Samsung reveals Exynos 4 Quad chip - the brains behind Galaxy S III

Samsung’s next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S III, has long been rumored to sport a quad-core processor. But instead of waiting until its May 3 launch event, Samsung ended up spilling the beans on its next-generation Exynos 4 Quad processor.

The new application processor runs at 1.4 gigahertz, is built on ARM’s Cortex A9 CPU, and was developed with the new “High-k Metal Gate” 32 nanometer process. All of that means the Exynos 4 Quad is incredibly energy efficient, while also being a powerful little devil. According to Samsung, the new chip will double the processing power while being 20 percent more energy efficient than the current Exynos 4 Dual.

Samsung still hasn’t confirmed the Galaxy S III by name, but the company has made clear that the chip will be in its “next Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

Among the Exynos 4 Quad’s new features are “a full HD 30 frame per second video hardware codec engine for high-resolution 1080p video recording and play-back, an embedded image signal processor interface for high-quality camera functionality and a HDMI 1.4 interface for sharp and crisp multimedia content transmission.”

Having four cores allows the chip to better handle multitasking — one core could deal with streaming video, for example, while another could handle background tasks. And of course, all four cores can work together for heavier computing loads. In an effort to be power efficient, Samsung says the chip supports per-core voltage and frequency scaling, and it can also turn off cores completely.

Samsung wisely made the new processor pin-to-pin compatible with the Exynos 4 Dual, which means handset makers will easily be able to upgrade their lines. The Exynos 4 Quad is already in production and is currently being sampled by other manufacturers.

Nokia demand, files patent suits against HTC, RIM, Viewsonic

After proving it can still innovate in the smartphone arena with the Lumia 900, Nokia is now getting aggressive about defending its patents. The company announced  that it has filed patent suits against HTC, Research in Motion, and Viewsonic in the U.S. and Germany.

“We have already licensed our standards essential patents to more than 40 companies,” Nokia’s chief legal officer Louise Pentland wrote in a statement this morning. “Though we’d prefer to avoid litigation, Nokia had to file these actions to end the unauthorized use of our proprietary innovations and technologies, which have not been widely licensed.”

While patent litigation is becoming tiresome, it makes sense for Nokia to fight for compensation and potential licensing deals given its poor showing last quarter, where it saw a loss of $1.7 billion.

Nokia is suing for infringements on 45 patents, including hardware features like “dual function antennas, power management and multimode radios,” and software features that include multitasking, navigation, and application stores. Pentland called many of the patents “fundamental” to Nokia’s products — a sign that the company won’t back down easily.

Specifically, Nokia issued a complaint to the ITC against HTC; filed suit against Viewsonic and HTC in a Delaware federal court;  filed suit against RIM and HTC in the Regional Court in Dusseldorf, Germany; and filed suit against all three companies in the Regional Courts in Mannheim and Munich, Germany.

Update:RIM declined to comment on litigation. HTC issued the following statement: “HTC has been a licensee of Nokia on wireless essential patents since 2003. We are waiting to receive a complaint and won’t have any comments until our legal team has received and reviewed it.”

A Viewsonic representative sent us the following statement as well: “ViewSonic is aware of this legal action. We are taking appropriate measures to protect our interests.”

HTC’s One X AT&T Not Support Unlocking Bootloader

HTC’s One X AT&T - Just if we anticipation manufacturers accept fabricated accord with devs and others who wish to accept the abandon to actualize their own smartphone acquaintance with the Android OS on their phones, it is acutely actualization that HTC’s One X AT&T is exempted from it, as the bootloader of the buzz is bound and HTC’s official unlocking apparatus reportedly not working.

The Verge got in blow with a adumbrative of the company, and here’s what HTC has to say on the matter:

“HTC is committed to listening to users and delivering customer satisfaction. Since announcing our commitment to unlockable bootloaders, HTC has worked to enable our customers to unlock the bootloader on more than 45 devices over the past six months. In some cases, however, restrictions prevent certain devices from participating in our bootloader unlocking program. Rest assured, HTC is committed to assisting developers in unlocking bootloaders for HTC devices and we’ll continue to unlock additional devices in the future.”

From the account above, it’s harder not to jump into the cessation that AT&T is allotment of the “restrictions” that anticipate the bootloader on the HTC One X from getting unlockable. Seeing that these are harder times for HTC, as the architect tries to about-face several abode of missteps and misfortunes, we’re academic their easily are rather angry for the time getting and accept to accede to the appeal of the carrier partner.

Though this agency you can’t clearly alleviate the bootloader on your AT&T’s HTC One X, we’re abiding an another band-aid or two will be provided by the development association eventually rather than later. After all, one unlocking band-aid for the all-embracing adaptation of HTC One X has already been found.