Qualcomm has announced a brand new processor designed specifically for smartwatches and wearables. The Snapdragon 2100 has been developed to enable manufacturers to create thinner smartwatches with longer-lasting batteries, and make it easier to design watches that don’t need to be tethered to phones.
Right on schedule, Huawei took the wraps off its next generation mobile processor at an event in Beijing this morning. The Kirin 950 packs in some impressive specs and looks set to give Qualcomm’s already-troubled Snapdragon 820 chip some stiff competition…
It looks like there is definitely some truth to evidence suggesting that the Snapdragon 810 has been facing some problems with overheating. Dutch site Tweakers has taken the HTC One M9 through a series of tests, and it looks like overheating problems with Qualcomm’s processor are still very much a valid concern. Specifically, while running GFXBench, the site has recorded the HTC One M9 to have a surface temperature of around 55 degrees Celsius—or 131 degrees Fahrenheit.
It’s definitely not unexpected by any stretch of the imagination, but Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S6 has been tipped to be introduced at the 2015 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain (via Chosunilbo). The smartphone is shaping up to be the most technically powerful smartphone Samsung has ever made, and it looks like it’s going to be fundamentally different in many ways than every other Galaxy S phone that has preceded it.
The Galaxy Note 4, Samsung’s current flagship phablet, is already available in two variations: one with a Samsung Exynos 7 processor (SM-N910C), and one with a Snapdragon 805 (SM-N910S). The difference between them is almost negligible, but a rumor this morning out of the fairly-reliable-for-Samsung-rumors SamMobile suggests that Samsung is testing another variation of the Note 4, this time with Snapdragon’s upcoming 810 system-on-a-chip.
A report from Korea last week claimed that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chip, which is almost surely going to power the next generation of Android smartphones, was facing some production issues that might cause some delay in the production of devices like the LG G4, Xperia Z4, and others. Although Qualcomm won’t comment on rumors that the chip is facing issues with overheating and GPU errors and the like, they do say that the chip is apparently still “on track” and that devices sporting the chip are still going to be available in the first half of 2015…
Eight months after announcing the 192-core Tegra K1 “super chip,” graphics chip maker NVIDIA has provided details about a new “Denver” edition that will be the first 64-bit ARM processor for Android devices.
Expand
Expanding
Close
More specs of LG’s upcoming G3 have leaked from Sprint’s device database (via PhoneArena). While a quad-HD display, 2.3 GHz SnapDragon, and 4.4.2 version of Android are all still in the cards, the profile has been updated to reflect that the device will have a 16 megapixel camera.
Until this, rumors have pointed towards the G3 having a 13 megapixel camera — LG has either upgraded the glass, or the camera will change depending upon the region the device is sold in. Either way, LG’s devices have had excellent cameras for the past year, and the G3 isn’t likely to break that trend.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Google could potentially design its its server processor chips in-house some day, according to a new report by Bloomberg. The move would be an interesting one, as Google has typically relied on Intel chips to power its servers. Any major changes are likely several years down the road, but just the idea that the company could switch is a pretty big deal.
Google is considering creating these processors based on designs by ARM, Bloomberg notes. ARM designs are used by many companies for designing in-house processors, including Qualcomm and Apple. Those companies primarily build mobile phone processors, but using ARM technology in a server isn’t a huge technological stretch.
We already knew that Google Glass would be running Android 4.0.4 and got a look at the official tech specs straight from Google, but until now we didn’t know some of the specifics such as how much RAM and what processor the device is using. Today we details via developer +JayLee (via Selfscreens) that Google Glass reports running a OMAP 4430 CPU similar to that used in the original Kindle (although not other details are available on the processor) and 682mb of RAM. Lee speculates Glass might actually pack in 1GB of RAM:
Expand
Expanding
Close
This is my next has unveiled an Android device heading to Sprint, which is said to be a beefed up Motorola XPRT with a dual-core processor. The device is code named the Motorola Pax, and is looking very Blackberry esque with its portrait keyboard. Besides the dual-core processor, the Pax is also believed to include Sprint’s new CDMA 1X Advanced push-to-talk system. There is no word on pricing or availability. Check out another shot after the break.