Technology Info

Toshiba Launches 400GB 2.5-Inch HDD Introduces New Line-up Of 7,200rpm Drives

400GB Drive Cuts Acoustic Noise During Data Seek By 2dB(1) For near Silent Operation
Toshiba Corporation today announced a new line-up of high performance 2.5-inch HDDs, including a low-noise flagship model that boosts areal density to 477Mbit/mm2 (308Gbpsi) to achieve a capacity of 400GB on just two platters, plus five drives that bring new levels of performance and 7,200rpm rotational speeds to the company’s full range of storage capacities.

Mass production of the 400GB MK4058GSX will start from September, targeting notebook PC and consumer electronic applications. Mass production of the 7,200rpm drives will start in August. The line-up includes the 320GB MK3254GSY and models with 80, 120, 160 and 250GB capacities. (link)

HACKED!™ the OH! *#% flash drive

Holy crap—somebody just went and TORE MY FREAKING USB CABLE IN HALF while it was still attached to my laptop! No — wait — sorry. That’s just my USB flash drive. My bad. Nevermind. Mammoth 2-gig capacity. Peggable blistercard packaging. (link)

A few days ago, we published a story about how much better our Eee PC 1000H performed when we swapped the system’s 5,400rpm Seagate Momentus hard drive out for a Samsung SATA II SSD drive. Not only did the system boot faster and all apps load faster, but we got 20 more minutes of battery life with the SSD.

However, when we posted our story, we heard from users that Tom’s Hardware, a site we admire a great deal, recently published an article which claims that SSDs use more power than traditional hard drives. The Tom’s Hardware story got some major attention from sites like Engadget and even got a responses from SSD-makers Super Talent and Micron, who both claim that the drives used in the Tom’s test are “early generation” and therefore more power hungry than newer models.

Is Tom’s Hardware right? We don’t think so. (link)

Dell today introduced “Studio,” a new consumer product line designed for self-expression and creative living. Studio products are highly expressive and personalized - inside and out – combining aesthetics and technology into a fresh approach to hi-def mobile lifestyles.

“People seeking stunning design, brilliant colors, and innovative new technology find inspiration in Dell’s new Studio brand,” said Michael Tatelman, vice president of Dell consumer sales and marketing worldwide. “These products are built for today’s digital nomad based on the millions of conversations we have every year on dell.com, Ideastorm and community forums. With Dell Studio we’re answering the call for personalization, connectivity and simplicity.”

The first Dell Studio products are two distinctively styled laptops, the Dell Studio 15 and Dell Studio 17. These laptops combine sleek designs, striking visual color elements and personalization options with features such as standard built-in webcam, capacitive touch media control buttons, slot load drives, and optional mercury-free LED displays and built-in mobile broadband. They are available today on www.dell.com/studio starting at $799 (Studio 15) and $999 (Studio 17) and will be available at Best Buy and Staples stores in the next few days. (link)

AMD today announced ATI XGP™ (External Graphics Platform) Technology, a new external PCI Express® (PCIe) 2.0 graphics platform, designed to deliver enthusiast-class desktop graphic performance and true multimedia upgradeability to notebooks. ATI XGP is an exclusive technology that capitalizes on PCIe 2.0 to deliver enthusiast-class graphics via a connected cable to an externally powered and cooled device. This unique innovation delivers up to 4.0 Gbyte/s in each direction in bandwidth communication between the notebook and external graphics, whereas previous consumer level external solutions were limited in graphics bandwidth. ATI XGP is fully optimized for new AMD Turion™ X2 Ultra notebook platforms, also announced today.
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“With ATI XGP Technology, notebooks can switch between everyday computing and hard-core gaming with a simple plug-in that’s also portable enough to bring powerful 3D performance on-the-go,” said Matt Skynner, vice president of Marketing, Graphics Products Group, AMD. “This technology allows users to choose notebooks with slim, lightweight and elegant designs, yet enjoy the full performance of a traditional desktop gaming rig wherever it’s convenient.” (link)

First, you should know that I’m no Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) fanatic. I’ve used the gear steadily since the Reagan era; the early Apple II and the computer-as-Cuisinart lookalike that was the original Mac were both college tools of mine. But overall, I have found Apples, as lovely as they are for certain applications, just not worth the hassle for most small businesses.

Still, even I have to admit that the latest Apple line of desktops and laptop computers is flashing some serious small-business form. Apple computers now run on the same basic electronics guts - Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) chips and the like - as any PC using the Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) operating systems. Peripheral support for Apple is strong: Every gadget vendor wants a piece of that sexy iPhone/iPod pie. And though plenty of software is still not supported on the Mac (more on that in a moment), it’s now possible to get just about any Windows program up and running on an Apple computer. (link)

This quirky little laptop case features the old icon for My Documents. Although it is still in the stage of, please contact designer to snag one, it is still fun to look at.

Not only do they have these for laptops, but similar ones as a camera bag, a MP3 case, and a wallet as well. Although the only images presently on the site, that I could find, were for the laptop bag itself.

The bag is made of bright yellow vinyl and measures 27.3cm x 28.5cm x 3.8cm. Unfortunately, the site also doesn’t mention how much these bags are going for. (link)

Verbatim® Americas, LLC, a global leader in digital storage solutions, announced today the world’s first half-Terabyte 2.5” Portable Hard Disk Drive (HDD) featuring an industry standard 9.5mm Z-height drive. The PDA-sized drive joins Verbatim’s highly rated SmartDisk line of portable HDDs, which currently offer capacities ranging from 120GB to 320GB. Scheduled to begin shipping in Q2 2008, the sleek new HDD will enable Windows® and Mac® users to add up to 500GB of removable capacity to their laptop or desktop systems for less than US$300.00.

The demand for higher-capacity portable storage devices at both the consumer and corporate levels is being driven by the growing number of users who are creating and downloading volumes of digital content.

IDC research shows that the digital universe — information that is either created, captured, or replicated in digital form — will increase from 281 Exabytes in 2007 to nearly 1,800 Exabytes in 2011, or 10 times that produced in 2006. Between 2008 and 2011, the compound annual growth rate is expected to be almost 60 percent. In addition to the higher capacity requirements, today’s more mobile consumers and businesses are becoming more reliant on moving their digital content from one system to another. As a result, IDC sees greater opportunities for smaller devices such 2.5” HDDs. (link)

Dell Inc. is committed to reducing costs and will cut more jobs than the 8,800 previously announced in a bid to make the world’s second biggest computer maker more competitive, founder and CEO Michael Dell said Thursday.

At the first full analyst meeting since 2005, Dell addressed the ongoing turnaround of the computer company, which was eclipsed as the world’s largest PC maker in 2006 by Hewlett-Packard Co.

“We have identified a very significant opportunity here and are aggressively going after it,” Dell said. “To be very clear, we are not satisfied with the current state of affairs and we are on a mission to address this.”

Dell aims to cut $3 billion over the next several years to boost profits.

Last year, the company announced plans to cut 8,800 jobs, or 10 percent of its work force. The company this week announced plans to cut 900 jobs in the Austin area by closing a plant. (link)

Laptop theft can affect users in more than one way. Not only do you lose your (undoubtedly not cheap) portable computer, you also lose all of the data on it. Of course, backing up ensures that it’s not actually lost to you, but what about the person who has the laptop? Your electronic tax returns, embarrassing videos of yourself singing and dancing to N’Sync songs, and salacious e-mails are all somewhere out there, out of your control. (I once came into the possession of a laptop that was lost at O’Hare and never claimed, and found all sorts of e-mails on it from the owner who apparently cheated on his wife whenever he traveled. True story.)

Intel hopes to reduce that level of embarrassment (and more importantly, identity theft) by introducing Intel Anti-Theft Technology (ATT) later this year. The technology would involve placing a chip in the machine that would prevent it from booting without the owner’s permission, Intel Mobility Group chief Dadi Perlmutter told The Register, although he declined to go into much more detail. He also indicated that ATT might one day incorporate tracking technology so that users might eventually be able to get their hardware back. (link)