Weekend tech reading: Get an iPhone 4 for $25 with 3GS trade-in

Matthew DeCarlo

Posts: 5,271   +104

Radio Shack slashes iPhone prices by $50, offering iPhone 4 for $25 with 3GS trade-in In an unprecedented sale designed to boost awareness of its wireless business and create an edge up on the competition, Radio Shack is knocking $50 off all iPhone handsets and offering trade-in incentives that could net customers a brand new iPhone 4 for as little as $25. AppleInsider

Intel thinks Brazos Fusion is a good thing Our sources who obviously work with both Intel and AMD have told us a quite incredible story. The first impression of Brazos in the eyes of Intel is a good one. Intel likes it and views the Brazos platform with respect, sources who would like to remain anonymous confirmed. This is the first time ever that AMD has something that can make Intel run for its money in the mobile market. Fudzilla

Ubuntu 11.04 A.K.A Natty Narwhal alpha 1 released The Alpha 1 Release of Ubuntu 11.04, often known as "Natty Narwhal," is intended as a "developer snapshot" of the next major Ubuntu version, which is due in April. That version has already generated considerable interest and controversy in recent weeks, most notably because of Canonical's announced decision to use the 3D-enabled Unity interface in the desktop version of the application as well as the Wayland graphics method. Softview

Nvidia wants to pack more cores in tablets, smartphones Nvidia is looking to pack more CPU cores into mobile devices like smartphones and tablets as a way to improve performance while preserving battery life. Most of the mobile devices today contain single-core processors, which are not enough to handle new mobile applications such as 3D gaming and video, the company said in a whitepaper published this week. PCWorld

Japan's robot picks only the ripest strawberries (video) It takes more than a green thumb to be a great farmer, super-human vision helps as well. The Institute of Agricultural Machinery at Japan’s National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, along with SI Seiko, has developed a robot that can select and harvest strawberries based on their color. Singularity Hub

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For once, I totally agree Steve, Galaxy S is far superior offering than the apple's new phone, especially if you upgrade the OS to Froyo (I got mine with Eclair to start with).
 
Well it feels lot more snappier, battery time wasn't bad at all to start with, but even that has improved slightly. I didn't checked how much RAM Eclair was using, but Froyo is leaving 50%+ free for use of other applications.
 
@princeton
iphone screen isn'tthe best out there anymore IMHO; but on the processor side I wouldn't mind having bit more power (even though I don't need it lol). Galaxy S have Super AMOLED screen with Cortex A8 processor by the way. Unless LG puts something similar on that phone, its display wouldn't better what Samsung is offering, infact, Samsung is preparing second generation Super AMOLED screens :/ ......
 
Archean said:
@princeton
iphone screen isn'tthe best out there anymore IMHO; but on the processor side I wouldn't mind having bit more power (even though I don't need it lol). Galaxy S have Super AMOLED screen with Cortex A8 processor by the way. Unless LG puts something similar on that phone, its display wouldn't better what Samsung is offering, infact, Samsung is preparing second generation Super AMOLED screens :/ ......

Did you even read? It's a Tegra 2 phone. AKA dual cortex A9 cores with a Geforce gpu. If samsung puts out a phone with 2 cores running at 1ghz+ and a resolution on a super AMOLED 2 screen of 1280x720 then yes I'll buy it.
 
I did, but I guess you've missed the main focus of my remark i.e. dual core CPUs in cellphones, and they will be coming to mobiles in near future anyway.
 
Archean said:
I did, but I guess you've missed the main focus of my remark i.e. dual core CPUs in cellphones, and they will be coming to mobiles in near future anyway.

Oh I see. I thought you were trying to compare the Hummingbird cpu to the Tegra 2. Also do you know the contrast ratio of the Galaxy S? I can't seem to find it anywhere.
 
Frankly I am not sure about this, but I think I've read somewhere that it is 50,000:1.

Edit:
Alright while digging for information, I've found this article which sort of says the same thing; but if someone else have better knowledge/information in this regard, please do let us know.

By the way one thing which I must mention here, and that is, I've had some mega issues with connecting this cellphone to PC, they should have been completely resolved with firmware upgrade to Froyo, but I'm afraid they haven't. There can be several reasons for this but I think one of the issues may be x64 OS, I am still working through this issue and will let you know if I can find something which permanently fixes the issue. However, not everyone with this cell have had such issues, so frankly, I am not sure what the heck is going on. For now, I think one workaround which I will try is to use card reader to move data from and to phone.

I think they are planning to allow file /data transfer through bluetooth / wifi in future release of Android, if they do so, it will simply remove the need to plug your cell into PC (provided it has wifi adapater)/Notebook.

If I take this issue out of the equation for now, rest of the experience has been pretty good, without any other hardware/software issues. Overall it gives a good feel/experience to users.

Edit 2:
Also I found these two interesting videos on youtube comparing iphone 4 with galaxy s. Part 1, Part 2.
 
Update:
Well I am stuck with transferring files/data by using a card reader (slight inconvenience) but for now that will do.

@Steve
Kindly let me know if you have any such issues with this device or not; I think probably it is an issue with x64 OS driver / or the way the firmware interacts with x64 OS. Unfortunately I don't have any x86 computer to test this but I will do so as soon as I can find one.
 
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