Items tagged with cell
There's a rumor going around on social media that you can enable Xbox 360 backwards compatibility on an Xbox One by hopping through a series of steps meant to enable Developer Mode, changing a setting, and restarting the box. Don't believe it. There is no method of allowing the Xbox One to play Xbox 360 games, via any software program. Microsoft's Major Nelson has denounced the idea directly. This is an opportunity to talk a bit about <em>why</em> you can't play Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One, and how we know the entire program is a hoax. The Backwards Compatibility Conundrum There are two ways to make a system backwards compatible. The simplest is to build a complete version...
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Last year, it was announced that half of all mobile phone owners in the United States were opting for smartphones. Now, we're really starting to see what kind of impact that's having. While the Internet is still young, the overall experience has changed dramatically over the years. Years ago, people were exposed to the internet at schools, libraries and work offices. Then, the personal desktop became commonplace. After that, the laptop entered the scene. And now, we're seeing a huge shift to ultra-mobile platforms. According to a new report from Pew Internet, nearly two-thirds (63%) of cell phone owners now use their phone to go online. Perhaps most surprising, however, is that 21% of US cellphone...
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When the Xbox 360 and PS3 first debuted, one of the major differences between them was how easy it was to access the underlying hardware. Kaz Hirai, then President of Sony Computer Entertainment, confirmed that the PS3 was far more difficult to program -- and that this was intentional. "We don't provide the 'easy to program for' console that (developers) want, because 'easy to program for' means that anybody will be able to take advantage of pretty much what the hardware can do, so then the question is, what do you do for the rest of the nine-and-a-half years?" In other words: "We made developers miserable because it suited our long-term strategy." With the PS4, Sony has decided to go in the...
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Ever since the Wii U was announced, there've been conversations on the type of CPU it used and what sort of performance gamers could expect from it. Deep off-the-record comments from game developers indicated that the Wii U's horsepower was on par with, or perhaps a bit behind the Xbox 360 and PS3, which naturally raised questions about just how "next-generation" the Wii U would be. Now, Wii and PS3 hacker Hector Martin (aka Marcan) has answered some of these questions and raised a few others. According to him, the Wii U's CPU is a triple-core design clocked at 1.24GHz. Marcan identifies the base design as a PowerPC 750, which makes a great deal of sense. Nintendo used PowerPC 750-derived processors...
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Rumors about next-generation consoles like the Xbox 720 (codenamed Durango) and the PlayStation 4 have been milling about for several months, but the Sony side of the equation has just gotten a significant update. New information suggests that the PS4 is codenamed Orbis, will be built around an AMD x86-64 CPU and GPU, and will require all new games to registered with a PSN account. The codename likely means something to Sony; the orbis.scedevnet.com address resolves correctly whereas ps4.scedevnet.com does not. Let's tackle the report, starting with the hardware specs. Rumors that AMD would provide the GPU tech behind all three consoles date back to last June. Of the three, only Nintendo has...
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Although we don't have release dates, we now know more about which Verizon Wireless smartphones and tablets will receive an update to the latest version of Android, version 4.0. Otherwise known as Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Android features a redesigned user interface with improved multitasking capabilities, notifications, and Web browsing. Ever since we got our hands on Ice Cream Sandwich when the OS launched on the Galaxy Nexus by Samsung in December, we've been excited for more smartphones and tablets to receive an OS update. Slowly but surely, those updates are beginning to roll out to various manufacturers and devices. Without further ado, here's the list of Verizon Wireless...
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Nokia Siemens Networks and Qualcomm have announced a new technology called HSPA+ Multiflow that promises to dramatically increase mobile network efficiency and double the data speed on the network edge. The idea is quite simple, really. HSPA+ Multiflow enables a single device to connect to a two mobile base stations at once; when reception dips at one cell’s edge, it can tap into the reception of another at the same time, thereby both smoothing the handoff between cells and also receiving double the signal boost. The press release stated: HSPA+ Multiflow enables simultaneous transmission of two data streams from base stations in two adjacent cells to a single user device instead of one...
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The stock slump that followed Nintendo's Wii U announcement shows no signs of abating; the company's share price is down more than ten percent as of this writing. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has expressed surprise over the reaction. "Honestly speaking, the reaction to (Tuesday's) presentation and what I heard from people I met and the mood of the convention did not chime at all with what happened in the stock market," Iwata said in an interview at the E3 games show in Los Angeles on Wednesday. "It's very strange." Iwata went on to note that the investors' reactions remind him of the uncertainty Nintendo faced after it announced the original Wii back in 2006. "In the end, it is easy to get...
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The battle for your mobile business is officially on. As if it wasn't already on before. With AT&T taking loads of heat over the past few years for having oversaturated networks in major cities -- namely New York City and San Francisco -- Verizon Wireless has obviously seen what not to do. They have pushed their network as being the one that's more reliable, and the one with more 3G in more places. The last thing Verizon wants is to run into similar network issues once the iPhone 4 comes to town next month. So what better to do than to launch new cell sites in preparation for the influx of new customers? Just days after introducing the iPhone 4 as the carrier's new flagship smartphone, VZW...
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One of the ways that Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo gradually reduce the price of consoles is by adopting increasingly advanced manufacturing technologies that reduce the size and power consumption of the console's components. Microsoft has combined both the CPU and GPU inside the XBox 360 S into a single chip configuration; details on the new design are starting to leak. The XBox 360 is an infamous example of the problems manufacturers can encounter when pushing the performance envelope—the initial XBox consoles weren't designed with sufficient thermal tolerances which lead to the infamous RROD (Red Rings of Death). It's been several years since Microsoft patched that particular problem,...
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Earlier this week, we covered news that a California PS3 owner, Anthony Ventura, had filed a class action lawsuit against Sony, alleging that the company's decision to terminate the PS3's Linux support via firmware update constituted a false/deceptive marketing practice. While most PS3 owners never took advantage of the system's Linux capabilities, "Other OS" functionality is critical to the universities and institutions that have deployed PS3 clusters as high-performance compute farms. We talked with several project leads on the impact of Sony's decision, and what it means for low-cost supercomputing programs. Blunderingly, Sony Nukes PS3 Supercomputing...
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Earlier this week, we covered news that a California PS3 owner, Anthony Ventura, had filed a class action lawsuit against Sony, alleging that the company's decision to terminate the PS3's Linux support via firmware update constituted a false/deceptive marketing practice.While most PS3 owners never took advantage of the system's Linux capabilities, "Other OS" functionality is critical to the universities and institutions that have deployed PS3 clusters as high-performance compute farms. We talked with several project leads on the impact of Sony's decision, and what it means for low-cost supercomputing programs. Cluster of PS3s, U.S.A.F. 2,000 Console SupercomputerImage courtesy: U.S. Air ForceIn...
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Check monthly console sales from the XBox's launch in 2005 to the present day, and Sony's PS3 lags both the XBox 360 and the Wii. According to the most recent data available, Sony has sold 33.5 million PS3's, Microsoft is at 39 million XBox 360s, and Nintendo has moved 67.45 million Wiis. It comes as something of a surprise, then, to hear Dave Mercer, an analyst with Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices, predicting that Sony's PS3 will ultimately outsell the Wii over its lifetime. Mercer predicts sales of 103 million units for the Wii compared to 127 million for the PS3."Nintendo has done a great job with the Wii in bringing console games to new audiences,” says David Mercer, Principal Analyst...
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Sprint and AT&T have announced dueling phone plan changes geared toward making you feel you as if you can call anyone, anywhere, anytime and not pay an extra cent.Sprint's plan is moving past its "calling circles" and is called the Any Mobile, Anytime plan. Basically, it's unlimited calling between mobile phones, no matter the service provider, within the United States. The marketing tag is that users can "cut the cord and save money," implying this is how and why consumers should finally get rid of their landlines. No small point, seeing as Sprint used to hold a relatively major portion of the landline long distance market. While it still offers residential long distance service, its share...
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