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Fring four-way video, Qualcomm next-gen Snapdragon, Droid Targa: US Update
Droid Bionic scratched, new and improved ‘Targa’ coming soon
Qualcomm next-gen Snapdragon chips will deliver console quality gaming
PSN update: Sony is now the proud owner of a class action lawsuit
LG Optimus Big becomes the new Android powerhouse, 1GHz dual-core CPU and 4.3-inch display confirmed
Fring delivers four times the video calling fun for iOS and Android
White iPhone 4 launch: Everything you need to know
Apple officially denies location tracking – and reveals launch of “traffic service”
Royal wedding tech tat round-up
New MacBook Pro, Nokia shake up and PSN disaster: Lunchtime Lowdown

Fring four-way video, Qualcomm next-gen Snapdragon, Droid Targa: US Update

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 09:30 PM PDT

Doing it big, day after day, it's your US Update. Today we jump right with details on the official launch of Fring group video calling, bringing four-way calls to the masses. We head on over to a leaked presentation from Qualcomm which showcases the company's 2011 and 2012 Snapdragon processor line up. Then we head on over to take a look at the new and improved Motorola Droid Bionic, dubbed the 'Targa'.

As we approach the end of April, the world of tech news is heating up like a firecracker on fourth of July. Fring raised the video bar. The company released an updated version (previously beta) of its app for iOS, adding four-way mobile video calling. Don't worry Android users, Fring has updated your app as well.

LG Optimus Big hits Korea April 28 with Android 2.2 and a Gingerbread update to follow (soon). The highlight of the device is a 4.3-inch NOVA display, able to show 700 nits of brightness while also reducing power consumption by 50 percent during indoor use compare to a conventional LCD. Sony is in deep water following the PSN security breach, a class action lawsuit has been filed in a California court, alleging the company "failed to take reasonable care to protect, encrypt and secure the private and sensitive data."

There's four Snapdragon processors in the fold for Qualcomm for the remainder of 2011 and 2012: the MSM8270, MSM8930, MSM8960 and APQ8064. All chips are based on Krait architecture with up to five times the raw CPU processing power of current Snapdragon chips and four times faster graphics. These graphics will provide "console quality gaming".

After spotting the Motorola Targa last week, today we've learned Targa is actually the codename for the future Droid Bionic, a much different looking device than what we saw at CES. According to Motorola, the company received "compelling feedback since the show" and as a result they are incorporating several enhancements to make this "an even better consumer experience".

That wraps up the latest and greatest in the fine world of tech news. As always I'm Nick Marshall and I'll see you again tomorrow.

Droid Bionic scratched, new and improved ‘Targa’ coming soon

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 09:18 PM PDT

The Motorola Droid Bionic we graciously handled at CES earlier this year is no more – at least according to an internal Motorola press release. Tracked down by the folks at droid-life, today's press release provides some insight on what went wrong and how the future Droid Bionic will look to correct this.

A couple weeks ago, photos of unreleased Motorola handsets made the rounds across forums and blogs. One such device was codenamed Targa. Today, we've learned Targa is actually the codename for the future Droid Bionic, a much different looking device than what we saw at CES. According to Motorola, the company received "compelling feedback since the show" and as a result they are incorporating several enhancements to make this "an even better consumer experience".

Without going into technical detail, Motorola says the enhancements to the handset include "expanded features, functionality and an improved form factor". Judging by the photos of the Targa, we'd say this information is spot on.

Anyone care to guess what enhancements (other than a new design) Motorola has made to the Droid Bionic?

Coming Soon | Motorola | TBD

Qualcomm next-gen Snapdragon chips will deliver console quality gaming

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 08:58 PM PDT

Short of looking into a crystal ball, it's a crap shoot trying to guess the future of mobile technology — that is unless you've been given access to Qualcomm's presentation. It just so happens our friends at Electronista happened to come across a set of slides from such a presentation, outlining the entire 2011 and 2012 Snapdragon roadmap. Ready to meet the processors powering your future smartphones?

There's four Snapdragon processors in the fold for Qualcomm for the remainder of 2011 and 2012: the MSM8270, MSM8930, MSM8960 and APQ8064. Since we trim the fat at Electricpig, let's jump straight to the highlights. All chips are based on Krait architecture with up to five times the raw CPU processing power of current Snapdragon chips and four times faster graphics. These graphics will provide "console quality gaming".

What does this mean in the real world? Put simply, Qualcomm explicitly mentioned these chips will beat the ARM Cortex-A9 as well as the future Cortex-A15. Krait architecture is built on a 28 nm process, offering up to 23 percent more computing headroom than the A15 while using 47 percent less power. In terms of actual clock speed, like the upcoming ARM chips, the four Qualcomm chips will be offered in single to quad-core models up to 2.5 GHz.

Expect to see tablets and phones using the MSM8270, MSM8930, MSM8960 and APQ8064 in 2012. The remainder of 2011 will likely be used to work out the kinks, conduct testing and line up some handset manufacturers.

via Electronista

PSN update: Sony is now the proud owner of a class action lawsuit

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 08:38 PM PDT

As the PSN outage continues and emails are sent out warning users their personal information has been compromised, the legal battle against Sony is just beginning. A class action lawsuit has been filed in a California court, alleging the company "failed to take reasonable care to protect, encrypt and secure the private and sensitive data."

There's no telling whether the lawsuit filed against Geohot was to blame or whether Sony's PSN security breach was simply one hackers way of sticking it to the man. All we can confirm at this point is the clear and present danger which threatens to wreak havoc if the data reaches the wrong hands.

California-based Rothken Law Firm explained their reasoning for today's suit saying, "we brought this lawsuit on behalf of consumers to learn the full extent of Sony PlayStation Network data security practices and the data loss and to seek a remedy for consumers. We are hopeful that Sony will take this opportunity to learn from the network vulnerabilities, provide a remedy to consumers who entrusted their sensitive data to Sony, and lead the way in data security best practices going forward.”

Today's class action lawsuit against Sony was the first, but we certainly don't expect it to be the last. As a Playstation 3 owner, the combination of the PSN security breach and my inner desire to play Gears of War 3 might have just pushed this gamer towards a Xbox 360 — how about you?

via IGN

LG Optimus Big becomes the new Android powerhouse, 1GHz dual-core CPU and 4.3-inch display confirmed

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 08:19 PM PDT

LG is showing some love to its home turf. The new LG Optimus Big will debut in Korea tomorrow and with it comes a feature set to rival the best HTC and Samsung have to offer. Without dishing all the dirt, let's just say there's something for everyone to love in the Optimus Big.

Let's run down the highlights. The LG Optimus Big ships with Android 2.2 with a Gingerbread update to follow soon. The highlight of the device is a 4.3-inch NOVA display, able to show 700 nits of brightness while also reducing power consumption by 50 percent during indoor use compare to a conventional LCD. In the world of Android, battery life is key, and NOVA display combined with a 1500 mAh battery should outperform competing models .

Tucked beneath the super sexy display is a 1 GHz dual-core CPU, almost standard in today's Android flagship smartphones. On the back of the phone is a 5-megapixel camera to pair nicely with a front-facing camera, both of which recording high quality video. To store all your files there's 16GB of internal storage. Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi Direct and a HDMI port wrap up the features.

The LG Optimus Big will be available in Korea starting April 28. For now, no other countries have been confirmed for launch so we'll just have to sit tight and enjoy the photos for now.

April 28 | LG | TBD

Fring delivers four times the video calling fun for iOS and Android

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 08:02 PM PDT

Mobile video calling is a nice feature, three-way video calling is impressive, but today Fring raised the video bar. The company released an updated version (previously beta) of its app for iOS, adding four-way mobile video calling. Don't worry Android users, Fring has updated your app as well.

Fring is officially the only app on the block that sports four-way video calling. To achieve this impressive feat, members of your group will want to be using a WiFi connection or at the very least 4G. Given the limited availability of 4G service, we'd imagine four-way video calling will remain a novelty for some time.

If you're like us and limited to a 3G data signal most of the day, we recommend keeping your group video calls to a maximum of three – stepping up to four really does a number on the video and audio quality.

Out Now | Fring | Free

White iPhone 4 launch: Everything you need to know

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 08:41 AM PDT

The white iPhone 4 is here! Well, tomorrow it is anyway, and only 326 days after it was first revealed back at WWDC in June last year. Better late than never, eh? Here’s everything you need to know about the launch tomorrow.

So what’s the deal, it’s just white?
Yup. But it’s pretty! And it matches your white iPad 2.

What, there’s nothing different from the black iPhone 4 at all?
Well, it’ll ship with the latest build of iOS, rather than the one that shipped back in June last year, but otherwise….yeah.

Er OK, so where can I get one?
You can buy one on 28 April in the UK from Apple’s online shop and high street stores, as well as many of your regular stockists. Three for instance has confirmed it will sell it online and in its own shops, while O2 will flog it in shops.

How much will the iPhone 4 cost?
Apple still hasn’t given UK pricing, but we’d be surprised if it didn’t match the black version penny for penny.

In the meantime the networks are starting to confirm their plans. Three will sell it on a two year contract from £25 per month, or on Pay As You Go for £499.99

O2 meanwhile will sell it from £21.50 per month on a two year contract, and an upfront cost of £304.99. Pay As You Go options will arrive later as stock is “limited at launch”.

At the time of writing, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone had yet to confirm any launch details for the white iPhone 4.

Why did it take so long?
Apple never went on record to explain the repeated delays for the white iPhone 4, but it is believed that manufacturing the white glass cover that didn’t affect image quality of the camera sensor proved to be a lot more time consuming than even Apple’s supply chain pros expected.

So, seriously, what’s all the fuss about?
What are you, stupid? Watch this video and you’ll learn why it matters.

Apple officially denies location tracking – and reveals launch of “traffic service”

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 07:01 AM PDT

The media storm over Apple’s potential to track the location of your iPhone has obviously troubled Apple, because it has issued an extraordinary 10-point Q&A on the subject. You can read it in full after the break but in doing so, it revealed two very interesting things.

Firstly, that Apple’s planning a free iOS update to reduce the amount of data it collects per phone. And secondly that in the next few years it is launching…

…a “traffic service”. Although what sort of traffic service that is, remains to be seen. Will it, for instance, tell you the M4 is really slow? Or do they mean it’ll tell you to avoid Westfield shopping centre as it’s full of dawdling mums on a Friday afternoon? We’ll be reporting back as soon as we hear the merest sniff of a plan…

Here’s the official response in all its watertight glory:

Apple would like to respond to the questions we have recently received about the gathering and use of location information by our devices.

1. Why is Apple tracking the location of my iPhone?
Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so.

2. Then why is everyone so concerned about this?
Providing mobile users with fast and accurate location information while preserving their security and privacy has raised some very complex technical issues which are hard to communicate in a soundbite. Users are confused, partly because the creators of this new technology (including Apple) have not provided enough education about these issues to date.

3. Why is my iPhone logging my location?
The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it's maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested. Calculating a phone's location using just GPS satellite data can take up to several minutes. iPhone can reduce this time to just a few seconds by using Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data to quickly find GPS satellites, and even triangulate its location using just Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data when GPS is not available (such as indoors or in basements). These calculations are performed live on the iPhone using a crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data that is generated by tens of millions of iPhones sending the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple.

4. Is this crowd-sourced database stored on the iPhone?
The entire crowd-sourced database is too big to store on an iPhone, so we download an appropriate subset (cache) onto each iPhone. This cache is protected but not encrypted, and is backed up in iTunes whenever you back up your iPhone. The backup is encrypted or not, depending on the user settings in iTunes. The location data that researchers are seeing on the iPhone is not the past or present location of the iPhone, but rather the locations of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers surrounding the iPhone's location, which can be more than one hundred miles away from the iPhone. We plan to cease backing up this cache in a software update coming soon (see Software Update section below).

5. Can Apple locate me based on my geo-tagged Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data?
No. This data is sent to Apple in an anonymous and encrypted form. Apple cannot identify the source of this data.

6. People have identified up to a year's worth of location data being stored on the iPhone. Why does my iPhone need so much data in order to assist it in finding my location today?
This data is not the iPhone's location data—it is a subset (cache) of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database which is downloaded from Apple into the iPhone to assist the iPhone in rapidly and accurately calculating location. The reason the iPhone stores so much data is a bug we uncovered and plan to fix shortly (see Software Update section below). We don't think the iPhone needs to store more than seven days of this data.

7. When I turn off Location Services, why does my iPhone sometimes continue updating its Wi-Fi and cell tower data from Apple's crowd-sourced database?
It shouldn't. This is a bug, which we plan to fix shortly (see Software Update section below).

8. What other location data is Apple collecting from the iPhone besides crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data?
Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years.

9. Does Apple currently provide any data collected from iPhones to third parties?
We provide anonymous crash logs from users that have opted in to third-party developers to help them debug their apps. Our iAds advertising system can use location as a factor in targeting ads. Location is not shared with any third party or ad unless the user explicitly approves giving the current location to the current ad (for example, to request the ad locate the Target store nearest them).

10. Does Apple believe that personal information security and privacy are important?
Yes, we strongly do. For example, iPhone was the first to ask users to give their permission for each and every app that wanted to use location. Apple will continue to be one of the leaders in strengthening personal information security and privacy.

Royal wedding tech tat round-up

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 05:05 AM PDT

Roll up roll up, we've got a lock-up full of Kate and Wills gadget tat that would have even the most ardent royalist turning up one's nose at it. And who are the main culprits, so you can shun everything they ever make as penance for subjecting us to this trash? Read on and find out.

GE Royal Wedding Fridge

Gorgeous, just gorgeous. Forget commemorative tea towels, this is the only way to show you're serious about the big day. It features a scarily large picture of Kate and Wills on the door, that you'll see every time you go for some milk. Well, it's sure to wake you up first thing in the morning, at any rate.

£2,000 | GE

Royal Wedding Edition Alcatel One Touch

As if the union jack on the front wasn't enough, this also has a red back with C and W marked on it, along with the date of the wedding. Preloaded are a royal wedding wallpaper featuring a pic of the happy couple, and a Mendelssohn's Wedding March ringtone. Somehow we can't see Wills rocking this come the big day.

£14.95 | Carphone Warehouse

Roberts Union Jack Revival Radio

Initially made as a one-off to celebrate the fact it had a Royal Warrant, Roberts decided to go into full production to tie in with the wedding of the century. Hey, if you can't face watching the ceremony, you can always listen to it on this instead.

£199.95| John Lewis

Royal Wedding by NBC News

Well those iPad app makers weren't going to miss out on a slice of Royal Wedding cake now were they. It features over 300 photos and 40 royal news reports, and an interactive family tree so you can see who's related to who, sharing via Twitter and Facebook (as if you'd really let all your friends know you were using it), and a host of other wedding tat you can buy through the app. You'll need to wash your iPad after using, such is the disdain in which we hold this.

Free | iTunes

William & Kate Royal Wedding Souvenir Clock

Oh yes, you can see this on your wall can't you. It'd go nicely next to the Big Mouth Billy Bass you bought 10 years ago, just to the left of the singing moose's head, and all the other novelty crap that lost its charm a second after being hung up.

£14.95 | Amazon

Royal Virility Performance Beer

Brewer’s droop should be a thing of the past with this pale ale, as it contains herbal viagra. Though the label says other ingredients include chocolate, Goat’s Weed, and a healthy dose of sarcasm, so maybe we shouldn’t take it too seriously. Still, gives new meaning to the phrase ‘stiff drink.’

£10 | Brewdog

New MacBook Pro, Nokia shake up and PSN disaster: Lunchtime Lowdown

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 04:46 AM PDT

We’re halfway through this super short week already, so let’s take a break and see what’s been going down this morning. We’ve got gadget news good and bad right here in our lunchtime lowdown roundup.

First up, let’s talk Apple. Taking a break from iPhone rumours, we heard some new whispers about a new MacBook Pro instead – made out of super sexy carbon fibre.

Speaking of carbon fibre, we also revealed that Vertu is prepping a smartphone made out of the material, fiddling while its parent company Nokia burns: it announced today that it’s axing 4,000 jobs.

Elsewhere, in gaming, we took a look at the full scale of the PlayStation Network hack – are you affected? Regardless, Sony should be ashamed. We also interviewed the father of video gaming, the 89 year old inventor of the Magnavox Odyssey. Check out what he had to say!

Still want more news? Roll on over to the homepage and help yourself to it all as it breaks!