RIM, Bank of America partnering up for Mobile Wallet NFC trial

By Chris Ziegler posted Feb 26th 2011 11:31AM We've known for some time that RIM is going all-in on NFC (isn't everyone?), but we didn't realize they were going retroactive, too. A NFC payment trial coming up involving RIM and Bank of America will allow selected testers to get an NFC-capable back for their Curve 8520 or 8530, Tour 9630, or Bold 9000, 9650, or 9700 -- in other words, most of the company's portrait QWERTY models from the last couple years. You'll also need an active Bank of America account, at which point you'll be able to tap your 'Berry on NFC terminals to get your pay on. The trial starts this spring; no word on when it might be open to everyone.

[Thanks, Dylan]

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Firefox 4 beta 5 for mobile released, available on Android, N900, your computer

Tired of using the default browser on your smart phone to browse Engadget? Got a thing for Firefox? Great, 'cause Mozilla just pushed out the fifth beta of Firefox 4 for mobile. You might be familiar with the on-the-go version of Mozilla's creation, but if not, here's your chance to grab the latest (and probably) the most stable build to date. In addition to the Android and Maemo version, the company has released a Fennec build for use on Windows, OS X and Linux.
We tinkered with the OS X build of the browser on our Macbook Pro and although pages appear to render quickly, we can't quite figure out how to navigate backwards. You can pinch-to-zoom with the trackpad and scroll with the d-pad, but once you've loaded a page, it seems you need to be on a mobile device do any further navigation. Of course, as you'll see in the gallery below, the beta comes packed with the usual -- preferences, downloads, add-ons, bookmarks and Firefox Sync. If you want to give the software a whirl, hit the source link to grab the build of your choice.
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Samsung develops mobile DRAM capable of 12.8GB/sec data transfers, making all other memory jealous

Much like clockwork, Samsung's memory labs are cranking out yet another innovation in the mobile DRAM sector, with the goal being to make the next (next) generation Galaxy Tab -- and any other mobile device relying on Samsung memory -- faster than ever. This go 'round, the crew has developed a 1Gb mobile DRAM module with a wide I/O interface for smartphones and tablets, enabling it to transmit data at 12.8GB/sec. For those keeping count, that's an eightfold increase in bandwidth compared to LPDDR2 DRAM chips, and the company has also managed to trim power consumption by 87 percent all the while. In order to boost the data transfer rate, Samsung's new wide I/O DRAM uses 512 pins for input and output, dwarfing the 32 pins used in the previous generation. Following this, Sammy's hoping to provide 20nm-class 4Gb wide I/O mobile DRAM sometime in 2013, but we're hoping to see this particular development sashay into tablets that hit the market long before then. Sadly, there's no specific word on when, but you know we'll be handing that information over just as soon as we get it.

Samsung Develops Mobile DRAM with Wide I/O Interface

SEOUL, Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced the development of 1 gigabit (Gb) mobile DRAM with a wide I/O interface, using 50 nanometer class* process technology. The new wide I/O mobile DRAM will be used in mobile applications, such as smartphones and tablet PCs.

"We will continue to aggressively expand our high-performance mobile memory product line to further propel the growth of the mobile industry."

"Following the development of 4Gb LPDDR2 DRAM (low-power DDR2 dynamic random access memory) last year, our new mobile DRAM solution with a wide I/O interface represents a significant contribution to the advancement of high-performance mobile products," said Byungse So, senior vice president, memory product planning & application engineering at Samsung Electronics. "We will continue to aggressively expand our high-performance mobile memory product line to further propel the growth of the mobile industry."

The new 1Gb wide I/O mobile DRAM can transmit data at 12.8 gigabyte (GB) per second, which increases the bandwidth of mobile DDR DRAM (1.6GB/s) eightfold, while reducing power consumption by approximately 87 percent. The bandwidth is also four times that of LPDDR2 DRAM (which is approximately 3.2GB/s).

To boost data transmission, Samsung's wide I/O DRAM uses 512 pins for data input and output compared to the previous generation of mobile DRAMs, which used a maximum of 32 pins. If you include the pins that are involved in sending commands and regulating power supply, a single Samsung wide I/O DRAM is designed to accommodate approximately 1,200 pins.

Following this wide I/O DRAM launch, Samsung is aiming to provide 20nm-class* 4Gb wide I/O mobile DRAM sometime in 2013. The company's recent achievements in mobile DRAM include introducing the first 50nm-class 1Gb LPDDR2 DRAM in 2009 and the first 40nm-class* 2Gb LPDDR2 in 2010.

Samsung will present a paper related to wide I/O DRAM technology at the 2011 International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) being held from February 20 to 24 in San Francisco.

According to iSuppli, mobile DRAM's percentage of total annual DRAM shipments will increase from about 11.1 percent in 2010 to 16.5 percent in 2014.

For more information about Samsung Green memory, visit www.samsung.com/GreenMemory

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Meka's M-1 Mobile Manipulator, a cuter Cody the spit bath robot (video)

Remember Cody? The robot from Georgia Tech designed to give spit baths to the elderly and crippled? Well, Cody's got an attractive younger cousin named M-1, and for $340,000 this fine piece of machinery could be all yours. Built by San Francisco-based Meka Robotics, the M-1 Mobile Manipulator (based on Cody) runs on a combination of ROS and proprietary software and sports a Kinect-compatible head with a five megapixel Ethernet camera, arms with six-axis force-torque sensors at the wrist, force controlled grippers, and an omnidirectional mobile base. If the standard features don't fit your needs, Meka offers various upgrades, including four-fingered hands and humanoid heads, complete with expressive eyelids (a la Meka's Dreamer), ears, and additional sensor compatibility. These add-ons will of course cost you, but we think its worth it to have those big translucent eyes staring back at you. A rather touching demo after the jump.
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Imagination Technologies unveils Series 6 PowerVR GPUs -- promises desktop caliber graphics in mobile devices (update)

CHANGING THE GAME: ST-ERICSSON UNVEILS NOVATHOR™ FAMILY OF SMARTPHONE PLATFORMS COMBINING ITS MOST ADVANCED APPLICATION PROCESSORS WITH THE LATEST GENERATION OF MODEMS

February 15, 2011

Complete solutions bring unprecedented computing and graphics performance to smartphones and tablets, at lowest power consumption

Barcelona, February 15, 2011 – ST-Ericsson, a world leader in wireless platforms and semiconductors, is raising the bar for smartphone and tablet platform performance with its new Nova™ application processors, its new Thor™ advanced modems and its range of NovaThor™ complete integrated platform solutions.

"By offering the most advanced application processors combined with our latest generation of thin HSPA+ and LTE modems, ST-Ericsson is setting new performance standards for our industry." said Gilles Delfassy, president and CEO of ST-Ericsson. "Our approach will accelerate innovation in the smartphone and tablet markets enabling consumers to experience human-machine interfaces based on gesture, voice and image recognition, 3D cameras and life-like augmented reality."

ST-Ericsson's NovaThor platforms, based on a scalable architecture, combine application engines, modems and connectivity chipsets into fully-integrated and tested solutions, which device manufacturers can use to quickly roll out a new wave of advanced smartphones and tablets with trailblazing multimedia capabilities across all segments.

At the high end, the NovaThor platforms offer device makers the opportunity to bring leading-edge smartphones to market swiftly by combining ST-Ericsson's very latest modems and application processors. In the mainstream smartphone segment, manufacturers can benefit by using ST-Ericsson's highly-integrated platforms, in which modems and application processors are built into a single piece of silicon, to produce compact and affordable devices. The scalable architecture enables reuse of manufacturers' R&D investment across the entire range of their smartphone and tablet portfolios.

ST-Ericsson today announced three new application processors, the Nova A9600, A9540, A9500 together with two next generation modems the Thor M7400 and M7300 as well as two additions to its complete highly integrated smartphone platforms the NovaThor T5008 and U4500.

ST-Ericsson's new Nova A9600 brings over 200 percent more mobile computing performance compared to the U8500 platform. It features the industry's best and most efficient low-power implementation known today of a dual ARM® Cortex- A15 MPCore™ with each core running up to 2.5GHz thanks to very innovative power saving techniques to be disclosed later this year.

"As the selection of advanced smartphones and tablets increases we see the need for a wider range of performance points to be addressed," said Mike Inglis, EVP and general manager of the ARM Processor Division, "This announcement shows the performance that can be achieved by combining the Cortex-A15 processor with integrated LTE modems."
The Nova A9600 will be the first platform announced to incorporate Imagination Technologies next generation of graphics processors, codenamed Rogue, which will set a new performance bar for GPUs at mobile power consumption levels. The Nova A9600 will bring more than a 20-fold improvement in graphics performance compared with the U8500 platform.

"POWERVR Series6, codenamed 'Rogue', moves the goalposts in terms of graphics performance and efficiency at low power consumption for next generation mobile." said Hossein Yassaie, CEO of Imagination Technologies. "We are delighted to be working with ST-Ericsson on such a groundbreaking product."

The Nova A9600 will also be able to play full HD video at 120 frames per second, supporting professional camcorder-quality recording in 3D, as well as high definition videoconferencing and tele-presence.

ST-Ericsson also unveiled the Nova A9540, a dual-core ARM Cortex- A9-based processor, with each core operating at up to1.8 GHz, and the Nova A9500, a dual-core ARM Cortex- A9-based processor, running at 1.2 GHz. The Nova A9540 delivers a four times improvement in graphics performance compared with the current generation, while the A9500 delivers state-of-the-art graphic capabilities on mobile devices.

ST-Ericsson's new Thor modems, the Thor M7400 and the Thor M7300, support the latest LTE and HSPA+ dual carrier technologies, while preserving backward compatibility with existing 3G/2G networks, in a small and highly-integrated radio solution that supports up to eight LTE/WCDMA/GSM frequency bands. These modems enable the development of truly global smartphones, tablets and many other mobile broadband-enabled devices.

The Thor modems and Nova application processors will be offered as combined NovaThor solutions which match the most advanced application processors with the latest modem technologies. Finally ST-Ericsson introduced the NovaThor T5008 and U4500 platforms which combine application processor and modem in a single die delivering all the benefits of integration, including size, power and bill-of-material advantages.

Notes to Editors

The Nova A9600, built in 28nm, will deliver groundbreaking multimedia and graphics performance, featuring a dual-core ARM Cortex- A15-based processor running up to up to 2.5 GHz breaking the 20k DMIPS barrier, and a POWERVR Rogue GPU that delivers in excess of 210 GFLOPS. The graphics performance of the A9600 will exceed 350 million 'real' polygons per second and more than 5 gigapixels per second visible fill rate (which given POWERVR's deferred rendering architecture results in more than 13 gigapixels per second effective fill rate). Thanks to Rogue Nova will support all existing APIs such as OpenGL, OpenGL ES 2.0/1.1, OpenVG and OpenCL as well as the next generation of OpenGL ES, codenamed 'Halti' and Microsoft DirectX. The Nova A9600 is sampling in 2011.

The Nova A9540, built in 32nm, uses a dual-core Cortex-A9 running at up to 1.8 GHz and delivers graphics performance up to four times that of the U8500 and is sampling H2 2011.

The Nova A9500, built in 45 nm, uses a dual-core Cortex-A9 running at clock speeds of up to 1.2GHz, with Mali™ 400 improving graphics performance up to 20 percent, supporting full HD camcorder capabilities and up to 20 megapixel cameras. It is sampling and in design with ST-Ericsson customers today.

The Thor M7400 can connect to 2G, 3G, TD-SCDMA, HSPA, HSPA+ dual carrier and LTE FDD/TDD networks. It offers peak download speeds of up to 100Mbps in LTE networks. The Thor M7400 supports voice calls via fallback to circuit-switched networks and via the VoLTE (Voice over LTE) standard, it is sampling Q2 2011.

The Thor M7300 is a multimode HSPA+ modem supporting speeds of up to 84Mbps and is sampling Q2 2011.

The NovaThor U9500 is a complete platform combining Thor M5730 with A9500 and is sampling now.

The NovaThor T5008 platform combines a TD-HSPA+ modem with dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 and Mali 400 graphics. It supports full HD camcorder capabilities and up to 20 megapixel cameras and is sampling Q2 2011.

The NovaThor U4500 platform combines a powerful Cortex-A9 application processor with a HSPA+ modem. It supports DVD-quality camcorder capabilities and 8 megapixel cameras and samples in 1H 2011.

About ST-Ericsson
ST-Ericsson is a world leader in developing and delivering a complete portfolio of innovative mobile platforms and cutting-edge wireless semiconductor solutions across the broad spectrum of mobile technologies. The company is a leading supplier to the top handset manufacturers and ST-Ericsson's products and technologies enable more than half of all phones in use today. The company generated sales of about USD 2.3 billion in 2010. ST-Ericsson was established as a 50/50 joint venture by STMicroelectronics and Ericsson in February 2009, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
www.stericsson.com
www.twitter.com/STEricssonForum
Nova, Thor and NovaThor are trademarked by ST-Ericsson.

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Apple maintains lead in mobile app store revenues, but its share is shrinking fast

Growth. You don't have to be Gordon Gekko to recognize that exponential growth in revenues is the mark of both a buoyant industry and, on an individual level, a healthy participant within it. Kudos must, therefore, be handed out to all the top four app stores globally, as each one expended its total revenues by over 130 percent between 2009 and 2010. Interestingly, Apple's growth looks to be slowing down as the App Store begins to reach a saturation point on smartphones, while Nokia's Ovi Store and Google's Android Market blossomed during 2010 by multiples of 7.2 and 8.6 times their 2009 size. Apple's share at the top has shrunken as a consequence, a trend that looks likely to continue when Windows Phone 7's Marketplace and the Ovi Store are melded into one through this year and beyond.
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