According to Pacific Crest analyst Michael McConnell, the next version of the Nexus 7 will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro (APQ8064) processor instead of NVIDIA’s next-gen Tegra 4. Because of Qualcomm’s tighter integration with modem technology, McConnell figures that a Snapdragon chip will simplify the supply and essentially lower costs. 

In a recent conference, Qualcomm’s CEO Paul Jacobs was not afraid to let the people know his true feelings for Samsung’s new Exynos 5 Octa processor. In short, it’s a meaningless number. A publicity stunt by Samsung to draw favorable attention their way. 

The folks at Qualcomm reached out to us this afternoon to pass along their latest contest. It’s developer-focused, meaning they want to give away three (3) Snapdragon S4 Mobile Development Platform Tablets. As you all know, the Snapdragon S4 Pro is the quad-core beast processor that’s in many of the top phones these days like the Nexus 4 (review) and DROID DNA (review). In this tablet, you’ll find the processor clocked at 1.5GHz, an Adreno 320 GPU, and a world of development at your fingertips. 

Only a day after NVIDIA announced its new Tegra 4 processor and impressed the mobile industry, Qualcomm took the stage at the opening keynote of CES to announce their own new line of mobile chipsets. Mobile fans, please welcome in the Snapdragon 800, 600, 400, and  200. 

LG introduced the Optimus G back in November, but before the paint could even dry, its successor was already being rumored as the Optimus G2. With a 5.5″ 1080p display and new Snapdragon S4 “Prime” processor, the MSM8974 (quad-core with speeds of 2.0 – 2.5GHz), it’s certainly a step up on the spec front. The original rumor for this phone pegged it for a May 2013 release, but famed rumor monger DigiTimes thinks that LG will show it off at CES, next week. This matches up to a report out of GSMArena last week. 

Last night on The Droid Life Show, we briefly touched on mobile processors and the marketing that goes behind them. We discussed that when buying an Android smartphone, sometimes are you not only buying into the Android ecosystem, but you are also buying into that mobile chip’s ecosystem as well.

For example, if you have a NVIDIA Tegra-powered device, the list of games you are able to play is much higher than say a Texas Instrument chip, given that some games released are exclusively for Tegra devices. It’s an interesting move by the manufacturers, but that’s the world we live in where everyone wants to differentiate themselves from the pack.

Down below, feel free to let us know which processor powers your lovely Android device of choice.

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Well, would you look at that. On Friday evening, iFixit posted their “teardown” of the LG Nexus 4 and discovered that it has a Qualcomm 7-band 4G LTE chip inside it. But, wait! I thought it didn’t have LTE and was HSPA+ only? It is. For whatever reason though, an LTE chip was left inside.

Could it have something to do with the LG Optimus G having 4G LTE, a phone that is almost an identical build to the LG Nexus 4? Maybe. Was there a chance that it would have LTE at launch, but breakdowns in carrier negotiations stopped it? Eh, you’d be going out on quite the conspiracy limb to suggest that. Who knows, maybe Google was simply future-proofing the phone to be able to connect to LTE somewhere down the road? Or what are the chances that an LTE-ready version launches in the coming months? No one but Google probably knows the answers to those questions.

The bottom line is, that there is an LTE chip inside this phone. We just aren’t sure that it’ll ever be operable. One can dream.

Via:  iFixit

Cheers Scott, BAoxymoron, Kane, Nick, Justin and the other dozen or so of you!

Rigonauts, an award winning ship building puzzle game, has landed in the Google Play store. Well, for some. If you own a Verizon device that is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, then you can grab the game today and play it exclusively for two weeks before it goes public to all Android smartphones.