Samsung is working on a new back-illuminated 13MP camera for phones and tablets

According to its own website, Samsung is now working on a next-gen 13MP back-illuminated sensor, called S5K3L2, that’s meant to go into phones and tablets sometime next year. The news comes after we have already heard that Samsung has been working on a 12MP sensor (S5K3L1) that’s currently in production for upcoming devices.

The new sensor will be a pretty standard 1/3.2″ format, with a pixel size of 1.1µ. The picture resolution will be 4208×3120, and will shoot videos at 30 FPS. According to Samsung, the images will be able to maintain high contrast even when shot at those high frame rates. Their camera sensors are also the most energy efficient in the industry, so that should help with battery life too, when shooting a lot of pictures in a row. We won’t be able to put these affirmations to the test for a while, though.

As far as megapixels go, phone cameras seem to be moving into point and shoot territory, and at this rate it won’t be long until they go into low-end DSLR territory as well, but with much less overall quality than those devices, of course. The problem with increasing the megapixels is that the pixels have to be smaller and smaller, especially if the manufacturers try to maintain the size of the sensor, or make it even smaller. And when the pixels are smaller, it means they capture less light and the pictures are of less quality.

Now does this mean a 13MP picture will look worse than an 8MP picture? Not necessarily, and most likely it won’t, because manufacturers also come up with other improvements. But my point is those improvements would have an even bigger impact if the number of pixels was maintained rather than increased, especially if they aren’t going to increase the sensor size.

When they increase the megapixel size, they have to work that much harder to increase the quality of the picture. And at this point having a ton of megapixels on a camera doesn’t make much sense, unless you want extreme zooms on your PC. But otherwise even a 2MP photo is enough to cover a Full HD display (which has around 2 million pixels).

Speaking of sensor sizes, although I would never have bought Nokia’s PureView 808, because it ran Symbian, and I wouldn’t have been interested in it if it ran WP8 either. I am still hoping Nokia will pursue that camera strategy and continue to use such large sensors in more of their flagship phones. We could even see it become a trend; a trend that I am hoping other manufacturers from the Android world pick-up on.

Unfortunately, even Nokia seems to have given up on that, and now it is only pursuing low-light performance and stabilization. These are still very worthy goals, and I hope other manufacturers try to beat the Finnish company on this, but the quality of the pictures will be much, much lower than what they were on the PureView 808.

Am I asking for all their phones to have extremely large sensors? No of course not, but seeing how Samsung, HTC and others want to release several “flagships” a year, I think they could make at least one of them have highly superior phone cameras, for those of us who really care about taking good pictures with our phones.

But now that dream may have died with Nokia refusing to pursue that strategy, so I wouldn’t expect huge advancements from either Nokia, Samsung or Apple in terms of picture quality, other than some incrementally improvements every year, in the next few years. From the looks of it neither Samsung’s 12MP camera, nor the 13MP one will have optical stabilization, although hopefully they will put it in the latter one now that they saw Nokia doing it!  They are already using this technology on the recently announced Galaxy Camera with Jelly Bean.

Source : androidauthority

Apple wins patent ruling over Samsung

Apple Inc won a round of a US International Trade Commission case brought by Samsung Electronics Co over patented technology in the iPhone and iPad tablet computer, its second US legal victory in a month over its largest smartphone competitor.

Apple did not violate Samsung’s patent rights, ITC Judge James Gildea said in a notice posted yesterday on the agency’s Web site. The judge’s findings are subject to review by the full commission, which has the power to block imports of products that infringe US patents.

The judge’s findings follow a federal jury’s ruling in San Jose, California, on Aug. 24 awarding Apple more than US$1 billion in damages, after deciding that Samsung copies the look and some features of the iPhone. The California jury rejected claims that Apple infringed other Samsung patents.

“Apple at the ITC is bulletproof,” said Rodney Sweetland, a lawyer at Duane Morris in Washington, who specializes in trade cases. “Nobody can get any traction against them there. The lesson is, if you want to get relief against Apple, it’s going to have to be in a foreign forum where it doesn’t have the clout or the cachet it has at the ITC or the northern district of California.”

FOUR PATENTS
Gildea said there was no infringement of any of the four patents in the ITC case, and also determined that Samsung had not proven it had a domestic industry that used the patents, a requirement that is unique to the trade agency. The judge did not provide the reasons behind his findings. The opinion is to become public after both sides get a chance to redact confidential information.

CONFIDENT
“We remain confident that the full commission will ultimately reach a final determination that affirms our position that Apple must be held accountable for free-riding on our technological innovations,” Samsung spokesman Adam Yates said. “We are proud of our long history of innovation in the mobile industry and will continue to defend our intellectual property rights.”

Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for Apple, said the company had no comment. Apple has previously won cases brought against it at the trade agency by HTC Corp (宏達電) and Google Inc’s Motorola Mobility, two other manufacturers of phones that run on Google’s Android operating system. Apple lost its case against Motorola Mobility, and won an order that forced HTC to remove a feature from its phones.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, has its own ITC complaint pending against Samsung, and the judge in that case is scheduled to release his findings on Oct. 19. The two companies, which together make about half the smartphones sold in the world, are embroiled in more than 30 lawsuits spanning four continents.

Source : taipeitimes

Sorry, Smartphone Owners, But You're More Likely To Have Your Privacy Invaded.

This week, the society-studying Pew Research Center released a new report on privacy and mobile devices, a subject near and dear to this blogger’s heart. Here’s the good, the bad and the surprising portions…

THE GOOD: Pew found that 43% of cell owners download apps to their phones, up from 31% of cell owners in 2011. The good news is that it seems we’re getting somewhat savvier when it comes to avoiding the info-sucking ones. Over half of the 1,954 phone users surveyed said they’ve put a stake in the heart of info-vampire apps.

 *54% of app users have decided to not install a cell phone app once they discovered how much personal information they would need to share in order to use it

*30% of app users have uninstalled an app that was already on their cell phone because they learned it was collecting personal information that they didn’t wish to share

Good for you, wary ones! Of course, that may lead to app makers being less forthcoming about what information they collect. See this damning piece in TechCrunch about the five design tricks Facebook has employed to get users to pay less attention to what they’re giving up when they add an app.

THE BAD: All the intelligence on a smartphone makes it a more attractive target for snoopers. Smartphone users are more likely to have their privacy invaded than dumbphone regular old cellphone users.

Source : forbes

What a smartphone will look like in 5 years

Remember that wild and woolly time before iPhones? I do. In early 2007, I used to keep a Thomas Guide in my car. I think it was also the last time I played Scrabble by picking actual tiles from a bag. As the Apple faithful contemplate the better life that awaits with a 4-inch screen and 4G LTE, it got us thinking -- not about the changes in the past 5 years but about how we'll use smartphones in another 5.

We enlisted the help of Mike Liebhold, senior researcher at the Institute for the Future, to help paint the picture. He described a hyperconnected device that can be charged wirelessly and will come in an assortment of form factors: a wearable version that straps to your forearm and includes a keyboard, and a lower-priced credit card–size phone for developing countries.

Much of the information we learn at our annual physical could be fed to us daily with smartphone apps: our pulse rate and blood pressure levels. Liebhold even suggested that our phones will detect our emotions, when we're happy or too nervous. With any luck, it'll be more accurate than a mood ring.

And just like my well-worn, heavily dog-eared Thomas Guide, my trusty leather wallet is likely to be replaced by a smartphone. The new iPhone 5 may not have near field communication (NFC), but by 2017 it should be standard issue. Just swipe your phone past a sensor to pay for those to-die-for boots that caught your eye. Liebhold says there is one obstacle: current cash registers have no way of talking to an NFC device. But he shared a rumor that could solve that pesky problem....

Source : cnet

More Claims of Tweaked Full-Size iPad with Display and Battery Life Improvements, Potentially Thinner Body [iOS Blog]

Back in early July, Digitimes reported that Apple was looking at launching a tweaked third-generation iPad later this year, adopting new indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) display technology and making other changes that would enable the company to offer the device in a thinner body comparable to that of the iPad 2. The reports were taken with considerable skepticism given Digitimes' unreliable track record, but a number of sources have continued to make similar claims since that time.

Perhaps most notably, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported in late July that Apple is indeed planning a tweaked iPad with improved heat dissipation and component changes, although Kuo claimed that the changes would not involve a reduction in the device's thickness and would in fact be invisible to users. Kuo has proven remarkably accurate with his information in recent years, giving claims of at least some type of mid-cycle iPad revision additional weight.

CNET now offers some thoughts from NPD DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim, who believes that Apple is indeed working on some of the previously-rumored changes, including a reduction in device thickness. "We are seeing [Apple] work with panel makers to come out with a display that enables a thinner overall [product] with longer battery life," said Richard Shim, an analyst at DisplaySearch. [...]

DisplaySearch last week published a research note about the updated iPad Retina, which said "Apple is working with the LCD supply chain to refresh the display, including revising the LED backlight design for cost reduction, refining the thermal solution, reducing the weight by replacing some components, and fine tuning the panel transmittance for lower power consumption."

That would include using an IGZO display to reduce the display's thickness and heat, Shim added. Samsung would be a likely manufacturer, he said.

While Shim says that the thinner display "enables a thinner overall [product]", he does appear to stop short of specific claims that Apple will reduce the iPad's thickness with this revision. Shim also hedges a bit in noting that signs within Apple's supply chain do not necessarily indicate that an actual product update is imminent, but DisplaySearch is modeling for shipments of seven million refreshed full-size iPads in October of this year.

Claims of an "early" iPad refresh are of course not new for 2012, as Apple had been rumored by several sources to be looking to launch the Retina iPad in late 2011, a scenario that did not come to pass as Apple stuck to its annual update cycle in releasing the current iPad in March of this year. Consequently, it would not be surprising if a similar scenario played out this time around, with at least the more significant rumored changes such as a slimmer body not actually appearing until the debut of a full-fledged fourth-generation iPad in early 2013.

View the original article here

Apple 'Unlikely' to Use Audience's New Noise Suppression Technology in iPhone 5

Audience today announced that it appears "unlikely" Apple will use the company's earSmart noise suppression technology in the upcoming iPhone 5. Audience's technology was reported to a key innovation providing support for Siri on the iPhone 4S, and Apple was reported back in February to have licensed Audience's next-generation technology for future products. But with today's announcement, it appears that Apple has elected not to take advantage of the technology. Audience sells processors and licenses its processor IP to Apple Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries (collectively, OEM) for inclusion in the OEM's mobile phones pursuant to a Master Development and Supply Agreement (MDSA). Pursuant to a statement of work under the MDSA, amended in March 2012, Audience developed and licensed a new generation of processor IP for use in the OEM's devices. However, the OEM is not obligated to use Audience's processor IP.

Audience now believes that it is unlikely that the OEM will enable Audience's processor IP in its next generation mobile phone. Audience is not aware of any intended changes by this OEM to its use of Audience's processors or processor IP in prior generations of the OEM's mobile phones.

Apple's decision not to use Audience's new IP in the iPhone 5 will impact Audience's financial picture beginning one quarter after the introduction of the iPhone 5, as Audience receives licensing royalties from Apple one quarter after the device's are sold to end users. Peter Santos, president and chief executive officer, commented, "While we are disappointed by this development, we are confident in the diversification of our business and see sustainable growth in 2012 and beyond. As such we are raising guidance for the third quarter of 2012. Looking ahead, we believe our expansion into adjacent markets such as Smart TVs, automotive, and notebooks, will continue to bring growth in 2013 and beyond."

Audience delivered a standalone voice processing chip for the iPhone 4, but the company's technology was reportedly incorporated directly into the A5 chip used to power the iPhone 4S. The improved Audience technology integrated into the A5 was said to be much better at suppressing background noise, thus allowing Siri to more easily pick out the user's voice.

It is unclear what voice processing technology Apple will be using in the iPhone 5, but it seems that the company has found a better or more cost-effective solution than that offered by Audience.

Update: Audience's stock is down over 40% in after-hours trading following the announcement.

View the original article here

Archos 101 XS Android tablet with Coverboard keyboard case

The Archos 101 XS is a 10.1-inch Android Ice Cream Sandwich tablet (with a Jelly Bean update due by November) that comes complete with a "Coverboard" magnetic keyboard. Made of a combination of fiber casing and steel, it's an attractive mix of chromes and white highlights, with the tablet measuring just 8mm thick (13mm when closed with the protective keyboard cover), and lighter than the new iPad at 600g.

Snapping together with strong magnets, the tablet and keyboard combine into a netbook format thanks to an adjustable kickstand that folds flush into the Coverboard when not in use. Though thin (and lacking the trackpad of the ASUS Transformer series), the keyboard has comfortable travel with its chiclet keys. There's no battery in the slimline keyboard (it's connected to the tablet via a proprietary USB connection, rather than a Bluetooth connection that would require power), but there is a microUSB port on the rear that allows it to act as a pass-through charging dock for the tablet.


You'll also find sockets for USB connections, mini HDMI and microSD dotted around the tablet's edge, though there's no 3G slot. With 16GB of onboard storage, that microSD card allows for up to 64GB of expansion (or 128GB theoretically, if that card SDXC card size ever went mainstream). All the usual sensors (G-Sensor, compass) and connectivity options (Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0) are onboard, as well as a 720p webcam.

With a snappy ARM Cortex A9 processor and 1GB of RAM, the 101 XS is responsive, even when under a heavy multitasking load and running intensive, 3D gaming apps. Even though the screen isn't full HD, it's perfectly capable of outputting 1080p video, stutter free over HDMI, with average usage squeezing 10 hours out of the battery according to the on-hand Archos representative at the launch event. Typing on the keyboard was as comfortable as any similarly sized tablet keyboard; despite the low profile, we could see a user getting plenty of real work done with the 101 XS.

Source : techdigest