Mobiles @ NCSU

Find: NVIDIA Reveals First Details about Project Denver CPU Core

The next nvidia mobile gpu.

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// published on AnandTech // visit site

During its CES press conference, NVIDIA revealed its new Tegra K1 SoC will be available in two versions. One version will ship with four ARM Cortex A15s, while the other will ship with two NVIDIA designed Denver CPU cores. We don't know much about Denver other than it's a custom 7-wide superscalar 64-bit ARMv8 design.

NVIDIA claims very high single and multithreaded CPU performance. It's important to note that the Denver version only comes with two cores, something we've argued is likely the more optimal use of die area in mobile. Max frequencies top out at 2.5GHz. Given that NVIDIA has silicon back already I suspect this is a 28nm design. The L1 cache is 128KB + 64KB (I$ and D$?).

The Denver CPU cores will be paired with a 192 CUDA core Kepler implementation (1 SMX). No word on differences in power or performance. The Cortex A15 version of Tegra K1 will be available in 1H 2014, while the Denver version will be available in 2H. The two SoCs are pin-compatible, indicating that there won't be any difference in memory interface width.

Withings Aura uses light, sound, and science to help you sleep better

// published on The Verge - All Posts // visit site

Withings has a scale, a blood pressure monitor, and an activity bracelet — now it's trying to help us all get a little shut-eye between all that activity. This week at CES it announced the Aura, a $299 device designed to help you fall asleep faster, sleep better, and wake up easier. It comes in two parts, one a small pad that goes underneath your pillow to monitor you while you sleep and one a light that sits on your bedside table. The pad senses your heart rate, movements, and breathing, while the light also scans your room for noise, light, and temperature.

Like plenty of other devices, the Aura collects and shares data with your smartphone, showing you how you slept and what helped or hindered you through the night. But the...

Find: TrewGrip reverse engineers the smartphone keyboard

// published on The Verge - All Posts // visit site

TrewGrip's Kickstarter campaign failed to reach its $100,000 goal, but that doesn't mean its founders have given up on their dream of bringing "rear typing" to the masses. TrewGrip today debuted its titular product, a keyboard for smartphones that very literally turns the idea of a QWERTY keyboard on its head. Whereas other Bluetooth keyboards aim for portability or more natural-feeling tactility, the TrewGrip asks you to type backwards — on the bottom of the device itself. As you type, corresponding lights illuminate on the device's top, letting you know you've pressed the correct key.

Tab, enter, space, and back are the only buttons on the front of the TrewGrip and can be pressed using your thumbs. The TrewGrip uses Bluetooth to...

Find: The lost secrets of webOS

Nice survey of unfinished designs.

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// published on The Verge - All Posts // visit site

Next week, LG will unveil new televisions running webOS, the ill-fated operating system it acquired in last February. Although LG is expected to retain some form of webOS’ interface, exactly what that will mean on a television instead of a phone or tablet is still a mystery. If LG has any luck at all, it will be more successful than the last consumer webOS products. It's been over two years since HP’s TouchPad and the Pre 3 were released and then discontinued in a surprise decision from then-CEO Léo Apotheker. In fact, most people within HP were blindsided when executives decided to stop hardware production and left the software team twisting in the winds of uncertainty. Apotheker's decision ultimately led to the open sourcing of...

Find: A Tiny QWERTY keyboard from Carnegie Mellon researchers Could Ease Typing on Miniscule Displays

Find: Pebble and Basis B1—two good devices that could be one defining wearable

Basis sounds very capable.

// published on Ars Technica // visit site

Imagine this on your wrist—one day that'll be cut in half.

Jason Inofuentes

I had been wearing both bands for a bit more than two weeks. They'd been with me day and night, only leaving my wrists to briefly charge. They'd been with me as I prepared, and feasted, on an early Thanksgiving meal. They'd witnessed the birth of my second child. They'd reminded me, though I hardly needed reminding, that I should get more sleep while I rocked my son back to sleep. But it was at the end of a short run, the first since we'd come home from the hospital, that I was struck by how well matched these two were.

The Pebble buzzed.

The message read, "Basis: Good Job!"

As exhausted as you likely are of seeing ads and hearing pablum about wearable computing, it is still a young and very fringe market. Strictly fitness-focused activity tracking devices have experienced the most success, while devices that aim to enhance our lives through new computing and interface paradigms have achieved modest results at best. If early CES hunches are any indication, next year will likely mark the flash point for the market—the promise of a competent wearable computer may well become a reality.

But the wearable future partially depends on the wearable present. And as we end 2013, just how far along has the wearable computing market come? More importantly, how much further does it have to go? Exploring these answers starts by analyzing arguable the two best wearables available today: the Pebble Smartwatch and the Basis B1 fitness band.

These two products highlight the current highs and lows of wearable computing, while serving as a great barometer for the future. One is firmly grounded here on earth (and on your wrist), while the other takes to the sky to enhance your life and well-being. And as you can see in the journal-like entry above, we've been tossing aside any concern for fashion to pair them up and evaluate the possibilities.

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Android 'started over' the day the iPhone was announced

A wise wait to emphasize touch.

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// published on The Verge - All Posts // visit site

Apple's boast that the iPhone changed everything about the mobile industry has received some support from one of Android's original software architects. Chris DeSalvo, who worked alongside Andy Rubin at Danger before joining Google to build its mobile OS, says that the iPhone's announcement forced everyone on his team to realize that they "are going to have to start over."

Already in intensive development for two years by 2007, Android was Google's vision for a mobile operating system of the future. Still, in spite of all the work that had already gone into it, the Mountain View company was sure it couldn't carry on along the trajectory it'd been following — the earliest Android devices looked very much like Googlified BlackBerrys...

The first iOS 7 game controllers: Logitech PowerShell and Moga Ace Power review

Not ready for prime time. Maybe apple needs to act.

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// published on The Verge - All Posts // visit site

Sooner or later, the theory goes, Apple will make its move. The company will flip the proverbial switch that turns the Apple TV into a tiny video game console and mop the floor with Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.

But it looks like Apple still has a ways to go. The first two iOS 7 game controllers are here, and they’re not worth your money. In fact, they cast doubt on the idea that Apple really wants to build a console at all.

In June, when Apple announced its standardized game controller API for iOS 7 and a "Made for iPhone" certification program, it offered two templates for what a game controller would look like. Today, we have both. The $99.99 Logitech PowerShell follows Apple’s more simplistic design: it’s basically a...

Find: The first smartring has an LED screen, tells time, and accepts calls

// published on Ars Technica // visit site

Forget smartwatches—smartrings are the new thing now. An Indiegogo campaign for a product called the "Smarty Ring" has hit its funding goal. Smarty Ring is a 13mm-wide stainless steel ring with an LED screen, Bluetooth 4.0, and an accompanying smartphone app. The ring pairs with a smartphone and acts as a remote control and notification receiver.

The ring can display the time, accept or reject calls, control music, trigger the smartphone's camera, and initiate speed-dial calls. It will also alert the wearer with light-up icons for texts, e-mails, Facebook, Twitter, Google Hangouts, and Skype. It supports dual time zones and comes with a countdown timer, a stopwatch, and an alarm. It can work as a tracker for your phone, too—if your smartphone is more than 30 feet away from the ring, Smarty Ring will trigger an alarm.

The ring supports Android and iOS—as long as your device has Bluetooth 4.0, it should be compatible. The creators are promising 24 hours of battery life from the whopping 22 mAh battery, and charging happens via a wireless induction pad.

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Razer Kazuyo looks set to add to iPhone controller options

// published on The Verge - All Posts // visit site

Razer, one of the best-respected gaming peripheral makers, is apparently ready to add to the growing roster of iPhone game controllers. Apple opened the door for third-party accessory makers by adding a controller API in iOS 7, and we've already seen the first couple of efforts emerging from Logitech and PowerA. Like those peripherals, leaked images of a mooted Razer Kazuyo show it to be a wraparound case that envelops the iPhone and provides it with a multidirectional arrow pad and four action buttons. It's very similar in shape and appearance to Logitech's PowerShell, though it adds the extra ability to tilt the iPhone up, potentially offering a more ergonomic gaming experience.

Update: Further disclosures from Evleaks' tipster...