qualcomm

The "Star Trek" universe may be beloved by millions, but it's entirely fictional. Yet one element of Gene Rodenberry's timeless creation may actually help people with their health care decisions in real life.

The problem faced by millions of people around the world, especially in the third world, and in rural areas of the first world, is that there's not always a doctor around to help figure out what's wrong with you--and sometimes, one isn't even necessary. Sometimes, the right technology could help us determine what's going on in our bodies.

That'… Read more

LAS VEGAS--Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor will be tucked inside hundreds of new devices, including a smart TV, a new color e-reader in China, a tablet for kids that can offer augmented reality, and mobile medical devices, the company said during its CES keynote address here Tueday.

Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm's CEO, used much of his CES keynote to tout the continually growing mobile industry and ushered a half-dozen guests onstage to show off various devices that use its Snapdragon chip.

The first smart TV powered by a Snapdragon processor is set to arrive this year, a Lenovo executive said during … Read more

Qualcomm wants you to a have home full of smart, wirelessly connected electronics.

The company today at CES announced its Skifta Media Shifting Platform for streaming music across multiple devices and other components aimed at getting home entertainment gear connected.

Qualcomm's Skifta is software that lets people stream media among different devices, such as showing photos from an Android smartphone on a TV or streaming music stored on a home PC over the Internet to another location. It's based on the DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) home media networking protocol, which is supposed to ensure interoperability across products … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Investment bank Piper Jaffray says Windows 8 running on ARM chips won't be anything to write home about. And neither will Intel's latest chip for smartphones.

Windows 8 is a milestone for Microsoft and the PC industry because it's the first mainstream Microsoft operating system to run on both ARM chips--typically found in smartphones and tablets--and Intel's X86 chip design.

"It is time once again for CES...we expect another dollop of hype and hyperbole coming out of CES this year," wrote analyst Gus Richard in a research note Monday morning.

Windows 8--not … Read more

Remember the Lenovo ThinkPad X1? Last year's uber-high-end semithin and semirugged business laptop has gotten a 2012 refresh with the ThinkPad X1 Hybrid, adding an idea that we definitely haven't seen before: this Intel Core i-series-powered computer has its own separate Qualcomm dual-core processor for viewing media in a battery life-saving mode called IMM, or Instant Media Mode.

The idea's not unlike a hybrid, so to speak, of ideas such as automatically switching discrete graphics and quick-launch OS environments that have gone out of fashion as of late in laptops. Lenovo's IMM claims to bump battery life to 10 hours when in that Qualcomm processor-powered Linux-based OS. A dedicated, separate 16GB SSD acts as storage in this mode.… Read more

For AT&T, it's been a week of lose some, win some.

The wireless carrier said late Thursday that it now has the green light from the Federal Communications Commission to acquire 700MHz licenses from Qualcomm, in a deal valued at $1.9 billion. The companies expect to complete the transaction, which was originally announced a year ago, "in the coming days," AT&T said.

"This spectrum will help AT&T continue to deliver a world-class mobile broadband experience to our customers," said Bob Quinn, AT&T's senior vice president … Read more

Dish Network is sitting pretty right now.

The demise of AT&T's $39 billion deal to acquire T-Mobile leaves AT&T in a vulnerable position, that of a company in need of wireless spectrum but with few sources from whom to acquire it.

Verizon Wireless has only exacerbated the dilemma with its own move to acquire spectrum held by the cable providers, which shores up its own position. The broadcasters, meanwhile, have been sitting on a stash of spectrum and have been fighting attempts by the Federal Communications Commission to repurpose it for the wireless industry.

AT&… Read more

Qualcomm expects the first Snapdragon-powered Windows 8 PC to arrive a year from now, marking the entry into a lucrative new business for the wireless chip company.

Qualcomm is already working with Microsoft to ensure that computers running on the next-generation operating system will be able to run on its chips based on ARM's technology, which sacrifice processing power for more energy efficiency and ability to always remain connected. Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said he sees a majority of the Windows 8 products coming after the end of fiscal 2012, which comes in September.

"We're going to … Read more

Now that Apple has its full holiday lineup for this year, rumors of next-gen products should start heating up. One such rumor follows a press release from Qualcomm, which makes the 3G chips in iPhones, saying that it seems likely that its 4G LTE Gobi 4000 chip is destined to be included in the iPad 3.

"Embedded modules based on our new Gobi 4000 technology are designed to give consumers an uncompromised mobile connectivity experience, both in terms of download speeds and flexibility," said Cristiano Amon, senior vice president of product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies.

Though Apple was not specifically mentioned in the press release as a partner for the new chip, Qualcomm did list several of Apple's competitors in the mobile space including Windows and Android, and noted that the Gobi 4000 API is perfect for personal computing as well as tablet and e-reader operating systems.… Read more