July 1 - 9:30am EDT   Dell on Tuesday announced it will add mapping features to its Inspiron Mini 10 netbooks starting next week. The Wireless 700 add-on combines both an internal GPS card from Broadcom and Wi-Fi triangulation technology from Skyhook Wireless to find its own location, which allows it to operate both indoors and outdoors. Indoors, Wi-Fi access points are used to determine the location via their respective and mapped hardware addresses. Outdoors, or when the line of sight to a satellite is available, it reverts to the assisted GPS chipset for a more accurate, network-independent view. [full story]

June 24 - 7:40am EDT   Apple's newest iPhone actually costs slightly more to make than the older version in spite of the more modest update, iSuppli says. The iPhone 3GS' total bill of materials amounts to $178.96 for a 16GB model, or slightly more than the previous $174.33 of the 8GB iPhone 3G. Some of the cost difference is attributed to recent rises in the prices of NAND flash memory; although 16GB costs less to make than it did a year earlier, a small rebound due to economy-driven supply cutbacks means Apple has had to absorb some costs to double its storage. [full story]

June 19 - 3:50pm EDT   Online retailer Meijer is offering the first sub-$100 Blu-ray disc player with its listing for the $99.99 Curtis Mathes CMMBX130. The device will play back Blu-ray movies at up to 1080p resolution and also upconvert DVDs to an unspecified HD resolution. There is an HDMI 1.3 output, optical digital audio output and an Ethernet port for servicing and performing firmware updates. [full story]

June 10 - 12:05pm EDT   HP today acted on two of its planned system updates by launching them through its online store, including an unannounced processor. The new dv2z costs slightly more than promised at $625 but now has a white color trim option and starts with a single-core 1.6GHz Athlon Neo, 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive with Radeon X1250 integrated video. Adding a dual-core 1.6GHz processor costs $25; in a surprise, an option now exists for a 1.6GHz Turion Neo that likely boosts performance still for an additional $75. [full story]

May 6 - 10:05am EDT   Efforts to solidify very high-speed, short-range wireless gained steam today with the creation of the WiGig Alliance (site active soon). The organization is meant to produce a common standard for sending data over a 60GHz link and to streamline developing computers, handheld devices and home theater equipment that can use the wireless link. The ultra wideband technology is fast enough to run about 10 times as quickly as an 802.11n connection -- effectively, 1Gbps -- and has the headroom to not just stream HD video but also to allow for previously impossible features like fast wireless displays and syncing entirely over the wireless connection. [full story]

April 27 - 9:15am EDT   After weeks of trying to reach a settlement and put an end to the long-standing legal battles between them, lawyers at rival chipmakers Broadcom and Qualcomm came to an agreement, with Qualcomm agreeing to pay $891 million to Broadcom over four years. This marks the second payment Qualcomm will be making to the smaller Broadcom in lawsuits, though the first, at $19.6 million, was significantly smaller. Reuters reported the first payment of $200 million to settle the supposed patent infringements will be made in the current quarter. [full story]

April 20 - 10:25am EDT   Adobe has devised a new version of its Flash animation standard which should allow TVs and other electronics to stream content directly, according to an announcement. Called the Flash Platform for the Digital Home, the technology is now being licensed to OEMs and should ship in products scheduled for the second half of 2009. Some companies which have agreed to support the platform include Broadcom, Comcast, Disney, Intel, Netflix, Atlantic Records and the New York Times. [full story]

March 20 - 12:30pm EDT   Apple's next iPhone should have improved Internet access, SAI claims. A "plugged-in" tipster in the cellular business has told the publication that a "significantly faster" connection will be part of the update without mentioning other details. It's not known whether the unnamed insider is alluding to the cellular access or to Wi-Fi, either of which is potentially upgradeable with the update. [full story]

March 17 - 4:35pm EDT   Healthy netbook sales in China, India and other emerging markets for Realtek Semiconductor have the networking IC designer increasing its 802.11n Wi-Fi chip orders, spurring a shortage manufacturers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), according to a report in the Taiwan-area Commercial Times newspaper. Realtek has reportedly ordered one fifth more Wi-Fi chips in March than in February, and the shortage will last until June, according to a Chinese Commerical Times story. More than 8,000 Wi-Fi chip orders will be ordered in the second quarter. [full story]

February 23 - 4:35pm EST   Broadcom announced on Monday that the Chumby platform will be made available for the company's Internet connected devices that include digital TVs, set-top boxes and chips uses in Blu-ray players. The cooperation between the companies will allow users to tune to Internet radio stations and podcasts as well as access other personalized Internet content. Via widgets, users can access social networks, including Chumby's own, in addition to streaming video or audio content offered by its media partners. [full story]

January 15 - 10:35pm EST   Infineon yesterday quietly introduced a new transceiver chip that may dictate the future of the iPhone and other handsets. The SMARTi LU is touted as the first single-chip radio to include the new Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard for 4G Internet access and does so through a smaller, 65 nanometer assembly process that keeps the design small. It also includes the advanced HSPA+ standard for 3G as well as legacy support for 2G-era EDGE data and GSM calling. [full story]

January 7 - 7:55am EST   Apple may be turning to Broadcom for the cellular hardware in future iPhone models, say Taiwan-area manufacturers allegedly aware of the changes. Although the company currently uses Infineon chips for the phone's core functions, the insiders claim to have seen circuit boards for either revised or future iPhones with unnamed Broadcom parts for the cellular baseband and RF functions. The swap could suggest a partial or complete replacement of Infineon for the next wave of Apple's devices. [full story]

December 8 - 4:00pm EST   Broadcom has developed a new communications processor that should finally bring 802.11n Wi-Fi to cellphones without the extra power normally needed for the technology. Called the BCM4329, the chip allows the wireless link on the 2.4GHz or 5GHz bands up to 50Mbps in real-world conditions but actually uses less power than earlier parts limited to the older 802.11g standard. It also uses a technique known as space time block coding to more reliably hold a connection on the fringes of the network. [full story]

November 18 - 2:20pm EST   Despite a recent overturning of a ban on Qualcomm chip sales, the company is once again found in contempt of an injunction of 3G cellular phone chip patents held by wired and wireless semiconductors maker Broadcom. Broadcom announced on Tuesday that a federal judge on Monday found Qualcomm in contempt of an injunction agreed to last November preventing it from shipping products using two Broadcom patents. [full story]

November 17 - 8:15am EST   Adobe today said it would develop optimized versions of its AIR and Flash 10 apps for ARM11 and Cortex processors. The update will be part of the Open Screen Project initiative and is meant to bring both complex Internet apps as well as more advanced web video to more than desktop computers. The partnership specific to ARM includes a combination of chipmakers such as Broadcom, Freescale, NVIDIA, Samsung and Texas Instruments and should use both a newer, faster generation of ARM processors as well as OpenGL ES 2.0-capable graphics hardware to handle tasks that were previously impractical for lower-performance devices. [full story]