When we first covered the flexible Samsung Galaxy Skin back in June, it was presented as a pure design concept. Thanks to its flexible AMOLED display, the Galaxy Skin was thought about as a phone that can take on many shapes: clamshell, bracelet, elongated… Somehow, International Business Times (ibt) claims that this concept will turn into a real product which will launch in Q2 2012. As you can imagine, the rumor is going through the web like a wildfire.Although flexible AMOLED displays have been demonstrated, bendable or wearable devices have yet to show up, even in the shape of reasonably working prototypes. Also, while the screen may be flexible, the rest of the phone like the battery, processor, memory, connector, wires etc… may not be – at least, until they get small enough to not mind about the bending nature of their host. At the very least, you should take those rumors with a good pinch of salt.

Nevertheless, it’s always fun to speculate about the near future, here’s what the Galaxy Skin specs are supposed to be:

4″ 800×480 flexible AMOLED
8 MP camera + VGA camera
1.2Ghz processor, 1GB of RAM
1500mAh battery
What do you think? Would you want a multi-shape phone to start with? What would you do with it?
[UG]

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You might have noticed that Facebook changed last night. Inline photos are a little bigger, the top bar a little blockier, and a news ticker now rests in the upper-righthand corner for real-time updates. Overwhelmed? We’re here to help.
This latest flurry of updates caps off a steady flow of tweaks over the past few weeks. You now subscribe to your friends’ updates as you would an RSS feeds. You can subscribe to people you’re not even friends with. You can organize friend groups by type (in Google+ fashion), not just for chat purposes. And you also have more on-the-fly control over who does and doesn’t see your wall posts. All of these features come together to make Facebook feel different, even if it’s fundamentally unchanged at its core. Here’s a look at the new Facebook.
[Gizmodo]

There is a new Asus laptop added to the ExcaliberPC catalog, more specifically the Asus U46SV-DH5 model that is already available for pre-order and is priced at $880 with a shipping date set for the 1st of October.

The Asus U46SV-DH5 is powered by an Intel Core i5-2410M processor that can go from 2.30GHz up to 2.90GHz, while the standard memory RAM is set at 4GB and can be expanded up to 8GB of DDR3. On the graphics card we’ve got a nVidia GeForce GT 540M and the hard-drive comes with 640GB of storage capacity which should be enough to store all your personal data before you need to buy an external hard-drive. Anyway, the LED screen size is set at 14-inches and provides a resolution of 1366×768 pixels.

The usual goodies of this Asus laptop includes a below the average 0.3-megapixel camera, a 3-in-1 media card reader, HDMI and VGA as display ports, and the normal WiFi and blueooth.

Visit the Asus U46SV-DH5 product page at ExcaliburPC for more details.
[MW]

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In 2003, Danish developer IO Interactive and publishing giant EA released Freedom Fighters for the Playstation 2, Gamecube, and original Xbox. The third person shooter told an alternative history story in which Soviet Russia was the world’s lone super power. The plot takes place in New York City after the Russians have invaded the States. The US government and military quickly fall, and it’s now up to the titular freedom fighters to liberate the city. Similar to the movie Red Dawn, the majority of the plot centers around Chris Stone and his joining of the resistance to tackle the communist threat.

Freedom Fighters provided a fast paced and strategic thrill ride. It unfortunately, also ended on a rather big cliffhanger, with only NYC having been liberated. When news that IO Interactive was looking for a multiplayer developer for a yet unannounced third person title “with strong cooperative multiplayer elements,” there was some speculation that a sequel was on the way. IO Interactive has remained mostly quiet on the subject, but does seem to be aware of the demand, and despite eschewing previous plans for Freedom Fighters 2 in favor of Kane & Lynch development, representatives have said recently that a sequel is something they’re interested in doing.

It would seem as though now is an ideal time to further the franchise as co-operative gameplay is more prominent than ever, and the mission structure of Freedom Fighters fits that model very well. The first, while promising, was limited to the capabilities of the hardware at the time. Players could recruit other fighters through a charisma system, in which the more heroic of deeds were rewarded with experience points. These points could then be used to increase the player’s Charisma Meter. Once a certain level was reached, players were given the option to recruit more fighters to fight alongside them. Success in Freedom Fighters was based entirely on how well the player could control their squad.

The game often required players to take a strategic position above a battle and issue orders using one of three face buttons for certain actions. The orders to be given were attack, follow, and defend, and could be given individually or as a group. The issue with the command system that persisted with all players, was the inability to select a specific fighter in the middle of battle. IO opted for a cyclical system, in which the player went through a rotation for who to control.
[TGE]

Researchers at Intel debuted an experimental processor at the company’s developer forum this week, which could lead to devices with significantly lower energy consumption.

The chip — codenamed “Claremont” — is known as a near-threshold voltage processor, which allows transistors to operate at super-low, near “threshold” voltages to increase efficiency and decrease energy consumption. This level is very near the voltage at which transistors switch on and start conducting current, which is the “threshold” voltage.

In the demonstration, the experimental low-power processor was used on a PC running Linux OS, powered only off a solar cell the size of a postage stamp. The processor was used in conjunction with another experimental project, a concept DRAM called the hybrid memory cube, which is a super efficient memory interface.

“We used a solar cell in the demonstration to show how little power was required,” said Intel spokeswoman Connie Brown in an interview. “But it could run on anything that has power.” Like lemon juice, or perhaps a potato as Brown suggested. “The key message is the low power and how much more transistors would be power-efficient running at near-threshold.”

Several years of research have led to Intel’s near-threshold voltage-processor design. It’s heat-sink free, and rather than operating at those super low thresholds all the time, it switches into NTV mode (under 10 mW in power consumption) when its workload is light.

This means, rather than powering off completely, a device can stay on in an “ultra low-power state,” preserving active processes and open applications — “always-on” devices. The technology could even be used to develop “zero-power” architectures “where power consumption is so low that we could power entire digital devices off solar energy, or off the energy that surrounds us every day”, like vibrations or movements, ambient wireless signals or solar power.

NVT could find itself in a host of applications ranging from processors and mobile devices to embedded devices, appliances and automobiles.

Energy efficiency has always been a concern for device manufacturers and chipset makers, but as the hardware industry moves to mobile and more lightweight computing, it’s become a much bigger issue.

So far, Intel has had some difficulties finding its way into mobile devices because of power consumption issues. Its low-power competitor ARM has dominated in that area, even threatening to displace it as the processor in Apple laptops and desktops (according to rumor).

But Intel’s latest offerings, including its Atom processors and Oak Trail processors, have become much more efficient. Intel’s latest, the Tri-Gate 3-D “Ivy Bridge” transistor, also marks a major improvement, both in design, and in its 30 percent improvement in performance.

Photo: Intel
NVT is a significantly bigger step than these commercial processors. The technology results in a 5 to 10x improvement in energy consumption.

But it’s not without problems. When electrical noise is introduced, logic level readings can be inaccurate. So the challenge is to maintain a balance of performance versus efficiency.

“Most digital designs operate at nominal voltages — about 1V today. NVT circuits operate around 400 to 500 millivolts,” says Intel researcher Sriram Vangal in a blog post on the subject. Consistently running electronics at such low voltage levels is a challenge because the difference between a “0″ and a “1″ becomes very small (electrical signal-wise).

Intel’s experimental NVT processor may never find itself in an actual consumer product, Vangal says, but is an important stepping stone towards future processors that will.
[WR]

RIM just reported earnings that were even more miserable than expected. We’ve already said why the company is cooked. But is there any way it can be salvaged? Well, just maybe there is.

You ready, RIM? It’s time we had a talk.
Stop Leaning on Enterprise

You know who made BlackBerry popular? Companies, who valued the handsets’ security and their keyboards and their messaging systems in a pre- and nascent-smartphone world. Then consumers started joining in on the fun, because employees and consumers are often the same people! But consumers have abandoned ship at an alarming rate, and even companies are realizing that if they just let their employees use their own smartphones for work they’ll be off the hook for massive annual hardware buys and—more crucially—dozens/hundreds/thousands of data plans.

You know who else leaned on enterprise? Windows Mobile. And from that heaping trainwreck arose Windows Phone, one of the most promising developments in mobile in years. So get the consumers back, RIM. They’re going to be the ones who lift you up.

It’s not just phones, either. The BlackBerry PlayBook wanted so desperately to be the definitive enterprise tablet, but that’s kind of like being the definitive Cracker Barrel sommelier; the two just don’t go together. Not right now, anyway. Either give the PlayBook some consumer chops or let it die a graceful death.

Bring in New Management

Look, all respect to Mike Lazaridis for being one of a handful of tech CEOs left with serious engineering chops. That doesn’t mean he’s a good CEO.

And even if he and co-CEO Jim Balsillie had been doing everything right and just run up against some sheer dumb luck, there comes a time when you need a fresh set of eyes and brains on the problem. For RIM—which has been doing many things wrong!—that time was probably sometime in the middle of the BlackBerry 7 development process.

If anything, a change would help morale, which was already demostrably in the gutter even before those recently announced layoffs.

Android Is for Quitters

BlackBerry App World is like the sad broken-down amusement park your dad takes you to because when he was a kid it was the only place that had a log flume. You got behind with devs. You got beat. Get them back. Microsoft’s doing it—slowly, surely—with Windows Phone, and you can too. It’s going to take money, sure, but considering how many wasted investments you’ve been willing to make recently you might as well splurge on something useful.

You’ve got time before QNX makes its phone debut. Use that time to line up as many major devs as you can. Don’t just make BlackBerry a QWERTY storefront for Android apps. We have that already. It’s called Droid.

Make Sure QNX Works Right

And honestly, there’s no need to hit the Android panic button. You still shipped 10.6 million BlackBerries last quarter (although who can say how many you sold). Your QNX-based phones aren’t going to be a game-changer, but they could get you back in the game, you know? But not if you rush it, and definitely not if you push it out without BES/BIS email/calendar support. That’s like releasing a Twinkie with no gooey filling.

BlackBerry 7 is okay. It’s fine. It’s not great. We all know that. And you basically acknowledged on your earnings call today that it’s a stopgap until QNX gets here. But it’s a good enough stopgap that you can run with it for as long as you need to. You also just said that a year from now BlackBerry 7 would still represent the majority of your sales. Works for me! As long as QNX eventually gets a major splash.

You’re going to tell us more about QNX plans in October, and we can wait until then. And I’ll take you at your word today that you’re waiting until everything’s perfect to release it. Then again, you seem to think you did that with Torch, which, nope!

Quit It With That BBM Music Crap

Seriously, what are you thinking? Did this cost you any money? Because you wasted all that money.

Accentuate the Positive

You know what, RIM? We like you. You’re the underdog. You make some handsome hardware, the best QWERTY mobile keyboard out there. And there’s no reason mobile shouldn’t be a four-horse race. That benefits competition, which benefits everybody. Your phones are secure, they’re reliable, they’re reasonably priced. All that’s great.

And hey, you’re still making lots of money! Sure, you’re not making it as fast as you used to, but $4 billion of revenue is a lot of Curves. And there was still $329 million of net income in there which, even though it’s less than half the profits of last year’s analogous quarter, is still enough to fund some solid R&D.

So you know what? Be RIM. Make BlackBerries. Don’t make huge investments in shoddy tablets no one asked for, don’t push out half-baked software no one likes, don’t decide months too late to manufacture a music service no one needs. People don’t go to the circus for the sideshow, they go to see the elephants. So give us some freaking elephants, already.

There’s hope, RIM. A tiny little sliver of hope that you can turn this thing around and be, well, let’s not say the company you once were. Let’s say you could turn this thing around and survive. I certainly hope you do. But it’s going to take whole lot more than you’ve been showing us.
[GM]

Although we still have to wait for an official confirmation on this, it looks like Sprint will finally get the chance to sell Apple’s iPhone (starting next month – October). We’ve already heard that Sprint could offer both the current iPhone 4 model, and the yet to come iPhone 5, and now we’re hearing even more details.

According to Bloomberg, Sprint wants to provide unlimited data plans to customers who will buy the iPhone. This way, the third largest US mobile carrier hopes to lure users from Verizon and AT&T, which don’t offer unlimited plans at all.

At the moment, Sprint’s unlimited plan (data and voice included) costs $99.99, and I assume the iPhone 5 unlimited plan will be priced similarly.

Sprint is expected to launch Apple’s new iPhone 5 in mid-October – just like AT&T and Verizon.

[UV]

The company might be didn’t realize that their website accidentally confirmed the name of Google’s next Android smartphone The Google Nexus Prime. The company has posted an User Agent Profile for the Nexus Prime on its official website, also confirming that the handset’s model number is GT-I9250.

What’s weird is that, according to Nexus Prime’s UAProf (see it here), the smartphone has exactly the same features as the old Nexus S (you can see its UAProf here), including a WVGA display. But I assume Samsung just forgot to update the profile with the new specs, which should include an HD (1280 x 720) display.

The Google Nexus Prime is expected to be released in the US first, in October, via Verizon Wireless (which will call it Droid Prime). It should be the world’s first smartphone to run Android Ice Cream Sandwich. [UV]

Samsung has confirmed the pricing and availability of the Galaxy Note for Scandinavian countries. Consumers in Denmark can expect the Galaxy Note in November for 5,600 Danish Krone($1,061). As for Norwegians, the Galaxy Note will be launched in November 2011 for 5,700 Norwegian Krone($1,048). The Swedish Galaxy Note is slated for a November release for 6,500 Swedish Krona($1,007). The Samsung Galaxy Note will be launched in Finland next month for 799 Euros($1,127). [SammyHub]

The world’s third Google-branded smartphone, The Nexus Prime may become available in October 2011. Korean website ET News is reporting that Google plans to launch the new Nexus it with local carriers (including SK Telecom) apparently wanting to offer it to their customers.

The Nexus Prime will likely be the first smartphone to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The Google Nexus Prime packs a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED HD display (1280 x 720 pixels) with the Pentile technology and a dual-core 1.5GHz processor.