OCZ Core SSD vs WD VelociRaptor: the early performance numbers are in
Panasonic throws down 6 and 12GB SDHC cards
Launching 6 and 12GB SDHC cards seems a little boring at this point, especially when your company has already gone way, way larger. Which is why Panasonic's got the 6 and 12GB RP-SDM06G and RP-SDM12G class 4 (10MBps) SDHC cards which are apparently "designed for HD recording." Love when they do that.Digital Foci's Photo Safe II takes the load off of your flash card
[Via jkOnTheRun]
Japan's AIST boasts of longer-life NAND flash memory
As we've seen, Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (otherwise known as AIST) is a pretty prolific place and it, along with its cohorts at the University of Tokyo, are now boasting about a breakthrough in NAND flash memory that could result in far longer lifespans. The key to that, it seems, is the use of ferroelectric gate field-effect transistors (or FeFETs, pictured above) as memory cells, which apparently not only "dramatically improves" the performance of NAND flash memory, but allows it to be programmed and erased more than 100 million times. What's more, the FeFET-based memory apparently also requires less power than traditional NAND flash memory, with it able to operate at a programming voltage of less than 6V, as opposed to the 20V of current memory. Of course, there's no indication as to when any of this will find its way into consumer products, with AIST only saying that plans to design and develop the "Fe-NAND" flash memory array circuits and verify their operations in cooperation with the University of Tokyo.
[Via Slashdot]
[Via Slashdot]
Toshiba's 9.5-mm thin laptop disk hits 400GB
Toshiba just bested its own 320GB hard drive with a 400GB offering in the same 9.5-mm height form factor favored by most thin laptops. That's as good as it gets unless you can track down Sammy's elusive 500GB Spinpoint M6. The MK4058GSX spins just 2 platters which means the disk sports an impressive 477Mbit/mm2 (308Gbpsi) areal density while consuming 20% less power (0.0015W/GB energy consumption efficiency) and 2dB less noise than its own 320GB predecessor. Rounding out the specs are a 12-ms average seek and 8MB cache. Toshiba also boosted the rest of its 9.5-mm, 2.5-inch, 3.0Gbps SATA disk lineup to 7,200rpm including the 320GB MK3254GSY. Mass production of the 400GB slab is expected to begin in September while the 7,200 HDDs will hit the market in August. No prices announced.[Via I4U]
Ridata Ultra-S Plus MLC SSDs arrive in 32/64/128GB flavors, start at $170
Severed USB cable is really a 2GB flash drive
[Via MAKE]
SanDisk introduces write-once WORM SD cards
Tom's Hardware rescinds SSD power test, finds them more efficient
[Thanks, Chuckles and SNP]
Fujitsu keeps HandyDrive portable HDD line alive with 500GB edition
[Via Pocket-lint]
Dell's Latitude XT tablet goes multi-touch with a free upgrade, offers 128GB SSD for $649
by Paul Miller, posted Jul 14th 2008 at 5:32PM 
Xbox 360 goes 60GB, 20 gigger going for $299 while supplies last
by Paul Miller, posted Jul 13th 2008 at 3:45AM
Word on the street was that the $299 price slash we've been hearing about wasn't about carving out a new pricepoint but instead making room for a new 60GB Xbox 360 in its place. Turns out the Mr. Word on the Street nailed this one, with Microsoft finally fessing up to the price drop, and announcing a new fancy 60GB Xbox 360 to fill in at that $349 pricepoint, which will be available in "early August." You can pick up a 20GB "while supplies last," but the $279 Arcade and $449 Elite aren't budging price wise. Oh, and can we just say that this couldn't come at any better a time? We just had to delete August Rush to make room for National Treasure 2, which we'll probably have to drop tomorrow for Fool's Gold. Such is life when you've only got 20GB to work with.Update: Now up for an Amazon pre-order with an August 4th delivery.
[Thanks, Sean H. and Chris]
Sans Digital offers up AccuNAS AN2L 2-bay NAS enclosure
Ask Engadget: What's the optimal DVD archival solution?
by Darren Murph, posted Jul 10th 2008 at 9:00PM 
This week's Ask Engadget question is a bit on the specific side, but it's one we've heard asked time and time again. Thus, we figured it was time to finally get it out in the open for you readers to debate."I have an extensive DVD library that I would like to archive on a network drive and be able to access via my PS3, menus and all. I am currently using TVersity to stream videos from my PC to the console. I've seen walk-throughs for archiving DVDs, but I haven't seen anything that will present these via a DLNA server (to my PS3) with their original menus intact so that you can access special features such as commentary tracks and featurettes. I am not even sure that it is possible to navigate the menus via the PS3 remote. Any recommended solutions out there?"
Can't you just hear the hopelessness in poor Ron's voice? Throw the guy a bone, will ya? And while you're at it, throw our highly sophisticated email sorter a question of your own at ask at engadget dawt com.
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11: 1.5TB of love
[Thanks, Dave]
