Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 23rd Oct 2012 19:12 UTC
It's one of those days again: Apple held a product announcement today, announcing several new products. The most important of which was rumoured about for a long time now: a smaller iPad. It's called the iPad mini, and has the potential to become the best-selling iPad - and thus, the best selling tablet.
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Member since:2006-01-25
I was hoping they'd at least put an A5X chip in there rather than just the A5.
Apple is not going to put the A5X in anything new - it doesn't make sense for them to do that. The A5X is still a 45nm chip, while the currently manufactured version of the A5 is 32nm - the A5X is over twice as big and uses ALOT more power.
Its all about maximizing profitability on varied products - the A5 is used in ALOT of devices (iPad2, iPod Touch, AppleTV, and now iPad mini). Its tiny, so you can make a whole lot of them cheap - and it is packaged with RAM on the chip, so it needs much less PCB area. Apple is going to put it into anything they deem "value oriented".
The A5X is is a layover from the previous generation. It is probably cheaper for Apple to make an A6X now, as it is much smaller and uses the same process node as the A5.
I expect you will either never see another new product with an A5X in it, or it will get shrunk to 32nm first (like the A5 was) if there is ever an "Old New iPad" type SKU.
Besides, your really don't need 4 GPUs to push a 1024x768 screen. Other than the GPUs, there isn't all that much difference between the two chips.
Member since:2005-07-11
I was hoping they'd at least put an A5X chip in there rather than just the A5.
The only differences between the A5 and the A5X are the CPU speed (800 in the iPhone vs 1000 MHz in the iPad 3) and number of GPU cores (2 vs 4). The *only* reason there's 4 GPU cores in the A5X is to support increase in pixels in the iPad 3.
The iPad mini has (approx) the same number of pixels as the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4, so why shove a ginormous GPU into it?
Bump the CPU clock up a bit and you have a tablet-friendly version of the A5.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/20/13 6:17 UTC, submitted by MOS6510
"In the first episode of Microsoft's new film series 'On the Whiteboard', Editor Pamela Woon chats with two-time Oscar winner Randy Thom about the (often underestimated) importance of sound in human-technology interactions. Thom, the lead sound designer at Skywalker Ranch who worked on films such as The Incredibles, Castaway and Forrest Gump, says that people rarely consider the significance of those signature sounds that come from their trusty devices, whether it be a cell phone, a computer or a tablet."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 23:02 UTC, submitted by M.Onty
"Microsoft has sensationally abandoned its controversial plans to restrict the sharing of XBox One games, and has also removed daily online authentication requirements for its forthcoming console", reports The Guardian. They had no choice. Still a good move.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 22:28 UTC
"A snippet of code in the Steam digital distribution platform has revealed that Valve may be planning to let users easily share their games with friends in the future. The Verge has verified the code's authenticity, which was originally spotted by a member of the NeoGAF gaming forum; the code references a 'shared game library' and a notification that would alert a user when their games are currently in use by a borrower." This would change the, uh, game.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.More News »
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Member since:
2008-07-15
I was hoping they'd at least put an A5X chip in there rather than just the A5. Spec wise, this thing seems rather similar to the iPod Touch with a larger screen (although a lower resolution). I'm not sure how it'll do against the Nexus 7. It doesn't fair well in price, but most iOS apps seem to be better quality than their Android counterparts, so it might win there. As a geek I'm perhaps biased to say it doesn't have high enough specs, but then again, that doesn't matter to 99% of the people who will buy it. It's that revised iPad 3 that actually interests me more than the new Mini. With that upgraded processor, that thing is going to fly.