Inno3D and MSI GTX Titan Graphics Cards Ready to Ship Too

Yet again we write about a new graphics card based on NVIDIA's new GeForce Titan, or perhaps we should say way the same graphics card, only bearing a different sticker and sold in a different box.

Indeed, the GeForce GTX Titan that NVIDIA released a few days ago is now shipping under yet another couple of brands. We are, of course, referring to Inno3D and Micro-Star International (MSI), just like, earlier, we wrote about the high-end video boards from ASUS, EVGA and Zotac, as well as the Palit, Galaxy and Gainward ones. Just as before, the specifications are left unchanged, the price is the same wallet-busting $1,000 / 1,000 Euro or more, and the design is the now familiar white.

For those who want a reminder, the Titan has 2,688 CUDA cores, 224 TMUs, 48 ROPs, 6 GB of GDDR5 memory, 384-bit interface, 837/876/6008 MHz clocks (core/GPU Boost/memory) and dual-link DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort connectors.

MSI GTX Titan
Image credits to MSI

Inno3D GTX Titan
Image credits to Inno3D

Read more »

Qualcomm RF360, The World’s First Global LTE Chipset

On Thursday, chip maker Qualcomm announced the launch of the Qualcomm RF360 Front End Solution, a new silicon aimed at enabling advanced connectivity inside smartphones.

The new chipset packs global 4G LTE capabilities, and is said to be the first in the world to feature them. Furthermore, it also offers support for all seven cellular modes, including LTE-FDD, LTE-TDD, WCDMA, EV-DO, CDMA 1x, TD-SCDMA and GSM/EDGE. RF360 “includes the industry’s first envelope power tracker for 3G/4G LTE mobile devices, a dynamic antenna matching tuner, an integrated power amplifier-antenna switch, and an innovative 3D-RF packaging solution incorporating key front end components,” Qualcomm also announced.

The new chip should offer seamless integration and lower power consumption, while also reducing the RF front end footprint inside of a smartphone almost in half, the company says. The first devices to include the new Qualcomm RF360 Solution are expected to become available in the second half of the year.

Qualcomm RF360, a global LTE chip
Image credits to Qualcomm

Read more »

Nokia Catwalk to Sport a Slim and Good-Looking Design

Nokia’s upcoming Windows Phone 8 lineup is still a mystery, and it might remain the same until next week, when the company unveils some new devices at the MWC 2013, yet some info on allegedly soon-to-come smartphones from the company is now available online.

According to the latest details that emerged on the matter, Nokia’s long rumored Catwalk smartphone will hit shelves with a slim, good-looking body, MyNokiaBlog reports, citing known Nokia insider dsmobile.  There’s no official confirmation on the matter, and we should take these details with a grain of salt, but this doesn’t mean that Nokia isn’t looking at launching thinner handsets, that’s for sure.

In addition to this smartphone, Nokia is also said to be working on the previously rumored Windows 8 tablet PC, which might actually be manufactured by another company, with Nokia only designing the outer case.

Nokia logo
Image credits to Nokia

Read more »

Cydia-like App Store for Jailbroken Windows RT Tablets in the Works

The Windows RT jailbreak tool has been around for a while, but the software developers behind this project are now working on a third-party app store that would allow users to download and run unsigned programs a lot easier.

Very similar to Cydia on iOS, the app store would basically host all recompiled applications that could run on a jailbroken Windows RT device. Such an application has already been released, but the developer quickly retired it due to a number of glitches. “The source code was just too embarrassing to share - too many kludge fixes on kludge fixes. I have now released a complete suite of all the apps, including a new appstore written from the ground up to be a lot more sensible,” he said.

And still, with so many users joining the jailbreak community, it’s only a matter of time before a full-featured app store for unlocked Windows RT devices sees daylight.

The app store would allow users to run unsigned code on Windows RT tablets
Image credits to Microsoft

Read more »

ASUS, EVGA and Zotac GeForce GTX Titan Graphics Cards Ready to Ship

NVIDIA launched the GeForce GTX Titan super-powered graphics adapter just days ago, and while the company does intend to sell only a limited number of them, it does not mean to prevent its partners from shipping some.

That said, it would appear that all of the company's partners have one card to ship. ASUS, Zotac and EVGA are three of them, and they did not modify the design or performance in any way. Indeed, the video cards look the same, though the boxes have different looks of course. EVGA is the only one that we've seen, so far, with a second model, one using water cooling.

All of them have 6 GB of GDDR5 VRAM, GPU clock speeds of 837 / 876 MHz (base, GPU Boost 2.0), a 384-bit memory interface and two dual-link DVI ports, one HDMI and one DisplayPort. Prices are to be announced.

Zotac GeForce GTX Titan
Image credits to Zotac

EVGA GeForce GTX Titan
Image credits to EVGA

ASUS GeForce GTX Titan
Image credits to ASUS

Read more »

Samsung Galaxy S IV Cases Emerge Online

Samsung’s next flagship Android-based smartphone is expected to make an official appearance as soon as next month, but more info on what it will have to offer to users have started to emerge.

Following recent analyst reports that the smartphone would pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor inside, we can now have a look at cases designed for it, courtesy mobilefun.uk. The news site published leaked images with these cases, showing a design closer to that of Galaxy S II, rather than resembling last year’s flagship, the Galaxy S III.

Set to become official on March 14, the smartphone is also said to include a 4.99-inch touchscreen display, supposedly capable of delivering a full HD resolution. Said leaked cases also confirmed a back camera placed in the middle, along with LED flash and rear speakers next to it, along with headphone jack in the upper right side, and microUSB port at the bottom.

Galaxy S IV Cases
Image credits to mobilefun.co.uk

Read more »

Rumor: 1GHz+ AMD Radeon HD 7990 Dual-GPU and HD 7790

Since NVIDIA has such a big beast of a card on the market now, Advanced Micro Devices is bound to respond somehow, and while a reference HD 7990 may finally be in the works, so is the HD 7790.

Even before NVIDIA finally launched the GeForce GTX Titan graphics card, AMD was rumored to be preparing new HD 7000 cards for the first half of 2013. While the Radeon HD 8000 series of GPUs won't be out before later in the year (2013), AMD can't exactly leave the GPU market hanging. That means new Radeon HD 7000 adapters, and Guru 3D thinks it may have discovered two of the most likely impending products. A dual-GPU Radeon HD 7990 is one candidate. While there are several dual-HD 7970 cards on the market, they are original designs by OEMs. AMD doesn't have a reference card. One such adapter would have both chips operating at above 1 GHz and would have the codename Malta. The source of this rumor hasn't always been right in its speculations, but it might be this time.

The other graphics card that AMD is supposedly preparing is called Radeon HD 7790 and will serve the mid-range market segment. The graphics processing unit powering it has the Bonaire XT codename and will have a performance close to that of the HD 7870. AMD will allow its partners to release custom versions of it, but will forbid all factory overclocking for some reason. The base frequency is unknown. The arrival date, for the HD 7790 at least, has not been given, but the ETA (estimated time of arrival) is the first half of this year (2013), which could mean anything from now to the end of June.

Knowing how much time passes between a rumor and its confirmation or invalidation, there is a fair chance of late May or April being the intended period.

AMD Radeon logo
Image credits to AMD

Read more »

How to Install Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview on Nexus Devices

Everyone wants to install the new Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview and Canonical has made sure that the process is simple and straightforward.

Before we start to describe the process of flashing and installing Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview, you need to know about a few disclaimers. First of all, you will need to unlock your device. Doing so may result in voiding the warranty of the device, so you will have to perform the process at your own risk. Secondly, The Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview is intended to be used for development and evaluation purposes only. It does not provide all of the features and services of a retail phone and cannot replace your current handset. You will lose all the data from any previous installation, and without a backup, there is no way of getting it back. After installing the operating system, you will get the following functionalities: Shell and core applications, connection to the GSM network (on Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4), phone calls and SMS (on Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4), networking via Wifi, and camera (front and back).

Keep in mind that this tutorial applies to all the supported Nexus devices: Galaxy Nexus (maguro), Nexus 4 (mako), Nexus 7 (grouper), and Nexus 10 (manta). You will need to install some tools and to download the actual OS. This is done via PPA. Just open a terminal and enter the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:phablet-team/tools

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install phablet-tools android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot

The second step is to unlock your device. If it's already unlocked, you can skip this step. The Canonical description is pretty clear on how this is done:

• Enable USB debugging on the device;
• On Ice Cream Sandwich (version 4.0) go to Settings and turn on USB Debugging (Settings > System > Developer options > USB debugging);
• On Jelly Bean (versions 4.1 and 4.2) you need to enter Settings, About [Phone|Tablet] and tap the Build number 7 times to see the Developer Options, activate USB Debugging via Settings > Developer options > USB debugging;
• On 4.2.2 you will need to accept a host key on the device, if you already had adb installed, do the following: On the workstation-> adb kill-server; adb start-server; 
• Plug the device into the computer via the USB cable;
• Depending on the installed Android version, a popup will show up on the device with the host key that needs to be accepted for the device to communicate with the workstation;
• Save the version of the current image on the device, if on Android, to use as a reference to revert back to. The version can be found by going to Settings > About Phone > Build Number.

The third and last step is the most important. Just enter the following command:

phablet-flash -b

The -b performs a full bootstrap on the device. If the device is already unlocked, it will carry on. If you have already bootstrapped once and want to install a daily just do:

phablet-flash

The phone will boot into Unity Shell. Enjoy your new Ubuntu for Phones OS.

Nexus 4 running Ubuntu OS
Image credits to Canonical

Read more »

Nokia Indonesia New Windows Phone 8 Lumia Video Ad

Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 Lumia devices have already arrived in various markets around the world, and the company has been pushing its marketing campaign to raise awareness on its devices, with Indonesia being one of the latest countries to see TV ads for these smartphones.

The clip, embedded above, is in line with previously spotted commercials for the new Lumia handsets, bringing to the front people who share their experience with the handsets. Of course, not all apps, features and capabilities of Windows Phone 8 and Lumia smartphones are covered here, but you can still make a good idea of what the handsets have to offer.

At the moment, the Finnish handset vendor has three Windows Phone 8 devices available on shelves, the Lumia 920, Lumia 820 and Lumia 620, but it is expected to launch more of them soon, maybe next week at MWC 2013.

Video credits to NokiaIndonesia

Read more »