Samsung asks us to witness 'The Next Big Thing' at an October 24th event in New York City

We're starting to suspect that Samsung has a thing for special events. The company just asked us to clear our calendars for an evening presentation in New York City on October 24th, teasing that the "Next Big Thing" has arrived. It's easy to make the connection to the Galaxy Note line with a stylus front and center in the teaser, although just what's entailed is left to the imagination: is it a more formal launch for American Galaxy Note II variants? A new tablet beyond the Galaxy Note 10.1?

Chrome updated to make way for more Intel-powered Android devices

Google announced another update to Chrome for Android; it’s an update that current users won’t even notice, but may have larger implications for the mobile ecosystem moving forward. The update sees the release of a version of Chrome for Android that runs on Intel’s x86 chips. The timing is clear – Motorola’s RAZR I is shipping next month, and Intel Atom-powered handset couldn’t ship with Chrome preinstalled if the app can’t run on the hardware.

So why does this matter? Because it’s likely only the first of many “Intel Inside” mobile devices we will see this year, and in coming years. At a time when Texas Instruments is dumping its OMAP mobile CPU line because they can’t keep up with the pace of innovation in mobile computing, Intel is instead bringing the full force of their world-beating fabrication technologies to bear on the mobile market.

Intel seems poised to start making ever larger waves in the mobile realm, but if they don’t it will only be because ARM and Tegra-based CPUs can keep up with Intel’s aggressive CPU roadmap, which is seeing a die shrink every year right now. Regardless of who wrests the greatest amount of market share when it comes to mobile chips, customers will be the ultimate winners. For that reason alone we hope to see Jelly Bean optimized for x86 chips soon, and with any luck all future releases of Android will achieve more parity of release times - increased competition benefits us all.

Micromax announces Funbook Infinity P275, priced at INR 6,699

Micromax today added yet another tablet to its Funbook family, the Funbook Infinity, which has been priced at Rs 6,699/-.

The Android 4.0 sporting Funbook Infinity comes with a 7-inch display and is powered by a 1.2GHz Cortex A8 processor with 512MB RAM. It comes with 4GB internal storage, expandable by 32GB with a micro-SD card. Like other Micromax tablets, the Funbook Infinity comes with 3G dongle support and Wi-Fi connectivity. The tablet is equipped with 2.0-megapixel rear camera and a 0.3-megapixel front facing camera.

Micromax claims the 4000mAh battery ensures browsing time of more than 6 hours and a standby time of 260 hours. The new Funbook infinity also comes with a USB port that can be used to share files.

The tablet supports videos in wide range of formats such as AVI, MPEG, MKV, RMVB, MP4, MOV, VOB, DAT, FLV and 3GP and has Adobe Flash player pre-installed.

Samsung Galaxy Note II available in India for Rs. 39,990

Samsung launched Galaxy Note II phablet in India today, just a day after it was rolled out in South Korea and before its UK release. The device is priced at Rs. 39,990. The Galaxy Note 2 is bigger than the original Note's 5.3-inches and now measures 5.5-inches. It comes with a Super AMOLED HD display with a 1280x720 pixel resolution and a 1.6GHz quad core Exynos processor with 2GB of RAM.

It offers storage between 16GB, 32GB or 64GB and MicroSD and MicroSDHC capability for cards up to 32GB and 64GB respectively.

The Note 2 runs on the latest version of Android, the 4.1 Jelly Bean and comes with Samsung's S-Pen stylus optimised TouchWiz interface.

In terms of design it's similar to the existing Note but with features similar to the Samsung Galaxy S3's signature style and Note 10.1.

Texas Instruments wants to ditch smartphones, switch focus to embedded processors

Texas Instruments has made the startling announcement that it's going to wind down its wildly successful smartphone and tablet business in favor of embedded systems. VP Greg Delagi told investors that the switch would create a more "stable" and "long-term business" than the cutthroat battles it's faced in mobile. While, currently the world's third biggest semiconductor company, it's concerned about losing ground to players like Qualcomm, Samsung and Apple -- despite its latest OMAP CPUs powering tablets like the Nook HD and Kindle Fire. We're scratching our heads as to why a major player would drop such a strong position like this, but perhaps they know something that we don't.

MIT's real-time indoor mapping system uses Kinect, lasers to aid rescue workers

We've seen the Kinect put to use to help you find your groceries, but the sensor's image processing capabilities have some more safety-minded applications as well. The fine minds at MIT combined the Kinect with a laser range finder and a laptop to create a real-time mapping rig for firefighters and other rescue workers. The prototype, called SLAM (for Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) received funding from the US Air Force and the Office of Naval Research, and it stands out among other indoor mapping systems for its focus on human (rather than robot) use and its ability to produce maps without the aid of any outside information, thanks to an on-board processor.

In the SLAM prototype, the processor is a laptop in the user's backpack, though the final product will be more along the lines of a handheld unit. The on-board laser scans a building in a 270-degree arc with a laser range finder, and the information it collects is combined with depth and visual data gathered by the Kinect before it's sent to the laptop to create the map in real time. Because the setup is tailor-made for humans, an inertial sensor is necessary to account for the wearer's gait. And because the system can detect a user's motion, it can create multi-floor maps when it senses activity on a staircase or elevator. The Kinect's camera is also used to determine whether a user has already been in a certain location, and to match up the data if it differs from the first walkthrough. Check out the automatic building mapping in action in the video below.