring up to $149 on contract after a mail in rebate.
UPDATE: We got the Stratosphere's dimensions in and are including them in a comparison chart below, and at 0.55" thick, this isn't Galaxy S 2 territory, nor was it expected to be. It is however thicker than its most recent competitor on VZW, the Droid 3, whose 0.51" doesn't have to make do with the additional LTE chip. Still, it is comparable to other LTE stablemates and to other QWERTY's on the market.

Physical Comparison
	T-Mobile MyTouch 4G Slide	Motorola Droid 3	Samsung Stratosphere	Samsung Droid Charge
Height	122 mm (4.8")	123.3 mm (4.85")	126.0 mm (4.96")	129.9 mm (5.11")
Width	66 mm (2.6")	64.1 mm (2.52")	64.5 mm (2.54")	67.5 mm (2.65")
Depth	14 mm ( 0.55")	12.9 mm (0.51")	14.0 mm (0.55")	11.90-14.96 mm (0.47"-0.59")
Weight	184 g (6.49 oz)	184 g (6.49 oz)	164.4 g (5.8 oz)	143 g (5.04 oz)
CPU	1.2 GHz Dual Core Snapdragon MSM8260	1 GHz Dual Core Cortex-A9 OMAP 4430	1 GHz Hummingbird S5PC110	1 GHz Hummingbird S5PC110
GPU	Adreno 220	PowerVR SGX 540	PowerVR SGX 540	PowerVR SGX 540
RAM	768 MB LPDDR2	512 MB LPDDR2	512 MB LPDDR2	512 MB LPDDR2
NAND	4 GB NAND with 8 GB microSD Class 4 preinstalled	16 GB NAND, up to 32 GB microSD	??	2 GB NAND + 32 GB microSD preinstalled
Camera	8 MP AF/Dual LED flash, f/2.2, 1080p30 video, VGA front facing	8 MP with AF/LED Flash, 1080p30 video recording, VGA (0.3MP) front facing	5 MP with AF/LED Flash, 480p video recording, 1.3 MP front facing	8 MP with AF and LED flash, 720p30 video capture, 1.3 MP front facing
Screen	3.7" 800 x 480 S-LCD	4.0" 960 x 540 RGBW LCD	4.0" 800 x 480 SuperAMOLED	4.3" 800 x 480 SAMOLED+
Battery	Removable 5.62 Whr	Removable 5.65 Whr	???	Removable 5.92 Whr

Netflix Abandons Qwikster, Will Continue Sending DVDs by Mail

In a terse blog post this morning, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced that Netflix no longer planned to split its streaming and DVD-by-mail businesses into two companies with two distinct web sites, citing that such a move would make things "more difficult" for consumers.
This ends the drama that began last month, when a much longer and occasionally apologetic blog post announced that Netflix would be splitting into two companies: the first, still dubbed Netflix, would handle the on-demand streaming, while a new company, Qwikster, would now handle the mailing of DVDs. Consumers, already smarting from recent price hikes, objected to the idea of having two entirely separate accounts, sites, and queues to manage where there had previously been one, and condemnation of the move was near-universal.
As such, the company is staying as it is for now, and the Qwikster URL now redirects to the Netflix homepage. Hastings also claims that Netflix is now "done with price changes," though he made no mention of the Gamefly-style video games-by-mail service that was to launch with Qwikster.
Source: Netflix

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LG's Optimus LTE: 329ppi with 4.5-inch 1280 x 720 True HD IPS Display

Present day, high-end Android smartphones are offered in two display resolutions: 800 x 480 (WVGA) and 960 x 540 (qHD). With the upcoming release of Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), we expect the high-end Android phones to embrace even higher resolutions including 1280 x 720.
Samsung already announced a 720p version of the Galaxy S II, and the upcoming ICS launch vehicle is widely expected to boast a 720p display as well. As a prominent LCD panel vendor as well as a player in the smartphone space, LG is hopping on the 720p Android bandwagon with the Optimus LTE.
The Optimus LTE uses what LG is calling its True HD IPS display. The True HD IPS panel measures 4.5-inches diagonally and has a pixel density of 329 ppi courtesy of its 1280 x 720 resolution (slightly higher than Apple's Retina Display at 326 ppi). Todays release doesn't reveal any other panel specs, but we do have a few shots of it below courtesy of LG.
Like the Galaxy S II HD LTE, the Optimus LTE is being introduced first in Korea.

Gallery: LG's Optimus LTE: 329ppi with 4.5-inch 1280 x 720 True HD IPS Display

The iPhone 4S, HSPA+, and When HSPA+ is Real 4G
A while after the iPhone 4S announcement, I posted a piece on the iPhone 4S' cellular architecture and talked about the new inclusion of HSPA+ alongside CDMA2000 1x/EVDO and some specifications. Since then, there's been some ongoing confusion about whether the device supports HSPA+, whether it's "4G," and just what all that really means.
It's funny because this issue came up with the HP Veer 4G on AT&T a while back, and with that particular device I did a similar explanatory article in the context of a This Just In post. I wager the somewhat limited cross shopping (and commercial success of the Veer) resulted in many iOS users missing that discussion, and it's cropping up again for the iPhone 4S. The confusion is really twofold. First is a misunderstanding about 3GPP releases and what features are optional or mandatory. Second is a misunderstanding about HSDPA, HSUPA, and modulation coding schemes. Let's break it down.
UMTS standards are defined by an organization known as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), which is a body comprised of partners like telecommunications companies, wireless carriers, and cellular hardware manufacturers. Standards are important, and their formation requires collaboration and discussion. Major revisions are finalized, synchronized, and become "releases." For example the first releases define GSM, release 99 defines UMTS, release 5 defines HSDPA, 6 defines HSUPA, 7 - HSPA+, 8 - LTE, and 10 - LTE Advanced.

This is a huge oversimplification, but you can see how major milestones are bundled up and become releases, and thus when baseband manufacturers like Infineon, Qualcomm, or ST-E release hardware, they're said to be compliant with a given release, and inherit the big features from releases before it.
Where confusion arises is that you don't need to include every feature from some release to say that your hardware is compatible with a given release, and really only features from release 99 are mandatory if you're out to make some UMTS hardware. So when a baseband is "HSPA+" (which really is a colloquial name for the improvements to HSPA made in 3GPP release 7), it doesn't need to include every last feature. Features included in release 7 include things like reduced signaling, faster call setup, continuous packet connectivity, reworked RCC states (idle, DCH, FACH, e.t.c), MIMO, and higher order modulation support. On the downlink, 64QAM or MIMO gets added, and on the uplink, 16QAM gets added.
The confusion in the case of many HSDPA 14.4 (Category 10) devices seems to center on whether it is or isn't HSPA+ if it doesn't include 64QAM support on the downlink (which starts in category 13). This is one of those few times that looking at the Wikipedia table for HSDPA UE categories can be misleading. UE categories with 64QAM are introduced in 3GPP release 7, however it's up to manufacturers to include or not include that feature when actually making hardware. It's interesting to me that all of this misinformation comes up over HSDPA UE category, and somehow HSUPA UE category never gets brought up - I haven't seen anyone claiming that some baseband isn't HSPA+ because it excludes 16QAM on the uplink, yet the overwhelming majority of devices are just using QPSK.

Apple hasn't stated what baseband is in the iPhone 4S (and I guess we won't know absolutely for certain until it gets opened up), but it is almost without doubt MDM6600 just like the Verizon iPhone 4. The specs all line up, and while that part doesn't include 64QAM on the downlink, it does include a number of the other HSPA+ features I've mentioned, and is thus 3GPP Rel.7 and therefore "HSPA+."

Actually using these higher orders of modulation requires favorable radio conditions, of course, and the result is that 64QAM on the downlink or 16QAM on the uplink only gets used in very well tuned systems or cell center. There have been some drive tests done which have shown that 64QAM only really gets used 10% of the time on average. In the iPhone 4S' case here in the USA, it's silly to argue about whether or not the phone can decode 64QAM if AT&T doesn't even use it. A few Samsung devices so far have been based on ST-E's Thor 5730 HSDPA 21.1/Category 14 baseband, and include an engineering menu which shows the percentage of frames encoded using QPSK, 16QAM, or 64QAM.

Note that 64Q is 0. I have run many other tests where 16Q is 100.

I've shown a few other interested people how to see this menu on the Samsung Infuse 4G on AT&T, and thus far none of them has seen any 64QAM frames show up. I've never seen 64QAM pop up either, even with line of sight to the tower in the middle of the night. Those markets include my own in Tucson, AZ, and New York City, which are both AT&T "4G" markets (connoting HSPA+ with improved backhaul) on the coverage viewer. Two data points isn't enough to say conclusively that AT&T isn't using 64QAM, but I haven't seen it yet. You can also see this on video from an Infuse in NYC. Not all AT&T WCDMA "3G" markets are HSPA+, but if you're in a market that AT&T has marked with dark blue (and calls "4G") you can be pretty much assured it's HSPA+.
So the next question is when HSPA+ is and isn't real 4G, and obviously the bar right now is LTE. We've gone over all the real ITU decisions and such in our LTE piece, (whose definition does include DC-HSPA+ and LTE instead of previously just LTE Advanced) but what matters is actual throughput. There's credibility to HSPA+ being comparable to LTE speed as soon as DC-HSPA comes around which aggregates together two 5 MHz WCDMA channels. With all the same features (MIMO, 64QAM, and wider channel bandwidth), DC-HSPA+ gets you approximately to the level of theoretical maximum throughput you can get on LTE. It's easy to see how things are arguably fairly comparable when you consider Verizon uses 10 MHz FDD, and DC-HSPA+ aggregates together two 5 MHz WCDMA channels. Throw in MIMO in addition to just dual-carrier, and maximum theoretical throughput lines up pretty closely as shown in this table by Qualcomm:

That's saying nothing about network latency, however, where LTE will continue to outshine HSPA+. In that case, it does arguably make sense to associate DC-HSPA+ with real LTE and call it real 4G, but until DC-HSPA+ or at least HSPA+ with MIMO it is almost without doubt still 3G. Obviously USA carriers' attempts to pass off HSPA+ 14.4 or even 21.1 as "4G" is immediately laughable marketing, but DC-HSPA+ is arguably real 4G.

Lastly, rumor has it that AT&T and Apple are "working together" to change the 3G status indicator to "4G" for AT&T in the US, a move that would mark the first carrier intrusion into the otherwise completely carrier-untouched iOS. I don't have issue with the status indicators showing H or H+ (for HSPA and HSPA+ when appropriate), but misleading indicators do nobody justice and just serve to reinforce these kinds of misconceptions.

Windows 8 To Use Less Memory Than Windows 7

One of Microsoft's stated goals for Windows 8 is for it to run on any system capable of running Windows 7, which at a minimum will require the its resource usage to remain the same as its predecessor's. Today on the Building Windows 8 blog, Microsoft's Bill Karagounis details how the company has worked not just to maintain memory usage relative to Windows 7, but to reduce it, with an eye toward making it run acceptably on ARM-based tablets that lack the beefy processors and multi-gigabyte RAM banks of today's PCs.
One improvement to the memory manager allows it to search for duplicated items in memory, and to unload all but a single copy to save space (the Windows installer and image deployment tools for enterprises do something similar to reduce the size of the install media, keeping one copy of a given file and a record of everywhere that file needs to go on the hard drive rather than, say, five copies of the same file). Another allows developers to designate certain parts of programs and processes as "low priority," meaning that when the OS needs more memory it can maintain system responsiveness by removing those less-important bits from RAM first.
The OS's other major memory-saving trick comes not from reprogramming major programs and services, but changing how and when they run. Many services in Windows 8 - Windows Update, the Plug and Play service, and others - run only when they're needed, while in Windows 7 they run in the background more or less constantly. By changing some traditional Windows services to run only when triggered and making many new-to-Windows 8 services behave the same way, the OS can save RAM without actually shedding features.
For more, Microsoft's blog post is as always more exhaustive and detailed than what we've reported here - it's linked below for your convenience.
Source: Building Windows 8 Blog

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Qualcomm's New Snapdragon S4: MSM8960 & Krait Architecture Explored
Let's recap the current smartphone/tablet SoC landscape. Everything shipping today is built on a 4x-nm process, built either at Global Foundries, Samsung, TSMC or UMC. Next year we'll see a move to 28nm (bringing better performance and power characteristics) but between now and the end of 2012 there will be a myriad of designs available on the market.
The table below encapsulates much of what you can expect over the next 12 months:

2011/2012 SoC Comparison
SoC	Process Node	CPU	GPU	Memory Bus	Release
Apple A5	45nm	2 x ARM Cortex A9 w/ MPE @ 1GHz	PowerVR SGX 543MP2	2 x 32-bit LPDDR2	Now
NVIDIA Tegra 2	40nm	2 x ARM Cortex A9 @ 1GHz	GeForce	1 x 32-bit LPDDR2	Now
NVIDIA Tegra 3/Kal-El	40nm	4 x ARM Cortex A9 w/ MPE @ ~1.3GHz	GeForce++	1 x 32-bit LPDDR2	Q4 2011
Samsung Exynos 4210	45nm	2 x ARM Cortex A9 w/ MPE @ 1.2GHz	ARM Mali-400 MP4	2 x 32-bit LPDDR2	Now
Samsung Exynos 4212	32nm	2 x ARM Cortex A9 w/ MPE @ 1.5GHz	ARM Mali-400 MP4	2 x 32-bit LPDDR2	2012
TI OMAP 4430	45nm	2 x ARM Cortex A9 w/ MPE @ 1.2GHz	PowerVR SGX 540	2 x 32-bit LPDDR2	Now
TI OMAP 4460	45nm	2 x ARM Cortex A9 w/ MPE @ 1.5GHz	PowerVR SGX 540	2 x 32-bit LPDDR2	Q4 11 - 1H 12
TI OMAP 4470	45nm	2 x ARM Cortex A9 w/ MPE @ 1.8GHz	PowerVR SGX 544	2 x 32-bit LPDDR2	1H 2012
TI OMAP 5	28nm	2 x ARM Cortex A15 @ 2GHz	PowerVR SGX 544MPx	2 x 32-bit LPDDR2	2H 2012
Qualcomm MSM8x60	45nm	2 x Scorpion @ 1.5GHz	Adreno 220	2 x 32-bit LPDDR2*	Now
Qualcomm MSM8960	28nm	2 x Krait @ 1.5GHz	Adreno 225	2 x 32-bit LPDDR2	1H 2012

The key is this: other than TI's OMAP 5 in the second half of 2012 and Qualcomm's Krait, no one else has announced plans to release a new microarchitecture in the near term. Furthermore, if we only look at the first half of next year, Qualcomm is the only company that's focused on significantly improving per-core performance through a new architecture. Everyone else is either scaling up in core count (NVIDIA) or clock speeds. As we've seen in the PC industry however, generational performance gaps are hard to overcome - even with more cores or frequency.
Read on for our analysis of Qualcomm's Krait architecture and the MSM8960.

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Samsung and Google Cancel Unpacked Event - May Delay Nexus Prime and Ice Cream Sandwich

Google and Samsung had scheduled an event, Unpacked: Google Edition, for October 11th, but the companies today reported that the event has been canceled. It was expected that Samsung would release a new smartphone, which has been referred as both, Galaxy Nexus and Nexus Prime in reports. Google was also set to launch the next version of Android (4.0) called Ice Cream Sandwich. The new Samsung phone would have run the new Android obviously.
No concrete reason for the cancelation was given, although Samsung said that they felt that "it wasn't the right time to announce a new product". This suggests that the companies decided to postpone the event due to Steve Jobs' death, and if this is the case, it's a very respectful call towards Steve. The event is set to be rescheduled at a later date but no further details have been given yet.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk

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ComScore: iPads Account for 97.2 Percent of U.S. Tablet Traffic in August 2011
iOS devices have eclipsed Android-powered devices when it comes to total connected devices currently in use, Internet traffic and tablets

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AT&T Promises to Step Up Android Offerings, Shows 5 New Phones
Refreshed Atrix 4G, the Captivate Glide, and even a prepaid option beef up Ma Bell's offerings

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New York Stock Exchange Hack Attack Fizzles
Anonymous threatened to crash the NYSE website and failed to do so

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Mars Express Finds Supersaturated Water Vapor in Mars' Atmosphere
Mars Express was able to accomplish what so many other spacecraft have tried and failed by using a SPICAM(2) spectrometer

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German Hackers: Gov't Trojan Capable of Planting Evidence, Cybercrime
Government scheme uses trojan virus, routes data through rented U.S. servers

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Quick Note: Samsung Stratosphere LTE Smartphone Coming to Verizon
Stratosphere has LTE, keyboard, and lots of meh

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10/10/2011 Daily Hardware Reviews
DailyTech's roundup of hardware reviews from around the web for Monday

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U.S. Seeks WikiLeaks Volunteer's Email Info; Issues Exec. Order to Protect Classified Info
The U.S. government is going after Google and Internet provider Sonic with secret court orders to obtain information from the email accounts of WikiLeaks volunteer Jacob Appelbaum

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Available Tags:Android , iPad 2 , iPhone , GPU , iPad , Motorola , 4G , Intel , Chrome , Acer , Samsung , Windows 7 , Windows 8 , Windows , Windows , Google , Tablet , Hack , Smartphone , Hardware , WikiLeaks ,

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

IT News Head Lines (AnandTech) 12/10/2011

The Motorola Atrix 2

Samsung Captivate Glide and DoubleTime

Pantech Pocket

AT&T Avail

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