iPhone: Upgrade?
From my early look at the iPhone 4, this handset appears to be a must-have for anyone with an original iPhone or iPhone 3G (the former won't get the iOS 4 upgrade at all, while the 3G won't support some features). And people who have an iPhone 3GS will find this a worthy upgrade, too.
Unlike the previous jump, from the iPhone 3G to the 3GS--which focused on slight performance improvements--the iPhone 4 bolsters the hardware's digital imaging capabilities and its display, making it a comprehensive and measurable upgrade over its predecessor.
The revamped gadget has a stainless steel case, two cameras, improved display and is 24% thinner than the most recent version.
Apple boss Steve Jobs said the redesign was the "biggest leap" it had taken since the launch of the first iPhone.
But analysts said the phone's popularity could be dented by Apple's strict control over what owners can do with their gadget.
The gadget was revealed during the keynote speech at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
The device will go on sale on 24 June. The US price for the 32GB model is $299 (£206) and $199 (£137) for the 16GB model. Apple said prices might be affected by contract conditions.
Premium Look
I spent some hands-on time with the new handset at the Apple event. I'll start with the visuals: It's stylish. Whereas the iPhone 3GS looks and feels plasticky, the iPhone 4 is svelte and has a premium feel. Surprisingly, it achieves that impression while retaining the same general design, although the edges appear a bit more squared than before.
iPhone 4: A Computer in Miniature
The iPhone 4 uses Apple's A4 CPU, the same processor powering the Apple iPad. And it runs the newly renamed iOS 4 operating system (which the iPad will also use, starting in the fall).
As part of iOS 4, the iPhone 4 gains a bevy of capabilities. One of them--multitasking--feels long overdue, but as with Apple's long-awaited cut-and-paste feature, the company delivers on the promise of making multitasking work smoothly.
Quickly double-tap on the home button to pull up a pane that shows which apps are open. From there, you can swipe horizontally through the apps that the iPhone 4 has retained in either a running or suspended state.
When you find the app you want, you just click on the icon. The app will then resume its activity, and, if written to take advantage of this new feature, it will pick up precisely where you left off. At the very least, reaccessing the app will be faster.
Comparative Use Tests
Let's take the example of the side-by-side tests I did with an iPhone 3GS (running iPhone OS 3.1) and the iPhone 4. I navigated between the Safari Web browser and the Photos application and back again to Safari, and then back again to Photos.
iPhone 4: On the iPhone 4 using iOS 4, the phone jumped quickly and smoothly between the apps, with virtually no pause or hesitation. I left a fully drawn Web page in Safari to go to Photos, navigated to a folder within Photos, and then to a picture in the middle of that folder. When I popped back to Safari, I resumed at the fully drawn Web page, and when I jumped back to Photos, I was looking at the same photo I'd left moments earlier.
iPhone 3GS: That same exercise on the iPhone 3GS required the Web page to draw the first time. To change apps, I had to press the home button to exit Safari. I then went into the Photos app and found my image in its album. To go back to Safari, I pushed the home button to return to the home screen and then clicked on Safari. (On one pass, the page loaded immediately; on another, it did not). I then pressed the home button to return to the home screen, selected Photos again--and found myself back at the top-level list of Photo Albums, as opposed to drilling down to a specific image within a specific folder.
Closing apps on iPhone 4To close an app out of the multitasking bar, you click on the icon and hold. The icons then get a red button with a dash; touch there, and you can close the app.
Equally as elegant as multitasking is Apple's implementation of Folders, an increasingly necessary addition. To add icons into a folder, you simply drag one icon on top of the other to create the folder; the folder automatically gets the name of the category those apps share. Or, if you prefer, you can rename the folder on the spot. You can pack a maximum of 12 apps within a single folder (that gives you three rows of four apps across the home screen). And, thanks to the addition of Folders, you can now add up to a maximum of 2160 apps.
Dramatic Camera Boost
The iPhone 4 brings much-desired camera and video recording advances, as well. The primary camera on the back bumps up from 3 megapixels to 5 megapixels, while retaining the same pixel size (which can further improve image quality). The camera also gains an LED flash, a backlit sensor, and an integrated 5X zoom. The camera now lets you shoot in high-def, at 720p, 30 frames per second; in addition, video gains the tap-to-focus feature already available on the camera.
I did not test these features--the lighting at the demo room was a bit funky, and I would have only been able to view the results on the demo device. However, the examples that Apple showcased during its keynote were compelling evidence that these upgrades are indeed worthy ones. These will be among the first features I'll try when I get my hands on a device for our full review.
I didn't fully test the front-facing camera, another addition to the iPhone 4, either. This camera is integral to Apple's FaceTime videophone app, which works only for communicating between two iPhone 4 handsets.
iPhone 4 (left) and iPhone 3GS (right)It's noticeably slimmer than the iPhone 3GS, measuring 0.37 inch deep versus the iPhone 3GS's thickness of 0.48 inch (that translates to 2 percent less). The iPhone 4 is also slightly narrower, 2.31 inches to 2.44 inches. The weight stays the same at 4.8 ounces, but the tweaks to the dimensions make the current iPhone 3GS seem downright kludgy in comparison. (See all iPhone 4 specs.)
However, it's the aesthetic design touches that make the iPhone 4 stand out. The overall design screams elegance--from the rounded, individual volume up and down buttons that replace the plastic volume rocker on the iPhone 3GS to the ring/silent switch and the power/sleep button up top. The face and back are made of glass that is specially treated to withstand scratches and oily fingers, according to Apple. The side edging is aluminum, and doubles as the device's three cellular and wireless antennas.
Monday, 7 June 2010
Apple shows off redesigned iPhone
500 super computer list published
Newest TOP500 List of Fastest Supercomputers
Fri, 2010-05-28 00:31
HAMBURG, Germany—China’s ambition to enter the supercomputing arena have become obvious with a system called Nebulae, build from a Dawning TC3600
The newest version of the TOP500 list, which is issued twice yearly, will be formally presented on Monday, May 31st, at the ISC’10 Conference to be held at the CCH-Congress Center in Hamburg, Germany.
Jaguar, which is located at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, held on to the No. 1 spot on the TOP500 with its record 1.75 petaflop/s performance speed running the Linpack benchmark. Jaguar has a theoretical peak capability of 2.3 petaflop/s and nearly a quarter of a million cores. One petaflop/s refers to one quadrillion calculations per second.
Nebulae, which is located at the newly build National Supercomputing Centre in Shenzhen, China, achieved 1.271 PFlop/s running the Linpack benchmark, which puts it in the No. 2 spot on the TOP500 behind Jaguar. In part due to its NVidia GPU accelerators, Nebulae reports an impressive theoretical peak capability of almost 3 petaflop/s – the highest ever on the TOP500.
Roadrunner, which was the first ever petaflop/s system at Los Alamos in June 2008, dropped to No. 3 with a performance of 1.04 petaflop/s.
At No. 5 is the most powerful system in Europe -- an IBM BlueGene/P supercomputer located at the Forschungszentrum Juelich (FZJ) in Germany. It achieved 825.5 teraflop/s on the Linpack benchmark.
Tianhe-1 (meaning River in Sky), installed at the National Super Computer Center in Tianjin, China is a second Chinese system in the TOP10 and ranked at No. 7. Tianhe-1 and Nebulae are both hybrid designs with Intel Xeon processors and AMD or NVidia GPUs used as accelerators. Each node of Tianhe-1 consists of two AMD GPUs attached to two Intel Xeon processors.
The performance of Nebulae and Tianhe-1 were enough to catapult China in the No.2 spot of installed performance (9.2 percent) ahead of various European countries, but still clearly behind the U.S. (55.4 percent).
Here are some other highlights from the latest list showing changes from the November 2009 edition:
* The entry level to the list moved up to the 24.7 teraflop/s mark on the Linpack benchmark from 20 teraflop/s six months ago. The last system on the newest list would have been listed at position 357 in the previous TOP500 just six months ago. This replacement rate was far below average. This might reflect the impact of the recession and purchase delays due to anticipation of new products with six or more core processor technologies replacing current quad-core based systems.
* Quad-core processor based systems have saturated the TOP500 with now 425 systems using them. However, processor with six or more cores per processor can already be found in 25 systems.
* A total of 408 systems (81.6 percent) are now using Intel processors. This is slightly up from six months ago (402 systems, 80.4 percent). Intel continues to provide the processors for the largest share of TOP500 systems. The AMD Opteron is the second most common used processor family with 47 systems (9.4 percent), up from 42. They are followed by the IBM Power processors with 42 systems (8.4 percent), down from 52.
* IBM and
* IBM remains the clear leader in the TOP500 list in performance with 33.6 percent of installed total performance (down from 35.1 percent), compared to HP with 20.4 percent (down from 23 percent). In the performance category, the
* The U.S. is clearly the leading consumer of HPC systems with 282 of the 500 systems (up from 277). The European share (144 systems – down from 152) is still substantially larger then the Asian share (57 systems – up from 51). In Europe, UK remains the No. 1 with 38 systems (45 six months ago). France passed Germany and has now 29 (up from 26). Germany is still now the No. 3 spot with 24 systems (27 six months ago). Dominant countries in Asia are China with 24 systems (up from 21), Japan with 18 systems (up from 16), and India with 5 systems (up from 3).
The TOP500 list is compiled by Hans Meuer of the University of Mannheim, Germany; Erich Strohmaier and Horst Simon of NERSC/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and Jack Dongarra of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. For more information, visit www.TOP500.org.
Saturday, 29 May 2010
FCC Inaction on Free Broadband Proposal Delaying Cook
CHICAGO, MAY 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Coalition for Free Broadband Now revealed an
online petition drive allowing Americans to inform President Obama and their
congressmen and senators that inaction by the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) may prevent American's from having access to free nationwide broadband.
The coalition, led by County Executives of America and M2Z Networks, plans to
use $122 million in broadband stimulus money to provide free wireless broadband
to the residents of Kenosha County, Cook County and Will County as well as 9
other leading counties throughout the US. The plan is contingent upon the FCC
quickly auctioning an unused band of spectrum. The FCC is delaying the auction
until 2011. CTIA, the wireless industry association, whose members include AT&T
and T-Mobile, has come out in opposition to the free wireless broadband plan and
supports the FCC's delaying the auction of the fallow spectrum in order to delay
competition.
Coalition partners point to building momentum for the free broadband plan, as
local and national media outlets take notice, including the Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel, the Chicago Tribune and USA Today. Meanwhile, President Obama is in
Chicago this weekend where, according to FCC statistics, over 2.2 million people
cannot afford to access broadband service and would immediately benefit from the
free broadband network. President Obama has made it clear that making sure that
ALL Americans have access to affordable broadband is one of his top domestic
agenda goals.
"While our public private partnership is preparing to build a free broadband
network that addresses the affordability gap in broadband and makes use of the
$4.2 billion in broadband stimulus money to jumpstart the process, the FCC needs
to do its part," said John Muleta, coalition member and CEO of M2Z Networks. "We
are on the verge of achieving President Obama's dream of bridging the digital
divide, but the FCC has delayed authorizing this service until next year. The
agency responsible for the telecommunications seems to lack a sense of urgency
for finding innovative and creative solutions to address the persistent
broadband gap that is hindering our country's global competitiveness and
limiting the potential of minority and low income children who are the least
able to afford broadband."
Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia echoed the need for quick and decisive
action from the FCC when he recently said, "I am going to challenge the FCC to
make the hard choices that will help bring broadband to every corner of this
country. Putting ideas on paper is not enough. Just seeking comment on a slew of
issues is not enough. It's action that counts."
About County Executives of America (www.countyexecutives.org):
County Executives of America (CEA) is a non-partisan national association that
is dedicated specifically to helping elected county chief executives achieve
their county's social and economic development goals through federal and state
government advocacy at both the legislative and executive branches. CEA has been
in existence for over 40 years and its current membership includes over 700
County Executives, County Judges, Parish and Borough Presidents, City-County
Mayors, Commission Presidents and Chairs, all of whom are elected at-large by
county residents.
Silicon Valley-based M2Z Networks' goal is to boost the U.S. economy by building
a free nationwide broadband network. The FCC has been considering M2Z's for a
free nationwide broadband network since 2006. If approved, the M2Z proposal
would a free broadband service to at least 95 percent of Americans within 10
years. M2Z is backed by Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers; Charles River
Ventures; and Redpoint Ventures. For more information, please visit
www.M2ZNetworks.com and www.FreeBroadbandNow.org.
SOURCE Coalition for Free Broadband Now
