The next version of Apple’s iPad is reportedly expected to ship as soon February 2011. According to DigiTimes Systems, component makers in Taiwan have revealed that Foxconn (manufacturer of iPhones and iPads), has been given notice that it should begin preparing to ship 400 000 to 600 000 units of the next iPad within the next 100 days. 

 

Cupertino apparently planned to start mass production in January of next year, but because the tablet’s firmware is currently undergoing testing, the company pushed the schedule back.

 

 

Intel will be launching its second generation Intel Core Processor family (codenamed ‘Sandy Bridge’) on 5 January 2011 at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2011) in Las Vegas. According to Cnet, Apple will be making use of the new Sandy Bridge CPUs within its forthcoming range of MacBooks.

 

More importantly, due to the enhanced graphical performance of Sandy Bridge CPUs, Apple has apparently decided to rely solely on the new Core processors to handle the graphics in MacBook models with screen sizes of 13" and smaller. 

 

Higher-end MacBook Pros are expected to use mobile graphics processing units (GPUs) from AMD, according to Cnet’s sources. Current MacBook notebooks utilise both Core 2 Duos as well as Nvidia GPUs (GeForce 320M graphics), but it isn’t yet known whether Nvidia GPUs will still be present in top-end models.

 

 

 

A series of studies by mobile network management software solutions provider Arieso, has compared the data consumption levels of smartphone users. The phones tested include the BlackBerry Bold 9700, the Google Nexus One, the HTC Desire as well as the Apple iPhone 4, which were all tested against the iPhone 3G that was employed as a benchmark.

 

Users with Android handsets are particularly “data hungry”, scoring higher than both the iPhone 3G and iPhone 4 in terms of data call volumes, time connected to the network, as well as data volume (in kilobits per subscriber) uploaded and downloaded. Apple iPhone 4 users are more hungry for data than their iPhone 3G counterparts, typically making 44% more data calls, downloading 41% more data to their smartphones and spending 67% more time connected to the network for data. 

 

Android-powered smartphone users also scored highest in both the “uplink data volume” and the “downlink data” categories. Arieso studies also revealed that voice calls per subscriber remain roughly flat, suggesting that smartphone users use their devices first and foremost for data consumption as opposed to making phone calls.

 

 

 

Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin has been on Nokia’s naughty list ever since he did a rather nasty preview of the N8 prototype, long before the device was even officially unveiled by the Finnish manufacturer. Even the resulting legal action from Nokia hasn’t put the infamous tech blogger off from revealing the company’s phones before they do. According to The Nokia Blog, Murtazin has now leaked pics of the unannounced Nokia X7, which looks to be running Symbian^3 (like the N8 and C7). It also apparently boasts four speakers and an 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash. 

 

 

 

 

AMD, Dell, Intel, Lenovo, Samsung Electronics LCD Business as well as LG Display this week announced their intentions to accelerate the adoption of scalable and lower power digital interfaces such as DisplayPort and High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) into the PC.

 

Intel and AMD expect that analog display outputs such as Video Graphics Array (VGA) and the low voltage differential signaling technology (LVDS) panel interface would no longer be supported in their product lines by 2015. Intel plans to end support for LVDS in 2013 and VGA in 2015 in its PC client processors and chipsets.

 

AMD plans to begin phasing out legacy interfaces, starting with the removal of native LVDS output from most products in 2013. The company also plans to remove native VGA output in 2013, with expansion to all AMD products by 2015, which would mean that DVI-I support will be eliminated in the same timeframe.