Mobile World Congress is all about mobility-enhancing technologies. But while much of the technology media is focused on the consumer-facing technologies and devices during the event, MWC also celebrates innovations in the underlying tech that supports our devices and networks. As part of MWC 2015, this author was tasked to be among the panel of judges for the Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough category.

Entries in this field mostly consist of vendors and solution providers with devices or embedded technologies that improve performance, connectivity and platform convergence meant for mobile use.

One of the finalists is Airvana OneCell, which is an LTE small cell system meant for both enterprise and consumer-facing applications, which mobile operators can use to augment their capabilities in servicing customers in urban and indoor settings.

Airvana’s technology is borne out of the need to have strong wireless signals even inside buildings. One limitation of LTE — and wireless signals in general — is that signal strength is significantly reduced with obstructions. Building foundations act like a cage, after all, where radio signals are good at bouncing within the structure, but not necessarily across from inside-to-outside and vice-versa.

“Outdoor macro cell towers cannot fully penetrate building walls to deliver quality LTE service indoors, and upgrading legacy distributed antenna systems (DAS) for LTE is prohibitively expensive,” says Airvana. An alternative would be standalone small cells, but this is not effective in large enterprise settings, because these create many “cell borders.” In addition, these are not easy nor cost-efficient to deploy.

“These borders create large areas of interference between cells that result in low throughput, poor VoLTE quality, frequent handovers, complex RF planning, and macro interference challenges. Furthermore, they have static capacity, limited upgradeability, and support only a single operator.”

A cross-carrier solution

Airvana’s OneCell solution addresses the challenge of delivering consistent, high-speed LTE services for multiple operators, but without the cost and complexity of a DAS. Basically considered as a “cloud RAN”, the solution involves a single baseband controller, with radio points distributed throughout a building or establishment. These radio points act as a single cell, which results in zero cell borders, border interference and handovers — which mean better energy-efficiency for the connected mobile devices.

Industry experts consider cloud RAN as a disruptive technology because of two benefits: centralization and virtualization. Centralizing the baseband means significantly cheaper operational expenses — operators in South Korea, China and Japan have demonstrated 30% to 50% OPEX reduction with the use of such technologies. Meanwhile, virtualization of network functions will reduce capital expenditure, particularly the need to build standalone cell towers or micro-cell sites.

An added benefit of OneCell’s solution is that the nodes connect with each other via regular ethernet connection, and each radio point runs on power-over-ethernet, further reducing the complexity of deployment. According to a study by Real Wireless, deployment of OneCell is 69% less expensive than a traditional DAS. Material savings from the passive infrastructure can reach 90%, while simplified cabling means labor savings of 75% to 90%.

And a bigger benefit for enterprises: convergence across carriers. “Large enterprises and public spaces are typically multi-operator environments, and OneCell is designed to cost-effectively support multiple wireless providers with a single infrastructure,” says Airvana. “Architecture is designed to allow operators to take advantage of upcoming LTE capabilities, such as carrier aggregation, Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) and distributed Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO) via software upgrades, without replacing any installed equipment.”

Full signal bars

Scalability and cost efficiency are the most relevant benefits for enterprises and other establishments that require indoor wireless broadband connectivity. Meanwhile, for consumers, it means excellent connectivity even within buildings, for a “five signal bar experience.”

“There’s a clear interest among operators in serving indoor enterprise environments with scalable, distributed solutions that are also cost-effective,” says Ed Gubbins, senior analyst at Current Analysis. The potential market for OneCell’s technology is 1 billion users, as the Chelmsford, MA-based firm has dealings with mobile operators from Europe, Asia and North America.

The direction here is clear: the combination of centralized and distributed architectures provided by technologies like the OneCell are a boon to those seeking scalable and cost-efficient means to improve quality of service for mobile broadband users.

The post MWC 2015: Airvana OneCell Enables Stronger Indoor LTE appeared first on VR World.

Panasonic (TYO: 6752) announced that it will be forming a partnership deal with Wyoming-based cloud-based platform and architecture service firm DIVA Networks Inc. The collaboration project will be part of the company’s plan to improve networking and communication capabilities of its next line of digital cameras.

Panasonic has already developed a prototype model for the upcoming project last year, the DMC-CM1, which featured integrated LTE networking functions on a standard digital camera. The partnership between the two companies will expand this basic concept further. The project will include a number of target milestones and objectives, with the ultimate goal of successfully developing new digital cameras that can properly utilize today’s ultra high speed global networking systems.

The company’s first step towards its business strategy calls for the initial development of new cloud photo services that would optimize the camera’s networking functions. This will inevitably include marketing and promotion, which will help introduce the new services to the cameras’ user base. DIVA Networks will be responsible for developing the cloud-based system for these services, as well as a proper access interface to provide a seamless, convenient medium to easily edit, store, and share snapped photos.

Eventually, the strategy will move further to develop new products that would then optimize the system already established by the new photo services. Just as how social networking services are easily accessible to mobile devices today, the new digital cameras and related hardware will be designed for easy integration to the web, to meet the current huge demand for multimedia sharing.

Panasonic had already invested an undisclosed amount of capital for the joint project. Though the announcement included the development of new products, there are still no specifics as to when these products are to be released. Information regarding the new services is to be announced later as well.

The post CES 2015: Panasonic Opens Partnership to Enhance Networking in Cameras appeared first on VR World.

Looking very similar to the BlackBerry Bold, the beleaguered company has announced its new BlackBerry Classic. It’s smaller and most importantly, sports a full QWERTY keyboard and navigation buttons that are not virtual. That’s right; you can do your input on physical keys once again.

Nicely designed keys let your fingers know where they are and increase the accuracy of input.

Aimed at diehard fans who held on to the original BlackBerry which had been considered the best game in town, the Classic is reminiscent in design. If the newer, bigger touchscreen devices are too bulky for your shirt pocket, the Classic’s touchscreen is only 3.5 inches leaving room for the retro keyboard. The sculptured keys are backlit and come with a click so you know where you are and when you strike a key. Overall, it is 5.1 inches x 2.8 inches x 0.4 inch.

Easy to reach on the right side are the mute and volume control buttons. Call, Menu, Back, and End buttons are conveniently above the keyboard. You can set shortcut keys too. There is no telling if this move is a shortcut to a better company outlook. Currently, BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY) is trading at the high end of its 52 week range of $6.08 – 12.54. Hoping to increase its bottom line, the company has made inroads with the auto industry with a recent partnering with Ford. The car company replaced its Windows based MyFord with Sync 3 using a BlackBerry QNX platform.

Neither the stock, nor the Classic’s technology is spectacular, but the device is serviceable. Its front and rear facing cameras are only 2 and 8 megapixels respectively. Video is pretty standard 1080p HD recording at 30 fps (frames per second). Qualcomm’s 1.5GHz 8960 dual core processor powers the Classic with BlackBerry 10.3.1 for its operating system. RAM consists of 2GB and16GB Flash. With SD cards you can expect 144 GB of storage. It promises 22 hours of battery life from its 2515 mAh non-removable Lithium Ion battery, depending on usage.

John Chen, CEO, smiles as he introduces the BlackBerry Classic. Photo Credit: CTV

BlackBerry telegraphed its focus by unveiling the Classic in New York in the financial district, hoping to catch the attention of the business-based consumer. BlackBerry World, the company’s store, offers secure, enterprise level apps to entice businesses back into its fold. Its motto is “Serious Mobility for Serious Business”. An added plus, you can run Android apps now.

The phone supports several multi-media formats, as well as network and connectivity for Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Canada,Latin America, and the US (LTE/HSPA+ ). The bummer disclaimer says this version only currently works on GSM carriers, which does not include popular Verizon and Sprint CDMA based networks in the United States. It also requires a nano SIM card which will add slightly to the going $449 price tag.

The company is attempting to retain faithful customers with its old/new form factor while trying to draw new devotees in with its Passport.  Classic comes in old-fashioned black but you can get Passport in red or white. This writer, for one, prefers the old-fashioned, manual approach of a physical keyboard rather than a “touchy,” sometimes spastic, touch screen. If you prefer voice interaction, you can use BlackBerry Assistant, Siri’s  distant cousin.

There are several demo videos  on YouTube if you want to learn how to use many of the functions of the BlackBerry smartphone.

With BlackBerry’s choice of a name for its new release, you can’t help but draw a parallel with the soda company that returned to its successful roots. Will BlackBerry Classic be a hit with the retro crowd who loved their earlier model just as cola drinkers returned to their favored Classic Coke?

The post BlackBerry Tells Loyal Fans: Rejoice appeared first on VR World.

The 2015 Cadillac ATS Coupe was a much awaited and highly hyped vehicle that many thought would deliver an added boost to Cadillac’s already wildly popular and successful ATS line of vehicles. The ATS was the brand’s first wholly new platform and promised to deliver an entirely new Cadillac experience. In our review, we found that it was a very good vehicle and impressed us on many levels, so we were very interested to see how the 2015 Cadillac ATS coupe could improve upon the ATS’ success.

Cadillac’s New Mobile Tech

Other than simply being a coupe version of the 2015 Cadillac ATS, the 2015 Cadillac ATS coupe also adds some features that had not been found in the Cadillac ATS line of vehicles or most other Cadillac vehicles. Those two primary features are the car’s ability to enable wireless charging through a Qi charger inside the infotainment system as well as the ability to be a 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot.

Qi Wireless Charging with the Google Nexus 5

The Qi wireless charging will only work for devices with built-in Qi charging capability (Nokia devices or Google Nexus devices) or devices with cases/adapters to allow for Qi charging like some Samsung phones. It also only exists within the cavity within the CUE infotainment system, which means that it doesn’t work anywhere else in the car (not in glovebox or center console). In addition to only working in the CUE infotainment’s ‘secret’ compartment, it also require that the device be very snug and stay in one spot because Qi charging is fundamentally very finnicky and has very tight tolerances for movement away from the charging coil. As such, the Qi charging functionality is designed to hold the phone ins a very specific part of the compartment and also causes users to lose some storage space in the compartment due to the height lost to the charging pad. The nice thing is that the car will let you know on the CUE system if your phone is charging as well as the charge level (while it’s connected via Bluetooth) so you don’t really have to worry about it not being charged.

Cadillac’s OnStar LTE Wi-Fi hotspot powered by AT&T’s LTE Network

The 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot feature is powered by Qualcomm’s LTE chipsets and AT&T’s LTE network, as such, users can expect fairly good LTE coverage across the US and fairly decent speeds. Obviously, we had to test this feature out as well and because this is running on AT&T’s network we got fairly good speeds, even though, they aren’t necessarily fast by any standard. The nice thing about having this feature is that if you already have an active AT&T LTE share plan, you can simply add this vehicle to your data pool without needing to have a separate data plan for it. If you aren’t an AT&T customer, you do have to subscribe to the OnStar LTE service powered by AT&T’s LTE and you do get the first 3GB of data on the car for free. This is very similar to how they give SiriusXM satellite radio to users for free and once they’ve gotten used to it, they start charging for it. This feature has already shipped on previous vehicles like the 2015 Cadillac Escalade we reviewed, but it was not activated yet at the time of review.

Twitter text message notifications

The third and less known feature is the ability to receive text messages via smartphone on the car’s infotainment system in order to prevent the driver from looking at their text messages while driving. They can also have their text messages read aloud, but they cannot respond to their text messages without making a phone call, looking at their phone or using one of the pre-defined responses built-into the CUE system. This is probably the biggest downfall of this feature because the point of SMS is to be able to respond to messages and not just see them. There is currently no way of responding to SMS messages outside of the pre-defined responses built into CUE and as such it makes the SMS feature of this car one that does not necessarily improve safety. iOS users with Siri should be able to use their voice features without any problems, but that completely goes around the car’s SMS functionality. Windows Phone also has voice to text capability, as does Android, but Siri seems to work the best.

If you’d like to see a video of these features in action, we’ve got them for you in the video below:

Design and Functionality

The 2015 Cadillac ATS coupe has a very aggressive look, which is increased from the standard ATS sedan in the sense that the grille has been changed and the rear of the car is also quite different. Cadillac did keep the same headlights, which are without a doubt a signature look for many of Cadillac’s vehicles now.

When compared side by side to the 2013/2014 Cadillac ATS sedan, the differences appear much more drastic than simply looking at the cars individually. Many of the stylistic influences between the two cars are very obvious and it isn’t much of a stretch to think that the two are part of the same line of vehicles. However, there is no denying that the 2015 Cadillac ATS coupe is an updated look to the ATS’ design, especially when you consider it includes the newly redesigned Cadillac logo.

2013/2014 ATS Sedan (left) and 2015 ATS Coupe (right)

In addition to the exterior design changes and the logo redesign, there are some interior design changes as well, albeit fairly minor.

The changes mostly come in the form of the use of suede in the interior in addition to the already available wood trim, which in my opinion isn’t as nice as the stitched carbon fiber that Cadillac also offers. They also moved the trunk release to the back of the driver’s door rather than the side of the door where it was difficult to find. They’ve also put in a type of bucket-style seat in the back for seating people, but the lack of leg room is going to make that back seat virtually useless unless the driver is very short or the people in the back are small children. This is technically a four-seater two-door vehicle, but really only comfortably seats two.

Possibly one of the biggest mistakes that Cadillac made in building the 2015 Cadillac ATS coupe was the reduction of the mirror size from the ATS sedan to the ATS coupe. Cadillac have decided to reduce the height of the rear view mirrors by about 30 to 40% and as a result, the mirrors are virtually useless for checking for vehicles and cannot accommodate a blind spot mirror either. That’s also one of my biggest complaints about almost all of GM’s luxury vehicles in the Cadillac brand, they all lack the built-in blind spot mirror that their lower-end Chevrolet vehicles have. Even the Chevy Sonic has a built-in blind spot mirror, yet none of the Cadillacs do. Also, in addition to having a smaller rear view mirror there is virtually no room for the driver to look over his or her shoulder to check for vehicles in their blind spot due to this car being a coupe and the second window being too tiny to see through. At least in the ATS you can see vehicles in your blind spot through the rear passenger’s window. Cadillac could have remedied this with a blind spot warning system like most luxury brands (and non-luxury brands) already have, but none of their current vehicles have such a system even though they do have adaptive cruise control, lane departure and collision avoidance systems.

One of the other things about the design of the 2015 ATS coupe is that if you get the rear wheel drive version, you cannot have the sunroof and the track performance package. But if you get the all wheel drive version of the vehicle, then you don’t have the track performance package and you can have a sunroof.

Read about our driving experience and conclusion on the next page.

The post 2015 Cadillac ATS Coupe: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back appeared first on VR World.

While at Pepcom-San Francisco Kington’s representative introduced us to Kingston’s second-generation MobileLite Wireless Mobile G2 battery charger and storage device. We were hoping for a significant improvement over the first generation. We were not very enthusiastic about last year’s first generation MobileLite Wireless unit. It was strictly a wireless card reader with internet pass thru capability, plus a portable battery for charging your mobile devices. The case design and functionality left a lot of room for improvement. We have Verizon’s expensive LTE data service which is great stateside. Other BSN* editors have wireless coverage from carriers that work best at their stateside offices. However, our editors travel outside the USA and several of them live in other countries. So stateside wireless data package coverage suddenly disappears or becomes outlandishly expensive.

Specifications

This is where the Kingston MobileLite Wireless Mobile G2 steps up to store that data until you can get somewhere convenient to transfer it. It also extends your storage, streams your media, charges your devices, reads from USBs and SD cards, and allows you to connect to the web with it acting as a portable router. For those of you shooting multi-megabyte RAW photos with a Canon or Nikon DSLR camera, simply put your SDHC card into the MobileLite Wireless Mobile G2. It will easily store those images until you get back to a place with a secure high-speed WiFi or wired network. Then you switch over to your second SDHC card and continue shooting the event. If you have a partner with you, they can take the MobileLite G2 with your SDHC card in it to the nearest secure WiFi and send the images and data files to your home or office webserver via FTP.

With its built-in 3.8v Li-ion battery at 4640 mAh, it can last for up to 13 hours of continuous use. That will keep your mobile devices alive, until you get back to your car or a location with 110V shore power.

Packaging

Kingston’s package explains the features on the front and inside flap of the box.

Just three items are in the box: a 1.5 foot USB 2.0 cable, a microSD to SD card adapter, and the MobileLite Wireless Mobile G2 device. You will have to download the Kingston MobileLite Wireless app from the appropriate app store – Google Play, Apple App Store, or Amazon Apps. We tested the MobileLite Wireless Mobile G2 application with the HTC One M8 (Android 4.4.4).

There is no documentation with the unit. You have to go to Kingston’s website for the manual. Your data storage is with an SD card, either the micro-SD format using an adapter or a standard SD card. For this review, we are using the Kingston 32GB SDHC Class 10 card with 30MB/S transfer capability.

The Kingston MobileLite Wireless Mobile G2 includes 3G USB dongle support for direct connections and is compatible with Android 4.0+, iPad (2, 3rd Gen, 4th Gen, mini, Air), iPhone 4/4S/5, iPod Touch (iOS 7+), Kindle Fire, and Kindle Fire HD. When connected via USB to a PC, it can act as a USB 2.0 card reader for the system. For a desktop PC, it is compatible with many operating systems including Windows Vista (SP2), Windows 7 (SP1), Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Mac OSX V. 10.6.X+, and Linux v. 2.6.x+. The MobileLite Wireless G2 has an 802.11 g/n WiFi access point that supports WPA2 data encryption. WiFi is one of the ways to access the MobileLite G2 when using a smartphone or tablet, thus having a fast and secure 802.xx connection is important.

User Experience

The white bezel has six buttons, LEDs, and ports. Below from left to right, first is the battery LED/ power which indicate remaining battery time. Pressing the larger white Power button (fourth from left) makes the LED change colors. Green indicates 51 percent to 100 percent battery charge is remaining. Orange indicates 25 percent to 50 percent remaining, and red indicates less than 25 percent battery charge is remaining. Next is WiFi LED which indicates current status of WiFi broadcast. The next LED to the right is for Bridged that lets you know if the MobileLite G2 is bridged to an Internet gateway via WiFi or with the Ethernet cable port.

The larger Power button turns the MobileLite G2 on or off with a short one second press. Holding the power button down for three seconds will put it into WiFi mode. Next to the right is the Reset button. Holding it down for more than 10 seconds will reset the MobileLite G2 to its original default configuration. The Micro-B USB port is a multi-function port. It is the way you charge the MobileLite G2. Or you can connect to a standard USB port on your computer for data transfer. The microUSB port is to charge the device’s internal 4640 mAh battery. The battery charge status indicator LED makes sure you charge the MobileLite G2 before you walk out your home/office door.

On the opposite side of the white bezel is the Ethernet port. Using a standard Cat 5e/6 cable you can connect the MobileLite G2 to your wired network. This allows you to create a hotspot for wireless Internet access. On the end of the white bezel is the SD card slot and a USB 2.0 port. The USB port works with the USB Standard Type A plug, the most common USB male end connector.

Kingston’s MobileLite Wireless Mobile G2 app on our HTC One M8 was minimalistic. There is no GUI, it is just like an old-fashioned bare bones file directory app. This is the place where we went back to the 13 page owner’s manual. It was not very informative. The manual could use some better examples. We suggest Kingston partner with a software developer to build a full-featured GUI application. That would take care of the only short coming we found. Using our 14Mbps WiFi connection at 100 feet distance we were able to quickly load multiple music files and large video files from the Cobra ultraHD dash cam (which will be our next review). The app helps you make folders for keeping track of music, videos, and data. The app does include a basic photo viewer as well as a music player.

Conclusion

The Kingston MobileLite Wireless Mobile G2 is a light weight device which has an amazing number of features. All the Mobile G2’s features worked, however, you should allow yourself a bit of time to learn how to use them all. Pricing of the Kingston MobileLite Wireless Mobile G2 at Amazon is only about five dollars more than the eyeFi Mobi 8GB WiFi card. Plus the MobileLite G2 has battery charging with up-to 13 hours of functionality and you can use any microSD or SD card for storage. BSN* rates it as a must-have for everyone, especially those readers who have one of the older smartphones or tablets without a micro-SD expansion card slot. Special thanks to Kingston for providing the MobileLite Wireless Mobile G2 charger and storage device, and the Kingston 32GB SDHC Class 10 card and to David Leong, and Shealyn Johnson for their assistance.

The post Kingston MobileLite Wireless Mobile G2: Review appeared first on VR World.

Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) have jointly announced that they have successfully tested the world’s first inter-company interoperability between Qualcomm’s Cat9 LTE (Category 9) MSM mobile chipsets and Ericsson’s LTE-A (LTE-Advanced) network infrastructure.

This test was done between the two companies in order to prove that interoperability is already possible on Cat9 hardware from both companies. Since, Qualcomm is both an infrastructure and client chipset company while Ericsson is only infrastructure since the company folded up the ST-Ericsson’s joint venture that produced competing products to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors.

The two companies were able to achieve the Cat9 450 Mbps speeds thanks to carrier aggregation (combining multiple frequencies/bands) that Qualcomm’s chipsets and Ericsson’s infrastructure are both capable of doing. Ericsson actually even tells us which hardware they accomplished this on, their RBS 6000 family of base stations for macro and small cell networks. Which means these are fairly small base stations and fairly short distance connections. Additionally, thanks to Ericsson’s specs of the RBS 6000, we know that Qualcomm and Ericsson used 60 MHz 3x carrier aggregation in order to deliver the Cat9 LTE speeds of 450 Mbps.

Qualcomm, unfortunately, doesn’t tell us which Snapdragon chipset this is that’s running the new 450 Mbps speeds, but they do say that it is a future chipset which could be something coming next year or something 2 or 3 years from now. We simply can’t know. But what we do know is that the carriers are very very unlikely to deliver anything anywhere near these speeds. The unfortunate reality, however, is that right now there are no carriers in the US even technically capable of delivering three 20 MHz different bands of  LTE based on their spectrum allocation. And even if they had the spectrum holdings to enable Cat9 LTE with carrier aggregation, they wouldn’t even have the backend to support it.

The post Qualcomm and Ericsson Successfully Test Cat9 LTE at 450 Mbps appeared first on VR World.

Marvell (NASDAQ:MRVL) has announced today two of its newest 4G LTE-capable SoCs aimed at the low-cost smartphone market.

The Marvell PXA1908 and PXA1936 are Marvell’s latest SoCs that are aimed squarely at a global market for global LTE deployments. Both the PXA1908 and the PXA1936 are Marvell’s own 64-bit entrants into the SoC market for low-cost smartphones, utilizing ARM’s own A53 CPUs in 4 and 8 core configurations in order to deliver reasonable performance at low power.

The PXA1936 is Marvell’s higher-end 64-bit offering with a combination of the 8 ARM Cortex-A53 with a Vivante GPU capable of 1080P display and video playback as well as support for a camera of up to 16 megapixels. This is in contrast with the PXA1908, which is also a 64-bit based SoC, but with only four ARM A53 CPU cores and a Vivante GPU capable of only 720P and an image signal processor for 8 megapixel cameras.

Also, Marvell has included some advanced security features into the PXA1936 in order to enable trusted computing, DRM and mobile payments. This means that OEMs can utilize this SoC for virtually any purpose and not worry about missing features. Speaking of features, it also has an integrated location and sensor hub for added efficiency and power reduction.

The modem on both of these SoC’s is Marvell’s own and is capable of LTE TDD and FDD and maximum speeds of Cat4, which is currently enough for what most operators are delivering outside of Japan and Korea, but still far behind industry leaders like Qualcomm with Cat6 LTE. Even so, nobody is shipping Cat6 LTE for low-cost smartphones, so Cat4 LTE is more than good enough for this market segment.

Marvell’s SoCs with multi-mode LTE are already certified for use on Verizon and China mobile and are already in the AT&T modem certification process and are testing in Japan and Europe as well. These SoCs are already in the process of shipping to customers and Marvell expects that customers will have devices on the market in 2015, which means we could see some fairly decently powered sub-$100 smartphones and tablets with Marvell’s chips inside of them.

The post Marvell Announces Two Low-Cost Global LTE SoCs appeared first on VR World.

Today was a day of good news for all Nvidia Shield Tablet owners and potential owners.  Nvidia announced today that the Lollipop 5.0 update and the new GRID gaming service are coming to the Shield Tablet in an update on November 18th.  Nvidia Also confirmed that the Green Box they teased yesterday is in fact Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Episode One, and Portal.

Today via the Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) blog the company let people know about the upcoming capabilities and content they have made for its Shield Tablet.  The news of the Lollipop 5.0 update that we have known for a while was confirmed to be scheduled for release on November 18th.  The update brings Android’s new material design and performance benefits.  The update will also have an update for the popular Nvidia Dabbler application that has updates in the user interface, full support for layers, and interestingly the ability to stream the app via Twitch (which the tablet already supports for games).  The blog also confirmed that Half-Life Episode One is coming to Android, and it has been optimized for the Nvidia Shield Tablet.  This game will be part of the new Green Box bundle that will be included free with the 32GB/LTE version of the Shield Tablet.  Also confirmed were new games that are optimized for the Shield Tablet.  These games are OddWorld: Stranger’s Wrath, Pure Pool, Strike Suit Zero, and Turbo Dismount.

The biggest surprise was the announcement of the long in-beta GRID gaming service.  This will harnesses state-of-the-art Nvidia GPU servers to deliver a GeForce GTX gaming experience on SHIELD devices.  The lineup already includes 20 AAA game titles including Batman: Arkham City, Borderlands 2, and Psychonauts.  The service will be adding new titles every week.  Essentially this will be like Netflix for games that users can stream right to the Shield devices to play.  But the best part is that the GRID service will be free on Shield devices (both the tablet and the portable) through June 30, 2015.  This is great that Nvidia is giving users more than 7 months of the gaming service free for owners who have already bought devices. This will help make up for the fact that the Green Box is only available with new purchases of the 32GB/LTE tablet and will possibly encourage people to buy SHIELD devices if they weren’t already planning to.

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Verizon has just announced that they will be offering a new update to their ‘More Everything Plan’ which is part of the company’s overall new effort of offering more data to its customers. Their Why More Data Matters initiative means that they are recognizing that their customers are wanting more data without overages and to get more data for the same money. This can mostly be attributed to the competition from Sprint and T-Mobile who have had some of the most affordable and best data availability (unlimited) plans.

Starting tomorrow, users that want 10GB of data or 15GB of data per month will only have to pay $80 and $100 a month respectively, which is significantly better than AT&T’s offering. This offer is also available to existing Verizon customers who want to upgrade to this plan or are already paying more than this for the same amount of data. All they have to do is head on over to their My Verizon account and change their plan there.

In addition to all of that, Verizon is also launching a promotion where they will offer a $150 port-in credit to customers switching to Verizon that sign up for a 2-year agreement or Verizon’s Edge program. Both the pricing and the port-in credit are a limited time promotion, so they do not reflect a permanent chang of Verizon’s pricing or customer porting offers. So, if you are planning to switch to Verizon, tomorrow should be a perfect time to do so.

Clearly, Verizon wants to be competitive this holiday season and it will be interesting to see how AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint respond to Verizon’s promotion. After all, money talks and $150 is not small change in addition to fairly competitive data pricing.

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After letting go of its mobile handset division in favor of focusing on its network equipment business, Finland’s Nokia (HEL:NOK1V) has reported a strong Q3 2014 profit growth, exceeding expectations.

Earlier this year, Nokia off-loaded its mobile devices division, which makes the Lumia line of smartphones, to Microsoft. The Helsinki-based company now runs three core businesses: Nokia Networks, which provides communications equipment to telcos; HERE, which licenses mapping and GIS data; and Nokia Technologies, which manages its patent portfolio. The company has reported growth and profitability in all three businesses.

Renewed Focus

Nokia Networks saw a 13% growth year-on-year, profiting EUR 397 million from network equipment sales, up from EUR 217 million in the previous year. Strong sales were attributed to new major LTE network deployments in North America and China. Even with lower-margin deals from its Chinese contracts, Nokia saw its core operating profit margin grow to 13.5%, up from 11% the previous quarter and 8.4% the previous year.

HERE, which supplies mapping and GIS information to the mobile and automotive industry, saw a 12% year-on-year growth to EUR 236 million in Q3 2014 from EUR 211 million the previous year. The mapping software’s customer base also grew, from gaining 2.6 million vehicles in Q3 2013 to gaining 3.2 million new licensees this quarter.

Nokia Technologies also experienced a 9% growth in profits, with EUR 152 million in Q3 2014, compared with EUR 140 million in the same quarter the previous year. Nokia attributes this to Microsoft being a more significant IP licensee, particularly as the Redmond, WA company now manages the Lumia brand.

For this quarter, non-IFRS EPS is at EUR 0.09, up 50% from the previous year’s figures (EUR 0.06). Total underlying profit for the period is EUR457 million, up 32% the previous quarter.  This figure has exceeded the expected analyst estimates of EUR 359 million.

The company maintains a solid cash position with gross cash of EUR 7.6 billion and net at EUR 5.0 billion. While this has fallen from the previous quarter’s EUR 9.0 billion and EUR 6.5 billion, respectively, the decline is attributed to payments of ordinary and special dividends, share buyback and acquisitions done during the previous period.

Year-to-date, Nokia’s diluted EPS is at EUR 0.21, a marked improvement from the EUR 0.00 dilted EPS during the same period the previous year.

Benefiting from LTE

“Nokia’s third quarter results demonstrate our strong position in a world where technology is undergoing significant change,” said Rajeev Suri, President and CEO, Nokia, in a statement. “We saw growth in all three of our businesses; non-IFRS earnings per share was up 50%; and we moved forward with our capital structure optimization program, returning cash to shareholders.”

Nokia’s network equipment business gained significantly from the LTE network roll-out of major telecom companies around the globe, including Sprint (NYSE:S) in the USA and China Mobile (NYSE:CHL). Nokia’s growth in this particular sector is indicative that the telecom equipment business is a rising one, especially amid the global trend of 4G network roll-out among carriers.

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Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) reported its earnings Tuesday for the last quarter of the company’s fiscal year revealing it had generated $42.1 billion in revenue and $8.5 billion in profit.

This translates to an earnings per share of $1.42 per share, which is well above what Wall Street’s consensus was of around $1.31 as well as revenue of about $40 billion. This means that Apple has once again beaten Wall Street’s lofty expectations, partially helped by the strongest iPhone launch in the company’s history with the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. This represents a continuation of the company’s profitability even though Apple as a company has significantly changed internally. Apple was able to ship 39 million iPhones, roughly in line with what many analysts were expecting, but still above the average expected 37.5 million consensus. Apple also saw huge growth in the Mac sales thanks to the back to school season and they have now seen market share increase to some of the highest levels in over a decade.

Apple reported that its gross margin went up 1 point in the quarter, to 38% up from 37% in the same quarter a year ago, representing the increase in profitability. Additionally, Apple only reported $37 billion in revenue in the same quarter a year ago, showing that Apple has continued to drive the company upward year over year. Apple also stated that 60% of the revenue generated in the third quarter came from international sales, which also means that a lot of the cash flow generated from operations, $13.3 billion worth, will very likely stay abroad. Apple’s board also announced a $0.47 dividend for November 13th this year, and will be issued to holders of the stock on November 10th this year.

Apple Earnings

Apple also guided their fiscal first quarter of 2015, calendar Q4 2014, to a record revenue to $63.5 billion and 66.5 billion, they also expect gross margin to be somewhere between 37.5 and 38.5 percent.

Apple’s current share price is at $99.76 but it is already trading higher in after hours trading, once again breaking the $100 barrier up over 1% to $101.26.

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Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) continues to push on the robotics front after announcing its microrover project powered by Snapdragon.

Its new initiative is to pump $1.2 million into a robotics acclerator, which will host 10 companies and be located at the company’s headquarters in San Diego, while being run by TechStars which was recently featured in Bright Side of News’* ROAD to ROCKI Blog Series. This is all done through Qualcomm’s own accelerator initiative which is ‘powered’ by TechStars who provides their expertise in running their own accelerator program where they seed companies with $118,000 in seed funding as well as knowledge, advice and expertise.

Robotics Accelerator Timeline

In order to enter into Qualcomm’s robotics accelerator, powered by TechStars, you will need to fill out an application and then make sure you apply by February 22nd, 2015 at which point you will hear back from Qualcomm’s accelerator between then and May 26th, which is when the 16 week (4 month) accelerator program begins.

The program will end September 15th, 2015 and the ten companies that participated in the accelerator will then be out of the program and hopefully sealing up more funding and or releasing their products into the wild. Do keep in mind, however, that Qualcomm will take a 6% stake in the companies that participate in this program so there is something in it for them as well, especially if they can help make these robotics startups successful. They obviously don’t have the money that Google does, so they can’t just start going around and buying robotics companies left and right. So, they’re trying to do the next best thing and help foster new robotics companies that will very likely utilize their processors and wireless technologies in ways that will help Qualcomm ship more processors and hopefully improve the world as well.

Qualcomm MicroRover

The great thing about this program that Qualcomm is doing is that they could potentially help spark yet another large technology industry for San Diego in addition to the defense technology, biotech and wireless industries that San Diego already calls its own. The addition of a robotics industry could be huge for both Qualcomm and San Diego, as it could bring more very highly skilled jobs to the region and a potentially very high growth industry in the future.

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It seems as though there should be a new rule in the world of business. That rule is, when attempting to acquire T-Mobile USA (NYSE:TMUS), just don’t do it. Iliad is the third such company to offer T-Mobile a buyout agreement to acquire the company or to merge with it in one way or another. First, AT&T’s offer went south, sparking T-Mobile’s latest renaissance. That was followed by Sprint/Softbank who had quite a bit of openly negative regulatory opposition and ultimately gave up. And now we have Iliad, who had originally given their offer shortly before Sprint/Softbank withdrew theirs.

In a statement on the company’s website, Iliad stated that they would be pulling their offer to buy 56.6% of T-Mobile USA from parent company Deutsche Telecom. The company’s $16 billion apparently wasn’t taken very seriously by T-Mobile’s board and was rejected by the board. Iliad then came back again, with an offer to buy 67% of the company at $36 per share. Iliad’s management believed that their second offer was a solid one and that it allowed T-Mobile to accelerate their growth as the fastest growing carrier in the US and to help them accomplish that with $2 billion in savings.

Iliad did not comment on T-Mobile’s response to their second offer, but we can only assume that it was equally negative, especially considering that this new deal is for a significantly larger piece of the company for what is now a $10 premium per share over the company’s current value. While it isn’t clear what T-Mobile’s share price will do in the future, there is no doubt that they’ve got a firebrand CEO who is not afraid to say what he thinks. He recently spoke at a technology conference and discussed the industry and T-Mobile’s competitors at length and with some unexpected profanity (unless you know how he speaks).

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After stating that an LTE-enabled version of the Shield Tablet was in the works, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA)  is making good on its word by commencing pre-orders for the device. In addition to LTE connectivity, Nvidia is doubling internal storage to 32 GB. The pre-order price of the gaming-focused tablet is at $399 in the US, which is $100 more than what the Wi-Fi only version retails for in the country.

Nvidia mentions that the Shield Tablet LTE is fully certified to run on AT&T’s data network, and is incentivising the tablet to AT&T customers by offering a $100 credit to all users activating the tablet on a new two-year contract. The tablet features LTE bands 2, 4, 5, 7, 17, making it fully compatible with T-Mobile’s network as well. Meanwhile, HSPA+ bands for the US model include 1, 2, 4, 5. The tablet that will be making its way to Europe features LTE bands 1, 3, 7, 20 and HSPA+ bands 1, 2, 5, 8.

Other specs have thankfully remained the same, and include an 8-inch 1920 x 1200 IPS display, 2 GB RAM, a 2.2 GHz Tegra K1 chipset which features a beastly 192 core GPU, 5 MP front and rear cameras, 2×2 MIMO Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 LE and a DirectStylus 2. There is also a microSD card slot that can accommodate 128 GB memory cards. The tablet comes with a 19.75 Wh battery that Nvidia claims is good for 10 hours of video playback.

Along with the announcement of the tablet, Nvidia has stated that three additional titles — Beach Buggy Racing, BombSquad and Broadsword — have been optimized to take advantage of the GPU on the Tegra K1, bringing the total number of Tegra K1-optimized titles to 12. 

In the US, the Shield Tablet is available direct from Nvidia, and from a host of retailers including Amazon, Best Buy, Fry’s Electronics, GameStop, Micro Center, Newegg and Tiger Direct. European consumers can find out where to get the Shield Tablet LTE from the “Where to Buy” section on Nvidia’s site. All orders will begin shipping on September 30.

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The Chromebook market is chock full of great models, and with the introduction of Tegra K1 Chromebooks, the segment has received a much-needed boost in terms of power. After Acer (TPE: 2353) announced the first Chromebook running Nvidia’s (NASDAQ: NVDA) Tegra K1, HP is joining the fray today by announcing two models — a Chromebook 11 that features a Bay Trail CPU, and a Chromebook 14 that comes with a Tegra K1 chip.

HP’s (NYSE: HPQ) Chromebook 11 seems like a much better offering, mainly due to the Celeron N2830 CPU, which is a much better processor than the ARM-based variants included in the first-gen Chromebooks. Memory has also received a boost, with the 11-inch model now available in 4 GB as well as 2 GB DDR3L RAM clocked at 1333MHz. True to form, HP will be offering both Wi-Fi only and LTE models of the Chromebook 11, with the Wi-Fi version featuring an Intel 2×2 802.11ac modem, while the LTE variant has an HP M.2 3042-S3 LTE/HSPA broadband module.

Things get more interesting with the Chromebook 14, which features Nvidia’s powerful Tegra K1 CPU. The additional gaming prowess provided by the K1 should be able to handle anything ChromeOS throws at it with ease. In terms of hardware, you can configure the Chromebook 14 with either 2 or 4 GB RAM, 16 or 32 GB SSD, and HP will offer LTE and Wi-Fi only versions of the larger model as well. As is standard with all Chromebooks, the Chromebook 11 and Chromebook 14 come with 100 GB Google Drive storage for two years.

Customisability is also another area where HP has lavished its attention on, with the 11-inch model available in Ocean Turquoise and Snow White, while the Chromebook 14 is available in Smoke Silver, Sorbet Orange, Ocean Turquoise, and Neon Green. The keyboard also has a polished look to it that is indicative of a machine that costs much more.

In terms of connectivity, the 11-inch model has one USB 3.0, one USB 2.0 and an HDMI out. The 14-inch model has an additional USB 2.0 port. HP is claiming a battery life of eight and a half hours on both models.

The Chromebook 11 will be starting at just $199, and the larger 14-inch model will cost $299. While most Chromebooks offered thus far have been decent, there isn’t a single model that ticks all boxes. Toshiba’s Chromebook 2 came close with a full-HD screen and 4 GB RAM, but the lack of a Haswell-based CPU was a big letdown. HP’s latest Chromebooks are a similar matter. They offer so much — 4 GB RAM, a fresh design, LTE connectivity and great battery life — but lose out when it comes to the screen resolution, which for some reason is still 1366 x 768. The same hardware and a full-HD screen would have cinched the deal for HP and established these models as the Chromebooks to get. But the lacklustre screen, mainly on the 14-inch model, will be a dealbreaker for most.

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Marine biologists studying offshore aquaculture, such as the Catalina Sea Ranch mussel farm, need real-time data to conduct collaborative and transparent research. Catalina Sea Ranch (CSR) is the first offshore shellfish Ranch in US Federal Waters. It is using technology to monitor the environment and provide security surveillance.

CSR uses a buoy staged with Verizon equipment to collect a variety of marine data. The data is sent over Verizon’s 4G LTE network to a database running on top of Verizon’s cloud technology. The data can be accessed via smartphones, tablets or computers in the hands of CSR team members, independent scientists, regulators, and researchers.

Catalina Sea Ranch Offshore Monitoring

Philip Cruver, President and CEO of Catalina Sea Ranch said: “This data will facilitate collaborative scientific analyses to develop best practices and responsible regulatory criteria for the future of marine spatial planning in U.S. Federal waters.”

Some nine organizations will have access to the database including the Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies, Scripps Institution for Oceanography, the National Ocean Tracking Network, and California State University Long Beach.

A World Bank Report dated February 5, 2014 noted: “Aquaculture will provide close to two thirds of global food fish production by 2030 as catches from wild capture fisheries level off and demand from an emerging global middle class, especially China, substantially increases.”

CSR intends to reduce some of the 33 million plus pounds of live mussels that are annually imported from Canada. Its sustainable mussel ranch is located six miles off the California coast. Their move supports efforts of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NOAA wants to establish a framework which will allow sustainable domestic aquaculture and contribute to the supply of local seafood in the US while improving the health of the ecosystem.

Mussels up close and personal

CSR will be growing the Mediterranean mussel, a non-invasive species that grows faster and larger with more meat content than the Blue mussel. Additionally, these shellfish are more tolerant to heat and salinity. CSR’s 100-acre project will produce 2.5 million pounds of sustainable shellfish all grown 30 feet under the water surface offshore of Huntington Beach, California. The project is expected to provide jobs and help reduce America’s $10 billion seafood trade deficit.

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When I first heard about the Cadillac redesign of the Escalade I was very excited by what I saw and couldn’t wait to check it out at the LA Auto Show, late last year. The reason why is mostly because the redesign of the Escalade brings the Escalade into the design language of the ‘new’ Cadillac brand which includes the new Cadillac ATS, CTS, XTS and ELR just to name a few. When you looked at the 2014 Escalade, it simply didn’t fit in and it felt like Cadillac was just making minor tweaks to the previous model years. Even though, they did make some significant changes to the headlights and such before this major 2015 redesign.

There’s another thing that I believe Cadillac is trying to address with the new Escalade, their target market. Cadillac has been struggling to find a clear target market for this vehicle, and at the $71,000 entry price and 14 city and 21 highway  (16 combined) MPG, you won’t have a very large market to begin with so you need to be focused. And the thing is, the market for these cars is pretty much between affluent families and people that just want to have a big luxurious vehicle that is comfortable for more than just the front two passengers.

Specs

The model we tested was the 2015 Escalade 4WD Premium model, which is priced as tested at $87,985. This is basically the model that has everything in it, so we can talk about all of the features that it has. This car is probably one of the most technology packed vehicles that I’ve driven to date, so it was nice for us to test considering our technology knowledge. In terms of the vehicle itself, ignoring all of the technological odds and ends, it has a 6.2L V8 engine and a six-speed automatic transmission. This engine is capable of delivering 420 HP @ 5600 RPM and 460 lb.-ft. of torque @ 4100 RPM. It also has a towing capacity of 8,1000 lbs (4 tons) and weighs a hulking 5,800 pounds, making this a nearly 3 ton vehicle. And of course, because of this vehicle’s weight you really don’t expect it to do very well in terms of MPG since it has a combined highway and city mileage of 16. But even so, the car is still capable of a 0-60 speed of only 6.0 seconds (you will not get anywhere near 16 MPG with that kind of speed).

In order to stop the nearly 3 ton vehicle, Cadillac has also equipped the 2015 Escalade with four-wheel disc brakes with ‘Duralife’ rotors. However, it remains to be seen if they are enough to easily stop a 3 ton vehicle barreling down the freeway at 65 mph (or faster).

The car is also packed with a ton of safety features including a vehicle segment first front-seat center air bag. Additionally, standard air bags include dual-stage front driver and passenger air bags, head-curtain side airbags and seat mounted side impact air bags. So, in the event of a collision, this vehicle essentially turns into a gigantic air bag, not that its size would indicate so.

There are also a few other safety features, but those are all technological and will be covered in the next section.

Technology and Entertainment

This car is absolutely packed to the brim with technology. So much so, in fact, that it really makes me feel like I’m writing a review about some consumer electronic rather than a car, but at this point they’re virtually the same thing. It features a 16-speaker Bose surround sound system with a very good amount of bass so that you don’t have to go out and buy your own sub if you’re a bass aficionado.

This car has an absolutely massive fully electronic dash which measures in at 12.3″ across. This fully electronic dash borrows from what Cadillac has done with the ELR’s fully electronic dash, but expands upon it horizontally since the car itself is physically much larger and wider. I am personally a huge proponent of fully electronic dashes but the problem here with Cadillac’s implementation is that it feels very flat and doesn’t feel like you’re looking at a dash, but rather just a screen. Other car manufacturers (and other Cadillacs) have done this better in my opinion and I believe that Cadillac could’ve done better here. They could have at least added 3D elements to the dash so that it feels like it has SOME sort of depth.

The car also has the standard Cadillac CUE (Cadillac User Experience) that you find in all of the new Cadillacs that have been refreshed (ATS, CTS, XTS, SRX, etc). However, the CUE experience for the Cadillac Escalade is slightly better than on some of the other vehicles because it features Siri integration as well as text-to-voice so that the car can read your text messages out loud to you. But even with those features, CUE is still quite outdated and lacks the app support that Cadillac promised it would have when it came out. So far, the only ‘apps’ that are part of cue are Pandora, the rest are standard entertainment, climate control and navigation features that you can find in any other car. I really thought that Cadillac would figure out what to do with CUE but it just seems like they continue to march on and leave the rest of the Cadillac owners in the dust even though they’ve been promised apps for years.

Also, the placement and angle of the CUE system in the Escalade is a bit peculiar. In the ATS, CTS, XTS and SRX it feels much more natural and properly angled. In the Escalade it seems like it isn’t even intended for the driver to even look at. When using the backup camera feature of the Escalade (and the CUE) with the CUE 8″ display, it feels awkward to look at compared to other Cadillac vehicles. I don’t know how else to describe it, but it seems like the CUE system is sitting too low for this vehicle.

Having two displays in the car isn’t enough, however, because in the model that Cadillac sent us, the Escalade also had a in-dash BluRay player with an 9″ overhead display and (2) two-channel wireless Bose headphones. This is perfect for long road trips or just for keeping the passengers entertained regardless of how old they are. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to test this out, but it seemed to impress most of the passengers in the vehicle.

And no, that’s not it, there’s a fourth display on this car and that’s the HUD (Heads Up Display) that is located in the dash of the vehicle and reflects upon the windshield where the driver can view important driving information, or multimedia information, or navigation directions. This is by far one of the best features a car can have and I actually have one in my car and I’m absolutely spoiled by it because I never have to take my eyes off the road to see what speed I’m going or who’s calling me, or even what song is playing. This is an awesome feature and an absolute must in any luxury car.

Now, you might think that we’re done with all of the technology features of this car, having mentioned all of the various displays, cameras and other doodads. But we’re not, because this car has a pretty unique feature that is only starting to reach certain cars. That is OnStar 4G LTE with hot spot capability meaning that you can have internet anywhere the car goes, something that very few cars have on the road right now. The 2015 Cadillac Escalade does not have it enabled yet, but some cars that GM already has on the road that have this functionality enabled are the Chevy Volt, Buick Regal and the Buick LaCrosse just to name a few.

Experience

Driving the 2015 Cadillac Escalade was an absolute joy. There were a few things that perhaps could be improved upon, but in general it was a pretty fun car to drive and according to my friends, an even better car to ride in. Most people were pretty impressed with Cadillac’s attention to detail inside of the car and the overall premium feel. While I don’t necessarily like the wood trim that Cadillac used in the Escalade, it was natural wood and stayed true to Cadillac’s commitment to high quality materials. This was evident with the light up Cadillac Escalade logos in the footboards of the car as well as the Cadillac logos in the tail lights and head lights.

What Cadillac did with this new Escalade was to make the vehicle bigger and fix one of the biggest problems (other than aesthetics) with the old Escalade. And that’s make the rear passenger doors bigger so that it looks more uniform and is easier to get in and out of. I don’t recall any occasion where these larger doors became a nuisance. Also, having the power retractable steps was absolutely awesome and made getting into the car easier for almost everyone simply because of how high the car sits and how high the seats are relative to the ground.

The car rode incredibly smoothly and all of the passengers that rode in the car were satisfied with the level of comfort and ride that the vehicle provided. The front passenger as well as the 2 rear passengers with captain chairs were very happy with the amount of leg room that they had as well as the overall comfort of the seats. And thanks to the multi-zone climate control, the back passengers could enjoy their own temperature as well as the driver and front passenger. That also reminds me of the fact that this Cadillac Escalade also has heated and cooled front seats, which are awesome for places like San Diego where it can get really hot. The heated and cooled seats are also great for anyone going on a long road trip and doesn’t want to have a gross sweaty back after an hour or two of driving.

Over the course of my week with the car, I was able to comfortably fit a stroller in the back as well as have a baby in the back in a car seat and take 4 adults including myself. Sure, the stroller was a tight fit, but it managed to fit in that small storage compartment of the Cadillac Escalade relatively easily. I was also able to comfortably fit four 20lb bags of ice in the ‘trunk’ since I had this car over the course of the Fourth of July weekend. This car was also used to pickup someone from the airport and as a result, we had to fold down the back row of seats in order to fit the suitcases. This is done electronically, but I do recommend you read the manual before trying this because you will not figure it out immediately (long presses are needed to actuate the seats). I cannot tell you how many times people sat in the 2nd row captain chairs and were amazed by how much room and overall comfort they had. Obviously, all of this roominess comes at a cost, as the third row isn’t really anywhere near as comfortable and if you want to fit more than your groceries, you’ll have a hard time using that 3rd row at all, or just get the ESV.

The captain chairs don’t fold flat, but they do flip up fairly easily and can be removed with ease if you’ve really got something huge to carry in this truck. Also, if you want to open the trunk you can either access it by popping open the glass portion of the rear door, or popping the whole thing open, with adjustable height depending on the size of your garage (or your head). At maximum height, it still isn’t quite big enough for taller people, which may be a concern for anyone over 6″ trying to put something in this car and wanting to stand up straight behind it.

In terms of gas mileage, I did not fare too well even though I mostly did city driving. With a few slightly leadfooted starts from a dead stop, I managed to get the car’s average MPG over about 400 or so miles at 13.6 MPG. This is slightly under what the car was rated for city driving (15), but remember I was mixing city and highway driving and was driving a bit more aggressively with the gas pedal. Speaking of the gas pedal, once you get on the freeway, you can enable adaptive cruise control and never need to use the gas or brake again (unless you hit traffic). Thanks to the adaptive cruise control (which I used liberally) you can go 65 or 70 mph and then if you catch up to a slower car, the car will slow down until the car speeds up or you change lanes, a brilliant feature that this car has (and mine doesn’t).

It was also fun driving the car around the city and seeing people’s reaction to a car they’ve probably never seen before. Some people were impressed with it, others scared by it (this thing is huge) and I even got some approving nods from people as I drove by. The funniest part is that this car is mostly appreciated by soccer moms and people that want to drive around in Escalades because of the culture associated with them. This new Cadillac Escalade certainly adds some more aggressive looks to the car that it didn’t have before and unifies the design language with the other Cadillac vehicles. The only problem is that this thing is an absolute tank and not everyone will know how to properly drive it or park it. In fact, parking this thing was much easier than I was expecting. It was much harder to park a Lincoln Towncar than it was to park this truck and that’s primarily thanks to all the parking sensors and the backup camera which I now religiously use. It also has folding mirrors so that other drivers or pedestrians don’t take them off as they walk or drive by your car.

The technology aspects of the car were absolutely stunning, but CUE once again is still slow and lacks the depth that it really needs as a luxury console operating system.

In terms of ride, the car rode very smoothly as should be expected from a luxury car, however it handles speed bumps very poorly and is probably one of the roughest cars over speed bumps, which is really disappointing. I tried taking speed bumps at various angles and speeds and no matter what the car did not handle them very well at all. I don’t know if it was the 22″ alloy wheels or the suspension, but those speed bumps were not a good experience for anyone, including me the driver or any of the passengers.

One of the biggest disappointments of the Escalade was the braking power that it has, or more accurately doesn’t have. Coming from a more sporty ATS, obviously I’m going to be used to much more responsive braking, but the truth is that the Escalade definitely needs better brakes. I don’t care what they do, they need to be better because this is a 3 ton vehicle and the momentum that it carries is incredible and it needs to have brakes that make it stop much faster than it does. I almost feel like a Semi truck driver trying to leave myself enough space to brake properly.

There were also a few things with fit and finish where some doors didn’t align perfectly, but that’s also partially me being a perfectionist. None of the fit or finish issues were really noticeable unless you were looking for them and didn’t affect the vehicles overall look or functionality.

Conclusion

The 2015 Cadillac Escalade is a beast of a vehicle in many ways, and they did not skimp on almost any technology, which makes this technology reviewer very happy. The car is certainly an improvement over the previous model year and adds a lot of very great design elements that make it appear an even more aggressive, yet polished vehicle. Sure, the gas mileage isn’t the best at 17 combined city and highway (13.6 tested) but this car isn’t really intended for people that care about what the cost of gasoline is. The Escalade we tested is priced at over $87,000, at that point the price of gasoline shouldn’t really be a factor at all when buying a vehicle. Sure, I wouldn’t mind if this car came in some sort of a hybrid to improve the overall MPG of the vehicle, but this truck is damn heavy and a hybrid will only help the city mileage which is rated at 14. If you take the city and bump it up to where the highway mileage is at, you could theoretically get this car to average around 20 MPG, however the added weight from the batteries will only make this car even heavier than it already is. I suspect that a hybrid Escalade isn’t far off, but first I think they needed to redesign the vehicle to fit the overall design language of the brand.

Overall, in terms of a vehicle, it falls short in a few places, but none that would make me think much less of the car. If I had one of these in my garage I would not complain about it other than the price of gas and the size of the hulking 26 gallon tank which will last you about a full 400 miles if you’re polite with the gas pedal. But even so, this car without a doubt is jack packed with interesting technologies and still has some room to grow with LTE hot spot and maybe one day some CUE apps. We recommend you consider this car when you’re looking at large luxury SUVs because there’s a good chance you might fall in love with the technology and the overall stature of the vehicle.

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In an unfortunate turn of events, Broadcom has decided to completely shutter their entire baseband modem business less than a year after acquiring Rensas’ own mobile modem business which had been under threat of also shutting down after originally being acquired from Nokia. This announcement came as part of the company’s earnings release yesterday, where they reported a $1 million loss on $2 billion in revenue (essentially break-even) compared to the previous quarter where they had made $165 million. But even so, Broadcom has announced that with the shuttering of this division they will be laying off approximately 2,500 people which are currently part of this business division.

The sad truth is that Broadcom’s board (and investors) never really gave this division a chance to actually compete with the likes of Qualcomm and Intel after the acquisition of Rensas Mobile’s division. We’re less than a year from when the acquisition was announced and the transaction wasn’t completed until October. Meaning, that They’ve been working with Rensas’ Mobile’s team for about 10 months and let’s also not forget that today isn’t the first time we’re hearing about this division having issues. Broadcom had already indicated that they were already looking to sell or shut down the division back in early June (Computex). But none of this really makes much sense in terms of a business decision primarily because the division’s latest and most prominent addition never really had much of a chance to prove itself. They certainly had some promising things at Mobile World Congress, but the lack of major design wins very likely hurt them.

In the end, it simply isn’t easy to build good modems and to be able to sell them, especially when you don’t have a competitive applications processor nor do you have a product that combines the two to save manufacturers money, design costs, and battery life. I’m sure a lot of people wish things had turned out differently, but the biggest problem for this announcement is that it means there’s less competition in the modem market once again. This announcement and Broadcom’s earnings lifted the company’s stock yesterday in after hours trading, however it should also be known that this will also positively reflect upon Intel and Qualcomm’s modem businesses. However, after seeing how poorly Intel’s own mobile business performed last quarter, they’re not in a much better situation than Broadcom, to be quite honest. If anything, this solidifies Qualcomm’s dominance as the leading global baseband modem provider and should set off some alarms within some of their customers of potential price hikes due to a lack of competition from basically everyone.

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Nvidia has been doing a lot of their own consumer products lately, with the original Shield handheld gaming console and the Tegra Note 7 tablet. Each of these devices was actually surprisingly good and they were very good values for the money, especially if you got them at their cheapest ($199 each). Nvidia has learned a lot of lessons from each device and they’ve done a fantastic job of updating both the Shield and the Tegra Note 7. Their updates are so frequent and regular that I almost feel like they’ve got the leg up on almost every other Android manufacturer out there. They are also some of the first if not the first to release a new version of the Android OS for their devices as it becomes available.

Nvidia Shield family

So, it comes as little surprise that Nvidia has today announced the Shield tablet, a converging device that combines the best of the Tegra Note 7 and the Shield portable gaming console into a portable gaming tablet. The Shield Tablet’s core innovation is that it sports a Tegra K1 SoC with a Kepler GPU inside rather than the previous generation Tegra 4 SoC, which was a few generations of GPU architecture behind. Tegra K1 promises to be vastly faster than anything Nvidia has ever made before and it will come in two CPU flavors with the first one being an ARM A15 implementation and the second being Nvidia’s own custom 64-bit CPU design.

The Nvidia Shield Tablet will have an 8″ Full HD IPS display capable of supporting DirectStylus 2 (an improvement over DirectStylus) and will feature a dual front-facing speaker setup much like the Tegra Note 7, but with a higher resolution because the Tegra Note 7 was only 720P and the Shield Tablet is 1080P. However, it will now have bass ports to allow for more bass to come from the speakers, a feature that many gamers will appreciate. It also has two 5MP cameras, one front and one back along with SmugMug’s Camera Awesome app built-into the phone. The tablet will support up to 128GB of SDXC memory card storage and wil come in a 16GB and 32GB versions with built-in memory. The 16GB variant of the Shield Tablet will be Wi-Fi only while the 32GB will support LTE on AT&T and T-Mobile through Nvidia’s Icera i500 modem. It will also have a 20 watt hour battery, which should suffice for about 8-10 hours of medium to light use and probably 5 hours or less of actual gaming.

Nvidia claims that the Shield Tablet will support 4K as it is “4K ready” however they are outputting the video for 4K over miniHDMI which is basically a dead standard in the mobile industry and hasn’t been used by anyone in a phone for a while. The fact that Nvidia chose to go with miniHDMI instead of MHL 3.0 is a perplexing one because with MHL 3.0 they can not only support 4K video streaming but they are also able to charge the device as it plays video back to the TV through the USB port.

The tablet will also feature Bluetooth 4.0 LE and 802.11n Wi-Fi, which is a bit of a disappointment like the Shield portable console was because in order to really get a solid gaming experience you really want to have something like 802.11ac. And yes, it will increase the overall cost of materials, but maybe Nvidia needs to develop their own because the lack of it in this tablet is almost unforgivable at this point.

Nvidia Shield Tablet Pricing

Nvidia will price the Shield Tablet at $299 for the 16GB Wi-Fi only model and $399 for the 32GB LTE model. They will also be selling a flip cover that will also double as a stand for the Shield Tablet as well as the Shield Controller which operates via Wi-Fi direct for $59. What makes this launch even more interesting is that the tablet will be available globally, the first time for any Nvidia Tegra consumer product. First the launch will begin on July 29th in the US (pre-order open today) and then Europe on August 14th and then the rest of the world this fall.

Overall, this tablet looks fairly promising as a standalone product, the real question will be how it will perform as a gaming tablet and whether or not people really want a separate tablet and game controller setup. I have a feeling that a lot of people are going to want to see if Nvidia releases a Shield portable gaming console with the Tegra K1 updated SoC inside. A gaming tablet is cool and all, but I just don’t see very many scenarios where carrying around a controller and a tablet is something a consumer would enjoy.

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According to The Wallstreet Journal, the long awaited Amazon phone is likely going to be an AT&T exclusive device. When one looks at this fact, many people may ask why Amazon would even bother to do something like that when nowadays almost all phones launch on all the carriers at the same time. Perhaps AT&T has paid Amazon to do so for a short period of time, however it makes very little sense in terms of Amazon’s global strategy and standard practice of trying to get as many devices in as many hands as possible.

Currently, the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX sells with 4G LTE connectivity from AT&T, which would make this WSJ rumor very plausible considering that AT&T is Amazon’s sole partner on LTE connectivity. Perhaps Amazon has negotiated such pricing with AT&T that nobody was willing to agree to their terms other than AT&T. It would be nice if Amazon broadened their horizons and went with other carriers for their 4G LTE connectivity, but it seems that they really have a well established relationship with AT&T.

The rumors from the WSJ and others are saying that we will likely see the Amazon phone coming out this week which would explain this leak. Many rumors about the Amazon phone claim that it will have 3D functionality and will run on Amazon’s own flavor of Android, which is expected. However, the 3D functionality is highly questionable when you think about the sour taste that many consumers have had with 3D in the past.  Amazon has posted a video teasing a new device tomorrow with a video showing people that are amazed by what they’re seeing.

However, what they will likely do is created a 3D interface and create a 3D-like experience where the phone’s interface moves in a 3D manner or images look 3D using an accelerometer and head tracking. There isn’t much more that we will likely find out between today and tomorrow so until then we recommend you sit and wait to hear more about this device. If its anything like Amazon’s past devices, it will be incredibly great performing, high quality, and incredibly inexpensive. But, it will still be fairly locked down to Amazon’s own ecosystem and may not appeal to everyone because of that fact alone.

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