Argentine developer Dante Leoncini has gotten the original Half-Life running at 30 FPS on a Nokia N95, the Symbian slider phone that launched in 2007, and has added mouse and keyboard support, he said in a post on X this week. Leoncini says that while some slowdowns remain, he has pinned down the cause and is working on a fix, the latest step in a series of efforts to run heavyweight software on the dual-core, 332 MHz handset. Half-Life shipped in 1998, needing a 133 MHz Pentium and 24MB of RAM at minimum, specs the N95 clears on paper. To date, Leoncini has managed to run Quake 3, Crash Bandicoot, and emulate Sega, ScummVM, and NES on the handset.

The N95 pairs a 332 MHz Texas Instruments OMAP 2420, a dual-core part built around the ARM11 design, with a PowerVR MBX 3D accelerator, 64MB of RAM, and a 240x320 display, all under Symbian OS 9.2 and S60 3rd Edition. An 8GB storage variant, released later in 2007, doubled the memory to 128MB.

Because the phone runs an Arm processor and a non-Windows operating system, getting Half-Life onto it requires a native Symbian build rather than emulation of the PC version. Leoncini has said before that the limiting factor on his earlier Quake 3 work was the CPU, which aligns with the slowdowns he’s now chasing.

Ports of Half-Life to unusual platforms generally lean on Xash3D, an open-source engine compatible with Valve's GoldSrc that’s been built for Android, the Raspberry Pi, and the Meta Quest. Whether Leoncini's N95 version uses it isn’t confirmed, however.

The OMAP 2420 architecture has managed to carry a game running at 30 FPS before. Way, way back in 2008, GMSArena reported that developer Olli Hinkka had ported Quake III Arena to S60 3rd Edition phones running the same chipset, with Bluetooth keyboard and mouse support and the option to host a multiplayer server on the phone itself. That port ran on the N95 8GB, N82, and E90, but not the original N95, which carried half the RAM of the 8GB model; Leoncini hasn’t said which N95 variant he’s using.

Half-Life is one of several things Leoncini has built or ported for the N95, alongside a from-scratch Blender clone called Blendersito and his own game engine, both on his GitHub. Running. In terms of the N95 as his choice of hardware medium, it’s far from the weirdest one we’ve seen.

Maker Will Whang has designed and open sourced an MK4001MTD USB Bridge. This is a USB mass storage compatible device which facilitates the use of the world’s smallest mechanical hard drives (obsolete for many years) with modern tech.

Toshiba launched its 0.85-inch MK4001MTD hard drives in 2004, offering an attractive-at-the -time balance of capacity and pricing. However, as they were sidelined quite rapidly due to the advance of flash memory tech, not many device designs adopted them. This has led to these tiny HDDs, and the data upon them, basically getting lost in time.

Whang explains that several prior attempts had been made at accessing the obsolete MK4001MTD drives, but they had fallen at various hurdles. So, the maker decided to start collecting working (and non-working) units to see if they could crack this particular old storage nut.

Starting with the basics, Whang compared drives and reader interface pads that looked similar to the MK4001MTD. Yes, it looks somewhat like an SD card with an MMC-style connector. So, various old/spare readers were used with the Toshiba drives to see what happened. Eventually, Whang decided to build their own reader based around the USB2240 flash media controller chip. It thus became possible to use a logic analyzer to see what signals were going where.

Unfortunately, it became clear that “this was not behaving like a normal SD or MMC storage device.” So, more analysis would be necessary, which would extend all the way into a reverse engineering effort.

For this next stage of the project, Whang acquired a beaten-up but usable Nokia N91. This mobile device was one of the rare MK4001MTD adopters back in the mid-noughties.

After getting the old phone to boot, so they could capture the traces, the purpose of each pad became much clearer. “The traces confirms this is a 4-bit SD/MMC interface and N91 service manual pin connection is indeed correct. The bus activity showed CMD52 traffic, which immediately pointed toward SDIO rather than a normal memory-card mode,” says Whang. “Looking further into the command contents, it also appeared that ATA-style commands such as IDENTIFY DEVICE were being transported over that interface.”

With the rough idea about what was going on, the maker decided to leverage OpenClaw to look after the software side of a USB reader solution. The AI agent was broadly successful, notes Whang, as it “successfully reverse-engineered the logic traces by building its own SDIO decoder, then wrote firmware for the Pico that exposes the drive as USB mass storage.”

Encouraged by the OpenClaw success, Whang decided to turn to Oups 4.6 and later GPT-5.4 for an improved result, which worked with their breadboarded Pico and a hand-wired drive.

Hardware design stage

Now happy with the software, firmware, and interface design, Whang decided to fire up KiCad and design a custom PCB for a neat, professional-looking solution. It shares the design language of the maker’s prior 1-inch MicroDrive project.

The result is that USB access to the MK4001MTD works reliably but is a pedestrian 0.42 MB per second read/write speed, at best, with the SDIO clock set to 10 MHz. This Toshiba drive was a measly 4GB (less than a DVD capacity), but at such a slow transfer speed, it would take about two and a half hours to read a full HDD or write it to full.

Whang concludes that they are happy with the collaborative work with a reasoning-focused LLM, and future projects might follow a similar structure. All the source code, hardware design files, and more have been shared on GitHub under the most liberal “I don’t care” license.

It's not a fun time to be a computing enthusiast in Germany. Besides the high RAM and SSD prices everyone else is experiencing, both Asus and Acer's German websites are completely down due to the companies' recent spat with Nokia over the HEVC codec — meaning customers can't find any downloads or reach support pages for their hardware. (For example, obtaining BIOS updates and drivers.) Computerbase.de first reported the news.

It's not just the German websites that are offline; any German user trying to work around the issue by visiting the US version of the websites will also be redirected to a page stating the sites are unreachable. Trying to use a VPN and setting (for example) a U.S. location to reach the German sites doesn't work either. Their only recourse is to use a VPN endpoint outside Germany and visit the non-German websites to find downloads for their wares.

In a further update to the original story, ComputerBase has now confirmed that affected users can obtain drivers for Asus motherboards using the Asus DriverHub; this won't work on notebooks or NUCs, and requires the aforementioned software (the site is still inaccessible). The site has further identified a workaround enabled by visiting Acer's Swiss support website, which is published in German, so it doesn't even require translation.

The origin of this issue is the recent lawsuit from Nokia against both companies over royalties for the HEVC codec. Nokia managed to get a German court to issue an injunction against both makers, blocking them from "offering, placing on the market, using, or importing or possessing such devices in Germany." It's worth noting that Germany is the largest consumer computing market in Europe.

In a public statement, Asus said that "all after-sales services in Germany remain fully operational, and existing customers will continue to receive uninterrupted support in full compliance with the current court order," adding that it is "evaluating and pursuing further legal action to reach a fair resolution as soon as possible".

The fact that the websites are completely down runs counter to this statement. There's no telling if email support has also been taken offline, but you couldn't even find that to begin with. The fact that — at least for Asus — the blocking also affects German users visiting the U.S. website also seems excessive.

In a further response to this story, Acer issued Tom's Hardware with the following statement: "Acer respects the intellectual property of other companies and organizations. In accordance with a ruling by the Munich Regional Court between Nokia and Acer we were required to temporarily suspend our sales activities in Germany for the impacted products. At the same time, we are reviewing additional legal options in order to reach a fair solution as quickly as possible. As long as the litigation is ongoing, we cannot comment on further details. Numerous product categories such as monitors, routers, e‑scooters, and accessories are not impacted by the ruling and remain available."

While it's hard to pin down the exact rationale for a complete geo-block of both German websites and German users, it's simply due to unintended consequences. In theory, all the companies would have to do would be to ensure that their respective German online stores are disabled, and that any other regions' stores no longer ship to Germany, but the block is much broader.

It's also not impossible that the injunction's wording could be overly broad, and the companies are playing on the safe side. In the past, Oppo/OnePlus, Vivo, and Lenovo went through similar situations, but reports indicate that their respective websites weren't completely taken offline.

Acer and Asus have temporarily stopped selling desktop and laptop PCs in Germany after a German court granted Nokia an injunction prohibiting the sale of their products. According to HardwareLuxx [machine translated], the two manufacturers are prohibited from “offering, placing on the market, using, or importing or possessing such devices in Germany.”

While this might seem as though their products would disappear from store shelves overnight, that is unlikely, as German retailers are unaffected by the ruling. Most consumers would not experience this in the short term, as many retailers still have Asus and Acer computers in stock. However, given that the two companies cannot import new units to replenish their warehouses, we expect a shortage of these brands in the medium term, unless the German court concludes the lawsuit sooner or they reach a deal with Nokia.

The High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) or H.265 video compression standard is at the heart of this case, with Nokia alleging that Acer, Asus, and the TV manufacturer Hisense are infringing three patents relating to the standard. Hisense decided to purchase a license from the company in January, but Acer and Asus are still fighting out the allegations in court.

HEVC is considered a standard-essential patent (SEP) due to its widespread use. This technology is supported by almost all integrated GPUs, discrete GPUs, and SoCs and is essential to many operating systems, streaming applications, video conferencing services, and other software. Although there are alternatives such as AV1, not implementing HEVC on a PC would significantly impact the user experience, making it virtually a requirement for every computer manufacturer.

This wasn’t a problem for OEMs before, as their suppliers typically covered all license requirements for using specific technologies. However, it appears that both Acer and Asus have encountered issues in their HEVC implementation, prompting both companies to suspend sales of all affected products. Because of HEVC’s SEP status, Nokia must license it on FRAND or Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory terms. Although the two companies state that they respect intellectual property, Germany has a stricter interpretation of FRAND regulations and has determined that both infringe Nokia’s patents.

The classic Snake game squeezed a lot of entertainment onto the basic screens that 90s style dumb phones used to rely on. However, a new version of Snake, coded to run in your browser’s URL address bar, makes playing it on your old Nokia brick feel luxuriously high-res and futuristic. Despite the cramped confines of the URL bar, though, developer Demian Ferreiro must be applauded for keeping the fast, and precise, yet frustrating gameplay of the original intact.

The animated GIF we’ve embedded gives you a flavor of URL Snake. This gameplay capture certainly puts my efforts to shame (best score = 2), showing my reflexes and timing aren’t really adequate for this kind of classic twitch gaming title.

Ferreiro candidly admits that URL snake “is kind of a joke.” Nevertheless, he is willing to refine the game and welcomes bug reports, ideas, and pull requests on the URL Snake GitHub repository.

Coding URL Snake

Via the GitHub page, you can take a look at URL Snake’s public domain code. The minimalist address bar-hosted app is coded in under 400 lines of JavaScript, utilizing Unicode manipulation for rendering the game in the URL bar, among its techniques.

On the topic of the game’s visuals, this particular edition of Snake runs in a 40x4 pixel grid, and RequestAnimationFrame is used for smooth rendering of the grid of Braille characters. Due to the limited vertical canvas of this version of the game, you'd better be prepared to change direction extremely quickly if you direct the snake to move up or down.

If you are wondering what inspired Ferreiro to code URL Snake, the developer seems to have actually forgotten its origin story. However, on Hacker News earlier today, Ferreiro revealed that he might have been drawn into the project by the unique qualities of the Unicode Braille system.

“Turns out each Braille symbol fits within a 2x4 grid of points. That's 2 possible states (point is on or off) for each of those 8 points. So 2^8 = 256 possible values. That's a byte!” enthused Ferreiro. “And luckily, Unicode encodes all those 256 possible values, and maps them to codepoints in a very systematic way.” The Snake game fitted well with the underlying animation possibilities that the Braille system opened up.

Browsing history inflation

In an unexpected turn of events Justin Hotard, the executive vice president and general manager of the Data Center and AI Group (DCAI) at Intel, left the company to become chief executive of Nokia. Intel has appointed an internal head for its datacenter and AI unit and will start searching for a new permanent general manager immediately. 

"We have a strong DCAI team that will continue to advance our priorities in service to our customers," a statement by Intel reads. "Karin Eibschitz Segal has been appointed interim head of the DCAI business and is an accomplished executive with nearly two decades of Intel leadership experience spanning products, systems and infrastructure roles. We are grateful for Justin Hotard's contributions and wish him the best in his new role." 

Justin Hotard joined Intel from HPE in early 2024. His tenure was arguably a mixed bag, though much of what he oversaw was more or less in place before he arrived. Intel successfully launched its Xeon 6 'Granite Rapids' and 'Sierra Forest' CPUs for servers,  but sales of its Gaudi 3 processors for AI missed the company's own rather modest expectations. In addition, the company had to cancel its Falcon Shores as a product and delay its Clearwater Forest datacenter CPU by at least a quarter. 

Justin Hotard has over 25 years of experience working at major technology companies. Before joining Intel, he held leadership positions at Hewlett Packard Enterprise and NCR Corporation. His background includes expertise in AI and datacenter markets, which are said to be critical areas for Nokia's future. 

"I am delighted to welcome Justin to Nokia," said Sari Baldauf, Chair of Nokia’s Board of Directors. "He has a strong track record of accelerating growth in technology companies along with vast expertise in AI and datacenter markets, which are critical areas for Nokia's future growth. In his previous positions, and throughout the selection process, he has demonstrated the strategic insight, vision, leadership and value creation mindset required for a CEO of Nokia." 

Nokia's current CEO Pekka Lundmark will step down on March 31, 2025, and Justin Hotard will take over the role starting April 1, 2025. Lundmark will stay on as an advisor until the end of the year. Hotard will be based in Espoo, Finland, where Nokia’s headquarters are located. 

Lundmark has led Nokia since 2020, a period marked by significant challenges. Under his leadership, the company strengthened its position in 5G technology, cloud-based network infrastructure, and patent licensing. With this leadership change, Nokia aims to continue its transformation, focusing on AI, datacenters, and next-generation connectivity. 

"I am honored by the opportunity to lead Nokia, a global leader in connectivity with a unique heritage in technology," said Justin Hotard. "Networks are the backbone that power society and businesses, and enable generational technology shifts like the one we are currently experiencing in AI. I am excited to get started and look forward to continuing Nokia's transformation journey to maximize its potential for growth and value creation." 

Justin Hotard leaves a couple of months after Pat Gelsinger, chief executive of Intel, was ousted by the board of directors. As a result, Intel now does not have a permanent CEO or a permanent head of its key DCAI unit.

The European Union has agreed on the plan to invest €43 billion ($47 billion) in its semiconductor sector in a bid to significantly increase production of chips locally and bring in advanced fabrication processes to its member countries. The move is also designed to build up the local semiconductor supply chain and avoid chip shortages for important sectors such as automotive.

"We have a deal on EU #ChipsAct," Thierry Breton, European Commissioner on internal markets tweeted. "In a geopolitical context of de-risking, Europe is taking its destiny into its own hands. By mastering the most advanced semiconductors, EU will become an industrial powerhouse in markets of the future."

Nowadays only around 10% of chips produced globally are made in the European Union. Meanwhile, most of the chips for EU's automotive, IT, and telecom industries are made outside of Europe, which creates challenges for companies like Ericsson, Volkswagen, and Nokia. The European Chips act is designed to increase the share of chips produced in the EU to 20% (by value) by 2030.

One of the things that the European Union is particularly concerned about is that all advanced processors, such as those that power world's fastest supercomputers (including Finland's Lumi, the most powerful supercomputer in Europe) are made either in the U.S., Taiwan, or South Korea. The European Chips Act is designed to lure chip manufacturers with leading-edge process technologies to the bloc.

Meanwhile, it's not just leading producers who will get money from the EU. While originally the European Commission suggested financing solely state-of-the-art fabs, by now EU authorities and legislators have expanded the range to encompass the entire value chain, incorporating mature chip production and research and development centers, reports Reuters.

"The European vision to double our global market share by 2030 to 20%, and produce the most sophisticated and energy-efficient semiconductors in Europe, is already attracting substantial private investment," Breton said in a statement published by Bloomberg. "Now we are mobilizing considerable public funding and the regulatory framework to turn this vision into reality."

In the past, year EU member countries have already done quite a lot to attract leading chipmakers. Intel will continue to use its most advanced production nodes at its Ireland fabs and will build an all-new production campus in Germany, where it will make its most advanced processors.

"We have a Chips Act," said Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for a Europe fit for the Digital Age, in a Twitter post. "We need chips to power digital and green transitions or healthcare systems. Lots of promise and a lot of day-to-day convenience. Today's Trilogue agreement boosts EU capacity to produce our own chips. And to be a partner in the global chips supply chain."

By now, all major chip producing countries, including Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and the U.S., have either legislated their semiconductor funding laws, or are about to pass them. As a result, it's not going to be easy for EU to catch up with the market leaders.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has decided to start an investigation based on a patent infringement complaint filed by VideoLabs, a patent aggregator, against four big PC makers from China and Taiwan. The plaintiff asks the ITC to issue a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders to prevent the importation of select devices by Acer, Asus, MSI, Motorola Mobility, and Lenovo into the U.S. 

VideoLabs asserts that PCs (and other devices) made by Acer, Asus, MSI, Motorola Mobility (owned by Lenovo), and Lenovo featuring certain GPUs with video processing capabilities infringe four patents owned by the patent aggregator. VideoLabs filed the complaint against the PC makers with the U.S. ITC on July 1, 2022. The Commission will now conduct an investigation and if it finds that those computers infringe patents owned by the plaintiff, it may ban sales of certain products by the aforementioned companies in the U.S. 

Three U.S. patents in question — 7,769,238, 8,139,878, 8,208,542 — cover video coding methods developed in early 2000s by Panasonic. Meanwhile, the fourth patent — 7,372,452 — describes a method of video playback on portable devices with automatic adjustment according to a rotating direction of the screen. It was originally issued to Samsung in early 2000s. The patents can seemingly be applied to almost all modern devices with video processing and display capabilities, including PCs, media players, smartphones, tablets, and even televisions. 

Acer, Asus, MSI, Motorola Mobility, and Lenovo have yet to issue comments on the investigation by the ITC. 

Established in 2018, VideoLabs specializes in the aggregation of video processing IP. Since its foundation, the company has acquired hundreds of patents from numerous holders and licensed them to a variety of companies, including Disney, and two Fortune 100 companies. In the last 18 months or so, VideoLabs has also filed patent infringement complaints against Amazon, Dell, Meta, and Netflix. 

VideoLabs owns patents originating from Nokia Corp., Alcatel-Lucent, Siemens AG, Swisscom AG, 3Com, Panasonic and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). In fact, HPE, Kudelski S.A., and Swisscom are members in the VideoLabs patent collective.

The Russian high-tech market is poised for a colorshift towards the gray side. The country's latest steps to dodge economic and technology sanctions consist of legalizing the import of goods regardless of whether or not they have permission from the copyright holders. Russians will thus still be able to access hardware from the likes of AMD, Intel, Apple, Asus, Huawei, and others, despite these companies' decision to no longer provide their products in the heavily-sanctioned country.

It's reported that the Russian government itself worked on the list of companies and products now allowed for sale in the parallel market via its Ministry of Industry and Trade. In a bid to stem the bleeding of cutting-edge tech for both its governmental infrastructure and its citizens, the country has added car brands (such as Bentley, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Skoda, Tesla, Toyota, etc.) and their replacement parts, such as branded tires (Michelin, Goodyear, etc) to its listing.

Alongside cars, smartphones, and computers (from the likes of Apple, Asus, Samsung, Nokia, Sony, Lenovo, etc) also made the cut, alongside TVs, their accessories, and games consoles. The listing even extends towards tech-assisted activities such as mining, electricity, rail and shipping, agriculture, timber processing and other areas economic activity.

So-called "gray markets" usually operate on thin legal grounds. Suppliers in a gray market usually take advantage of price differences and arbitrage opportunities by acquiring goods in official (and sometimes even unofficial channels) wherever products' MSRP is set at comparatively lower values, finally importing them towards other markets.

This marks a departure from Russia's previous stance, which called for the destruction of goods imported into its country via unofficial channels - in line with general copyright law. But as times and sanctions change, so does Russia's line between legal and illegal. 

But Russia's attempt at skirting sanctions isn't a foolproof way of opening up its market to imports; affected companies will surely be loathe to fulfill any warranty claims for products not legally sold within the country's borders. And "gray" market importers may find themselves on the bad side of Russian law enforcement, should they fail to comply with the country's demands for pre-installing Russian-developed software in sold electronics. Russia imposed a moratorium on those fines — but it could just as quickly reverse it, catching importers on the curve.

The policy change is just another one in the bucket of moves Russia has already done to combat tightening sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine. Part of Russia's strategy has already been called by the U.S., which recently cracked down on Russia-based cryptocurrency miners. All bets are off regarding where the future of sanctions, and their counters, will bring estranged Russia.

Kristian from the YouTube channel Krisseck shared a really cool Raspberry Pi accessory this week, and it’s overflowing with nostalgia. After rummaging through some hardware, he came across a shield featuring an refurbished display panel from a Nokia cell phone.

Some of the best Raspberry Pi projects we’ve come across recycle old hardware, and PCD8544 shields are definitely in that ballpark. Kristian found a Raspberry Pi PCD8544 v2.0 Shield created by a now-defunct developer known as Arduino King. The shield plugs directly into the Pi’s GPIO and lets you control a black and white matrix measuring 48 x 48 pixels. 

There are other companies that produce Raspberry Pi modules with refurbished Nokia displays, including the Nokia 5110/3310 monochrome LCD from Adafruit. As of writing, Adafruit is out of stock, but the website offers a sign-up form for notification emails.

The biggest hurdle you’ll face when using one of these displays is choosing a library. In Kristian’s case, ArduinoKing.com is no longer around, and finding the right software to control the screen wasn’t easy. Kristian tried a couple of PCD8544 libraries, including one known as Luma and another from Adafruit, with little success. He eventually landed on a script offered by Haoyu, a third-party reseller of the Arduino King shield. The script enabled SPI emulation to get the display to function properly.

If you’re going to add a small LCD to your Raspberry Pi, you might as well do it in style, and this is a sure-fire way to add a retro flair to your project. Check out the full video at YouTube and be sure to follow Kristian for more cool projects.

The worst thing about modern smartphones and handheld videogame consoles is the lack of Snake. If you can’t play a quick game of Snake during meetings, then what’s the point? Enter Hari Wiguna, who has, via Hackaday, got the game running on a Raspberry Pi Pico and a tiny OLED screen.

The Raspberry Pi Pico, a $4 programmable microcontroller board from the Raspberry Pi Foundation, features a  a dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ processor with 264KB internal RAM (compared to 1KB on the Nokia 3310, the home of Nokia’s Snake II). And of course, what else could you code Snake in but MicroPython?

Wiguna’s code is fully available on Github for anyone who fancies having a go themselves. Along with the Raspberry Pi Pico, Wiguna used an I2C 128 x 64 OLED screen and five buttons - four for movement and the fifth to start a new game. 

The snake’s slithery undulating movement is a fine showcase for both the Pico’s abilities and Wiguna’s coding ability - and the design drawings documented on the site give an insight into the amount of work it takes just to chase apples across 8,000 pixels.

Nokia today announced its collaboration with Intel on 5G infrastructure silicon, including working together on Intel's recently announced Atom P5900 processor (formerly Snow Ridge). Nokia will also adopt Cascade Lake in its cloud data center solution for a common architecture "from cloud to edge."

Intel announced its portfolio of silicon for 5G New Radio network infrastructure early last week (it originally planned to announce this at Mobile World Congress). It introduced the Atom P5900 series as its first x86 SoCs for base stations. Nokia, ZTE and Ericsson were said to be adopters, and Intel claimed it was on track for 40% market share by 2021 already.

• Best gaming CPUs of 2020
• Intel drops 10nm Tremont Atom P5900

Intel's SoC is included in Nokia's AirScale radio access products, which are now shipping. AirScale is part of Nokia's Powered by ReefShark line-up. 

“By adopting ReefShark widely in its AirScale portfolio, Nokia is significantly boosting performance and lowering the energy footprint of 5G network rollouts," Nokia said in a statement. 

Nokia said the new ReefShark chipsets improve performance and have a reduced energy footprint. They have previously been rumored to leverage Intel Custom Foundry’s 10nm process technology, but Nokia did not specify the process technology. It is unclear how committed Intel still is to its foundry business after its 10nm delays and whether this affected adoption of its foundry business.

Additionally, Nokia said it will continue to adopt the latest, second-generation Xeon Scalable processors in its AirFrame cloud data center solution. Nokia did not clarify if this refers to the Cascade Lake refresh that Intel also announced last week, but said that this realized the benefits of a common (Intel) architecture from cloud to edge. Nokia also uses Xeons for its AirScale vRAN and 5G core solutions.

Dan Rodriguez, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Network Platforms Group, said: “Implementing technology innovations from the core to the edge of the network is key to unlocking the full potential of 5G. Through our collaboration with Nokia, our broad portfolio of products and ASIC capabilities, we are showing the value that can be realized with a consistent, high-performance architecture across the intelligent 5G network.”

According to a Wall Street Journal report this week, the U.S. government is considering banning all 5G equipment made in China from being sold or even used in the U.S. The move could impact Chinese 5G modem makers, as well as Nokia and Ericsson, two European companies with manufacturing facilities in China.

In May, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning technologies that “pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States.” The order essentially targeted Huawei and other Chinese companies that could potentially enable Chinese government espionage against the U.S. through hardware or software backdoors. 

Huawei is already banned from selling telecom equipment in the U.S., so the latest move won’t directly impact Huawei. The new potential move from the U.S. government to ban companies that sell products manufactured in China seems to be more about the espionage and backdoor risk than it is about trade. However, getting European companies to stop making products in China would likely also put a dent in China’s economy.

After Huawei, Nokia and Ericsson are the largest telecom equipment vendors. WSJ reported Nokia and Ericsson have already started switching production outside of China, primarily due to the recent increase in U.S. tariffs against China-made products. According to Citi analysts Amit Harchandani and Robert Lamb, Ericsson’s Chinese manufacturing facilities account for 45% of its total manufacturing capacity, and 10% of Nokia’s manufacturing capacity is in China.

This means Ericsson should have a harder time switching its production outside of China than Nokia, which could lead to increased U.S. business for Nokia. However, both companies should ultimately profit from all the recent restrictions put against Huawei, including Huawei’s inability to license new Arm IP.

A Trump administration official told WSJ:

“The fourth industrial revolution will be built on the telecommunications networks being constructed today. It is critical that those networks be trusted.”

The WSJ report also said that the U.S. government has been in talks to other Asian countries about shifting U.S. businesses' production there.

There’s some fine ways to spend your free time, but trying to get Windows 10 to run on a variety of different ARM based devices probably isn’t going to make it into the top 100 of things people are most likely to do.

Nevertheless that’s exactly what this group of developers is doing. First reported by Windows Latest, Tweets from Ben Imbushuo suggests that a fully working version isn’t too far away, with it only requiring some minor tweaks, including one particularly big one to memory allocation.

All of this is possible thanks to Microsoft’s latest venture into its Windows 10 on ARM operating system. Capable of running on any system featuring a Snapdragon processor, this OS runs identically to its sister OS on mainstream desktops, albeit not quite as smooth (that’s down to a lack of performance). It even comes with x86 software emulation built in it as standard.

It’s already been plumbed into the latest Raspberry Pi 3 and pushed onto Nokia Lumia 950 smartphones too, flushing the last remaining Windows Phone OS out of there in favor of the fully fledged Windows 10 instead. One YouTuber even managed to demonstrate the Lumia 950 XL running the old school Fallout game on the device.

Nokia announced that it is refocusing Nokia Technologies to maximize its investment in digital health technology. As a result, the company will not be developing a new version of its stereoscopic OZO camera.

When Nokia Technologies introduced the OZO stereoscopic camera in July 2015, it seemed inevitable that the camera would play a big role in shaping the landscape of professional immersive video content. The OZO camera offers eight 4K sensors and eight corresponding wide field of view cameras. Each camera sensor in the OZO is accompanied by an omnidirectional audio sensor, which enables it to capture volumetric sound along with the 180-degree stereoscopic video.

Nokia was the first to market with a solution that could offer high-quality captures for the professional market with a single device. Nokia released the OZO in early 2016, but it would seem the company’s executive team had higher than realistic expectations for the VR market. Nokia announced that it would no longer be investing in the OZO brand. The company halted development of future models of the camera in favor of further investment into digital health technology.

Last year, Nokia revealed its intention to buy digital health company Withings to bolster its digital health business. Now that the acquisition is complete, Nokia phased out the Withings brand name and is ready to double down on its new brand image.

"Nokia Technologies is at a point where, with the right focus and investments, we can meaningfully grow our footprint in the digital health market, and we must seize that opportunity," said Gregory Lee, president of Nokia Technologies. "While necessary, the changes will also affect our employees, and as a responsible company we are committed to providing the needed support to those affected."

Nokia said the change in direction could affect the jobs of up to 310 of the 1,090 people employed by Nokia Technologies.

Nokia is halting further development of OZO VR cameras, but the company said it intends to maintain its commitments to existing customers. Nokia said that it would also focus on licensing its existing VR technologies to interested companies.

Microsoft seems to be close to firing almost everyone it hired as part of the acquisition of Nokia in 2013. The company announced that it will lay off another 2,850 employees by the end of the year, in a recent SEC filing, after announcing multiple layoffs from this division over the past two years.

Back in 2013, Microsoft announced that it would acquire Nokia’s smartphone division for $7.2 billion, after a two year-long partnership between the two companies in which Nokia had to sell Windows smartphones exclusively.

However, Microsoft’s Windows Phone market share never reached more than a few percentage points globally, which means Nokia was also limited by the Microsoft operating system’s success due to the exclusivity deal. After the Nokia division acquisition completed in 2014, Microsoft announced that it would lay off 18,000 employees from the same division, in an effort to reduce redundancy.

After another year, in 2015, Microsoft announced that it would completely write off the Nokia acquisition (which totaled $7.6 billion by then). Microsoft would also lay off 7,800 employees, mostly from the Nokia division. That signaled that the company’s smartphone hardware division failed, so it didn’t make anymore sense to put more money into it.

Since then, Microsoft’s new CEO, Satya Nadella, seems to have downplayed Windows 10 Mobile’s potential. He also recently announced that the company is downgrading its Windows 10 user base goal of 1 billion installs by 2018, because the Windows 10 Mobile platform isn’t growing as fast as he thought it would.

Earlier this year, Microsoft let go of another 1,850 employees, also from the smartphone division. Now, the company announced that another 2,850 employees would be laid off from that division. Since the acquisition, Microsoft seems to have fired over 30,000 employees from Nokia’s former smartphone division, or about a quarter of Microsoft's total number of employees (currently at 114,000).

Nokia is about to make a (presumably) triumphant return to the mobile market, with new smartphones and tablets and a new organization.

Tinfoil Hats

The timing of Nokia’s announcement was curious--mere hours before the I/O 2016 keynote where Google announced its Daydream mobile VR ecosystem--and we couldn’t help but put two and two together. Oh, and there’s the (admittedly thin) connection between the name of the newly-formed holding company for Nokia: HMD. Could it be a coincidence? Was mobile VR going to be a part of the Finnish company’s big play in mobile?

Sometimes, though, the news is that there’s no news. In an email, a representative from the Brunswick Group, which represents HMD (and by proxy, Nokia), was unequivocal: “I can confirm that HMD’s agreement with Nokia explicitly does not include other devices such as VR headsets (and Nokia has no plans to license it to HMD in the future). HMD is focused on phones and tablets.” He also stated that there is no connection between the timing of the Nokia announcement and Google’s VR news.

Missing The Train?

Sometimes, though, the news that there’s no news is news. Since Google’s Daydream VR announcement, we’ve been getting a steady stream of emails from companies large and small, letting us know that they’re jumping on the Daydream train, and how.

This is not at all surprising. What Google is doing with Daydream is essentially taking the Gear VR model of that’s-actually-pretty-good-VR-and-wow-it’s-mobile and blowing it wide open by removing the tight integration restrictions that Samsung and Oculus maintained. Now, with the Daydream reference designs, we should see a deluge of smartphone makers rolling out Daydream-compatible handsets and companion VR HMDs and controllers.

And Nokia is not going to be one of them.

We’ve written about how smartphone makers need to innovate to stand out from the throngs of far too similar devices, and one of those ways is to go into VR. That’s been the big Android buy-in, and now Google has pushed that even further. With its Lumia line, Nokia’s biggest differentiator was producing great hardware that ran Windows Mobile. Then Microsoft took the line over. Let’s assume that Nokia can still make killer hardware, but its devices are going to run Android now, not Windows 10 for mobile.

Therefore, Nokia dropped one of its two main selling points (insert “Windows 10 for mobile is the opposite of a selling point” dig here) and failed to add a major new one--one that most of its competitors will now leverage, most likely.

Why? There could be a couple of reasons. It’s possible that Nokia, intensely focused on relaunching and making new devices, just didn’t get the memo about Google’s VR plans. It also may think that VR simply isn’t worth pushing into--admittedly, we know little about Nokia’s marketing plans for its new devices. Maybe it wants to tackle the enterprise space instead of the consumer one, for example, in which case VR would be a fool’s errand.

What we do know of Nokia’s plans is that is has “conditionally” bought back its naming rights on feature phones (the agreement should close H2 2016), and it will be also be making Android-based smartphones and tablets. And it won’t be dabbling in VR.

Seth Colaner is the News Director for Tom's Hardware. Follow him on Twitter @SethColaner. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

Introduction

Bluetooth is everywhere—you'll find it in smartphones, tablets, laptops, TVs, cars, security systems, computer peripherals (mice, keyboads, headphones), smartwatches and more. A great many manufacturers in every sector of the tech industry have adopted Bluetooth for reliable and ubiquitous short-distance communication. But while most of us can decode the intricacies of a Wi-Fi connection by the standard's nomenclature, recognition of Bluetooth capabilities usually ends with the version number.

Bluetooth is fascinating, though—not just for its technical operation, but for the multi-national conglomerate of corporations standing behind it, and the work they do behind the scenes to makes sure Bluetooth is the standard. This article is an in-depth look at everything Bluetooth: the science, the tech, the security and the standard.

What Is Bluetooth?

In a nutshell, Bluetooth is a wireless communication specification operating on the unlicensed 2.4GHz band. It could be considered a short-range sibling of Wi-Fi. Where Wi-Fi enables wireless local area networks (WLANs) and ties together devices around some venue, Bluetooth enables wireless personal area networks (PANs) to enable communication in a 10-meter range (for Class 2 and Class 3 Bluetooth devices) and more than 100-meter range for Class 1 devices, mostly used for industrial applications. Even the low-power Class 2 and Class 3 devices are capable of greater than 10-meter range with the new networking and modulation schemes introduced by the Bluetooth standard in March 2016.

Wi-Fi, microwave ovens, drones and Bluetooth all operate on the 2.4GHz band. This frequency is categorized as "unlicensed" in most areas of the world. Unlicensed, however, does not mean unregulated—there are limits on the amount of power that can be transmitted, modulation schemes and unintentional out-of-band RF interference. Fortunately, operating a transmit/receive system does not require a user license. Otherwise we'd all have to take a radio operator course before enabling the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth functions on our smartphones, or even to turn on our microwave ovens.

Like all wireless communications technologies, Bluetooth requires a transmitter and receiver (with antennas on each), and modem-like control chips to modulate and demodulate the digital signal. These functions are usually integrated into one SoC that includes a transceiver, antenna and control chip. For more complex systems like smartphones, Bluetooth is often integrated into a multi-communication SoC that handles other wireless specifications as well.

Current implementations of Bluetooth come in two flavors: Bluetooth Basic Rate/Enhanced Data Rate (BR/EDR) and Bluetooth low energy (LE), also called Bluetooth Smart. The former establishes short-range connections for continuous data transfer (think headsets streaming music from a smartphone). Bluetooth LE is designed for short bursts of small data packets over a longer range in order to conserve battery life. Sensors, "smart" lightbulbs and other "smart home" devices are the ideal use-case for Bluetooth LE. Finally, some laptops and smartphones require both LE modes and BR/EDR modes, and this capability is offered by so-called "dual-mode" Bluetooth solutions.

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A Short History Of Bluetooth

In the tenth century, the Viking king Harald Blåtand (Harald Bluetooth in English) united large swathes of modern-day Norway and Denmark under his rule. Fast-forward to 1994, when Ericsson's R&D teams started investigating ways to connect computers and the "smartphones" of the day without cables. In 1997, Jim Kardach proposed the name "Bluetooth" for the new technology that would unify communications protocols like King Harald had united Scandinavia.

But Ericsson soon realized that implementing such a far-reaching, near-universal protocol would require cooperation on a vast scale. So, in 1998, along with Nokia, IBM, Intel and Toshiba, Ericsson founded the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The first formalized Bluetooth technical specification arrived in 1999. The standard's logo is a ligature of two runes from the Younger Futhark runic alphabet: Hagall (ᚼ) and Bjarkan (ᛒ), Harald Bluetooth’s initials.

Bluetooth Special Interest Group

The Bluetooth specification was conceived as a worldwide communications specification. The founding members of the SIG, apart from being the multi-national companies with the most to gain from Bluetooth's adoption, also represented geographic regions: Ericsson and Nokia were from Europe, Toshiba hailed from Asia, and IBM and Intel represented North and South America.

The SIG's day-to-day tasks involve Bluetooth advocacy to governments, legal issues, managing test processes and compliance, and publishing the Bluetooth specification.

Microsoft, Motorola, Lucent Technologies and 3Com also jointed the SIG, and these nine companies formed the upper-level SIG administrators, the "SIG Promoters." The current list of promoters includes Apple, Ericsson, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Nokia, and Toshiba.

"Associate Members" sign a legal document and pay an annual membership fee that allows them to participate in marketing and technical activities. They're also allowed to see draft documents 0.5 and above. With new Bluetooth specifications surfacing every few years, early drafts of the regulations provide Associate Members and the SIG Promoters an advantage in product design and deployment lead times. A third tier, called "Adopters," join for free, but still sign a legal memorandum of understanding. They have access to draft document versions 0.9 and above.

SIG membership is mandatory if a manufacturer wants to use the Bluetooth specification in products, or use the Bluetooth logo or other intellectual property.

IEEE, FCC, CE And Other Regulatory Acronyms

In the United States, the FCC allocates frequency bands for specific uses, the transmission power of devices in various configurations (narrowband vs. spectrum spread), modulation requirements and product certification for any product that has the potential for RF interference.

Most countries require some sort of licensing or approval of low-power devices operating on the 2.4GHz band, and also set limitations on power levels, modulation and other technical specifics of operation. Industry Canada (IC) handles this in Canada, there's CE for Europe and so on. And there are also country-specific requirements. For example, France sets geographical constraints, and Lithuania requires user licenses. Each regulation may also dictate the minimum and maximum number of channels Bluetooth can operate on.

The IEEE, a governing body that develops worldwide consensus standards on electronics, incorporated Bluetooth as standard 802.15.1. Wi-Fi is 802.11, in comparison.

Bluetooth Versions And Profiles

Bluetooth Versions

The SIG is continually modifying and updating the Bluetooth specification to keep up with demand and new technologies. Early access to these updated specifications, extended to the two top tiers of SIG members, can make a large difference in the time-to-market of consumer devices, and therefore long-term profits and market positioning of a company.

For consumers, upgrades to the Bluetooth standard introduce many benefits—greater security, more functionality (as with the enhanced data rate addition, and then the Bluetooth Low Energy specification for wearables), improved power consumption and paring reliability. All versions are backwards compatible, and the flagship features of each version are considered optional.

Bluetooth 1.x was plagued with a number of implementation and security problems, and is now obsolete. Bluetooth 2.x opened the gates to mass adoption of the standard, improved interoperability, and quick-pairing, and it introduced the Enhanced Data Rate capability. Bluetooth 3.x tacked on a High Speed feature by adding support for a lower layer link protocol where all Bluetooth capabilities could be run from an alternate radio in the device, like Wi-Fi. Finally, Bluetooth 4.x introduced Low Energy support for devices like wearables and smart sensors with very low data overhead.

Bluetooth Profiles

A Bluetooth profile is a set of pre-determined capabilities and a customized stack, determined by the type of operation intended. Profiles make it much easier to design for, implement and manage the very wide variety of Bluetooth operations needed for an application. For example, a car with Bluetooth capability would most commonly only implement the Hands Free Profile, containing a very customized protocol stack, but not implement the Serial Port Profile. Meanwhile, a sensor used for laboratory measurements would only implement the Serial Port Profile for collecting data, but would completely ignore the Audio/Video Remote Control Profile.

As of this writing, there are more than 33 profiles listed in the latest Bluetooth specification, and it allows for the addition of many more—as many as required for each new application class that may emerge in the coming years.

Certain profiles are usually implemented by all Bluetooth devices. For example, the Generic Access Profile (GAP) forms the basis of all other profiles and determines how two Bluetooth devices establish a connection. Other profiles are more specific, for example the Health Thermometer Profile (HTP) that facilities protocols for medical device data exchange.

Profile and device-specific APIs are a key element of many Bluetooth profiles, and implement the customized methods by which the protocol layers may interact.

Bluetooth Operation

Piconets

Bluetooth is designed for communication over a small network called a piconet. The simplest configuration is a point-to-point piconet, with one device designed as a "master" and the other a "slave." The master initiates the communication link, and in general, has control over the network's timing. Up to seven slaves can be connected to a master in a point-to-multipoint configuration. An example of this kind of operation is a smartphone (master) connecting to multiple Bluetooth slaves—a Bluetooth headset for streaming music, a Bluetooth keyboard as an input and a second smartphone for Bluetooth-based file transfers. This kind of system implies an ad-hoc network with no fixed roles or designations. Also, a Bluetooth master can dissolve its piconet and then go join a different piconet as a slave. Here's an example of Bluetooth network organization; Network 1 is a piconet in standalone mode, Network 2 is a scatternet:

A Bluetooth device can be a slave in more than one network (an example would be a multi-point Bluetooth headset that connects to a smartphone and a laptop simultaneously, and the data input from each source device switches the operation of the headset), or a slave in one network and a master in another. Configurations that go beyond the master-and-seven-slave setup are called scatternets.

Establishing A Bluetooth Piconet

Initiating a piconet is done by a master, and the Bluetooth protocol establishes a universal method for establishing links:

1. INQUIRY: the master sends out an inquiry to determine which devices are in range
2. INQUIRY RESPONSE: the devices hearing the inquiry respond with specific information (their paging parameters)
3. PAGE: the master then pages the specific device it wants to connect to
4. PAGE RESPONSE: the paged device acknowledges and responds
5. LINK PARAMETER EXCHANGE: now the two devices exchange their link parameters, and bi-directional data transfer can begin.

Each Bluetooth device can be in a number of states, depending on the commands sent to it (either internal, or based upon the type/commands of received data packets over the radio) and the type of operation that is expected of it. The three overall states are "standby," "connection," and "park." Each device maintains its own state, and the master maintains a list of its slaves' states (or expected states). There are also a number of sub-states: page, page scan, inquiry, inquiry scan, master response, slave response and inquiry response. 

Bluetooth Wireless Communication

While a detailed presentation of key RF transmission modulation techniques is outside the scope of this article, we present the basic skeleton of pertinent RF information required to gain a good understanding of Bluetooth communications.

If a digital signal composed of ones and zeros must be sent, the easiest way to do it would be to flick a switch "on" and "off"—any voltage-sensitive device connected to the circuit can then receive this data. Called the "baseband signal," this raw data needs to be bundled into a wireless RF carrier wave for it to be transmitted by a radio instead of over wires. There are many ways to handle this: the classic "AM" (Amplitude Modulated) and "FM"(Frequency Modulated) signals of analog radio, and Phase-Shift modulation.

Putting information onto a carrier RF wave is called modulation, and extracting the data (on the receiver’s end) is called demodulation. Incidentally, this is exactly what a modem is: a modulator and demodulator of signals. The act of modulating a signal is called "keying," and the individual schemes go by the acronyms that reflect this: FSK (Frequency-Shift Keying), PSK (Phase-Shift Keying) and so on. Each scheme has its own advantages and disadvantages, namely hardware requirements and the inherent error rate (BER, or Bit Error Rate) at a given power level. Either way, the schemes use a single bit (one or zero) to make a change in the symbol being sent in the carrier wave, so the symbol rate is also the bitrate of the signal.

Decoding the specific modulation requirements of the Bluetooth specification are also beyond the scope of this article, but for completeness, they are:

1.  GFSK with a Bandwidth-Time product of 0.5
2. Symbol rate of 1Ms/s (bitrate of 1 Mb/s)
3. Modulation index 0.28 < k < 0.35
4. Convention: 1 is positive, 0 is negative in terms of frequency delay
5. Symbol timing greater than 20ppm
6. A "zero crossing error" (i.e. the error in the times the frequency fluctuates between positive and negative ) no greater than 20 percent of the total time it takes to transmit one symbol.
7. A minimum frequency delay of 115kHz
8. Frequency delay of a 1010 sequence must be, at minimum, 80% of a delay of a 00001111 sequence.

It is disingenuous to claim that error rates drove the modulation scheme for Bluetooth—any modulation scheme is capable of low error rates and high data density, but the trade-off is a matter of SNR (signal-to-noise ratio). In order to meet the low-cost goals of the project, the Bluetooth specification settled on FSK. Amplitude modulation consumes the same amount of power as frequency modulation, however it must be designed to handle double the peak powers, which means expensive components. And though PSK has a far better SNR, the hardware components required for phase detection rule it out as a Bluetooth-enabling method of modulation. So, the Bluetooth specification takes FSK, adds Gaussian Baseband Filtering (a filter that cuts out certain frequencies in order to smooth out the jagged power transitions in the FM signal) and implements Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying (GFSK) as a modulation technique. But with enhanced data rate operation implemented in later versions of the Bluetooth specifications, two separate modulation schemes are used—GFSK for basic data rate tasks (or the basic data rate portion of the packet) and DPSK (Differential Phase-Shift Keying) for the enhanced data rate additions to the transmission.

The next core RF technique that is integral to Bluetooth operation is Frequency Hopping. While the 2.4GHz band extends from 2.4GHz to 2.483GHz, Bluetooth transmits on a channel with a bandwidth of 1MHz. So Bluetooth can utilize up to 79 channels in the band, starting at 2.402GHz and going up in increments of 1MHz. Frequency Hopping means continually changing channels while transmitting a stream of data. This is one of the techniques (in fact, the core of almost all techniques) used to mitigate interference effects in the crowded 2.4GHz band. It also assists in forming the Bluetooth security strategy. Channel hopping rates, timing synchronization between devices and channel set protocols are all defined in the Bluetooth specification.

The final area pertinent to Bluetooth operations is transmission power. The transmission power of the transmitter, the sensitivity of the receiver, the RF bandwidth available and the actual RF frequency of the transmission determine the data transmission rate and the distance an RF link is operated over. Given that the channel bandwidths and the actual frequency are pre-determined by the Bluetooth specification, this leaves transmission power and receiver sensitivity, as variables that determine the effective range of Bluetooth devices.

The SIG defines three classes of Bluetooth devices based on transmit power. These mirror the classes of radios allowed on the ISM band by the FCC (maximum power limits in Europe are lower than those of North America, and the SIG uses the maximum worldwide allowable power to determine power thresholds). Class 1 devices are usually Bluetooth add-on modules for desktop computers, powered hubs, industrial equipment and other devices that need to maximize range. Capable of reaching up to 100 meters, Class 1 devices are restricted to a maximum power of 100mW (20dBm).

Class 2 devices have a typical range of 10 meters. They're the most common Bluetooth modules in headsets and peripherals. Battery life is important here, and the maximum permitted power for Class 2 devices is 2.5mW. Class 3 devices are designed for very short-range communications (typically within 1m). Wearables are a common application well-suited to Class 3 modules with a maximum permitted power of 1mW.

The range of a Bluetooth device is also determined by receiver sensitivity—Class 1 and Class 2 devices generally share about the same level of sensitivity (-75 to -60 dB), but ranges greater than 100m can be accomplished when two Class 1 devices, or Class 1 and Class 2 devices with very high-sensitivity receivers are linked together.

Even the guideline 10m range is not a constant—physical obstacles, walls and multiple reflections all affect the distance a signal will travel. Sometimes the impact is positive, but it's usually negative.

Interference

There are many, many different classes and sources of interference for Bluetooth on the 2.4GHz band. RF signals bounce off walls, internal device components and furniture, creating a "multipath" problem at the receiver. In some cases, the signal strength of a reflected RF wave may be stronger than the direct line-of-sight signal! So, a real-world multipath scenario may be used to enhance the signal strength and range of a Bluetooth transmission (as in the case of a long, narrow corridor). More often than not, though, it'll act as a source of interference and signal loss due to the time delay between the primary and reflected signals, leading to confusion at the receiver. Yes, a Bluetooth device can interfere with itself.

Then there is Bluetooth interference from other piconets, or even other devices within the same piconet. Since each master-slave connection synchronizes its channel-hops and timings, there is low probability that a packet will be mistakenly accepted from a foreign piconet or device, but it will be received nonetheless.

The final class of interference comes from other protocols on the 2.4GHz band—microwave ovens and, a more likely culprit, Wi-Fi. A number of studies were done to determine the effect of Wi-Fi interference on Bluetooth and vice versa, and most conclude that two meters  between a Bluetooth transmitter and Wi-Fi node reduces interference to operable levels. However, a Class 1 Bluetooth transmitter in close proximity to a Wi-Fi receiver can, and does, pose significant problems in maintaining a low BER, choking the data rates for both standards.

The core of most passive interference mitigation strategies is channel hopping. If a Bluetooth device determines that there is narrowband interference on a channel, the next hop will solve the problem. And since the channel hops of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are not synchronized, the likelihood of a receiver listening at the exact time and frequency channel that a foreign device is sending drops significantly.

Active interference mitigation can be handed either collaboratively or non-collaboratively. A non-collaborative approach used in cases where the source of interference is completely unknown is rejecting signals below a certain threshold determined by the very first packet that established the signal and link. Other non-collaborative strategies can be considered filtering-based as well. Forward error-correction is also used to mitigate some of the problems arising out of interference.

Collaborative interference mitigation is used most often in devices like smartphones, where Wi-Fi, cellular and other sources of RF radiation sit on the same chip as the Bluetooth module. This is an intensive and expensive approach, requiring close coordination and high-level control. Essentially, the host device’s controller manages several important parameters in order to make sure each radio operates without interference from another in close proximity. This allows strong Bluetooth transceivers and antennas to coexist within a few square centimeters of powerful Wi-Fi transceivers.

The Stack And Packet Exchange

The Bluetooth Stack

The Bluetooth stack is a set of hierarchical protocols designed to deal with the data required to make a successful Bluetooth session. These protocols can be divided into two areas. First is the lower stack, also called a “controller stack”, which contains the timing and radio control protocol (where the Bluetooth header information is used to determine channel-hopping synchronization, for example, or rejecting a channel for too much interference). Then there's the upper stack, also called the “host stack,” which deals with the higher-level data, for example the “how” of dealing with a two-way VoIP call’s audio requirements over a Bluetooth connection.

The controller stack is most commonly implemented in the hardware of the Bluetooth module/chip itself. The relevant protocols are:

1. ACL, or Asynchronous Connection-Less, a protocol for sending error-sensitive data like a document. The connection is asynchronous because the receiver and transmitter take turns sending while the other receives. ACL implements forward error-correction and retransmission of a data packet in the absence of acknowledgement.
2. SCO, or Synchronous Connection-Oriented, a link protocol used for voice data, where each transmitter in the link simply sends data during its time slot without waiting for acknowledgement. There is no retransmission of data, but forward error-correction can be implemented.
3. LMP, or Link Manager Protocol, used to handle link establishment between radios, queries and power control.
4. LE LL, or Low Energy Link Layer, an equivalent of LMP for Bluetooth Low Energy links.
5. HCI, or Host Controller Interface, a standardized communication protocol used to bridge the host stack and the control stack. There are multiple standards for HCI, and multiple hardware implementations.

The host stack most commonly sits at the operating system level of a PC, smartphone or other advanced device. In certain cases, like Bluetooth headsets, there may be no host stack at all, or a simplified host stack implemented in the device firmware. Protocols inherent in the host stack are:

1. L2CAP, or Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol, used to pass packets from the host to the HCI, or, when the HCI is omitted, directly to the LMP. L2CAP multiplexes data between different higher-layer protocols (voice data for a phone call transmitted alongside data input from a Bluetooth keyboard, for example), segments and reassembles Bluetooth data packets.
2. BNEP, or Bluetooth Network Encapsulation Protocol, used to deliver network packets above L2CAP.
3. RFCOMM, or Radio Frequency Communication, a protocol used to emulate RS-232 serial ports.
4. SDP, or Service Discovery Protocol, used to allow devices to discover each others' service parameters and which Bluetooth profiles are supported.
5. TCS, or Telephony Control Protocol Specification, used to set up and control calls (voice and data) between devices.
6. AVCTP, or Audio/Video Control Transport Protocol, used to transfer Audio Video Control over the L2CAP link.
7. AVDTP, or Audio/Video distribution Transport Protocol, designed for audio and video distribution (such as streaming music to stereo headsets).
8. OBEX, or Object Exchange, used for simple data exchange between devices, for example a document or image.
9. ATT, or low energy ATTribute Protocol, the low-energy equivalent of SDP
10. SMP, or Low Energy Security Manager, a protocol used for pairing and specific key distribution.

Apart from the location of implementation, the stack can be divided according to the type of link:

• Physical Links: a baseband connection between two devices, associated with exactly one physical channel. Physical link properties include power control, link supervision and encryption.
• Logical Transports: data transport between master and slaves. These include SCO and ACL.
• Logical Links: “virtual” links that control various transports. These are defined to be Link Control, ACL Control, User Asynchronous/Isochronous (ACL-U), User Synchronous (SCO-S) and User Extended Synchronous (eSCO-S).

Bluetooth Packets And Packet Exchange

With the Enhanced Data Rate implemented as of Bluetooth v3.0, data packets are split into two types: the Basic Rate packet, which consists of the access code, header and payload, and the Enhanced Data Rate Packet, which consists of the access code, header, guard period, synchronization sequence, enhanced data rate payload and trailer. Here is what the basic data rate Bluetooth packet structure looks like:

Packet handling and packet sub-components defined by the Bluetooth specification can become rather involved. For example, the Access Code begins with a preamble, a sync-word and a trailer. The preamble and first bit of the sync word provide bit-synchronization, allowing the receiver to set a "decision threshold" of incoming signal strength for the lowest possible BER. The last portion of the sync word and the trailer provide data for decoding the header, which follows the Access Code. Further, there are multiple types of access codes, depending on the operation to be performed: the Channel Access Code (CAC) is included in all packets and is used by piconet members to determine whether they should accept the rest of the packet, the Device Access Code (DAC) is used by the master to page a specific device, the General Inquiry Access Code (GIAC) is used by the master to inquire which Bluetooth devices are within range and the Dedicated Inquiry Access Code (DIAC) is used by the master to page only a specific type of device (to page only printers in the building, for instance, not headsets or smartphones).

The packet header is a 54-bit, six-field entry providing the real data a piconet needs to function, including the addresses of the active slaves the master is addressing, the type of packet being sent (ACL or SCO, for example), the flow of packets to control buffering, an acknowledgement of successful receipt, a sequential number bit to prevent acceptance of duplicate or retransmitted packets and a unique sequence generated from a given polynomial function in order to protect the device from accepting an incorrect packet.

Packets consisting of only an access code and header are called NULL and POLL. They're used to convey flow, acknowledgement or ping a slave for a response.

The payload itself is the biggest chunk of data transmitted, and its structure varies depending on what kind of data is being transmitted.

Bluetooth Security

Bluetooth security employs three distinct features systematically: authentication between two devices, followed by acquiring permissions (authorization) and lastly, encryption. These three processes are implemented at several different layers in the protocol stack, leading to Bluetooth security being referred to as a “cross-layer function”. Security researchers at Kaspersky labs have referred to the Bluetooth specification as having “more security holes than Swiss cheese”. Based on a number of concerns, the pairing and authentication procedures have been updated with each revision.

Security begins with a potential master defining how it will be discovered, and options for connectivity:

1. Silent—this mode makes the device undetectable and the device doesn’t accept any connections, though it is able to detect Bluetooth traffic. The device can’t enter either the PAGE SCAN or INQUIRY SCAN state.
2. Private—in this mode, the device is able to enter into the PAGE SCAN state, but not INQUIRY SCAN. This status makes the device undiscoverable. 
3. Public—in this mode, the device can enter both the PAGE SCAN and INQUIRY SCAN states. It is therefore discoverable to other devices and implicitly open to connections.

The Generic Access Profile (GAP), which forms the basis of all other profiles, defines three different security modes for connections:

1. Mode 1 (non-secure) allows Bluetooth communication to take place between devices without authentication or encryption of the data.
2. Mode 2 (service-level enforced security) permits an Asynchronous Connection-Less (ACL) link between two devices without authentication or encryption. The connection is non-secure. Once the Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP) channel request is made, security procedures are initiated.
3. Mode 3 (link-level enforced security) allows security procedures to be initiated while the Asynchronous Connection-Less link is being established.

Vulnerabilities And Mitigation

Like all communication protocols, Bluetooth is inherently vulnerable in certain scenarios. One class of vulnerability is proximal—because of the somewhat restricted range of Bluetooth radios (though, given the right circumstances, this range can be much larger than you might anticipate), the majority of attacks have to come from a source physically close to the piconet. But even with such a constraint, snooping, spoofing, denial of service attacks and drive-by malware downloads all are potentially possible.

In 2001, flaws were discovered by Bell Laboratories in Bluetooth's pairing system protocol and encryption. In 2003, Ben and Adam Laurie of A.L Digital Ltd. determined that that the technology's security could lead to the disclosure of personal info due to poor implementations. In 2004, Kaspersky Lab discovered a virus that could be spread through Bluetooth on the Symbian OS. In 2006, researchers from F-Secure and Secure Network showed how devices left in a visible state could be accessed, and that they were vulnerable to worms spread through Bluetooth.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a guide in 2008 for Bluetooth security in organizations. The guide outlines the possible attacks: denial-of-service, eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle, message modification and resource misappropriation, and includes a security checklist with guidelines and recommendations. Unfortunately, a number of these strategies address concerns at the manufacturer or firmware implementation level, and may not always be part of SIG’s qualification process (especially when a pre-qualified or pre-certified module is used). Do all manufacturers, especially ones producing end-products with price tags below $20, comply with up-to-date security recommendations?

Automatic authentication of Bluetooth doesn’t apply to the user, but rather to the device. If an unauthorized individual gains access to that device, security is compromised. This is mitigated by setting user-authentication requirements at the application level, or the upper layers of the Bluetooth stack, where a password must be supplied before a Bluetooth state can be changed.

The flow of data over a Bluetooth link is bidirectional once a connection is established. An eavesdropper may not have access to the channel-hop or synchronization list, but given enough time to listen, the statistical likelihood of intercepting a packet that contains important data for the LM layer rises. Encryption is the primary mitigation strategy for this sort of attack. Then there are attacks where an eavesdropper may use a high-power transmitter and spoofed packet access codes/headers (extracted from the previously intercepted packet) to fool a receiver into rejecting the correct data packets while believing the attacker (based on higher transmit power) is the genuine source.

All of the above attacks have individual mitigation strategies. But the greatest cause of security nightmares is the scenario where a Bluetooth connection is established to a network like the Internet. Then, all bets are off. Even if the Bluetooth link and stack are secured and encrypted, support for legacy applications may require second- or third-party software to act as a liaison between the application and Bluetooth security manager, in which case the liaison itself might be compromised. When a connection is established to access infrastructure like a LAN or the Internet, and there are several layers required to establish the connection, there will be end-to-end issues that may make it necessary to implement a solution that includes Bluetooth security. Without this option, the user has to insert several passwords at different levels, and that could get frustrating.

To prevent eavesdropping in a point-to-point security setup where a master communicates with a single slave, a number of established steps are required for security to be set successfully. Setting up a Bluetooth passkey or a Personal Identification Number (PIN) enables the building of several 128-bit pass keys. The PIN is then used to create the initialization key, which is used to establish a link key that can either be a unit key or a combination key. A unit key is established in a device with limited resources, while a combination key can be established in majority of the latest devices. In the event that encryption is required, the link key is used to generate the encryption key.

For security measures to be effective (to the extent that they can be), authentication and authorization have to be implemented after establishing the Asynchronous Connection-Less (ACL) link. This is the equivalent of the GAP's Mode 2 security. The PIN, either set by the user or programmed into the Bluetooth unit found in the device, is one of the entities used to maintain high-level security. In most cases  where there is no man-machine interface (MMI), the PIN is preprogrammed. A common PIN is one that two devices share. When the PIN is entered on both devices, they create the same link key and the authentication process takes place. To ensure Bluetooth security, users are encouraged not to maintain a single PIN for multiple instances of connection, or multiple devices.  Pseudorandom number-generated PINs are used to establish secure links with devices that do not have a PIN. All Bluetooth devices have this feature enabled, allowing them to create 128-bit binary numbers once a request is made.

The authentication key (link key) ensures the legitimacy of other devices in the piconet. Due to its length and random generation, the authentication key makes it difficult for a third party to guess. These keys can either be used once or on a semi-permanent basis. Link keys also generate the encryption key where necessary. A device is considered trusted when it has authorization based on previous authentication to access various services. Devices are defined as untrusted when they require the user to insert a password for authorization to be granted.

On the flip side of the coin are the methods of attacking Bluetooth networks. Even the latest specification, 4.x, is vulnerable to many of these attacks, with new threats surfacing every day. The aptly named “Car Whisperer” accesses the audio stream from Bluetooth-enabled vehicles, and Redfang, the venerable Bluetooth snarfer, is joined by a number of software packages circulating openly on the Internet. There are some very high-end, polished products that were originally used for penetration testing and in-house security qualification that have since leaked to the darker shadows of the Web. Some common attacks enabled by Bluetooth’s vulnerabilities include:

• Bluejacking—when an unauthorized source sends a short data transmission, most often some text or a message, to an unsuspecting receiver.
• Bluesnarfing—unauthorized access to information on a Bluetooth host, allowing access to user files like documents, emails and pictures. Any device in a “discoverable” state is vulnerable to this. Bluesniping, where a directional antenna is used to target Bluetooth devices over 1km away, is a specific form of Bluesnarfing.
• Bluebugging—a short-range attack where a host/master is “tricked” into assuming an unauthorized device (with its ID spoofed to look like a legitimate Bluetooth headset) for redirecting calls and messages intended for the victim.

Hardware, Manufacturing And Host Integration

At the lowest level, a Bluetooth device has two key components: a radio and a baseband controller. Simple enough, right? But the small footprint, interoperability constraints and low-cost objectives of Bluetooth technology make manufacturing modules and devices a difficult engineering task when it comes to RF chip design. The challenge is appreciable enough that companies are fanatic about safeguarding their IP, and will often not provide detailed designs for the base Bluetooth IC/SoC even to the vendor that is manufacturing/integrating the final consumer device.

At the highest level of engineering design, the first decision to make about Bluetooth is its integration with the host product. There are almost as many ways to implement Bluetooth integration in a consumer end-product as there are classes of products. Broadly, they can be classified as:

• Integrated single-chip, where the baseband circuits and Bluetooth radio are completely integrated into the host SoC module. This type of approach is most commonly used in headsets, and the design complexity of a single chip like this is overshadowed by the lower cost of manufacturing and integration.
• Standalone single-chip, where a single Bluetooth SoC containing the baseband circuitry and radio is integrated into a larger system assembly. This is commonly seen on computer peripherals like Bluetooth keyboards and mice, or certain types of smartphones and tablets. Pre-certified Bluetooth modules can be used to save on costs.
• Dual-chip, where the baseband circuits and radio are housed in two separate IC packages. This approach has lost ground to the single-chip approach, and is most often seen when the radio sticks to analog operation and the baseband IC is digital.

The hardware integration is closely (but not always) tied to the partitioning of the Bluetooth protocol stack. Where the Bluetooth implementation is completely integrated with the host, it is the host’s software/firmware and host’s computing resources that are used to manage the upper and lower stacks and the API. In all other cases, the radio and baseband circuits always handle the lower stack (LM, LC and down), so the difference is in where and how the upper stack is managed. For a standalone single or radio-baseband-dual chip, a microcontroller implements the upper stack and there is often no need for the API. When Bluetooth shows up as a host add-on, for example in a Bluetooth adapter for a PC, the Bluetooth plug-in module handles the lower stack, the module communicates with its host through HCI and the host software/drivers handle the upper stack and API. Finally, in the host ASIC case, everything sits on the single Bluetooth chip, and the API on the host machine/device communicates with the module.

Manufacturing

The actual Bluetooth radio and baseband chips (whether single SoC or dual-chip solutions) are manufactured using different technologies based on the application. There are variations on CMOS (complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor) chips, gallium-arsenide (GaAs) chips and the most common—silicon-germanium (SiGe) semiconductors in varying packages turned into modules using LTCC (low-temperature co-fired ceramic) films or PCBs (printed circuit boards).

CMOS variants can include the standard bulk CMOS approach, RF (radio frequency) CMOS and SOI (silicon-on-insulator). Traditional bulk CMOS is used to build the digital-only baseband chip, and then chained to an analog circuit for the Bluetooth radio. RF-CMOS adds the radio directly onto the CMOS chip, and SOI adds an insulator layer between the RF and BB circuits for isolation.

GaAs chips are used in “ruggedized” or military applications, since gallium arsenide devices are more resistant to high levels of electromagnetic pulsed radiation—they can be knocked offline by an EMP, but the component isn't reduced to slag. Since the manufacturing process for GaAs is completely different than CMOS (and far more expensive), most manufactures serving the consumer market no longer develop GaAs chips.

An RF chip made from SiGe has higher efficiency and greater throughput than a pure silicon semiconductor-based radio. The choice of silicon CMOS or SiGe BiCMOS depends on the application—where cost is a factor, a standard CMOS die is used, whereas for applications that require better RX or TX sensitivity/power or low power consumption, BiCMOS is used. The final packaging also depends on manufacturer requirements and final device/application: leaded SOIC (small outline integrated circuit), QFP (quad flat package) or PLCC (plastic leaded chip carrier).

Pictured above are the SOIC package and the BGA package.

Leadless designs (BGA—Ball Grid Array, CSP—Chip Scale Package, WLCSP—Wafer Level Chip Scale Package) are used for devices like smartphones, where small footprints are important and generally present good cost savings over QFP packages.

Qualification, Testing And Certification

Imagine a large room—a conference hall, perhaps—where engineers and representatives from dozens of manufacturers, either collaborators or competitors or sometimes both, bombard each other with Bluetooth signals. This is UnPlugFest, an event organized by the SIG, where manufacturers come to test the interoperability of their devices. Interoperability is a key aspect of the Bluetooth standard, and one of the many tests a device must undergo before it is qualified by the SIG.

The SIG imposes qualification requirements in the form of the Bluetooth Qualification Program (BQP), including product performance and compliance with the Bluetooth specifications. Once it passes the BQP, the product must be certified, by the FCC in the USA, CE in the EU, TELEC in Japan, etc. The entire certification cycle can take more than a year, and may cost up to tens of thousands of dollars in testing and administrative fees.

Given the complexity, length and high cost of designing and certifying Bluetooth modules, many manufacturers choose to use a pre-certified module in their final consumer product—laptops are a good example of this. Essentially, if a product uses a pre-certified module, the certificate comes with a very strict set of guidelines as to its maintenance, but otherwise can be used without further testing or qualification.

Major Bluetooth Manufacturers

The first Bluetooth headset designed by Ericsson for Nokia was made by Lucent Technologies in 2002. Lucent merged with Alcatel in 2006, and then Alcatel-Lucent officially joined Nokia in 2016. Since Lucent’s first headset, manufacturers all over the world have incorporated Bluetooth into their designs, or based their businesses entirely around Bluetooth. Sony, Philips, Samsung, Apple—all of these companies are major presences in the Bluetooth landscape. Bluetooth chipsets are generally manufactured by semiconductor companies, and once qualified/certified, incorporated into modules or end-products by the major technology vendors.

That very first Ericsson headset was manufactured by VLSI Technologies, which in turn was bought by Phillips in 1999 and then became a part of the Phillips spinoff, NXP Semiconductors.

Other large manufacturers are:

• Texas Instruments
• Cypress Semiconductor
• Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR)
• Nordic Semiconductor
• STMicroelectronics
• Dialog Semiconductor

Broadcom, Mediatek and pretty much every other RF module manufacturer has Bluetooth products to offer. Apart from the nine SIG Promoter companies, the member registry lists thousands of organizations at the Associate or Adopter levels. This is not counting the sub-component manufacturers, multi-million-dollar, publicly traded multinationals like IDT, Xilinx and Microchip Technology, all of whom produce microcontrollers, RF modules, transceivers and other sub-components that are integral to the design of other companies’ solutions.

The Future Of Bluetooth

The phenomenal commercial success of Bluetooth means that neither the standard nor its inherent problems are going anywhere. Vendors will introduce support for a wider range of device classes, especially ones that feature Bluetooth 4.1 Low Energy, designed for the Internet of Things. Bluetooth 4.2 was released in 2014—Apple, Samsung, TI and everyone else is already using this latest iteration that allows for better privacy, speed and IPv6. From the vendor side, expect to see better power management, faster data rates and the possibility of a more advanced modulation schemes in high-end devices.

In terms of the standard itself, there are a number of challenges looming on the horizon for Bluetooth. Congestion in the 2.4GHz band is getting worse. Some of the interference is mitigated by Bluetooth’s adaptive frequency hopping capabilities, and Wi-Fi growth is mostly happening in the 5GHz band. But there should be more emphasis on cooperative interference mitigation strategies in the future. The responsibility (or framework required) to implement such strategies is currently in the vendors’ court, but we hope that eventually the standard will present some recommendations on how to standardize those approaches.

We interviewed Mark Powell, executive director of the SIG, and he believes that Bluetooth is the key to tying together the changes we're going to be seeing in wireless communications. Bluetooth is evolving and building up the strength of its low-energy modes—in February 2016, the SIG announced a new architecture and toolkit to enable “smart” Bluetooth functionality where IoT devices are connected over an Internet gateway. Then, in March 2016, the Bluetooth SIG announced the addition of a Transport Discovery Service (TDS), which provides a common framework for low-energy IoT devices.

Older data exchange applications for Bluetooth are coming under pressure from faster technologies like WiGig. But the SIG envisions Bluetooth as a key enabling technology for such applications. Under a cooperative scenario, Bluetooth could be used to page devices capable of WiGig and other high data-rate technologies, perhaps even controlling the wake/sleep state of those power-hungry radios and establish connections. The low power consumption and ubiquity of Bluetooth makes it ideal for enabling such an adaptive “only when needed” operation scenario for data transfer.

The growth of Bluetooth-enabled devices is accelerating, and 2016 promises another iteration of the specification. By lowering the modulation rate of the Bluetooth signal (and therefore its sensitivity to noise), the standard will improve the data rate and range of Class 2 and Class 3 devices. And, for the first time, we expect to see a large number of new network topologies—for instance, mesh networks and decentralized host-to-host networks directly accessing the WAN. This could lead to a complete shift in the kinds of applications, profiles and capabilities that Bluetooth addresses.

The Internet of Things is at the core of this paradigm shift—Bluetooth-equipped light bulbs, Bluetooth door locks, devices acting as relays without a “master”—devices capable of networked operation will hit the market in droves, and soon. Perhaps foreseeing the problem of Bluetooth devices without any capability for input (how do you enter a PIN into a light bulb?), the SIG’s newly released architecture and Bluetooth gateway services will enable the setup and control of these networks over the internet.

We anticipate smart-bulbs and smart appliances, and perhaps smartphone and Web-based apps for control, similar to the capabilities of smart Wi-Fi router apps. This does mean that, in certain cases, Bluetooth’s greatest security strength, the fact that attacks need to come from a physically proximal source, will be negated by direct access of Bluetooth-enabled devices to the Internet. The specification requires 128-bit AES encryption, but the responsibility for dealing with more involved security scenarios is probably going to remain at the application layer, and firmly on the shoulders of device vendors.

Still, we believe that the most exciting developments in Bluetooth will come from the new network topologies. Mesh networking...mesh networking for everything! New topologies open up a vast array of possibilities for information sharing, research and data transport protocols. With a 400% increase in the range of Bluetooth Smart, and a 2.5x increase in data transfer speeds, with battery demands met by button cell batteries, 2016 and 2017 hold the possibility for new classes of end-products we have never seen before.

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Gene Fabron is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware. Follow her on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

The First Mobile Phone: Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (1984)

The first mobile phone was commercialized 32 years ago in 1984. The DynaTAC 8000X, designed by Motorola, was the first cell phone small enough to be carried in one hand. Although this was a significant leap for mobile phones, it was still a huge phone by today's standards. With modern phones Apple, HTC and Samsung fight to cut off every tenth of a millimeter and gram that they can, whereas the DynaTAC 8000X weighed 790 grams (1.74 pounds) and was 25 cm tall, not counting its external antenna. Worse, its autonomy was limited, and the battery only lasted for one hour during a call!

Its launch price was $3,995, about $7,220 after taking inflation into consideration. It was a gadget for the rich, which nonetheless began the cell phone revolution.

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Nokia Mobira Senator (1982)

Motorolla's DynaTAC was a remarkable engineering feat, not only for its miniaturization, but also because it used AMPS—the first 1G cellular network in the U.S. AMPS was an analog system, and was one of the first cellular networks in the world. Japan developed an earlier 1G cellular network in 1979, and on the other side of the Atlantic, Finland established its 1G NMT (Nordisk Mobiltelefoni) in 1981.

Consumers seeking to take advantage of these earlier mobile networks used Nokia's first "mobile" phone that was released in 1982: the Nokia Mobira Senator. This phone was intended for use inside of a car and weighed 9.8 kg (21.6 pounds).

Nokia Cityman 900 (1987): Nokia Becomes Portable

Following the DynaTAC 8000X, the race to produce the smallest phone on the market began and continues to this day. Nokia responded in 1987 with the Cityman 900. This phone continued to use the 1G networks, and it weighed 760 grams. It could handle 50 minutes of talk time before the battery died, making it fairly similar to the DynaTAC 8000X. The two phones shared a similar appearance too, with the major difference being that the Cityman 900 was shorter, measuring just 18 cm high (excluding antenna). The phone was a significant success, and it helped to cement Nokia's position in the mobile phone market.

Motorola MicroTAC (1989)

Although the DynaTAC 8000X was a success, Motorola knew it needed a more travel friendly device to compete against the Cityman 900, which led to the release of the MicroTAC 9800X on April 25, 1989. Designed to fit inside a shirt pocket, it was the smallest and lightest mobile phone on the market when it launched. It was also the first phone to use the clamshell design, which helped to reduce its overall size. When the phone was opened, it still measured 23 cm tall, but it was significantly lighter, weighing just 300 grams. In order to keep the weight down, Motorola used a smaller battery, but at the cost of reducing talk time to roughly 30 minutes.

The First GSM Phone: Orbitel 901 (1992)

In 1991 the GSM mobile network standard was finalized, and the first GSM network, named the Radiolinja network, was created in Finland. The GSM network technology delivered excellent audio quality and boosted network capacity relative to the 1G NMT network. The first phone to use this network was the Orbitel 901 released in 1992, which was relatively large and weighed 2 kg. As a result, it was also considered a car phone and not really a mobile phone.

Nokia 1011 (1992)

Nokia's next major mobile phone was the Nokia 1011; its first phone designed by Frank Nuovon. Released on November 10, 1992, the phone had several advantages over the Cityman 900, including height, weight, and features. The phone only measured 19.5 cm (including the antenna) and weighed 495 grams. The phone had a monochrome LCD display to access menus and to see the numbers as you dialed. It also used the GSM network standard, which gave it superior audio quality.

Hagenuk MT-2000 (1994): Internal Antenna & Games!

In 1994 the German manufacturer Hagenuk entered the world of mobile phones with the Hagenuk MT-2000. This phone was revolutionary because it was the first with an internal antenna instead of the telescope antenna used on all earlier phones. It operated on the German D-Netz 900 network, which used the GSM 900 standard.

The Hagenuk MT-2000 was also the first mobile phone to come with a game installed, a simple variation of Tetris, opening the door for gaming on phones.

Nokia 2110 (1994): The Musical Ringtone

Nokia introduced the 2110 in 1994. This phone followed the design of the 1011, but added the ability to send text messages to other phones, becoming the first phone capable of doing so. It also was the first phone to feature a musical ringtone. The Nokia ringtone was played over a simple speaker that was only capable of producing five different tones, but it forged a path to the more musical ringtones we have today.

The First Smartphone: IBM Simon (1994)

Contrary to popular belief, Apple did not invent the smartphone. Nor did Apple invent the touchscreen smartphone. Both of these technological breakthroughs can be attributed to IBM. Incredible as it may seem, the Simon Personal Communicator, which was created in 1994, had a 4.5-inch black and white display with a resolution of 293x160 and a resistive touchscreen interface. It was capable of making calls, sending faxes and responding to emails. It also had several other non-network oriented applications, including an address book, calendar, calculator and world clock. It even came with a stylus for hand writing notes that could then be stored on the device. The software interface included several elements that are common on phones today such as application icons and a virtual touchscreen keyboard. Similar to portable computers of the time, it also supported the use of PCMCIA cards to expand the feature set and install new applications. The entire system was driven by a 16MHz x86 processor.

All of these advanced features pushed the price of the phone up higher than most people were willing to pay, however, and IBM only sold 50,000 units before the company decided to end production. There wouldn't be another smartphone until Ericcson created one in 2000.

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Motorola StarTAC 3000 (1996)

In 1996 Motorola released what would be known as one of the most iconic phones of the 1990s: the StarTAC 3000. At launch, it was the smallest mobile phone on the market by far. It weighed just 88 grams and updated the clamshell design by spreading hardware through both sections, instead of just a fold out microphone like on the MicroTAC. The phone was also one of the first to contain a vibrator.

The StarTAC originally used the aging AMPS network, but later models switched to GSM because of GSM's growing popularity and support. The phone was a huge success, selling over 60 million units.

Nokia Communicator (1996): A Smartphone Web Browser

While Motorola was attempting to innovate the mobile phone market by reducing the overall size and weight of its devices, Nokia opted to work towards adding new features and functionality to its phones. The Nokia Communicator 9000 was released in 1996 and was considered a smartphone, although its functionality was similar to what we would expect on modern day feature phones. It had a built-in browser, developed in-house by Nokia, that allowed users to surf the Web over the mobile network. The network performance was rather limited, with a maximum bandwidth of 9,600 bits/s.

The internal hardware was nearly identical to the Nokia 2110i, including a 24MHz Intel 80386 CPU, 8 Mb of RAM, and a 640x200 4.5-inch LCD display. The internal CPU and RAM are remarkably similar to what you would expect from a PC just one decade prior to the phone's release, showing a remarkable advancement in portable computing technology.

Nokia 7110 (1999): The Birth Of WAP

With the growing popularity of the Internet, the concept of being able to access the net from anywhere in the world was a powerful one, but the majority of phones in the late 1990s simply lacked the hardware support to process Web pages. This led to the invention of WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) as a means of accessing the Internet on phones that lacked native Web browsing functionality. It gave users a significantly reduced browsing experience, which often had distorted images and text, and was extraordinarily slow. Despite these problems, WAP was heavily promoted throughout the industry, and smartphones such as Nokia's 7110 were created specifically for using WAP.

Benefon ESC! (1999): The Introduction Of GPS

Benefon created the ESC! in 1999, a phone that was an instant hit, especially with hikers. The key concept was to allow users to escape off the beaten path and still be able to find their way back. The phone was the first to incorporate a built-in GPS navigation system, and it was also water resistant. The map could be displayed on a 100x160 display, and map coordinates could be sent to others via SMS.

Samsung SPH-WP10 (1999): The Phone Watch

Smartwatches are one of the hit new smart devices coming into the market today, but this concept was originally pioneered by Samsung back in 1999. Samsung's SPH-WP10 wasn't capable of nearly as much as a modern smartwatch; it was more of a phone inside of a watch instead of a phone accessory. It measured 67 x 58 x 20 mm (L x W x H), weighed 50 grams, and had a 1.52-inch display. It could maintain a call for up to 90 minutes, or last for 60 hours in standby. The watch did not sell well, however, and Samsung ceased production after a relatively short period of time.

Ericsson T36 (2000): The Arival Of Bluetooth

The Bluetooth standard was finalized in 1999. Ericsson was quick to capitalize on the new technology, announcing the first Bluetooth compatible phone, the Ericsson T36, in 2000. Ericsson ultimately canceled the T36, however, and it was never released. Instead, the Ericsson R520m became the first phone to feature Bluetooth. The T39, a phone similar to the T36, was released a year later as well. These phones opened the door to a wide assortment of Bluetooth devices by third-party manufacturers, which significantly changed the mobile phone market.

Nokia 3310 (2000)

The Nokia 3310 became one of the most successful phones in history, selling roughly 125 million units. The phone didn't feature any significant jump in technology; its most significant advancement was the ability to write 459 character SMS messages. Its immediate predecessor, the Nokia 3210, added a number of new features to the product line, including interchangeable cases and an internal antenna, but the Nokia 3310 far exceeded the 3210 in sales and went on to become an icon for the company.

The First MP3 Player Phone: Samsung SPH-M100 Uproar (2000)

The Samsung SPH-M100 Uproar was also released in 2000 and was the first phone to double as an MP3 player. It contained 64MB of internal storage space, which was quite spacious for its time, roughly enough to hold an entire CD encoded with a 128 Kb/s data rate. The battery was capable of lasting for 10 hours of continuous audio playback. Samsung bundled a set of headphones and a remote to wirelessly control the MP3 player too.

Matsushita P2101V (2001): 3G & Video Phone

NTT DoCoMo created the first 3G network (known as UMTS) in Japan, which began operation in October 2001. To take advantage of this new ultra-fast (384 Kb/s) network, companies scrambled to release a new generation of mobile phones. Of the new phones to come out around this time, the most feature rich was the Matsushita P2101V, which had a full-color LCD display and a video camera to enable video calls.

Blackberry 6210 (2003)

Although RIM (Research In Motion) had been producing its BlackBerry devices for several years, it wasn't until 2003 that RIM added cellphone functionality to its products. By combining cellular connectivity with the features already inherent in the BlackBerry product line, RIM's BlackBerry 6210 is considered to be the first modern day smartphone. It also introduced several new mobile phone features, including its iconic wheel for navigating menus and its full QWERTY keyboard.

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Nokia Communicator 9500 (2004)

By 2004, essentially all of the functions we see on a modern day smartphone had been implemented in one way or another. The last of these key features to be introduced was Wi-Fi connectivity, which debuted on the Nokia Communicator 9500. The phone carried over several features seen on older phones such as Bluetooth, a 4.5-inch 640x200 color display, an MP3 and AAC compatible music player, a 0.3 MP camera, an Office document reader and the ability to send fax messages. Its built-in modem was EDGE compatible and supported up to a 177 Kb/s data connection. The device was powered by a Texas Instruments OMAP 150 SoC, which contained an ARM925T 150MHz CPU. It also used the Series 90 OS based on Symbian, and could surf the Web on a browser developed in partnership with Opera.

Razr V3 (2004): Triumph Before The Fall

Motorola's last major victory in the mobile phone arena as an independent American manufacturer was the Razr V3. While most phones at this time were made from plastic, the Razr V3 used a sleek all-aluminum shell. This helped to further reduce the size of the phone, dropping down to 13 mm thin. The buttons were also made of aluminum, and the LCD had a glass plate on top of it to protect it from getting scratched. The phone was highly successful, selling 130 million units in four years. Ironically, it was the success of this product that caused the company to join the smartphone market late, which led to its ultimate demise.

Apple iPhone (2007)

Over the years, the cost of owning a mobile phone dropped sharply, and it became common for just about everyone to have one. At the same time, they also became increasingly sophisticated and feature rich. Although many of these phones were able to browse the Internet, the use of WAP, small screens and counter intuitive interfaces created a rather unpleasant experience. Apple recognized this problem and saw its opportunity.

The iPhone was not revolutionary for any one feature it offered; instead, it was the combination of several existing technologies bundled together into an attractive package that, most importantly, made interacting with the phone and browsing the Web an easy and enjoyable experience. The first iPhone lacked MMS, a camera and 3G connectivity. It also did not yet support third-party apps, but it nonetheless revolutionized the smartphone.

HTC Dream (2008): Enter The Android

It was in 2008 that Google unleashed its smartphone operating system, Android, into the wild. The first smartphone to use Android was the HTC Dream (G1). Its internal hardware was centered around a Qualcomm MSM7201A processor with 192 MB of RAM and 256 MB of internal storage space, which could be extended via a microSD card slot. The HTC Dream was compatible with 3G/3G+ networks, enabling reasonably high-speed Internet usage for a mobile phone. It had a HVGA (320x480) 3.2-inch touch screen display for the primary user interface, but also came equipped with a full QWERTY keyboard underneath the sliding screen.

Initially it used Android 1.1, but it had official firmware upgrades up to Android 1.6.

Nexus One (2010): Google Enters The Fray

Google released the Nexus One early in 2010, becoming the first smartphone directly marketed by Google. The phone was manufactured by HTC and was equipped with a 3.7-inch AMOLED (WVGA, 800x480) display. Its Qualcomm Snapdragon 8250 SoC contained a single-core 1GHz CPU and an Adreno 200 GPU. There was also 512 MB of RAM and 512 MB of internal storage space that was expandable via a microSD card slot. On the back of the phone was a 5 MP camera, which was rather high-end for the time. Connectivity support included 802.11g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 and 3G HSDPA/HSUPA.

Google's plan for the Nexus One was to show other manufacturers what a smartphone should be and to grow support for its Android OS.

HTC Evo 4G & Samsung SCH-R900 (2010): 4G Arrives

2010 also saw the introduction of the first 4G networks, prompting the release of the HTC Evo 4G, the first commercially available 4G WiMAX-compatible smartphone. Not long after, Samsung's SCH-R900 Craft became the first smartphone to feature 4G LTE support. Since neither phone was compatible with the European GSM networks, they were sold almost exclusively in North America.

Outside of the 4G network support, both phones were relatively average for the time. The SCH-R900 had a 3.3-inch 480x800 display and a relatively limited amount of internal storage (165 MB) that was expandable via a microSD card slot. It also featured a QWERTY keyboard. The HTC Evo 4G featured better specs, including a 4.3-inch WQVGA (480x800) display, 512 MB of RAM and 1 GB of storage space that was also expandable via a microSD card slot. The Samsung SCH-R900 used a custom OS, while the HTC Evo 4G ran Android 2.3.

LG Optimus 7 (2010): Microsoft's Smartphone Platform

At the end of 2010, LG launched the Optimus 7 (LG-E900), which was one of the first smartphones to come with Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 operating system installed. The Optimus 7 had a 3.8-inch screen capable of displaying a resolution of 800x480. It used a Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 SoC with a single-core 1GHz CPU and Adreno 200 GPU, combined with 512 MB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. It was compatible with 3G+ networks.

First Dual-Core Smartphone: LG Optimus X2 (2011)

Over time, the computational power of mobile phones grew slowly, but starting in 2011 smartphone performance began to progress more quickly as multi-core processors were introduced. The LG Optimus X2 became the first dual-core smartphone. It used the Nvidia Tegra 2 SoC, with two Cortex-A9 CPUs clocked at 1 GHz. This effectively doubled CPU performance, and made multitasking on phones considerably easier, however, it also negatively affected battery life. Despite this, the entire industry would move in this direction following the LG Optimus X2.

Over the next few years, companies would also produce tri-core, quad-core, hexa-core, octa-core and even deca-core SoCs in an effort to push performance higher.

Apple iPhone 4s And Siri (2011)

In 2011, Apple introduced another revolutionary feature to its iPhone product line: Siri (Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface). Other smartphones had the ability to listen to your voice and convert it into text to save you time, but Siri took the next logical step with the ability to listen for command words and complete minor tasks for you.

The following year, Google would implement a similar personal assistant service called Google Now, but despite its ubiquity in Android-based smartphones, it is not as well known as Siri.

Samsung Galaxy S II (2011): The iPhone Killer

Following the release of the Galaxy S in 2010, the Galaxy S II is the phone that allowed Samsung to really compete with the Apple iPhone. Aimed at the high-end market, the Galaxy S II had advanced features to entice users to switch away from Apple. It used a Samsung Exynos 4210 SoC with a Cortex-A9 dual-core 1.2GHz CPU and a Mali-400MP4 GPU clocked at 266MHz. The SoC was supported by 1 GB of RAM and either 16 or 32 GB of storage space depending on the model. The rear camera was capable of recording video with a resolution of 1080p, and the phone also had a 2 MP front-facing camera. Network support included 3G HSDPA/HSUPA. The phone was a major success, helping Samsung to become the leading Android smartphone manufacturer in the world by October 2011.

Oppo Find 5 (2012): The First 1080p Display

Mobile device display resolutions also improved over time, transitioning from the limited text-only monochrome displays of the 1990s to full color high-pixel density displays capable of playing high-definition games. The first smartphone to feature a full HD display was the Oppo Find 5, which featured a stunning pixel density of 441 PPI.

Nokia 808 Pureview (2012): The 41 MP Smartphone Camera

While modern smartphones started to look more and more alike, one released in 2012 stands out from the rest. The Nokia 808 Pureview has all of the typical smartphone features you would expect in 2012, except for its powerful 41 MP camera. The phone is thicker and heavier than most contemporary smartphones as a result.

Because of its heavy focus on the camera, Nokia neglected other aspects of the phone. Its 4-inch AMOLED 640x360 (184 ppi) display was rather mediocre for 2012. The internal hardware was also underwhelming, with a single-core 1.3GHz CPU and just 512 MB of RAM. It also used the Symbian OS, which is no longer in development.

LG G Flex (2013): Curved Display

In 2013, LG introduced the first phone with a curved screen: the G Flex. The phone shared several features with LG's G2 smartphone, including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC, 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage. Its key features, though, were a 6-inch curved display and flexible plastic chassis. The 720p display drew criticism for having a relatively low pixel density of 245 PPI.

Incidentally, Samsung introduced its own smartphone with a curved screen around the same time, the Galaxy Round.

Apple iPhone 5s (2013): Enter The 64-bit Era

With the launch of the iPhone 5s in September 2013, Apple brought the smartphone into the 64-bit era. It was the first smart device to use the Apple A7 SoC, a dual-core model operating at 1.3GHz paired with a PowerVR G6430 GPU. It also contains the M7 coprocessor, which collects data from various sensors inside the device.

The iPhone 5s comes equipped with a 4-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 1136x640 (326 ppi), up to 64GB of storage, an 8 MP rear camera and a 1.2 MP front-facing camera. It supports 4G LTE and 802.11n Wi-Fi.

Its other claim to fame is Touch ID, a capacitive fingerprint sensor that's used to unlock the phone and authorize transactions. Fingerprint sensors are now a common feature on most mid-range and high-end phones.

The Personal Assistant: Siri, Now, Cortana (2011 - 2014)

The notion of a voice-based personal digital assistant hit the mainstream when Apple launched Siri back in 2011 with the iPhone 4S. Google followed suit with something similar with Google Now in 2012, although that service was more about marrying app usage, search and personal preferences into a series of information-based cards at your fingertips. In 2014 Microsoft released Cortana with Windows Phone 8.1, and its claim to fame was introducing contextual awareness and inference to the digital assistant, using an entity database Microsoft calls Satori. Further, Microsoft has extended Cortana onto the desktop, and there are apps for iOS and Android. The program has been criticized for excessive data gathering.

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Mobile GPUs

In recent years hardware for smartphones and other mobile devices has been one of the fastest-growing areas of the technology market. The huge number of smartphone sales has attracted companies from all over the industry to try to produce new hardware and software for these devices. Although ARM's RISC processors have been the primary CPUs used inside these devices, along with Google's Android and Apple's iOS software, there are still several companies competing for the mobile GPU market leadership. AMD, ARM, Nvidia, PowerVR, Qualcomm and Vivente are the most prominent of these companies, and we will look at each of them to gain some insight into this highly competitive area of the smartphone industry.

Imagination PowerVR

Imagination Technologies is among the oldest of the companies competing for mobile GPU market leadership, having been in business for more than 15 years producing GPUs for computers, game consoles (like the Sega Dreamcast) and other devices. In the early 2000s, as ATI and Nvidia experienced significant increases in their GPU performance, many companies that produced graphics chips were pushed out of the PC market. In response, Imagination focused development on low-power GPUs, and evolved into a powerful force in the mobile market.

PowerVR's graphics technology is unique in the graphics industry, as it uses the polygon as the basic geometric figure instead of the triangle. PowerVR also simplifies the rendering process by using a technique known as tile-based differed rendering, which cuts the images into small areas known as "tiles," which are then processed one at a time. This technique makes it easy to parallelize the processing and reduces the bandwidth required by the GPU.

The PowerVR MBX (2001)

The PowerVR MBX and the MBX Lite are technically identical, but the MBX Lite typically consumes less power because it usually uses a lower clock speed. This GPU has been integrated into SoCs like the first iPhone and the Nokia N95, and has also been integrated into other products such as the Dell Axim 50v. SoCs from Freescale (i.MX 3), Texas Instruments (OMAP2) and Samsung incorporate the MBX GPU. It was also used by Intel as an integrated GPU on some ARM 2700G processors. The PowerVR MBX is compatible with OpenGL ES 1.x, OpenGL 1.1 and DirectX 7, and is considered the successor to the PowerVR Kyro GPUs.

Imagination 5th Generation GPUs (2005 - 2010)

In 2005, Imagination introduced its fifth generation of GPUs: The PowerVR SGX series. These graphics processors, which featured support for OpenGL ES 2.0, and were relatively powerful and efficient graphics processors for their time, are still commonly used in smartphones today. The graphics processor is centered on what Imagination calls its Universal Scalable Shader Engine (USSE), which is designed to be easily scalable in order to target multiple performance levels. It has been used in several Samsung Exynos SoCs, the Apple A4 and in four Texas Instruments OMAP3 SoCs. Intel integrated the GPU into some of its chipsets (Poulsbo) for use with Atom and Pentium M CPUs. Some devices that use this GPU include the Freebox Revolution, the first iPad, the original iPhone, some Galaxy S2 smartphones and Google Glass.

Various configurations exist, but the SGX535 is the most common one. This model features two processing units coupled with two TMUs, and supports DirectX 9. The SGX530, SGX 531 and SGX540 models are commonly used as well. The most powerful (and most recent) GPU in this series was the SGX545, which was released in 2010. It possesses four EUs, two TMUs and supports DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.2.

The 5 XT Series (2009 - 2010)

In 2009, Imagination improved on its fifth-generation design with the 5 XT series. These new GPUs were capable of higher performance while at the same clock speed as the older fifth-generation graphics chips. The major changes over the previous generation were the switch to the USSE2 engine and the addition of multi-core support. Although the fifth-generation GPUs varied in the number of EUs and TMUs inside each chip, all execution resources were held inside of a single USSE core. Starting with the 5 XT series, multiple USSE2 engines could be combined to produce faster GPUs. GPUs containing more than a single USSE2 engine were indicated by the "MP#" suffix, with the number after the "MP" displaying the number of USSE2 cores. Examples of this include the Apple A5, with PowerVR SGX543MP2 (two USSE2 cores), and the PlayStation Vita, with PowerVR SGX544MP4 (four USSE2 cores). Although it is technically possible to use up to 16 cores, conventional implementations typically use only two, three or four.

There are only two variations of the USSE2 in the 5XT Series — the SGX543 and SGX544's USSE2 units, which contain four EUs and two TMUs, while the SGX554 USSE2 possesses eight EUs and two TMUs. The series features compatibility with OpenGL ES 2.x and DirectX 9.0, but API support varies from one implantation to another.  It was used mostly by Apple (A5, A5X, A6, A6X), Samsung (Exynos) and Texas Instruments.

PowerVR Rogue (2012 - 2014)

In 2012, Imagination released its sixth-generation GPUs, code-named Rogue. Rogue was Imagination's first unified architecture, and was also the first to support DirectX 10 (although the G6100 and 6XE range were limited to DirectX 9) and OpenGL ES 3.1. Similar to the 5 XT series, the Rogue series of GPUs supports multiple graphics core configurations. Although the sixth-generation GPUs offer significant advantages over the 5XT series, SoC manufacturers have been slow to adopt it, preferring to continue using the 5XT graphics chips, or to move to a competitor. Quad-core implementations can be found inside the Intel Atom Z34x0 CPUs (PowerVR G6400), the Apple A7 (PowerVR G6430) and the Apple A8 (PowerVR GX6450), and dual-core configurations inside of some SoCs from Allwinner (PowerVR G6200) and Mediatek. The Apple A8X uses a particularly high-performance eight-core configuration known as the PowerVR GX6850.

PowerVR Series 7 (2014 - 2015)

Imagination would replace the sixth generation with the seventh generation in 2014. Two versions coexist: the PowerVR Series 7XE and the PowerVR Series 7XT. API support is limited to OpenGL ES 3.1 and OpenCL 1.2 for embedded-profile devices, but extends to OpenGL 3.3 and DirectX 10 on the high-end 7XT series. These GPUs have not been used much yet by SoC manufacturers, but the GT7600 is used in the Apple A9. The most powerful GPU, the GT7900, contains 16 clusters, and a total of 32 processing units.

AMD & Qualcomm (2002 - 2008)

In 2002, ATI created its Imageon line of graphics processors targeted at low-power mobile devices. Imageon GPUs were used in the Zodiac Console and Palm OS. AMD would purchase ATI in 2006, and subsequently sold off the Imageon product line to Qualcomm in 2008. Qualcomm renamed the GPU series Adreno (an anagram of Radeon), and rebranded AMD's Imageon Z430 as the Adreno 200 and integrated it into the company's Snapdragon SoCs.

Adreno 2xx (2008 - 2013)

Qualcomm's first generation of Adreno GPUs, the 200 series, is closely related to the Adreno 200, and uses the same unified 5-way VLIW architecture with OpenGL ES 2.0 and DirectX Mobile support. The latest variants, the 225 and 230, support DirectX 9, but the performance is quite low. The Adreno 200 series is used in Qualcomm SoCs containing ARM11, Cortex A5, Scorpio and Krait cores. It was used in the Snapdragon S2, S3 and dozens of others. Numerous devices used the Adreno 200 series GPUs, including several products by Samsung, HTC, BlackBerry and others. It is integrated into the majority of Windows Phone 7 devices, and the 225 variant can be found in recent devices like the BlackBerry Z10.

Adreno 300 (2012 - 2014)

The Adreno 300 series of GPUs extended the API support to include OpenGL ES 3.x, DirectX 9.0 (9_3) and OpenCL 1.1.  Adreno 300 can be found in the Snapdragon S4, 200, 400, 600 and 800 SoCs. The series ranges from the low-performance Adreno 302 with only 6 compute units (in Snapdragon 200) to the Adreno 330 with 32 units and a relatively high frequency. The Adreno 330 is the GPU found in SoCs like the Snapdragon 800 and 801 and smartphones like the LG G3 and the Galaxy S5.

Adreno 400 (2014)

The more recent Snapdragon 610, 615, 616, 617, 805, 808 and 810 SoCs use Qualcomm's Adreno 400 series of GPUs. The Adreno 400 series is faster than the 300 series, and features extended API support, including DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 3.1, OpenVG 1.1 and OpenCL 1.2 Full Profile. The Snapdragon 805 is found in some high-end devices, including the Nexus 6, the Galaxy Note 4, the Note Edge and some Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphones.

Adreno 500 (2015 - 2016)

In 2015, Qualcomm announced several new Snapdragon SoC, including the 430, 618, 620 and 820. Inside of these SoCs is a new generation of Adreno GPUs: the 500 Series. Although this series is not yet available on the market, we already know the main characteristics. The Adreno 530 and 510 are compatible with OpenGL ES 3.1+ AES, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan and DirectX 11.2. Meanwhile, the Adreno 505 is limited to OpenGL ES 3.1 and DirectX 11.2. The Adreno 530 is also the first GPU from Qualcomm to be produced on 14 nm lithography (the Adreno 505 and 510 remain at the 28 nm lithography).

The ARM Mali Series

In 2006, ARM acquired Norway-based GPU developer Falanx. The company became ARM's Norway branch, and develops ARM's GPU technology: Mali. ARM licenses the Mali GPU to other companies to be incorporated into an SoC alongside ARM's CPU cores. Mali GPUs have Nordic code names (Utgard, Midgard) and have been growing increasingly popular with SoC developers, especially manufacturers that offer entry-level SoCs. This is because the companies can license essentially complete, ready-to-use SoCs from ARM and rush into production.

Mali-400 & Mali-450 (2008)

The Mali-400 and Mali-450 (code-named Utgard) are ARM's oldest GPUs, and are still sold as entry-level products. Similar to the PowerVR 5XT series, they can be used in multicore configurations. The Mali-400 is typically found in the 400 MP, 400 MP2 or 400 MP4 designs. The Mali-450 has the option to contain up to eight cores — twice as many as the Mali-400. The Mali-400 MP4 is used in some Samsung Exynos SoCs as well as devices like the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note. The Mali-450 is rarer, and dedicated to the entry-level market. Th-400 and Mali-450 are designed for games, and are compatible with OpenGL ES 2.0.

Mali-T600 (2012 - 2014)

In 2012, ARM unveiled the Mali-T600 GPU family. Unlike the 400 series, the Mali-T600 GPU family is intended for both games and computational work, and GPUs in this series feature support for OpenCL. They also include improved OpenGL ES and DirectX 9.0 support. Mali-T600 GPUs are quite rare, but they're used inside the Samsung Exynos 5, coupled with ARM Cortex-A15 CPUs. Samsung also equipped its first Chromebook with a GPU from the Mali-T600 family.

Mali-T700 (2013)

The next generation of Mali GPUs, the T700 series, was used inside the first 64-bit SoC. An evolution of the Midgard architecture inside the T600 series, it features extended API support for DirectX 11.1 (feature_level 9_3), OpenGL ES 3.1 and OpenCL 1.1. It is used inside several SoCs, including the MediaTek MT6732 (Mali-T760), MT6752 (Mali-T760), MT6753 (Mali-T720MP3) Samsung Exynos Octa 7 (MP6 in some versions, but MP8 in others) and Rockchip RK3288 (Mali-T764).

Mali-T800 (2015 - 2016)

By the end of the year, ARM plans to launch its latest T800 Series of GPUs: Mali-T820, T830 and T860. Built with 28-nm lithography and clocked at 650 MHz, the GPU is DirectX 11.1-compatible (feature level 9_3, except for T860, which is DirectX 11.2-compliant with feature level 11_1), and features support for OpenGL ES 3.1 and OpenCL 1.2 Full Profile. These GPUs continue to use the Midgard architecture, which was introduced with the T600 series. ARM plans to launch an even more powerful GPU in the second quarter of 2016: the Mali-T880. The Mali-T880 will benefit from 16-nm lithography and operate at up to 850 MHz.

Nvidia Enters The Mobile Race

Nvidia entered the mobile GPU game with its Tegra SoCs, incorporating ARM CPUs with Nvidia's graphics technology. The original Tegra was used in some devices, like the Kin and the Zune HD, but did not gain widespread usage. Nvidia's second chip, the Tegra 2, has been much more successful.

Tegra 2 (2010)

The Tegra 2 was the first dual-core SoC, featuring two ARM Cortex-A9 CPUs and a decent GPU. It was compatible with OpenGL ES 2.0 but did not use a unified architecture. Instead, it incorporated four Vertex Shaders alongside four Pixel Shaders. The Tegra 2 had some flaws, such as the lack of support for the NEON instruction set and a video decoding engine issue, but the chip still had much success. Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony and many other big names have devices that use the Tegra 2.

Tegra 3 (2011)

The Tegra 3, code-named Kal-el, was an evolution of the Tegra 2. Nvidia opted for a quad-core CPU design, and a GPU with a total of 12 cores (eight Pixel Shaders and four Vertex Shaders). The clock speed was also increased to improve performance, and the Tegra 3 was fairly successful. It was used inside the first Microsoft Surface RT, the HTC One X and the Google Nexus 7. The GPU, though highly efficient, suffered from design problems, as it was not a unified architecture, preventing it from supporting versions of OpenGL newer than OpenGL ES 2.0.

Tegra 4 & Tegra 4i (2013)

The Tegra 4 and Tegra 4i failed to gain the popularity of the Tegra 2 and Tegra 3. Nvidia upgraded the processor to Cortex-A15 CPU cores but did not significantly alter the GPU architecture. This proved to be a serious issue, as Nvidia's major competitors in the mobile graphics processor market had already advanced to using unified GPU architectures capable of supporting OpenGL ES 3.0. In an attempt to stay competitive, Nvidia drastically increased the core count inside the GPU to bolster performance. The Tegra 4i's GPU contained 60 processing units (48 Pixel Shaders and 12 Vertex Shaders), while the Tegra 4 possessed 72 cores (48 Pixel Shaders and 24 Vertex Shaders. Few devices were released using these SoCs. The most prominent devices to use them were Nvidia's own Shield and Tegra Note 7.

Tegra K1 (2014)

Things changed with the release of the Tegra K1. Instead of using a specialized GPU architecture for the Tegra series of products, Nvidia substituted it with a GPU based on its Kepler architecture, which was already in use on the PC. The Kepler architecture performed so much faster than the other competing products in the mobile world that it was sometimes viewed as the mobile GTX Titan. The function was the same, but the raw performance was out of reach of Nvidia's competitors. The Tegra K1 supports OpenGL ES and Direct X 11.2.

Products implementing the Tegra K1 are rare, but Nvidia used it inside its Shield Tablet.

Tegra X1 (2015)

In 2015, Nvidia unveiled an upgraded version of the Tegra K1, known as the Tegra X1 (code-named Erista). The major improvement to the SoC was the switch from the 192 core KG20A based on Kepler to the 256 core (16 TMUs and 16 ROPs) GM20M based on the more energy-efficient Maxwell architecture. The GK20A (Kepler) and 192 cores gave way to GM20M (Maxwell) with 256 cores (and 16 texturing units and 16 units rendering). The clock speed also increased from 852 MHz to 1000 MHz. The Tegra X1 is used inside the Nvidia Shield TV and the Pixel C Google tablet.

Vivante, A Challenger

One of the smaller competitors in the mobile market is Vivante. The American company offers powerful mobile GPUs, but they are rarely used. This is because these GPUs are typically used in embedded devices, and are rarely used inside smartphones. Although these GPUs feature support for DirectX 11 and OpenGL ES 3.x, they receive less support from game developers because of their position in the industry.

DMP PICA200

Let's finish with a look at Japan-based DMP. DMP's GPU technology is not used inside smartphones, but it's found inside many of Nintendo's handheld consoles. DMP's PICA200 is used in the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo 3DS XL and Nintendo 2DS. The GPU is rather old, initially announced back in 2006, and it has limited API support (OpenGL ES 1.1). Nevertheless, it is sufficient for Nintendo's consoles and the two relatively low-resolution displays they use.

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Micheal Justin Allen Sexton is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware. Follow him on Twitter.

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Smartphone shipments will grow only 9.8 percent in 2015 to a total of 1.43 billion devices; this is the first time in years that smartphone growth can be measured in single-digit percentage points, according to market research firm IDC.

China has been the market with the highest growth in the past few quarters, but now that growth has shrunk to low single-digit percentage points, which also impacts the growth of total global sales. According to IDC, China has now become a "replacement market," which means the total number of smartphone owners won’t increase too much over the next few years, but those that already have phones will continue to replace them at a steady clip.

The focus will now switch to the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, which is expected to see growth of nearly 50 percent year over year in the coming years, surpassing other “hot” markets such as India and Indonesia.

"With the smartphone market finally slowing to single-digit growth, maintaining momentum will depend on several factors," said Ryan Reith, Program Director with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker . He added that "the main driver has been and will continue to be the success of low-cost smartphones in emerging markets. This, in turn, will depend on capturing value-oriented first-time smartphone buyers as well as replacement buyers.“

Interestingly enough, he also thinks that budget smartphones will be replaced earlier than the typical two year cycle, not necessarily because the price is so low, but because the low-quality components won’t be able to survive that long in many cases.

Android

Although Android’s growth in terms of market share has stabilized, the IDC believes that the OS will continue to dominate the mobile market for years to come. This year it will increase its market share from 81 percent to 82 percent. IDC believes that Android will maintain its dominance in part because companies that would’ve before tried to build completely new mobile operating systems are now focusing on differentiating on top of Android.

iOS

For iOS, the IDC predicted that its market share will remain around 14 to 15 percent annually, with some clear spikes in sales growth when new products are launched. The company said that Apple could face an excessive inventory problem, within two or three years, in developing markets where refurbished iPhones are being sold. It’s also why it thinks Apple has become more aggressive with its trade-in programs in the past couple of years.

Windows Phone

The IDC doesn’t expect Windows’ market share in smartphones to grow much in the coming years, despite Microsoft’s heavy investment in promoting the platform (including offering it as a free upgrade for desktop users in the first year).

Back in 2011, IDC predicted that Windows Phone would have 20.3 percent of the market, increasing its share by ten times what it was back then. This prediction was made in part because the IDC believed most of Nokia’s Symbian market share would transition into Windows Phone. However, that never really happened, as most Symbian users switched to Android phones.

Had Nokia chosen Android instead of Symbian, the company may have had a better chance of keeping its market share. Nokia chose Windows Phone believing it could more easily differentiate from all the Android OEMs, but in reality, Windows Phone served to only further marginalize Nokia in the market.

Windows Phone’s market share has remained virtually the same since it launched five years ago, at around two percent of global smartphone sales, despite Nokia’s and Microsoft’s best attempts and billion dollar investments to change that. The OS saw a -10.2 percent decline in 2015 compared to 2014, and it’s expected to further decline in 2016, despite Windows 10 being ready soon for mobile.

The IDC believes that the weak market performance is due to low support from OEMs, but the OEMs won’t support it as long as consumers don’t want it for a lack of a strong ecosystem. Microsoft started two projects, Islandwood and Astoria, to port iOS and Android apps to Windows 10 for mobile, although some rumors say that Project Astoria (for Android apps) has been delayed and may even be cancelled, due to the poor performance of the apps.

For now, the Islandwood project is still alive, but it remains to be seen how fast it will be adopted by iOS developers, and whether that will have the desired effect of increasing Windows' market share in mobile.

______________________________________________________________________

Lucian Armasu joined Tom’s Hardware in early 2014. He writes news stories on mobile, chipsets, security, privacy, and anything else that might be of interest to him from the technology world. Outside of Tom’s Hardware, he dreams of becoming an entrepreneur.

You can follow him at @lucian_armasu. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

Nokia Technologies announced the commercial availability of the OZO virtual reality camera. Nokia Technologies is Nokia’s Research & Development arm that invents new products and also licenses technologies to other companies under the Nokia brand.

Lately we’ve seen the announcements of several other VR cameras, including the Sphericam, Google’s Jump, Jaunt’s NEO, 360 Designs’ “EYE,” and the Lytro Immerge. The OZO counts among them butis targeted at professionals, which is why it has a price tag of $60,000.

Nokia’s OZO brings features such as real-time VR preview, wireless operation, and full 3D 360 audio and video broadcast capabilities.

"We're at the dawn of an exciting new medium that will transform the way people connect to stories, events, and the world around them," said Ramzi Haidamus, president of Nokia Technologies. "OZO is a powerful tool designed for the professional creators who will answer the most exciting and intriguing questions about the possibilities for virtual reality."

Although Lytro hasn’t announced pricing for its recently announced “Lytro Immerge” camera, the two are likely to compete in the high-priced, professional VR camera segment -- cameras for filmmakers, video ad-makers, game developers, and so on.

Jaunt, the VR production studio that provides both hardware and software support to its customers (and is also making the upcoming NEO VR camera), has also said it will support Nokia’s OZO camera.

There are currently no standards for VR video content, but Jaunt has received a $65 million investment from Disney and has announced partnerships that will make its content work with programs such as Final Cut Pro X, Nuke, RV, Shotgun, Maya, 3Ds Max, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, Assimilate's Scratch, Lustre, and Avid. This should go a long way towards establishing a de facto standard in the industry, although it’s still very early days for anything VR-related.

If Jaunt’s content will become the standard, then Nokia’s OZO camera could be part of that ecosystem. It will also be one of the very first commercially available VR cameras, which could also give it some momentum in the market.

The OZO camera is expected to arrive in Q1, 2016.

______________________________________________________________________

Lucian Armasu joined Tom’s Hardware in early 2014. He writes news stories on mobile, chipsets, security, privacy, and anything else that might be of interest to him from the technology world. Outside of Tom’s Hardware, he dreams of becoming an entrepreneur.

You can follow him at @lucian_armasu. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

Recently, Nokia sold off its HERE maps to a coalition of German auto companies comprised of Audi AG, BMW Group and Daimler AG. The sale makes some sense given Nokia's radical reshaping of itself as a company, but one (admittedly small) segment of consumers were caught in the crossfire unawares: Windows Phone users.

Nokia's HERE transportation suite of apps have been the default navigational tools on Windows Phone for some time -- this, compared to Google Maps on Android and (the much-maligned) Apple Maps on iOS. The respective mapping apps on the three platforms were differentiators for users. For example, buying into Windows Phone meant you were buying into HERE and eschewing the popular Google Maps.

But with the HERE Maps and Drive+ in the hands of the Germans, what would become of maps and navigational tools on Windows Phone (which in short order will be known as "Windows 10 Mobile")?

HERE Today, Gone Tomorrow?

Microsoft told us that Windows Phone 8.1 apps will remain in the Store even after the upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile later this year, and thus, HERE Maps, Transit and Drive+ should remain available for faithful users.

However, there is some question as to what the Germans have planned for HERE -- they could keep the apps available and updated, or they could yank it from the Store and hoard it for their own auto platforms.

The HERE group replied to our inquiry about this issue with a statement that is both reassuring and also leaves some unanswered questions. In part, a representative told us, "The Consortium...has stated that it expects HERE also under new ownership to be open and continue to run on an independent basis." In other words, HERE is expected to remain supported and free to use, even under the consortium's ownership. Even better, the rep assured us, "We will continue to support our apps on Windows Phone (WP7/WP8/WP8.1) and will also ensure that they will be compatible with Windows 10."

This is excellent news for HERE fans, but it's also not a guarantee that many would be comfortable banking on. HERE is still under the umbrella of Nokia (pending the usual regulatory approval rigamarole, the sale of HERE to the consortium should close sometime in Q1 2016), so it's entirely possible that the new owners could change their minds. Then what?

Universal Apps To The Rescue

Microsoft has made much of its new Universal Apps -- applications that will scale across all Windows-powered platforms and devices -- and indeed, the company confirmed to Tom's Hardware that Windows 10 Mobile will use the new Universal Maps app already found on Windows 10.

The HERE apps have been fine tools for Windows Phone users, but there's reason for optimism going forward -- the maps app for Windows 10 is promising.

Windows 10 Maps for Phones is already available in the technical preview, and to hear Microsoft tell it, the company pulled in the best parts of HERE and combined them with its Bing Maps technology.

"Maps offers you the features and tools you need to explore and navigate the world. This includes the best maps, aerial imagery, rich local search data, and voice guided navigation experiences from both Bing Maps and HERE maps, integrated together for the first time into a single app for Windows," read a Microsoft blog post from earlier this year.

A brief list of features includes:

-Pinch to zoom, two-finger rotate and the ability to tap a label to bring up detailed information on a location-Tap to zoom into your current location or switch to aerial imagery or local traffic data-One-tap search to find nearby eateries, hotels, shopping and the like-Rich details about a location you searched for-Turn-by-turn directions for driving, walking or public transit (optimized based on current traffic conditions or your preferred route)-Voice-guided navigation-Speed limit warnings and day/night modes-Offline map storage (a choice feature of HERE)-Favorites lists that follow you from device to device

Anecdotally, we've found the Maps application in Windows 10 on the desktop to be attractive and responsive. It's quite clear that the application is taking advantage of GPU acceleration. You can spin around the globe, zoom in as far as you want, and instantly have the maps and surface terrain rendered.

Everything loads rapidly, and with great detail. Even from afar, the terrain is visible, and you can make out different farm patches. There's even a 3D cities feature that covers most of the major cities in the U.S. and Canada, and many more cities from around the world, rendered in beautiful 3D images.

It remains to be seen if features such as the 3D images and 360-degree "streetside panoramas" will come to every handset. Microsoft told us that 3D images will at least be coming to some Windows 10 Mobile devices, but not others, because the experience on lower-end handsets would be less than ideal.

Lost In The Mix: Windows Phone 7 And Windows Phone 8 Devices

There's a final angle to this story that's important to keep in mind, which is that many older Windows Phone devices aren't getting the Windows 10 Mobile update. Microsoft has stated that “Windows 10 will start rolling out later this year and will be available for qualified Windows 8.1 phones,” meaning that older (not that much older) handsets won't be getting the new Maps app. As previously stated, HERE maps should remain available, updated and free for those users, but come Q1 2016 and the close of the HERE acquisition, there's no guarantee. In that case, a certain slice of Windows Phone users could be stuck using some other third-party Maps tool -- not the shiny new Windows 10 Universal Maps app, and not the tried-and-true HERE Maps.

(This is the part where someone makes a joke about how there are hardly any Windows Phone users in the first place, and the majority of existing Windows Phone users will get the Windows 10 Mobile bump, so who cares? And that's a fair point.)

HERE was, and is, a strong competitor in the mobile maps space, and it has been one of the selling points of the Windows Phone platform. It seems as though we'll have the HERE suite for the foreseeable future, whether you're on an older Windows Phone 7/8/8.1 device or have the (upcoming) Windows 10 Mobile upgrade.

But no matter; Microsoft has already moved on from HERE, headed somewhere new.

Seth Colaner is the News Director at Tom's Hardware. Follow him on Twitter @SethColaner. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Nokia announced that it will split the HERE maps division from the company in a sale worth 2.8 billion euro ($3.1 billion) to the German car consortium formed by Audi, BMW and Daimler. Nokia is trying to refocus on networking technology and services going forward after the merger with Alcatel-Lucent.

Back in 2007, Nokia bought Navteq, a maps services company, for $8.1 billion. Nokia was still at the top of its game then. The iPhone had just launched, and the company couldn't imagine it would struggle for its survival because of it just a few short years later.

Nokia realized that maps were going to be important for future mobile phones, and it wanted to get ahead of that trend. However, it paid an overly expensive price to do that, and the company never quite recovered from it.

At the time, Navteq was making $108 million in profit per year on $582 million revenue, so without major changes to its business model it would have taken Nokia decades to recoup that money.

Nokia seems to have failed on the execution of its maps business model, too, as in the first half of this year the company only made $50 million on net sales of $605 million, making it even less likely that the company would ever fully get its acquisition money back.

Nokia is also getting out of the mobile market (for the most part), and it now wants to focus on networking technologies and services, especially after the merger with Alcatel-Lucent, a company which has similar goals.

Rajeev Suri, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nokia, said: "With this step we complete the latest stage of Nokia's transformation. We integrated the former Nokia Siemens Networks, divested our Devices & Services business, and have now reached agreement on a transaction for HERE that we believe is the best path forward for our shareholders, as well as the customers and employees of HERE."He added, “Going forward, we will focus on our planned combination with Alcatel-Lucent. Once that is complete, Nokia will be a renewed company, with a world-leading network technology and services business, as well as the licensing and innovation engine of Nokia Technologies."

Nokia sold the HERE maps business for 2.8 billion euro to the consortium of German car companies which know that the maps service is going to be a critical feature of future cars. Many cars at all price points already come with embedded navigation systems these days anyway, so at the very least the companies could use the HERE acquisition to cut costs.

However, self-driving cars, as well as other advanced safety features that will be developed for future cars, will need to know the location of the car at all times, which will also make the maps service more important than ever.

After this sale, Nokia will consist of two businesses: Nokia Networks, which will provide broadband infrastructure solutions, and Nokia Technologies, which will continue to create new technologies and offer licensing agreements to other companies.

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Nokia announced OZO, a virtual reality video camera designed for professional content creators. The company said this is just the first device from a portfolio of planned digital media solutions that will be coming out of its advanced technology and licensing business, Nokia Technologies.

Nokia Technologies President, Ramzi Haidamus, said the company expects virtual reality to dramatically change the way people communicate experience entertainment. Nokia plans to be at the forefront of this shift, and it believes OZO will play a big part in that change.

OZO uses eight synchronized global shutter sensors equally spaced around a globe-like device. These cameras are used to record in stereoscopic 3D. For each camera, there is a microphone to complement it. Nokia said this enables spatially accurate sound.

Nokia is developing software to go along with OZO that will enable real-time 3D playback. Using the software, there is no need to stitch together panoramic shots. The playback software will handle this process in real-time.

Nokia said it has designed the OZO and accompanying software to integrate into existing professional third party tools to keep content production as simple as possible. Content recorded with OZO will be viewable on commercially available VR headsets. 

OZO will undergo final testing and refinements with the help of Nokia's industry professional partners as the company prepares to manufacture OZO in Finland. Full specifications and prices will be released at a future date, though the company said it anticipates shipments to start before the end of the year. 

Nokia's OZO camera isn't the first VR camera to be announced. Jaunt Inc. recently announced its own hardware. Google has Jump (which isn't really a camera, but an array of GoPros). There is also Sphericam, which recently completed a successful Kickstarter. The key difference between those devices and Nokia's OZO, though, is that OZO will be the first one that's commercially available.

Along with the announcement from Nokia, Jaunt Inc. has announced it is committed to supporting OZO. Jaunt is a Palo Alto-based VR production company that provides hardware and software for creating cinematic VR productions to content creators. The company has announced that it will be offering use of OZO at Jaunt Studios, and it will support content filmed on OZO through its post-production services. Cliff Plumer, President of Jaunt Studios, said the company will continue to support its own line of cameras as well as the best options others have to offer. He said this will "ensure content creators have access to the best tool for the job."

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Last year, Microsoft announced its intention to cut 18,000 jobs from the company, half of which would come from the smartphone division it purchased from Nokia. That number has slightly changed, as Microsoft announced that it's going to cut 7,800 jobs from that division as part of its restructuring of the smartphone business under new CEO Satya Nadella.

The company will also write off the $7.6 billion it spent acquiring Nokia and other related assets, and another $750-$850 million will be spent for the restructuring process alone. The news comes weeks after the company decided to get out of the ad display business, which it sold to AOL.

Microsoft doesn't seem to have much faith in its ability to turn Windows Phone around in the future, as evidenced by the fact that it announced this only months before it would get a chance to see how its Windows 10 unification strategy between desktop and phones would work.

Although Microsoft will continue to make its own Windows phones, the business will be significantly scaled back. Letting go of the $7.6 billion investment in the mobile business also suggests that Microsoft won't be too aggressive in its mobile strategy in the near future.

The company will keep building phones for the low-end, for business customers, and for enthusiasts who want high-end flagships, with a new plan of possibly releasing only three phones per year.

Nadella further discussed the company's future plans in the mobile space in a letter:

“In the near term, we will run a more effective phone portfolio, with better products and speed to market given the recently formed Windows and Devices Group. We plan to narrow our focus to three customer segments where we can make unique contributions and where we can differentiate through the combination of our hardware and software. We'll bring business customers the best management, security and productivity experiences they need; value phone buyers the communications services they want; and Windows fans the flagship devices they'll love.In the longer term, Microsoft devices will spark innovation, create new categories and generate opportunity for the Windows ecosystem more broadly. Our reinvention will be centered on creating mobility of experiences across the entire device family including phones."

Without too much investment in Windows phones, and considering Nokia made the vast majority of Windows phones on the market, it's not clear where this leaves Microsoft in mobile. The company's mobile market share could shrink rapidly unless Microsoft can convince other companies to build more Windows Phones as it scales back its own handset manufacturing.

Nokia adopted Windows Phone instead of Android, hoping it could differentiate itself in the market, but instead it ended up marginalizing itself from users who were already used to Android and iOS and their much larger ecosystems of apps.

Nokia ended up making the bulk of Windows Phones, but when the devices were only a sliver of the larger smartphone market, that achievement didn't mean much. Nokia also couldn't sustain itself anymore due to the losses in revenue in the market, so Microsoft ended up buying the phone division in order to keep it alive.

It appears that this strategy hasn't worked, as we can see from the big layoff numbers and the $7.6 billion "impairment charge" (as Microsoft called it).

Microsoft's shrinkage in the smartphone market could also have a negative effect on its PC business, as competitors have begun to adopt integration strategies between their smartphones and PCs. The competitors are stronger in mobile, but weaker in PCs; however, an increasing number of people use smartphones as their primary computing device, which puts Microsoft in a disadvantageous position compared to competitors such as Apple and Google.

Right now, it's not clear whether the recent layoffs will also affect the Surface business. The Surface struggled when it first hit the market, but the situation seems to have improved with the more recent models.

Microsoft's new CEO may be more focused on the cloud and software side of the business than on hardware, especially if Microsoft ends up alienating its partners by making its own devices. Nadella's strategy should become more clear over the next year, after the launch of Windows 10.

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Bloomberg reported that Nokia is auctioning its HERE Maps business and is expecting to get at least $3.2 billion for it. The main bidders seem to be Apple, Alibaba and Amazon.

Facebook, a group of German car makers, and a private-equity firm are also looking at the purchase. Nokia has also approached Baidu, Sirius XM Holdings and Harman International Industries for their interest. Suffice it to say that this should be one interesting auction, potentially landing Nokia a significantly larger sum than the asking price of $3.2 billion. However, it's unlikely that the money-losing maps business could get Nokia more than the $8.1 billion it initially paid for it back in 2007. 

Nokia bought the NAVTEQ maps business just after the iPhone came out, at a time when it probably should have invested the money in catching up to Apple in touchscreen smartphones. It also didn't help that Nokia couldn't manage the business to a point where it was profitable and the company could get its acquisition money back.

According to Nokia's own financials, the HERE Maps assets were only worth $2.15 billion last year. The vision had sales of $980 million in 2014, but an operating loss of $1.34 billion.

Nokia recently signaled that it's going to focus much more on the networking side of its business with the $16.6 billion acquisition of Alcatel. However, there are some reports that the company is also going to come back to the smartphone market in 2016.

The most likely buyer of Nokia's maps service may be Apple, which was furiously criticized by many when it launched its own maps service back in 2011. The company launched a service that used aggregate data mostly from other providers, which ensured that the data wouldn't be of the same quality everywhere. In some cases, the data was completely wrong, leading people to wrong streets, bridges and so on.

Since then, Apple has improved its service, but it's arguably still incomplete compared to Google Maps. Right now, HERE Maps is seen as the most compelling competitor to Google Maps. That means that if Apple buys it, it could finally have a credible maps solution and brand.

One of the biggest advantages of HERE Maps compared to Google Maps is its ability to store maps of certain locations completely offline but still offer users navigational capabilities. Google Maps, on the other hand, can only cache certain map elements, and navigation doesn't work on them. All of this makes HERE maps significantly more compelling for traveling abroad, because you can download the maps ahead of time.

All of that said, Apple doesn't like to pay too much when acquiring companies. If Cupertino feels it has to overpay to get Nokia's maps division, it may back out, leaving the acquisition opportunity to Amazon, Facebook, Audi, Daimler or one of the two Chinese companies (Alibaba and Baidu). The initial bids from the companies are expected to be made by the end of this week.

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Fraunhofer, a German research company working on improving audio technology, together with 11 other companies including Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm and Samsung, announced that they've developed a new Enhanced Voice Services (EVS) codec that can boost audio quality significantly.

The companies started working on the new wide-band audio codec in order to bring the same level of quality to voice calls that you hear in other media. The GSM standard uses the AMR codec, which is a speech-only codec that is limited to the human voice and shuts out everything else, including other background sounds or music. Most of the current phone services remove at least three quarters of the audible spectrum, according to Fraunhofer.

The AMR codec has a bandwidth of 300 Hz-3.4 KHz, which has recently been doubled to 7 KHz (also called "HD Voice"). The new EVS codec has a bandwidth from 14 KHz (superwideband audio) and up to 20 KHz (full band audio) and has an audio quality comparable to streaming music. EVS was designed from the ground up to work with packet-switched services such as VoLTE (Voice over LTE). Fraunhofer calls it "Full-HD Voice."

The EVS codec allows bit rates ranging from 5.9 Kbit/s to 128 Kbit/s, which allows phone service providers to optimize their networks as needed. Bit rates for narrowband and wideband start at 5.9 Kbit/s, while superwideband Full-HD Voice bit rates start at 9.6 Kbit/s.

The EVS codec includes features such as a multi-rate speech and audio codec, source controlled variable bit-rate adaptation, a voice/sound activity detector, comfort noise generation, an error concealment mechanism, a channel-aware mode, and powerful jitter buffer management.

Fraunhofer said that the audio quality of the new codec is so good that reporters could go "live-to-air" from a remote location by simply using their phones. For regular consumers, the new codec comes with benefits such as being able to listen to music from a distance, such as from a concert they're not attending, with no degradation in quality.

According to the company, the new codec could start arriving in phones within 18 months. The codec can be implemented currently in software, but it's likely to arrive in hardware in the DSP in the future in order to achieve higher performance and efficiency.

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LG's G Flex 2 was the only flagship phone announced at CES 2015; however, this was a blessing in disguise, because it allowed us to check out some companies and phones that we may have perhaps overlooked, such as ones by Saygus and Yota Devices. Founded in Moscow, Yota was showing off the intriguing YotaPhone 2. Claiming to be the "world's first double screen smartphone," it has a regular AMOLED LCD display on one side and a low-power e-ink display on the other.

Tech Specs

The YotaPhone 2 comes with decent hardware, although considering its premium price, we expected better cameras. The Snapdragon 800 SoC is hardly cutting edge either, but it still provides a decent level of performance and is more energy efficient than its higher-clocked siblings.

We had a positive first impression of the YotaPhone 2. It's an attractive (though a little boring looking), premium-feeling phone. We found this a little surprising, as the original YotaPhone, launched in select markets in 2013, didn't receive rave reviews. While its secondary e-ink display was innovative, Yota's first dual-screen phone was under-powered, and its software was half-baked.

The YotaPhone 2, however, is a big improvement. The integration of the secondary e-ink display is well thought out, and Yota's software features utilize it well, improving the smartphone experience beyond just simple power savings. For example, customizable dashboards can be created for displaying relevant information on the back of the phone. This allows you to check the weather, stock prices, Twitter updates, or important emails without having to wake the phone and use the power-draining main display.

Yota has also integrated "YotaSnap" into the OS, which allows you to take a screenshot of anything on the main display and send it to the e-ink screen. This is ideal for displaying a boarding pass with a QR code; you can keep it on the phone's e-ink screen while you're checking in without killing the phone's battery.

(Correction: We refer to the screen as IPS in the video, when it's actually an AMOLED display.)

Although Yota Devices is originally a Russian company, it has been expanding globally, opening offices in Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Singapore, and the U.S. Perhaps the former Nokia employees now working in the R&D office in Finland contributed to the high-quality look and feel of the YotaPhone 2.

We had the opportunity to speak with Yota Devices' CEO, Vlad Martynov, who discussed the YotaPhone 2, the benefits of having a secondary display, and the company's 2015 plans for the North American market.

During our interview, he said that the YotaPhone 2 would be coming to North America, but he couldn't share any details yet. However, Matthew Kelly, Yota Devices Managing Director, Americas did confirm later during CES that it's definitely coming to one of the big four U.S. carriers. Unfortunately, there is no news about Canadian availability yet. While its price in Euros approximately translates to an eye-watering $850, the price should drop once it arrives here to compete with other premium smartphones.

The YotaPhone 2 is a unique and potentially ground-breaking device. While the phone itself appears very well-made, some of its hardware specs are merely average. It's the addition of the e-ink display that makes all the difference. What's more, Yota hasn't just slapped a second screen on the back and called it a day. Yota has clearly thought out the use cases and benefits of having this secondary display and has built software around it to maximize its potential.

We're looking forward to testing out the YotaPhone 2 for a longer period. Even if this phone doesn't live up to our expectations, the idea of an e-ink secondary display is something we'd like to see on more phones going forward, whether they be from Yota or under license from them by someone else. The YotaPhone 2 is available in selected European and Asian markets, and can be ordered on the Yota site. Once it's available in North America, we'll be sure to update you.

Follow Alex Davies @alexbdavies. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Cricket Wireless has been around for a long time, offering inexpensive prepaid mobile wireless service (with the caveat of limited coverage). When AT&T snapped up the company back in May 2014, many around the industry were intrigued by the possibilities such a powerful parent company could open up for Cricket.

Now, mere months later, Cricket seems to be enjoying those benefits partly in the form of a very large and exclusive ZTE-made handset.

Cricket worked with ZTE to develop a midrange but rather impressive-sounding phone dubbed the ZTE Grand X Max+, which is currently a Cricket exclusive. The phone boasts a massive 6-inch Full HD display as well as 4G LTE capabilities, and there are 16 GB of internal storage (with support for up to a 32 GB microSD card) and 2 GB of RAM.

The rear-facing camera is a 13 MP affair, and the front-facing camera is a solid 5 MP. There's also Dolby Audio on board (with a single speaker), and a nice, big 3200 mAh battery to better handle the demands of that large display. To get the battery powered up faster, they've enabled Qualcomm Quick Charge 1.0 technology.

And yes, the Grand X Max+ runs on a Qualcomm chip -- the Snapdragon 400 (quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex A7 CPU with the Adreno 305 GPU). It's a midrange chip to be sure, powering handsets including the Moto G, Moto G 2014, and Lumia 830; however, all of these phones have smaller screens than the Grand X Max + and use a lower 720p resolution. We wonder what sort of performance hit the Grand X Max+ might take, then, in the GPU department.

While the Snapdragon 400 is going to be phased out in favor of the Snapdragon 410 (Cortex A53) at some point, considering the other specifications and features, the Grand X Max+ may still pique buyers' interests with its low price tag. The device will sell unlocked for $199.99.

So why a beastly 6-inch phablet? "We currently have in our lineup a Windows Phone [the Nokia Lumia 1320] with a 6-inch screen and have had really good success with that product," said Andy Smoak, Head of Product at Cricket Wireless. He also noted that this Grand X Max+ will compete with the likes of the Samsung 6.3-inch Galaxy Mega and 6-inch Mega 2, and he wants to beat them on price.

"Historically, those products [like the Mega] have been $399," said Smoak. "You're getting a lot for [the price], yes, but it's not like you're getting a Galaxy S5."

"We worked really hard with ZTE on the Grand X Max+ that comes with the LTE technology, that comes with the big 6-inch screen, that comes with the big battery, the big camera," he added. It's geared for those who want a higher-end phone but don't want to drop $600-$700 on one.

The Grand X Max+ runs Android 4.4 KitKat. One might hope that it would get the Lollipop treatment at some point, but Smoak noted, "One of the ways that we drive a better cost basis is by not doing a lot of OS updates and maintenance releases. We are very strategic about the decisions we make around that." He did say, however, that a product in the class of this handset is likely to see an upgrade to Lollipop, but he wasn't able to confirm either way.

So, fine then; there are lots of other prepaid offerings out there, and one exclusive mid-tier handset is only going to go so far in persuading buyers to switch to or stick with Cricket. But Cricket knows that, and the company is pushing its network as the main attraction.

Cricket enjoys the reliability and wide coverage area of AT&T's network. The company does use AT&T's towers and LTE and 3G networks, but Cricket has its own packet core, data speeds, and so on.

The main difference is data speeds. Cricket's service offers lower LTE speeds than AT&T. Although the company wouldn't give an exact number, Smoak did reframe that issue by saying that what you get is still "head and shoulders" above legacy LTE Cricket speeds.

He also stated that Cricket customers aren't as focused on speeds as they are on coverage area (which it has in spades thanks to AT&T), reliability, and price.

To top off the value of Cricket's offerings, the company offers Wi-Fi access to 13 million "curated" AT&T Smart Wi-Fi hotspots around the U.S. When customers are in range, their data access automatically switches over to the hotspots using AT&T's authentication protocols to ensure security. However, voice calls over Wi-Fi are not supported.

Cricket offers several plan tiers. There's a simple unlimited talk/text plan for $25 per month, or you can opt for the $40, $50, or $60 per month plans that net you 1 GB, 3 GB, or 10 GB of 4G LTE data, respectively.

Follow Seth Colaner @SethColaner. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

From Phonebloks to Project Ara to Vsenn, we've seen different designs and implementations of how a modular phone should look and work. Puzzlephone is another such project, started in Nokia's home town (Espoo), that much like Vsenn (another company from Finland) focuses on the middle ground between total customization (like Ara) and no hardware customization at all (like most smartphones today).

The Puzzlephone will have three main "modular" components: the "Spine," which consists of the LCD screen, speakers and the phone's basic structure; the "Heart," which contains the battery and secondary components; and the "Brain," which has the processor and camera. This platform will use a fork of Android to begin, but it could also use other open source operating systems in the future, if needed.

On one hand, out of all the modular phone concepts we've seen so far, this looks like the most practical one. It's not made out of a dozen pieces that could lead to a less stable body. The three main parts seem to be stuck together with screws, which isn't very aesthetically pleasing, but you can be sure they won't separate from each other even when dropped. Plus, these phones will likely be covered with cases by their owners anyway.

On the other hand, the components from the three main modules may not come from the same company, which means either companies making one component (such as the processor) will have to establish some partnership with other companies (such as the camera makers) to build together such a module, or they will have to build the whole module themselves (less likely).

A third alternative, and probably the most likely scenario, is that middleman companies will appear that would, for example, take Sony's camera and Qualcomm's processor and assemble them together into one module. This would spare the component makers from having to build their own modules for a modular phone; however, they also won't be the ones to reap many of the financial rewards. The modules will then likely carry the branding of the middleman module assemblers instead of the component makers (unless some "Intel Inside" type of deal is made).

In the end, it's good to see different modular phone concepts battling it out in the market to see which approach is best. The one that will win is likely the one to get the most momentum from the component ecosystem. If customers can quickly start choosing between a range of hardware optimizations for a certain modular platform, that's the platform that should get the biggest momentum, which in turn will get even more component makers interested in participating on that platform.

Whether this whole idea of a modular phone will ever enter the mainstream market remains to be seen. Getting into the mainstream will likely require some "killer app" (or component in this case) that can't be found in regular smartphones but appears in modular phones.

Puzzlephone, just like Ara and Vsenn, should start shipping a working platform sometime next year, and then we'll get to see which platform is the most appealing and/or has the biggest component ecosystem.

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Just months after Nokia sold its Lumia and Asha businesses to Microsoft, a new division called Nokia Technologies has revealed an upcoming tablet sporting Android 5.0 "Lollipop" called the N1. This is the new division's first Android tablet, and it comes packed with proprietary features such as the Nokia Z Launcher and "Scribble" technology. The tablet is expected to arrive in Q1 2015, and manufactured and sold by OEMs.

So what gives? How is this new arm of Nokia able to manufacture a tablet when the mobile division was sold to Microsoft? According to a Nokia rep, the Microsoft deal means that Nokia cannot license its brand for use on smartphones until after the end of 2015. Nokia also cannot sell its own smartphones until sometime in 2016. This agreement does not apply to tablets.

Nokia revealed that the tablet has a 7.9-inch fully-laminated display with a 2048 x 1536 resolution and Gorilla Glass 3 protection. This screen is backed by a 64-bit quad-core Intel Atom Z3580 processor clocked at 2.3 GHz, a PowerVR G6430 GPU clocked at 533 MHz, and 2 GB of LPDDR3 memory. All of this is powered by a 5300 mAh lithium polymer battery.

The specs also show that the tablet includes 32 GB of storage, an 8MP camera with autofocus on the back, a 5MP camera on the front (fixed focus), two 0.5 watt stereo speakers, a microphone, Wireless AC and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, and a micro USB 2.0 port with a Type-C reversible connector. Overall, the tablet measures just 0.27 inches thin, 7.90 inches high and 5.45 inches wide.

The big selling point for Nokia is its "predictive" engine, which is powered by the company's Nokia Z Launcher. This feature keeps a tab on what the user is doing, learning where the user is going, and what he/she does on the tablet. The engine will provide shortcuts on the Home screen so that the user has immediate access to the most-used features and destinations.

Another important feature is the company's "Scribble" technology. This allows users to draw a letter on the home screen by merely using a fingertip. As a result, a list of web content, apps and so on beginning with that letter will be generated and displayed on the Home screen. For instance, draw an "A" on the screen and a list could include Angry Birds, Apple.com, Amazon.com, and a link to the address book.

The big news here is that Nokia has formed a new "Technologies" division that is producing a new tablet. A rep from Nokia said that the N1 has already been licensed out to an external partner who will manufacture and distribute the device. The rep couldn't comment on other products that Nokia Technologies has in the pipeline.

Ultimately, the specs of the N1 show that Nokia Technologies means business in the tablet market, that it's not producing a budget-focused "me too" product. The biggest contender will be Apple iPad Mini 3, which currently has a starting price of $399 and a strikingly similar form factor. However, at this time, the Nokia N1 is heading to China first for $249 in Q1 2015 and is expected to hit other European markets such as Russia thereafter. With that in mind, we'll have to wait and see how well the Nokia device will fare against the Apple rival and similar tablets sold overseas.

Currently, a possible launch in North America is unknown at this time.

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While many are still trying to wrap their heads around the Ara modular phone, and whether it will even work, it seems there’s already a competitor announcing its entrance into this market called Vsenn, which is a new company that was co-founded by a former Nokia Android X program manager.

Unlike Project Ara, it seems Vsenn’s platform supports only three types of modules: camera, battery and processor/RAM. The company promises to use only the best and fastest hardware components in its modules. By the looks of it, the modules won’t be made by third-party manufacturers, but by Vsenn itself.

One interesting feature of this new platform is that it will run vanilla Android, which will be updated for four years. That’s not just more than double what most Android OEMs promise for their highest-end devices, but also more than what Apple promises for its own devices (three years).

On its site, Vsenn says that it will also provide "triple layer encryption." The company will offer free VPN and secure cloud access, and it will protect users’ data integrity and privacy. There aren’t any other details about how any of this will actually work, though.

The company also says that the owners of these devices will be able to customize their looks with a "variety of offers" that are durable and stylish.

The modular phone seems like a great idea in theory. New product categories usually start by being highly integrated and proprietary, while later they become more modularized, to increase customization, lower prices, and expand the market to new customers.

In the modular phone’s case, there will some drawbacks, as well. The phones may look a little bulkier, or not as solid, and there may be a latency increase as the separated components communicate with each other.

These drawbacks may be overcome by the advantages and the freedom customers could get with a modular phone, though, such as the ability to pick and choose whichever component the user thinks is best for his or her phone.

Ultimately, what will make or break this idea will be how well it can be executed and how much support it will get from third-party component makers. This is why Ara may be in a much better position than Vsenn, because it has the backing of a large company with nearly limitless resources, as well as many more partners from the Android ecosystem.

We still don’t know too much about Vsenn and its plans yet, though. It’s possible this team saw something that the Ara team may have missed and could be critical for their modular phone’s success. We’ll see which has more appeal once they are both shipping on the market.

Tom's Hardware has reached out to Vsenn for more details, and we'll update the story as they arrive.

Update, 9:10am PST November 7: Vsenn replied that it intends to release the modular phone in Q1/early Q2 next year, and that the price of the device will actually be lower than most of the current flagships from Samsung, LG or Sony. The company will offer more information about the phone next week.

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According to the WSJ, Andy Rubin left Google after almost a decade of working for the company. He has been working at Google since 2005, when his company at the time, Android Inc., was acquired by the search giant. Rubin was in charge of Android until last year, when he was replaced as Android chief by Sundar Pichai, then the SVP of Chrome.

When Android Inc. was just a small start-up, Rubin was envisioning a world where the massive fragmentation in the mobile market caused by each smartphone OEM using its own incompatible or outdated operating system could be fixed by getting all OEMs to use a single, more advanced, operating system – Android.

This operating system caught Google's leaders' attention, as they were also frustrated with poor web experiences on mobile phones. In 2005, two years after Android Inc. was founded, Google acquired Rubin's company.

Andy Rubin understood that Android would have a much better chance to convince large smartphone manufacturers to adopt an OS that wasn't their own if another large company, such as Google, was in charge of it. With Google's nearly limitless resources, Android could become the most advanced mobile operating system.

With over one billion monthly active users, over 80 percent global market share, a great deal of advanced functionality, and with virtually all smartphone manufacturers having adopted Android (including Nokia at some point, even though it been historically hostile towards Android), one could say that Rubin's vision has been accomplished.

It's not clear, though, if Andy Rubin is leaving Google on good terms. When he was replaced by Sundar Pichai, there wasn't much information about why he stepped down from his position as Android boss, except for the fact that he was going to lead Google's robotics division.

Andy Rubin's admitted hobby has been building robots, and it was also thought that he has more of an entrepreneurial rather than a managerial spirit, so his departure from the Android division wasn't too much of a shock.

Despite the fact that he seems to have had a good time running Google's advanced robotics division, though, Rubin appears ready to leave Google for good and start his own "incubator for hardware startups."

"Larry enabled the robotic effort to run exactly the way I wanted it to, and we made great progress in our first year," Rubin told the WSJ.

Larry Page also thanked him for his success with Android:

"I want to wish Andy all the best with what's next. With Android, he created something truly remarkable—with a billion plus happy users. Thank you."

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After many years of seeing Opera as a competitor in the browser space, Microsoft has signed a deal with the company to use its Opera Mini as the default browser for all of Nokia's feature phones.

Microsoft had a big wave of layoffs recently, with most of the cuts coming from Nokia's handset division, so it's likely that Microsoft also laid off most of the developers working on Nokia's feature phones, including those working on its in-house browser.

Microsoft doesn't want to invest much more than it has to in its feature phone line-up, but it will continue to support it for the time being in order to serve the large sub-$50 phone market.

It's clear that Microsoft's end goal is to have Nokia's entire lineup of phones use the Windows Phone OS, eventually. The only problem is that the hardware necessary to support Windows Phone hasn't gotten into the price range of the hardware that now runs Nokia's S40 or Asha.

Until that happens, Microsoft doesn't want to build Internet Explorer for these phones, or even keep supporting Nokia's custom browser, Xpress. Instead it's now licensing Opera Mini and completely outsourcing the browser to Opera. It seems Microsoft is in such a hurry to move its low-end phones to Opera Mini that it's not even going to wait for new phones to come out with it. The Xpress browser will soon be replaced by Opera Mini on the older phones, too.

As expected, Opera couldn't be happier with this deal:

“This is a great opportunity to spread the benefits of Opera Mini to millions more consumers in our core markets. There are still massive numbers of people who have not moved to smartphones, but Opera Mini can provide them with an amazing browsing experience right now," said Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera, in a statement.

Opera Mini has been a great browser for low-end phones and in markets where data is not very affordable. The browser saves up to 90 percent of data by compressing all the traffic through Opera's own servers.

Opera may not be highly successful on the desktop or even on high-end smartphones, where Chrome and the built-in browsers dominate (respectively), but thanks to these feature phones it should still do well for the next few years. At the same time, Microsoft doesn't have to spend money developing a browser for a platform that's going to fade out eventually, so it looks like a win-win situation for both.

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Guy Rosen, product management director of Facebook, announced on Thursday the launch of an Internet.org app for Android so that citizens of developing regions can access specific services online for free. The app is making its debut in Zambia for Airtel subscribers and will roll out to other parts of the world in the near future.

"Over 85% of the world's population lives in areas with existing cellular coverage, yet only about 30% of the total population accesses the internet," Rosen said in a Facebook blog. "Affordability and awareness are significant barriers to internet adoption for many and today we are introducing the Internet.org app to make the internet accessible to more people by providing a set of free basic services."

The app grants users access to 13 free services including AccuWeather, Facebook, Google Search, Wikipedia and more. These services can also be accessed within the Facebook for Android app, and via the Internet.org website.

"With this app, people can browse a set of useful health, employment and local information services without data charges," Rosen said. "By providing free basic services via the app, we hope to bring more people online and help them discover valuable services they might not have otherwise."

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of Internet.org back in August 2013 (PDF). The founding members also include Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm and Samsung. The goal is to bring Internet access to the "next five billion people."

"Everything Facebook has done has been about giving all people around the world the power to connect," Zuckerberg said back then. "There are huge barriers in developing countries to connecting and joining the knowledge economy. Internet.org brings together a global partnership that will work to overcome these challenges, including making Internet access available to those who cannot currently afford it."

According to the Internet.org website, one out of every three people can go online. The goal, then, is to make Internet accessible to the two-thirds of the world that are not connected, roughly five billion people. The founding members of Internet.org plan to "develop joint projects, share knowledge, and mobilize industry and government to bring the world online." They will address three key boundaries: making access affordable, using data more efficiently, and helping businesses drive access.

For more on the new app, AccuWeather talks about its free service in an announcement here.

Windows Phone Gets A New Flagship

Microsoft has a history of tenaciously pursuing a market once it sets sights on a target. Take the 1990s browser wars, for example. Or the continuing Xbox versus PlayStation saga. Although it often enters as a latecomer and underdog, Microsoft accomplishes some impressive feats when its back is against the wall. That's a perfect description of the mobile market right now, as Android seems unstoppable and iOS commands a strong second place.

But did you know that Microsoft surpassed Blackberry's market share in 2013, and shipped more than 10 million devices in Q4 of last year? Or that Windows Phone doubled its global smartphone OS market share in Q3, to just under one-third of Apple's? Now that it owns Nokia, there's little reason to believe that Microsoft will not do everything in its power to continue this momentum. And if you doubt its conviction, the software giant recently announced that it will drop the Windows royalty fee for devices with screens below nine inches. Perhaps it's a bit early to crown Android the victor in the battle for smartphone supremacy.

While Windows Phone 8 took big strides in the budget sector on Nokia's Lumia 520 (a phone that offers fantastic value on a pay-as-you go basis), most of us wouldn't aspire to own one. Nokia has a cutting-edge phablet (phone/tablet) in the Lumia 1520, but that form factor isn't for everyone. Windows Phone needs a flagship to prove it can compete against the Google Nexus, Samsung Galaxy, and HTC One. It needs something in the 5" display category. Its answer arrives in the Lumia Icon, also known as the Nokia Lumia 930 to non-Verizon customers.

Given a strong spec sheet, the Icon/930 earns a position in the same tier as other high-end Android-based devices. Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 at 2.2 GHz, check. Adreno 330 graphics engine, check. Two gigabytes of LPDDR3, check. LTE support, check. Five-inch AMOLED 1080p screen with an impressive 441 ppi, check. Forward-looking 802.11ac wireless support, check. Twenty-megapixel camera, check. And although you don't get microSD expansion, 32 GB of on-board storage is nothing to sneeze at.

If those specifications look familiar, that's because the Icon and 930 share almost all of them with Nokia's Lumia 1520, which differentiates itself with a larger 6" IPS LCD display and memory card support. But again, a 6" screen classifies the 1520 as a phablet. In reality, the Icon/930 is more of a successor to the Lumia 1020, which could be considered the previous flagship Windows Phone device.

The Lumia Icon/930 improves upon its predecessor's specs in every way, except for imaging hardware. The Lumia 1020's xenon flash and 41 MP camera remain the tops optics in the smartphone industry, while the Icon employs a better-than-average 19.66 MP camera with a large 1/2.5" sensor and dual-LED flash. For what it's worth, that's also what you'll find in the Lumia 1520. And although the sensor doesn't sound as impressive as the Lumia 1020's, you also don't have to deal with a protruding bump on the Icon's chassis, either.

When you compare the Icon/930 to a contemporary device like Google's Nexus 5, the playing field narrows considerably. Both feature similar quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoCs, even if the Nexus' CPU cores operate at up to 100 MHz faster. The two phones similarly come equipped with Adreno 330 graphics, too. While both these phones have 5" 1920x1080 displays with 441 ppi pixel densities, the Nexus employs an IPS LCD compared to the Icon's AMOLED screen, giving Nokia an advantage in contrast levels and power usage.

Speaking of power, the Icon/930 has a slightly beefier 2420 mAh battery. And though the Lumia's 19.66 MP camera is a downgrade from the 1020, it certainly looks good on paper next to the Nexus 5's 8 MP sensor.

There's one technical difference between the Lumia Icon and 930: their on-board storage options. While the Lumia Icon comes with a mandatory 32 GB of space, the Lumia 930 has the option of 16 or 32 GB. Otherwise, available colors are all that separates them. More about that on the next page.

Design, Look, And Feel

The Lumia Icon isn't a flashy or colorful device. Unlike other Nokia models, there are no bright colors available. You choose between black and white. It's a businesslike, sharp, and understated phone. A cut, beveled edge surrounding the case is more reminiscent of an iPhone than it is the rest of the Lumia line. It's fine-looking. But Icon owners who want to express their personal style a bit more will want a case with pizazz.

The Lumia 930 features an identical platform, but is available in two additional colors: green and orange.

Up top, you can barely make out the nano-SIM tray next to the more prominent 3.5 mm headphone jack. The tray is atypical in that it requires no pin to remove; you simply pull it open with a fingernail.

The front face of the phone hosts a speaker/mic, with a 2 MP camera just to the right. There are three illuminated Windows Phone buttons right below the 5" screen, and another forward-facing microphone. "Another one," you ask? That's right. The Icon has four: two unidirectional mics up front and two multi-directional in the back.

You won't find anything interesting on the left side of the phone; instead, all of the buttons are on the right side. From the top, there's the volume rocker, a power button, and a camera button that protrudes a little more than the others. All three activate crisply. My only complaint is they're too easy to press accidentally. The power button is particularly susceptible to this, since it's right where your fingers rest while holding the phone.

Those pinholes in the back are the multi-directional mics. They're purportedly able to track a sound source as it moves during video capture, which is something you'll see us test. The 20 MP camera is in the top-center of the device (or the right in the photo above), with a dual-LED flash next to it. The speaker is on the bottom-right, with the phone standing up vertically.

The only connector on the bottom of the phone is a micro-USB charging/data port.

Compared to the Lumia 1020, Nokia's Icon/930 is the exact same width, slightly longer, a hair thinner, and a bit heavier. I certainly understand why this is the case, given the Icon's larger 5" screen. But make no mistake, Nokia's latest is neither small nor light. The increased size is forgivable considering the larger display, and it's only about two millimeters larger than the Nexus 5 in each direction.

At 166 grams, though, it is noticeably heavier than Google's 130-gram phone. On the other hand, it's also quite a bit lighter than the brick-like Lumia 920, a 185-gram beast that represented the ultimate manifestation of Windows Phone 8 when it launched.

The Lumia Icon rides a fine line between size, heft, and usability. I purchased a Lumia 920, but quickly exchanged it for an HTC 8x because the Nokia was just too cumbersome to haul around. And I'm definitely not prepared to put up with a phablet, either. But I can tolerate the Icon in my pocket all day. Its beautiful 5" screen makes that decision all the more easy to rationalize.

Nokia's Lumia Icon/930 feels sturdy in-hand, and there's no doubt as to its high-quality materials. I only wish it was easier to hold on to. You might not suspect it, but this fairly large smartphone slips through my fingers if I'm not careful. That's reason enough to enclose the Lumia in a case, which won't do the device any favors in the bulkiness department.

Windows Phone 8 And Nokia Software Tour

It's surprising to me how often other reviewers draw inaccurate, assumptive, and negative conclusions about Microsoft's mobile operating system. To be clear, I'm no iOS or Android hater, and when I first decided to give Windows Phone 8 a try more than a year ago, I was disappointed by the absence of important apps. The OS certainly had its shortcomings.

Fast forward to 2014, though, and I couldn't be happier with Windows Phone. Microsoft addressed its most irritating limitations (the screen orientation lock, the option to close apps manually, and support for Google accounts, for instance) over three major updates, demonstrating real commitment to the platform.

The soon-to-arrive Windows Phone 8.1 update promises even more functionality, such as the ability to install apps on an SD card. Speaking of Windows Phone 8.1, it will be the only operating system available for the upcoming Lumia 930. The Lumia Icon will probably be one of the first phones to get the OS upgrade, but for now it's a Windows Phone 8 device.

The apps themselves have improved substantially, and Microsoft's Windows Phone Store now boasts over 140,000 entries. But more important, glaring omissions like Instagram are finally available. In addition, Microsoft purchased the rights to distribute Nokia's excellent HERE suite of maps and turn-by-turn navigation applications to all Windows Phone users. The offline map download option is glorious if you're going off the grid or into roaming territory.

Windows Phone offers a middle ground between the Draconian restrictions of iOS and Android's Wild West. Unlike Google's operating environment, every model of Windows Phone you log in to delivers a similar experience, with no substantial interface customizations or surprises. Unlike iOS, file management and applications aren't as tightly restricted. That's a nice balance for folks who appreciate tight integration with Microsoft's accounts and services. As an enthusiast using all three operating systems on a day-to-day basis, I prefer the simplicity of Windows Phone 8's interface over either competitor.

For now, the only real exclusive software you'll find on the Icon is Verizon Tones and VZ Navigator, since the device is still limited to one carrier. Tones lets you choose from a catalog of ringtones, and also ringback tones (the sound people hear when they call you). VZ Navigator is turn-by-turn navigation software with some extra social, event, and point-of-interest functionality built-in. Unfortunately, I'm outside of Verizon's service area, and can't test either value-added app.

Otherwise, the Lumia Icon and 930 both have access to Nokia's proprietary software, so if you're coming from another manufacturer's platform, you may be surprised at the volume of extras. I do like that not all of Nokia's apps are pre-installed on the Icon. Rather, you have access to them through the Windows Phone Store. For example, Nokia MixRadio (formerly Nokia Music) has an excellent reputation as a music delivery service, although its importance is diminished with the availability of apps from Songza and Pandora.

Of course, you get Nokia's excellent camera app (more on that later), along with a plethora of associated software, such as Creative Studio (to add effects to pictures), Storyteller (an automatic timeline app for photos), Cinemagraph (a curious app that takes short animations from the camera instead of pictures or video), Video Trimmer, Care (a useful Windows Phone help resource), and Beamer (an app that streams screen shots of your phone's display over the Web).

One of my favorite discoveries is Nokia App Social, which gives you a way to post the Windows Phone apps you recommend. It's a valuable resource for tracking down hidden gems in Microsoft's store.

Finally, Nokia's App Folder adds functionality that should have come with Windows Phone in the first place: the ability to put a customized tile in the home screen that contains shortcuts to related apps.

That's the important stuff. The one glaring omission is a lack of support for Nokia's Glance app, which lets the phone display the time, even when it's turned off. Apparently, this feature is not yet compatible with the Icon, and it remains unclear if this will be remedied in the future.

Availability, Options, And Accessories

As of right now, Verizon is the only carrier offering the Lumia Icon. It can be purchased for $199.99 on a two-year contract, or for $549.99 outright. That puts it in line with other premium offerings, such as Verizon's HTC One Max and the iPhone 5s.

The phone is compatible with the following cellular bands: LTE: 700 MHz; SVLTE Band 13; Band 4; CDMA: 3G EVDO 850/1900 Rev A with Rx Diversity; Global Ready: GSM (850, 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz), UMTS (850, 900, 1900, and 2100 MHz).

Verizon ships the phone unlocked, so you could, in theory, buy it and use another company's nano-SIM card. I tested the Icon up in Canada, where it worked well on the Rogers network (albeit limited to 3G/HSPA+ networks, as the cellular modem is incompatible with this country's LTE frequencies). I'm hoping that the more recently-announced Lumia 930 will support more options than the Verizon-exclusive Icon.

In addition to its cellular connectivity, the Icon is equipped with Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi radios. We couldn't get Windows Phone 8 to recognize a Bluetooth-attached keyboard or mouse, since the operating system doesn't support the required HID profile. That's going to become more of a limitation as form factors continue growing. I'm much more pleased with the inclusion of wireless 802.11ac. Using the Icon on a comparably-equipped Wi-Fi network yields an impressive online experience.

Again, if you're interested in Verizon's Lumia Icon, you have a choice between a black or white phone. You get 32 GB of storage, standard, with about 23 GB accessible out of the box.

Other than a pre-installed Verizon nano-SIM card and non-removable 2420 mAh battery, the only included accessories are an AC-to-USB charger, USB-to-microUSB cable, and documentation. The lack of earphones is conspicuous, especially for a device aimed at the high-end of the smartphone spectrum.

The Icon also features Qi wireless charging support, though a charging pad must be purchased separately.

Camera Features And Example Photos

Nokia is synonymous with a superlative "cameraphone" experience, and the Lumia 1020's 40 MP sensor, xenon flash, and six-element lens represent a high water mark in the industry. The Lumia Icon/930 is actually a step back in that regard.

Even still, the Icon's 20 MP sensor, dual-LED flash, f/2.4 aperture, and Carl Zeiss optics with optical image stabilization are top-tier specifications, and they combine to yield impressive results.

Being a Lumia phone, the Icon comes with Nokia's excellent Camera app as the default for image capture. This software combines the functionality of Nokia Pro Cam and Nokia Smart Cam in one package, creating a more convenient experience. While automatic settings are what you start with, there are options to manually set white balance, focus, ISO, shutter speed, and exposure through an intuitive radial menu interface.

The integrated Smart Cam functionality lets you record a sequence, rather than a single photo. This feature snaps 10 pictures in a row at a rate of four per second. But the magic happens after the fact when you're presented with the ability to remove objects, change faces, create a layered action shot, add blur to stationary parts of the scene, or simply select the best picture to save.

Given that the platform is processing all of this in real-time, the results can turn out to be quite impressive. But there's a tradeoff: image quality suffers, presumably as a result of a short exposure. You'll want to limit Smart Cam use to sunlit environments.

You also get the option to take 5 MP images, 5 MP JPG plus 16 MP (16:9)/20 MP (4:3) JPG image sets, or 5 MP JPG plus 16 MP (16:9)/20 MP (4:3) RAW (DNG) image sets.

The 5 MP images are the ones you have total access to from the camera; they're the ones you can post to social media and send to your friends. If you choose to store the larger versions as well, they're only used as reference in case you want to, say, un-zoom a zoomed in picture, or reframe. Full access to the 16/20 MP files is only granted when you hook up to your PC to download them.

Purists may lament the lack of absolute control over the larger images from the camera's interface. Realistically, though, even five megapixels is overkill for viewing on a 5" display or posting to Facebook. In fact, we've had issues attaching larger images to MMS messages on other phones, so Nokia's approach could be seen as a feature, even.

On the plus side, a large native resolution allows you to losslessly zoom in with a finger swipe on the display.

Where the Icon falters is its speed. Compared to other high-end phones, its camera takes longer to focus, and then to shoot as well. Snapping pictures in rapid succession isn't as bad; this is accomplished by holding down the camera button. Still, that first shot takes longer than I'd expect on a Snapdragon 800-powered platform. The process feels like an eternity compared to the iPhone's seemingly instantaneous response time in bright-light situations (although the iPhone is surprisingly slow to focus when the flash is enabled, according to Basemark OS II's camera test).

Of course, you can take a series of rapidly-captured shots using Nokia's Smart Sequence or a lens app like Microsoft's Blink. But you need time to set it up, and you have to be willing to tolerate the loss of quality. That's a painful limitation when you're scrambling to take a shot you don't control. In essence, the Lumia Icon's camera is at its best when you have the opportunity to think about and frame the scene. Then again, isn't that true for any camera? The ones able to also react quickly are what we consider special.

Let's take a look at the camera's output quality compared to HTC's new One (M8).

In our first low-light shot, the HTC One (M8) picks up more light, while the Lumia has an edge when it comes to detail.

Both cameras do a better job assisted by the flash. The Icon's detail remains crisper, though seemingly warmer as well. HTC's One tends more toward green.

In this shot, the One (M8) struggles with the mediocre light source, while Nokia's Lumia Icon produces a brighter picture with finer detail.

When it comes to colors, the Icon delivers more saturation than HTC's One, which appears muted.

Nokia's 20 MP sensor picks up a lot more detail in this overcast outdoor shot, which is especially obvious when you look at the building in the pop-up version. The Lumia's picture appears to have more saturation, too.

Both cameras suffer from quite a bit of noise at night. Again, the One (M8) produces a brighter image, but loses detail. Nokia's Lumia Icon doesn't incur the yellow tint.

Comparing the cameras on these smartphones, which employ completely different specifications, is interesting. While the HTC One (M8) has a relatively low-resolution 4 MP sensor, it's built for quick response times and light-gathering. That's a reasonable approach for a smartphone, which most folks whip out quickly in social situations.

The Lumia Icon and 930, on the other hand, use a high-resolution 20 MP sensor that doesn't have the same fast response time, but instead offers fine detail. If you value nuanced photography and the ability to reframe and zoom into high-resolution photos after you take them, Nokia's camera would be your weapon of choice.

Microphones And Video

While the Lumia Icon's camera isn't groundbreaking, Nokia appears to be pushing audio technology forward with a quartet of microphones. You'll find two unidirectional mics in front and a pair of multi-directional mics around back. This setup (shared with the Lumia 1520 phablet) allows the phone to capture directional sound and minimize background noise. And it actually works, as you'll see in the video embedded below (assuming you have stereo sound hardware to play it back on). We captured the same intersection at the same time using both HTC's One (M8) and Nokia's Icon/930:

The One (M8) does capture stereo audio. But it doesn't preserve surround information or cancel out background noise nearly as well as the Nokia. With the Icon, it's clear where the audio source comes from, and that it's moving toward. Nokia boasted excellent microphones on previous models, but this is an impressive advancement.

Video quality is good as well. The clip above should be indicative. After all, it was captured on the Nokia and duplicated for both phones. I simply swapped the audio to represent HTC's One.

As with snapping stills, though, the Icon takes a comparatively long time to focus. You're able to choose between 1080p or 720p at 24, 25, or 30 FPS, to select a preferred audio bass filter (off, 100, or 200 Hz), and toggle directional audio. During video capture, the LED, white balance, and focus can be controlled manually in real time.

Benchmark Suite, Methodology, And Test System Specs

Benchmark Suite

Comparing smartphone performance is a little more challenging than comparing PC components, since we have to find benchmarks that work across Windows Phone 8, Android, and iOS. Of the three, Windows Phone 8 has the lowest number of cross-platform testing apps, which makes sense when you consider its marketshare. Not only that, but particular phone models are sometimes incompatible with specific metrics, throwing yet another wrench in the pipe.

Further complicating today's performance analysis, we test all of our smartphones at a calibrated 200 nits of screen brightness to ensure comparable battery life and display measurements. Unfortunately, Windows Phone 8 does not have an adjustable screen brightness slider; it is limited to three factory preset settings: low, medium, and high. To provide comparable battery life and display measurements, we had to test at those three brightness levels and use them to extrapolate a 200 nit calibrated result. It's not ideal, but it's the best possible method we have at our disposal.

Test System Specs

Despite these challenges, Tom's Hardware is all about objective measurements and we've done our absolute best to provide the most cross-platform tests for as many platforms and SoCs as possible.

The iPhone 5s represents ARM v8, Meizu's MX3 represents the Exynos 5 Octa, Xiaomi's Mi3 represents the Nvidia Tegra 4, Google's Nexus 5 represents Snapdragon 800 performance on Android, and the HTC 8x represents the previous generation of Windows Phone 8 device performance with a dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus at 1.5 GHz.

Results: System And Graphics Tests

Basemark OS II

We begin our benchmarks with Basemark OS II, a suite of synthetic tests designed to stress the whole platform with a definite emphasis on processing.

The Icon generates a positive result, nearly tying Apple's iPhone 5s and taking a close second to Google's Nexus 5. Breaking down the individual tests, you can see that Nokia's latest achieves the highest memory score of the options we tested, but faltered in the Web test. This could be attributable to inefficiencies in Internet Explorer. The Nexus 5 wins the first place spot overall, likely because of its high graphics test result, which might come from a combination of running under Android and its faster Snapdragon 800 SoC.

Perhaps most surprising is how poorly the Tegra 4 chipset in Xiaomi's Mi3 performs, losing out to the previous-generation HTC 8x. Keep in mind that the 8x shares the same core hardware specifications as Nokia's Lumia 1020.

Basemark X 1.1

Based on the Unity 4.0 game engine, Rightware’s Basemark X is a cross-platform graphics benchmark for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 8. This test utilizes Unity’s modern features via the OpenGL ES 2.0 render path. Features like high poly count models, shaders with normal maps, complex LoD algorithms, extensive per-pixel lighting (including directional and point light), along with a comprehensive set of post process, particle systems, and physics effects test how a modern game might look and run. 

Windows Phone 8 is limited to Basemark's medium detail setting, which developer Rightware designed specifically to accommodate Microsoft's mobile operating system. It is less demanding than the high detail setting, but remains visually impressive and is the highest common denominator across the three smartphone operating systems.

At the limited medium detail setting, the Lumia Icon surprisingly surpasses the competition. This reflects our experience with 3D games on Nokia's device; we are impressed with the smooth framerates, despite a high 1920x1080 native resolution.

Breaking the scores down, Basemark's on-screen results favor the Lumia Icon. Apple's iPhone 5s manages to surpass the Nexus 5 in the Dunes test, but keep in mind that the iPhone also has a much lower 1136x640 resolution than Google's 1920x1080 device.

In the off-screen test, the iPhone gives up much of the advantage it enjoyed in the Dune benchmark, and the Lumia Icon retains its advantage in Windows, despite the Nexus 5's higher CPU clock rate and identical resolution.

Results: Web And Battery Tests

Our Web tests are JavaScript- and HTML5-heavy selections from our Web Browser Grand Prix series. Such tests are extremely meaningful to mobile devices because so much of the in-app content is served via the platform's native browser. These tests not only offer a view of each device’s Web browsing performance, but since the tasks are typically CPU-dependent, browser benchmarks (especially JavaScript-heavy tests) are a great way to measure SoC performance between products using the same platform and browser.

In order to keep the browser version even across all Android devices, we're employing a static version of the Chromium-based Opera on that operating system. Due to platform restrictions, Safari is best choice for iOS-based devices, while Internet Explorer is the only game in town on Windows RT and Windows Phone 8.

Browsermark 2.0

Rightware’s Browsermark 2.0 is a synthetic browsing benchmark that tests several performance metrics, including load time, CSS, DOM, HTML5 Canvas, JavaScript, and WebGL.

The Lumia Icon fares poorly, as does the HTC 8x. It's no surprise that Windows Phone 8's Internet Explorer 10 browser is no speed demon, and we hope this weakness is addressed in the Windows Phone 8.1 update with Internet Explorer 11.

Peacekeeper 2.0

Peacekeeper is a synthetic Javascript performance benchmark from Futuremark.

The Icon and IE10 perform similarly in the Javascript test, behind the three-way second-place tie between the Nexus 5, Meizu MX3, and Xiaomi Mi3.

WebXPRT 2013

Principled Technologies' WebXPRT is an HTML5-based benchmark that simulates common productivity tasks traditionally handled by locally-installed applications, including: photo editing, financial charting, and offline note-taking.

Nokia's entry overtakes the Exynos 5 Octa-based Meizu MX3 and ties the Xiaomi Mi3 in WebXPRT 2013, performing quickly with the stocks dashboard and photo effects tests, but scoring less impressive face detection and offline notes results.

Basemark OS II: Battery

Basemark OS II comes with a demanding battery test that almost completely drains the phone from 100% power to calculate a final score that represents its power and longevity.

The Lumia Icon performs well in this discipline, taking third place behind the much smaller-screened iPhone 5s, and slightly ahead of our current favorite phone, Google's Nexus 5.

From a practical perspective, we are pleased with the Icon/930's battery life. Despite heavy use, its battery indicator remains high throughout the day. And although status bars are known liars, the only activity that seems to tax the device is heavy gaming.

Results: Brightness, Black Level, Contrast Ratio, And Gamma

Brightness

Brightness measurements are taken by recording the luminance output of each device displaying a full white pattern, with the brightness level set to both minimum and maximum values.

Nokia's Icon achieves the lowest maximum brightness result, though a peak of 300 nits was never an issue. The display is usable in all environments, even under direct sunlight.

In comparison, the Icon's minimum brightness score is actually pretty high. That's an artifact of Windows Phone 8's lack of a brightness slider. Instead, this is as low as we can get using the low setting.

Naturally, device comparisons are challenging with only three brightness options on the Icon. We typically dial devices into exactly 200 nits. But because the Nokia phone can't hit the number we need, we're testing at all three settings and extrapolating the results on a graph.

Black Level

Our black level measurement is the luminance output of a full black pattern after the full white has been standardized to 200 nits. It’s important to note that AMOLED displays always measure a black level of zero, since their pixels simply turn off to render black.

Boasting the only AMOLED display in our test group, the Icon is capable of a true zero black level. The iPhone distinguishes itself from the rest of the pack with a low 0.25 nit result. And the rest of the competition hovers around 0.35 nits.

Contrast Ratio

Contrast ratio is the difference between a full white pattern and a full black pattern. Due to their zero reading on black level tests, AMOLED displays are said to have an infinite contrast ratio.

The AMOLED screen wins again, as the Icon and its infinite contrast level trumps the IPS-equipped competition. Once again, the iPhone 5s' display leads the rest of the pack with an 800:1 measurement.

Gamma

Gamma compensates for the linear brightness levels displayed by a monitor, versus the nonlinear way our eyes perceive light. A gamma curve of 2.2 is what we want to see. Let's see how these devices compare:

The iPhone rules this test. While the Lumia Icon's AMOLED display is technically capable of a wider color gamut than IPS displays, these are often improperly calibrated by the operating system, resulting in disappointing results. More surprising is how poorly the Nexus 5 compares to the other IPS-equipped devices.

Color Temperature

Color temperature is a measurement in Kelvin that is used to describe how “warm” or “cool” a given display is. Ideally, as long as you're not viewing your device in direct sunlight, this should be in the 6500 range. Higher color temperatures result in a cool, bluish hue, while lower temperatures deliver a warm or reddish tone.

The Lumia Icon delivers a very cool 8300-degree color temperature. Although this result is probably higher than it should be, that's also Nokia's default setting. You do get color temperature and saturation controls, unlike most of the Icon's competition.

Color Gamut Volume

Our volume measurements are compared against both the sRGB and AdobeRGB color gamuts. A reading of 100% on sRGB and 72% on AdobeRGB is optimal for viewing the vast majority of digital content. Lower results are typically accompanied by an overly red or yellow image. Meanwhile, a higher reading is usually too blue/green.

The Icon suffers from its AMOLED display. Despite having a larger gamut of colors to choose from, we can see it's not calibrated properly. The rest of the pack displays a much more desirable result closer to the 100/72 standard.

Will The Icon Convert You From Android Or iOS?

Once in a while, a smartphone comes along that is so impressive, so technologically advanced, and so sublime, that it can draw you away from your previous operating environment of choice. Nokia's Lumia Icon/930 is not going to be the phone that gets you to switch from Android or iOS, though.

Don't get me wrong. It's great to look at, plenty fast by virtue of its hardware platform, and a pleasure to use in the real world. Even Android and iOS loyalists have to admit this package is tightly-built. If Windows Phone 8 already is your favorite, you can't do better than the Icon, which gets Microsoft on equal footing, hardware-wise, with some of the most advanced devices introduced thus far in 2014. Whether you're talking about its 5" 1080p AMOLED display, quad-core Snapdragon 800 SoC, Adreno 330 graphics engine, or 20 MP camera, the Lumia Icon is a strong, well-rounded showing.

For a device to be truly...iconic, though, it needs to best the competition in a number of meaningful ways. As we look for fields where the newest Lumia excels, it only stands above the crowd with the ability to capture directional surround audio. That's a cool advantage, to be sure. But it's not a must-have feature. There might be a handful of folks willing to try Windows Phone 8 for the Icon's quad-microphone array, but Nokia isn't going to convert technophiles en masse like this.

It's certainly possible that the Lumia 1020 won over photography enthusiasts to Windows Phone. But those same folks won't find themselves now compelled to try the Icon. The 1020's camera is superior to the Icon/930 in every way, even though Nokia's new flagship is otherwise technically superior to its Snapdragon S4-powered predecessor.

No, the Lumia Icon and Lumia 930 are for folks who already own a Lumia 900/600/500-series phone, an HTC 8x, a Samsung ATIV, or perhaps a Windows Phone 7 device. It's for brand loyalists who already appreciate Microsoft's niche mobile operating system and want to step up to more cutting-edge hardware. For these users, Nokia's new Lumia represents a big jump forward in screen size, performance, and capability. It's a Windows Phone that you can be proud to pull out of your pocket; it's not one that you have to make excuses for as your more smug acquaintances flash their iPhones and Galaxies.

Microsoft announced on Friday that it has completed the acquisition of Nokia's Devices and Services business. Microsoft's Suzanne Choney reports that the company not only owns Nokia's smartphone and mobile phone businesses, but the design team, most of the manufacturing and assembly facilities and operations, and sales and marketing support.

"The acquisition also brings key capabilities around [the] supply chain, distribution, operational processes and systems and skill in managing hardware margins to Microsoft," Choney writes. "The unified company will benefit from speedier execution and best-in-class business operations."

From the press release: "Reporting to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is former Nokia President and CEO Stephen Elop, who will serve as executive vice president of the Microsoft Devices Group. Elop will oversee an expanded devices business that includes Lumia smartphones and tablets, Nokia mobile phones, Xbox hardware, Surface, Perceptive Pixel (PPI) products, and accessories."

Microsoft will honor all existing Nokia customer warranties for existing devices, beginning April 25, 2014, as part of the transaction. The company also welcomes personnel with deep industry experience in more than 130 sites across 50 countries worldwide, including several factories that design, develop, manufacture, market and sell smart devices, mobile phones and services.

"As announced previously, Microsoft will not acquire the factory in Masan, South Korea, and the factory in Chennai, India, will stay with Nokia due to the tax liens on Nokia's assets in India that prevent transfer," the PR states. "As a result, Microsoft will welcome approximately 25,000 transferring employees from around the world."

The company hinted that its Microsoft Mobile Oy subsidiary will develop, manufacture and distribute Lumia, Asha and Nokia X mobile phones and other devices.

"We feel very excited that on Day One, the team will have an already established joint operating plan," said Tom Gibbons, Microsoft corporate vice president who is responsible for the Nokia integration. "Customers should see a bunch of great end-to-end experiences that really empower them to have very enjoyable, very comprehensive solutions to things that they want to get done, whether you're talking about smartphones or feature phones. The feature phone product family coming to Microsoft will start to have more of the Microsoft services shipped on those phones right out of the gate."

Microsoft is expected to pay Nokia €3.79 billion for the Devices and Services division, and another €1.65 billion to license Nokia's portfolio of patents, totaling €5.44 billion, or around $7.2 billion USD. However, Nokia is betting that the final price tag will be bigger than what was originally expected nearly eight months ago.

"The estimate of the adjustments made for net working capital and cash earnings was slightly positive for Nokia, and we currently expect the total transaction price to be slightly higher than the earlier-announced transaction price of EUR 5.44 billion after the final adjustments are made based on the verified closing balance sheet," reads Nokia's PR.

This marriage between Microsoft and Nokia's former Devices and Services business should prove to be an interesting topic, especially when it comes to the first product stemming from the deal. Will it be more of the same, or will we see something innovative like Amazon's rumored 3D phone? There does seem to be loads of excitement gushing between the two entities; let's hope that all of that excitement will be poured into a product that will truly turn up the competitive heat on Google, Samsung and Apple.

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Nokia continues to show its prowess in photo capabilities. The Lumia 930's 20 MP camera includes many of the algorithms and other optimizations from devices like the Lumia 1020, with its 41 MP camera, according to Nokia CEO Stephen Elop. The demo room had all sorts of odd lighting, so it was impossible to do any side-by-side photo testing, so we'll have to wait for a review unit. The front-facing camera is only 1.2 MP, and the Lumia 630 and 635 do not have front-facing cameras at all, only a rear-facing 5 MP camera.

The cameras take what Nokia calls Living Images, using a series of photos to create a slight animation. In the Nokia Story Teller app, those Living Images come to life in the picture collages. Those collages are automatically created based on knowing the time and location of those photos. In other words, it's an automated picture story maker. The Lumia camera takes Living Images photos automatically, as long as the shot is in focus, and it does so by capturing about 15 frames prior to the actual photo. The image creates an MP4 file, according to a Nokia spokesman, and that image can be shared on social media sites.

Read more: Lumia 625 vs. Lumia 635: Entry-level Windows Phone 8.1

Like every phone manufacturer, Nokia couldn't announce a new flagship phone without also hocking some accessories, and in this case it's the Nokia MD12 Speaker, which bonds to the surface it's on to accentuate the bass and can play music for 15 hours uncharged. On it you can play all the music from Nokia's Mix Radio app. The MD12 comes in Orange, green, yellow and white.

There's also the Fat Boy Pillow. Don't ask. OK, it's a small, green pillow that wirelessly charges the Lumia phones. Good luck with that.

Read more: Nokia Lumia 620 vs. Lumia 630: Budget Windows Phone 8.1

Nokia is also including Creative Studio, an app that allows image editing, with filters and high resolution re-framing.

The Lumia 930 includes 4 microphones, which lets the phone capture surround sound, but you can also do directional stereo recording as well. The room we were in was too loud, with too many echos to really get a sense of the quality.

Read more: Nokia Lumia 930 vs. Lumia 920 vs. Lumia Icon

Finally, the new Lumia devices include SensorCore, which tracks motion and location, and third-party developers will be building apps that take advantage of this with the SensorCore SDK. Nokia sees this as a potential phone-version of a fitness tracking wearable.

Microsoft Build kicked off in San Francisco this week and, as a Microsoft-owned company, Nokia was on hand to announce its newest Lumia phones. The company gave us a handful of devices at MWC in Barcelona, but it saved the Lumia line for Build. We've already met the Lumia 930 and the Lumia 630, and now we've got the follow on to the Lumia 625: the Lumia 635.

Not a whole lot has changed in terms of hardware. Of course, we've jumped from dual-core to quad-core, and that's nothing to sniff at. But this is still very much an entry-level device, and the battery has actually gotten a bit smaller. Still, the fact is that Nokia has cut the price significantly. Of course, this device also comes with Windows 8.1, so that means MS Office, Nokia's own Camera application, HERE Maps, and Mix Radio.

Availability for the Nokia 635 is set for this coming summer. It will be available in the United States.

Read more: Nokia Lumia 620 vs. Lumia 630: Budget Windows Phone 8.1

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Along with the Lumia 930, Nokia also introduced us to the Nokia 630, a follow on to its Lumia 620, which was announced back in late 2012 and launched early in 2013. This is not one of Nokia's high-end smartphones, but it is one of the higher profile entry-level models the company has (unlike many other prominent phone manufacturers, Nokia has multiple ranges and lines of smartphones within those ranges). Let's see how this year's Lumia 630 stacks up to the Lumia 620 that was made available last year.

Nokia has beefed up the specs of its entry-level Lumia, but it's helping things along by dropping the price considerably, too (and that was something the company was sure to mention during its press conference today). The Lumia 620 was already an incredibly solid entry-level device for the price. Now, with Windows 8.1, an upgrade in processor, battery, display, and price, it's an even more attractive deal.

The Lumia 630 will be available this summer and unlike the Lumia 930, it is definitely going to be available in the United States.

Read more: Windows Phone 8.1 Introduces Cortana

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Nokia today introduced us to the brand new Lumia 930. It's the company's flagship phone for 2014, following on from the Lumia 920, which was announced late in 2012. It'll sell alongside the previously announced Lumia Icon, which is available only on Verizon. As expected, this is basically just a Lumia Icon for those of us not already on (or willing to switch to) Verizon. Check out how it compares to the Lumia 920 below:

The Lumia 920 also comes with Microsoft’s answer to Siri and Google Now, dubbed Cortana, and runs on Windows 8.1. It features cloud storage courtesy of OneDrive (previously known as SkyDrive) as well as MS Office, Nokia’s own Camera application, HERE Maps, and Mix Radio.

Pricing for the Nokia 930 is $599 before taxes and subsidies. The device will be available in June starting in Europe, Asia, India, the Middle East, and Latin America. What’s interesting is that while Nokia specifies that this device will rollout around the world throughout the summer, the company has said this global rollout won’t include the United States. Does that mean the U.S. market’s only option is switching to Verizon to get the Lumia Icon? That device launched in February exclusively to Verizon and we assumed that today’s event meant Verizon’s exclusivity was about to expire. Apparently not. We’ve reached out to Nokia for clarification on this one. We’ll update when Nokia gets back to us!

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Microsoft BUILD kicks off today and Nokia, now a Microsoft-owned company, is on hand in San Francisco, too. The company has an event scheduled for this evening, but it looks like the cat is already out of the bag. A photo of the Nokia Lumia 930 leaked this morning via trusted phone leaker @evleaks. The device keeps the same bright colors we've come to expect from the Lumia line of phones but is a bit more angular than we're used to. If you recognize this phone, you're not alone. It's basically the Lumia Icon, which was released by Verizon in late February. If the rumors are to be believed, this is an Icon for those of us not on Verizon.

What's not clear is if we can expect the same specsheet with the 930 as we got with the Lumia Icon. If the chassis is the same and the specs match, we're looking at a 5-inch 1920 x 1080 display (441 ppi), a 2.2 GHz Qualcomm 800 with Adreno 330 graphics, 2 GB of RAM, 32 GB of storage, 7 GB of SkyDrive storage, a 20-megapixel camera with a 1.2-megapixel lens up front for video calls, and a 2420 mAh battery.

Stay tuned for more information on the Nokia Lumia 930 later on today!

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Oppo today announced its newest flagship phone, the Find 7. With a quad-core Snapdragon 801, 3 GB of RAM and the first QHD smartphone display, the Find 7's hardware has given us plenty to talk about. Still, despite the impressive spec sheet, the Find 7's camera is one of the main topics of conversation this morning. Aside from being able to shoot 4K video and 720p slow motion at 120fps, the Find 7's 13-megpixel F/2.0 lens is capable of taking 50-megapixel photos.

So, how does that work? Well, Oppo has worked in some neat software to help the sensor capture these pictures. Dubbed Super Zoom, the technology actually takes ten photos in quick succession. The phone then automatically selects the best four of these 10 and then stitches them together. The end result is a single 50-megapixel photo measuring 8160 x 6120. This will allow for more zooming and cropping than in regular photos captured with the phone's camera.

Of course, the downside is that these photos are a lot bigger than photos captured without Super Zoom. According to Engadget, each one weighs in at about 10 MB. The premium version of the Find 7 comes with 32 GB of storage, while the Find 7 Lite comes with just 16 GB of storage. Users looking to make regular use of the Super Zoom feature will likely make use of the expandable MicroSD storage before too long. They also take a bit longer to capture than a regular photo (given the phone has to capture 10 photos, this is not at all surprising). While it's not excessively long, it's not suitable for those times when you want to snap and go, especially if you already find yourself a bit frustrated by longer-capture features like HDR.

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What better way is there to saturate the market with your operating system than to offer it for free? Google figured out the benefits, and now it seems that Microsoft may be taking the same route with Windows Phone 8. Microsoft wants a bigger piece of the smartphone market pie, and insiders believe the path begins in India.

During Mobile World Congress 2014, Microsoft said that more phone makers will produce Windows Phone 8 devices in the coming months, including Lava and Karbonn in India. Sources claim that the Redmond company is currently in talks with local firms in India to produce affordable Windows Phone 8 devices. However, the company is only able to land deals if it waives the licensing fee.

The news is both shocking and expected, as rumors have circulated over the last several months that Microsoft was considering lifting the licensing fee for Windows Phone. Typically, the company charges between $23 and $30 USD per device, which adds up when you sell millions of phones. But Android has managed to overtake the market without costing device makers anything, and the only way to beat Google at its game, it seems, is to play by the same rules.

"For our planned Windows Phone handsets, we are not paying Microsoft a license fee. The company is obviously exploring new models for Windows Phone. It must have realized that the older model where it licensed the OS did not work out well, even with Nokia's support," a senior executive with an Indian phone company told TOI.

A separate executive acknowledged that the partnership is an experiment. "Windows Phone still doesn't have lot of appeal in the market but now that it doesn't have any license fee, it becomes easier for us to experiment with it," the executive said. As it stands now, Windows Phone has less than 10 percent of the market share in India, according to IDC.

Manasi Yadav, a senior market analyst at IDC, told TOI that local device makers are comfortable with Android. However, by making Windows Phone free, these device makers will feel more confident in experimenting with the Microsoft platform.

A number of new Windows Phone 8.1 devices will likely make a grand entrance next month during BUILD 2014. Microsoft is also expected to release Windows 8.1 Update 1, the LTE version of Surface 2, and possibly the Surface Mini.