Sharp 7-Inch Tablet with Revolutionary New MEMS-IGZO Display Tech Coming in 2015

Most mobile devices these days rely on LCD technology. Surely, there are the ones that come with AMOLED displays, but they aren’t really that widespread. But, Japanese company Sharp wants to push the boundaries of display making, so to that end it has partnered with chip giant Qualcomm.

A while ago, Sharp promised amazing new MEMS-IGZO displays are coming in 2017 and this week we are finally able to tell you more about the project.

Sharp will be making a 7-inch tablet

It appears the development process of the new tech is going quite well, because Sharp seems confident a 7-inch tablet taking advantage of this display tech will be ready to be released to the public by 2015. The MEMS-IGZO combo should bring about a high-speed display on thin panels that will boast the same energy efficiency as e-ink grayscale panels. But what is MEMS-IGZO, to be more precise? Well, you might be familiar with the MEMS name, as the technology showed up in Qualcomm’s TOQ smartwatch. The wearable didn’t turn out to be all that popular with consumers, despite it taking advantage of an MEMS display which doesn’t put a strain on battery life. Qualcomm claims MEMS utilizes just 1/6 of the power in current displays.

Moving on IGZO, the name stands for indium, gallium, zinc and oxygen. This combo pushes pixels around the screen and, in doing so, brings about a thinner plane. IGZO makes use of a thin-film transistor located on the rear of the device, in order to decrease the size needed to house the screen. On top of that, it can move images at about 150% the speed of LCD. The extra TFT layer brings about other advantages too, a batter backlighting and it doesn’t need a color filter. In the long term, it should allow MEMS-IGZO to produce brighter colors without the washed out effect being attached to it.

Preliminary specs have been revealed

To summarize, MEMS-IGZO could bring about a Sharp tablet with a thinner, faster and power-efficient battery. The tablet doesn’t currently have a name, but we’re given a few specifications to cling to before the device makes it on the market. The 7-inch display will boast a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution (lower than you’d expect from Sharp, but given that this is a new tech, we shouldn’t be all that surprised). The powerhouse of the device will be a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and Android 4.4 KitKat will run as default operating system. Sharp says the tab should be IPX7 rated for water resistance and should bundle an LTE chip. Expect it to make an appearance in 2015.

Sharp's future tablet will take advantage of MEMS-IGZO display
Image credits to Sharp Japan

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Samsung Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5 Leak in Live Pictures

Samsung launched the Galaxy Alpha series last month to fill a gap into its Android offering and the first smartphone in the family is already available for purchase in almost all major markets.

However, the Galaxy Alpha won’t remain the only smartphone in the series for too long, as sources familiar with Samsung’s future plans claim the South Korean company will launch three new premium smartphones. All the Galaxy Alpha series put design over features, but the most powerful of the smartphones in the series may be a beast in terms of hardware performance. The Galaxy A7 will be the most expensive and the better featured in the Galaxy Alpha series, but for the time being it’s unclear exactly when the smartphone will go on sale. The good news is we now have more information on two upcoming Galaxy Alpha series smartphones that should be launched on the market by the end of this year.

Samsung Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5 have just popped up online in a few live pictures, which suggests that we’re very close to an official announcement. The smartphones briefly appeared in Mexico, GSMArena reports, and judging by their look, there’s a high chance that these are the final versions of the Galaxy A3 and A5.

Both premium smartphones favor look over features

The more expensive of the two, Samsung Galaxy A5 expected to go on sale for the price of around $400 – $450 (€320 – €360) outright. The smartphone is said to sport a 5-inch Super AMOLED display with HD (720p) resolution and an impressive 13-megapixel camera on the back. In the front, the Galaxy A5 will pack a no less impressive 5-megapixel camera for selfies and video calls, while on the inside the smartphone will be equipped with a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 or 410 processor. Last but not least, the handset is likely to feature 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory, which can be further expanded up to 64GB via microSD card slot.

The cheapest of the Galaxy Alpha series will be available on the market for around $350 – $400 (€280 – €320) off contract. Samsung Galaxy A3 will be powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. The smartphone is rumored to sport a 4.52-inch AMOLED display with qHD (540 x 960 pixels) resolution, as well as microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 64GB) and dual cameras (8-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front-facing photo snapper). It’s also worth mentioning that both Galaxy Alpha smartphones will be powered by Android 4.4.4 KitKat operating system out of the box. Added a new video showing all three Samsung Galaxy Alpha smartphones.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha flanked by Galaxy A5 (left) and Galaxy A3 (right) 

Samsung Galaxy Alpha A5 back side
Images credits to AndroidMX.net

Nuevos dispositivos Samsung Galaxy A5 y A3 los cuales son hechos completamente de aluminio con cuerpo unibody, la tapa trasera NO es removible, ocupan nanoSIM y vienen con Android KitKat 4.4.4.
Para comparar también se aprecia el Samsung Galaxy Alpha con borde de aluminio y tapa trasera de plástico.
Android México: http://androidmx.net
Twitter: @AndroidMX
Video credits to AndroidMX

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Nexus 6 Could Be the Most Powerful Smartphone on the Market, Benchmark Shows

Although there’s no telling when exactly Google will unveil the next Nexus smartphone, from previous experiences we can tell that it may be this month that the search giant plans to make the device official.

Google usually introduces a new version of Android in October and launches a new Nexus smartphone during the same event, but this year the company had decided to release a preview version of Android L in June, so that developers can prepare their apps for the upcoming OS. But what about the new Nexus handset that should be launched along with Android L? Well, fortunately we do know that it will be manufactured by Motorola and that it will pack a huge 5.9-inch QHD (2560 x 1440 pixels) resolution display, as well as a powerful quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor. The phablet is also said to be equipped with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory, as well as an enhanced 13-megapixel main camera with OIS (optical image stabilization).

The upcoming smartphone has already leaked a few times as Motorola Shamu, as Google is still working to secure the Nexus 6 name for the smartphone. The latest info on the Nexus 6 indicates that this might be one of the most powerful Android smartphones available on the market. Spotted on Geekbench website, the benchmarks scores show high performance when it comes to multi-core test, as well as single-core where the Shamu is placed third after iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

Motorola Shamu is armed with a 2.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor

The results in the Geekbench testing benchmark might have been achieved with a prototype unit, so the final version may score even higher than that. Even though we did not expect something less superior from Google, the Nexus 6’s benchmark scores are still impressive and quite an achievement for a device that has yet to be launched on the market. The only issue would be with the fact that Google plans to launch a single Nexus 6 variant, which might not appeal to all customers who favor smaller smartphones over phablets.

However, there is hope for Nexus family fans, as Motorola is expected to launch a smaller 5.2-inch Nexus smartphone, which might go on sale under a different name. The smaller Nexus model may be launched under the Android Silver brand, though everything is a bit blurry now as Google is still mum on everything related to its new Nexus and Android Silver smartphone programs. Stay tuned for more on this one.

Motorola Shamu benchmark result
Images credits to GeekBench

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Canon EOS 7D Mark II: First Images and Video Samples

The Canon EOS 7D Mark II is one of Canon’s latest products, which got unveiled not so long ago at Photokina 2014 in Germany.

The highly anticipated DSLR takes advantage of a new autofocus system with 65 autofocus pints (all are cross type and deliver advanced levels of sensitivity in portrait and landscape mode). The 7D Mark II arrives with a 20.2MP CMOS sensor, which is the same you find in the EOS 70D. However, the processor has been upgraded to the new Dual Digic 6 chip, so the DSLR is expected to perform a whole lot better. Anyway, in some locations Canon is already accepting pre-orders for the EOS 7D Mark II, like it’s the case in US where you can already sign up for the new shooter, if you’re willing to pay $1,799 / €1,421.

While photographers wait for your brand new shooter to be shipped out to them, Canon Japan has just posted a sample of new images and movies for the EOS 7D Mark II. You can check them out below to get an idea of how the camera performs (for the full-res versions go here). They might be able to help you decide if your financial efforts should go into Canon’s latest and greatest EOS 7D Mark II, or not.

Image of Vancouver shot with Canon EOS 7D Mark II
Image credits to Canon

Video credits to Canon JP and Canon SG

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Intel and AMD Continue to Bet on Tablets, New Chips Coming in 2015

Microsoft has initiated a fierce war against Google and its Chromebooks. With the advent of Windows 8.1 with Bing, we have seen many device manufacturers launch inexpensive Windows notebooks, designed to take customers’ mind off Chrome-OS laptops.

But the power of Chromebooks and Bingbooks combined is expected to put a pressure on the slowing tablet market, as more and more vendors roll out cheap notebooks, say industry watchers. On top of that, smartphones with bigger screens will also impact overall tablet sales. Tablets with 7-inch displays used to hold for over 70% marketshare, but these numbers have dropped to 60% because of handsets with big screens. The demand for tablets seems to be going downwards, but chip makers like AMD and Intel continue to persist in their hopes that all is not lost. According to DigiTimes, both giants are expected to unveil new tablet platforms in 2015.

Intel to roll out Cherry Trail

Starting with Intel, the company is expected to roll out Cherry Trail, a 14nm-based SoC processor platform which has been designed especially for tablets taking advantage of Intel’s 8th-gen GPU. These tablets will take advantage of both Android and Windows OS. Intel will unveil Cherry Trail in the first quarter of 2015, while volume production will kick start in March. Apart from Cherry Trail, Intel is hard work on the Atom Z3000 processor designed for the 64-bit tablet market. Moreover, Intel also has some 4G chips in the pipeline, in the form of the SoFIA-series processors. Intel has partnered up with Chinese low-cost chip maker Rockchip for the development of next-gen SoFIA chips for Android tablets, but despite this alliance Intel is still expected to face important obstacles in its assault against Qualcomm or MediaTek.

On top of that, Intel had hoped its partnership with Rockchip will help it transition more smoothly into the Chinese market, which is a budding market while tablets are concerned, but the company is just not there yet.

AMD has Nolan and Armur

For its part, AMD will launch the Nolan, an x86-architecture tablet platform and Armur. This is said to be heterogeneous system architecture (HSA) Android-specific tablet platform which is based on ARM Cortex-A7. Both Nolan and Armur are expected to arrive a little later than Cherry Trail, namely in the third quarter of 2015, said to sources inside the supply chain. Armur is a platform that will be able to support both Android and Linux and AMD is currently testing it internally.

Intel and AMD continue to focus on tablets
Image credits to New Computer Build

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Google Wanted to Buy Cyanogen and Got Rejected

Google has apparently tried to acquire Cyanogen Inc., the maker behind the custom build distribution of Android, known as CyanogenMod, but the offer was rejected.

The Information, reports that the chief executive of Cyanogen, Kirt McMaster, told shareholders that Sundar Pichai, the chief of Chrome and Android at Google has expressed an interest in acquiring the firm and even went to meetings on the topic. However, Cyanogen Inc. rejected Google’s offer, saying that it still had a long way to grow, choosing to focus on getting a $1 billion valuation to help in its third round of funding. CyanogenMod operates on two handsets from small manufacturers. OnePlus One and Oppo N1 use a special Cyanogen build, something that turned the operating system into something used by everyone, not just those tech-savvy enough to replace the Android version on their own phones.

Why is Google interested?

It is rather unclear what Google would do with Cyanogen since they’re working on the same software. It is perhaps the long-term goal that the company has – becoming the third most popular mobile ecosystem, which the company hopes to manage to do since it provides an even more open version of Android – that attracted Google. There’s also the option that Google might want to kill the competition, although this seems like one of the lesser plausible alternatives, even though Cyanogen is the most threatening among the custom Android builds out there. A more likely situation is one in which Google wants to protect its interests. Some recent reports indicated that Cyanogen and Micromax have come up with a deal that sees the company’s Android build to be released on a new device before the year ends. Micromax is one of the Android One partners that Google signed with recently, which the Internet giant wants to keep under tight control.

Even so, it barely generates any income and it’s unclear if the company has any actual plans to create revenue. A recent rumor indicated that Cyanogen wanted to start charging for themes at one point, although that was never confirmed by the company itself. While it’s true that Cyanogen has rejected a Google offer right now, it does not mean that it will not accept another offer somewhere down the road, after the company has attracted more funding and when it has finally grown to the size it aspires to reach. There’s still some ways to go until then, however.

Google shows interest in Cyanogen
Image credits to Google

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Windows 10 Registry Hack Reveals Next Preview Builds

Microsoft presented Windows 10 Preview earlier this week and everyone rushed to download it, despite Redmond's warnings that this particular build is only aimed at IT admins and experienced users.

The company said that the very first preview build only ships with limited features, but more would be added at a later time through a new built-in update mechanism. While no other details have been provided, Neowin has come across a small registry tweak that enables all users to see the upcoming testing builds of Windows 10 Preview. At this point, however, none of the options that would show up in the “Update and recovery” screen of your Windows 10 Preview PC settings menu actually work, so Microsoft saw this coming and decided to lock them until the company is ready to ship more features.

How to enable it

First and foremost, you need to keep in mind the fact that messing with the registry editor isn't quite the best thing you should do if you care about system stability, as deleting the wrong items could actually crash your PC. If you do not care about such a thing (and you shouldn't since this is just a testing version of Windows 10), write regedit.exe in the Start menu search box and hit enter. In the registry editor, navigate to the following path:

code:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/WindowsSelfHost/

Once you're there, create two new DWORD keys named ThresholdInternal and ThresholdOptedIn and change their value to “1.” Simply launch PC settings, go to “Update and recovery” and the new option called “Preview builds” should already be there, with no reboot required.

Locked options for now

At this point, the new options that you get access to with this registry hack are locked, but they are supposed to provide you faster access to new preview builds as soon as they're available. For example, you can choose “how fast you'd like to get new preview builds,” but Microsoft warns that “choosing to get them faster might mean there are more bugs.” At the same time, you can choose where to get the preview builds from, as the company provides multiple branches for user downloads, but also change the time when your PC should automatically install new preview builds. It's not yet clear if Microsoft plans to unlock these features in the coming months, but we expect a similar trick to be found in order to get faster access to new builds despite the locked status of these options.

The new options show up in the PC settings screen
Image credits to NeoWin

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Canon 750 D / Rebel T61 with Electronic Viewfinder Tipped for Q2 2014

Back in 2013, Canon introduced the 700D / Rebel T5i in order to take the place for the 650D / Rebel T4i. The new device came equipped with a bunch of improvements, but since a decent amount of time has passed since the shooter first saw the light of day, Canon feels the time has come to provide a replacement.

Information popping up at North-light Images reveals the Canon has plans to reveal the replacement for 700D soon enough, as part of the xxxD / Rebel range in the second quarter of 2015. We’re not sure what name the new product is going to be known by, but word on the street is calling it 750D / Rebel T6i.

Canon working on a 700D replacement?

Theories about the specifications of the shooter bring into focus an electronic viewfinder, instead of the regular optical viewfinder one stumbles upon in regular DSLRs cameras. Mirrors are often used in DSLRs in order to allow users to compose their images and such a system goes by the name of optical viewfinder. However, since mirrorless cameras have become more and more popular, the focus has been shifted on electronic viewfinders. Here the scene in front of the camera is produced electronically. Most of the times those using EVFs have reported experiencing lag, but these systems have been getting better and better, so Canon is considering adding the set-up in its EOS / Rebel lineup.

We should be taking into consideration something else too, since the mirror box will be gone, the overall size of the camera could be shrunken down, leading to a more portable camera. Miniature cameras tend to sell a lot better than chunky ones, of course. What other specifications did the Canon 750D end up mentioning? Continue reading to find out.

Canon will use a variation of the 20.2MP APS-CMOS sensor in the 750D

According to sources familiar with the matter, the Canon 750D / Rebel T6i will take advantage of a sensor which is quite similar to the one found in the 70D, meaning the 20.2MP APS-CMOS one. The sensor will work hand in hand with a DIGIC 6 image processor and will take advantage of Dual Pixel CMOS AF technology (most likely). This tech will bestow on the camera the capability to focus faster when using the new electronic viewfinder and Live View Mode. Sure, at this point the 750D is still in the realm of fairy tales, so we suggest you take this info with a grain of salt, until we find out something more consistent.

Image depicting the current Canon 700D
Image credits to Canon

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Windows 10 Preview Direct Download Links

Microsoft yesterday kicked off the Windows Insider Program and released the official download links for Windows 10 Preview, allowing users to give a try to its new OS version by simply registering for the program.

And still, users who do not want to register for the Windows Insider Program can also take the new OS for a spin by using the direct download links for Windows 10 Preview which bring the ISO on your computer without any other steps required. As we already told you yesterday, Windows 10 Preview comes in the form of 32- and 64-bit builds, with the first having 2.9 GB in size and the latter reaching 3.8 GB. Both include the same options, but are aimed at different hardware configurations.

The official ISOs are available in multiple languages, including English - United States, English - United Kingdom, Chinese, and Portuguese. Windows 10 Preview comes with quite a lot of improvements, including a new Start menu, multiple desktops, snap enhancements, and a task view to quickly see all apps running on your PC. The Preview will expire on April 15, 2015, so it's pretty clear that this must not become your every day OS. Overall, this is clearly worth a try if you are a Windows aficionado, so have a look at the system requirements below to see if your PC can handle it and then go download Windows 10 Preview using the direct links.

• Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 
• RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) 
• Free hard disk space: 16 GB 
• Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver 
• A Microsoft account and Internet access 
• The Windows 10 Technical Preview can be installed on PCs meeting system requirements running Windows 7 or newer

Direct download links below:

English x86

English x64

Chinnese x86

Chinnese x64

Portuguese x86

Portuguese x64

Windows 10 Preview brings lots of improvements on the desktop
Image credits to Microsoft

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BlackBerry OS 10.3.1 Official Feature List Leaks Ahead of Release

Now that BlackBerry Passport has been released in some markets, fans have been able to take advantage of some of the new stuff added in the new version of BlackBerry operating system, namely 10.3.1.

The Passport is the only smartphone (the first one too), that runs an official version of BlackBerry 10.3.1, but the Canadian company plans to release it as an update for all compatible handsets later this year. We expect most of BlackBerry fans to not be taken by surprise by the release of the OS 10.3.1, as various builds were already leaked several weeks ago and many users are already running these versions that, while official, are not final. We’ve already covered some of the most important changes in the BlackBerry 10.3.1 in our extensive article, but for those who prefer to wait until the Canadian company releases the new OS as an update, here is a short list of new features and improvements that you will get, courtesy to N4BB:

• Notifications Profiles (similar to BeBuzz and Hub++ apps);
• Internal & External Out of Office replies;
• Ability to specify which contacts folders within Exchange to sync;
• More robust Calendar reminder dialogs;
• Task Recurrence;
• Workspace Camera;
• Ability to mark a Picture or Video as “hidden”;
• Map View of Pictures (requires Geo-tagging of photos);
• Customizable Hotkeys from Home Screen (requires physical keypad);
• Battery Saving Mode;
• Ability to grant/deny permission for applications to continue running while minimized;
• And more!

Keep in mind that this is a short list of some of the highlights of BlackBerry 10.3.1, which means the full changelog is much more extensive.

The new OS should be released as an update in the coming weeks

BlackBerry has yet to announce when the OS 10.3.1 update will be pushed to compatible smartphones, but word is that this will happen close to November, whatever that might mean. Until then, the Canadian company is expected to launch another smartphone that will be powered by the latest version of the operating system as well, namely the BlackBerry Classic. It won’t come as a surprise if BlackBerry will launch the OS 10.3.1 update along with the Classic, though this is just a speculation that has yet to be confirmed.

BlackBerry 10.3.1 is one of the most important OS updates released by handset maker given the amount of new features and improvements it brings. Let’s hope the upgrade will be released by BlackBerry sooner rather than later.

BlackBerry 10.3 logo
Image credits to BlackBerry

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