2014年2月23日星期日

Audyssey to showcase new audio technology for smartphones at MWC 2014

Audyssey to showcase new audio technology for smartphones at MWC 2014 Most of us know of Audyssey as the company behind the sound calibration software technology that is used by many home theater products on the market, as it can correct for room size, frequency response, and cross-over points...all of which allows for an improved sound experience when playing a movie, watching TV, or when just listening to music.

But in the mobile domain, Audyssey has not been as well known as others (such as Beat's Audio used by HTC), but the company has been steadily growing its presence. The Audyssey Media Player is a standalone app that improves headphone quality on iOS devices. And Audyssey's audio technologies also enable the HQ Audio feature on the Songza streaming music service for iOS and Android.

Audyssey is now hoping to bring headphone audio playback to a new level by introducing their new Audyssey 60° technology. It is designed to give a more accurate recreation of the original recording to deliver a proper blend of acoustical and psychoacoustical cues to both ears simultaneously. This results in spatially expanded sound perception, creating the impression of a much wider soundstage.

The Audyssey 60° technology will be on demo at the Mobile World Congress starting February 24th, but don't expect it to show up on your phone anytime soon, as the software technology has to be licensed to phone manufacturers for them to incorporate in future smartphones and tablets.

source: Audyssey

Audyssey to showcase new audio technology for smartphones at MWC 2014


Press Release

2014年2月9日星期日

Android 4

Android 4.3 for Nexus 4 caught in the wild, system dump available for download

Android 4.3 cropped up on the Google Play Editions of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One first but you shouldn’t doubt that the Nexus 4 will get it too. Some already have it – one Jeff Williams apparently bought a Nexus 4 from a Google employee and to his surprise the phone was running Android 4.3 JWR66N, the same build number we saw on the Galaxy S4 GPE.

With some help, he managed to get a system dump of the phone. There’s no radio and bootloader yet (Jeff promised to get those soon), but reports say you can use TWRP to restore the dump and get it to work. Proceed with caution (and full backup) as there’s no guarantee of the result.

Or you can wait – the official unveiling will be in less than a week, the even is scheduled for July 24. The delivery of the update for the Nexus 4 shouldn’t take too long after that.

You can grab the dump from here (339MB). If that’s not working, Android Police has set up a number of mirrors you can try.

In the meantime, we’ll wait and see if people digging through the system dump find anything that wasn’t on the Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition, which we reviewed.

So, will the Samsung Galaxy Nexus get 4.3 as well? It’s currently on 4.2 and this is a relatively minor update.

Source

Android ported to the iPhone

Android ported to the iPhone, Steve Jobs loses his sleep

Here’s the next proof, if needed, that the rapid development of the Android OS has impressed the whole mobile world. A knowledgeable user managed to port the Open Handset Alliance platform to run over the Apple hardware that is inside the iPhone. Baaam!

There’s not much else to say here but for the fact that you can find pre-built images and sources here. The video below (shot on another iPhone to prove the developer’s commitment to the Apple cause) will do the rest of the talking.

I’m not quite sure if many iPhone owners are willing to join the Android bandwagon at this stage but in case the Google OS gains some serious advantage in the future it’s nice to know that it’s an option.

Source

AMD drops the ATI brand

AMD drops the ATI brand, for now on all Radeon graphic cards shall bear the AMD logo

AMD is dropping the ATI moniker from its graphic cards range. Its future products will go sell under the AMD logo, but the family names will stay the same – Radeon and FirePro.


The ATI brand surely has a long history and traditions, but it’s time we all let it go. It was clear where this would lead to, the moment AMD acquired ATI. Today thefamous three letters become part of the history replaced by the three-letter abbreviation of their owner AMD.

I am sure many of us, who followed ATI through the years, are already nostalgic but it’s the right decision. It ends the long-drawn confusion about the proper abbrevation to put in front a Radeon graphic card.

AMD graphics lineup will continue to fight NVIDIA with the same spirit as before. The first AMD-only labeled cards are expected to launch later this year.

Source

2014年1月6日星期一

A kidney or two will get you a Celsius X-VI-II Papillon

A kidney or two will get you a Celsius X-VI-II Papillon, the mechanical phone!

How many of you had a calculator watch? And how many had a mechanical phone? See, mechanical is, um, cooler! Yeah. Who needs a Ferrari when you can own this head turner…


This extravagant phone will be announced tomorrow and more details will become available. Until then here’s what I know – the Celsius X-VI-II Papillon is a clamshell with mechanical gadgetry inside, 547 hand assembled pieces to be precise.

The mechanism operates the clock on the top part of the clamshell and the one on the inside (above the screen). The cover is transparent so you can see the whole shebang tick and there’s even speculation that the mechanical parts play a role in the phone itself, perhaps charge the battery from the movement of the phone like a self-winding watch.

Celsius X-VI-II PapillonCelsius X-VI-II PapillonCelsius X-VI-II Papillon
The Celsius X-VI-II Papillon is lavish, exorbitant and pricy

If you though to yourself “I want one!” then better hurry – the Celsius X-VI-II Papillon is probably going to be a strictly limited edition. At 300 000 US dollars a pop that’s hardly a surprise. That’s right, it’s three hundred thousand, I’ve counted the zeroes several times.

If that’s too rich for your blood (or you have some common sense) you can settle for another kind of Papillon. They are very athletic apparently. Oh, one more thing that makes the phone even manlier – “papillon” is French for “butterfly” (the dog was named so because of its ears).


Pictured: “papillon”

Source (site in Russian)

A lot of new Windows Mobile 7 details surfaced

A lot of new Windows Mobile 7 details surfaced, we still hold our breath

PPCGeeks managed to obtains some new spicy info about the latest Microsoft mobile OS – Windows Mobile 7. Zune and Xbox integration are waiting to be unveiled at the MWC later this month.

As the previous leaked images left us with mixed feelings, so is the new feature roster. The notable improvements over the current version of Windows Mobile start with the full Zune integration with Zune HD interface. The UI is codenamed “METRO” and will be “very clean, soulful and alive”. Even more, the Zune software will be used for PC sync, so no more Active Sync or Windows Mobile Device Center – wow, I still can’t bend my head over that too.

Next in the list comes integration with the Xbox Gaming service – Gamer tags, achievements, friends, etc. This suggests Microsoft’s intentions to bring down the game crown from the iPhone offering their community service with the new mobile OS.

The Maketplace will go through a complete overhaul delivering huge amount of software, services and a brand new interface (they certainly messed up with the current one with overSIZED fonts). The Windows application store will be the first to offer seamless “try before you buy” functionality. Yes, the Apple AppStore offers trials too, but you need to download them separately.

As you may have guessed the full social networking support will be an important part of the new Windows Mobile 7 as well.

And here comes the bad news – there will be no Flash support and no real multitasking. You will be able to run several apps simultaneously, but they will “pause” when they go in background. Wait, what? Is that the iPhone we’re talking about?

Also users won’t be able to install anything unless it comes from official sources such as the Marketplace. There will be no backwards compatibility with older Windows Mobile software, at least for now. I guess that’s their way of making everybody use their own repository.

And finally Microsoft will not allow the use of custom interfaces (such as Sense UI/ SPB Mobile Shell/ XPERIA panels), but they promise Windows Mobile 7 really won’t need them. Now I find that really hard to believe.

All this sound so like Apple! But I guess we’ll learn whether they’re true or false at the MWC this year, since the Windows Mobile 7 announcement is rumored to take place there. The first devices packing the new Windows Mobile are expected in September this year.

Source

A joint venture between Fujitsu

A joint venture between Fujitsu, NTT DOCOMO, NEC, and Fujitsu Semiconductor wants a piece of the mobile semiconductor cake

Another player has entered the thriving market of semiconductor chips with built-in modems, people. A newly formed joint venture, which includes Fujitsu, NTT DOCOMO, NEC, and Fujitsu Semiconductor, called Access Network Technology Limited aims at capturing a piece of the lucrative pie.

Fujitsu will own 52.8% of the newly minted company, with NTT Docomo, NEC and Fujitsu Semiconductor owning 19.9, 17.8, and 9.5% respectively. Access Network Technology Limited’s goal is to capture 7% of global market for smartphone chips by 2014.

While the new company’s target might seem a bit too ambitious at a first glance, given the players involved and its primary market, we wouldn’t be surprised if it makes it. What do you think?

Source | Via