News

SanDisk launches 32Gb Solid State Disk

SanDisk® Corporation today introduced a 32-gigabyte, 1.8-inch solid state drive (SSD) as a drop-in replacement for the standard mechanical hard disk drive. Initially aimed at enterprise users as the first step toward mass consumer adoption, SanDisk SSD offers field-proven durability to keep mobile PCs working in the toughest of conditions and improves the overall user experience.

Previously, large capacity flash-based drives had been used primarily by the military, aerospace and telecom industries, which demanded high performance and reliability under challenging environmental conditions. But now the declining cost of NAND flash memory has made SSD a viable and economically attractive alternative to existing technologies in a wider variety of applications, including mobile PCs aimed at enterprise and consumer users.

“This is an important milestone for SanDisk in our relentless quest to create new large-scale markets for flash storage solutions for consumers in the personal computing space,” said Eli Harari, SanDisk CEO. “The 32-gigabyte SSD that we are announcing today represents the fifth generation of flash-based solid state drives developed by msystems, which we recently acquired. The 32GB SSD has been made commercially viable through SanDisk’s technology leadership coupled with msystems’ tremendous experience and IP, which are captured in the high-performance, low-cost system controllers that distinguish this product.

“Once we begin shipping the 32GB SSD for notebook PCs, we expect to see its increasing adoption in the coming years as we continue to reduce the cost of flash memory. When these SSD devices become more affordable, we expect that their superior features over rotating disk drives will create a new consumer category for our retail sales channels worldwide,” said Harari. It is projected the SanDisk 32GB SSD will cost around $600 in the first half of 2007, he added.

Using NAND flash enhanced by SanDisk’s patented TrueFFS® flash management technology, SanDisk SSD delivers two million hours mean time between failures. With no moving parts, it does not need to spin into action or seek files in the way that conventional hard disk drives do. These characteristics, combined with SanDisk’s advanced flash management technology, make it possible for SanDisk SSD to deliver excellent performance compared with hard disk drives and competing solid state drives.

The SanDisk SSD announced today achieves a sustained read rate of 62 megabytes per second and a random read rate of 7,000 inputs/outputs per second for a 512-byte transfer – more than 100 times faster than most hard disk drives. Taking advantage of this performance, a laptop PC equipped with SanDisk SSD can boot Microsoft Windows® Vista™ Enterprise in as little as 35 seconds. It also can achieve an average file access rate of 0.12 milliseconds, compared with 55 seconds and 19 milliseconds, respectively, for a laptop PC with a hard disk drive.

Another advantage of SanDisk SSD is its extremely low power consumption rate compared to the hard disk drive: 0.4 watt during active operation versus 1.0 watt. This is particularly important to extend the battery life for the benefit of enterprise road warriors. These results enable new operating systems, such as Microsoft® Vista™, to provide mobile PC users with a superior overall system experience.

“There has been a huge increase in demand for NAND flash memory over the past few years from consumer devices such as digital cameras, MP3 players and mobile phones,” said Robert Gray, analyst with IDC, based in Framingham, Massachusetts. “There are dramatically higher bit capacities and lower prices, so the technology is now well positioned to be the foundation for new generations of potentially disruptive solid state drives. Enterprise mobile PC users will find the high performance and low power consumption especially attractive,” he added.

SanDisk SSD 1.8-inch 32GB solid state drive is now available for original equipment manufacturers. It is the first in a range of solutions that SanDisk will be offering to bring flash to the mainstream mobile PC market.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): MP3 Player, SanDisk, Solid State Disk, SanDisk SSD, SanDisk Sansa e270]

JAVOedge New Year Sale!

JAVOedge is happy to announce our new years sale! Got that iPod, Smartphone, or other mobile device you wanted for Christmas? Time to protect this special gift with JAVOedge products!

Simply visit JAVOedge and add any items you wish to purchase to cart. Enter the coupon code below in the Coupon Reference field and click the “Find Coupon” button to apply the discount.

Coupon code: JAVO30NEWYEARS *case sensitive*

Our PDA, Smartphones, Pocket PC, BlackBerry, Palm Treo, Motorola Q, Cingular, T-Mobile, HTC, iPod Nano and PSP accessories are companions for your new gifts!

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, JAVOedge, Tracy & Matt]

Happy New Year!

Tracy and I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

We are looking forward to another successful year. We’ll also have some announcements for you shortly!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, New Year, Tracy & Matt]

HTC 2007 Device Roadmap

HTC’s 2007 device roadmap appears to have been ‘leaked’ and found it way on to the Russian site HPC.ru

The roadmap lists 4 new devices:

HTC Kaiser The HTC Kaiser is an updated version of the HTC P4350 (Herald) and has the same form factor. In terms of technology it is actually a slightly modified and advanced TyTN, which will include a built in GPS receiver in addition to the same QVGA-screen, the support of 3G, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and a powerful processor (400Mhz). It’s thought that the Kaiser is HTC answer to the Eten GPS-enabled devices. HTC Elf The HTC Elf is regarded to be the same class of device as the HTC Herald however the Elf will be a cheaper entry level model and will not include 3G connectivity nor will it have a sliding keyboard. It will also have a slower (200mhz) processor. One thing it will have is funky touch sensitive keys! HTC Wings The HTC Wings is basically the same device as the HTC Vox but will also include 3G connectivity and a GPS receiver. HTC Erato Finally there HTC Erato which is clamshell design thought to be an updated STRtrk which will also include a GPS Receiver. Source: HPC.ru Matt [Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, HTC Elf, HTC, HTC Wings, HTC Kaiser, HTC Herald, HTC Erato, Tracy & Matt]

RIM Sues Samsung Over BlackJack

Samsung, manufacturer of the Blackjack Smartphone device have been given notice that Research in Motion (RIM), manufacturer of the BlackBerry, intend to sue them over the use of the name Blackjack.

More specifically, RIM is unhappy with the name of Samsung’s phone, which it says violates the BlackBerry trademark

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, also cites the name of Samsung’s Black Carbon phone as a trademark infringer.

“Samsung is misleading the public into falsely believing that Samsung’s goods and services are connected with RIM’s business,” the filing states.

I have to say, I really don’t feel misled. But just to help clear things up: Blackberry = RIM, Blackjack = Samsung. 😛

Warning to pie manufacturers: Be careful how you brand your Apple and Blackberry pies – you wouldn’t want anyone to think that your pies were in anyway connected with RIM’s PDA devices would you!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, Blackjack, Blackberry, RIM, Samsung]

1,000Gb on a Single Disk!

Researchers at the University of Central Florida have developed a new technology that will allow users to record and store massive amounts of data, thousands of Gigabytes, of data on a single disk or perhaps a small cube using Belfield’s Two-Photon 3-D Optical Data Storage system.

“For a while, the community has been able to record data in photochromic materials in several layers,” Belfield said. “The problem was that no one could figure out how to read out the data without destroying it. But we cracked it.”

Imagine being able to store 500 movies or an entire library of data on a single disk!

The process involves shooting two different wavelengths of light onto the recording surface. The use of two lasers creates a very specific image that is sharper than what current techniques can render. Depending on the colour (wavelength) of the light, information is written onto a disk. The information is highly compacted, so the disk isn’t much thicker. It’s like a typical DVD.

Read the full news release HERE.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, competition, 12 days of christmas, Prizes, Christmas, Tracy & Matt]

Channel 4 TV on Lobster

More news from the front.

‘Our man on the inside’ at the Microsoft EVO launch event has just received confirmation that, as expected, but after a fair delay, Channel 4 shortcuts will now be replaced by the full Channel 4 TV service on BT Movio for Lobster TV.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Microsoft, 12 days of christmas, Lobster 700, One Note, Tracy & Matt]

Microsoft One Note Mobile in 2007

Our ‘man on the inside’ at the Microsoft EVO launch event (Exchange 2007, Vista and Office 2007) has just seen a great demo of Microsoft’s One Note mobile.

One Note Mobile comes complete with Microsoft Office 2007!

Office OneNote 2007 is a digital notebook that provides people one place to gather their notes and information, powerful search to find what they are looking for quickly, and easy-to-use shared notebooks so that they can manage information overload and work together more effectively.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, competition, 12 days of christmas, Prizes, Christmas, Tracy & Matt]

Last few days of Eten Glofiish X500 offer

We are down to the last few days of our Eten Glofiish X500 offer!

To take advantage of this brilliant offer all you have to do is type TM3PNOV06 into the voucher box on the order form once you have selected to buy the X500 and £30 will be deducted at the checkout stage. To visit the Eten X500 on the Clove site click here.

This really is a good offer and we are pretty sure that this is the cheapest X500 in the UK and we are offering you £30 off to boot!!

This offer is for our readers only and is valid until the end of November 2006.

Edit: Check out the latest X500 offen in this post.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Eten, Glofiish, Eten Glofiish X500, Tracy & Matt]

Astraware Gift Certificates

The Holiday Season is upon us and if you’re searching for the perfect gift for your favorite Palm OS(R) or Windows Mobile(R) user, why not get them an Astraware Gift Certificate? It’s the ideal way to buy games for your friends and relations without having to know device IDs, and also allows you to give Astraware games to people who don’t have a credit card.

Buying a Gift Certificate is very simple – you only need the recipient’s name and email address. Astraware even offers a choice of gifting options: either buy and print the Gift Certificate so you can hand it to the person directly; or buy the Certificate and send it via email – ideal for those last minute gifts or long distance friends and relations. Astraware Gift Certificates are available in a range of values from $15 up to $100. For more information, visit the Astraware website.

What’s more, if you’re a Club Astraware member, you can earn points from any Gift Certificates you buy, and those points can be used to treat yourself!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, Astraware, M3100, gift certificates]