Bluetooth 4.0 Coming Later This Year

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The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) said on Wednesday that version 4.0 of the wireless specification may be incorporated into devices by the end of the year. The new spec will bring Bluetooth to a whole new set of gadgets including watches, pedometers, and all other low-power devices that run on coin-cell batteries.

This is a huge step considering that Bluetooth only resided in devices that used triple-A or larger capacity batteries. Michael Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG, said that 4.0 combines both the high-speed data transfer capabilities provided by Bluetooth 3.0 with the new ability to transmit small bursts of data over short ranges.

The IGD News Service reports that Bluetooth 4.0 won't offer users a major improvement in actual battery life-- only a nominal improvement at best. Foley provided an example, saying that Bluetooth 4.0 radios will see the same battery drain as Bluetooth 3.0 radios when used to sync headphones to music players, or to connect smartphones to laptops.

Charles Golvin, principal analyst at Forrester Research, said that Bluetooth 4.0 will be better than the competition because it can be deployed across a wide variety of devices, giving the tech a head start over the other technologies. Unfortunately, the data transfer rate hasn't improved: Bluetooth still shoots data from device to device at a maximum rate of 24Mb/s (BT 3.0 + HS).

Samsung producing A6 chip for future Apple iOS devices

Samsung will be producing the A6 quad-core mobile chip for future Apple iOS devices. It was believed that Apple had signed a deal with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) last month to supply chips but that deal could be on the rocks now.

The Korean Times is now reporting that Apple and Samsung have maintained their buyer and supplier relationship and will do so going forward for the foreseeable future. Citing an executive from an Apple parts supplier in Korea, it seems that Apple has concluded that Samsung is a critical business partner and can't sever ties with them just yet.

Samsung is already producing the A6 processor for future iOS devices at a manufacturing plant that opened in 2007 in Austin, Texas. TSMC will still be manufacturing chips for Apple but the volume is expected to be very low. The reason for this is because TSMC hasn’t stabilized their manufacturing process and Apple isn’t willing to take the risk of switching suppliers under such circumstances.

The article points to an interview with Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung where he told reporters that Samsung is handling legal issues with Apple independently of their business relationship with the company. Additionally it was revealed that COO Lee Yae-yong was invited by Apple CEO Tim Cook to attend a private memorial service for Steve Jobs last Sunday. Yae-yong was said to remain at Apple, presumably through the early part of this week, to discuss pending business issues.

Samsung Galaxy Player devices coming to the US this spring

As expected, Samsung has announced an expansion of the Galaxy Family of portable devices with the addition of the Galaxy Player. The device is the first in a new category of Android-based mobile devices that strip out the 3G and calling functionality of a Galaxy S phone. There are two models, one with a 4" Super Clear WVGA LCD screen and one with a 5" LCD WVGA screen, and both allow the user to enjoy games, music, videos, social media, and e-books.

The 4" and 5" screen models of the Galaxy Player weigh just 5 and 7 ounces, respectively. Both devices boast Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n) connectivity, front and rear cameras (including flash on the 5" model) for videoconferencing or photography, a microphone for VoIP calls over a WiFi via Qik, stereo speakers with Virtual 5.1 surround sound and Samsung's SoundAlive post-processing technology, and support for Adobe Flash 10.1. Both devices run Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo) and will be upgradeable to Android 2.3 (codenamed Gingerbread). Here's a brief comparison chart for the two:

Both Galaxy Players support numerous multimedia formats natively, eliminating the need to transcode files: audio (MP3, WMA, AAC, Ogg, and Flac) as well as video (DivX, Xvid, WMV, MPEG4, and H.264). Drag 'N Play support means files can be simply dragged from a PC right onto the player; installing special software of any kind on the PC is not required. A MicroSD slot allows 32 GB of extra storage, supplementing the 8GB on-board storage.

Galaxy Players are DLNA Certified and suport AllShare, meaning content can be streamed to and from a PC or television without wires. Last but not least, they have Google certification, so they can access the 100,000+ Android apps in the Android Market.

"Our Galaxy Family – including Galaxy S mobile phones and Galaxy Tab – has been a success because we give people what they truly wish for – access to thousands of Android Apps coupled with Samsung's sleek design," Tim Baxter, President of the Consumer Business Division at Samsung Electronics America, said in a statement. "Our new Galaxy Players deliver that same experience in two terrific, ultra-portable form factors – without incurring fees for a monthly data plan."