NVIDIA’s Kal-El has a secret – the quad-core CPU actually has a fifth core, called a companion core. It’s a low-power core that is meant to handle background tasks while the phone is idle (e.g. syncing email, checking Twitter for new messages and so on).

The architecture of the companion core has been designed with power efficiency in mind and its clock speed goes up to 500MHz.That doesn’t offer a lot of performance, but for a lot of tasks you don’t need it – and it manages to offer great power savings. Read more »

Yesterday we heard that Samsung is planning to involve the yet unannounced iPhone 4S or 5 in the ongoing court battle between the two companies. The Koreans were reportedly getting ready to pursue a sales ban in their homeland. Today things are looking even more serious as Reuters reports that Samsung may actually open a wider front against Apple’s upcoming smartphone that includes Europe.

The patents in question refer to wireless standards and finding a workaround would be pretty tough for Apple. Reportedly, if Apple wants to use mobile communications with its next flagship phone they’ll have to use Samsung technology. Read more »

Another week, another HTC party – we didn’t even make it through the door when we were greeted by a lavender-colored Android miniature keychain. From then on, it was an easy guess that the HTC Rhyme is the guest of honor.

The Rhyme is designed with an emphasis on style and boasts a ton of accessories. Read more »

Those HTC guys just keep the party train rolling – they have an event starting right about now (probably to announce the HTC Rhymes for Verizon) and they already have another event scheduled.

It will be held just two weeks from now, on October 6th, but HTC is playing coy and says it’s a “press conference and party”, but mention nothing of any devices they might announce. Read more »

I know you are tired of all these rumors preceding the next iPhone release. Yet today some new information came up and it’s just too juicy and coming from too reputable source to be ignored.

According to a proprietary JP Morgan research, Apple will release not one but two smartphones this Fall, showing a China-oriented iPhone 4+ alongside the iPhone 5. Also, the next generation iPhone 5 with might not use the A5 chipset that’s powering the iPad 2, but the newly developed A6 SoC. A Read more »

The QWERTY slider BlackBerry Torch 9810 is our guest of honor today, that’s the third BlackBerry in a week! Just like its siblings – the Bold 9900 and Torch 9860, this Torch 9810 is running on the latest BlackBerry OS 7.

It’s a hybrid between the Bold 9900 and Torch 9860, combining both the hardware QWERTY keyboard and the big WVGA touchscreen. Read more »

Just a week after we had the pleasure to do unboxing of the latest BlackBerry Bold Touch 9900, today we have another RIM guest – the Torch 9860. It’s in a completely different category though – with that 3.7-inch WVGA touchscreen it somehow suggests multimedia prowess rather than business.

Of course, RIM would never cheat on its traditions and it has left nothing out of the business and messaging departments. Read more »

The Samsung Epic 4G Touch is the Sprint’s version of the Samsung Galaxy S II that comes with bigger display and 4G connectivity. It’s now available for purchase over at Sprint’s website and is due for delivery in 2-5 business days.

The Epic 4G Touch will set you back $199.99 on a two-year commitment. Shipping is free. Read more »

It was only yesterday when the LG Marquee got announced for Sprint Wireless in the United States and, yet, we managed to squeeze a few moments with the droid at an event in New York.

The LG Marquee is essentially Read more »

Ever wanted to have the OS X experience on your iPhone 4? We are afraid we are still some way off from having the real thing, but this latest iOS mod that we found is one great start. Dubbed Ultimatum and naturally only available to jailbroken iPhones, it mimics the Lion OS X quite successfully.

Customizations run really deep here and the mod even introduces new features including Launchpad, Finder menus, stacks etc. Read more »

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK has just declared the Apple iPhone 4 as slimmer than the Samsung Galaxy S II for all marketing purposes. ASA is the UK’s independent regulator of advertising across all media, even on the Internet.

This action was prompted by a complaint received over an iPhone ad, which states the iPhone to be the thinnest smartphone in the world. The Galaxy S II has, however, claimed to be slimmer than its arch rival since day one. So the ASA had to go in a straighten things up. Read more »

On this side of the Atlantic, LG fans have been able to enjoy the benefits of the LG Optimus Black for sometime, but until now, US fans have been kept in the dark.

It would appear that this is about to change however, as the LG Optimus Black will be coming to Sprint in the US, not quite as we know it though. Read more »

Power to the people is a somewhat apt term for this phone, as it’d be hard, nigh impossible for users to complain about battery life on the Philips Xenium x525.

The x525 offers around 50 days worth of standby time or approximately 1200 hours in all. Oh and did I mention, this is a dual-SIM phone too. Read more »

The Samsung Galaxy S II is just about to hit US shores and we just got its first video ad. It’s quite different in style to the ads released in Europe, going for the more serious tone this time.

Now we are not sure anyone needs convincing about purchasing the Galaxy S II at this point. The handset took its sweet time crossing the Atlantic, so most users have probably made up their mind already. But some publicity never hurt anyone’s market prospects so we can see Samsung’s point. Read more »

As far as hardware mods for the Apple iPhone 4 go, this is one of the coolest we have seen. And the considerable boost in the exterior is achieved by modifying just the apple logo at the back.

Thanks to the UK-based company iPatch, you will be able to make that logo glow, just like it does on the MacBook lineup. And you won’t be sacrificing anything in terms of thickness or usability. Read more »