New System Turns Any Surface Into a Touchscreen

A certain PhD student called Chris Harrison, and others, just invented a new technology that can allow for “graphical, interactive, multitouch input on arbitrary, everyday surfaces.”  The idea Chris Harrison had is not so much a touch interface as it is a gesture recognition technology, since it isn't actually the touched surface that picks up the signals.  Instead, the system relies on a depth camera with a short range, not an infrared sensor, in order to gauge the viewing angle and other characteristics of surfaces.  Once that is done, the OmiTouch system, as it is called, can interpret the touch inputs, even pinch-to-zoom, regardless of what the surface is like (uneven, hairy, etc.)  Check out the video above for...

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AMD Bulldozer B3 Revision Is in the Works

After many were left disappointed by the performance of AMD's FX-Series processors based on the Bulldozer architecture, the chip maker is now working on a new revision of its CPUs that will carry the B3 stepping. This information was uncovered by Hardcore-Hardware in a public AMD document entitled “BIOS and Kernel’s Developers Guide (BKDG) for AMD Family 15h Models 00h-0Fh Processors.” The document included a table that mentioned the current stepping of AMD's Bulldozer processors, but also a new revision of the architecture that was referred to as B3. Sadly, the report doesn't detail the changes that AMD wants to bring to its chips with the introduction of this new stepping, but users should expect the usual tweaks that deliver slightly...

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Intel's First Ivy Bridge Pentium CPUs Will Arrive in Q3 2012

In the third quarter of 2012, Intel will reportedly update its processor lineup to feature a new series of Pentium chips based on the company's upcoming Ivy Bridge architecture that will bring a number of improvements over the current SNB core. Details about these processors are scarce at this moment, but a previous report has revealed that for the upcoming iteration of the Pentium line, Intel will use a new naming scheme that moves from three to a four digit designation. As a results, the new CPUs will be released into the Pentium G2000-series, but few other specs have changed from their Sandy Bridge counterparts, apart from the TDP that will be rated at 55W, compared to the 65W of the current Pentium CPUs. What this means is that Pentium...

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RIM Goes Official with the New BlackBerry BBX Platform

Today, Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion announced the availability of a new mobile operating system aimed at its mobile devices, namely the BlackBerry BBX platform.  The new OS is based on the BlackBerry platform and also takes advantage of the QNX OS to keep people, devices, content and services connected. BBX represents the next generation mobile platform, set to run on the company's new BlackBerry smartphones, as well as on its tablet PCs.  RIM claims that the new OS flavor will be capable to provide users with a great mobile experience, since it brings along the best in two platforms, namely BlackBerry OS and QNX.  “With nearly 5 million BlackBerry apps downloaded daily, our customers have made BlackBerry...

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iOS 5.1 May be Required to Fix Battery Drain Issues

iDevice owners are taking to the Apple Support Communities forum to complain about a chronic battery drain issue seemingly caused by inferior power management in iOS 5. Whether they installed the software on a first-gen iPad or on the iPhone 4, many seem certain that iOS 5 is to blame for their battery drain woes. Some even say their brand new iPhone 4S is exhibiting the same behavior, which should almost certainly be tied to software, rather than hardware. A simple search on the Apple Support Communities forum will churn up titles like “Iphone 4S / iOS 5 Battery Drain” and “Please fix batery [sic] drainage with IOS 5. I need those 10 promissed [sic] hours on iPad 2.” For example, this iPad owner (identified as CaMoBaPuK on Apple’s forum)...

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Nokia Rolls Out Symbian Anna Software Update

Most Nokia users who own Symbian Anna smartphone, such as the N8, C7, C6-01 or X7, are waiting for the Symbian Belle upgrade that the Finnish company promised to deliver. However, this is not the highly-anticipated Symbian Belle, but merely a minor software update that fixes several bugs and improves the platform's stability. Software version 025.007 has a only 1MB size and is delivered OTA (over the air) to compatible Nokia devices. Unfortunately, no change log for the update has been published yet, but it integrates the new version of Nokia Store 3.16 and corrects some bugs in v22, reports claim. It appears that the update is not available in North America, but users from various European countries already reported they updated smoothly. According...

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HP Confirms Opteron 6200 Bulldozer CPU Specs

While we are still waiting for AMD to make official its Opteron processors based on the Bulldozer architecture, HP has listed a new server on its website that comes to confirm the specifications of the Opteron 6200 series CPUs we have reported about at the beginning of this month. The AMD Bulldozer processors were spotted by CPU-World in the configurations list of the HP ProLiant DL165 G7 server. The document contains partial specifications for seven CPUs from the Opteron 6200 series based on the Interlagos core and with a TDP of 115W. The specs provided by HP match pretty closely the ones detailed in our previous report, except for some base clock frequencies for the Opteron 6212, 6234 and 6238 models, which HP states they work at of 2.6GHz,...

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Nokia Windows Phones Said Again to Arrive in November

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia is expected to unveil to the world their first smartphone powered by Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system before the end of October, which being set to make them available for purchase next month.  For the time being, no specific details on the handsets that should arrive on the market at that time have been unveiled, but leaked documents that emerged over at iPhoneItalia show that November is the lucky time frame for enthusiasts.  At least Italian carrier TIM will have the new devices available for its customers next month, though info on the exact release date and on the pricing of these devices did not emerge for the time being.  One thing that is certain is that November is indeed...

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