Zalman sent us their Reserator 3 Max Dual CPU cooler, which is a rather interesting device. It's an all-in-one liquid cooling solution that Zalman advertises as the "Ultimate Liquid CPU Cooler". Zalman's engineers are certainly no amateurs when it comes to liquid cooling and the Reserator 3 Max Dual does appear unique, but is it really an "Ultimate Cooler"? We are going to find out in today's review.

Aurich Lawson

Ask anyone at Sony, and they're likely to tell you that sales of 10 million PS4s in less than nine months is unvarnished good news. But in an uncharacteristic bit of self-questioning, Sony's head of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida has expressed some bewilderment and nervousness over the system's quick success.

"It's just beyond our imagination. We are so happy. But I for one am a bit nervous because we do not completely understand what's happening," Yoshida told Eurogamer in a recent interview. "You need to understand why your products are selling well so you can plan for the future, right? It defied the conventional thinking. Lots of people thought the dedicated game hardware might not be needed going forward, but still lots of people are very excited."

While Yoshida said he thinks the lineup of upcoming exclusive games like The Order and Uncharted 4 explains why gamers are excited for the PS4, he said that it still doesn't completely explain the speed at which the system is selling. "I'm asking journalists who ask [about sales] their opinion," Yoshida said. "I'm asking marketing people to tell us why."

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Homer Simpson at Comic-Con.

FilmOn founder Alki David, fresh off getting sanctioned $90,000 for broadcasts using the Aereo-like parts of his TV-over-Internet company, is ramping up a new kind of litigation. He said he owns patents related to hologram technology and keeps accusing high-profile hologram performances of intellectual property infringement.

The newest lawsuit (PDF) is over a hologram of Homer Simpson that was one of the highlights of last month's San Diego Comic-Con. On July 26, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening chatted with Homer for about two minutes.

During the video (above), Simpson complains about the Comic-Con registration process. "I don't care. I get my free ticket from the hologram of Tupac Shakur," answered Groening.

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Not everyone likes their friendly neighborhood cable behemoth.

Media attention and fallout from Comcast’s viral customer service missteps continue to plague the country’s largest Internet service provider. First there was Ryan Block’s ludicrous cancellation call, then Comcast refused to refund invalid fees for Tim Davis until he caught the company in a lie, and then Comcast kept Aaron Spain on hold for three hours, long enough for the customer service lines to close and leave Spain in limbo.

Each instance has been met with a swift response from Comcast’s PR group after going viral, but quick, reactionary responses don’t do anything to fix the underlying problems. Leaked documents obtained by The Verge (full PDF) paint a portrait of exactly how broken things are in Comcast call centers throughout the country, and the documents confirm what current and former Comcast employees have been saying for the past few weeks: selling services is a required part of the job, even for employees doing tech support. Comcast did not immediately respond to our request for comment.

It’s all part of "S4," a "universal call flow" for Comcast call center employees. Those four letters stand for "start, solve, sell, and summarize."

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Howdily doodily, Ars-iarinos! We come bearing a giant slew of discounts this Tuesday, including a variety of discounted BenQ monitors, particularly the 1440p BL3200PT for 37 percent off. Scroll through a few choice Dell laptop deals to find a selection of deeply discounted Lenovo accessories as well, including a wireless headset and wireless mouse that will set you back less than $30 combined.

Featured deals:

• BenQ Sale! BenQ VA LED GW2255 21.5" Screen LED-lit Monitor for $119.99 with free shipping (list price $199.99)
• BenQ Gaming Monitor RL2455HM 24" Screen LED-lit Monitor for $179.99 with free shipping (list price $299.99)
• BenQ GW Series GW2760HS 27" Screen LED-lit Monitor for $199.99 plus shipping (list price $399.99)
• BenQ BL3200PT CAD/CAM WQHD 32" Screen LED-Lit Monitor for $629 with free shipping (list price $999.99)

Monitors:

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Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has announced that he's stepping down from the company's board, effective immediately.

With his ownership of the LA Clippers, teaching, and "civic contribution" taking his time, Ballmer wrote that he's now "very busy," and with both a new NBA season and new class of students, it would be "impractical" for him to remain on the board.

In announcing his departure, Ballmer expressed confidence in new CEO Satya Nadella's leadership, noting that although there are challenges ahead, there are also great opportunities, and he said that Microsoft's mix of software, hardware, and cloud skills is unmatched in the industry.

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Ron Amadeo

The HTC One M8 for Windows and the original HTC One M8.

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NEW YORK CITY—HTC has announced the HTC One M8... again. This time, though, it runs Windows Phone and is a Verizon-exclusive called the "HTC One M8 for Windows." HTC is the first OEM to take advantage of changes in Windows Phone 8.1 that allow for OS-agnostic smartphones, allowing (Verizon) customers to pick their hardware first and software—Windows Phone or Android—second.

We aren't glossing over any details here, either; the hardware is exactly the same as the Android version. That means you get all the good stuff from the HTC One M8: a 5-inch, 1080p LCD, a 2.36GHz Snapdragon 801, 2GB of RAM, a 2600mAh battery, and massive BoomSound speakers, all wrapped in an aluminum shell.

You get the not-so-good stuff from the original One M8, too. The device is huge for something with a 5-inch screen. The speakers add an extra set of bezels to the top and bottom of the device, and along with a strip below the screen dedicated just to the HTC logo, the device is easily the biggest 5-inch phone out there.

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OneNote for Android has been optimized for tablets. Andrew Cunningham

Microsoft's OneNote app for Android has just received a significant update that adds a brand-new UI design for tablets and improved handwriting recognition, the company announced on the Office blog today. The previous version of the OneNote app would run on tablets, but its interface made poor use of the extra space.

The old OneNote app running on a Nexus 7. You can see very little information at once, and the editing interface isn't much better. Andrew Cunningham

The new UI includes Office's trademark ribbon, a revamped UI for navigation, and requires much less zooming and tapping than before. It feels just a little cramped on the 7-inch screen of our Nexus 7, but it still works reasonably well and should be more comfortable on larger 8- and 10-inch Android tablets. The new handwriting feature allows you to draw on the screen with your finger, or with a stylus on Android phones and tablets that include them (Samsung's Note series comes to mind).

Andrew Cunningham

The new OneNote interface on a Nexus 7. Like many of Google's own apps, the new OneNote makes extensive use of sliding panels for navigation. Swipe from right to left to dismiss these panels and see your content.

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The phone version of OneNote for Android gets the same panel-based navigation system and handwriting support, though everything has been scaled down to fit better on smaller screens.

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The current incarnation of the SmartThings hub, which probably won't look much different once Samsung's acquisition of the company comes to fruition (unless they finally decide that white, clunky plastic is passe). Sam Machkovech

On Tuesday, Samsung announced that it would acquire Quietside, a manufacturer of air conditioners, heaters, and other HVAC appliances, for an undisclosed sum. This follows Samsung's purchase of smart home all-in-one solution SmartThings last week, an acquisition that had been hinted at in July, and the combination points to Samsung's desire to take over American homes by controlling their every device.

At first blush, the 100 percent acquisition of Quietside appears to merely streamline Samsung's operations, since the company already produces its own line of air conditioners—and has relied on Quietside to distribute those offerings in North America for over 15 years. Yet the Samsung announcement went so far as to hint at more to come: "[Samsung] also plans to unveil an enhanced HVAC product lineup that better reflects the needs of North American customers," it stated, though no timeline was attached to that sentence.

We can only assume that such a statement hints at the company's dreams of Samsung device interplay, with phones, watches, alarms, heaters, TVs, and more communicating with each other. As of now, Samsung's home appliance portfolio puts it in better position than its peers to consider taking over every corner of a home's electronics; where Google has Nest, Samsung has ovens and dryers. However, based on Samsung's "only Galaxy devices" compatibility track record, particularly with its Galaxy Gear offerings, we worry that Samsung will devour SmartThings' all-in-one home automation system and kill off compatibility with third-party products and protocols (a feature that, admittedly, was already thin enough when we reviewed the SmartThings hub earlier this year).

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Kevin Spencer

A healthcare system spanning 29 states announced on Monday that cybercriminals operating from China stole information on approximately 4.5 million patients, including names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers.

Community Health Systems, which comprises 206 facilities in the southern and western states, announced the incident in an 8-K filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The data breach likely stems from compromises in April and June of this year, involved sophisticated malware, and is apparently connected to China, the company stated.

"The attacker was able to bypass the Company’s security measures and successfully copy and transfer certain data outside the Company," CHS said in its 8-K filing. "Since first learning of this attack, the Company has worked closely with federal law enforcement authorities in connection with their investigation and possible prosecution of those determined to be responsible for this attack."

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A New York man who claimed police arrested and strip-searched him after he photographed a stop-and-frisk of three African-American youths has settled his civil rights suit with the New York Police Department for $125,000.

The settlement, first reported Monday by the Daily News, comes weeks after the NYPD reminded its officers that it was legal to peacefully record police activity. That department-wide memo followed the videotaped NYPD arrest of a man who died after being subdued by a chokehold last month.

The NYPD settled with a man named Dick George, who alleged that while he was sitting in his parked car in Flatbush in 2012, he saw two NYPD officers get out of an unmarked car and perform what is known as a stop-and-frisk of three youths. George said he captured the search on his mobile phone. He claimed he went up to the youths and told them next time that happens to make sure they get the officers' badge numbers.

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Watch Dogs is still planned for the Wii U, but it will be Ubisoft's last "mature" game for the system.

Nintendo consoles have long been decried by many gamers as "kiddie" systems that don't feature enough games targeted at adults. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot offered some support and explanation for that state of affairs recently, telling Game Informer that family focused titles are the only ones selling on the Wii U.

"It’s very simple. What we see is that Nintendo customers don’t buy Assassin’s Creed," Guillemot said in a recent interview with Game Informer. "Last year, we sold in very small numbers."

Apparently, that line of thinking extends past the Assassin's Creed series, as well. While Guillemot said that a long-delayed version of Watch Dogs will still be coming to Wii U, "it will be the only mature game we publish on it."

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Tesla has played a significant role in the rapidly growing credibility of the electric car. Yes, electric cars exist within an automotive niche, but so do plenty of other vehicles, and that niche is now a little larger following an announcement yesterday by Saleen Automotive, a noted tuning company. Much of the car world has been gathered south of San Francisco in the Monterey Peninsula for the annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance (a really fancy car show for people who insist on aligning all the screw heads under the hood in the same direction), and it was there that Saleen debuted the Foursixteen, its new performance car built atop a Tesla Model S.

Saleen has been in the business of building souped-up versions of other companies’ cars since the 1980s—notably some rather quick Mustangs—as well as its own mid-engined supercars, although these probably had more success on the race track than in the showroom. The Foursixteen, which starts at $152,000 before the various EV tax subsidies are taken into account, looks sportier than the stock Tesla both inside and out, and upgrades to the driveline, suspension, and associated software mean that performance should be able to match the new look.

"We have used all the experience and ingenuity in our collective acumen to create a truly exceptional Tesla Model S in our new FOURSIXTEEN," said Saleen Automotive CEO Steve Saleen. "By dramatically improving the aerodynamics, suspension, braking, and drive train we are able to create a car that accelerates quicker with vastly improved handling. It is truly exceptional."

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It's been a while since we've seen a high-end device running Windows Phone 8 launch from a company other than Nokia. Despite Nokia's dominance, HTC has certainly not given up on the platform and today they're demonstrating that with the launch of a new flagship Windows Phone 8 device that you may already know very well. This new device is named the HTC One (M8) for Windows, and both its design and its hardware are essentially the same as the Android powered HTC One M8 that HTC launched earlier this year. We've laid out the specifications of the One (M8) for Windows below.

HTC One (M8) for Windows SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 (MSM8974ABv3) 4 x Krait 400 at 2.26GHz
Adreno 330 at 578 MHz Memory and Storage 2GB LPDDR3, 16/32GB NAND + microSDXC Display 5” 1920x1080 Super LCD3 at 441 ppi Cellular Connectivity 2G / 3G / 4G LTE (Qualcomm MDM9x25 UE Category 4 LTE) Dimensions 146.36 x 70.6 x 9.35mm max, 160 grams Camera 4.0 MP (2688 × 1520) Rear Facing with 2.0 µm pixels, 1/3" CMOS size, F/2.0, 28mm (35mm effective) and 2.0MP rear DOF camera, 5MP F/2.0 FFC Battery 2600 mAh (9.88 Whr) Other Connectivity 802.11a/b/g/n/ac + BT 4.0, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, MHL, DLNA, NFC SIM Size Nano-SIM Operating System Windows Phone 8.1

With regards to the hardware there's not a whole lot to be said. This really is the HTC One (M8) running Windows Phone 8 instead of Android. For an in depth look at the experience on Windows Phone 8.1 you can take a look at Anand's review of it from earlier this year. HTC has worked to also bring over some of the features they include with HTC Sense on the One (M8), which include BlinkFeed, Duo Cam, and Sense TV.

BlinkFeed makes its way over to Windows Phone 8 with the One (M8) for Windows. For those who arent familiar with it, BlinkFeed is a feature that comes on some of HTC's Android devices which aggregates Facebook and Twitter posts, news, sports information, and more into a vertically scrolling list on HTC's launcher. On Windows Phone 8 HTC doesn't have the luxury of being able to drastically alter the launcher and so BlinkFeed is included as an application which functions in the same manner as the launcher widget on Android.

Because the One (M8) for Windows shares the same hardware as the M8, HTC has brought over their post processing effects enabled by the secondary sensor in their Duo Cam camera system. In addition, we see that Video Highlights is present in the stock OS. Unfortunately, the camera app doesn't also inherit the manual controls from the M8 and so users wanting more control over the exposure of their photos will have to look to Nokia's Windows Phone devices or buy an application like ProShot which has such controls.

The One (M8) for Windows also brings along HTC Sense TV which acts as a TV guide and a universal remote that displays when your favorite shows are playing as well as recommendations for shows you may like based on what you already watch. HTC emphasized the difficulty of bringing this functionality to Windows Phone, as it required close cooperation with Microsoft to properly implement IR remote functionality.

For some users the most exciting prospect of the HTC One (M8) for Windows may come from the fact that it shares the same hardware as the One (M8). It's possible that the developer community will be able to load the firmware from the HTC One (M8) onto the device in a dual boot configuration with Windows Phone 8 so users can switch between the operating systems as they please.

Overall, this seems to be a smart move for HTC. Instead of assuming additional risk in the form of new hardware, the only resources needed are for software development. There's no need for a new production line, hardware certification is easier because the hardware should be unchanged from other variants, and cost across the board is driven down due to increased economies of scale.

The HTC One (M8) for Windows will go on sale on August 19th at 12:00PM Eastern Time through Verizon's online store, and will be available for $99 on a two year contract.

Gallery: HTC One (M8) for Windows

An eruption pierces the glaciers at the Bárðarbunga volcano. Oddur Sigurdsson, Iceland Geological Survey.

The Iceland Meteorological Office has increased the risk level of an eruption at the Bárðarbunga (or Bardarbunga) volcano after hundreds of earthquakes were reported over the weekend. The risk level has been set to orange, which is the fourth-highest rating on a five-level scale.

We asked Dave McGarvie, a volcanologist at The Open University, to explain what this means.

Should we be worried?

We have known for some time that Bárðarbunga was going to do something—we just didn’t know what. Because it is covered in ice, we rely on instruments to reveal its behavior.

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A new study suggests the number of Africa's elephants has declined to a critical point.

A handful of the full set of screenshots obtained by Android Police. Android Police

More details have leaked about Google's upcoming subscription service for YouTube, these in the form of screenshots posted by Android Police on Monday. The service, called YouTube Music Key, will give subscribers ad-free and offline playback of YouTube videos, as well as audio-only material.

Per the screenshots, users will be able to play music on their mobile phones "with or without video, in the background, or with your screen off"—all things that the single-tasking YouTube apps could not previously do. Subscribers will also be able to play music via "YouTube Mix," a recently added feature that works similarly to radio stations on other streaming services.

A YouTube Music Key subscription provides access to a 20-million-song catalog, roughly the same size as that of Spotify and Rdio, as well as a collection of material the app refers to as "concerts, covers, and remixes." While YouTube is rife with content beyond artists' official discographies, a lot of it of legally questionable provenance, it's not clear from the screenshots how Google will decide what goes into YouTube Music Key. Subscribers to the service will also be subscribed to "Google Play Music Key" for free, which is likely a rebranded Google Play Music All Access.

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Flickr user: Geoff Cordner

Kim Goodsell was running along a mountain trail when her left ankle began turning inward, unbidden. A few weeks later she started having trouble lifting her feet properly near the end of her runs, and her toes would scuff the ground. Her back started to ache, and then her joints, too.

This was in 2002, and Kim, then 44 years old, was already an accomplished endurance athlete. She cycled, ran, climbed, and skied through the Rockies for hours every day; she was a veteran of Ironman triathlons. She’d always been the strong one in her family. When she was four, she would let her teenage uncles stand on her stomach as a party trick. In high school, she was an accomplished gymnast and an ardent cyclist. By college, she was running the equivalent of a half marathon on most days. It wasn’t that she was much of a competitor, exactly—passing someone in a race felt more deflating than energizing. Mostly Kim just wanted to be moving.

So when her limbs started glitching, she did what high-level athletes do, what she had always done: she pushed through. But in the summer of 2010, years of gradually worsening symptoms gave way to weeks of spectacular collapse. Kim was about to head to Lake Superior with her husband, CB. They planned to camp, kayak, and disappear from the world for as long as they could catch enough fish to eat. But in the days before their scheduled departure, she could not grip a pen or a fork, much less a paddle. Kim, a woman for whom extreme sports were everyday pursuits, could no longer cope with everyday pursuits. Instead of a lakeside tent, she found herself at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

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It is a busy day in the client SSD space as earlier today AMD announced the company's first SSD, the R7, and now SanDisk is releasing the Ultra II to the mainstream market. The Ultra II is based on SanDisk's second generation 19nm TLC NAND, which means that the Ultra II is the first non-Samsung SSD to ship with TLC NAND. We have covered TLC NAND several times already, but in short TLC NAND provides lower cost at the cost of performance and endurance, making it a feasible option for value drives.

Similar to SanDisk's other client drives, the Ultra II is based on the Marvell 88SS9187 platform. SanDisk's expertise lies in the firmware development and NAND know-how, which has generally given them an advantage over other Marvell based solutions. 

SanDisk Ultra II Specifications   120GB 240GB 480GB 960GB Controller Marvell 88SS9187 NAND SanDisk 2nd Gen 19nm TLC Sequential Read 550MB/s 550MB/s 550MB/s 550MB/s Sequential Write 500MB/s 500MB/s 500MB/s 500MB/s 4KB Random Read 81K IOPS 91K IOPS 98K IOPS 99K IOPS 4KB Random Write 80K IOPS 83K IOPS 83K IOPS 83K IOPS Warranty Three years Price $80 $115 $220 $430

Unfortunately I do not have the full spec sheet yet, so I have to go by the limited details listed in the press release, but I will be updating the table with more specs as soon as I get them. Update: Full specs added.

The Ultra II utilizes SanDisk's nCache 2.0 technology, which operates a portion of the NAND in SLC mode to increase performance and improve reliability. As a result, the Ultra II is able to achieve write speeds of up to 500MB/s even at the lowest capacity, although it should be kept in mind that this is peak performance -- as soon as the SLC buffer is full write speeds will drop quite dramatically. 

SanDisk is also bringing a new version of its SSD Dashboard along with the Ultra II. The new version features support for 17 difference languages and includes "Live Chat" in case the user has any questions about the Dashboard or SSD. Additionally, SanDisk is including cloning and antivirus features via third party software (Apricorn's EZ GIG IV for cloning, Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus+ for malware) with the goal of helping users to transition from a hard drive to an SSD. Combining antivirus with the SSD Dashboard might seem a bit odd but it actually makes sense. When you are about to clone your Windows install to a new SSD, the first thing you should do is a run an antivirus scan to make sure that no malware will be transferred through cloning because malware can ruin the faster user experience that an SSD provides.

Samsung certainly set the bar high with the SSD 840 and 840 EVO, so it will be interesting to see how SanDisk can match that. Pricing is very competitive with the 840 EVO and Crucial MX100, so as long as SanDisk has been able master the firmware for TLC the Ultra II should a viable option for value oriented consumers. The Ultra II will be available next month and we are scheduled to get review samples within the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned for the full review!

Introduction

A few years ago, it seemed a new System-On-Chip (SoC) design using an ARM-based architecture would pop up every other week. While competition can be great, with so many of the designs offering similar core features and the need to provide support for the products, over time the major players in the ARM SoC market have shifted and consolidated (e.g. Texas Instruments has exited the Application Processor space). There are still plenty of companies that ship SoCs, but some of these are lower end offerings that can't really compete except on price, leaving us with a few major players.

Depending on whom you wish to include/exclude, there are anywhere from four to eight SoC manufacturers still in the game, with three of them mostly catering to the budget sector. We could also include ARM as a company, but since they don't really manufacture any parts we'll leave that for a separate article.

Before we get to the manufacturers, let's quickly go over the pertinent items to know for any SoC. The main functionality of any SoC is going to come from the CPU cores, where modern designs typically use either two or four cores, with some offerings including up to eight cores -- four lower power cores that offer better battery life with four higher performance cores for when there's work to be done. Next to the CPU cores in importance is the GPU, the graphics processor, and again you can find SoCs with multiple GPU "cores" combined to improve graphics performance (e.g. MP1 for one core, MP2 for two, and so on). Finally, it's useful to know the manufacturing process for an SoC, as lower numbers generally mean smaller, more power efficient chips. We've had variations of 28nm manufacturing for a few years now, with the state-of-the-art next generation SoCs now moving to 20nm for most companies.

Ultimately, what it comes down to is the end user experience, which is a very broad topic and out of the scope of this article. The pace of technology in smartphones and tablets has been pretty brisk, however, so anything more than a year old can end up feeling quite sluggish, and after two years most users are ready for an upgrade. Most of the top SoCs right now are 28nm designs with at least two CPU cores, but not all cores are created equal, so this is another topic we'll address in a future piece.

The general idea is that if you're like most people and live on the two-year upgrade cycle for smartphones, the best time to upgrade is usually right after a major technology advance. Roughly two years ago we started seeing the first ARM Cortex-A15 designs along with Apple's competing A6 "Swift" architecture, and while there are faster devices today the smartphones and tablets using those chips are still able to deliver a decent user experience. We're now on the brink of the next generation of SoCs, thanks to the shift to the 20nm manufacturing process along with ARM's new 64-bit Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57 designs, so if you've been holding off upgrading the next few months should prove very enticing. Of course we'll still have to wait for early 2015 before many of the devices using the new SoCs are available for purchase.

Without going into too much detail, here's the short list of significant SoC manufacturers, with a brief discussion of their current and upcoming parts. In the near future we'll have separate articles going into more detail on the various models and technology for each company, as well as some recommendations in terms of performance and the overall user experience. This is intended as a short high-level overview of the companies to get us started.

Qualcomm

Qualcomm is one of the biggest players in the SoC market, and their designs are in many of the leading Android devices. All of the current Qualcomm SoCs are sold under the Snapdragon brand, and there are multiple performance segments (i.e. the Snapdragon 200, 400, 600, and 800 series). Qualcomm has had several custom-designed ARM architectures, with the latest being Krait (with multiple variations of Krait as well). Most of the lower tier parts are dual-core Krait designs with the higher-end 600 and 800 series being quad-core Krait offerings. Their current halo parts are in the 800 family, with the 800, 801, and 805 all presently shipping, but even within the same model number there are multiple configurations available (e.g. with or without cellular baseband options).

The existing parts use either a 28nm LP or 28nm HPm process, but more recently Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 808 and 810, which move to a 20nm HPm process and use ARM's Cortex-A57/A53 64-bit cores in a 2+4/4+4 configuration, with Adreno 418/430 graphics. The shrink in process technology is something we should see from all of the major players in the coming months, with the benefits being potentially lower power and/or higher performance coupled with smaller chip sizes.

In the near term, Qualcomm also has their new 410 and 610 Snapdragon parts that will be their first 64-bit SoCs. The 410 appears to be shipping in certain markets, and the 610 should show up in Q4'2014 devices. Meanwhile, the 810 should start shipping in devices in the first half of 2015 and will be the halo product from Qualcomm, with 808 following shortly after. Qualcomm has not yet announced a custom designed 64-bit architecture, but that will likely come later in 2015.

Apple

Apple is next in the list, though really the top two positions are hotly contended and many would place them first. Either way, Apple needs little in the way of introduction. Largely responsible for the new paradigm in touchscreen smartphones thanks to their iPhone, the performance of Apple's devices has continued to increase at a rapid pace. Apple also has the advantage of running their own software with iOS, which potentially gives them an advantage over other companies that utilize Android. While earlier iPhones used designs largely built by other companies, Apple began designing their own ARMv7 architecture with the A6 in 2012.

The latest generation A7 SoC was introduced about a year ago with the iPhone 5S in September 2013 and has since found its way into the iPad Mini Retina and iPad Air. The A7 features a dual-core 1.3-1.4GHz Apple-designed processor codenamed Cyclone, running the ARMv8 instruction set, making it the first shipping 64-bit SoC. Short-term that may not be a huge deal, but long-term it paves the way for future devices. We believe the GPU in the A7 is a PowerVR G6430 200MHz GPU (four cluster MP4 configuration). The A7 is manufactured on Samsung's 28nm process and uses 1GB of memory.

Given Apple's history, we can expect some sort of update at the next iPhone event, rumored to be on September 9. Most think the next Apple chip will be called the A8 and will likely move to a 20nm process technology, allowing for a generational leap in performance. We might finally see an iOS device with 2GB RAM.

Samsung

In terms of volume if not performance, Samsung comes next in our hierarchy, and they've long been a player in the SoC market, going back as far as the early 2000s with some of their chips; they were also the SoC provider for the original iPhone in 2007. Samsung has numerous smartphones and tablets available, and while many use Samsung SoCs there are also Qualcomm SoCs in some models. Their current SoC designs belong to the Exynos family, which has been around since 2011.

The top performance Exynos SoC right now is the 5800, also called the Exynos 5 Octa, a 4+4 big.LITTLE implementation with four faster Cortex-A15 cores and four slower but more power efficient Cortex-A7 cores, paired with a Mali-T628 GPU. The Exynos 5 Octa (and Hexa if we include the 5260) use Samsung's 28nm HKMG process, but there's a new Exynos 5430 (used in certain models of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Alpha) that has a similar configuration and uses a new 20nm HKMG process. We'll likely see more 20nm Samsung SoCs in the coming months, and with most companies shifting to the new 64-bit Cortex-A57/A53 we can expect Samsung to do the same.

NVIDIA

NVIDIA is a familiar name for PC enthusiasts, and they're sort of the reverse of Samsung right now: higher performance but lower volumes shipped. Given the growing popularity of tablets and smartphones, there's little surprise that NVIDIA is also working to gain (and maintain) a foothold in the mobile sector. Their latest SoC is the Tegra K1, found in the SHIELD Tablet and Acer's new Chromebook.

Tegra K1 pairs a 192-core Kepler-derived GPU with one of two CPU options. The first is a quad-core Cortex-A15 R3 design that's similar to the processor used in the Tegra 4, while an upcoming variant of the K1 will use a dual-core 64-bit Denver CPU designed by NVIDIA. Considering the most successful ARM SoCs are going the custom-logic route (e.g. Apple's Cyclone and Qualcomm's Krait are custom designs that use the ARMv8 and ARMv7 instruction sets rather than simply using Cortex-A15), NVIDIA hopes to improve performance while reducing power, among other things.

While the shipping K1 uses four A15 cores and is manufactured on a 28nm process, the Denver version could move to 20nm, but NVIDIA hasn't officially announced the process for the Denver K1. The Tegra K1 is currently one of the fastest (if not the fastest) shipping SoCs, but many of the next generation SoCs have not yet launched so this could very well change in the next month or two. Looking forward, the successor to the Tegra K1 is currently codenamed Erista and is expected to pair a Maxwell-based GPU with Denver CPU cores, but that part won't begin production until some time in 2015 so it's a ways off.

Intel

The final major player in terms of higher performance SoCs is Intel, another company that needs little introduction. Unlike everyone else on this list of SoC manufacturers, Intel is using their own custom architecture running the x86 instruction set instead of ARMv7 or ARMv8. Where x86 has proven to be a juggernaut in the PC space, in the mobile world where every device gets a customized software build it has not been nearly as useful – and some might even call it a handicap, though these days the difficulty of decoding x86 is relatively small. Intel has been trying to stake a claim in the mobile sector, and after a few initial forays that didn't accomplish much, their latest Atom SoCs have seen a moderate amount of use.

The currently shipping Atom SoCs are 22nm devices, codenamed Bay Trail. You can find them in NAS and other products, but we're mostly concerned with the tablet and smartphone spaces for this overview. The Merrifield and Moorefield platforms (Atom Z34xx/Z35xx) remain at 22nm and use the same core Silvermont CPU cores as Bay Trail, except with PowerVR 6 G6400/G6430 graphics.

Looking to the future, the platform that may finally give Intel a real leg up on the competition likely won't come out until early to mid 2015. That's the Cherry Trail platform, which will upgrade the CPU cores to Airmont and move to Intel's 14nm process, delivering better performance in a lower power package. We've been saying "wait for the next Atom update" for a while, but on paper at least Cherry Trail looks very promising – it's the first Atom to ship on Intel's latest process technology without waiting a year or more, and it's the second Atom design after Intel's commitment to begin updating the Atom platform on a yearly basis.

MediaTek

Moving over to the budget players, there are at least two that warrant mentioning. MediaTek has been around for a while now, though like most SoC companies they didn't really get into the ARM and Android space until 2009/2010. Starting in 2013, however, MediaTek managed a ton of design wins…but all of the wins are almost exclusively in lower performance, second tier parts. In terms of strict volume, MediaTek likely ships as many (or more) SoCs as the biggest companies, and they are a major provider of SoCs in the Chinese market. Not surprisingly, MediaTek devices tend to be budget friendly products, though that often means compromises in other areas as well.

Their current top-tier SoCs use quad-core, hexa-core, and even octa-core Cortex-A7 designs with Mali-400/450 graphics (up to MP4 configurations). Like the PC world, however, throwing more cores on a chip can only get you so far, and the big.LITTLE configurations seem like a better solution than eight Cortex-A7 cores. MediaTek does have some higher performance SoCs with big.LITTLE A17/A7 starting to ship to device manufacturers (e.g. MT6595), though these are not yet in shipping devices. The MT6732 part has a quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU with Mali-T760 graphics, while MT6752/MT6795 move to octa-core A53 with Mali-T760/PowerVR G6200 graphics. The A53 is sort of the 64-bit equivalent of the A7 where the A57 is the higher performance 64-bit part, but A53 could end up delivering a nice blend of performance and efficiency.

Allwinner

Allwinner Technology has many similarities to MediaTek. They've been around since 2007 but their earlier products were largely forgettable. In 2011 they became an official ARM licensee, and since then they've gained some popularity as a budget SoC provider. Their latest products include the quad-core Cortex-A7 based A33, which runs at up to 1.5GHz and includes a Mali 400 MP2 GPU. The A33 is marketed as "the first $4 quad-core tablet processor", and you will likely find this SoC in sub-$100 tablets; performance as you might expect largely follows pricing, but like MediaTek they can still do a huge volume thanks to their cost advantage.

Their fastest announced product is the new A80 SoC, which features an octal-core big.LITTLE configurations (four Cortex-A7 and four Cortex-A15 cores) with a PowerVR G6230 GPU. It's currently shipping in China in the Onda V989, a $200 tablet with a 9.7" 2048x1536 display. As far as manufacturing processes go, the A33 uses 40nm while the A80 uses 28nm HPM.

Closing Comments

There are other SoC vendors we could mention as well. RockChip is right there with Allwinner and MediaTek vying for market share in budget products, for example. They even have the RK3288, a quad-core Cortex-A17 part with Mali-T764 GPU, which should provide decent performance, which is starting to ship in some markets. Let's also not forget their strategic agreement with Intel, which is interesting to say the least. We could also include AMD with their Mullins APU from the PUMA family, which like Intel uses an x86 CPU core designed in-house by AMD. AMD is also an ARM licensee, and they might look to bring alternative SoCs to market using ARM instructions sets instead of x86.

The remaining players are small enough that it's difficult for them to compete with the bigger names. After all, if you're just licensing the same core architectures for the CPU and GPU as everyone else, you can't really offer better performance; all you can do is compete on price. Sometimes that's enough, but the real news in the SoC space is likely going to come from the companies doing their own custom logic.

If we group all the companies shipping vanilla ARM designs under ARM (e.g. MediaTek, Allwinner, RockChip, and even Samsung), that still leaves us with Qualcomm, Apple, NVIDIA, and Intel doing custom logic. It's difficult to imagine any of those companies bowing out right now, and Samsung is a big player as well, which means we'll likely continue to see the "Big Five" SoC companies duking it out in the smartphone and tablet sectors. And while they continue nipping at the market share in the PC laptop/desktop space, they still have to worry about giving up ground to even more budget friendly devices from the likes of MediaTek and Allwinner.