Broadcom brings faster Wi-Fi speeds

Earlier today, Broadcom announced their new network processor that will bring faster speeds to the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard for mobile phones.

This new processor will double the data rate of earlier product while cutting power consumption by 25%. The system will support 2×2 MIMO (Multiple Input/Multiple Output) technology. This technology transfers data faster on a single frequency by using two transmitting antennas and two receiving antennas.

The company is currently making samples of the chip although they haven’t said when production versions would arrive.

Leave a comment below on what you think! And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter for even more updates!

Full story here.

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Project Tango: Google’s new prototype Android phone

Earlier today, Google announced its latest Android phone titled “Project Tango”.  This new Android phone experiments with robotics and computer vision to map out the world around you.  Project lead, Johnny Lee, stated, “The goal of Project Tango is to give mobile devices a human-scale understanding of space and motion.”

The phone itself measures five inches and includes a few sensors (4 MP camera and a motion tracking camera) that allow the phone to make over a quarter of a million 3D measurements every second.  These measurements help the phone update its position, in real-time, and combines all of the data into a single 3D model of the world around you (video below).

This new phone opens up a lot of doors for new features on current smartphones. Chase Cobb stated, “imagine that you scan a small section of your living room and then are able to generate a little game world in it, I don’t know of any controller or gaming device that can do that at the moment.” Besides that, there has also been talk suggesting that these new phones have the ability to help the visually impaired navigate unfamiliar areas with ease. Pretty cool huh?

Well good news to any developers out there. Google is planning on shipping out 200 prototypes and dev kits of Project Tango to “developers with dreams of creating more than a touch-screen app.”  There is an application online for anyone who is interested in trying to get their hands on this device, here.

Thoughts on Project Tango? Comment below with any thoughts/opinions. Also, follow me on Twitter to stay up-to-date with current tech news!

A Quick Sneak Peak at Windows 8 (CES 2012)

Earlier today at the Consumer Electronics Show, Intel showed off its new Windows 8 operating system.  In addition to some new form factors, Intel showed some interesting new Windows 8 interface ideas. Keep in mind that these are proofs-of-concept rather than working devices, so they may or may not actually appear on the market.

The most interesting new UI demo was the Nikishki notebook, a clamshell with a big transparent trackpad below the keyboard. The trackpad works as a traditional trackpad and then “disables” when you press your palms on it to type. Then, when you close the laptop, some of the screen is visible and you are able to see and use the Windows 8 tiles available through the transparent portion.

Another concept was a Kinect-like gesture control for laptops that lets you make gestures in the air to control the system.

New Asus Memo Pad Gets Leaked

Shortly after getting a sneak peek at the Eee PC Flare, new images of another leaked tablet are showing up.  Apparently, these images are showing the Asus Memo Pad.

The Memo Pad will be running on a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 16-64GB of internal storage, built in 3G and Wi-Fi.  The screen resolution will be 1280×800 making the screen 7 inches.  The version of Android that it will run on is not known yet but we can expect to see this product shown at CES this year.

Verizon Fixing 4G Network Problems

Verizon released a statement this evening saying that although there has been “hiccups” recently, they have seen 99% availability for its 4G LTE network for the year and the recent problems that have popped up have been unrelated to one another.

“Each incident has been different from a technical standpoint,” the company said. “Our engineers have successfully diagnosed those past triggering events, and they have not re-occurred. We also work diligently to rectify technical problems in the Network before they affect any customers.”

Verizon is still working on some key changes in the network in order to prevent these outages from happening in the future.

“Among the numerous measures we have taken or will take are: geographic segmentation, which enables us to isolate, contain and rectify network performance issues, and maintain service to the majority of customers when an issue does develop.”

Verizon also said that it’s rolling out “software fixes” that will boost performance and improve reliability.

“Being a pioneer comes with growing pains,” Verizon said. “The recent issues that affected our customers’ 4GLTE service were unforeseen despite careful, diligent planning, deployment and ongoing upgrade programs.”

Updates on Verizon issues.

Possible 3D Galaxy S III

According to Korean-website ETNews, Samsung will be announcing their new Galaxy S III device at Mobile World Congress this year.

The Galaxy S III has been said to be 3D glasses-free.  It will run on a powerful quad-core processor, with 2GB of RAM, and LTE.  Of course the phone will come preloaded with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich (One of the few devices with it) along with TouchWiz.

Although rumors say that the Galaxy S III will be 3D, other rumors say that Samsung will be releasing both a 3D as well as a non-3D model.

Not much is known yet about the device so we’ll just have to wait and see.

Verizon Data Outage for Third Time

It seems like Verizon is having a rough month as today, customers have experienced yet another data outage.  While reviewing customer complaints on the forums, it seems that this recent outage is affecting 4G devices in Georgia, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, California, Virginia, Washington, Texas, and Maryland.

This is frustrating for many and no comments have been made on when the network will come back on.  Click here for updates on the situation.

Swype’s Holiday Season Present To You

Swype, the Android keyboard that lets you type (or swype, rather) faster than you ever thought possible, has a present for you this holiday season.  With the recent development of Siri, the voice controlled app, it seems that these voice controlled apps are becoming the future of smartphones.

That said, Swype is launching a new beta with Nuance’s Dragon dictation built right in (see video below). Chances are the actual transcription isn’t faster than your swypes, especially if you’re a veteran Swype user, but when your hands are tied up Dragon should really come in handy.

This new app will also allow you to download a number of different languages.  Unfortunatly, if your phone came pre-loaded with Swype, this beta will not work on your phone.  Instead, you will have to wait until the complete launch of the Swype update to start using it.

To get the new update, just visit Swype’s site from your phone and register with an email address. You will then be sent a download link and be ready to go.

5 Last Minute Christmas Gift Ideas

Christmas is quickly approaching with only two shopping days left, leaving many people running around in desperate search of the “perfect” Christmas gift for their family or friends.  Are you in the same situation? Well fear no more, this is a list of 5 last minute Christmas gift ideas that many have purchased this holiday season.

1. Toys – New apps on both the Android and Apple market can lead to some new “toy” ideas.  One of these is the Griffin Helo TC ($39.99).  This is an inexpensive gadget that will fly for about eight minutes on a single charge and is robust enough for you not to worry about the odd crash landing.  There are many other gadgets like this one out there and they are all very popular this holiday season.

2. Cameras – Although smartphones are getting very close to taking over the camera industry, a dedicated device has the ability to do a lot more for you and your photo taking skills.  There are many brands to choose from (Olympus, Canon, Nikon…etc) as well as different types of picture taking cameras (SLR and DSLR).  This gives you a wide range of options and customizations to choose from.  Some popular cameras this year are the Olympus Pen E-P3, the Canon T3i, and other cameras such as the Nikon Coolpix S6100.

3. Headphones – This is an obvious one.  Headphones in today’s society is a “must have”.  Just like cameras, there are many different brands of headphones that are all equally as popular as the other.  Some popular headphones are the Beats by Dre, as well as Bose headphones.  Of course there are many other brands in the cheaper range such as Skullcandy, Sony, and Philips.

4. Cases – All of the above gadgets are great, but they deserve some sort of protection so you can actually get your money’s worth out of them. Brunswick England’s $55, hand-stitched Kindle case, for example, offers a pleasing balance between quality and price. If you want to go the whole hog, however, Mulberry and many more will swaddle your iPad or BlackBerry in almost any material you care to imagine.

5. Video Games – This should be a given for any child/teen out there today.  Most likely, they own some sort of gaming console (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii) and will be wanting the latest game to enjoy.  There are thousands of games to choose from but some of the more popular games and accessories this holiday season include: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Xbox 360’s Kinect, PlayStation 3’s Move, Battlefield 3, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Consumer Electronics Show 2012: Trends To Watch Out For

All across the globe, electronic/technology companies are preparing themselves for CES (Comsumer Electronics Show) 2012, which takes place during the second week of January at the Las Vegas Convention Center.  Although Microsoft disclosed its plans to end its participation in CES starting next year, this year’s show should hold some promising insights to what’s ahead in the world of electronics.

During an interview with FORBES Wednesday, Accenture‘s Kumu Puri, a senior executive with the consulting firm’s consumer electronics practice in San Francisco, laid out what she thinks will be the five big themes from the 2012 edition of the show.  Microsoft will of course hold a big role this year.  Apple will be casting a big shadow over the event although it will not be participating this year.

So here they are, Puri’s 5 trends to keep a look out for at this year’s CES show:

1. Ultrabooks: PC makers are expected to role out 20-40 new versions of the incredibly thin notebooks.  Puri thinks pricing will start in the $800 to $1,000 range, but quickly scale down from there.
2. Tablets/Smartphones: As everyone could have guessed, we will be seeing a lot more mobile devices this year, including new Android based tablets and smartphones.  We should be expecting to see more support for mobile payments and location-based services on these devices.
3. Connected Devices: Puri expects to see innovation in connected cars, for instance, with new features for Internet radio, and in-car apps targeting safety issues. There will be more Internet-enabled kitchen appliances. Also big again this year will be connected televisions. She thinks some of those services are maturing, and should improve over previous attempts at TV-based Web offerings that received an indifferent consumer reception.
4. Windows 8: Coming back to Microsoft, the company is expected to launch its new operating system at some point in 2012.  Everyone is just asking how much of it they will be showing off at CES.  Also likely to show up at CES: a variety of new Windows Phone-based mobile devices.
5. Digital Health: Puri thinks there will be an increased focus on health care at the show, with developments in three areas. One of those is the increased adoption of tablets in hospitals and doctors offices for recording data and other purposes. A second focus will be cloud-based solutions for storing, archiving, accessing and retrieving medical records. And the third will be an increased number of consumer medical devices, some apps running on tablets and phones, others dedicated gizmos for monitoring things like glucose levels and blood pressure.