Android is Not Ready For Quad Core Processors

Intel has been known as the biggest chip maker in the world. But when people are talking about mobile processors, everyone will agree that Intel is a little late. Other vendors like Qualcomm, nVidia, Samsung, and Texas Instrument has been around for years making mobile processors. The first Android smartphone “Lava Xolo X900” that powered with Intel’s processor has been launched recently in India.

As the competition in the field grows tighter, those processor vendors are racing to be the best. Sometimes we can see that they are criticizing other’s processors harshly.

Today, we can see some new Android smartphones released with multi core mobile processor. Intel says that Android is not yet ready to fully utilize the power of multi-core mobile processor. It is not effective. That’s why it seems like Intel will not produce any quad-core mobile processors in the near future. At least until Android is ready to fully take the advantage of multi-core processors.

What do you think? Is Intel ready to be left behind once more?

Apple’s New MacBook 2012

Apple has just announced its newest MacBook series at the first day of WorldWide Developer  Conference (WWDC) 2012 in SAn Fransisco on June 11. Beside the MacBook Pro with Retina Display, there are four other new models to replace the previous MacBook Pro and MacBook Air series. Those five new Apple laptops are powered by the third generation of Intel Core “Ivy Bridge”. Here is the list of Apple MacBook series 2012.

Apple MacBook Air 2012 model

Two newest MacBook Air series have SSD up to 512 GB. The GPU is claimed to be 60% faster compared to the previous MacBook Air series. There are also two USB 3.0 ports on the left and right side. Here is the new model:

MacBook Air 11 inch (1366x768). You have some options here, as there are options to pick the Air with 1.7 GHz – 2.0 GHz processor. RAM starts from 4GB up to 8GB, and SSD up to 256 GB. The price is from $999 – $1099.

MacBook Air 13 inch (1440x900). The processors are from 1.8 – 2.0 GHz, RAM from 4GB to 8GB. While the SSD up to 512 GB. The price range starts from $1199.

Apple MacBook Pro 2012 model

Two new MacBook Pro model have the unibody shape like the previous, with a lot of new powerful hardware, including USB 3.0 port and don’t forget the Thunderbolt. With 2.4 cm in thickness, and 2 kg weight (13 inch model), 2.5 kg (15 inch model).

Different with MacBook Pro with Retina Display, these new two MacBook Pro models are still using DVD/CD-RW optical drive.

MacBook Pro 13 inch (1280x800). Comes with Intel i5 2.5 GHz or Core i7 2.9 GHz, 4 or 8 GB RAM, and 500 GB or 750 GB hard disk. The price ranges from $1199 to $1499.

MacBook Pro 15 inch (1440x900 or 1680x1050). Powered with Core i7 (2.3, 2.6, or 2.7 GHz), 4, 8, or 16 GB RAM,  500 GB or 750 GB hard drive, and NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 512MB atau 1 GB video RAM. The price starts from $1799 to $2199.

MacBook Pro with Retina Display

This is the best of Apple new laptop line up. Just like its name, MacBook Pro "Next-Generation", this laptop proudly comes with 15.4 Retina Display with 2880x1800 resolution. It is thinner than other MacBook Pro series, only 1.8 cm with less than 2 kg in weight.

Apple claims that this MacBook Pro battery could last for 7 hours. What about the price? It starts from $2199. The MacBook Pro 17 inch is discontinued.

Read here for more information.

GeForce GTX 680M New nVidia mobile GPU

Here is a good news for gamers who want to play heavy games on laptop. nVidia has just released GeForce GTX 680M. nVidia claims that this new mobile GPU is the fastest mobile GPU has ever made so far.
GeForce GTX 680M has ‘Kepler’ architecture with 28 nm fabrication process. It has 1.344 core processor that works at 720 MHz. To stream graphics data, nVidia combines GTX 680M with 3,6 GHz GDDR5 256-bit RAM up to 4 GB.
As a comparison, the previous GeForce GTX 660M has 684 core processor works at 835 MHz. While the GTX 675M is using different architecture, although it has similar name “"Fermi".

Based on those technical specification, nVidia claims that GeForce GTX 680M is 80% faster than the previous GTX 580M.
This new nVidia laptop GPU is not only super fast, but also more efficient in managing the power so that it can make your laptop’s battery last longer.
Some laptop makers has announced that they will adopt this new mobile GPU. Alienware will use it for M17X laptop series, while MSI will put it on its GT70 series.