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Nvidia already in talks about quad-core processors for smartphones
It’s 2010, and today’s phones have already left the phones of yesteryear behind in a trail of dust. Well, with the arrival of dual-core phones next year, it’s safe to say that our phones this year will soon be struggling to keep up as well. The mobile processor race is catching up to their desktop counterparts and it probably won’t be too long until we have phones capable of running processes that were once only thought possible on a regular sized computer. But back to the matter at hand- in a recent article, the CEO of Nvidia, Jen-Hsun Huang confessed that the Tegra 3 is nearly completed and work on the Tegra 4 has already begun- the Tegra 2 was only released not too long ago! He goes on to say, “Every single year, there will be a new Tegra…Dual-core processors will be the standard in 2011, and quad-core is coming in the near future.” Now we know near future could mean anytime, but in today’s competitive world of technology, it usually doesn’t mean far away. Now all we need are developers to take full advantage of these processors, if not there isn’t much point to having a powerful phone. And let’s hope battery technology improves so that we won’t have to use our phones connected to a wall socket 24/7. When do you think quad-core phones will be hitting the market?
The Fairphone 2 was first unveiled in June earlier this year, where this particular handset carried a modular design while featuring majority of its components that have been sourced from conflict-free mines. It seems that this particular handset that you can purchase with a clear conscience has begun to ship to those who happen to live across Europe.
Fairphone announced in a blog post, “It’s been almost two years in the making, and some of the earliest buyers have been patiently waiting since July to receive their new phones. As community manager, I want to personally welcome the new batch of Fairphone owners to our community.” The initial 1,000 units are tipped to ship this month, before the other pre-orders follow in January 2016.
In terms of hardware specifications, the Fairphone 2 will run on a Snapdragon 801 chipset, has a 5″ 1080p screen with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, 2GB of RAM, an 8MP camera, with Android 5.1 Lollipop in tow. It will be a dual SIM capable handset with a microSD memory card slot and plays nice with 4G LTE networks, retailing for approximately €525 a pop.
It looks like the upcoming flagship model from Xiaomi will feature NFC support, at least based on a document that was released by China UnionPay. Just in case you are scratching your head and wondering who China UnionPay is, they happen to be the only domestic payment gateway supplier and card organization, and hence, to see them offer detailed support concerning the newly released NFC-based payment system points to the very real possibility of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5 featuring NFC capability.
After all, the Xiaomi Mi 3 was also mentioned on the list, which so happens to feature NFC, and there is no mention of the Xiaomi Mi 4 which does not come with NFC. Still, such a new payment system would be the ideal tool to see the reintroduction of NFC to the flagship model.
OnePlus did make an announcement in the previous month that the Ceramic variant of the OnePlus X will be released on November 24. True to their word, they did exactly that – although only a pitiful number of units were made available, and not only that, this was through a charity auction. Thankfully for the rest of the masses who are on the lookout for this device, it has gone on sale officially already.
Needless to say, this particular variant is available only by an invitation, although do bear in mind that standard OnePlus X invites are not good here – you will still need to snag yourself a specific Ceramic variant invite before you make a purchase. OnePlus is also on the lookout to offer additional methods of picking up this smartphone, although no further details were revealed.
The OnePlus X Ceramic will be available only in select markets, where among them include Europe, India, and Hong Kong. To date, we do know that OnePlus had made only 10,000 units of the handset available. A case of the early bird getting the proverbial worm here?