Thread: Anandtech News

In a blog post today, Sony Ericsson divulged that Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich would be coming to the entire Xperia lineup. This follows the recent news that ICS would be coming to a number of devices as a result of the AOSP source being recently released. The Sony Ericsson devices to get the update include the Xperia Arc series, Xperia Play, Xperia Neo series, Xperia Pro, Xperia Active, Xperia Ray, and lastly the Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman.

There is no mention of when exactly ICS will arrive, but further details will be posted as they're made available.



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A completely revamped user interface was released by Netflix today for all Android tablets. The redesign has been available on the Kindle Fire and Nook, but is now expanded to all Android tablets. The iPad version is stated to arrive in the coming weeks, as stated in the company's blog.
Netflix touts that the new interface is more immersive and prioritizes displaying more content at a time than the last interface. They've also increased the size of the artwork and enabled touch swiping through rows of titles. Neil Hunt, chief product officer at Netflix, claims that Netflix has "seen a threefold increase in how long Netflix members are watching on their tablets".
The new version is currently available on the Android Market and through the device specific proprietary app stores.



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First reported by The Verge and subsequently confirmed by Boy Genius Report, the first image of BlackBerry's first BBX phone has leaked, and it is a significant departure from their past design langauge. The London mirrors the design of the recent Porsche Designs collaboration, the P'9981, but omitting the QWERTY keyboard. This phone replaces the previously planned BlackBerry Colt that reportedly featured a more conservative design, but the London is still slated for a 3rd quarter 2012 release. The leak included some specs, including word of a 1.5 GHz dual-core TI OMAP SoC, 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of on board storage and 8 MP rear-facing and 2 MP front-facing cameras.
BlackBerry has yet to report that they have resolved the BES and BBM issues in BBX (Ed. note: Apologies for the acronym attack.), and the device picture is a "dummy" phone with a static image on the screen, so this is less a technical demonstration and more a design sample. Dimensions were not given but it is expected to be thinner than the iPhone 4 and be accompanied by a similarly styled Torch successor that will retain it's slide out QWERTY form factor.
The phone space is ever changing, but for BlackBerry fans the next year will involve a lot of patiently waiting.



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In addition to its new Opteron chips, AMD yesterday announced a few small changes to its processor line-up, including adjusted prices for several of its Llano-based APUs (and one of its FX-series socket AM3+ processors) and a new, faster GPU-less Athlon II for Socket FM1 boards.
The Athlon II X4 651 is a 3 GHz quad-core chip with a 100 watt TDP and 4 MB of L2 cache, and a suggested retail price of $92. For people building an FM1-based system with no need for an integrated GPU, it will deliver slighly faster performance than the 2.9 GHz, ~$140 A8-3850 at a lower cost. It differs from the already available Athlon II X4 631 only in cost and clock speed.
As for the price changes, they are as follows: the AMD A6-3500 has dropped to $85 from $89, while the A4-3300 and A4-3400 have both received price increases of $2 (to $66 and $71, respectively). The Bulldozer-based FX-6100 sees the biggest price change, with a drop from $165 to $155.
Source: CPU World



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Last month, AMD launched their Bulldozer architecture on desktops, and the result was rather underwhelming; however, there are plenty of indications that Bulldozer simply wasn't architected to excel at desktop use models. AMD's "Interlagos" Opteron is now available, doubling the core count of the desktop part and placing its sights firmly on the enterprise server market.
The massive Multi Chip Module (MCM) contains eight processor cores (“modules” as AMD likes to call them) and can process 16 integer and 16 floating point threads per cycle. Each of the 16 integer threads gets their own integer cluster, complete with integer executions units, a load/store unit, and an L1-data cache. The Cluster Multi-Threading (CMT) architecture of Bulldozer should be perfectly suited for server applications that are mostly limited by memory accesses and integer processing. The 16 floating point threads have to share eight clusters of two 128-bit FP units, but those units can process FMAC and AVX instructions; recompile your HPC application with an FMAC and/or AVX capable compiler and the chip could become an HPC monster as well.
Server applications also like large caches, and Interlagos has plenty of SRAM cells. The Interlagos package has 32MB cache onboard (L2 and exclusive L3 combined). If all caching fails, it can access four memory channels of DDR3-1600, good for 51.2GB/s of theoretical bandwidth per chip. AMD also added power gating to the cores, so inactive cores can enter a very deep (C6) sleep state and save quite a bit power. This should significantly reduce power in idle and light loads.

With all of that potential, the initial clock speeds that AMD could be fit inside a 115W TDP envelope are a bit underwhelming. The fastest 115W Interlagos part right now, the Opteron 6276, has a 2.3GHz base clock. The current Opteron 6276 reaches the same clock speed at the same TDP using a less advanced 45nm SOI process. However, the longer pipeline of the new Bulldozer architecture allows the chip to use Turbo Core to boost to 2.6GHz when running most server workloads, and if only half of the cores are active, the chip is capable of 3.2GHz.
The initial desktop launch of Zembezi may have left us wanting more, and Interlagos might offer that. For server workloads at least, this all looks very promising. Let's see what the first "Bulldozer" based Opterons can do.


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Earlier today Dustin reviewed Antec's new P280 chassis, but now we've got two of these cases to give away to a couple of lucky readers. In our review, Dustin felt that the P280 brought some of the ease of assembly features that were missing from Antec's lineup without sacrificing much of what made the P180 series so great. Be sure to read his full take on the P280 here, and then leave a comment below (please only leave one comment!) to enter.

Read on for full entry details including eligibility requirements. Good luck!


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We recently went out to San Francisco to take a look at HP's winter product refresh and meet with their representatives, and there were a couple of interesting new pieces of technology along with some healthy refreshes on display. We'll start at the bottom and work our way up to their new ultrabook, dubbed Folio.
As far as 3D displays go, HP is throwing their hat into the ring with the new 2311gt 3D monitor, a 23-inch LED-backlit display that uses passive 3D technology rather than active and employs TriDef's Ignition to handle 3D for gaming. MSRP is $299 and it's available now. They're also updating their TouchSmart 610 (recently reviewed here) with the new 620 3D Edition; TriDef is again employed for 3D gaming, but unfortunately HP's TouchSmart software still remains very much 2D.

For consumers, the ENVY 15, ENVY 17, and ENVY 17 3D are all seeing updates. The ENVY 15 is now available with a Radiance IPS display, but ENVY 17 fans unfortunately get the short end of the stick there as the Raidance display used there is still a TN panel. When I asked HP's representatives, they pointed to a difficulty in sourcing good notebook displays, a problem I'm sure we can all relate to. The review units were all using the next generation of AMD Radeon HD mobile graphics but unfortunately I don't have any more details than that. Finally, HP is again employing Beats Audio in their ENVY lineup, even adding a small red trim around the interior of the keyboard and an analog volume dial in the top right corner; pressing in the top of the dial opens up the Beats Audio Manager. The ENVY 15 is starting at $1,099, ENVY 17 at $1,249, and the active 3D enabled ENVY 17 3D at $1,599. All ENVY notebooks are expected to be available on December 7th.

HP's Pavilion dm4 line is also being updated, but the update there is a milder one. Beats Audio and subwoofers are being included in both the regular dm4 and the dm4 Beats Edition, which comes in a sleek new black chassis with red accents and a slick-looking red-backlit keyboard. The dm4 series will also be upgraded to optional AMD Radeon HD 7470M graphics. The regular dm4 will have a starting price of $699; the Beats Edition at $899. Both are expected to be available on December 18th.

Finally, the papa bear of the notebooks on display is HP's first ultrabook, the new Folio 13. At 18mm thin and 3.3 pounds, it's actually a little heftier than Toshiba's Portege Z830, but HP elected to include as much connectivity and battery capacity as possible. As a result you have a 13.3" ultrabook with full-size ethernet, USB 3.0, and a 128GB SSD standard, and HP claims the battery life can be up to nine hours. It also comes equipped with Intel Core i3 or i5 processors; in our experience the i5 is going to be worth the upgrade. The Folio 13 is expected to be available on December 7th starting at $899.



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Intel's ultrabook initiative is a curious one, one that's very gradually picking up interest among vendors. We've already had a chance to take a look at the smaller of the two units from the typically early-out-of-the-gate ASUS, and we know there are other ultrabooks out there from Lenovo and Acer, with only Dell opting to sit out of this round, unconvinced of the viability of Intel's plan. Today, in true Toshiba fashion, we get a chance to look at a more budget-oriented (or at least as budget-oriented as an ultrabook can be) unit: Toshiba's entry-level Portege Z835-P330.

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Two months ago, we wrote about a new online storage provider called Backify. Backify got our attention because of their magnificent offer: 512GB of "totally free" online storage. I had to use quotes because Backify has now revealed their real business plan, and it's no longer free. From now on, the 512GB plan costs $1.50 a month. All free accounts will be closed on November 22nd, unless you are willing to pay the $1.50 monthly fee.

Backify's New Prices
	Backup		Backup + Briefcase
Backup Storage	512GB	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Briefcase Storage	N/A	N/A	512GB	1TB	1.5TB	2TB
Number of Computers	1	Up to 5	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Monthly Price	$1.50	$6	$10	$15	$20	$25
Yearly Price	$18	$36	$60	$80	$100	$120

While their new prices are still good, I have to say I'm anything but pleased with their service. I tried to sign up for their free plan several times with multiple email accounts, and every time I faced some kind of an error. I even waited a couple of weeks to see if it was just a temporary server issue, but no, I kept getting the same error. Contacting their support wasn't any better experience either. At first, I sent their support an email asking if we could review Backify (we would have needed some extra details). I waited for a few days but didn't get an answer. I then sent the same email to their CEO, Tarandeep Gill. No answer as of today. I also sent an email about the sign up problem but as you may guess, I haven't received a reply.
Due to their lousy support and fishy business model, I cannot recommend Backify to anyone. In the end, you would be giving them your personal files. Besides, what stops them from increasing the prices again? This is actually a pretty common business model. Mozy used to offer unlimited backups for $5 a month but nowadays, they charge $6/month for 50GB. Keep the prices low (or even free) to attract customers and when you reach a certain customer base, increase the price. Nice.
Big thanks to Yoni, Matthew and Jérôme for tipping us!



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For a while now we've been keeping track of mobile browser performance using two relatively popular JavaScript heavy benchmarks that are a regular fixation in our smartphone reviews. If you've read any of those reviews, you should immediately be able to name them - SunSpider and RightWare's BrowserMark. Tracking JavaScript performance thus far has helped us codify and track SoC performance, but really understanding and quantifying overall browsing smoothness has remained a more challenging task.

Real web browsing performance is a unique combination of system performance, the Android browser itself, and what contributions or customizations (if any) the OEM has made in the shipping software build. Qualcomm's Innovation Center recently made public a tool for gauging overall browser performance that it's used for a while both in house and in collaboration with OEMs that is geared at present to Android. We've used a subtest from it it a few times, and it's named Vellamo. Read on for more about Vellamo.


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