Those not interested in the Galaxy Nexus but itching for a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich don’t have long to wait. Google and Samsung yesterday used the AsiaD: All Things Digital event to launch the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich. Though the two companies were more than happy to talk about Android 4.0 on the Galaxy Nexus, neither mentioned when users with other Android devices can expect to get their hands on Ice Cream Sandwich.

Luckily, part of the the All Things D event was an interview with the father of Android, Andy Rubin. Walt Mossberg sat down with Rubin to talk about Apple, Samsung, Motorola and, naturally, Android. In the course of the interview, Mossberg tried to get Rubin talking about the Galaxy Nexus’s launch in the United States. Though Andy wouldn’t say whether or not the phone would launch on Verizon first, he did give away a little information about the general roll-out of Android 4.0. Specifically, Rubin said the ICS roll-out is scheduled for ‘a matter of weeks after the Samsung device’ launches.

That leads us to the all-important question of when the Galaxy Nexus device will be launching. Google and Samsung are keeping quiet about that for now, though we do know that it will be arriving sometime in November. Japan’s NTT DoCoMo yesterday leaked specs and other information relating to the phone ahead of the event, and with that information was a November 20 release date. It’s not yet known if this will be a worldwide release, or if other regions will get the device before or after Japan. However, it looks like we will be getting some Ice Cream Sandwich love before old St Nick preps his reindeer for take-off.

SOURCE via All Things D

CEO Paul Otellini confirmed that Ivy Bridge 22 nm processor volume production has already begun, which is a rather significant achievement as there have been apparently no major hiccups in the implementation of its 3D transistor technology. There has always been the question how Intel defines “volume”, but vice president Mooly Eden told me years ago that Intel would only consider a production process volume production if it affects “millions” of processors.

Intel also stated that Ivy bridge is on target for a late Q4 “qualification for sale”, which means that Intel will be begin shipping final products to its customers in the second half of the quarter. This will allow Intel to maintain its tick-tock cadence and keep the claim that a production shrink has been introduced in yet another uneven year (and so that it can state that its 22 nm chips were released in 2011). Of course, that does not mean that you will be able to buy those chips in 2011. According to Otellini, first Ivy Bridge systems should become available in Spring 2012. As Ivy Bridge is introduced and ramping up, Intel expects that its profit margins will improve as well.

Sandy Bridge has, despite an initial hiccup, worked out well for Intel. The company is on track to report $55 billion of revenue for 2011, up more than $11 billion over 2010.

Google’s music service has been a highly-covered topic as of late, and there were hopes that the company would reveal the retail aspect last night during the introduction of Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. But that didn’t happen, and we’re still left with little bits and pieces of what seems to be a massive launch in the near future.

Based on recent reports, there may be a good reason why Google is having difficulty in working out deals with record labels — at least, there seems to be more to the story than what we’ve heard thus far. Ever since the company’s initial failure to launch a full-fledged service earlier this year, sources close to the situation have reported that negotiations have been problematic due to financial reasons and an uncertainty that Google will address the labels’ concerns over piracy.

And because Google was unable to reach a deal, the company launched its virtual music locker instead and named is Music Beta. But Android boss Andy Rubin has indicated that Google is looking to launch something else other than an iTunes clone. In fact, the virtual storefront will arrive soon with “a little twist.” Naturally he wouldn’t explain the “twist” aspect, leaving room for speculation that more is going on behind the scenes than dealing withuptight record labels fighting over rights and revenue.

“I think we’re close,” Rubin said onstage at the AsiaD conference in Hong Kong when asked when the MP3 store will actually launch. “[It] will have a little twist. It will have a little Google in it. It won’t just be selling 99-cent tracks.”

He went on to explain why negotiations fell apart in the beginning, saying that media companies in general haven’t been able to figure out what Google is up to. Just like Apple Computer evolved into simply Apple, Google is morphing into its own brand of gadget-based Power Ranger. After all, Google has transformed from a simple search engine to an OS developer and online retailer.

“Google is in the very, very early phases of adding consumer products to our portfolio,” he said. “The media industry didn’t see us as that. They saw us as a search company.”

Reports concerning the launch of the actual MP3 store have varied, ranging from the end of October to a broader Q4 2011. But once that finally arrives, Google will seriously need to consider selling video content if it wants to tackle Apple on all fronts.

SOURCE via All Things D

Dropbox co-founder Drew Houston told Forbes that Apple was interested in acquiring Dropbox back in 2009.

According to the report, Jobs negotiated a possible deal which was rumored to have been in the $800 million neighborhood, directly with Houston and Arash Ferdowski, the founders of the services. It is unclear what caused the negotiations to stop, but Houston indicated that they were not willing to lose grip on the company and eventually decided to independently grow the business.

Houston noted that he had no intentions to end up as an acquisition that drowns inside a giant corporate structure.

Jobs, however, appeared to have had exactly that idea. According to Houston, Jobs considered Dropbox to be a feature, not a company. Today, Dropbox claims to have about 50 million users and says it is profitable. Investors currently value Dropbox at about $2 billion.

SOURCE via Forbes

SandForce looks to have finally provided a firmware update for its infamous BSOD/disconnect issue that have plagued SF-2200-based SSDs from the start.

OCZ and SandForce don’t provide many details on the root cause of the issue, except to state is was a bug in the firmware that caused “a rare condition that may cause Windows Blue Screen.” OCZ has been testing the new firmware for several weeks and has finally released it for public use (look for other manufacturers to quickly follow with their firmware updates). The new firmware is version 2.15 for OCZ drives and 3.3.2 for drives that utilize SandForce’s standard numbering. As with any firmware update, users should back up all vital data before proceeding with the update.

OCZ sent along its official statement:

OCZ is pleased to announce that the cause of a BSOD issue experienced by some SF-2000-based drive owners has been identified by OCZ and SandForce. A new firmware update which directly addresses this BSOD occurrence related to SF-2000 based SSDs is available here. All newly manufactured OCZ SF-2000 based SSDs will feature the new 2.15 firmware revision (which is based on SandForce firmware version 3.3.2.) We highly recommend that any customers that have experienced the BSOD issue update their firmware to 2.15.

We sincerely appreciate the support from our customers, and if any customers have any questions or require additional support please do not hesitate to contact a customer service representative and we will be happy to address any questions or concerns.

SOURCE via Anandtech

Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs passed away the morning after newly-appointed Chief Executive Tim Cook unveiled the iPhone 4S on October 4 at a special event on the Apple campus. However, despite the fact that the iPhone 4S is the latest Apple iPhone, it seems it wasn’t the last iPhone Steve Jobs worked on.

According to one analyst, Steve Jobs also had a hand in designing the next and as yet unannounced iPhone (believed to be the iPhone 5, boy we always put our hopes high). This expert also believes the device will become a cult classic because it was the last product Jobs had a part in developing. CNet cites Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw as saying the next iteration of the iPhone “was the last project that Steve Jobs was intimately involved with from concept to final design.” He adds, “For that reason…this product will establish the high water mark for iPhone volumes.”

Other than this little morsel, Kumar’s research note contains some of the same iPhone 5 rumors we’ve heard before, such as support for LTE, and a larger screen (while maintaining the same dimensions as the current iPhone). Kumar is also predicting a slimmer design for the iPhone 5, and other CNet sources also say the next iPhone will be a complete redesign.

And so… the iPhone 5 rumor mill continues… For another year or so…

SOURCE via CNET

Based on information leaked from Chiphell, the new Ivy Bridge processors will have a maximum of 77 watts TDP (thermal design power), which is down from 95 watts for the current Sandy Bridge.

VR-Zone has provided what looks to be leaked roadmaps for the upcoming Ivy Bridge processors for 2012. The information is coming out of a Chinese forum (Chiphell), so the information can be taken as such, until official word from Intel. Based on the information provided, the new Ivy Bridge processors look to a have a peak TDP (thermal design power) of 77W for their extreme processors. The Ivy Bridge TDP looks to range from 77W down to 35W on their “power optimized” CPUs.

The roadmap shows a complex diagram on Intel’s plans for late Q1/early Q2 2012. The information on the left looks to be information on Intel’s marketing segmentations for each processor. The map shows there will be the standard unlocked K SKU’s, just like with current gen Sandy Bridge processors.  Intel’s shrink to 22nm, alongside with its new “3D transistors”, looks to be helping push down the TDP on the new Ivy Bridge processors. The quad core 65W S and 45W T SKU’s are similar to what we are seeing on current Sandy Bridge CPUs. The new Pentium Ivy Bridge SKU’s gain DDR3 1600MHz memory support, along with the rest of the Ivy Bridge chips.

There doesn’t seem to be much of a format change for the upcoming Ivy Bridge CPUs and their name format. The higher-end CPUs will start with the i7 tag with unlocked versions followed by a “K” and lower power models followed by “S/I”. Medium range CPUs will start with the i5 tag and the lower ranges will have the usual i3 tag. The CPUs will start with Core i7 37xx, Core i5 35xx, 34xx and 33xx, Core i3 31xx.  The Pentiums and Celerons are expected to get a fourth digit in front which will be a 2, so they will be Pentium G2xxx.

Intel looks to be taking a page from AMD on making the Ivy Bridge CPU scompatible with current gen Sandy Bridge platforms (though there are things to watch for). The easiest method is to go with the newer 7-series chipsets, which will support current gen Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge CPUs, according to Intel. If you want to use your current motherboard, things get a little more difficult for the end-user. Bad news first, the Q67, Q65 and B65 chipsets will not support Ivy Bridge even with a motherboard firmware update. The Z68, P67, H67 and H61 chipsets look to all be compatible with a required UEFI update (this can be seen by recent announcements of motherboard makers coming out the PCIe Gen 3 support, which require the Ivy Bridge CPU). This will require a flash to Intel’s ME8L (L for Legacy) UEFI code to provide support for Ivy Bridge on the motherboards (VR-Zone hints that the ME8L may not be available for updating at initial launch of Ivy Bridge).

SOURCE via vr-zone