Samsung Galaxy S5 Rumors

Device To Release With 64-Bit Exynos Processor? Samsung Announces Chipset Is Ready To Be Manufactured

The Samsung Galaxy S5 processor may be a 64-bit chipset. Samsung Exynos

As we ease into the Samsung Galaxy S5 rumor season, reports from South Korea indicate that the manufacturer has now completed development of its 64-bit system on a chip, which will soon go into production for implementation in the Galaxy S5.

Korean tech website IT Today reports that a director with Samsung’s System LSI division confirmed during a conference call on Friday that the 64-bit SoC is now ready to be manufactured. Samsung notably announced that it was in the final stages of developing a 64-bit chipset not long after Apple unveiled its iPhone 5S, which features a 64-bit processor. The A7 processor is the first 64-bit chip implemented in a smartphone; however, it may soon be a staple in future generations of mobile devices.

Samsung's 64-Bit Chipset

There is some indication that, in addition to a 64-bit architecture, Samsung’s upcoming SoC may implement a 14nm process based on ARM’s big.LITTLE platform, similar to what is currently seen on the Exynos 5410 and Exynos 5420 “5 Octa” chipsets. Using Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57 cores, the octa-core chipset would allow for functionality of all cores at once, while maintaining its power-saving capability. Some reports have already referred to the chip as the 64-bit Exynos 5430 “true eight-core” processor; however, a name has not yet been confirmed by Samsung. (Some sources are also suggesting the name “Exynos 6.”)

Android's 64-Bit History

Though Apple may have spearheaded the commercialization of 64-bit computing on mobile devices, the architecture has actually long been developed on the Android platform. Android is notably based on the Linux operating system, which has had 64-bit functionality for even longer. Android based software simply needs the compatible hardware in order to adopt 64-bit support as the framework is already within its code.

More 64-Bit Chip Suppliers To Come

Meanwhile, Samsung isn’t the only manufacturer ready to capitalize on 64-bit mobile computing. Qualcomm has also announced that it may soon begin producing its own 64-bit processors. News of a new 2.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon (APQ8084) processor has recently begun to circulate. The SoC is believed to be apart of the Snapdragon 800 series, featuring an Adreno 420 GPU; it reportedly includes 64-bit DDR3 memory as opposed to 64-bit processing. However, details about the chipset may not be revealed until the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show, where Qualcomm typically unveils its latest products.

Samsung is well known for using its own processing components in its flagship devices as well as components from third party suppliers. Several generations of Samsung Galaxy smartphones have featured either Exynos or Qualcomm chipsets depending on their region of availability. That fact may be a hint that Qualcomm has a 64-bit processor in the works. Notably, the supplier has several tiers of chipsets, which could potentially be upgraded with 64-bit support.  

NVIDIA is another developer currently producing 64-bit computing. Its ARMv8 64-bit architecture is expected to be adopted by such chipset manufacturers as Huawei or Broadcom. Apple’s iOS 7 on the A7 SoC is also based on ARMv8-A application support.

When Will Samsung Release It's 64-Bit Powered Galaxy S5?

Current rumors suggest the Samsung Galaxy S5 could release as early as February; however, the Korean manufacturer’s usual Galaxy S series release timeline is between April and May. It may still be too early to determine a release date for the upcoming device. But the rumor mill will soon be churning at full speed with suggestions.

Do you think a 64-bit processor for the Galaxy S5 is a good move for Samsung? Let us know in the comments below.

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AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon offers Samsung Galaxy S3 for $0.01

The top three US network carriers are offering Samsung Galaxy S3 4G LTE variant with two year service contract just for a penny. Verizon Wireless and Sprint has priced Galaxy S3 at $0.01 whereas AT&T is selling it for $9.99.

Samsung’s current weapon to attack Google LG Nexus 4 is currently offered by AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile for less than a dollar with two year service contract. Without any doubt, Galaxy S3 is all round a nice phone with good features and specs which falls in budget of mid-level smartphone buyers.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 has been in the market for a while now. But with the recent Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update, it has not just got a good boost to its speed, but also to its sale. Given to this, are the attractive deals offered by the leading U.S. carriers, viz. T Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and AT & T. And if you are looking for a place for the best deals, Amazon retains its most bankable position.

The 16GB variants of the Samsung Galaxy S3 from Sprint are available in white, purple and blue on Amazon. There’s good news for all the customers. Amazon is selling this dashing smartphone from Sprint for a mere $0.01. Yes, you got it right. Pay $0.01, and take home a brand new Samsung Galaxy S3, on a two-year contract. But if you are already a Sprint customer, then you will have to let loose $19.99 out of your pocket for the purchase. However, if you intend to buy it without a service plan, you can simply shell out $549.99 to get a brand new Sprint Samsung Galaxy S3 from the Amazon.

Well this sumptuous offer isn’t just on Sprint. The 16GB variant of the Samsung Galaxy S3 from AT&T is on offer for a meager $9.99 to new customers on a two-year contract. However, just like Sprint, if you are an old customer coming for an upgrade, you will have to pay $19.99. The colors in stock right now are white and blue, though I’m personally missing AT&T Samsung Galaxy S3’s red color. However, you get the device for $499.99 without a service agreement.

If you are more of a Verizon fan, then check out the interesting Verizon deals on Amazon. The device is available in white, black and blue. The 16GB models with expandable microSD slot up to 64GB could be yours for $549.99 without a service plan. However, you can also take home a new Samsung Galaxy S3 for just $0.01 on a two-year service contract. The amount may vary up to $39.99 depending on the service agreement.

T-Mobile, meanwhile, no new Samsung Galaxy S3 deals from T-Mobile are available on Amazon currently, except for the used-products sale. So, if you are looking for a striking deal on Amazon for this dashing smartphone with 4.8-inch Super AMOLED touch-screen display, 8-megapixel rear camera, 1080p full HD video-recording, 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, an upgraded Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Operating System, 16 GB internal storage with expandable MicroSD card slot, and giving nine hours of talk-time, you will have to skip considering T-Mobile as of now.

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Samsung: Galaxy S 4 mini Available in U.S. in November

Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) said that the Samsung Galaxy S 4 mini, a compact smartphone featuring some of the Galaxy S 4 experiences, will be available in the U.S. beginning in November.

In a release, Samsung noted:

The Galaxy S 4 mini is just 4.9in x 2.4in and is packed with Samsung flagship experiences like WatchOn, S Beam and advanced camera features.

"Samsung continues to provide a wide range of products to fit consumers' needs," said Gregory Lee, president of Samsung Mobile. "The Galaxy S 4 mini continues that commitment by bringing the paramount features of our flagship Galaxy S 4 smartphone to a smaller, more compact form factor."

Outstanding Galaxy Features:

The Galaxy S 4 mini has some of the best software features from the Galaxy S 4 in a compact form factor to enrich the user experience.

-Intuitive Camera Interface: The Galaxy S 4 mini's 8-megapixel camera has zero shutter lag allowing users to document special moments without delay. The Galaxy S 4 mini is equipped with the familiar and easy-to-navigate user interface found on the Galaxy S 4 and supports numerous shooting modes such as Beauty Face, Best Photo, Sound & Shot, Panorama and more to enhance photos taken by even the most novice photographer.

-WatchON: Control your television using the Galaxy S 4 mini as a remote control. Discover a rich TV viewing experience with a Smart Remote that is functional with any IR capable TV or Set Top Box. Users can share content from the Galaxy S 4 mini to a TV effortlessly, as well as look for something to watch in a new way that lets you browse by genre, search by title or receive recommendations based on your interests.

-Easy Mode: Helps smooth the transition for first-time smartphone owners by simplifying the home screen layout, camera, calendar, messaging and the internet browser to make the phone easy to navigate. Once a user is more comfortable with their Galaxy S 4 mini, they can easily switch back to the standard home screen interface.

-Simple Sharing: Quickly and easily transfer large files, such as videos and documents, to other Galaxy phones with S Beam. Touch the back of the Galaxy S 4 mini to any S Beam enabled phone and share without needing a Wi-Fi connection or cell signal. Users are able to simultaneously enjoy music, photos, documents and games with friends through the Group Play function.

The Galaxy S 4 mini is designed with a beautiful 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED (960 X 540) display with 256DPI. The Galaxy S 4 mini will run on Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) and includes a 1.7 GHz dual- core processor and 1.5GB of internal RAM. It is powered by a removable 1,900 mAh battery and features an expandable memory of up to 64GB to complement the 16GB of standard onboard storage.

The Galaxy S 4 mini will receive a software update soon after launch and will be compatible with Galaxy Gear, Samsung's first wearable smartphone experience. Galaxy Gear extends the Galaxy S 4 mini experience to your wrist and enhances everyday moments with real time updates for quick and convenient access.

The Galaxy S 4 mini comes in Black Mist and White Frost color options, and will be available beginning next month. Wireless carriers will announce their specific availability, colors and timing. AT&T, Sprint, Verizonand U.S. Cellular will carry the Galaxy S 4 mini.

Accessorize the Galaxy S 4 mini with the S-View Flip Cover, a specially designed flip cover that has a clear window to view a text message or missed call notification, answer or reject a call, and view the battery status. Sold separately, the S-View Flip Cover comes in black and white color options to add style - while protecting the device and providing privacy. Flip Covers are also available without the S-View window in an array of colors including black, white, light blue, and pink.

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Computer cracks CAPTCHAs in step toward artificial intelligence

Oct 28 (Reuters) - A technology start-up said on Monday that it had come up with software that works like a human brain in one key way: it can crack CAPTCHAs, the strings of tilted, squiggly letters that websites employ to make users "prove you are human," as Yahoo! and others put it.

San Francisco-based Vicarious developed the algorithm not for any nefarious purpose and not even to sell, said co-founder D. Scott Phoenix.

Instead, he said in a phone interview, "We wanted to show we could take the first step toward a machine that works like a human brain, and that we are the best place in the world to do artificial intelligence research."

The company has not submitted a paper describing its methodology to an academic journal, which makes it difficult for outside experts to evaluate the claim. Vicarious offers a demonstration of its technology atshowing its algorithm breaking CAPTCHAs from Google and eBay 's PayPal, among others, but at least one expert was not impressed.

"CAPTCHAs have been around since 2000, and since 2003 there have been stories every six months claiming that computers can break them," said computer scientist Luis von Ahn of Carnegie Mellon University, a co-developer of CAPTCHAs and founder of tech start-up reCAPTCHA, which he sold to Google in 2009. "Even if it happens with letters, CAPTCHAs will use something else, like pictures" that only humans can identify against a distorting background.

CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. They are based on the standard set in 1950 by British mathematician Alan Turing in 1950: a machine can be deemed intelligent only if its performance is indistinguishable from a person's.

CAPTCHAs serve that function: in order to sign up for free email, post comments, buy tickets or other online activities, more than 100,000 websites require users to prove they are human by deciphering the squiggly letters, which are often blurred, smeared and cluttered with dots and lines.

In practice, someone trying to break CAPTCHAs in order to do what a site is trying to deter - sign up for umpteen email accounts, for instance - can easily hire someone to accomplish that. "Most CAPTCHAs now are broken by paying people in Bangladesh to do it manually," said computer scientist Greg Mori of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, an expert on machine learning and computer vision. "For 50 cents an hour, you can get someone to break seven per minute."

DIGITIZING BOOKS?

Developing software to break CAPTCHAs would in theory speed that up exponentially. Vicarious said its algorithm achieves success rates of 90 to 97 percent, depending on the difficulty of the CAPTCHA; a CAPTCHA scheme is considered broken if a machine can break just 1 percent of the ones it generates.

That makes "text-based CAPTCHAs no longer effective as a Turing test," the company said in a statement, meaning that CAPTCHAs can no longer be used to tell human from machine.

That might be beneficial, experts said. Google's reCAPTCHA uses words from old books and other publications that have been optically scanned but are difficult to digitize because they are so degraded. "If you can actually solve reCAPTCHAs, you can digitize old books more easily," said Mori.

In addition, the algorithm Vicarious uses to break CAPTCHAs might be deployed more widely.

"If they've done it, it could improve the reliability of optical character recognition like that used in banks to scan checks and by the IRS (Internal Revenue Agency) to read scanned documents," said Karl Groves, an independent website developer who for years has tracked claims about breaking CAPTCHAs.

The feat required relatively tiny amounts of data and computing power, Vicarious said, instead using algorithms that mimic the perceptual and cognitive abilities of the human brain.

The company has described only in general terms what it hopes to use artificial intelligence for, describing its goals as building a vision system modeled on the human brain and developing human-level artificial intelligence based on what it calls a "recursive cortical network," for applications in robotics, medical image analysis, image and video search, and other fields.

That has been sufficient to attract more than $15 million in funding from investors including Facebook co-founder and Vicarious board member Dustin Moskovitz. In a statement, he said, "We should be careful not to underestimate the significance of Vicarious crossing this milestone," adding that the company is "at the forefront of building the first truly intelligent machines."

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Nexus 5 Release Date Tipped For Nov 1

New White Model Teaser In Latest Leak

The release date of Google’s Nexus 5 is still a mystery, and according to the latest rumor, the device is only three days away.

From tech specs to a possible price tag, a lot of "details" about Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) upcoming Nexus 5 have been leaked over the past few weeks. The only thing about the handset that still remains a mystery is its release date and that too may well be put to rest, according to a new leak on Sunday, which predicts the phone may arrive as early as this week.

Thanks to recently leaked photos and details that were claimed to be of the Nexus 5, with even Google accidentally publishing product shots of the device on the Google Play Store, it can be assumed that the new handset is coming sooner than later. And, if @evleaks, the usually reliable tipster on Twitter, is to be believed, the wait for the Nexus 5 could be over by Friday, Nov. 1.

In a tweet on Sunday, @evleaks posted a new rendering of the Nexus 5, showing the device with a white back cover and a short but tantalizing message: “In white. 11/1.” However, it is unclear whether Nov. 1 would be the announcement date or the smartphone's retail launch.

Speculations about the Nexus 5’s availability have been around for quite some time now. For a while it looked like the device would be made official on Oct. 15, a date which eventually turned out to be a dud. A small Google Play event, scheduled for Oct. 24 in New York, was thought to take the wraps off the Nexus 5, but that too did not happen.

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