Monday, May 30, 2011

Android and Me

Android and Me

NVIDIA shows off Shadowgun game headed to Kal-El [Video]

Posted: 30 May 2011 04:07 PM PDT

Last week Madfinger Games, makers of the awesome Samurai II: Vengenance, announced they were working on a new title called Shadowgun, which would be one of the first games specifically designed to take advantage of NVIDIA’s upcoming quad-core Kal-El processor (aka Tegra 3).

At the time all we had were a few screenshots, but now we just discovered a short video of a Shadowgun tech demo running on the Tegra 2-powerd Acer Iconia. As you can see in the clip, Shadowgun is an over-the-shoulder shooter (think Gears of War) and it already looks better than any other action game we have seen come to Android.

Ashu Rege, Vice President of Game Content and Technology at NVIDIA, said, "SHADOWGUN shows off the console-quality experience that Tegra is bringing to Android devices. We're especially excited that Madfinger is creating a special version of SHADOWGUN that's optimized for multi-core processors and will take advantage of the processing and graphics power of Project Kal-El."

There is no release date for the game yet, but I expect it should be ready when we see the first Kal-El tablets hit stores in September.

From Madfinger Games: SHADOWGUN puts players into the role of John Slade, a professional bounty hunter in the year 2350. Slade's mission: hunt down Dr. Edgar Simon, renowned geneticist and former employee of the trans-galactic corporation Toltech Enterprises. Players must lead "shadowgun" John Slade as he infiltrates Dr. Simon's mountain fortress and fights his personal army of mutants, cyborgs, and genetically-enhanced humanoids. Using state-of-the-art weaponry, ships, and the assistance of S.A.R.A.—Slade's personal android assistant. The story is written by award winning author Micah Nathan who has joined the MadFinger team as executive creative consultant for SHADOWGUN.

Gallery

Shadowgun Shadowgun_02_0 Shadowgun_03_0 Shadowgun_04_0

[Thank you andrew53517 for the tip.]

Samsung plans to deliver a 4G LTE Galaxy Tab in 2011 while retaining their Android tablet crown

Posted: 30 May 2011 11:09 AM PDT

J.K. Shin, President of Samsung Mobile, weighed in on the state of the division in an interview just prior to the kick off of Computex Taipei and shed some light on some of their plans for the future.

Shin confirmed that they are working with carriers in the US and South Korea with an eye on delivering a 4G LTE powered Tab in 2011. This shouldn’t come as a surprise considering Verizon announced just such a Galaxy Tab at CES in January (we even got some hands on time with it), but as the window for that hardware to launch has come and gone it is good to know that something new is in the works. Shin did not specify which version(s) of the Galaxy Tab would receive 4G, but as the original 7″ Tab is now the odd man out with it’s relatively thick frame and single-core processor it wouldn’t be surprising to see an enhanced version of it with 4G.

Shin acknowledged that while they will not be able to singly overtake Apple in the tablet space in the near term they are dedicated to maintaining their lead in the Android tablet market and are willing to lower prices as needed to build their customer base. This has certainly been the case with the Galaxy Tab which is now available for sub-$200 on many carriers, although here’s hoping that Samsung realizes that they should be applying this same principle to their wifi-only models as tablet buyers have proven to be skittish about signing contracts to date.

Samsung has shown their dedication to providing the widest ranging options to tablet enthusiasts, but whether that tactic will pay off or simply leave consumers confused remains to be seen.

Do you think Samsung will remain at the top of the Android tablet heap by the end of 2011 and if not who do you see taking their place as king of the hill?

NVIDIA shows off the power of quad-core Kal-El in 4 minutes of video glory

Posted: 29 May 2011 08:00 PM PDT

It’s certainly no secret here at Android and Me that we love the advancements NVIDIA has made with their Tegra line of processors. Earlier this year, NVIDIA’s dual-core Tegra 2 chipset hit the market in a slew of phones, with several more on the way in 2011.

But that’s old news. A few months ago, NVIDIA unleashed Project Kal-El, the world’s first quad-core mobile chipset, which goes along nicely with a 12-core GPU with 3D stereo support. Today, NVIDIA is showing off just how powerful Kal-El is with a new demo video. I’ll let the video speak for itself, but keep in mind as you’re watching that this is pre-production silicon and the final chipsets will be 25% faster.

Though it took the Tegra 2 a while to get from announcement phase to first appearing in mobile phones and tablets, we may not be waiting too much longer for Kal-El devices. The folks at NVIDIA are hard at work on bringing you Kal-El goodness, with the first tablet devices slated to release around August and the first phones dropping around Christmas (Nexus 3, anyone?).

So, what did you guys think of the video? Excited for Kal-El to drop? Think they’ll actually make good on the timelines? Sound off in the comments.

Qualcomm’s next gen Snapdragon on track to sample next month, 28nm chip promises 75% lower power

Posted: 29 May 2011 07:51 PM PDT

NVIDIA will ship the world’s first mobile quad-core processor (Kal-El), but Qualcomm is on track to be the first to market with a mobile 28nm processor. Delivering up to twice the density of previous manufacturing nodes, 28nm technology allows chips to do far more with less power.

Qualcomm just announced that their next generation of Snapdragon processors will sample in June and should be available by the end of the year. These latest processors feature Qualcomm’s new Krait CPU architecture, which replaces the aging Scorpion core found in the first couple generations of Snapdragons.

Krait promises to offer speeds of up to 2.5 GHz per core and deliver 150 percent higher overall performance, as well as 65 percent lower power than currently available ARM-based CPU cores. It will be available in three different models: a single-core MSM8930, dual-core MSM8960, and quad-core APQ8064.

First up is the MSM8960, which samples next month and could show up in an HTC device by Christmas. The MSM8960 features dual asynchronous CPU cores which can be independently controlled for maximum efficiency, dual-channel LP DDR memory, and an integrated multi-mode 3G/LTE modem. This next gen Snapdragon will also feature the latest Adreno 225 GPU, which delivers eight times the performance of the original Adreno.

Further down the road, the single-core MSM8930 and quad-core APQ8064 will start sampling in early 2012. We might not see these in devices for another year, but gaming fans should keep an eye on the APQ8064 since it features the new Adreno 320 quad-core GPU (that’s 15x the performance of the Adreno 200 found in the HTC EVO and Nexus One).

How does this affect me?

What’s really interesting to me is how this new 28nm Snapdragon could influence Google’s next Nexus phone powered by Ice Cream Sandwich.

Most of us assumed that the upcoming Nexus 3 (or is it the Nexus Prime?) will feature NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 processor since it would be the fastest thing available, but the Snapdragon MSM8960 might have a fighting chance if Qualcomm can deliver it by Christmas.

I have nothing to back this up, but it could be the source of the recent rumors which suggest Google is looking at either LG (Tegra 3) or HTC (MSM8960) to build their next flagship device.

If you were Google, which processor would you choose? The quad-core Tegra 3 which could be faster or the 28nm Snapdragon which could offer much better battery life?
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)