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Filed under: Storage

We have a strange feeling there’s more marketing hoopla here than anything else, but whatever the case, Samsung sure feels like its newest line of SSDs will work just great within low-cost laptops. The outfit has begun to sample “low-density, higher-performance solid state drives that are only 30-percent of the size of 2.5-inch SSDs and highly cost-efficient to manufacture.” The MLC-based drives only come in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB flavors, and read / write performance ranges from 90MB/sec to 70MB/sec, respectively. Mass production is scheduled to crank up next month, and while you’d expect SSDs aimed at netbooks to boast remarkably low price tags, Sammy doesn’t even bother spilling those beans.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Storage

Intel’s keeping the announcements coming at this year’s IDF — today we got word that the company will launch its first SSDs in a month or so. The 1.8-inch X-18M and 2.5-inch X-25M drives will be targeted at laptops and MIDs and come in 80GB and 160GB sizes using MLC tech, while the 32GB and 64GB SLC-based X-25E is aimed at servers and will be out in 90 days. Intel hasn’t locked down pricing, but the M-series drives should cost about $8/GB, which would put the 160GB unit at a whopping $1,280 and the 80GB at $640. We’re hoping those estimates are skewed a little high — and Intel says there might be a cheaper 40GB unit on the way as well. We’ll see in a month, we suppose.

[Via Electronista]

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Storage

Indilinx just recently caught eyes with its Barefoot solid state drive controller, which has reportedly shown a read speed of 230MB/sec. Merely days later, it’s already talking about the next best thing. Said firm, along with Mosaid, is preparing for a third-generation of the controller for the SATA 3 interface, which will provide a mind-boggling 600MB/sec. Unfortunately, no other details were provided, but just in case you were terrified that the internal drive you purchase in 2013 wouldn’t transfer files any faster than the one you’re using now, at least you’ve one less worry on your mind.

[Thanks, Johnny]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Storage

Looks like Intel, the bid bad daddy of silicon, is about to unleash its first consumer oriented SSDs into the market. While Intel’s 1.8- and 2.5-inch 80GB and 160GB SSD plans were pretty thoroughly detailed in those May leaks, Expreview has slapped up an honest-to-goodness slide which looks like it came straight from the Intel deck. Assuming it’s authentic, then we now know that Intel’s 2.5-inch X25-M and 1.8-inch X18-M SSDs top out with a 240MBps sustained read and 70MBps write. That’s just a bit slower than the blazing Micron RealSSD C20 but still seriously quick and hopefully priced for the mainstream audience they are targeting. Dell, for example, sells a 128GB Samsung SSD for $450 — surely Intel can beat that cost per Byte… right Intel? We’re guessing that the enterprise-class 32GB and 64GB X25-E SSDs will feature some of that Micron co-developed “world’s fastest” SLC NAND in order to achieve that ridiculous 240MBps / 170MBps read / write speed at what’s expected to be an equally ridiculous price. The 80GB X25-M and X18-M are expected to launch in Q3 (so any day now) while the 160GB solid state slab should break free for consumers in Q1 (not Q4 2008) of 2009. Expect to hear more on these next week as Intel kicks off another International Developers Forum.

[Via TG Daily]

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Storage

With SSDs, there really is no “fast enough.” In the never-ending quest for more speed, Indilinx has just introduced its Barefoot solid state drive controller with 90-nanometer process technology. Said device has reportedly shown the “fastest read speed (230MB/sec) of all the products currently available in the market and supports the capacity up to 512GB with multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash.” Additionally, it plays nice with SATA 2.0 and flash memory from Samsung, Toshiba, Hynix and Intel / Micron. Sadly, mass production isn’t scheduled until Q4 of this year, so now you can sit on that vanilla HDD even longer as you wait for the future to arrive. Ugh, what a tease.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Storage

Intel’s partner in solid state crime, Micron, just announced an update to its RealSSD lineup of SSDs. Based on the typically slower (and cheaper) MLC NAND process technology, the new 2.5-inch (up to 256GB) laptop and 1.8-inch (32GB to 128GB) ultra-portable storage slabs offer a 3Gbps SATA interface and ridiculous 250MBps read and 100MBps write speeds — yes, that’s fast, damn fast when you consider the 70MBps write and 90MBps read speeds of Samsung’s latest consumer oriented SSDs. They even best the listed read speeds of Samsung’s top-ender. Unfortunately, no prices were given though it’s said to be “balanced price to performance.” Expect ‘em to hit the market in Q4 under the Lexar brand, and maybe even Crucial, Seagate, and Intel for all we know.

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Storage

SSDs have been quite the hot topic of late, with conflicting power usage reports and free-falling (almost) prices being the two angles most commonly yapped about. Now, however, we have a completely different reason to mention ‘em in passing, as SanDisk’s dutiful CEO let loose some questionable comments during its Q2 2008 earnings call. Noting that Windows Vista would present unique challenges for SSD manufacturers, he stated that “as soon as you get into Vista applications, you start running into very demanding applications because Vista is not optimized for flash memory solid state disk.” Furthermore, he proclaimed that the “next generation controllers need to basically compensate for Vista shortfalls,” and finished things up by asserting that “SSD performance in the Vista environment falls short of what the market really needs.” It seems all those statements were just used to deflect blame for it being behind schedule, but we’re a bit curious about how it intends on defending said statements with real-world numbers. Hmm?

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Shortly after hearing of rearrangements amongst the XPS / Alienware dev teams, along comes word the outfit’s current CFO will be headed out in June. Donald J. Carty (pictured), who was just hired as chief financial officer 1.5 years ago, will be resigning in June and will be replaced by longtime General Electric executive Brian T. Gladden. Mr. Gladden stated that he was “excited to be joining Dell at a time of transformation,” and considering the $700,000 annual base salary along with the $2 million signing bonus (amongst other monetary perks), we highly doubt he’s fibbing. It should be noted that the Round Rock powerhouse will keep Carty on its board, and that he actually “indicated several months ago that he wanted to retire as CFO.”

[Via CNET]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Storage

Although it’s been several years since the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, it looks like some of the data gathered during the orbiter’s final mission will be put to good use. A hard drive salvaged from the wreckage contains the results of an experiment to study the way xenon gas flows in microgravity, and the results will be published in April in a journal called Physical Review E. The 400MB Seagate drive was originally thought to be destroyed, but workers and engineers reconstructing the orbiter from the remaining debris found it during the process and sent it off for recovery, where 99 percent of the data was extracted. It then took several years for lead researcher Robert Berg and his team to analyze the findings, but they’re happy with the results — we only wish they hadn’t come at so dear a price.

[Thanks, Laura]

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Believe it or not, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen software created in order to determine whether a subject is drop-dead gorgeous, but scientists at Tel Aviv University have seemingly concocted a program of their own that can “interpret attractiveness in women.” Before you ask, the researchers have yet to perfect the art of computing the beauty of males, but they’re attributing said omission to the difficulty in “defining” attractiveness in dudes. Nevertheless, the software was purportedly able to reach nearly the same conclusion as humans about how lovely (or not) a hundred different ladies were, as it broke down features like face symmetry, smoothness of the skin and hair color. We’re told the development could eventually be used in “plastic and reconstructive surgery and computer visualization programs,” but c’mon, this is totally meant to automate the grueling Hot or Not process.

[Via Physorg]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Peripherals

Those crazies over at Art Lebedev are starting work on a new Optimus mini 3.0 device, which will likely include Bluetooth for wireless operation and possibly Tactus-esque touchscreen capability. The plan is to have one display divided into three or possibly more zones, but right now it sounds like they’re still planning on having the device be AC-powered (boo, hiss). Apparently the current Optimus mini is getting a lot of use a a PowerPoint controller. Who knew? Pictures will be forthcoming, says the official blog.

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Original post by Paul Miller

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio

If mobile-review is right, then Samsung is about to unleash more than a dozen new phones at Mobile World Congress. Rather than overwhelm you with the lot, we’ve whittled down the selection to a few of our faves. First up, the F480 (pictured left) which casts aside its Armani rags for full-on Samsung branding. The 11.5-mm slim handset with 2.8-inch, 240 x 320 touchscreen features Samsung’s latest Croix OS with tactile feedback. It’s now sporting 3G connectivity, FM-radio, and the ever so popular 5 megapixel camera (with LED flash). Release is expected in April or May for between €350 and €400. Next up is Sammy’s “Dual Touch Chic” G400 flip. Both the internal (2.2-inches, QVGA) and external displays are touch-sensitive surrounded by an all-metal shell. Expect a 5 megapixel camera, FM-radio, and 100MB with microSD expansion when it launches in by May for about €300. Last up is the latest B&O hookup, albeit in a more consumer acceptable slider format. Like the i450 before it, the F400 is a dual-slider: slide the front face up to reveal a keypad, down to slip the phone into music mode with exposed B&O speakers. Otherwise, it’s a 3G phone with 2.2-inch QVGA display, RDS-enabled FM radio, and microSD card when it pops in late March with a €370-€390 price tag.

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio

If mobile-review is right, then Samsung is about to unleash more than a dozen new phones at Mobile World Congress. Rather than overwhelm you with the lot, we’ve whittled down the selection to a few of our faves. First up, the F480 (pictured left) which casts aside its Armani rags for full-on Samsung branding. The 11.5-mm slim handset with 2.8-inch, 240 x 320 touchscreen features Samsung’s latest Croix OS with tactile feedback. It’s now sporting 3G connectivity, FM-radio, and the ever so popular 5 megapixel camera (with LED flash). Release is expected in April or May for between €350 and €400. Next up is Sammy’s “Dual Touch Chic” G400 flip. Both the internal (2.2-inches, QVGA) and external displays are touch-sensitive surrounded by an all-metal shell. Expect a 5 megapixel camera, FM-radio, and 100MB with microSD expansion when it launches in by May for about €300. Last up is the latest B&O hookup, albeit in a more consumer acceptable slider format. Like the i450 before it, the F400 is a dual-slider: slide the front face up to reveal a keypad, down to slip the phone into music mode with exposed B&O speakers. Otherwise, it’s a 3G phone with 2.2-inch QVGA display, RDS-enabled FM radio, and microSD card when it pops in late March with a €370-€390 price tag.

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Home Entertainment

The Sierra Club — a group dedicated to environmentalism and preservation — has proposed that a tax be levied against kids who choose video games or computers rather than venturing out-of-doors. The tax, also being referred to as “No Child Left Inside,” would ostensibly encourage kids to get up off of their fat, lazy back-ends and hit the trails, mountains, and waterways of our nation’s parks and other natural treasures… by further taxing video games and TVs. Recent studies have shown links to obesity, lowered academic scores, and the rise of attention-deficit disorder in America’s kids to increased time spent indoors, though we suspect the problem lies with bad parenting rather than an entire industry of game-makers and electronics companies. Would adding a one-percent sales tax on our gear (and penalizing children who have plenty of good reasons to stay inside) increase kids’ desire to head outdoors instead of “finishing the fight?” We’ve got our doubts.

[Thanks, wasp2151]

Read - A Tax to Remember
Read - Sierra Club proposes ‘couch potato’ tax

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Add this to the list of number portability problems. I received a tip that Vonage is blocking access to a phone number formerly maintained by Vonage. A disgruntled ex-Vonage customer emailed me to explain his dilemma. The ex-Vonage customer’s number was ported to another carrier and now his phone number cannot be reached by any current Vonage customers.

For instance, suppose I am a Vonage customer with phone number 212-555-1234, then decide to leave Vonage and port the number to AT&T. Any non-Vonage customers can still dial 203-555-1234 and reach this AT&T owned number. However, any current Vonage subscribers that attempt to dial this ex-Vonage phone number (now AT&T) receive an error message that says, "That Number Is No Longer In Service."

The customer is pretty upset as evident by his email:

Now that Vonage has ceased billing me and my new telephone company has control of my phone number, there is one legacy Vonage insult left. Vonage now blocks access to your phone number from any of their current subscribers. Any non-Vonage phone can call me, but nobody with a Vonage account can. And I am not alone. I have 5 friends who have suffered this Vonage sneak number block too. My wife is furious, she cannot receive calls from several of her friends. Anyone calling my phone from a Vonage account gets the message "That Number Is No Longer In Service."
Vonage is the devils phone service.

p.s. I asked Vonage for comment via email but did not receive a reply within 4 hours. If they do respond I will update this post accordingly.

Tags: phone numbers, portability, VoIP, Vonage

Original post by Eric