this week

USB 3.1 Spec Approved, Brings 10Gbps

 SpeedsThe USB 3.0 Promoter Group announced on Wednesday (pdf) that the USB 3.1 specification is complete and will raise the SuperSpeed USB transfer rate up to 10 Gbps. The current USB 3.0 spec in use has a limit of 5 Gbps, thus the latest release not only doubles what's available now on installed USB 3.0 ports, but makes SuperSpeed USB more competitive with Intel's Thunderbolt technology.

Unfortunately, the news doesn't mean current USB 3.0 ports will get an injection of speed. The new spec will be fully backwards compatible with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0, but only new ports manufactured with the USB 3.1 spec will be able to take advantage of the new speed limit. When ODMs will implement the new spec into their designs is unknown at this point.

"The USB 3.1 specification primarily extends existing USB 3.0 protocol and hub operation for speed scaling along with defining the next higher physical layer speed as 10 Gbps," said Brad Saunders, USB 3.0 Promoter Group Chairman. "The specification team worked hard to make sure that the changes made to support higher speeds were limited and remained consistent with existing USB 3.0 architecture to ease product development."

Despite the USB 3.1 boost, Thunderbolt is still faster thanks to a speed injection of its own to 20 Gbps. It also enables daisy chaining, whereas USB supports hubs that route several connected USB peripherals through one port. While Intel has been heavily pushing the Thunderbolt tech as a high-speed I/O alternative since it was first launched in February 2011, adoption has been rather slow.

Back in 2012, Acer became the first PC maker to adopt Intel's Thunderbolt technology. But the company said just last month that it has dropped the tech from its designs, and will focus on USB 3.0 instead. It was presumed that Acer was well aware that USB 3.1 was nearing completion and planned to use the newer SuperSpeed tech rather than the more expensive Thunderbolt.

"We're really focusing on USB 3.0 -- it's an excellent alternative to Thunderbolt," said Acer spokeswoman Ruth Rosene. "It's less expensive, offers comparable bandwidth, charging for devices such as mobile phones, and has a large installed base of accessories and peripherals."

Meanwhile, Intel seems to be supporting the new USB 3.1 spec despite its Thunderbolt efforts. "The industry has affirmed the strong demand for higher through-put, for user-connected peripherals and docks, by coming together to produce a quality SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps specification," said Alex Peleg, Vice President, Intel Architecture Group. "Intel is fully committed to deliver on this request."

Developer conferences regarding USB 3.1 will take place in Hillsboro, Oregon (Aug. 21), Dublin, Ireland (Oct. 1-2) and a two-day session during December in Asia. Additional information about these conferences can be found on the USB-IF website.

GooPhone with the world’s first tri-SIM smartphone

To one degree, it seems like an easy thing to pick fun of a company like GooPhone, known for making cheap knock-off clones of established flagship devices. It is an easy target to hit for sure, but at the same time, the price point of some of these gadgets can make one pause for a second or two (seriously).
They may not be packing Snapdragon CPUs or featuring all the lastest S-app functionality from Samsung, but they can be had on the cheap, really cheap.
GooPhone actually made a compelling clone to the iPad mini with the GooPad mini, which cost only $99 running Android Jelly Bean out of the box (which was a big deal last October). We do not know how much, if any, of that gear ever actually makes it to the US or Europe, but one type of device that does find a reasonably wide range of popularity is the dual-SIM device.
There are plenty of reasons why dual-SIM devices are popular, take advantage of better rate plans in different countries, even different times of day to use one service or another. What better than a tri-SIM phone to widen your repertoire of options?
The GooPhone X1+ is the world’s first tri-SIM device. It is running some version of Android and hardware-wise it looks to be a close knock-off of the Samsung Galaxy S-III. Aside from that. We do not have any other specification, but we are pretty certain it is using easy (cheap) to produce components to keep the price ultra-attractive.

Motorola Moto X gets official X8 chipset, 4.7" AMOLED screen

Motorola has officially taken the wraps off the Moto X - the first phone that has been entirely developed under the supervision of Google. It's also the company's first phone in a while to be fully assembled in the USA.The Motorola Moto X is build around a 4.7" AMOLED display with full RGB matrix and 720p resolution. This results in a pixel density of 316 ppi. The screen is protected by a new type of Gorilla Glass, which is dubbed Magic Glass due to its curves towards the edges of the phone.


On the inside, the Motorola Moto X features a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset with dual 1.7GHz Krait cores, Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM. Internal storage is 16GB or 32GB depending on the version you choose but there's no card slot for further expansion. Just like the latest DROID line-up, the Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset is part of the Motorola X8 board, which also includes a natural language processor and contextual computing processor.
The Moto X camera has a 10MP sensor and uses the ClearPixel technology for superior low-light performance. Every other green portion of the Bayer filter array, which sits in front of the image sensor, is replaced by a clear one, allowing more light to reach the sensor.
On the software side, the camera offers HDR, burst shots and panorama. The Moto X can also shoot full HD videos at 30fps and there are features like face detection and geo-tagging on board. At the front, there's a 2MP camera capable of 1080p video recording that serves for video-chatting purposes.
Motorola has gone great lengths to make the Moto X a truly customizable phone. Customers can choose whether the front panel to be black or white, as well as the color of the back panel from 18 options. There's also a third customizable area called accent - it covers the camera rim and side buttons. Further customization includes adding a name or short message on the back of the phone as choosing a Google account and wallpaper to come preinstalled on the device.
The Motorola Moto X runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, which at first glance looks as clean as stock, but Motorola has added a few touches of its own. One of them is the Active Display feature, which makes use of the OLED screen and brings a snippet of information (the time, new messages and voicemail) on a blank black screen. Think of it as an Android version of Nokia's Glance Screen feature.
Motorola has also preinstalled a transfer app called Migrate. It allows you to transfer your photos, videos, SIM contacts and even call and text history from any Android phone running Android 2.2 or higher.
Because of the curved back, the Motorola Moto X thickness varies from 5.6 to 10.4mm. The phone has a pretty decent footprint for its 4.7" display - 129.3 x 65.3mm with a weight of the very acceptable 130 grams.
Below the customizable back panel sits a 2200mAh battery, which Motorola rates at 13 hours of 3G talk time and up to 24 hours of mixed usage endurance.
The Motorola Moto X a will be available on the five largest carriers in the USA - AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and US Cellular. It will cost $200 for the 16GB version and $250 for the 32GB units, both with a two-year contract.

Microsoft releases Office Mobile for Office 365 Android app

Microsoft unveiled the Office Mobile for Office 365 for Android. It allows you to edit docs on your phone and sync them with SkyDrive.


The user interface looks lifted straight out of the Windows Phone 8 version, but the flat design goes well with Android's Holo looks. The app supports Word, Excel and PowerPoint docs with charts, animations, SmartArt Graphics, shapes and comments.


Better still, the Office Mobile for Office 365 reflows the docs so that they look good on your phone and are easy to edit, but that doesn’t break the formatting on the PC. Speaking of the PC app, the last files you edited will show up in the Recent Documents tab so you can continue editing on the phone right away, even the Resume Reading feature works (it takes you to the point of the document you were editing last).


Sharing is enabled, so you can easily share a doc from your phone when you're done with the corrections.
The Office Mobile for Office 365 (catchy name, isn't it?) is available right now in the Google Play Store, but there are some limitations. For one, the app is available only in the US, but Microsoft is promising to add more countries to the list in the coming weeks.
Also, you need an Android 4.0+ phone. Note phone, not tablet – it's an annoying limitation as people are more likely to edit a doc on a tablet than a phone. Also you need an Office 365 subscription to use the app (you can get a 30 day trial), unlike the WP8 version which is free out of the box. And unlike the iOS version, which also requires a subscription,

The Nokia PR2.0 Amber update full changelog appears

The PR2.0 codenamed Amber update for Nokia Lumia 920 and its WP8 siblings is in the rumorland for quite some time and is highly anticipated by all owners. In case you own a Lumia 920/820/720/620/520 you are probably curious what to expect with the upcoming update.
The Amber update contains the official Windows Phone 8 GDR2 update that is coming later this year to every WP8 smartphone. There are a number of features that will remain exclusive to the Lumia lineup, though.
As luck would have it the guys from nokiawindowsphone.pl managed to get their hands on the complete changelog of the PR2.0 Amber and shared it with the rest of us.

• Glance Screen: Clock Charging indicator / low battery Indicator for silent / vibra mode, night mode (change color for night time). OFF by default.
• Smart camera capture the best moment: Accidental remove unwanted objects from the scene. Select the best shot and precise moment. Sequense take a group of images with advanced face, smile and blink detection. The, best 'face for each person is automatically selected into a single, best' shot.
• FM Radio: Be ready to tune your favorite station - FM Radio is BACK! Store your favorite stations for the next time.
• Flip: Flip to silence the phone to turn it silence.
• Data Sense: Managing your data flow monitor and control data usage. Optimally compressing web traffic.
• Find your closest hotspot: Enriched web services (for operators).
• HERE branding Location & Commerce
• Here Maps v3.4: Your compass is a discovery What's New: Increased venue map coverage Favorites saved in HERE Maps now sync across all HERE experiences Personalized Live Tile options: Pin and Pin destination to start a place to start as favorite Pin Pin to start a place category to start
• Here Drive + v2.2: The open road made easy What's New: Sync favorite places with other apps HERE and here.com Customize your map to display relevant points of interest, dry as restaurants, gas stations, and more one-tap access to speed limit Alert options right from the dashboard Personalized Live Tile options: Pin to Start a destination (one tap gives driving directions to That destination)
• Here Transit v3.5: Now arriving: the best way across town What's New: Access your favorites through your searches Display nearby stations directly on a map opens Transit Maps to display more route options Transit Maps opens to display the battles navigation options Personalized Live Tile: Pin a destination like Home, Work, or School to start (one tap shows public transit routes and times to get there from wherever you are)

And these are some of the features part of the Windows Phone 8 GDR2 update.

• Xbox Music facilitated selection, procurement and pinning music. Also for fans of music are provided to display more detailed metadata (eg information about the songs and albums), and made other improvements.
• You can listen to FM radio: FM radio directly in the heart of Music + Video. (This is not available in some phones).
• Data Sense: Sense With the service date have complete control over the amount of data sent over the phone. You can impose a limit corresponding to your subscription or simply keep track of which applications send much data. (Not all mobile operators offer the service offering Sense).
• Application: Skype applications to support VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), for example, Lync and Skype now gained greater stability and efficiency of operations.
• Comfort: Internet Explorer web browsing will be greatly improved by better compliance with HTML 5
• Other improvements includes many other improvements of Windows Phone.

The Amber update is available out of box on the Lumia 925 and Lumia 1020. We expect it to hit the other compatible smartphones in a month or two.

Apple leaks out iPhone 5c

The Apple iPhone 5C, earlier referred to as the iPhone Lite or just ‘affordable’ iPhone, has now surfaced once again and this time we get to see more than just a plastic shell.

The whole front including the actual display panel of the iPhone 5Chas now arrived in the hands of Chinese C Technology, and if you ever doubted how real the device is, it seems that this is one more solid proof to cast away all doubts.

It’s hard to see many differences at first sight, but C Tech claims the wiring and some minute details differ in comparison with the iPhone 5.
Overall, though, the devices are strikingly similar. That is the big revelation actually - the iPhone 5C might turn out to be a very, very similar device to the iPhone 5 spec-wise and differ mostly in its plastic build and colorful back palette.

Nokia RX-114 with Snapdragon 800 appears in benchmarks, possibly a Windows RT tablet

Nokia may be testing a Snapdragon 800 powered Windows device as we write these very lines, if the data spotted in a recent benchmark result is to be trusted. Bearing the RX-114 model name, the device in question was outed by the GFXbench app. This, however, isn't necessarily a WP8 smartphone. Instead, the Nokia RX-114 could very well be a Windows RT based tablet currently in development. According to the listing, 1371 by 771 pixels is the display resolution of this mysterious slate, which may be quite unusual of a figure, but it comes close enough to the 1366 by 768 pixel screen size on the Surface RT.

Nokia RX-114 on GFXbench

Yet something tells us that if the Nokia RX-114 really is a Windows RT tablet, then its launch is far from guaranteed. For starters, Windows RT tablets are selling poorly, which is why many manufacturers have already abandoned their plans on releasing new devices running this variant of Microsoft's OS. On top of that, we're hearing that Nokia is now focused on building a Windows 8 tablet instead of anything based on Windows RT. Sure, the Nokia RX-114 benchmark result isn't necessarily a forgery, but the device could be nothing but a scrapped prototype that someone is just playing around with. 

Samsung also working on 'true octa-core' processor

A couple of days ago MediaTek announced it’s making the first ‘true octa-core’ processor, meaning that it will have a chip capable of having all eight processor core running simultaneously. It was a big move for the Taiwanese chip maker that is enjoying growing popularity, but Samsung won’t just stand still and rumors have surfaced that it is also working on a ‘true octa-core’ processor.
Samsung already has the Exynos 5 Octa, but it uses ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture pairing 4 energy-efficient Cortex A7 cores and four extremely powerful Cortex A15 cores in a single setup. Yet this only allows four of the cores to work simultaneously.There are no further details about this supposed new Samsung chip. If it all turns out to be true, though, 2014 might become the year of the ‘true octa-core’ chip.
We should however mention that simply raising the number of simultaneously active cores isn’t going to be a silver bullet solving all performance woes. Most applications simply won’t be optimized to use all those cores and it might be a good idea to actually focus on polishing per core architecture and performance. The other side of the argument is of course pure marketing. Octa-core sounds great to the average user on the ‘the more, the better’ principle, and companies are actively exploiting this.

Samsung to buy Novaled for longer-lasting, more efficient Super AMOLED displays

Samsung has set its eyes on Novaled, a company that is developing the PIN OLED technology that allows longer-lasting organic LED display panels with lower power consumption.

Bloomberg reports that Samsung is looking to acquire the Germans, and incorporate the goods in its own Super AMOLED panel brand that is a signature staple of the Galaxy flagship smartphone line.

“We are internally reviewing plans to acquire Novaled, but no details have been set yet,” said Lee Tae Hun, a spokesman for Samsung's chemical and electronic materials holding. The price is rumored to be in the realm of $200 million, and Samsung will be buying quite the innovation powerhouse here.

Novaled was ranked in the top 10 most innovative companies among various emerging technologies in a Lux Research study, based on its projects' potential, addressable market and IP strength. It recently announced breakthroughs aimed at printable OLED materials, as well as laser processing to customize OLED panels after manufacturing, so there is plenty for Samsung to work with after acquisition, in order to make its Super AMOLED brand even better.

iPhone 5S fingerprint scanner confirmed in iOS 7 beta 4

Apple will be announcing new hardware in just over a month, which would mean that iOS 7 should be closing in on its final form soon. Today saw the release of iOS 7 beta 4, and the change log for the new beta release has a couple interesting additions, including possible confirmation that there will be a fingerprint scanner on a new Apple product.

For the most part, beta 4 is filled with bug fixes more than anything else, but developer Hamza Sood has uncovered what looks to be solid evidence that new Apple hardware will include a fingerprint scanner. In the update package, Sood found a folder labeled "BiometricKitUI", which was a good indicator, but the code carried the real smoking gun. 

The code for iOS 7 expressly describes the set-up process for a fingerprint scanner embedded in the iPhone Home button. During the set-up tutorial, there will apparently be a photo showing "a person holding an iPhone with their left hand while touching the Home button with their thumb", and "A fingerprint that changes colour during the setup process."

We had heard before that the iPhone 5S had production delays because of the fingerprint scanner, and this seems to confirm the hardware. This would be a pretty big change for an "S" iPhone, which usually just focuses on internal specs boosts.

Verizon-bound Nokia Lumia 729 with PureView camera leaks

Fresh out the rumor frying pan comes a press shot of a yet unheard-of Nokia Lumia 729. The device sports a yellow paint job, PureView branding on the camera and is apparently destined to Verizon Wireless in the US.

Nokia Lumia 729 (click to enlarge)
Despite similarities in the name the alleged Nokia Lumia 729 looks nothing like the Lumia 720 but may sport the same innards, save maybe for the camera.
The Nokia Lumia 729, could slot just below the Lumia 928 in the carrier's WP8 lineup. There are no specifics surrounding the pricing or specs sheet but some suggest an HD screen is involved. Keep in mind that the information is subject to change or may be a hoax entirely.

MediaTek unveils quad-core MT8135 big.LITTLE SoC

MediaTek unveiled its new MT8135 big.LITTLE SoC aimed at the mid to high-end tablets. Unlike other big.LITTLE ARM chips to date, the MT8135 is able to operate its dual Cortex-A15 and dual Cortex-A7 clusters simultaneously.
Also, it features the new PowerVR Series6 graphics processor, which is rated at up to four times the ALU power of its predecessor, the Series5XT.
How this will translate to real-world performance remains to be seen, although MediaTek was kind enough to provide some numbers from several benchmarks.

	MT8135 Reference Device (2x1.7GHz Cortex-A15, 2x1.2GHz Cortex-A7	Nexus 10 (Exynos 5, 2x1.7GHz Cortex-A15)	ASUS Device (Tegra 3, 4x1.4GHz Cortex-A9)
Geekbench v2.4.3	2895	2530	1295
GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt onscreen / offscreen	47 / 46	28 / 40	14 / 10
Vellamo	2755	1757	1295
AnTuTu v3.0.1	23557	12915	11352

Samsung Galaxy Note II with Snapdragon 600 goes official

The Snapdragon 600-powered Samsung Galaxy Note II . The sped-up version was just announced by China Mobile, the largest carrier in China. The device is designated N7108D.


The new Samsung Galaxy Note II looks virtually identical to the original with a 5.5" 720p Super AMOLED touchscreen and S Pen, but the new chipset adds TD-LTE, FDD-LTE and TD-SCDMA alongside regular WCDMA and GSM.


And, of course, the new quad-core Krait 300 CPU wipes the floor with the old quad-core Cortex-A9 as does the Adreno 320 GPU with the Mali-400. According to benchmarks (there's no official word) the CPU is clocked at 1.9GHz and there's 2GB RAM. The Samsung Galaxy N7108D Note II runs Android 4.2.2 with TouchWiz.
There's no indication if this redesigned Note II will make its way to other countries or not – the Galaxy Note III with Snapdragon 800 (and 3GB RAM) should be officially unveiled at IFA this September. The screen size seems to be in flux though.

Samsung testing the Galaxy Note III in three screen sizes?

According to a listing of Indian logistics website Zaumba, the Samsung has began testing the Galaxy Note III in three different screen sizes. Samsung hasn't yet decided wether the Galaxy Note III should pack a 5.5", 5.7" or 6" display. Mind you, couple of reports clearly suggested that Samsung has chosen to build the Galaxy Note III around a 5.7" display, so maybe the testing is already complete.

Furthermore there are rumors floating around suggesting the Koreans' R&D team is testing flexible OLED display technology alongside standard OLED and LCD display variants. The original Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note II both packed Super AMOLED screens.
There's strong evidence that points to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset as the heart of the Samsung Galaxy Note III. But even in the performance department Samsung is said to be preparing an alternative version of its third-gen phablet and ship it with the latest Exynos 5 Octa chipset in some regions.
Other specifications include 3GB of RAM, a 13MP camera with purported optical image stabilization and the freshly announced Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. Naturally, there'll be the an updated version of the S Pen accompanying the Note III, but nothing about it has leaked just yet.

Sony Xperia Honami visits FCC, confirms launch date

Sony Xperia Honami has appeared in front of a camera a few times already and now the upcoming cameraphone from Sony has made a visit to Federal Communications Commission.
According to the FCC report, the Sony Xperia Honami will be announced before September 30 and the smartphone is expected to hit the stores by the first week of October.

The Sony Xperia Honami is rumored to sport a 5-inch Full HD triluminos display with the X-reality engine. Furthermore, the smartphone is said to feature a 2.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor along with 2 GB of RAM, 20.7 megapixel rear camera with Sony G-lens and BIONZ image processor and 16 GB of inbuilt memory that can be expanded via microSD card slot.
Sony Xperia Honami is said to be IP57 certified, which means the smartphone will be completely dust-protected and has the ability to withstand a meter of water for 30 minutes. The connectivity options for the Xperia Honami include Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, Wi-Fi and supports GSM/UMTS/LTE networks.


Lastly, the Sony Xperia Honami is rumored to run on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and the juice for it will be supplied by a 3,000mAh battery. The latest smartphone from Sony will be available in White, Black and Purple color options.
Sony is all but certain to unveil its Xperia Honami on September 4 in Berlin at its dedicated press event.

MediaTek announces first true octa-core processor

MediaTek has officially announced the world's first true octa-core processor. The latest SoCs allows all the eight cores to run simultaneously, unlike the Samsung implementation, which can activate up to half of its CPU cores at once. The true octa-core processors offer you enhanced performance, power efficiency and improved user experience.

The MediaTek true octa-core processor allocates processing power to different cores on per-application and per-task basis that gives the ultimate multi-tasking experience. The newest addition to the MediaTek SoCs comes with advanced web browsing feature that has the unique ability to allocate individual browser tabs to CPU cores.
The processor also has the ability to delegate user input to individual cores and renders 3D effects more smoothly and enhances the user interface. The multi-threaded programming in the processor enables improved video framerate processing, which gives superior gaming experiences.
Lastly, the octa processor has an efficient video playback feature that reduces that battery used for decoding HEVC FHD video by up to 18% when compared to the current quad-core processors. The octa-core solution also provides 20% more frames while on display mode.