smartphone News - Page 52 of 73 - CNX Software

June 22, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

NFC Tags Now Sell for Just 50 Cents

Your smartphone’s NFC capabilities don’t have to be used only for payment or marketing purposes, and NFC tags can allow to create some sort of real-life short cuts to do various things by simply tapping your phone on the tag including: Automatically enable and configure Wi-Fi. This can be convenient if you are friend coming to your home, and they can just tap on the tag to get Wi-Fi access without the need to know the password Home automation – You can control items in your home, i.e. turn on/off your computer, lights, doors, etc… with a tag. Virtual Business Card – You can store your contact details in a tag and share your data with others quickly and easily. More use cases can be found on “18 Creative & Useful Ways To Use NFC Tags With Your Smartphone” post on trendblog, and it can even be used as a […]

June 19, 2014June 19, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Development Board with Intel Technology Developed by Rockchip

Just a quick post to show an interesting, yet unavailable development board. A few weeks ago, Intel and Rockchip announced a collaboration to design Intel Atom Sofia x86 SoC for mobile devices. Apparently, they did not waste any time, and have already done some nice work together, as Chen Feng, VP at Rockchip, posted the picture of the development board on his weibo account with a short description that Google’s translate as: You can now showed up, Intel inside, the world’s most highly integrated 6321 smartphones and tablet communications solutions, dual-core WCDMA SOC, integrated WIFI BT GPS PMU, all two chips It’s not entirely clear if it’s directly related to the announced Intel Atom “Sofia” using 3G (WCDMA) however. The 6321 is a dual core processor, but Rockchip and Intel only announced working on quad core processors, so this may be a separate product for example an ARM SoC with […]

June 19, 2014June 19, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Amazon Fire Phone Features a Camera Array for Dynamic Perspectives, and Firefly Real-Life Object & Audio Recognition

Amazon first phone has been rumored for a few months, and yesterday Jeff Bezos finally unveiled the Fire Phone powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor @ 2.2 GHz, with 2 GB of RAM, a 4.7″ 720p display. It also supports 3G and LTE cellular connectivity, and beside a 13MP rear camera, and 2MP front camera, it also features a specialized camera array with four sensors to offer “Dynamic Perspective” and show different information depending on the position of the phone. Beside the hardware, the most notable feature is Firefly an augmented reality application that can recognize objects you may want to buy, and automatically link them to the Amazon store. Let’s go through the hardware specifications first: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad core CPU @ 2.2 GHz with Adreno 330 GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 32 GB or 64 GB Display – 4.7″ HD LCD display, […]

June 6, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Intel Atom Z3580 MooreField SoC Shown to Outperform Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 in Graphics Benchmark

This is not exactly an independent benchmark, as Intel provided the results showing an Intel Atom Z3580 SoC with PowerVR G6430 @ 533 MHz outperform a Snapdragon 801 with Adreno 330 GPU @ 578 MHz (Galaxy S5) in FutureMark’s 3DMark benchmark by 20997 to 18144, or a little over 15%. We’ve seen several CPU benchmarks before where Intel often has a edge over ARM based solution, but the previous generation with Intel Graphics was a bit weak on the graphics side, and this test seems to confirm, the new Intel smartphone SoC should provide very good graphics performance. It appears Atom Z3580 might have also outperformed Snapdragon 805 with Adreno 420, as Anandtech reported an overall score of 19,698 in 3Dmarks with Qualcomm Snpadragon S805 mobile development platform (MDP), and noticed it was not the most GPU intensive test there is. So it’s still possible the higher score found on Intel’s […]

June 2, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Meet Samsung Z, the First Tizen Smartphone

After many delays, even rumors that Tizen was dead, Samsung has finally announced the very first commercially available smartphone running Tizen mobile operating system with the Samsung Z, right before the Tizen Developer Conference which will take place in San Francisco, on June 2-4, 2014. Let’s go through the hardware specs first: SoC – Qualcomm SnapDragon 800 quad core application processor @ 2.3GHz System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16 GB flash + micro SD card slot (Up to 64GB) Display – 4.8” HD Super AMOLED (1280 x 720) Camera – 8MP(rear), 2.1MP (front) Cellular Network – LTE Cat.4 (150/50Mbps) Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n HT40, MIMO(2×2), Bluetooth 4.0 BLE, NFC, GPS / GLONAS USB – micro USB 2.0 Misc – IR sensor Sensors – Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, Hall, RGB ambient light, fingerprint scanner, heart rate sensor Battery – 2600mAh Dimensions – 138.2 x 69.8 x 8.5mm […]

May 29, 2014July 30, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

NXP Smartphone Quick-Jack Solution Connects to Your Smartphone Audio Jack and Interfaces with Sensors, HMI Devices

We already knew the audio jack on your mobile device was not only for your headset, thanks to small items like Pressy hardware button. But it’s actually possible to do much more, as shown by NXP smartphone quick-jack solution, a board that can interface sensors to your Android smartphone / tablet or iPhone / iPad via the headphone/microphone jack of your device. The company claims it can be used for various applications such as cloud-based tracking of sensor data, external input devices to smartphone, wearable health monitors, personal exercise trackers, handheld weather stations, handheld inventory monitors, handheld/portable POS devices, and universal remote controls, using powered harvested from the audio jack, and optionally a battery. Let’s go through the hardware specifications of this little board codenamed OM13069: MCU – NXP LPC812 ARM Cortex M0+ MCU @ 30 MHz with 16KB flash, 4KB SRAM On-board peripherals – Joystick, temperature sensor, and LEDs […]

April 30, 2014April 30, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Dimple NFC Sticker Adds Four Hardware Buttons to Your Android Device (Crowdfunding)

If you’d like to add one button to your Android smartphone, you could use pressy. But what if you wanted or needed more. Dimple may provide a solution if your Android smartphone or tablet supports NFC. It is a thin NFC sticker, about 0.5mm thick, that you can attach to the back of your device to add 4 hardware buttons. The sticker is compatible with devices running Android 4.0 and above, not made out of metal, and with NFC support. This means HTC One M7 and M8 smartphone are not compatible due to their metallic bodies. Using the NFC sticker appears to be extra simple. Once you’ve sticked your Dimple to the back of your device (or your case), simply install Dimple.io app to configure the buttons to do what you want to: launch your favorite apps, take a picture, turn on & off the flash light, call your mum, […]

April 29, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

Kankun KK-SP3 is a $20 Wi-Fi Smart Socket for Android and iOS

I’ve already featured Broadlink SP1 and SP2 smart socket on this blog. The former is a simple Wi-Fi smart socket for Android and iOS, and the later adds support for motion sensing and energy monitoring. They cost respectively about $30 and $45 including shipping. I’ve discovered another cheaper option with Kankun KK-SP3 via DealExtreme ($23.75), but it can also be found on Aliexpress for as low as $19.99 including shipping. If you live in China, It’s available on Taobao for 99 RMB ($15.82). Here are the specs of this smart socket: Power Plug – Three flat-pin plug (Australia type) Wi-Fi – 802.11 b/g/n, 15 dbm. Texas Instruments Wi-Fi module (CC3000?) Input Voltage – 90~265V @ 50-60 Hz Output Current – 10A Maximum Power – 2200W Dimensions – 5.3 cm x 5.3 cm x 2.8 cm Temperature Range – -10 to 55°C Unless you live in Australia, China, Argentina, New Zealand, […]