LG's flagship Optimus G Pro, due to launch on AT&T on May 10th, might just make its way to Sprint later this year -- and possibly with an upgraded processor. A User Agent Profile on Sprint's website reveals a 1080p, Android 4.2.2 handset called the LS980, which lines up with AT&T's model number (E980) and also corroborates an earlier listing at the Bluetooth SIG. Curiously, the UAP mentions Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 800 ("M8974"), in contrast to the existing G Pro's Snapdragon 600 processor. Then again, there's only so much you can tell about future products from XML files like these. It could be an upgraded Sprint G Pro variant, but the reference to a totally new chip has us (and Android Police) thinking it could also be a full-fledged Optimus G sequel, which has already been rumored and possibly leaked. Either way, it's nice to see evidence of a top-tier phone maker using this cutting edge Snapdragon, especially after the comedy of ZTE's Grand Memo.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Sprint, LG

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Via: Android Police

Source: Sprint, Bluetooth SIG

When Jon Rubinstein left HP, it wasn't certain whether he would retire (again) or once more respond to the siren's call of technology. Clearly, he couldn't resist -- Qualcomm has confirmed that Rubinstein is joining its board of directors. It's not hard to understand why the firm would be interested, mind you. Between NeXT, Apple, Palm and HP, Rubinstein has extensive experience with Silicon Valley technology in general, and mobile in particular. While Qualcomm is already doing blockbuster business without his help, it no doubt wants to keep the money train going. Us? We're just happy to see a familiar name back in the limelight.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Apple

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Source: Qualcomm

Qualcomm's been doing very well lately, and most of those chips it builds are for mobile devices that demand a lot of data to serve their owners' needs -- and as more and more folks jump on the smartphone bandwagon, the demand for data will continue to grow exponentially. Today at Qualcomm's What's Next in Mobile event in Santa Clara, California, the company told us more about its plan to help build a network that'll be able to serve up the data all its SoC's need. The goal is to give us 1000 times the capacity of what we currently have. One of the key parts, as Qualcomm sees it, is small cell base stations in homes, offices and retail spaces working in tandem with the large cell towers that currently adorn so many roofs and mountain tops -- the same thing ex-FCC head honcho Julian Genachowski talked about last year.

You see, macrocells (read: towers) can blanket wide areas in signal, but they struggle to penetrate the innards of buildings, which is where small cells come in handy. For those who aren't familiar, small cell base stations like femtocells and picocells have been around for years, helping to boost cell signal in small areas by hooking into a local wired network. Until now, these small cells have served as a small-scale supplement to macro networks, but Qualcomm CTO Matt Grob sees them comprising a much bigger chunk of the network of the future. According to him, there are a few issues with using them in an expanded role, however.

Filed under: Mobile

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While Snapdragon 600 is already showing up on various flagship devices like the HTC One, PadFone Infinity, Galaxy S 4, Optimus G Pro and Xiaomi 2S, we're still looking forward to the big daddy of Qualcomm's lineup this year: the Snapdragon 800. At a media event in Beijing earlier today, Senior Product Manager Yufei Wang confirmed that his company's next flagship SoC will enter mass production in late May, but he refused to comment on which upcoming devices will feature it. And due to the current state of the silicon (even though vendors like ZTE are already sampling it), we weren't allowed to run any benchmark tests on the Snapdragon 800 development devices on display just yet, though we've been told to stay tuned in June.

What makes the 800 shine brighter than the 600 is its more powerful Krait 400 architecture, which can maintain a clock speed of up to 2.3GHz; but like before, the four cores are also clocked asynchronously for better power management. On top of that, the 800 comes with the new Adreno 330 graphics processor with 30fps 4K playback capability, while still featuring the improved Adreno 320's FlexRender technology that can dynamically switch between direct rendering and binning rendering for optimized performance and efficiency. We'll save the nitty-gritty for the proper launch of this 28nm chip later this year.

Gallery: Qualcomm media workshop Beijing 2013

Filed under: Misc

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Qualcomm is having an easy time riding the growing wave of mobile devices. Case in point: its very healthy second quarter earnings. Revenue at the San Diego outfit climbed 24 percent year-over-year to $6.12 billion, while the chip designer's net profit grew a similarly brisk 17 percent, to $2.07 billion. The figures were respectively up a modest 2 percent and down 6 percent versus last quarter, but that's to be expected given the usual post-holiday lull. Qualcomm still shipped a more than ample 173 million units of its MSM chips, and it expects to return $431 million to shareholders for their trust. The company also has a rosy-cheeked vision of the future -- it expects its third quarter revenues and profits to climb by at least 25 percent and 14 percent each, even with shipments down to as little as 163 million. When Qualcomm is at the heart of the HTC One, many Galaxy S 4 models and the Optimus G Pro, there's a good chance the company is being realistic about its prospects.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Wireless, Mobile

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Source: Qualcomm