Qualcomm Launches 4 New Octa-Core SoCs in Snapdragon 400 and 600 Series

Qualcomm has announced four new mid-range mobile SoCs in its Snapdragon 400 and 600 series, dubbed the Snapdragon 415, Snapdragon 425, Snapdragon 618 and Snapdragon 620.

The chipmaker says the Snapdragon 415 chipset is in sampling now and can be expected in commercial devices in the first half (H1) of 2015, whereas the other SoCs - Snapdragon 425, Snapdragon 618, and Snapdragon 620 - are expected to be in commercial devices in the second half (H2) of 2015.

The new 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 618 and Snapdragon 620 use four ARM Cortex-A72 cores and four ARM Cortex-A53 cores, but the biggest highlight is that the SoCs will bring support for 4K video capture and playback for mid-range devices, which was previously only available in company's Snapdragon 800 class products. Other than that, the processors will also support Quad-HD (1440x2560 pixels) displays along with the next-generation Adreno GPU, says company.

The Snapdragon 618 and Snapdragon 620 chipsets will also include QuickCharge 2.0 technology, X8 LTE modem, VoLTE support, dual channel LPDDR3 memory support, dual Image Signal Processors (ISPs) supporting twin 13-megapixel cameras, and more.

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InterDigital Loses Another Round in Nokia, ZTE Patent Fight

InterDigital Inc , a patent licensing firm, lost an infringement fight over wireless phone technology on Wednesday, as a U.S. appeals court ruled against it. InterDigital had sued phone maker Nokia and ZTE Corp over patents used in the phones. Since the suit was filed, Nokia's handset business was purchased by Microsoft Corp. InterDigital shares slid, closing down 3.4 percent at $49.14.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a decision by the International Trade Commission, which found the patents were not infringed.

The appeal involved five patents. Four help the cell phone use less power and one allows the device to use various networks to transfer data.

The Federal Circuit also upheld the ITC's decision to declare the fifth patent invalid because it is obvious, which means it cannot be infringed. Microsoft was pleased with the decision, said spokesman David Cuddy.

ZTE said it was confident all along that it was innocent of infringement. "ZTE is pleased that the Court of Appeals has confirmed this," the company said in a statement.

InterDigital said it was disappointed by the decision but would push on with other litigation that it already has under way.

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Videocon Launches Range of Wi-Fi Enabled ACs Starting From Rs. 35,990

Indian summers are closing in and no matter which part of the country you are living in, it is bound to get either hot, humid, or both, soon. The time is ripe to invest in an air-conditioner (AC). Videocon, at an event in Mumbai, pulled the wraps off what it is calling India's first range of Wi-Fi enabled ACs, thus bringing us closer to the reality of connected appliances inside our houses.

The new range consists of four split AC models and all of them are 5 star BEE rated. The VSA35.WW1 and the VSA55.RW1 are 1.0-tonne ACs, and cost Rs. 35,990 and Rs. 36,490 respectively.

On the other hand, the VSA55.WW1 and the VSA55.RW1 have a capacity of 1.5 tonnes each. These ACs have a retail price of Rs. 41,490 and Rs. 41,990 respectively. Videocon has categorically stated that all these ACs will be available for sale by the end of this week (mid-February). The range of ACs is packed to its gills with features. Videocon has implemented LCD screens on all these ACs, which is a first. The Indian electronics giant has also created a custom software for the ACs from the ground up.

The ACs can be controlled using an Android app available for download from the Google Play store. Akshay Dhoot, who helped spearhead this project, said, "We plan to provide monthly updates for the software with new features based on research and customer inputs." On being questioned if Videocon is planning on a connected app for iOS, Dhoot stated that the iOS app is almost ready and should hit the App Store in the near future. Additionally, multiple ACs can be controlled using the Android app.

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Dropbox Update for Android, iOS Lets You Open Shared Links Directly Within App

Dropbox, after rolling out its Action Extension feature for iOS, has announced another feature for both its Android and iOS apps that is aimed at helping improve the productivity of users. The cloud storage firm has introduced a new function that lets users open shared Dropbox links within the Dropbox Android and iOS apps. Previously, the shared links opened in the mobile browser, consuming more time.

"When you click on a Dropbox shared link from your mobile device, you can open the file or folder right in the Dropbox app - which means you get rich previews for documents and photos and an easy way to save the file or folder to your Dropbox account," said Henrik Berggren, Product Manager, Dropbox, on the company blog post.

Dropbox has said that after the latest update, which has already started rolling out for iOS and will reach Android soon, users will be able to directly preview documents or photos and save them within the Dropbox app. Furthermore, if the shared link file is already saved in the user's Dropbox account, the link will directly open the document so users can move, rename or favourite it for offline use.

Also, since Dropbox also supports Microsoft Office files, users can open and edit the documents directly from the Office apps (Word, Excel, or PowerPoint) on both Android and iOS.

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Samsung Unveils First eMMC 5.1 Storage for Smartphones and Tablets

Samsung on Wednesday introduced its first eMMC (embedded multimedia card) 5.1 flash memory chips, which have been approved by semiconductor industry's standards group JEDEC.

eMMC storage is standard in all smartphones and tablets being produced nowadays. It essentially brings a NAND memory and controller on to a single chip, thus helping reduce space requirements and boosting performance.

The newly-approved NAND flash technology standard - eMMC 5.1 - by Samsung is claimed to be faster and more seamless in terms of multitasking activities, including the streaming and playback of UHD (Ultra High Definition) video content because of its first command queue function.

The company says that new chips will come in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities, and that it has already started preparing to ship its first eMMC 5.1 products to some smartphone and tablet OEMs.

The 64GB eMMC 5.1 memory is claimed to deliver a maximum speed of 250MB/s for sequential data reading and 125MB/s for sequential data writing. "For random read and write performance, ours 64GB eMMC 5.1 memory achieves up to 11,000 IOPS (input/output operations per second) and 13,000 IOPS, which are approximately seven and 26 times faster respectively, compared to a typical external microSD card with approximately 1,500 IOPS and 500 IOPS," notes Samsung.

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