As it’s struggling to compete with rivals from Taiwan (MediaTek) and China (Allwinner), Qualcomm is forced to tweak its offering and launch new products made for lower-cost devices. So they’re out with two new products made for smartphones and tablets sold in the emerging markets where money matters, big time. Part of the Snapdragon 200…
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Qualcomm-powered wearables coming later in the year
At the time when Qualcomm Toq was unveiled, we knew it was just the first step in the company’s pursuit of the wearables market. The chip making giant never wanted to make smart watches but to provide processors and reference designs to its partners. And we may see something like that happening within the next…
Qualcomm Toq updated with voice to text for SMS, improved activity tracking
Qualcomm is updating the Toq software to include voice to text for SMS to the mix. No longer will you have to type on your smartphone when a text needs to be answered – simply tap the microphone icon on the Toq and say what’s on your mind. Nuance’s speech-to-text technology will do the rest…
Qualcomm Snapdragon 610 and 615 64-bit LTE-enabled chips unveiled: mid-range phones about to get better
Aside from the new powerful Snapdragon 801, Qualcomm also unveiled a pair of chips for the new wave of rock-solid mid-range devices. The Snapdragon 610 and Snapdragon 615 are 64-bit chips, packing four and eight ARMv8 cores, respectively. In addition, both of them integrate multi-mode global Cat4 LTE modem, dual-SIM/dual active (DSDA), 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth…
Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 unveiled: faster Snapdragon 800 with integrated dual SIM capability, in devices by the end of March
Qualcomm announced an improved version of its popular Snapdragon 800 SoC. The new Snapdragon 801 is not as powerful as the upcoming Snapdragon 805, but it’s fast, nonetheless. Compared with the existing Snapdragon 800, the new chip comes with 14% faster Krait 400 processor cores, 28% faster Adreno 330 graphics, and 45% faster camera sensor…
Qualcomm Toq SDK now available for developers
Qualcomm has launched the Toq SDK, inviting developers to make apps for this fancy smart watch. The strategy that seems to be working for Pebble may also prove useful for the chip-making giant, though you never know. Despite rocking that fancy Mirasol display (which looks like million bucks compared to Pebble’s screen), the Toq never…
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Glance shows key information on a lockscreen
Qualcomm launched a new Android app for phones using its Snapdragon chipset. Called Glance, it relies on another Qualcomm app, Battery Guru, to show key information on your phone’s lockscreen. Among the details you can get without turning on the phone are upcoming appointments, links to frequently used apps and contacts, and weather information. Yup,…
White Qualcomm Toq smart watch now available
Say you like the Qualcomm Toq but you don’t want it in black. Worry not my friend, the chip making giant has just released the white model, which sells for the same, rather expensive $350. Over at Amazon, the device is marked as “shipping within 1 to 2 months” so you’ll still have to wait…
Qualcomm buys around 1,400 mobile technology patents from HP
Qualcomm announced that it has acquired a big patent portfolio from HP that includes Palm, IPAQ and Bitfone patents. Overall, the portfolio comprises of approximately 1,400 granted patents and pending patent applications from the US, and some 1,000 granted patents and pending patent applications from other countries, covering fundamental mobile operating system techniques among other…
Qualcomm acquires Swiss image recognition experts Kooaba
Qualcomm is expanding its Vuforia image recognition platform (and team) with technology from the Switzerland-based Kooaba. The chip maker bought the company without disclosing how much it paid for the benefit. The goal is to make Vuforia even better, and eventually enabling other apps to rely on Qualcomm’s cloud-based image recognition technology. According to Kooaba’s…