Tayla Lyell

Dedicated Google Docs and Sheets apps released for iOS and Android

The two apps are fully compatible with Google Drive and offer offline document and spreadsheet editing.

Google has released standalone Docs and Sheets apps for iOS and Android, with a*Slides app for presentations coming soon.

Google’s Drive app for the two operating systems has always supported documents, spreadsheets and presentations, but has lacked advanced editing options. The Docs and Sheets apps seem to be the first step towards remedying that limitation, though the two*will also go up against QuickOffice, Google’s dedicated Office app.

Both apps support creating and editing documents, whether they are saved on the web or locally on a device, without the need for an internet connection.*Collaborative editing is possible as well, and Google will likely be adding more features through updates if it intends to compete with the*Microsoft Office app recently launched for the iPad.

Source: Google Play (Docs, Sheets)*|*App Store (Docs, Sheets)

If a chip launches with no hardware wins, is it really a launch at all?

AMD launched yesterday its mobile followup to Kabini and Temash with a bevy of synthetic benchmarks, but absent were hardware wins.

AMD “launched” Beema and Mullins Tuesday, its latest mobile offerings and a followup to Kabini and Temash. In a nutshell these two chips are repackaged versions of Kabini and Temash with slight bumps in clock speed and features added. But there is one thing missing from this launch: a complimentary announcement of hardware that these chips will be featured in.

Granted, most friendly hardware blogs called this a “preview” but the bulk of the correspondence from AMD and a number of other sites called this a launch so launch it is. There’s not much new in this announcement that wasn’t known before from VR-Zone’s initial report last summer, to AMD’s first official announcement in the fall. Nearly everything about the architecture is the same, and these two chips do not support HSA.

Below are the final clock speeds of the chips:

AMD has also released a series of performance claims based on benchmarks which can be seen below:

As you can see, while AMD has made some sizable performance gains over Kabini and Temash it still falls short of Intel’s mobile offerings — which is why AMD has yet to announce hardware wins for these two chips. An announcement on this matter is promised for AMD’s APU14 conference scheduled for May 15 in Beijing, but considering AMD’s current mobile hardware wins one shouldn’t hold their breath. While Atom is in 229 tablet SKUs — a minuscule amount compared to what ARM commands but an expensive bargain considering Intel’s contra revenue efforts — AMD is in just one.

Manufacturers will be highly hesitant putting an x86 chip — unpopular in the tablet world — into one of their devices without some sort of compelling competitive bargain from the silicon’s owner. Intel can create that bargain with its cash reserves, but AMD can’t do the same. Considering the risk that the unpopular x86 platform presents in the tablet world, the non competitive performance as well as higher-than-Atom power draw of Beema and Mullins, there’s no reason to expect AMD to make any big gains in the tablet world anytime soon. This is a commendable effort on AMD’s part, but not good enough to rack up any hardware wins.

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This startup want every home in Singapore to own art

theartbounty is giving indie artists a voice, as well providing affordable sophisticated art to consumers by connecting the two via its web portal The art scene in Singapore has a problem — one that is not acknowledged enough, even as the government pushes for Singapore to be a major art hub*in Asia. For Singaporeans, who Read the full article...

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Why does this startup want to add 7 seconds of sound to photos?

Singapore-based web photography sharing platform Ubersnap has added a feature that wants to get creative juices flowing A picture is worth a thousand words. But for photographer and entrepreneur Ng Boon Chin, Co-founder, Ubersnap, a Singapore-based photo sharing website for shutterbugs, the words don’t come easy. One night, he found himself thinking about how he Read the full article...

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Bootstrappers EP#04 with Lensy Co-founders: Be disciplined about money

When resources are scarce, startup founders, especially those bootstrapping, need to tighten purse strings, say Co-founders*Vincent Teo and Ang Qian Ling This is the last episode of the Bootstrappers series. Previously, we talked to Ian Tay from Pixaroll about finding users who would pay for your product, Kyaw Lin Oo from EventNook about working on Read the full article...

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Will Vietnam be Southeast Asia’s newest freelancing star?

Youth will usher the rise of Vietnam as Southeast Asia’s freelancing star. The youth face triple the country’s domestic unemployment rate The recent data on Freelancer’s growth in Southeast Asia revealed interesting insights in the region—while Jakarta leads the rest of the cities by number of users registering on the platform (close to 19,000 new Read the full article...

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iWatch mass production has reportedly started

Rumor has it that Apple’s much awaited wearable device has now entered mass production.

There have already been a lot of*rumors about the*component suppliers for Apple’s first wearable device. All rumors had carried indications about impending mass production. If the iWatch enters into that stage now Apple may have enough supply ready by the time it is supposed to release the smartwatch.

As far as the rumor mill is*concerned Apple is going to launch the iWatch at Worldwide Developers Conference 2014. Bear in mind though that Apple hasn’t used this event for a major hardware announcement in years, regardless of the fact that WWDC has served as the launch destination for many iPhones in the past. Even if these rumors are correct Apple won’t actually release the iWatch that same day, week or month. It is actually expected to start shipping units by*fall 2014, around the time its new iPhones are expected.

The company*rarely takes so much time between the*announcement and release of a new device, let alone a potentially game changing one.*Since it would mark Apple’s foray into the wearable device market the company would want the launch to go off*without any problems. Judging its past history it doesn’t seem possible that customers would be made to*wait from June till October at the very least for the smartwatch.

The report claims, citing supply chain sources based in China, that instead of using Printed Circuit Boards or PCBs for the iWatch Apple is instead relying upon System-in-Package or SiP modules.*SiP modules have integrated circuits which are all wrapped in one single package. While this takes up less space inside the device it does have a major disadvantage. If one part of the module goes bad the entire module has to be replaced. This could potentially keep production yields lower and thus create problems for the manufacturer.

Despite all of these rumors Apple still hasn’t confirmed if its building a smartwatch. We can’t expect any hints from the company until its ready to announce something, so lets keep our fingers crossed for WWDC 2014.

Source: China Times

Wednesday, April 30, 2014