HTC Butterfly s revealed: 1.9GHz Snapdragon 600 processor, UltraPixel camera sensor (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/19/htc-butterfly-s-revealed/

HTC's just pulled back the proverbial curtains on the Butterfly s at its Taiwan launch event. It'll arrive boasting a familiar-sounding 5-inch 1080p display, front-facing BoomSound stereo speakers and Sense 5 as expected. When it comes to internals, the Butterfly s runs Android Jelly Bean on a quad-core 1.9GHz Snapdragon 600 (faster than the HTC One), an impressive 3,200mAh battery, quad-band HSPA/WCDMA radio, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of built-in storage, expandable once again through microSD. As for imaging, alongside that primary UltraPixel camera and Zoe software features, there's a 2.1-megapixel wide-angle shooter on the front. It's currently scheduled for a release in July in Taiwan, accompanied by a NT $22,900 (roughly $766) price tag, but no word when (or even if) it'll reach foreign shores.

Update: Our Chinese sister site just spent some hands-on time with the device. Check out their first impressions right here. And look! A gallery right below!

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC

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Source: Engadget Chinese

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Lenovo unveils 15-inch ThinkPad S531 Ultrabook

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/18/lenovo-unveils-15-inch-thinkpad-s531-ultrabook/

As quick as Lenovo has been to hop on the Ultrabook bandwagon, it hasn't been so eager to launch big-screened models. Its new ThinkPad S531 explores that territory at last: the Windows 8 PC mates a slim profile with both a 15.6-inch, lay-flat LCD and a large keyboard. The experience will otherwise be familiar to those who've seen the S431, as it shares the same basic design language, the OneLink dock connector and a nine-hour battery. Unfortunately, the similarity also extends to the Ivy Bridge-era Intel processor -- there's no Haswell inside, at least for now. Still, the £575 ($900) UK price is within reach of many buyers, and there's a 1080p display option coming in July. Lenovo hasn't said if or when the S531 will reach the US, although we hope it gets a processor upgrade if and when it crosses the Atlantic.

Filed under: Laptops, Lenovo

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Source: Lenovo

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AMD details first ARM-based server chip: up to 16 helpings of Cortex-A57 clocked at 2GHz

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/18/amd-seattle-arm-server-chip/

It's hardly a secret that AMD has stepped out of its x86 comfort zone to develop an ARM-based server chip, but now we know a little more about it. Going by the name of "Seattle" and scheduled for launch in the second half of next year, it'll be built around ARM's 64-bit Cortex-A57 in either 8- or 16-core configurations, which will likely be clocked at a minimum of 2GHz. In an apparent acknowledgement of ARM's superiority at low wattages, we're told that this design has the potential to deliver 4x the performance of AMD's current Opteron X processors, with improved compute-per-watt. There's a clear limit to AMD's reliance on ARM, however, as it'll use Seattle to up against Intel's little Atoms, but will continue to sell its own x86 designs for higher-power applications. Meanwhile, we're still waiting on something more interesting from this union, which might be an ARM CPU paired with a Radeon HD graphics processor in some sort of mobile-class SoC. Guess we'll just have to be patient.

Filed under: Networking, Internet, AMD

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Next3D's plan to bring recorded video to the Oculus Rift

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/18/next3d-recorded-video-plans-oculus-rift-virtual-reality/

The dream of wearing a lightweight headset, like the Oculus Rift, in order to simulate physical presence isn't limited to the imaginary worlds of video games. One man's vision is that of immersive TV shows, movies and live sports. In fact, David Cole, co-founder of Next3D and an industry veteran who helps content creators and providers produce and deliver 3D, has been using his Rift dev kit to bring TV and film to life since the kits started shipping in March. The company is combining its video processing and compression technology with its experience in content production and stereoscopic delivery to offer what it's called Full-Court.

Next3D hopes to leverage its existing relationships with creators and providers to assist them in jumping into the world of live-action VR content. This includes both pre-recorded and live broadcasts. We wanted to see this firsthand, so we jumped at the opportunity to witness the creation of content and experience the results. This trial run of Next3D's stereoscopic, 180-degree field-of-view camera rig, and the post-processing to adapt it to VR, was part of the production of the paranormal investigation show, Anomaly, at Castle Warden in St. Augustine, Fla. Being nearby, we braved the perils of the haunted surroundings to tell you about what we hope is only the beginning of virtual reality content.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Report: AMD Is Making Its First Ever ARM Chip

Source: http://gizmodo.com/report-amd-is-making-its-first-ever-arm-chip-513977438

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that AMD is taking a leap into unknown waters, as it readies its first ever ARM chip.

The new chip—codenamed 'Seattle' and previously hinted at—is apparently based on the architecture designed by ARM which is now prolific in smartphones and tablets. Interestingly though, according to the Wall Street Journal, the chips will be aimed at server systems—where the same power savings required by mobile applications are becoming increasingly attractive.

It won't be the first time a company has offered up an ARM chip for use in servers—Applied Micro Circuits has done something similar before with the X-Gene server-on-a-chip—but AMD does carry enough weight to make the scheme potentially successful. That's a fairly big "potentially": there are enough question marks here—does the world want ARM in servers, can AMD offer a decent ARM products, blah, blah, blah—that success is far from guaranteed.

The Journal claims the processors will come in several versions, first with eight processor cores and later with the option of 16, all ticking by at 2GHz or higher. The Journal expects AMD to officially announce the chip later today, though also suggests it won't be available until the first half of 2014. [WSJ]

Image by Eye of Wolf under Creative Commons license

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