Intex i17 Goes Official with 1.7GHz Octa-Core MT6592 CPU

Today, Intex has officially announced the upcoming availability of the first smartphone running under the 1.7GHz octa-core MT6592 processor from MediaTek, namely the Intex i17.

The new device will be released in India in January 2014 with a 6-inch, 1280 x 720 pixels IPS screen, in two flavors, with 16GB and 32GB of internal memory. Intex i17 will also sport 2GB of RAM, a 2300mAh removable battery, and 3G HSPA+ connectivity. Furthermore, it comes with Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth capabilities, as well as with GPS receiver.

On the back, the new smartphone features a 13-megapixel camera with full HD video recording, complemented by a 5MP front camera for making video calls. Intex i17 runs under Google’s Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system. The 16GB flavor of the device will cost Rs. 20,000 ($320/€236) when released in January, fonearena reports.

Intex i7 goes official with octa-core processor inside
Image credits to FoneArena

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8-Core MediaTek MT6592 Scores 32,000 Points in AnTuTu Benchmark

Soon after MediaTek has officially launched its MT6592 octa-core processor, info on the first benchmarks for the chipset has started to emerge, proving the high performance levels that it can offer.

According to MediaTek, the CPU has managed to score no less than 32,606 points in AnTuTu, which is pretty impressive, that’s for sure. The chip had its cores clocked in at 2GHz, as GizChina reports. However, it appears that the MT6592 can offer increased performances even at lower speeds, as the 1.7GHz model is said to have reached almost 30,000 points in the same benchmark.

MT6592 was made official with eight Cortex-A7 cores inside, and it is the first mobile chip in the world to be able to use all of them at the same time. Smartphones and other devices powered by this processor are expected to become available before the end of this year.

MediaTek's MT6592 hits 32,000 points in AnTuTu
Image credits to GizChina

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Qualcomm New Snapdragon 805 Ultra HD Processor

Today, chip maker Qualcomm has officially announced a new processor for the mobile market, in the form of Qualcomm Snapdragon 805, which has been designed to provide users with the highest-quality mobile video experience.

The new CPU, the successor of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 chip, will also offer support for Ultra HD (4K) resolutions, and should offer great imaging and graphics experiences as well. The new chipset arrives with the new Adreno 420 GPU inside and is capable of delivering up to 40 percent more graphics power when compared to its predecessor. Furthermore, the new CPU is the first in the world to come with system-level Ultra HD support, 4K video capture, and playback capabilities. Additionally, it sports enhanced dual camera Image Signal Processors (ISPs), thus being capable of increased performance capabilities and better multitasking. The Krait 450 quad-core CPU can deliver core speeds of up for 2.5GHz, while also packing support for superior memory bandwidth (up to 25.6 GB/second) for advanced multimedia and web browsing performance.

“The mobile industry's first end-to-end Ultra HD solution with on-device display concurrent with output to HDTV; features Qualcomm Technologies' new Adreno 420 GPU, which introduces support for hardware tessellation and geometry shaders,” the chip maker said. The new processor will also offer advanced 4K rendering, while enabling more realistic scenes and objects, as well as visually stunning user interface experiences at lower power. The processor will also enable users to stream more video content at higher quality, while using less power. According to Qualcomm, the CPU comes with support for Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) for video post processing, hardware 4K HEVC (H.265) decode for mobile.

“Using a smartphone or tablet powered by Snapdragon 805 processor is like having an UltraHD home theater in your pocket, with 4K video, imaging and graphics, all built for mobile,” said Murthy Renduchintala, executive vice president, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and co-president, QCT. “We're delivering the mobile industry's first truly end-to-end Ultra HD solution, and coupled with our industry leading Gobi LTE modems and RF transceivers, streaming and watching content at 4K resolution will finally be possible.” The new Snapdragon 805 mobile processor is already sampling and is expected to be included in commercially available devices in the first half of the next year.

Qualcomm introducing Snapdragon 805 CPU for mobile devices
Image credits to Qualcomm

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Samsung SM-G7106 Emerges in China with 5.25-Inch Screen

A new Samsung smartphone has received the necessary approvals in China, featuring model number Samsung SM-G7106 and packing a 5.25-inch LCD touchscreen display.

The mobile phone hasn’t been officially announced as of now, but the specifications that emerged over at Tenaa in China suggest that it will hit shelves as a mid-range device. The aforementioned screen will deliver a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution, while hiding a 1.2GHz quad-core processor beneath it. The phone will also sport 1.5GB of RAM when launched. Furthermore, info uncovered by Ameblo unveils that the new handset will pack an 8-megapixel rear camera, along with a 1.9MP front camera, and that it will run under Google’s Android 4.3 Jelly Bean operating system right from the start.

The new Samsung SM-G7106 might arrive on the market in China in the near future, yet no specific info on when that might happen has been provided as of now.

Samsung SM-G7106
Tenaa via Ameblo.jp

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Winamp to Be Discontinued on December 20, 2013

Winamp, once one of the most popular media players on the market, will be officially discontinued on December 20, 2013, due to yet to be disclosed reasons.

AOL announced the decision in a brief statement on the official Winamp.com website, saying that the webpage and the downloadable media player will be removed on December 20. “Winamp.com and associated web services will no longer be available past December 20, 2013. Additionally, Winamp Media players will no longer be available for download. Please download the latest version before that date. See release notes for latest improvements to this last release. Thanks for supporting the Winamp community for over 15 years,” the notification reads. While nobody can tell for sure what the reason behind this surprising decision actually is, it appears that it’s all because the bad management that took over app development after the AOL acquisition. Winamp, which was developed by Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev for Nullsoft, was purchased by AOL in June 1999 for no less than $80 million (€59.4 million) in stock.

In June 2000, Winamp reached a record 25 million registered users, but started a dramatic decline soon after that. Even though development of new versions continued, and both Winamp 3 and Windows 5 reached the market in the next years, some users decided to stick to the original WInamp 2.95 version thanks to the impressive audio quality and its reduced footprint on system resources. In the last few years, Winamp launched several new versions, including a Mac port and an Android version that’s experiencing quite a terrific success among smartphone owners. Unfortunately, the desktop business continued its drop as more users turned to other media players such as foobar2000 and Clementine.

Making Winamp open-source and allowing the dev community to continue improving it would indeed be a great idea, but we really doubt that AOL would come down to such a decision.

Winamp download page
Image credits to Winamp

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ASUS ROG MARS 760 Dual-GPU Graphics Card

After a surprisingly low period of leaks and rumors, ASUS has formally launched the ROG Mars 760, which is not, in fact, another overclocked GTX 760 card, but a dual-GPU adapter.

ASUS wanted to see what it took to merge two GTX 760 cards until they shared the same PCB. This is the result, a video card with 4 GB of GDDR5 VRAM running at 6600 MHz and GPUs with core clock of 1008 MHz, or 1072 MHz when GPU Boost technology engages. There's 512-bit interface too, 256 bits for each of the two graphics processing units. Compared to NVIDIA's normal GeForce GTX 760, these specs are precisely double portions, although the clocks are higher on both counts. On the single-chip card, the GPU operates at 980 MHz most of the time, and 1033 MHz when things get tough, and the 2 GB of memory work at 6 GHz. Clearly, ASUS wanted to make an impression. Sadly, the company did not say, in its press release, how the thing compared to, say, NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 690 and AMD's Radeon HD 7990.

No doubt, reviewers will be all over that. Speaking of which, there aren't any tests yet. ASUS really seems to have almost pulled this product out of the blue. As far as shocking value goes, it's pretty high here. ASUS had to really pull out all the stops, though, because a PCB won't easily withstand the load of such hardware. Thus, justifying the Republic of Gamers brand (ROG), the Mars 760 has a DIGI+ voltage-regulation module (VRM) with a 12-phase power design (power noise cut by 30%) and wider voltage-modulation tolerance. It also included Japanese-made black metallic capacitors (20% temperature endurance and 5X improvement in lifespan) and polymerized organic-semiconductor capacitors (POSCAPs).

Thus, buyers may very well overclock the newcomer, although why one would find is beyond us. Then again, professional curiosity will do it. Sadly, no price has been mentioned. ASUS ROG Mars 760 images gallery, click for larger images.

ASUS ROG Mars 760
Images credits to ASUS

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MediaTek Officially Intros MT6592 True Octa-Core CPU

Today, MediaTek has finally made official a mobile processor that many have been expecting for a few months now, namely the MT6592, the first chipset to offer true octa-core capabilities for smartphones.

The processor, set to arrive in commercially available devices before the end of this year, features eight low-power Cortex-A7 cores, and is capable of firing up all of them at the same time. The new CPU takes advantage of a Heterogeneous Multi-Processing model and ARM's big.LITTLE architecture so as to have all eight cores operating simultaneously, something that other octa-core CPUs available on the market today cannot. Furthermore, MediaTek claims that MT6592’s cores can clock in at between 1.7GHz and 2GHz, and that the processor delivers better performance than the quad-core Snapdragon 800. It also says that its chip consumes up to 40 percent less power than Qualcomm’s high-end solution. However, speed and low power needs are only some of the features that the new processor will arrive with, it seems. According to Engadget, the CPU also packs an image signal processor that should offer support for 16-megapixel camera modules.

Moreover, the CPU comes with a 700MHz ARM Mali-450 MP graphics processor, and supports 4K H.264 video decoding plus full HD H.265/VP9 playback. Unfortunately, MediaTek appears to be a bit behind when it comes to offering 4G connectivity inside its SoC, though a 4G modem will also be released before the end of this year, the company’s General Manager Xie Qingjiang has confirmed. The modem will be compatible with both quad-core and octa-core processors from MediaTek, and mobile phone makers will be able to use both of them inside their devices.

No info on the price tag that handsets powered by the new MT6592 processor might sport has been provided as of now. However, given the affordability of smartphones featuring the company’s quad-core chips, we should expect them to be accessible to a lot of users.

MediaTek officially launches its MT6592 true octa-core processor
Image credits to BGR

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