iPhone 5: the rumor roundup

iPhone 2012 and iPhone 4S shells compared

We're on the cusp of Apple's sixth iPhone launch, and there's very different expectations than there were last year. The 2011 rumor cycle left more than a few people burned: the later-than-usual October launch and repeated claims of a heavily-remade design led some to a disappointment when the iPhone 4S arrived, even though the final product had a slew of camera, speed and voice command upgrades. This year, the rumors have been grounded well before there was an event date in our hands.

There have been fewer instances of wild rumors. Instead, it's been based more around pragmatism, using either tangible leaks or sources that have a solid track record. Think of the perennial leaks from the Wall Street Journal or the increasingly well-established sourcing from iMore and The Loop. Whether you're conspiracy-minded or not, it's been hard to ignore the sheer number of claims that have tamped down expectations rather than inflated them. It's as though there's a collective fear we'll see a repeat of the 2011 hysteria and deal with fans (or detractors) complaining about missing features that were never promised in the first place.

Where last summer was full of uncertainty, this year there's a mounting consensus as to what we'll see, how we'll get it, and when. Tracking everything that's been mentioned may be a handful, however. With that in mind, we'll dive in and gauge what's likely to emerge from behind Apple's curtain on September 12th -- as well as what we can rule out from the get-go.

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iPhone 5: the rumor roundup originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Sep 2012 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ARM’s Mali-T604 makes official debut, we get a first look at the next-gen GPU (hands-on video)

DNP ARM's MaliT604 makes its official device debut, we get a first look at the nextgen GPU handson video

Think those are some pretty slick graphics in your Galaxy S III? Samsung's latest smartphone packs some mighty graphics prowess of its own, thanks to the Mali-400 MP GPU, but once you spend a few minutes with the Mali-T604, the company's next-generation chipset, the improvements become quite clear. After seeing the Mali-T604 in action, as we did at SIGGRAPH today, the capabilities leave us hopeful for the future, and perhaps feeling a bit self-conscious about the silicon currently in our pockets. The reference device on hand was operating in sync with a variety of unnamed hardware, protected from view in a relatively large sealed box. We weren't able to squeeze many details out of ARM reps, who remained mum about the demo components, including clock speed, manufacturer and even fabrication size. What we do know is that we were looking at a quad-core Mali-T604 and dual-core ARM Cortex-A15 processor, with a fabrication size in the range of "28 to 40 nanometers" (confirming the exact size would reveal the manufacturer). Clock speed is also TBD, and the early silicon on demo at the show wasn't operating anywhere close to its top end.

In order to experience the T604, we took a look at three demos, including Timbuktu 2, which demonstrates elements like self shadowing and depth of field with OpenGL ES 3.0, Hauntheim, which gives us an early look at physics simulation and HDR lighting with OpenCL, and Enlighten, which rendered silky smooth real-time illumination. You can see all of the demos in action after the break, and you can expect T604-equipped devices to make their debut beginning later this year -- ARM says its working with eight manufacturers to get the licensed tech to market as early as Q3.

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ARM's Mali-T604 makes official debut, we get a first look at the next-gen GPU (hands-on video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 13:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ARM announces new quad-core Cortex-A15 Hard Macro variant

ARM announces new quad-core Cortex-A15 Hard Macro variant

It's pretty much a year to the day that we reported the possibility of a quad-core Cortex-A15 from ARM, and look what just came across the wire! It's the Cortex-A15 Hard Macro -- the first design from ARM we're aware of that packs four A15 cores. The Hard Macro edition is of particular interest as it aims to help manufacturers bring products to market more quickly and at a lower cost. The chip variant runs at 2GHz, with performance of over 20,000 DMIPS if you were wondering. Notably, it operates with the same power usage of the A9 hard macro, which should mean it's got good efficiency credentials, and it's the first in the family to be based on 28nm process. There's no indication where we might see this turning up, but with the firm spilling the full details at the IEEE Symposium later this week, we're sure we'll find out soon enough.

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ARM announces new quad-core Cortex-A15 Hard Macro variant originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reported Tegra 4 roadmap hints at LTE, Q1 2013 release

Reported Tegra 4 roadmap hints at LTE, Q1 2013 release
Time to put on our "skepticles" as we pore over some reportedly leaked Tegra 4 details. NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang went on record saying that we could expect a new Tegra "every single year", so if anything, the fourth iteration of the series is slightly overdue. Chinese site VR-Zone, however, thinks it's got the inside skinny on how the next deployment might look. If its alleged roadmap leaks are to be believed, there will be four variants, three with a quad-core ARM Cortex A15 configuration, with clock speeds from 1.2 to 2.0GHz. What caught our eye a little more, though, was the "SP3X" flavor. Not because it favors the A9, but because it appears to bring LTE to the table right off the bat. That said, given that it's not that long since NVIDIA announced the same for Tegra 3, we can't help but wonder if something just got lost in translation.

[Thanks Rizwan]

Reported Tegra 4 roadmap hints at LTE, Q1 2013 release originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Apr 2012 13:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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