Nvidia Reveals Kal-El’s Secret Fifth Core For Ultra-Low-Power Tasks

Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. ? Learn More

There has been a lot of whispering about Nvidia’s next-generation Tegra chip, code-named Kal-El (Superman’s Kryptonian name, for the uninitiated), since it was first detailed on a roadmap back in Februrary. But it hasn’t shown up quite yet in any actual handsets or tablets, though we’re told it has been adopted by the majors and will have its debut soon.

Nvidia today released some new information about the SoC that confirms Tegra’s status as the brand to beat in the mobile computing world. Turns out it’s not quad-core, it’s penta-core. And the “companion core” is designed to take over while all the others go to sleep.

As you have probably suspected, load balancing and optimizing processor use is important to the battery life of many devices. The screen is usually a bigger draw, but with demand for CPU- and GPU-intensive content rising, the portion of a battery used for that processing is as well. But when you’re not playing games or watching HD movies on your phone, those high-power cores don’t operate as efficiently as one designed for low-power, low-priority tasks. So Nvidia put another one on the die, a low-power optimized core, that takes over for mundane things like notification monitoring while the phone is inactive, low-bandwidth stuff like e-reading, and so on.

Nvidia explains it all in this handy diagram, though be on the watch for self-congratulatory jargon (“console-class gaming” isn’t an industry standard term):

It’s a bit like having a city car and a hot rod in your garage. You don’t want to drive your Aston Martin in bumper-to-bumper traffic. That’s why you have a Civic too, or perhaps a Leaf. Same here. Why use ten times the CPU power necessary to perform a simple task?

You can read the rest in Nvidia’s whitepaper (PDF), but take it with a grain of salt, because TI might have some tricks up its sleeve, and even Intel might be creeping up.

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T-Mobile Poster Reveals Nokia Drive For Windows Phone, Confirms Sabre?

Chris Velazco is a mobile enthusiast and writer who studied English and Marketing at Rutgers University. Once upon a time, he was the news intern for MobileCrunch, and in between posts, he worked in wireless sales at Best Buy. After graduating, he returned to the new TechCrunch to as a full-time mobile writer. He counts advertising, running, musical theater,... ? Learn More

Oops. A new promotional poster made an appearance in a store at T-Mobile’s German headquarters, where it confirmed the existence of a Nokia Windows Phone with a 3.7-inch display and Nokia’s Drive navigation service.

The poster was up only briefly, but a quick-thinking tipster snapped a few shots and fired them off to WinRumors. After running it through a quick and dirty Google translation, the poster’s copy mentions that Nokia Drive for WP includes a 3D navigation display like its MeeGo cousin, and support for voice control.

Thrilling, no? Of course, that’s not all the poster had in store for us. Further down in the description, it makes mention of a device packing a 3.7-inch curved AMOLED display.

Nokia’s fabled Searay handset reportedly bears quite a resemblance to the company’s N9, but whether or not it shares the device’s 3.9-inch display is still in the air. If it does though, then these marketing materials may refer to another Nokia device that was accidentally outed earlier this week.

If the terms and conditions of a Microsoft Canada contest are to be believed, then Nokia has at least one more Windows Phone in the pipeline. Rumors of a handset called the Sabre can be laid to rest, as the contest’s fine print seems to back up the device’s existence. Details are pretty much non-existent at this stage, but WPCentral ruminated that the Sabre would have a 3.7-inch display when they first caught wind of it last month.

The matching screen sizes could be a complete coincidence, but it’s also possible that Nokia’s Sabre is farther along then we thought. The fact that Microsoft has since pulled the offending wording from the contest rules only makes the Sabre look more official. With Nokia’s Windows Phones poised to launch before the year is out, they’ll hopefully come forward with details sooner rather than later.

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AT&T Reveals New Windows Phones, Outlines Mango Update Plans

Chris Velazco is a mobile enthusiast and writer who studied English and Marketing at Rutgers University. Once upon a time, he was the news intern for MobileCrunch, and in between posts, he worked in wireless sales at Best Buy. After graduating, he returned to the new TechCrunch to as a full-time mobile writer. He counts advertising, running, musical theater,... ? Learn More

If their latest press release is any indication, AT&T really loves their Windows Phones. Their current lineup consists of four WP devices, with three of them having launched alongside the OS last November and the other being a network-swapped variant of an existing device.

Today’s announcement is a real shot in the arm for AT&T’s WP offerings, as three new Mango-powered handsets are waiting in the wings for a Q4 launch.

First up is the HTC Titan (pictured above), the 4.7? inch behemoth that has been enjoying the paparazzi treatment at IFA. A quick recap: in addition to its massive screen (which AT&T perhaps erroneously calls their largest on a smartphone), the Titan packs a single-core 1.5 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, an 8-megapixel camera, and about 16GB of internal storage.

Samsung’s contributions come in the form of the Focus S and Focus Flash, a pair meant to capitalize on the success of the best-selling original. The Focus S is the more impressive of the two, with a 4.3-inch display Super AMOLED Plus display, 8-megapixel rear camera, 1.4 GHz processor, and a svelte 8.55 mm thick body. The Flash, on the other hand, is Samsung’s value offering: while it also has a 1.4 GHz processor (which may or may not be the same as in its more illustrious brother), it opts for a more wallet-friendly 3.7-inch screen and a 5-megapixel camera around the back.

While none of the new trio has an official launch window yet, it’s possible that AT&T could take a page out of last year’s playbook and launch all three in a Windows blitz in time for the holidays. In addition to their new handsets, AT&T has also confirmed that all of their existing Windows Phones will receive the long-awaited Mango update some time this fall. While a more specific release window is always preferable, current users can at least rest assured that they haven’t been forgotten.

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Deezer Reveals UK Launch Pricing – UK Yawns

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While Spotify has only just made it over the US – after about 3 years of threatening to – there’s a slightly lesser known streaming music startup which has yet to even launch in the UK.

This is despite amassing 20 million users worldwide, most of them in its native France.

Deezer has now revealed its pricing for the UK. Excuse us if we don’t break out the champagne. It’ll have the well established We7 and Spotify to contend with.

Deezer launches in the UK in September with 13 million licensed tracks, “dozens” of radio channels, 30,000 artist-based radio channels and thousands of artists’ discographies, biographies and reviews.

The site works on web, mobile, and, unusually, is geared up for IP Sound Systems including Sonos and Logitech Squeezebox. It’s not doing too mad on subscribers – 6 million unique visitors per month, 1.2 million premium subscribers.

The options will be:

Discovery Mode (Free) – The Discovery Mode on PC/Mac and mobile devices will allow you to listen to radio channels and smart radio (unlimited listening) and to music on demand in 30-sec clips

Free Trial – A 15-day free trial. You have the ability to unsubscribe during the 15 days, no commitment, no payment due

Premium – £4.99/month – Unlimited streaming on any PC/Mac in enhanced sound quality, no ads.

Premium+ – £9.99/month – Unlimited streaming, on PC/Mac and all handheld devices online or offline

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