CNET reports that Intel has publicly committed to supporting both USB 3.0 and the company’s new Thunderbolt connectivity standard developed in cooperation with Apple on its forthcoming “Ivy Bridge” platform due for introduction next year.
“Intel is going to support USB 3.0 in the 2012 client platform. We’re going to support Thunderbolt capability. We believe they’re complementary,” said Kirk Skaugen, a vice president at the Intel Architecture Group, speaking at Intel’s developer conference in Beijing today. The event was streamed over the Web.
The “2012 client platform” that Skaugen referred to is known more commonly by the code name “Ivy Bridge,” which is the family of chips that will follow the “Sandy Bridge” processors shipping in PCs today.
USB 3.0 offers ten times the speed of current USB technology, but has not yet been embraced in Intel’s current platforms, leaving USB 3.0 compatibility a fairly rare feature for most Intel-based computers given the need to rely on a separate part from NEC rather than having it built directly into Intel’s silicon.
Intel is still encouraging peripherals developers to embrace Thunderbolt, which can support data and video on a single cable and made its debut in Apple’s new MacBook Pros introduced earlier this year. Notably, Apple was recently granted a patent for a new iOS device dock connector that could support both Thunderbolt/DisplayPort and USB 3.0 connectivity, as well as the existing USB 2.0 standard.
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South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reports (via AsiaPulse) that Apple’s iPad 2 introduction has forced Samsung to reconsider its plans for its forthcoming Galaxy Tab 10.1, a larger version of its initial 7-inch Galaxy Tab that is intended to offer a more similar form factor to the iPad. According to a Samsung executive, the company is looking to improve the specs of the device to be more competitive with the iPad 2.
Lee Don-joo, executive vice president of Samsung’s mobile division, said that Apple has presented new challenges for the South Korean company with a thinner mobile gadget that is priced the same as its predecessor.
“We will have to improve the parts that are inadequate,” Lee told Yonhap News Agency. “Apple made it very thin.”
But technical specs are not the only issue facing Samsung with the Galaxy Tab 10.1, as the company also must address pricing issues that currently will make it difficult for the device to compete against the iPad 2.
The 7-inch Galaxy Tab was priced at nearly US$900 without a two-year contract from mobile operators, while the price of the iPad 2 starts at $499, with the most expensive model costing $829. Samsung did not announce the pricing details for the 10.1-inch tablet.
“The 10-inch (tablet) was to be priced higher than the 7-inch (tablet) but we will have to think that over,” Lee added.
Apple made a number of references to the tablet competition during its iPad 2 introduction earlier this week, making a point to illustrate Apple’s hardware and software head start and pricing advantages over competitors’ offerings. Apple’s iPad 2 comes to market even as some competitors have yet to begin shipping their first round of tablet devices announced in some cases many months ago.
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One of the major questions about future iPhones has been at what point Apple will choose to offer “4G” LTE compatibility. With Verizon only just beginning to roll out its own 4G network, rumors have indicated that the CDMA-based iPhone 4 widely rumored for a launch early this year will not support 4G. The bigger question has been whether Apple will support 4G in the fifth-generation iPhone presumably set to debut sometime in the middle of the year, with several reports indicating that Apple will skip 4G compatibility at that point as well.
In covering a CES keynote address by AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega, Boy Genius Report notes that de la Vega’s comments suggest that a 4G LTE iPhone is in fact not coming until 2012.
De la Vega included Apple in his list of manufacturers set to launch LTE devices in 2012, implying that AT&T will launch a 4G LTE-compatible Apple iPhone next year
De la Vega reportedly also confirmed AT&T’s plans for an accelerated timetable for deployment of its LTE network, looking to launch sometime this year with completion set for 2013. He also noted that the HSPA+ improvements that have already spread to much of the company’s network already come relatively close to 4G speeds.
While many observers have been hoping that Apple will be an early adopter of LTE technology to support the ever-increasing data demands of iPhone users, past history has suggested that Apple will sit on the sidelines until the LTE service becomes more widespread and has had time to mature. Despite the fact that AT&T offered a 3G data network at the time of the iPhone’s initial launch in 2007, the first-generation device did not support the technology and operated only on the carrier’s slower-but-more-widely-available EDGE network.
Update: Boy Genius Report has updated its article to note that AT&T has officially denied that de la Vega confirmed an LTE iPhone for 2012. It appears that the confusion has stemmed from AT&T’s decision to call both its existing HSPA+ network and its forthcoming LTE network “4G” for marketing purposes.
Well, AT&T’s ridiculous decision to call both HSPA+ and LTE “4G” is already causing problems — AT&T contacted us to let us know that no iPhone-related LTE announcements were made. Apparently the “4G” mentioned alongside de la Vega’s mention of Apple did not refer to LTE “4G”.
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Earlier this month, Apple made a change in its iPhone developer agreement that appeared to directly target Adobe’s plans to release a Packager for iPhone feature in its forthcoming Flash Professional.
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Adobe to End Development on Flash-to-iPhone Compiler in Wake of …
ITworld reports that the dust-up between Apple and Adobe over Apple’s refusal to permit Flash content on the iPhone and its recent move to block Adobe’s Flash-to-iPhone packager in its forthcoming Flash P…
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Adobe Preparing to File Suit Against Apple?