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Friday, August 31, 2012

Sharp's IGZO low-power, high-res display technology gets its time to shine at IFA

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/31/sharps-igzo-low-power-high-res-display-technology-gets-its-tim/

Alongside the slew of 90-inch TVs, Sharp also used this year's IFA to show off something a little less glamorous. Its IGZO technology (that's indium gallium zinc oxide, kids) was developed in conjunction with the Semiconductor Energy Laboratory. According to Sharp, the displays "have a significantly higher translucency [compared to traditional LCD TFT displays]. This improvement means that smaller or fewer LEDs are needed for the backlighting." The result is less power consumption for high-res displays and higher sensitivity on touchscreens, with far less noise to contend with.

The company plans to create three panel sizes to start: 10-inch (2560 x 1600), seven-inch (1280 x 800) and 32-inch (3840 x 2160). Sharp was also demoing a prototype seven-inch tablet (which you can see in the gallery below) alongside the displays. The representative we spoke with wouldn't reveal anything about specific products the company plans to produce using the technology, but did tell us that we can expect to see some IGZO products in 2013. Check out an explanatory video after the break.

Gallery: Sharp IGZO hands-on

Continue reading Sharp's IGZO low-power, high-res display technology gets its time to shine at IFA

Filed under: Displays, Tablets

Sharp's IGZO low-power, high-res display technology gets its time to shine at IFA originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 07:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Galaxy Note II gets early benchmark treatment at IFA

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/31/samsung-galaxy-note-ii-early-benchmark-ifa/

Here at IFA, the Galaxy Note II's glossy plastic build is practically fading under the ambush of cameras snapping away at Samsung's booth, but clearly this phone is more than just a (super sized) pretty face, and it's time to take a look at what's under the hood. As mentioned in our hands-on, Samsung upgraded the original Note's dual-core 1.4GHz chipset to a quad-core 1.6GHz Exynos processor. We put the device to the test today to see how those amped-up insides reflect in the Note II's benchmark scores. As you'll see below, Sammy's latest handset fares significantly better than the original Note and the Galaxy S III.

	Galaxy Note II	Galaxy Note (international)	Galaxy S III (I9300)
AnTuTu	11,736	N/A	11,960
Quadrant	6,644	3,810	4,454
Vellamo	2,466	901	1,751
SunSpider 0.9.1 (ms, lower is be! tter)	1,330	2,902	1,460
CF-Bench	15,305	N/A	13,110
GL Benchmark Egypt Offscreen	114 fps	N/A	99 fps

Oh, what a difference a processor makes. Clearly the step up to a quad-core CPU is to thank for the large performance delta between the Note II and the last-gen Note, though the international version of the Galaxy S III, with a quad-core 1.4Ghz Exynos processor, also falls behind in Quadrant and other tests. The Note II also trumped its Samsung siblings on the browser-focused Vellamo benchmark, which hints at snappier performance on this phone. The phone's graphics chops look pretty good, too, if the GL Benchmark score is any indication. Our testing got cut short before we could run SunSpider, but we'll add that figure shortly.

Update: We've added SunSpider as well -- the device clocked in at 1,330ms, which is a hair faster than the Galaxy S III.

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung Galaxy Note II gets early benchmark treatment at IFA originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 07:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blue Microphones Mikey Digital portable microphone for iOS devices hits shelves, offers mobile tracking for $100

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/31/blue-microphones-mikey-now-shipping/

The second of Blue Microphone's CES trio has broken cover. Mikey Digital, a mobile recording peripheral for the iPad and iPhone is now available at select retailers. If you're in need of a refresher, the retooled version of the original Mikey tracking unit connects to you Apple smartphone or tablet via the dock connector. The mic houses the same two condenser capsules found on the more robust Snowball and Yeti USB mics while sporting built-in sensitivity control and CD-quality analog / digital conversion. A 3.5mm audio jack is included for monitoring or either stereo line-in or mic-in -- if you're looking to tack on a few more gadgets when recording with the 230-degree rotating kit. USB pass-thru allows for charging while in the midst of a session and a LED clipping indicator keeps tabs on volume levels to ensure the best results. If all of that sounds too good to pass up, the Mikey Digital will hit your wallet for $99.99 just as soon at you can enter your shipping info.

Continue reading Blue Microphones Mikey Digital portable microphone for iOS devices hits shelves, offers mobile tracking for $100

Filed under: Peripherals

Blue Microphones Mikey Digital portable microphone for iOS devices hits shelves, offers mobile tracking for $100 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer announces Aspire M3 and Aspire V5 laptops with touchscreens

Source: http://www.engadget.com/acer-aspire-v5-touch-aspire-m3-touch/

In case you haven't noticed, there are two kinds of Windows 8 devices on display at IFA this week: laptop / tablet hybrids, and already-announced laptops, refreshed to include touch screens. Acer's newest two Ultrabooks fall into that second category: the company just announced touch-enabled versions of its Aspire M3 Ultrabook and Aspire V5 thin-and-light (pictured). For now, Acer isn't saying a word about price or availability, so for now you'll have to be content with a few spec details, all embedded after the break.

Continue reading Acer announces Aspire M3 and Aspire V5 laptops with touchscreens

Filed under: Laptops

Acer announces Aspire M3 and Aspire V5 laptops with touchscreens originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 08:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T U-verse delivers a Facebook app for TVs

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/30/att-uverse-facebook/

While AT&T's U-verse TV service announced increased support for second screen apps earlier this year and enhanced its own app for iPad with sharing features recently, it's just delivered a new app that brings Facebook to the TV screen. The customized interface brings in user's status feed, friends list and photos, where they can comment or leave standard messages to the service. There's also naturally a tie-in allowing them to share information and updates about the shows they're watching on the IPTV service directly through the app. According to the press release (included after the break) it can handle up to ten different accounts on a single receiver, so they don't all have to post updates to one unlucky members account. Despite seeing many made-for-TV-screens social networking apps we haven't found one that was definitely easier to use than keeping that kind of info on a second screen phone, tablet or PC, but we'll wait to hear from U-Verse subscribers about how well this effort is working.

Continue reading AT&T U-verse delivers a Facebook app for TVs

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

! AT&T U-verse delivers a Facebook app for TVs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 23:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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