NVIDIA GeForce Titan GK110 Graphics Card, First Pictures and Full Specs

If everything goes according to what reports have been saying, NVIDIA will officially introduce its latest and greatest graphics adapter, powered by the GK110 GPU, later today, February 18, 2013.

Until the announcement is made, though, prospective buyers can rejoice at the chance to feast their eyes on some photos of the device, the first ones (the previous blurry photo was a fake). The high-end graphics card has been pictured on Egypt Hardware and VideoCardz. There is one full-feature photo, one shot of the bare PCB (printed circuit board) and one press photo. The board looks in many ways similar to the dual-GK104 GeForce GTX 690, with its magnesium alloy cooler shroud and acrylic window that lets people see the aluminum fin stack beneath. Speaking of which, the GeForce GTX Titan doesn't have a full-coverage IHS (internal heat spreader), only a support brace. This lets overclockers apply their TIM (thermal interface material) right on the chip die, enhancing cooling.

While the reference cooler is sufficient for normal operation, the high-end adapter is still, in the end, an enthusiast-grade piece of equipment, likely to be divested in favor of something better. In such cases, the chance to apply TIM directly to the GPU die is welcome. Other overclocking assets are the tantalum capacitors, slimline chokes, and driver-MOSFETs (VRM with a 6+2 phase design). Furthermore, NVIDIA tossed in a 2-pin LED logo power output (software-controllable) and a 4-pin PWM fan power output.

As for specifications, the high-end adapter, which some believe will be mightier than the GTX 690 despite having just one GPU instead of two, has enough horsepower that it needs 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors to work. Twenty four 2 Gbit GDDR5 memory chips provide a total of 6 GB VRAM, for example, and the Kepler GK110 GPU has 48 ROPs, 224 TMUs and a 384-bit memory interface. The clock speeds are of 837 / 878 MHz (GPU / GPU Boost) and 6,008 MHz (memory). Finally, NVIDIA GeForce Titan gets two SLI bridge fingers (Quad-SLI), two dual-link DVI, an HDMI port, and a DisplayPort.

NVIDIA GeForce Titan
Images credits to Egypt Hardware

NVIDIA GeForce Titan
Images credits to VideoCardz

Read more »

Chameleon Launcher Updated, Showcased on Nexus 4 and Nexus 7

A beta flavor of Chameleon Launcher is expected to become available for download in the not too distant future on Android smartphones and small tablet PCs, and it has been already previewed on Nexus 4 and Nexus 7.

The Kickstarter team has provided a sneak peek at some of the main enhancements set to become available inside the new release, and confirmed that a beta flavor of the Chameleon Launcher was planned for the next several weeks. The new flavor of the third-party launcher arrives on handsets roughly three months after it was originally teased, Droid-life notes.

However, it appears that it will provide a completely reworked interface and a new user experience for both phone and tablet users. You can see it running on Nexus 4 above, while the Nexus 7 demo is embedded below.

Videos credits to teknision

Read more »

Ubuntu Phones OS Will Be Available for Download on February 21

Staying true to its word, Canonical has announced that the images and open source code for the Touch Developer Preview of Ubuntu would be published on Thursday, February 21, supporting the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 smartphones.

Canonical has explained that these images are available for developers and enthusiasts alike, allowing them to familiarize with the new Ubuntu Phone OS and to make applications for it. According to the developers, along with the operating system itself, a tool that can manage the flashing of the phone will be made available in the same day, which will make it easier to keep a device up to date with the latest version of the Touch Developer Preview. “Our platform supports a wide range of screen sizes and resolutions. Developers who have experience bringing up phone environments will find it relatively easy to port Ubuntu to current handsets.” “We look forward to adding support for additional devices for everyday testing and experimentation,” said Pat McGowan, who leads the integration effort that produced the images being released. Canonical’s launch will mark a milestone for Ubuntu operating system and takes the company a step closer to their major goal, to provide a single operating system that is capable of running on any given platform, TV, PC, or smartphones.

The company has already published a Preview SDK and App Design Guides to allow developers to create applications for the full range of Ubuntu platforms. “This release marks the threshold of wider engagement - both with industry and community. For developers, contributors and partners, there is now a coherent experience that warrants attention. The cleanest, most stylish mobile interface around,” says Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu. Ubuntu for Phones will use both webapps and native applications, in the same manner, and Canonical hopes to make them undistinguishable from each other. More details about this operating system will be made public after the Mobile World Congress from Barcelona.

Ubuntu phone at a bar
Image credits to Maichael Frey

Read more »

AMD Confirms Radeon HD 8000 Graphics Cards Delay

A little over a week ago, we discovered a rumor about Advanced Micro Devices having supposedly delayed the release of its Radeon HD 8000 graphics cards until the fourth quarter. This has now been confirmed.

Advanced Micro Devices believes it currently has the best lineup of graphics processors and adapters on the worldwide market. Considering the tight competition between its collection and NVIDIA's boards, but the overall lower prices on Radeon adapters, it might have a point. Still, some may say that this is not a good enough reason to throw the whole tempo of the market out of whack. And by that we mean that AMD's decision to put off releasing new video cards until the fourth quarter of 2013 will basically make the market stagnate for a whole year. Then again, NVIDIA doesn't have designs for a video board refresh either. The GeForce Titan, though a powerful board, will have few buyers and will only be sold in limited quantities anyway (the launch will take place on Monday, February 18).

In any case, in 2013 Advanced Micro Devices will stick to the Radeon HD 7000 and 7000M graphics series. “The Radeon HD 7000-series graphics series will remain stable for the remainder of the year,” said Chris Hook, a spokesman for the company. On the bright side, the graphics division of the Sunnyvale, California-based company will not go completely AWOL. While no new 8000 series cards will come out in the near future, there will still be a new version of the Pitcairn GPU for the Radeon HD 7800 and possibly 7700 adapters. As for the mobile market, the Oland chip will be rebranded as Radeon HD 8000M and sold with various stream processor amounts.

The plans for Q4 have not been detailed, but it can be assumed that AMD will try to have something ready to respond to GeForce Titan, something other than the dual-GPU Radeon HD 7990.

AMD Radeon logo
Image credits to AMD

Read more »

Samsung Galaxy S IV LTE (GT-I9505) Camera Samples Emerge

More and more evidence of the fact that South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung is getting ready for the launch of its Galaxy S IV smartphone has emerged online, this time in the form of camera samples from Samsung GT-I9505.

The handset has been said before to be en route to the market as the Galaxy S IV LTE, although nothing has been officially confirmed on the matter for the time being. According to the EXIF data attached to said photos (found on Picasa, via SamMobile), the handset features firmware I9505XXEAMB8, while capable of shooting at least at 2322 x 4128 pixels resolution.

Rumor has it that the Galaxy S IV will hit shelves with a 13-megapixel photo snapper on the back, and that Samsung will make it official in March, while set to bring make it available for purchase starting with April.

Galaxy S IV LTE (GT-I9505) Camera Sample
Images credits to Picasa via SAMMobile

Read more »

Samsung Galaxy S IV Confirmed with Quad-Core Exynos 5440 CPU by Leaked Roadmap

Samsung’s upcoming flagship Galaxy S IV smartphone is now confirmed to arrive on shelves internationally with a quad-core processor packed inside, and not with an 8-core one, as some of the early rumors on it suggested.

The handset was spotted in a leaked Samsung roadmap (courtesy of esphoneblog) with model number GT-I9500 attached to it, and with the Exynos 5440 processor packed inside. Furthermore, said roadmap appears to confirm the large 5-inch full HD touchscreen for the device, along with its 2GB of RAM, and the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean platform recently spotted on it in various benchmarks.

Furthermore, the document also mentions a March unveiling for the device, in line with previous reports.  However, there’s no telling on whether the roadmap is genuine or not, and we should take the info presented there with a grain of salt for the time being.

Galaxy S IV specs confirmed
Image credits to esphoneblog

Read more »