Windows Phone 8.1 to Include Siri-like Personal Assistant “Cortana”

Redmond-based software giant Microsoft has been long rumored to pack some exciting enhancements for its Windows Phone 8 platform, and it seems that a personal assistant will be one of them. Codenamed “Cortana,” it should arrive to devices in the upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 platform release, allowing a more natural interaction with devices. Basically, it would be for Windows Phone what Siri is for Apple’s iOS, WPCentral reports. The news site also adds that Cortana is, in fact, an overhaul to the TellMe service. However, it appears that this will be more than a simple personal assistant for Windows Phone users, and that the entire future core services of the platforms will be built upon it. In fact, ZDNet notes that Microsoft CEO Steve...

Read more »

Samsung Promises Smartphones with 64-bit CPUs

South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung is determined to strengthen its leading position on the smartphone market, and the company will launch handsets with 64-bit processors for that. Samsung mobile business head Shin Jong-kyun confirmed that, only two days after Apple announced its iPhone 5S smartphone with a 64-bit CPU inside. “Not in the shortest time. But yes, our next smartphones will have 64-bit processing functionality,” Shin said, Korea Times notes in a recent article. Recently, Samsung announced another enhancement for its mobile processors, in the form of a Heterogeneous Multi-Processing update destined for the Exynos 5 Octa core ARM chip. No specific info has been provided on which future Samsung handsets will receive...

Read more »

LG Nexus 5 (LG-D820) Images Leak via FCC

Google and LG have been long rumored to plan the release of the next device in the popular Nexus series, and leaked images available via FCC provide us now with a glimpse at the smartphone. Supposedly called Nexus 5, the phone emerged at the feds featuring model number LG-D820, and photos with this device are now available for your viewing pleasure. As droid-life notes, the images show a device that matches the one spotted last week at Google’s Android 4.4 Kit Kat unveiling. The upcoming handset is said to sport about the same hardware specifications as the LG G2, while the available photos suggest that it might feature the looks of Nexus 4. However, no official confirmation on this device indeed being the Nexus 5 has emerged until...

Read more »

Apple iPhone 5s and 5c Have Bigger Batteries

Battery life is a troublesome affair, not just on iPhones but on all smartphones today (regardless of what fanboys will tell you). At the (literal) end of the day, most high-end smartphones need some juice. But that may be a thing of the past, with the new, larger batteries inside the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, according to some FCC filings spotted by AnandTech. In these FCC documents, Apple reportedly notes that the batteries inside its new iPhones have increased in size, just as predicted after a recent teardown. According to the tech blog, “The iPhone 5S ends up getting an almost 10 percent increase in size versus the iPhone 5, the iPhone 5C goes up around 5 percent versus the iPhone 5.” Of course, a 10 percent increase in battery...

Read more »

Gigabyte Motherboards with Thunderbolt 2.0 Released

Even though many people feel that Thunderbolt doesn't have much of a future, being a proprietary technology and all, motherboard producers are making a fuss each time they offer support for it, like Gigabyte has just done. Well, fuss might be a strong word. After all, the only thing Gigabyte actually did was bring the Z87X-UD5 TH and Z87X-UD7 TH to IDF 2013. The Intel Developer Forum is taking place in San Francisco, California. Today is the last day actually. For those that need a short summary, Thunderbolt 2.0 is an interface that uses the DisplayPort standard and allows devices like screens and such to be daisy-chained. Its data transfer speed is of 20 Gbps, twice as high as that of USB 3.0 (that's right, USB 3.0 managed to jump...

Read more »