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Netgear and Broadcom Rush Nighthawk X6 (R8000) 6-Stream 802.11ac Router to Market
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Netgear and Broadcom Rush Nighthawk X6 (R8000) 6-Stream 802.11ac Router to Market

Netgear’s AC1900 router, the R7000 Nighthawk, has been well-received by the market. Since that launch, the 802.11ac market has seen a number of announcements from chipset vendors. While Qualcomm Atheros and Quantenna were busy launching 802.11ac Wave 2 silicon, Broadcom seemed to be lagging behind. In April, they launched 5G Wi-Fi XStream a six stream 802.11ac MIMO platform, which was essentially two discrete 3×3 802.11ac radios. SemiAccurate saw through the marketing talk and called it out for what it really was. Despite seeing Asus demonstrate a model at Computex, I assumed that devices based on the platform would appear in the market in late Q3 or Q4.

Netgear is springing a nice surprise by launching the Nighthawk X6 (R8000) with Broadcom’s 5G WiFi XStream platform today.

The R8000 is being marketed as a Tri-band router theoretically capable of delivering up to 3.2 Gbps of network throughput (600 Mbps in the 3×3 802.11n 2.4 GHz band, 1300 Mbps in the first 3×3 802.11ac 5 GHz band and another 1300 Mbps in the second 3×3 802.11ac 5 GHz band). The unit includes 6 antennae. Internally, the platform has the same host SoC as that of the R7000, the BCM4709 which sports a dual core Cortex-A9 processor running at 1 GHz. However, the radios have been updated to offload some of the workload, freeing up CPU cycles for other aspects. Netgear claims they are now able to get around 60 – 70 MBps over USB 3.0 (compared to 30 MBps in the R7000). The VPN client is also being talked up by Netgear in the R8000, signifying that it is going to perform substantially better than in the R7000. Like the R7000, the R8000 also comes with four GbE ports (in addition to the WAN port) and two USB ports (1x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0).

Netgear’s value adds on top of the 5G WiFi XStream platform include ‘Smart Connect’ – a feature through which client devices are allotted to a particular Wi-Fi channel depending on its characteristics and location – and load balancing – where newer clients are allotted a less busy channel if ‘Smart Connect’ decisions happen to overload one of the channels. Other aspects of Netgear’s firmware include a comprehensive network storage feature set (with DLNA & AirPlay support, along with backup to a shared USB drive). Netgear also seems to have brought in a variant of the snapshotting feature of the ReadyNAS lineup into this router as the ‘ReadySHARE VAULT’ backup solution for devices running Windows.

The product is available for pre-order today, and will ship in early July. It is priced at $300. Consumers with a large number of Wi-Fi devices might be tempted to upgrade to the R8000, particularly if they are yet to hop on to the 802.11ac bandwagon. On the other hand, users who already have a 802.11ac router (and paid the premium to buy into a first / second generation product) might find it hard to justify a $300 upgrade – particularly when the platform doesn’t have any of the important Wave 2 features such as MU-MIMO or 160 MHz usage with a single radio. Make no mistake, the R8000 does appear to solve problems arising from a large number of wireless clients in a practical manner. More importantly, it is available today (compared to Wave2 routers based on silicon from other vendors which are yet to hit the market). Is it worth the premium? That is for the market to decide. Readers, feel free to sound off in the comments section.

Google Reveals New Glassware and an Updated Google Glass Model
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Google Reveals New Glassware and an Updated Google Glass Model

Although Google I/O is less than 24 hours away, Google has decided to make some announcements regarding Google Glass which should be beneficial for all current and future users in the Glass Explorer program. The first is regarding software, or “Glassware” as it is called in the Google Glass world. Google has rolled out twelve new applications for Google Glass. The apps range from fitness training apps like Runtastic which can manage a collection of workouts to help you keep in shape, to music services like Shazam for using Google Glass to identify an unknown song that is playing. The full list of apps from Google’s Google+ posting is below.

  • Runtastic is your personal trainer. You’ll have a collection of workouts to help whip you into shape or push you to reach your fitness goals.
  • 94Fifty Basketball works with the 94Fifty Smart Sensor Basketball to help you with your game. It measures muscle memory that the human eye can’t see. You’ll get feedback after each shot to help you shoot like Ray Allen. (ok, maybe not Ray Allen but maybe it’ll help you make varsity.)
  • The Guardian keeps you up to date on breaking news alerts and lets you save the articles you want to read later.
  • Duolingo makes learning a new language feel more like a game and less like high school Spanish class.
  • GuidiGO is your personal tour guide. Choose from 27 destinations and over 250 guided tours. Relive the Impressionist history of Montmartre, the magic of the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, or the hidden secrets of San Francisco!
  • Allthecooks is no stranger to Glass, but they’ve added some new features to keep your hands free while cooking. You can now use voice commands to switch between recipes and directions.
    Zombies, Run! Because let’s face it, running is more fun when you’re being chased by zombies.
  • Star Chart lets you look up at the sky and explore the stars, planets and constellations above.
    Shazam on Glass can tell you the name of the track and artist of a song that’s playing around you. Just say “OK Glass, Recognize this song.”
  • Goal.com lets you keep up with everything happening in the world of football. (World Cup fans, we’re looking at you.)
  • Livestream let’s you broadcast live video, read chat messages from your audience and share your point of view via social networks.
  • musiXmatch picks up on the music playing around you and shows you the song lyrics for songs in any language. 

The new Star Chart application for Google Glass

One of the most interesting applications from the list above is the Star Chart application because it effectively utilizes the capabilities available with Google Glass. While similar applications exist for smartphones and tablets, they can’t provide the same feeling of immersion that a user gets from viewing information about constellations in the sky on a head mounted display.

In addition to the new applications, Google plans to roll out a new viewfinder feature to help users frame photographs better. Simply saying “ok glass, show the viewfinder” will bring up four markers in the corners of the display. The user can then state  “ok glass, take a picture,” wink, or press the camera button to take the photograph. Google is also creating new Google Now cards to remind the user of where they have parked their car and to let them know when trackable packages are en route to their home to be delivered.

On the hardware side, Google is announcing that Google Glass units will now ship with 2GB of RAM, double the amount of the previous 1GB. With the Google Glass app catalogue expanding and Google adding new features to Google Glass with software updates the additional RAM will undoubtedly be appreciated by users. However, unlike Google’s previous hardware update to Glass, it appears that current Glass Explorers will not have the opportunity to swap out their units for the updated version free of charge.

Google I/O is right around the corner and hopefully Google has more announcements in store for current and future Glass Explorers.

Source: Google Glass Google+, Google Glass Google+

AMD Catalyst 14.6 Release Candidate 2 Drivers Posted
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AMD Catalyst 14.6 Release Candidate 2 Drivers Posted

AMD has posted a new version of their Catalyst 14.6 drivers this afternoon, bringing their latest driver set up to Release Candidate 2.

As a further refinement of the 14.6 driver set, RC2 is primarily focusing on Crossfire compatibility and per…

Microsoft Launches Nokia X2 Dual SIM Smartphone
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Microsoft Launches Nokia X2 Dual SIM Smartphone

Today Microsoft announced a second iteration of the Nokia X family of low end smartphones they first announced at Mobile World Congress earlier this year. The new device is the Nokia X2 Dual SIM, and is a slightly higher specification device than the original Nokia X device announced in February.

First, the display is slightly improved with the addition of Nokia’s ClearBlack polarization technology which Brian Klug covered in his review of the Lumia 900. ClearBlack helps with blacks as well as outdoor viewing by using polarization and several layers to reduce reflections on the display. It can make an mediocre display look OK, and a good display look great, at least in my experience. This ClearBlack technology is outfitted onto the 4.3” 800×480 resolution display of the new X2.

Also improved is the SoC. The original Nokia X was based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, and the new device bumps it up to a current generation dual-core Snapdragon 200. In addition, the X2 trumps both the original X and the larger XL devices with 1 GB of RAM, however it keeps the same amount of storage as the other devices in the line with a small 4 GB but does support expansion with up to 32 GB of microSD.

The camera is also bumped up from the X which had a 3 MP fixed focus camera. The X2 has a 5 MP autofocus model with f/2.7 and a LED flash. Camera size is 1/4 inch so it’s unlikely this camera will be very effective in dim scenarios, but with the flash it should at least take some sort of picture. There is also a Front Facing Camera – a bonus over the original X, but it is only VGA resolution.

On the software side, the Nokia platform has been revved to “Nokia X software platform 2.0” with this release which offers enhancements to the user interface such as a Windows Phone-esque alphabetical app list, a new home key, and a pull-down notification screen. While an update is scheduled for existing devices, the software platform 2.0 will not be available on the older X and XL models due to hardware limitations of those devices.

Nokia X Series
  Nokia X Nokia X2 Nokia XL
Display 4″ 800×480 4.3″ 800×480 with ClearBlack 5″ 800×480
SoC Snapdragon S4 (dual-core 1 GHz) Snapdragon 200 (dual-core 1.2 GHz) Snapdragon S4 (dual-core 1 GHz)
Memory 512 MB 1 GB 768 MB
Storage 4 GB 4 GB 4 GB
Camera 3 MP Fixed Focus 1/5 inch
No FFC, No FLash		 5 MP Auto Focus 1/4 inch
VGA FFC, LED FLash		 5 MP Auto Focus 1/4 inch
UXGA FFC, LED FLash
Weight 129 g 150 g 190 g
Battery 1500 mAh 3.7 V (5.55 Wh) 1800 mAh 3.8 V (6.84 Wh) 2000 mAh 3.7 V (7.4 Wh)

As for the actual device, it’s going to be available in Black, White, Yellow, Green, Orange, and Grey with an “Inner Glow” outer clear coat. The device goes on sale in July with an expected MSRP of €99 (around $135 USD).

We weren’t really sure what was going to happen to the X Line with the Microsoft acquisition, but at least one more device has now launched so obviously there is some internal support for AOSP with Microsoft services. It’s likely this device was already in the pipeline prior to the acquisition, so we’ll have to wait and see if any other Android based devices find their way out of Microsoft. It will be interesting to see if we ever get any sales numbers on the X line vs the low end Windows Phone line (Lumia 520, 630, etc) because all of the X line phones have come in at or around the same price as the Lumias. We’ll have to wait and see at the next financial call if any of the numbers are broken out, but I wouldn’t count on it.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S Review (10.5 & 8.4-inch)

Samsung’s tablet lineup can be confusing to follow. There’s the regular Galaxy Tab lineup which is on its 4th generation and is available in three different screen sizes (7, 8 and 10.1-inches), all with 1280 x 800 displays. If you want a…