Rumor: Samsung to release 2GHz dual-core phone, as powerful as some PCs

Rumors from a Korean tech site suggest that Samsung may be prepping a 2GHz dual-core phone for the near future. It's processor may be marketed under Samsung's new Exynos brand.
According to new rumors, Samsung is actively working on a new smartphone that will have a 2GHz dual-core processor, outdoing anything currently on the market. The new processor will be a system-on-a-chip and may be marketed under Samsung’s Exynos brand, which is typically reserved for tablet PCs and netbooks, reports Korean site Daum.net (via Phandroid).

“We are planning to release a 2Ghz dual core CPU-equipped smartphone by next year,” said a high-ranking official from the company, according to Daum. “This product will have the data processing capacities of a regular PC.”
In a way, this is true. Most modern PCs have between 3GHz and 6GHz of processing power, though they use somewhat different architecture. This rumor is also highly plausible. HTC and other manufacturers have already debuted up to 1.6GHz mobile processors; it stands to reason that 2GHz is just around the corner. The real question is, exactly how much power does a smartphone really need? A top of the line laptop that is meant for running countless simultaneous operations usually has less than a 2GHz quad-core processor. We can’t imagine a smartphone needing that much power–at least not yet.
There is no word on when this rumored phone might be released or what operating system might run on it.

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Latest iPhone 5 rumor: October release, 8 megapixel camera

The rumors continue to indicate that the iPhone 5 will skip summer and will debut this fall instead.

It’s another week and another iPhone 5 rumor. (Better get used to it, too, looks like the trend may continue throughout the summer.) This one comes from Ming-Chi Kuo of Concord Securities as reported by AppleInsider. The analyst issued a note today stating that Apple’s 5th generation iPhone will enter into production in September and will feature a design that only marginally differs from the current iPhone 4.

That “slight” redesign will include an A5 processor, the same found in the iPad 2, and a new 8 megapixel camera, a bump up from the 5 megapixel camera found in the iPhone 4. Apple will also reportedly redesign the phone’s antenna and adopt a Qualcomm baseband for both the GSM and CDMA models.

Kuo’s report states that the phone is slated to enter trial production in August, mass production in September and will be go on sale sometime in October.

Kuo stresses that, given the “slight modifications” in design, Apple will attempt to focus attention on the iPhone 5's operating system, presumably iOS 5, rather than hardware or design.

There’s no indication yet when Apple will announce the iPhone 5, but it’s not likely to be at this year’s World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC)– Apple’s traditional event for announcing its next generation phone. Apple is expected to use WWDC , which kicks off on June 6, to show off iOS 5 as well as the OS X 10.7 Lion operating system. An iPhone 5 announcement would likely come in late summer or early fall.

Kuo’s report made no mention of near-field communication (NFC) technology, which has been widely anticipated as being a key feature of the next generation iPhone.

There’s good reason to believe Kuo’s report. As AppleInsider points out, the man correctly predicted several key features of the iPad 2. He’s also indicated that Apple would finally release the white iPhone 4 this spring — one rumor that we’re still waiting on to become a reality.

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BlackBerry Playbook priced at $500 and up, pre-orders now open for April 19 release

Research In Motion confirms pricing and an April 19 release date for its upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook tablet as pre-orders open at Best Buy.

BlackBerry developer Research In Motion has arguably been the hardest-hit following the arrival of the iPhone and the growth in the global smartphone market that followed. Still, if you are going to bet on any company to successfully compete with Apple in this post-iPad world, RIM is your best choice. The tech firm is still a dominating presence in the business world, and that’s the angle it is taking with its soon-to-arrive PlayBook tablet, which is now officially priced, dated and open for pre-orders.
Best Buy posted three pre-order product pages for the 7-inch tablet last night, with the 16GB model costing $499.99, the 32GB model costing $599.99 and the top-level 64GB model costing $699.99. Pre-orders are now open, and a RIM press release confirms that the product will arrive in select stores — namely, Best Buy, Best Buy Mobile and Future Shop — on April 19.
Best Buy and Future Shop are the first retailers to get the tablet, but RIM further confirms that you’ll eventually be able to find it pretty much anywhere that deals in tech goods, including Staples, Office Depot and Radio Shack. The PlayBook will also be available from three of the top four wireless providers in the country, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. T-Mobile is notably absent from the list, though that won’t exactly matter in another 12 months.
The 7-inch PlayBook is both priced and built to compete with Apple’s newly released iPad 2. While the device won’t have access to any 3G wireless data plans, it sports a 1 GHz Cortex-A9 dual-core processor (read: powerful), 1 GB of RAM, 1080p HDMI output, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, front- and rear-facing cameras (3MP and 5MP, respectively) all of the usual support for various audio and video formats, built-in GPS, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a compass and browser support for both HTML5 and Flash.
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