dual

Report: iPhone 5 to be a dual-mode 'world phone'

Apple's upcoming iPhone 5 will support access to both CDMA and GSM networks, allowing it to operate in most countries around the world, a source tells TechCrunch.

An unidentified app developer reportedly pulled information from registration logs that show two distinct mobile network codes (MNC) / mobile country codes (MCC). These codes, which are believed to have been entered by testers of a single device using Apple's upcoming mobile operating system iOS 5, are unique mobile network identifiers belonging to Verizon and AT&T, TechCrunch said.

Apple now caters to both companies, but the devices are not designed to operate on each other's networks; Verizon's works on the CDMA standard, while AT&T's iPhone 4 operates on a GSM network, the dominant global wireless technology and the standard in Europe.

While the iPhone 5 has been long rumored to be a CDMA/GSM world phone, Verizon's iPhone has always had this capability, although it's not activated. Teardowns of the device showed that it sports the Qualcomm MDM6600 chip, the same chip that's used in the Droid Pro world phone.

TechCrunch concluded that a dual-mode phone would suggest that the iPhone 5 would not support LTE. However, Apple's latest developer builds for iOS 5 contain a snippet of code that mentions LTE, according to enthusiast site MacRumors, prompting speculation that the company may be testing 4G internally.

The hotly anticipated next edition of Apple's smartphone is expected to be released in October. … Read more

Nvidia touts quad-core chip for Android, Windows 8

Nvidia's CEO boasted about the power frugality of an upcoming quad-core chip, as the company reported better-than-expected earnings today.

The graphics chip supplier swung to better-than-expected earnings in the fiscal second quarter ended July 31, buttressed by revenue from laptop graphics processing units used with systems built around Intel's "Sandy Bridge" processors.

Nvidia reported a profit of $151.6 million compared with a loss of $141 million in the year-earlier period. Revenue surged 25 percent to $1.02 billion. And gross margin--a critical profit indicator--jumped to 51.7 percent from 16.6 percent compared to last … Read more

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers, Lion edition

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers. This week readers wrote in asking numerous questions about OS X Lion, including ways to set up dual-boot environments, options for clean installs, whether or not Rosetta could be hacked to work, and options for re-downloading the Lion installer either for different Macs or for creating a boot DVD after you have already installed Lion. We continually answer e-mail questions, and though we present a few answers here, we welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the … Read more

How to keep Snow Leopard when upgrading to Lion

The features and advancements in OS X Lion may make it an enticing installation; however, as has been mentioned previously, Apple is doing away with a few key features that have maintained compatibility with some popular applications. Some of these features, such as the lack of Java, can be remedied by installing support for them, but there is no workaround for others like Rosetta and support for 32-bit system extensions in the default 64-bit boot environment. And a number of (perhaps mostly relatively obscure) applications may have trouble running, as can be seen on the RoaringApps Lion compatibility database. As … Read more

Cisco ships dual-band Wireless-N bridge

Cisco announced today the availability of its first dual-band wireless bridge, the Linksys WES610N Wireless-N Dual-Band Entertainment Bridge. This is similar to the TEW-680MB from Trendnet and the DAP-1513 from D-Link.

The WES610N offers four Ethernet ports and can connect to an existing Wireless-N network, either on a 5GHz or 2.4GHz band. This means you can connect up to four nonwireless Ethernet-ready devices to an existing wireless network. The device is designed for home entertainment products, such as TV set-top boxes, game consoles, and other devices that tend to come without built-in wireless adapters.

The new Linksys bridge features … Read more

How to set up dual monitors in Windows 7

Maybe your neck is reminding you that it prefers a different posture, or maybe you need a desktop that can't be fully displayed in a single monitor. There are many reasons you may want to connect a second monitor to your desktop or laptop Windows 7 machine, and while it's simple, it's not always intuitive. Grab a spare video cable and see how it's done.

Make sure you have all the hardware you need -- and that your second monitor is compatible with your computer. A quick glance at the specs sheet should tell you all … Read more

Belkin N750 DB router review: Almost a great deal

Generally, if you want to get a good true dual-band router, you should be prepared to spend around $130 or more.

For this reason, at a street price of less than $100, Belkin's stylish new N750 DB Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router is a steal. And this is not just a regular dual-band router; it's also one of the few on the market that offers the higher 450Mbps speed on the 5GHz band.

However, as they say, things are cheap for a reason. And for the N750 DB, this reason is not that it's a bad router but that it delivers less than it makes buyers expect.

An example of this is the fact that the router doesn't support IPv6 or the old standard WEP wireless encryption. This means it's neither future-proof nor backward-compatible with existing wireless clients that only use WEP.… Read more

Netgear N750 wireless router review: 5GHz for the win

The N750 Wireless Dual-Band WNDR4000 is the first true dual-band router from Netgear that offers the new 450Mbps speed on the 5GHz band. This means it competes directly with Cisco's Linksys E4200, which was released a while ago.

Apart from the guest networking feature, which lets you create separate Internet-only wireless networks for guests, the Netgear seems to trail behind the E4200 on almost all other counts. It's in no way a bad router, however.

As a matter of fact, it topped the chart on the 2.4GHz band in our close-range throughput test, registering a sustained real-world … Read more

Extending MacBook Pro speed and capacity with dual drive upgrades

There is no doubt that when compared to a mechanical hard drive, the new solid state drive (SSD) technology is by far superior in terms of speed. Data access and throughput can be well above 4x faster than a contemporary mechanical drive, and using it as your main boot drive widens a major bottleneck, resulting in exceptionally quick boot-ups, application launches, sleep and wake events, and shutdowns. Beyond speed, the drives also have a number of additional perks, including cooler operation than most mechanical drives, power efficiency resulting in longer battery life for laptops, silent operation, and higher tolerance for … Read more