We're all set for a quad-core dominated MWC with Nvidia officially taking the reins off its Tegra 3 platform at the end of last year and a raft of devices expected.
But it's not just Kal-El powered phones that will be grabbing the attention out in Barcelona. While we know that the Samsung Galaxy S III won't be making an appearance, we might be seeing its engine room. For Sammy will officially be taking the covers off of the quad-core System-on-Chip (SoC), Exynos 4412, at the Barcelona-based expo - the chip likely to be found in the Korean company's next flagship.
A report in November last year indicated that Samsung had some devices planned for early 2012 that would "blow minds" and that are a "big step past the Galaxy Nexus class, in every way". It's looking more and more likely that one of these devices will be a quad-core powered S III.
The Exynos 4412 comes packing four ARM Cortex-A9 cores that can run between 200MHz and 1.5GHz. As reported previously, the SoC should also boast four ARM Mali graphics cores, a 64-bit Neon media engine and a dual-channel memory controller with support for LP-DDR2, DDR2 and DDR3 memory.
According to Samsung, a quad-core Exynos would be powerful enough to support a smartphone with an integrated projector and a Full HD 3D display.
Samsung is also expected to show off the the Exynos 5250 SoC at the show - a dual core 2GHz monster that is capable of a WQXGA (2560x1600) resolution.
The ARM Cortex-A15 core-based system not only handles that incredible pixel resolution but has four times the 3D processing power of its predecessor, the Exynos 4210 - the chip that is packed into the Samsung Galaxy S II, as well as offering native support for stereoscopic 3D.
Let's hope it's shown off inside a new Galaxy Tab device. That'd be smashing.
Orange has signed a deal with the Eat restaurant chain to allow its customers to use NFC-enabled phones in order to receive free food or coffee each day. Called Quick Tap Treats, Eat visitors need only press their handset against specially designed posters in any one of the 110 branches up and down the UK.
Every day, from early March until the summer, a different "treat" will be on offer, including a ham and cheese baguette, small coffee, porridge, fruit, and a number of upgrades from small to big portions or extra side orders, such as free mash and gravy with any pie order.
To receive the freebie, customers will play a game on their device after tapping it to the poster, which will reward them with an instantly redeemable snack or beverage. The Quick Tap Treats app will be downloadable from Orange World, and BlackBerry, Android and OVI app stores.
"Last year we started a whole new movement in the way consumers make payments on the high street, and with Quick Tap Treats, we're continuing this with a new and innovative way for our customers to receive rewards for their loyalty," said Pippa Dunn, chief marketing officer, Orange UK.
The NFC-capable phones Orange currently provides are the Samsung Tocco Lite, Samsung Wave 578, Samsung Galaxy S II, Blackberry 9900, Blackberry 9360, Blackberry 9790, Blackberry 9380 and Acer LiquidExpress. If you have one of those, top banana... Or apple... Or cereal... Or... You get the picture.
Acer has outed its latest smartphone, the Acer Liquid Glow, a 3.7-inch Ice Cream Sandwich handset which follows the Galaxy Nexus‘ example and includes NFC support. Set to make its official debut at Mobile World Congress next week, the Liquid Glow has a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, though full specifications are not yet clear.
Acer isn’t saying what resolution the display runs at – nor indeed whether it’s LCD or AMOLED – and we don’t know what processor is at the heart of the Liquid Glow either. In fact, the company is more keen to talk about the smartphone’s aesthetic, with a soft-touch casing that comes in “Sakura Pink”, “Alpine White”, and “Cat’s-eye Black” with matching on-screen themes.
Android Beam – using NFC to exchange contacts, links, app shortcuts and content – is present, along with all the other features which s impressed us about Ice Cream Sandwich. However, Acer has oped to fit the Liquid Glow with dedicated touch-sensitive buttons for home, search, back and app-multitasking, rather than the on-screen keys on the Galaxy Nexus.
That seems a shame – it could’ve allowed Acer to squeeze a slightly larger display into the same form-factor – but we’ll have to wait until next week to see if it impacts usability. We’re off to Mobile World Congress this weekend, so expect all the news as it happens.
If Apple were a cartoon character, it would definitely be Scrooge McDuck. I have a mental image of Apple CEO Tim Cook and other Cupertino bigwigs diving into a company pool filled with cash. Consider that $1 billion in $100 bills would weigh approximately 22,000 pounds assuming each bill weighs 1 g according to Dailykos. If you multiply that by 98 it gets us roughly 2,156,000 pounds for the $98 billion in cash Apple has sitting in the bank. I’d say that’s plenty cash to fill a swimming pool Scrooge style.
It’s literally much more than a ton of money, and Apple CEO Tim Cook says Apple’s now sitting on a cash stockpile that’s too large. In years past the late Steve Jobs held on to all Apple’s cash and socked it away in the bank much the way Apple had done in years past when the company was not in nearly as good a financial situation. Cook noted that he and Apple’s board were considering reinstating the quarterly dividend for shareholders.
There is no guarantee that the dividend will be reinstated at this point. The last payment made to a shareholder by Apple was back in 1995. Apple is certainly in a much, much better financial situation today than it was in 1995. With such a huge amount of money in the bank, I would be surprised if Apple didn’t start paying shareholders something.
“Frankly speaking,” Cook said, “it’s [$98 billion] on more than we need to run the company.”
