While it’s not completely surprising if you understand where Krait is coming from as an architectural overhaul for Qualcomm’s CPU’s that finally has out of order execution, but also many performance improvements and bigger memory bandwidth, the Krait architecture and the dual core 1.5 Ghz S4 chip that is based on it manage to show some impressive numbers in benchmarks, making it the most advanced ARM chip that will arrive to market in the coming months.

S4 vs Tegra 3

The dual core 1.5 Ghz should beat Tegra 3 in most benchmarks, but also in real world use for most apps, especially those that are not heavily optimized for multi-cores. Tegra 3 has a great GPU, but the truth is that it still uses only 1 or 2 cores for most applications, and those cores only have an advantage of 100-200 Mhz in this case (Tegra 3′s first processor being 1.4 Ghz and the other 3 being 1.3 Ghz) compared to other dual core 1.2 Ghz processors in the market today.

The S4 is also clocked a bit higher at 1.5 Ghz, but its new architecture it’s what’s really driving the performance, with an estimated 3.3 DMIPS/Mhz compared to the Cortex A9′s 2.5 DMIPS/Mhz and Qualcomm’s S3′s 2.1 DMIPS/Mhz (which would explain why a dual core 1.5 Ghz S3 was only as powerful or even slightly weaker than a dual core 1.2 Ghz Cortex A9 chip).

This simple math shows that the S4 should be around 60% faster than a Cortex A9-based chip, at the same clock speed, but considering the S4 will come out at a slightly higher 1.5 Ghz per core compared to other 1.2 Ghz processors today, the speed improvement should be about double, even for single-threaded applications.

Some benchmark scores taken by someone on a Reddit thread:

Krait Scores:

• Linpack (single) – 106.794
• Linpack (multi) – 218.197
• SunSpider – 1532*
• BrowserMark – 110345
• Vellamo – 2581
• GL Benchmark 2.1 Egypt Offscreen 720p – 52.5
• GL Benchmark 2.1 Pro Offscreen 720p – 62.2

Tegra 3 Scores:

• Linpack (single) – 47.2
• Linpack (multi) – 135.9
• SunSpider – 1695*
• BrowserMark – 103768
• Vellamo – 953†
• GL Benchmark 2.1 Egypt Offscreen 720p – 64.4
• GL Benchmark 2.1 Pro Offscreen 720p – 78.4

S4 vs Exynos 4210

It might not seem that the Galaxy S2 was launched too long ago, but it was actually launched in May last year for the first time, and that’s also when we first saw the Exynos 4210 chip. So that’s quite a bit of time, and we’re also expecting to see the Galaxy S3 drop off probably not too long after the first S4 processors arrive in products on the market.

I would expect Samsung to use at least a quad core Exynos 4412 with a higher clock, or maybe a dual core Cortex A9 chip that we don’t know about with an even higher clock of 1.8 Ghz like the OMAP 4470, or maybe even an Exynos 5250 with a dual core 2 Ghz Cortex A15 chip. But we don’t have any numbers for those yet, so let’s see some benchmarks of how S4 compares to the current Exynos CPU (and others):

One thing that’s kind of disappointing, and has always been about the Qualcomm chips are their GPU’s. The dual core Krait S4 still uses the old Adreno 2xx architecture, in this case an improved Adreno 225, but it still barely manages to beat the Mali 400 in some cases, while it gets beaten in others. I would expect the Adreno 3xx to be a much better when it arrives in Krait chips at the end of the year, but there’s isn’t any way to know if it will be better than Mali T600, Mali T650 or whatever Nvidia comes up with by then. Another thing I’ve noticed is that it seems to only support DDR2 RAM, and I’m expecting to see more DDR3 RAM in mobile devices by the end of the year, but again, perhaps that’s coming in the same time with the new GPU’s.

If the S4 shows us anything is that the end is approaching for the Cortex A9 generation in high-end mobile devices, and sometime close to summer and later this year we should start seeing chips that push the performance forward significantly.

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Android Authority

Article by Mickraster

Android is a mobile operating system which was first developed by Android Inc. Android was bought in the scene by Google in 2005. Android is based upon a customized version of the Linux kernel. Google and other members of the Open Handset Alliance joined forces to develop and release Android to the world market .The Android Open Source Project (AOSP) is assigned the job with the maintenance and further expansion of Android Unit sales for Android OS smartphones ranked in the top one among all smartphone OS handsets sold in the united states in the second and third quarters of 2010, with a third quarter market share of about 43.6 percent in estimate.Android has a massive community of developers writing application programs (“apps”) that expanded the functionality of the devices. There are at present over 100,000 apps in the market for Android. Android Market is the online app store run by Google, though all the apps can be downloaded from third party sites (except on AT&T, which disallows this). Developers write the codes in the Java language, managing the device via Google-developed Java libraries.The inauguration of the Android distribution on 5 November 2007 was declared with the establishment of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 79 hardware, software, and telecom companies dedicated to progressing open standards for mobile devices. Google let loose most of the Android code under the Apache License, a free software and open source license.The Android operating system software stack comprises of Java applications which runs on a Java based object oriented application framework on top of Java core libraries which runs on a Dalvik virtual machine featuring JIT compilation. Libraries created in C consist of the surface manager, OpenCore.media framework, SQLite relational database management system, OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics API, WebKit layout engine, SGL graphics engine, SSL, and Bionic libc. The Android operating system comprises of 12 million lines of code including 3 million lines of XML, 2.8 million lines of codes C, 2.1 million lines of Java coding, and nearly 1.75 million lines of codes of C++.Purchase by Google:In July 2005, Google obtained Android Inc., a little startup company centered in Palo Alto, California, USA. Android’s co-founders who started to work at Google included Andy Rubin(co-founder of Danger),Rich Miner (co-founder of Wildfire Communications, Inc.), Nick Sears (one time VP at T-Mobile), and Chris White (charge of design and interface development at WebTV).At the moment of time, very little was known about any of the features of Android, Inc. other than that they designed software for mobile phones. This began the speculation or rather rumors that Google was planning to enter the mobile phone market.

Hardware used by Android:

The Android OS can be used as an operating system for cellphones, netbooks and tablets, including the Dell Streak, Samsung Galaxy Tab and other devices.The world’s very first TV running Android, called Scandinavia, has also been launched by the company People of Lava.The very first commercially made available phone to run the Android operating system was the HTC Dream, released on 22 October 2008 Android has raced into the mobile phone os market steadily but surely its market share has increased leaps and bounds in 2010 making it the fastest growing mobile OS in the market.

Article by Bestbatteryshops

Android is a phenomenal success story–skyrocketing from nothing to surpass both RIM and Apple and become the dominant smartphone platform in only a couple years. Recent studies, however, indicate Android may have lost some luster with developers as iOS seems to be the primary platform developers are working on.

Or, maybe not. Just in the past month or so PCWorld has had conflicting stories. In June, there was “Mobile Developers Still Choosing Android Over iOS”, followed recently by “Developers Favor iOS Over Android, Study Shows”.

The Android Market may not offer the same revenue potential as the Apple App Store.Which is it? When you’re dealing with studies, surveys, and statistics, it is often hard to tell. You have to understand the angle of the company conducting the survey, or the agenda of the organization that commissioned the study.

There are some legitimate reasons, though, why a developer faced with a decision between creating an app for iOS or an app for Android might lean toward the iOS side of the fence.

iOS Is a Larger Market. Android may have surpassed Apple in the smartphone arena, but iOS is bigger than smartphones. If you include iPads and iPod Touches in the mix, iOS has an audience of about 200 million possible customers compared with only 135 million for Android.

Android activations seem to be outpacing iOS, so Android is closing that gap. But, when the iPhone 5–along with iOS 5 and iCloud–hit the street, things may shift back in Apple’s favor. If the rumor of T-Mobile and Sprint also offering the iPhone 5, or the rumor that Apple will also offer the iPhone 3GS as some sort of economy version of the iPhone come true, iOS sales could quickly leapfrog Android.

iOS App Store Is More Dynamic. Not only does the Apple App Store have more apps than the Android Market, but there is more activity and greater turnover in the App Store.

Distimo, a Dutch mobile apps research firm, was quoted in a recent PCWorld article explaining lower Android Market sales with the following statement: “The top 10 free and top 10 paid applications together have seen only 26 applications in the Google Android Market, while there have been 94 applications in the top 10 free and paid in the Apple App Store for iPhone.”

Apple App Store customers buy more apps and pay more for them.According to a report from Distimo, 25 percent of the free apps, and 79 percent of the paid apps in the Android Market have been downloaded fewer than 100 times, and only two paid Android apps have managed to sell more than 500,000 downloads ever. The report contrasts that with six paid iOS apps that had each sold more than 500,000 downloads in only a two month period, and only counting U.S. sales.

iOS Users Buy More and Pay More. This is really the main point that matters. Android could have a larger audience than iOS, and have more apps in its market with a high degree of turnover in terms of which are the top, or most downloaded apps, but most developers are in it to make a profit.

GigaOM recently shared some data from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster indicating that iOS users buy more apps and pay more for them than other platform users–including Android. Munster reports that an average iOS user downloads 83 apps (up from only 51 the year prior) at an average sale price of $ 1.48 (up from $ 1.29 the previous year). Munster also states that the average sale price of the top 30 paid iOS apps is up 36 percent from 2010 to $ 6.32.

These points, combined with the slew of patent infringement lawsuits plaguing Android, suggest that the glory days of the Android OS may be waning quickly. I am not suggesting that Android will fade into oblivion–just that patent licensing fees and a stagnant app store will not support the kind of rapid growth that Android has enjoyed up to this point.

Tagclouds: Android , RIM , Apple , Acer aspire 5520 battery , Hp pavilion dv3500 battery , Dell latitude d630 battery

Can there be such a thing as a good cheap Android tablet? Has Ice Cream Sandwich really leveled the playing field so that cheaper hardware can run it smoothly? Ever since the “tablets” have become a must-have item, it seems as if every electronics manufacturer on the face of this earth is trying to get their hands on some of the market share. That’s right, Sony, HTC, Samsung, Motorola, Lenovo and even Amazon have stepped up and produced Android tablets. However, no matter how many Android tablets the manufacturers push at us, they all seem to fall very short of the iPad. So why do people still buy them and why are they still being made you ask?

Price!

Both iPads have been set at a $ 500 starting price, and that is just for the most basic model. Android tablets have come out with price tags as low at $ 79! In response, Apple would probably say something along the lines of “you get what you pay for”. But we tend to look at the price difference the same way Amazon does:

So without further ado, here are your top 10 Ice Cream Sandwich tablets of 2012 that won’t break your piggy bank:

Don’t forget to pick your favorite and let us know why in the comments at the bottom!

NOVO7 Paladin

Ainovo took the world by storm last year when it was announced they were releasing a sub-$ 100 tablet. And if that was not enough, it would be one of the first tablets to run Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0). However, the tablet was no where to be found until now. The tablet that made an in person appearance at CES will only cost you $ 89 for a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich.
Note: Upon purchasing the Paladin, shipping to the Eastern United States turned out to be around $ 60. This brings the overall cost of the tablet up to $ 149. Additionally, it has a MIPS processor inside, so many apps in the Android Market will not function properly.

Price: $ 89
Screen Size: 7″ HD LCD
Resolution: 800 x 480
Processor: 1GHz Ingenic JZ4770
Memory: 512 MB RAM
GPU: GC860 core with 3D rendering upgrade
Storage: 8GB/16GB
Camera(s): No Camera
Battery: Built-in 4000 mAh lithium-polymer battery (8 hours of Web Surfing)
Release Date: Buy Now!

Viewsonic Viewpad e70

Now that the creators of the Novo7 have snuck a $ 60 shipping fee in, the sub-$ 100 ICS tablet isn’t so sub-$ 100. On January 10th, Viewsonic announced that they would be making the ViewPad E70. This 7″ tablet is aimed at consumers who want the ultimate value while still being able to attain Google’s latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Although the device has been shown off in public, some of the specifications are still up in the air or remain unknown.

Price: $ 169.99
Screen Size: 7″
Resolution: 800 x 480
Processor: 1GHz processor
Memory: Still Unknown (Most likely 1GB of RAM)
Storage: 4GB (Up to 32GB Micro SD slot)
Camera(s): Front-Facing Camera
Battery: Still Unknown
Release Date: Late Q1 (Late March?)

Archos 80 G9

When you think of tablets, you probably don’t think of Archos. However, even before the “low-cost” tablets came into play, the Archos 80 G9 had always offered the same incredible specs for a fraction of the price of the other guys. And now, to sweeten the deal even more on the almost unknown tablet, Archos is upgrading the G9 tablets (80 and 101) to Ice Cream Sandwich.

Price: $ 299.99
Screen Size: 8″
Resolution: 1024 x 768
Processor: OMAP™ 4 smart dual-core ARM CORTEX A9 from 1GHz to 1.2GHz
Memory: 512MB
Storage: 8/16GB (Additional microSD slot)
Camera(s): 720p front camera
Battery: Internet navigation time  up to 10 hrs
Release Date: February to March

A full chart of the Archos G9 tablet variations thanks to arctablet.com.

Archos Generation 9 devices

Model	Screen size Aspect ratio	Storage	CPU	Memory	Price	Availability
Archos 80 G9	8 “ 4:3	8 Gb	TI OMAP 4430 at 1.0 GHz	512 Mb	€249 $ 299	September 20th
		16 Gb	TI OMAP 4 at 1.2 GHz	512 Mb	€279 $ 329	Early December, 2011
		250 Gb	TI OMAP 4 at 1.2 GHz	512 Mb	€299 $ 369	January, 2012
		16 Gb	TI OMAP 4460 at 1.5 GHz	512 MB TBC	TBC	Christmas, 2011
Archos 101 G9	10.1″ 16:10	8 Gb	TI OMAP 4430 at 1.0 GHz	512 Mb	€299.99 $ 369	September 20th
		16 Gb	TI OMAP 4 at 1.2 GHz	512 Mb	€349 $ 399	End of November, 2011
		250 Gb	TI OMAP 4 at 1.2 GHz	512 Mb	€399 $ 469	Unknown
		16 Gb	TI OMAP 4460 at 1.5 GHz	512 MB TBC	TBC	Christmas, 2011

Asus Memo 370t

Out of all of the cheap tablets that will be running Ice Cream Sandwich, I have to say that this tablet is by far the best deal. It is blazing fast and half the price of the other quad-core Ice Cream Sandwich tablet (Transformer Prime). If you are looking for a smaller sized tablet of the 7 inch variety, want some serious power under the hood, then this is definitely the one to hold out for.

Price: $ 249.99
Screen Size: 7″
Resolution: 1280×800 Super IPS display
Processor: Quad-Core Tegra 3 (Unknown Speed)
Memory: 1GB
Storage: 16GB/32GB
Camera(s): 8-megapixel  rear-camera
Battery: Still Unknown
Release Date: Q2 2012

Coby MID 7042

Coby has been in the cheap tablet market for a while now. However, almost every single one of their tablets have been sub-par. Now, with the addition of ICS and upgraded specs, Coby might actually have a chance at some market share (Maybe!).

Note: Be careful, rumor has it this tablet will have access to the GetJar marketplace instead of the Android Market.

Price: $ 179
Screen Size: 7″
Resolution: 800 x 480
Processor: 1Ghz ARM Cortex A8 processor
Memory: 1GB
Storage: 4GB (microSD slot up to 32GB)
Camera(s): Front facing camera of unknown quality
Battery: Still Unknown
Release Date: Unknown (but soon)

Argos Skypad Alpha2

Argos SkyPad is the latest cheap tablet manufactured by Skytex. Once again, this is not really a high-profile company that is a household name. In addition, the tablet will have access to the 1mobile market instead of the standard Android Market. But as noted in the picture above, the Alpha2 will have access to a lot of the big and famous Android apps.

Price: $ 199
Screen Size: 7″
Resolution: 1024 x 600
Processor: 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A8
Memory: Unknown
Storage: 8GB
Camera(s): At least a rear-facing camera
Battery: Removable Battery of Unknown Size
Release Date: Early 2012

Ramos W6HD

The W6HD is the newest Android tablet from Ramos, a Chinese tablet manufacturer. The only reason I mention their location is because the tablet is not being sold directly to US customers. However, you can find the tablet online with 3rd party dealers, but you may also find that they are selling the W6HD at a higher price.

Price: $ 148.99
Screen Size: 7″
Resolution: 1024 x 600
Processor: AMLogic Cortex-A9 2nd generation core
Memory: 512MB
Storage: 8GB Storage
Camera(s): 0.3Mp front + 2.0Mp rear
Battery: 3300mAh (4-5 hours of video)
Release Date: Buy Now!

X10 AirPad 7p

Although once again we are looking at a “no name” manufacturer, the Airpad is being sold at an incredible $ 150 and offers features that appeal to many users. After all, some of us just don’t need a quad-core or rear-facing camera. If that person is you, the Airpad might be the way to go.

Price: $ 149.99
Screen Size: 7″
Resolution: 800 x 480
Processor: 1.2 GHz Allwinner A10 Cortex A8 processor + 395 Mhz DSP
Memory: 512MB
Storage: 4GB (microSD slot up to 32GB)
Camera(s): 1.3 MP front-camera with video recording and playback
Battery: 8.5 hours movie, 30 hours music, 8.5 hours WIFI Internet access
Release Date: Buy Now!

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2

Samsung did pretty well with their first round of Galaxy Tabs (minus all of the patent infringement cases). And now that they have announced that Ice Cream Sandwich will not be given to any of their older tablets, they have decided to produce another round with ICS.

Price: $ 350
Screen Size: 7″
Resolution: 1024 x 600
Processor: Dual-core 1GHz
Memory: 1GB
Storage: 8/16/32GB (and microSD)
Camera(s): Front facing camera of unknown quality
Battery: 4000 mAh, with up to 30 hours of music playback
Release Date: Q1 2012

Xvision an4

Electronics manufacturer WSL Japan will release the Xvision an4 in April of 2012. With a supposed low price tag and a big screen, this is a combo that many tablet “wanters” have been looking for. In addition to the average processor, the an4 will be packing 16GB of internal storage for all of your apps, pictures, and music.

Price: Consistant with others ($ 200-300)
Screen Size: 9.7″
Resolution: 1024 x 768
Processor: 1GHz CPU
Memory: 1GB
Storage: 16GB
Camera(s): 0.3 MP front-facing
Battery: Unknown
Release Date: April 2012

Our Picks

Budget:

If you’re really looking to get the best deal on an Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) tablet, the NOVO7 Paladin is definitely the way to go. Coming in at just $ 89 the 800 x 480 7″ screen and 4000mAh battery should suit you well.

Performance and Overall Winner:

After taking a look at all of the tablets, if you are looking to get high-performance while not breaking your bank, the Asus Memo 370t is right up your alley. It is the only low-cost quad-core tablet and only costs 1/2 of the Asus Transformer Prime at $ 249. Although it is just 7″, the Asus Memo 370t packs 16GB of internal storage and an 8MP rear-facing camera.

And how about you? Would you opt for a lower priced tablet? See anything you like? Let us know in the comments below!

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Android Authority

The Academy Awards are this Sunday, and the nominees and select presenters will be sporting a special Red Carpet edition of the Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX. It's the same phone we reviewed a couple weeks ago, only it's red. And it'll be held in far more beautiful hands than ours. The men get high-end shaving kits along with the phone, while the women get a gold sequined pouch.

For those of you who aren't up for an Oscar this year, you'll have a chance to win one of theses special editions on Feb. 23 (that's tomorrow) on Motorola's Twitter account. 

Source: Motorola

Android Central – Android Forums, News, Reviews, Help and Android Wallpapers

untu on Android, its next move in the strategy to expand the reach of Ubuntu Linux across multiple devices.

The Ubuntu on Android project aims to unleash the computing power of modern smartphones, by enabling them to act as fully-fledged PCs. Just think about it. Any Tegra 2 device has enough brainpower to compete successfully with older laptops. And the upcoming quad-core chips will put even more computing oomph right into your pocket. So why not take advantage of your Android device and use it as a PC? All you need is a dock to connect to a monitor, plus a Bluetooth keyboard and a mouse.

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Android Authority

Less than a day after announcing two new ICS-running smartphones, ZTE ups the ante with the Mimosa X, a 4.3” device running on Nvidia’s Tegra 2 System-on-a-Chip . We have already seen many devices built around Nvidia’s dual-core architecture, but the Mimosa X is special in two significant ways.

First, it holds the honor of being the first smartphone completely built on Nvidia silicon, sporting the Icera radio technology, which the Santa Clara-based giant acquired last year. Second, it’s the first phone that runs on Tegra 2 to target the mid-market, or, as Nvidia calls it, the mainstream buyer.

ZTE has announced plans to expand out of its Chinese home market, and has already launched a few devices in the U.S., including a $ 100 tablet named Optik. Therefore, the Mimosa X may well find its way to U.S. and Europe, and here comes the interesting part. As AndroidAndMe suggests, the Mimosa X may cost less than $ 200, without a contract.

This would make it possible, for the first time, for customers to enjoy a superior smartphone experience, without committing to 2-year plans or shelling out big money on a contract-free device.

High-end features without the costs

Mimosa packs a surprisingly rich set of features. The most obvious is the dual-core Tegra 2 processor, but the list includes Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, a 4.3-inch qHD screen (960 x 540), a 5MP rear camera and a VGA front camera, and 4GB of internal storage (expandable with SD to 32GB).

The new Mimosa X fares well when it comes to multimedia capabilities too, offering Dolby sound, DLNA compatibility, HD video record and play, and dual microphones. In terms of networks, Nvidia’s new Icera 450 HSPA+ modem supports speeds of up to 21Mbps, but it won’t run on LTE, which will likely limit its reach to the carriers that run HSPA+ networks, such as AT&T and T-Mobile.

Overall, the Mimosa X is an ambitious device that offers reasonable specs at an affordable price. As Nvidia and ZTE boast, the Mimosa will offer the mainstream user a level of performance that is currently reserved to high-end devices, like the Droid X2. The feature set is not ground-breaking, but again, at less than $ 200, it doesn’t have to be.

As the tablet market has shown us, consumers are hungry for cheap gadgets that are not necessarily impressive from the technology standpoint. With the Mimosa X, ZTE has the opportunity to disrupt the carrier-dominated ecosystem, by giving the average Joe the chance to get a nice smartphone without paying the carriers for the privilege.

Of course, we can only speculate (and hope) that the ZTE Mimosa X or another similar device will be a real game changer. For now, we have no specific pricing information and only a vague Q2 release date, but, with MWC coming next week, new tidbits may come out soon. Stay tuned for coverage.

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Android Authority