Samsung denies increasing Apple processor prices

A couple of days ago we reported on the news that Samsung’s chip making division had increased the prices of the processors that it supplies to Apple for use in their iOS devices by as much as 20%. Turns out, that wasn’t true at all.

According to an unnamed Samsung official who spoke to the Korean newspaper The Hankyoreh, Samsung has not increased the prices of the processors. He also said that prices are agreed upon at the beginning of each year and aren’t changed easily.

This puts to rest the news of Samsung increasing the prices but more importantly, the part where people thought they did it just to spite Apple.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Acer preps affordable XC and ME desktops for Windows 8 launch

Acer's no-frills XC and ME desktops will offer the latest Intel Core processors, Windows 8, and start at $400 and $650, respectively.

The torrent of Windows 8 related announcements continues with Acer’s announcement of its mainstream Windows 8 desktops in the consumer market. These products, which replace earlier desktops like the Acer Aspire M, will be broken up into the XC Series and ME Series.

Budget buyers will be interested in the XC Series (pictured above). These small form factor desktops include Intel processors (up to the Core i3 2130) and up to 1TB of hard drive space. They do not, however, offer USB 3.0. That’s the sacrifice necessary for the extremely low starting price of $399.99.

Most mainstream consumers will turn their attention to the ME Series, however. These mid-towers can be equipped with Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, up to 2TB of hard drive space and up to 16GB of RAM. They also include four USB 3.0 ports, two of which are located in what Acer is calling a “recess desk” at the front of the case. It’s an area coated with a non-slip surface on which users can place devices that are charging via the front USB ports. Pricing of the ME Series begins at $649.99.

Both of these desktops will of course ship with Windows 8 and will also come with Acer Cloud, the company’s proprietary cloud storage service.  

Consumers can look for these new products to hit store shelves on October the 26.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Want to install custom ROMs? Don’t buy Exynos phones.

Users may find the performance of Samsung’s Exynos processors exhilarating, but it seems the developers who work on custom ROMs for these devices don’t share the same enthusiasm.

Responding to a query on xda-developers forum, CyanogenMod developer who goes by the forum ID ‘codeworkx’ explained why he and other developers think that Exynos processors are bad for developers. It essentially boils down to lack of proper support from Samsung in terms of providing sources or documentation for their processors and when they do it’s either outdated or incompatible.

In comparison, he found Qualcomm and TI to be far better. He even gave an example where he compared two of Samsung’s phones, the I9100 Galaxy S II and the I9100G Galaxy S II, essentially the same phones but running on different SoCs, the former on Samsung’s Exynos and the latter on TI OMAP. The I9100 is still struggling with an unstable and poorly performing Jelly Bean ROM whereas the I9100G has a fully functional Jelly Bean ROM.

In the end, his advice is to avoid buying Exynos phones, that is, if you care about installing custom ROMs on your device.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com