Computers and hardware

Apple is reportedly testing a version of the iPhone with CDMA chips.

At least that's what Daring Fireball's John Gruber says. He cites "a few little birdies" when reporting late Wednesday that the prototype in testing is codenamed "N92."

N92 is "certainly not in production," but is currently at the engineering verification test level, or EVT, according to Gruber. That's one level below DVT, or device verification test. And that is itself a level below an actual product currently being manufactured.

Now, as we know, Verizon operates a CDMA network. Does … Read more

The Samsung Galaxy smartphone is getting a big brother--some say as soon as early September.

Korea's JoongAng Daily quoted a "high-ranking official" at Samsung who indicated that the Galaxy Tab, Samsung's version of the iPad, will be on display at IFA Berlin, which starts September 3. IFA is Europe's equivalent of the Consumer Electronics Show held in Vegas every year, the major difference being that it's a public event, not just a trade show.

A Samsung Mobile official said in June that the Galaxy Tab would be ready by the third quarter, so Wednesday'… Read more

A few tidbits about Hewlett-Packard's plan for WebOS are leaking out from a company meeting held Monday.

Engadget said Tuesday it heard from several "trusted sources" present at the all-hands employee meeting that HP Senior Vice President Todd Bradley pointed to the first quarter of 2011 for when the company would be shipping a tablet loaded with WebOS. The sources also reported that the internal code name for the project is Hurricane.

Bradley, the former CEO of Palm, heads up HP's Personal Systems Group, which absorbed Palm in July, along with its mobile operating system, WebOS. … Read more

Barely six weeks into Hewlett-Packard's takeover of Palm, yet another key executive has apparently left the company.

TechCrunch says it has confirmed that Palm's vice president of design, Peter Skillman, has decided to leave HP, though where he will work next isn't clear.

An HP spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday that Skillman's departure took place "about a month ago."

An 11-year Palm veteran, Skillman is known as the guy who masterminded the Palm Pre, the device that was supposed to save Palm and make a serious dent in the iPhone's success. Neither ended up happening, … Read more

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will develop an exascale supercomputer, as Moore's Law and conventional computing designs begin hitting a wall, the government agency said Friday.

DARPA's Ubiquitous High Performance Computing (UHPC) program seeks "to create an innovative, revolutionary new generation of computing systems that overcomes the limitations of current evolutionary approach," the agency said in a statement. Companies involved in the project include Intel and Nvidia.

The UHPC program addresses priorities set out by President Obama's "Strategy for American Innovation" to achieve "exascale" and energy-efficient computing, DARPA said. One … Read more

Mark Papermaster is no longer employed as Apple's mobile hardware engineering chief. But is it because he failed to foresee the issues related to the iPhone 4's antenna? Or because he just didn't fit in at Apple? Perhaps both.

When the news hit Saturday that Papermaster was no longer with the company and his duties assumed by Mac hardware engineering chief Bob Mansfield, it was fairly easy to connect the dots: the guy in charge of the iPhone's design was ousted over the embarrassing antenna episode, and also perhaps the lengthy delays in shipping the white version … Read more

Hewlett-Packard Chairman and CEO Mark Hurd resigned from the company Friday after HP conducted an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment.

Hurd's resignation marks a stunning end to what had been by most accounts a wildly successful five years at the helm of what is now the largest computer company in the world, measured by total revenues.

The resignation takes effect immediately. He will be replaced by Chief Financial Officer Cathie Lesjak, who will act in an interim capacity.

HP said its board of directors reached a unanimous decision after Hurd was accused of sexual harassment by a former … Read more

FORT MEADE, Md.--For anyone with even the vaguest sense of the history of World War II, the term "Enigma" should hold some special meaning.

That, of course, was the name of the encryption device the Germans used to such great success during the first years of the war, allowing them to pass messages without worry of their being decrypted by the Allies.

But when the Allies finally solved the mystery of the Enigma, it turned the course of the war. The Germans were no longer able to stay ahead of the Allies and were no longer able … Read more

If the United States wants to defend itself against cyberattacks, it needs to focus on four key areas, according to United States Cyber Command head and NSA Director Army Gen. Keith Alexander.

Speaking Tuesday on the first day of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association's LandWarNet conference in Tampa, Fla., Alexander discussed the dangers to the country's military networks and what the U.S. must do to safeguard them.

The general said the threat of cyberattack affects more than 7 million different computers on more than 1,500 individual networks maintained by the Defense Department.

"On … Read more