Nokia Zeal, Mid-Range Dual-Core with Windows Phone 8 in 2013

Apart from the two Lumia handsets that Nokia is expected to unveil to the world today, with focus on the mid- and high-end of the market, we should also see other Windows Phone 8 devices coming from the company in the next several months, new reports suggest.

We already had the chance to have a look at codenamed Glory, supposedly an entry-level smartphone from the leading handset vendor, but it appears that some other similar phones are prepped for launch as well. Among them, there should be a certain Windows Phone 8 device codenamed Zeal that has just popped up on the web with a 4.3-inch touchscreen display. Supposedly only aimed at the mid-level segment of the market, the upcoming device is said to feature capabilities on par with better-rated devices available today. Thus, we should see it released on shelves with a dual-core application processor inside, albeit clocked in at only 1GHz, a recent article on The Verge notes.

Moreover, the yet unannounced smartphone should hit shelves with 512MB of RAM packed inside, as well as with 8GB of internal memory. Moreover, the Windows Phone 8 device is said to pack a microSD memory card slot, the same as the rest of Nokia’s new Lumia handsets, and to sport a Zune-like design. Similar with previous Lumia phones, the upcoming Zeal would sport a unibody design, and could also feature a nice range of connectivity options, although none has been specifically mentioned for the time being. Set to hit shelves only next year, the new mobile phone might not become official before the end of this year, rumor has it.

Nokia’s lineup of Windows Phone handsets is still small, but the company appears set to expand it as much and as soon as possible, in an attempt to regain the market share it has been constantly losing for about two years now. With new Lumia devices set to assault all segments of the market, the company might indeed be able to fulfill its goals with Windows Phone, though it remains to be seen how well its new devices will be received around the world.

Nokia Lumia 610
Image credits to Nokia

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HTC Android Smartphone with 5’’ Display Leaked

Samsung has one, LG has one, and it seems that HTC is also working on a large Android-based smartphone, recently leaked photos unveil.

The Taiwanese phone maker has reported plans the launch of a 5-inch or larger smartphone of its own, to better compete against behemoths from said vendors. The smartphone in question has made it online on Chinese forum TechOrz, where it is said to be codenamed HTC Endeavor C2, which suggests that it would be the previously rumored One X+.

Supposedly set to hit shelves with a fast 1.7GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor inside, the new phone should also include more RAM inside when launched in the fourth quarter of the year. Provided that rumors pan out, we should see HTC too joining the battle on the niche market that Samsung Galaxy Note and LG Optimus Vu have created.

5’’ HTC Android Smartphone
Images credits to TechOrz

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ASUS ROG TYTAN CG8890 Gaming System

World’s largest mainboard manufacturer, Taiwanese company ASUS has just announced a new and powerful gaming desktop PC featuring very advanced cooling systems and a cool and impressive case. The new device features an Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition processor with six real processing cores.

The Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition CPU works at a default 3300 MHz with a 3900 MHz Turbo frequency and can handle up to 12 threads simultaneously by using HT technology. The level 3 cache is an impressive 15 MB and the platform uses a LGA2011 socket. It has four memory channels, while the CPU has a liquid cooling system.

The system has custom settings that automatically overclock the CPU up to 4200 MHz and the fastest storage configuration can have up to two 128 GB SSD in RAID 0. The video card used is Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 690 4 GB monster and the sound is handled by ASUS’ own Xonar DX audio.

The ROG CG8890 raises the bar of Tytan gaming PC performance and design. The upgraded case alone invokes an impact, with its intricate Maya design on the top and in the lighting effect that shines from the front.

If you want the ultimate gaming PC without the fuss of building it yourself, the ROG Tytan CG8890 is designed to fit the need precisely.
Video credits to techinstyle

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New Windows Phone 8 Features: Screenshots, Camera Enhancements

At Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 launch event in New York City, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore took the stage to unveil some more info on what the platform has to offer to its users.

The OS comes with the ability to take screenshots, something that was not available in Windows Phone before. In fact, he even published the first such screenshot taken with a Lumia 920 at the event. Belfiore also took his time to discuss some of the Windows Phone 8 features that had been unveiled before, such as the possibility to easily personalize the homescreen through resizing tiles.

He also mentioned some of the applications that would be available with the platform, such as Bing Vision, CNN iReport, FXSuite, PhotoSynth Lens, PhotoStrip lens, and more. In fact, he stressed on the great camera features that Windows Phone 8 came with, such as pinch to zoom, complemented by enhanced sharing capabilities, like the possibility to load full images straight to SkyDrive.

Nokia Lumia 920
Image credits to Nokia

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Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 Now Official with Windows Phone 8

Today, Nokia has made official its first Windows Phone 8 handset, the Nokia Lumia 920, said to be the most advanced smartphone in the world.

“This is Lumia, and is time to switch,” Nokia’s Jo Harlow said on the stage at the launch event in New York City. The new smartphone comes to the market with a large 4.5-inch touchscreen and packs a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 application processor inside. Moreover, the new device comes with an 8-megapixel photo snapper on the back, with the rumored PureView technology packed inside, for a great imaging experience for all users. The handset can record 1080p videos, can be charged wirelessly, and is also capable of connecting with NFC-enabled devices, Nokia announced. Moreover, the new Lumia 920 comes with Nokia’s location services included inside, the same as other Windows Phone 8 devices will.

The smartphone was also packed with a PureMotion HD+ screen, which is said to be able of delivering the best possible viewing experience on a mobile phone today. Moreover, it sports a large battery for increased usage times, complemented by the low power usage of the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor. There is also the wireless charging feature that should enhanced the user experience, courtesy of the Fatboy wireless charging pillow, which is based on Qi technology. Nokia even said that it had partnered with various companies to provide users with the possibility to easily recharge their devices even in coffee-shops restaurants, and the like, including Virgin Atlantic lounges, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

In addition to all these hardware advancements, the Lumia 920 is also meant to impress users through the various features, services and applications that it would come to the market with. Among them, we can count Nokia’s location services, which include Maps, with offline availability, Transport, Drive, Commute, and more, all integrated into the Windows Phone 8 platform. Augmented reality will also be part of the Lumia 920 experience, not only through City Lens, but also integrated in Nokia Maps to provide users with additional info on the places they drive by.

In addition to the Lumia 920, Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia also unveiled a second Windows Phone 8 device during its press event in New York City today, namely the Lumia 820.

Packing a 4.3" ClearBlack display, the new handset comes with a 1.5GHz dual-core S4 processor inside, and with 8GB of internal memory for users to take advantage of, along with a microSD slot to expand it. The phone packs a 5-megapixel camera on the back, with no PureView capabilities, but with features similar to those available in Lumia 920. Lumia 820 also comes with exchangeable shells to swap colors, wireless charging, and Ultrasensitive touch, so that people could use it even with gloves on.

As one would have expected, the new device also comes with all the applications and services that Windows Phone 8 handsets from Nokia are bound to include.

Nokia Lumia 920
Images credits to Nokia

Nokia Lumia 820
Image credits to Nokia

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ASUS Matrix HD7970 Platinum Video Card

World’s largest computer mainboard manufacturer, Taiwanese company ASUS is also one of the most famous video card manufacturers in the world, with surprising products that many times offer the best implementation of a certain design.

One very good example of ASUS presenting the customer with the best Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti implementation is the ASUS GeForce GTX 660Ti DirectCU II TOP that we reviewed here. Today, we got word that ASUS is working on a Radeon Matrix video card, VideoCardz reports. This is a GHz Edition of the famous Radeon HD 7970, and its official name will likely be ASUS Matrix HD7970 Platinum. The card will come with the Power Tune enhanced BIOS and lots of impressive hardware features. Being an overclocking-oriented model, the ASUS Matrix HD7970 Platinum comes with a huge cooling system that is 2.5 slots wide, which allowed ASUS to make the new Radeon Matrix Platinum a certified Eyefinity6 video card. The backside I/O port comes with four full-sized DisplayPorts and two DVI connectors.

Overclockers will be ecstatic to know that the ASUS Matrix HD7970 Platinum has a total of 20 power phases that the company likes to call “Super Alloy Power” and it also has a protective metal backplate that also helps with cooling. Being a GHz Edition Radeon HD 7970, ASUS’s new Matrix Platinum video card comes with 1050 MHz base GPU clock and 1100 MHz Boost option. The most impressive aspect and one that we can’t remember seeing on another Radeon HD 7970 video card before is the very fast memory that is clocked at an effective 6600 MHz. Availability should be set for this month, while the price is not public knowledge yet.

ASUS Matrix HD7970 Platinum Video Card
Images credits to VideoCardz

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GlobalFoundries Samples Adapteva 64-Core RISC Processors in 28nm Technology

The 28nm manufacturing technology is now officially online and is making very advanced microprocessors that show amazing characteristics and performance. Many were wondering if GlobalFoundries’ 28nm manufacturing capacities were actually making something other than test chips, and the answer we got today is very impressive, to say the least.

The foundry is now manufacturing 64-core RISC microprocessors for American company Adapteva, XbitLabs reports. Adapteva is a privately held company founded back in 2008 in Lexington, Massachusetts, that is mainly focusing on bringing 10 x advancement in floating point processing energy efficiency for the mobile device market. This is the first company to announce a design that is able to put 1,000 processing cores on a single chip and, in 2011, it managed to present a newer design that was able to put 4096 processing cores on a single chip. The design is RISC-like but uses a custom instruction set architecture (ISA) that has direct memory access with no other hierarchy or caches involved. The current version of the Epiphany processor is called Epiphany IV and it was announced back in October 2011, with a tape-out scheduled for January 2012.

The 64-core Epiphany IV processor has a 800 MHz operating frequency and offers more than 50GHz of achievable programmable performance while consuming less than two watts. Peak performance of the Epiphany IV is around 100GFLOPS and the peak core energy efficiency is 72GFLOPS/W at 500MHz operating frequency. The processors are made in GlobarFoundries’ 28nm-SLP manufacturing process that offers the fastest time to market (TTM) and is cost-oriented, offering low to medium performance and enabling frequencies reaching a maximum of 1500 MHz.

Adapteva Epiphany IV 64-Core RISC Processor
Image credits to Adapteva

GlobalFoundires 28nm Manufacturing Chart
Image credits to xbitlabs

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BlackBerry 10 L-Series Smartphone (London)

As Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion is getting ready for the release of its new BlackBerry 10 operating system, more and more details on the platform and on the devices that will run under it are making the rounds on the web.

The latest such leak includes a photo of what appears to be one of the first devices that we’re to see launched with the new mobile OS loaded on it. Being a full-touch handset, it will be included in RIM’s upcoming L-series of handsets, and should deliver a different experience than the QWERTY-enabled BlackBerry 10 phones that RIM will introduce as part of its N-series. The handset that can be admired in the photo to the left (available courtesy of @TyC4all - via CrackBerry) resembles the previously seen BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha smartphone a lot, but it is not a final product yet. Previously spotted online under the codename of London, the smartphone is said to feature model number R072 and to be a 2G/3G-enabled.

The design is not that different when compared to what we’ve previously had the chance to see this year, and the BlackBerry logo is almost visible at the bottom of the phone. The signature top speaker and front camera also point at a BlackBerry device nearing availability, though we should expect some modifications to emerge before the product reaches its final form. However, we can already see a series of differences between this mobile phone and the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha, such as the lack of a full-glass face. Although changes are bound to be made to the smartphone, we might expect the final version of the device to look very much like the one we can see in the leaked photo.

The full-touch L-series handsets will be the first to land on shelves with the BlackBerry 10 OS on top in early 2013, but RIM is also working on having the QWERTY-packed N-series available around the same time.

BlackBerry 10 L-series handset, London
Image credits to @TyC4all via CrackBerry

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Intel Ivy Bridge Core i3 Third-Generation CPU

Calling Core i3 CPUs “low end” isn't quite correct, since Celeron is the line usually associated with that market segment.

Nonetheless, compared to Core i7, and even Core i5, Core i3 CPUs are, indeed, aimed at prospective buyers with much less money to spare. That said, the newcomers, detailed on their official web page, have all the assets of the Ivy Bridge 22nm technology: Wireless Display (WiDi), Intel Quick Sync Video, HD Graphics, etc. The clocks go from 2.8 GHz to 3.4 GHz.

These are all desktop processors with two cores each, so keep an eye out for them when browsing at your local retailer. Bear in in mind, though, that there is no PCI Express 3.0 support on them. It shouldn't be a problem of course, since people who afford a video card strong enough to need better than 2.0 probably afford a better CPU too, but it's good to know regardless.

Intel Core i3 logo
Image credits to Intel

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