FaceTime in iOS 6 Goes Cellular, But Not if Operators Don’t Play Ball

Apple says that in iOS 6 FaceTime not only works over WiFi, but also over cellular networks, “so you can make and receive FaceTime calls wherever you happen to be.” That’s all fine and dandy, except not all carriers might be ready to allow such traffic on their airwaves, according to an analysis by MarketWatch. The market research firm notes that none of the iPhone carriers in the US were willing to comment on the matter, except one spokesman from AT&T who said the operator was "working closely with Apple on features disclosed for iOS 6, and we'll share more information with our customers as we get closer to launch." That pretty much sounds like there will at least be extra charging for this feature, if it even gets...

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Windows Phone 8 with New Microsoft and Nokia Apps

Microsoft is set to bring the next-generation Windows Phone 8 platform to the market this fall, on devices coming from Nokia, Huawei, Samsung and HTC, and with a new range of applications packed inside. Among them, we can count Audible, Microsoft's direct response to Apple's Siri, as well as Wallet, the company's own app designed specifically to enable mobile payments on the platform. Moreover, there will be a series of new Nokia applications available for all Windows Phone 8 users, including a new flavor of Nokia Music, Nokia Counters, Camera Extras and Smart Groups. Nokia's Transport and Drive will also be enhanced for Windows Phone. All these apps will start arriving on Lumia devices as soon as next week. ith over 100,000...

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No Windows Phone 8 for Existing Devices

In addition to unveiling all the new features and capabilities that Windows Phone 8 will arrive on shelves with, Microsoft also confirmed that the platform will not be released to existing smartphones. However, the Redmond-based software giant did commit to providing Windows Phone 7.5 users with an update that will offer them the possibility to enjoy some of the features that Windows Phone 8 will arrive on shelves with. Dubbed Windows Phone 7.8, the update will deliver to existing users the new, updated Start screen on Windows Phone 8, with resizable live tiles, as well as with access to some other features. Windows Phone 7.5 users will also benefit from new applications in the Marketplace, Microsoft said. Unfortunately,...

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Windows Phone 8 Now Official

Today, Microsoft came to the Windows Phone Summit with the next-generation Windows Phone 8 operating system in its pocket. Just as expected, the company packed the upcoming mobile platform with a nice range of enhancements, in an attempt to attract more users to its side and to gain a larger portion of the smartphone OS market. Windows Phone 8 will arrive on shelves with a shared core with Microsoft's Windows 8 platform, something that has been long rumored to be so. It will be released this holiday, with elements common with Windows 8, including kernel, networking, multimedia, driver support. Through making this move, Microsoft ensures that devices would arrive on shelves in a wider range of form factors and price points. Moreover,...

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Texas Instruments Shows Impressive OMAP 4470 Netbook Running Windows RT

We already saw what Texas Instruments’ OMAP 5 processor can do, as we reported it here and here. The OMAP 5 platform is using ARM’s Cortex A15 architecture that is considerably more powerful than the Cortex-A9 designs like Nvidia’s Tegra 3. Still, Texas Instruments is keen on demonstrating that even the company’s OMAP 4 platform is competitive in the Windows RT world. Toshiba is the maker of the netbook on display, and hardware expert Anand Lal Shimpi is the one lucky enough to get his hands on the video. From the short demonstration, we can easily see that the OMAP 4 processor is able to handle anything Windows RT is throwing at it and, it is our opinion that TI’s implementation is more responsive than NVidia’s Tegra 3 platform. On the battery side, we also believe...

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Flame Developed by Israel and US to Sabotage Iran’s Nuclear Program, Officials Say

The now-infamous Flame is not controversial just because of the way it spreads and the way it infects computers, but also because of its origin. The latest reports quote officials as saying that the malware is the creation of US and Israel, its purpose being to ensure that Iran couldn’t develop a nuclear weapon, or at least slow down the country’s efforts. According to The Washington Post, Flame monitored Iran’s computer systems in an attempt to capture any information that could be valuable for Israel and the United States. Similar to Stuxnet and Duqu, many experts rushed to point the finger at the US when the malware became widely known, but so far there have been only speculations. Now, anonymous US intelligence officials...

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HiS Achieves Highest 3D Mark Vantage World Record

HiS video card company has always been famous for building reliable cards using very efficient custom cooling systems. The cooling solutions developed by HiS are considerably more efficient than reference designs and generate less noise. This time, the card’s design is responsible for achieving the world’s highest 3D Mark Vantage score. HiS’ Radeon HD 7970 video cards were stripped off of the company’s cooling system and were overclocked to a very high 1480 MHz GPU frequency. This is very impressive, considering the system was able to run four of these cards in a Quad CrossFire setup. AMD’s Tahiti GPUs are built in TSMC’s 28nm technology and have already proved their ability to achieve very high frequencies, as they hold...

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Google I/O 2012 App Screenshot Points at Jelly Bean, October 25th Release

Today, the official Android application for the Google I/O 2012 conference made its way to the Google Play Store, with some unexpected goodies, it seems. One of the screenshots that Google made available in the app store (the first one below) points at what appears to be the UI of Jelly Bean, the next flavor of Android. The shot shows no stock browser, which might have been replaced with Google Chrome, as some of the previous rumors suggested. The Google search bar also seems to have been changed, now featuring a more transparent look and not the Holo theme of Ice Cream Sandwich, as Phandroid points out. On top of that, the clock on the screenshot is 25:10, which, if not a simple slip, could suggest that Google is on...

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IBM Makes Hot-Water Cooled Computer That Needs 40% Less Energy

As a result of a collaboration between IMB and the Leibniz Supercomputing Center in Germany, a state-of-the-art and at the same time environmentally-friendly supercomputer is ready to step under the spotlights. Presently, the said supercomputer, known as SuperMUC, is presumed to be the most powerful in Europe. Thus, its total computing capability is somewhere around three petaflops. However, what interests us is the fact that, by using the Aquasar cooling system, this computer can cut down energy consumption by approximately 40%. This is because, as opposed to traditional cooling systems, the Aquasar uses hot-water in order to help the computer's active components “chill.” According to Environmental Leader, coolant...

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Microsoft Surface Made By Pegatron, Could Cost Above $599

On Monday, Microsoft unveiled to the world a new product that breaks from tradition, the Microsoft Surface, its own Windows 8-powered tablet PC. While offering a variety of details on the tablet’s features and capabilities, as well as on its new, revolutionary design, the company did not provide specific info on who is making it, nor on the price tag it could feature when released. There will be two Microsoft Surface models launched in the coming months, one powered by Windows RT and the other running under Windows 8 Pro, both of them featuring 10.6-inch screens. According to a recent article on DigiTimes, the Surface tablets would be manufactured by Pegatron Technology, yet no info on order volumes was made available. Citing...

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LG Launches Optimus 3D MAX in India

Today, South Korean mobile phone maker LG Electronics officially announced the launch of its Optimus 3D MAX smartphone on the market in India. The new device comes to the market with appealing design, as well as with a great viewing experience for all users to enjoy, in addition to enhanced performance capabilities. With the Optimus 3D MAX smartphone, users can enjoy 3D content while on the go, all without the need of special glasses. At only 9.6mm thin, the smartphone was packed with a large 4.3-inch touchscreen display that can deliver a WVGA resolution, and which is powered by NOVA technology from the company. Moreover, it features a tri-dual hardware configuration, which includes a dual-core 1.2Ghz OMAP4430 application...

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MSI's AMD Radeon HD 7970 Lightning Breaks 3D Mark 11 World Record Multiple Times

MSI is a well-known Taiwanese company that manufactures mainboards, but it has lately made a name for itself as the maker of the world’s fastest Ivy Bridge notebook and world’s fastest AMD Trinity notebook, like we reported here, here and here. The company’s motherboards have always been innovative and high quality, but more often than desired, the final implementation lacked the secret combination to achieve the best performance or overclocking results. The story of MSI’s video cards was more of the same, but this was up until recently. The company is now proud to announce that its unique custom AMD Radeon HD 7970 video card design has successfully broken the world 3D Mark 11 record for a single-GPU for eight consecutive...

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First Fanless GeForceGTX 680 Displayed

Chinese videocard manufacturing company Colorful surprised us lately with interesting product designs and original cooling systems. Now, the company is proudly presenting its new fanless solution for Nvidia’s top single-GPU solution, the GeForce GTX 680. They have a considerably hot GPU, like Nvidia’s Kepler work in a fanless solution is quite a significant design and engineering achievement. The main problem is the fact that cooling performance is heavily dependent on the temperature of the surrounding air. Place Colorful’s fanless GTX 680 in a warm room with ambient temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius, in a crowded case or simply in a weakly-ventilated case and you will run into overheating issues. For such a...

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Galaxy Note II in October with Flexible Display

South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung Electronics is reportedly gearing up for the release of a successor for its Galaxy Note smartphone, one that might arrive on shelves in October. This is not the first time such rumors emerge online, but some more info on what the device could sport when launched became available. However, nothing has been officially confirmed on these specs, not on its actual existence, and we’ll have to take these details with a grain of salt for the time being. First and foremost, we should mention that the new rumor pins Galaxy Note II’s landing to October, the same as previously rumored. A recent article on mk.co.kr claims so, although no mention of a source for the info has been provided....

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