HTC Evo 3D saves its owner by taking a bullet UPDATE

We all know the amazing things that the average smartphone can do. The device can not only make and take calls, but we can find out in real time traffic conditions on our commute home, get stock prices for even the most obscure company, catapult an Angry Bird at a pig and within seconds, listen to a radio station from a city hundreds of miles away. We can watch and even upload videos to YouTube, watch CNN talk about yet another school shooting, and receive the Smedley contract to revise and send out by email for electronic signature.

With all of the things that the average smartphone can do, one thing that you do not expect from your handset is for it to take a bullet for you and save your life. But that is exactly what happened to an unnamed Hess clerk in Winter Garden, Florida. The mans HTC EVO 3D took the brunt of a gunshot fired by a robber who fired a revolver at the clerk. The robber went into the gas station and forced two clerks to try to open the safe. When neither could, the intruder left, but not before firing off a round at one of the men. Luckily, the bullet was intercepted by the phone and the clerk never knew he was shot until he fished his HTC EVO 3D out of his pocket.

The shooter remained at large as of Monday afternoon. While the clerk suffered minor injuries, the HTC EVO 3D pretty much bought the farm. PhoneArena

via- PocketNow 

UPDATE - HTC has given away a free HTC One and free accessories to the Evo 3D owner as a sign of goodwill

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Nvidia shows off its graphics prowess with the upcoming Kepler powered Tegra 5 LOGAN processor

Nvidia has demonstrated its upcoming Tegra 5 mobile chip with Kepler graphics and it’s a true monster. It’s actually the first chip capable of rendering a 1080p lifelike model of the human face, the Faceworks “Digital Ira” model.

The upcoming Tegra 5 chip is codenamed Logan and built on a 28nm manufacturing node. It might be the first one to leapfrog Adreno and PowerVR competitors on ARM. We have actually already seen the first impressive demos of Logan this summer, but this one is truly impressive.

Nonetheless, this chip is still too power-hungry for mobile devices. The developer version of Logan consumes 2-3W of power while final Tegra 5 for phones should end up optimized to run at at around 1W. However on tablets, the Logan with Kepler combo is expected to be more powerful than the PlayStation 3. Impressive.

The test that really wowed us here renders a very realistic human face with all reflections, lighting, skin textures, and expressions. The Ira test runs on full 1080p and you can find a video of the demonstration right below. PhoneArena

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HTC might be planning on a nice and disruptive tablet wearable devices are also on its list

HTC will look to wearables and a new tablet in order to try to reclaim market share, the company has teased, promising “something nice and disruptive” for its new slate. The company has been slow to capitalize on recent attention in either segment, though according to CEO Peter Chou that’s because many such devices – particularly smartwatches – have been more gimmicks than anything else, the Financial Times reports.

“It has to meet a need, otherwise if it’s just a gimmick or concept, it’s not for people’s day-to-day lives” Chou said, describing the wearables market as “still too early” and some of the existing products from HTC’s rivals – presumably including Samsung’s Galaxy Gear and Kickstarter-success Pebble – “version one”. However, Chou argues, that leaves a space HTC could step into.

“That is an opportunity for us,” he suggested. “People laughed at us when we came out with the first smartphone … Now everyone has a smartphone. I’m pretty sure wearables will be the same, but don’t judge from what is in the market [now].”

Chou was recently tipped to be scaling back on his day to day operational duties as CEO to instead focus more time on R&D efforts, something unofficial reports from within HTC suggest he is considerably involved in.

Exact details on what the HTC wearable and tablet might look like are unclear. However, according to HTC chairman Cher Wang, when the tablet comes out it will be something nice and disruptive,” teasing that “ubiquitous intelligence is not just wearables.”

That could imply a greater focus on contextual computing, something we’ve seen Motorola attempt recently with the Moto X. Wearables, meanwhile, match “what we do today as a mobile experience overall” Chou suggested. “That is one area we are excited about.”

HTC hasn’t had a tablet since the ill-fated Flyer and Jetstream, which pre-empted the pen-enabled tablet trend but, for a number of reasons – not least being very expensive, even with carrier subsidies – failed to make significant inroads into the market. More recently, the company revealed the HTC One max, a 5.9-inch “phablet” that the company says it expects many owners to use both as a phone and a compact tablet. SlashGear

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