CPU - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jul

Security Researcher Demonstrates GPS Vulnerability That Could Let Hackers Track Users' Location, Take Over Phone

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News

Over at Black Hat USA 2012, security researcher Ralf-Phillip Weinmann demonstrated a vulnerability in several Android devices that utilized A-GPS to send illicit messages to the device which could, he explained, be used to send a report of the device's location any time an A-GPS message was sent or even be used to gain complete control of the device.

In describing the attack, Weinmann pointed out that, for example, a malicious WiFi network could instruct a phone to relay all future A-GPS requests, even once the device has left the WiFi network's range. This even further drives home the point that you should not join any networks you don't trust.

May

Goodbye, Amazon Appstore

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications

Today, I uninstalled the Amazon Appstore and bought all the FAOTD (free app of the day) apps I've been really using. Why did I do it? Because, mildly put, the Amazon Appstore app, which is required for all Amazon-installed apps to run and perform their license checks, has affected my battery life in very negative ways. Even if you never open it, it will keep running in the background, using up valuable CPU cycles, keeping the device awake when it should be sleeping.

Now, this may not happen to everyone - it's possible that a combination of events leads to this unacceptable behavior, or maybe it's having certain apps installed - I'm not sure.

Apr

Eden To GREEEEN Pops Up On TegraZone With Q2 2012 Release Date, Will Let You Beat Up Steam Rollers With Flowers

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Games, News

During Mobile World Congress nearly 2 months ago, NVIDIA released some details about a few impressive looking upcoming games. One of them was the very original looking Eden to GREEEEN. Eric summarized the game well:

Built on the Unreal Engine, Eden to GREEEEN pits you "against alien machines from another planet" (so we can conclude "alien" doesn't mean "immigrant" here) who are trying to steal Eden's natural resources. It's up to you to save Euphoria, the natural energy of Eden. This totally original story comes with the descriptor "freemium", so we can probably count on some sort of in-app purchases, but NVIDIA promises Eden to GREEEEN won't "skimp on the gaming experience." Fingers crossed.

Mar

JRummy's ROM Toolbox On Sale For $2.99 (50% Off) In The Play Store – Half Of All Revenue To Be Donated To Cancer Research

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, Deals, News

JRummy, the developer behind Root Browser, Ultimate Backup, BusyBox Installer, and a handful of other awesome apps, has put ROM Toolbox on sale in the Play Store for just $2.99 (a cool 50% off its usual price) and plans to donate half of all the sale's revenue to the Testicular Cancer Society.

For those not familiar, ROM Toolbox is a rooted user's dream app, combining the best parts of SetCPU, Root Browser, Font Installer, Terminal Emulator, ROM Manager, and a ton of other root tools into one 3.7MB package, providing a truly impressive array of features which allow users to control just about every aspect of their device from a single app.

Mar

SetCPU Updated To 2.3, Brings Major UI Overhaul, Many Related Improvements

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Development, News

To any hardcore modder, overclocking (or underclocking) your CPU is one of the best ways to get the most from your device. While some popular ROMs now have the ability to control your CPU baked in, many don't - and in the earlier days, virtually none did. Enter SetCPU - the de facto standard.

The app has long been a favorite, picking up 100,000-500,000 downloads at $1.99 and over 17,000 ratings for an average of 4.5 stars. There's good reason for that: it offers a huge range of ways to tweak your CPU, including profiles, clock speed, voltage settings, and more.

Mar

Sony Spokesman Says The Company Likely Won't Go Quad-Core Until 2013, Cites Battery And Performance Concerns

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in News, Sony

Sony brought some sleek new devices to MWC, but we were surprised to see nothing truly groundbreaking - specifically, a lack of quad-core CPUs. CNET Asia got a few minutes with Stephen Sneeden, product marketing manager for Sony Mobile, and he clarified the companies stance, saying that we likely won't see quad-core phones from the company until early 2013.

"We're going to join quad-core when we feel that the performance matches the battery efficiency," he said. "Because right now we don't feel that is there. What we are going to be doing in the second half of the year is moving to the Cortex A15 architecture, which we feel outperforms the current quad-core architecture.

Feb

[MWC 2012] Qualcomm Introduces Snapdragon S4 "Pro" Variant Of MSM8960 With Adreno 320, Support For Super High-Res Displays, Light-Field Camera Tech

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News

Qualcomm is going to release an upgraded version of its S4 generation Snapdragon chipset in the second half of 2012, the company announced at MWC 2012 today.

The more capable and powerful S4 "Pro" variant of the original dual-core MSM8960 chipset (which can be found in the HTC One X, for example) will feature an Adreno 320 GPU as opposed to Adreno 225 in the regular S4 MSM8960. Before this announcement, Adreno 320 was scheduled to accompany only the quad-core Krait CPUs, like the APQ8064 and the MSM8974 which won't be coming out until late 2012/early 2013.

Qualcomm says the new GPU could be up to four times as powerful as Adreno 225, with support for higher resolution displays, next-gen 3D graphics capabilities, and a new "computational camera" that should theoretically enable the use of light-field technology in mobile devices (you may recognize the term "light-field" from the revolutionary Lytro camera that came out last year).

Feb

Qualcomm To Integrate 802.11ac Into Snapdragon S4 - Get Ready For 433Mbps Wi-Fi On Your Phone

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Devices By Manufacturer, News

Just two days ago, we saw how blazingly fast Qualcomm's new Krait-based Snapdragon S4 CPU is in dual-core MSM8960 guise. Today, they've announced that the S4 line of CPUs - including the MSM8960 and its quad-core brother APQ8064 (seriously, who came up with this naming system?) - will pack the next-gen 802.11ac Wi-Fi spec.

Support for the new spec comes courtesy of Qualcomm's Atheros WCN3680 chip, which packs a 1x1 802.11ac chip with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and FM on-board. Luckily for consumers and manufacturers, Qualcomm designed the chip to be pin-compatible with the widely-used WCN3660, the company's 802.11n chip, meaning manufacturers can switch to the 3680 chip without redesigning other parts of the phone.

Feb

New 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 (MSM8960) Dual-Core CPU Benchmarked, Absolutely Blows The Socks Off All Other Publicly Released Phone CPUs

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in News

The de facto hardware experts over at AnandTech have spent some time with the newest CPU from Qualcomm: the MSM8960, sporting the new 28nm Krait architecture in dual-core, 1.5GHz form. They've put it through their suite of benchmarks including Linpack, SunSpider, BrowserMark, Vellamo, and Basemark OS. In a nutshell: the MSM8960 absolutely destroys every other phone/CPU on the market right now in every. single. benchmark.

^{An example of what to expect.}

The Krait architecture supports 1, 2, and 4 CPUs, and the smaller transistor size (28nm) means that it should outperform most (if not all) comparative 40nm CPUs and offer better battery life.

Feb

LG's Tegra-3 Sporting P880/X3 Specs And Quadrant Leak - And It's Every Bit The Beast We Expected

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in LG, News, X3/P880

Shortly after CES ended, we heard word of a new phone from LG that would be the first to sport NVIDIA's impressive new quad-core CPU, the Tegra 3. Other specs were rumored to include a 4.7" 1280x720 display, 16GB on-board storage (plus a microSD slot), a 2000mAh battery (!), an 8MP camera in the rear, and a 1.2MP front-facer.

Now, the extremely reliable Paul O'Brien of Modaco has word from a source that those specs are correct - the sole exception is that the front-facing camera is 1.3MP (not 1.2). The build used in the shots sent to him runs Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.3) and the latest kernel from NVIDIA, and suggests little UI customization by LG.