Vantage Point

Super Talent FSD56GC25H 256GB SATA SSD  (Source: Super Talent)

Super Talent claims to have the world’s thinnest 256GB SSD

It seems as though a week can’t go by without a new announcement in the realm of solid-state drive (SSD) technology. With each new announcement comes the usual “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” exclamations from manufacturers.

Earlier this week, Seagate CEO Bill Watkins stated, “Realistically, I just don’t see the flash notebook sell. We just don’t see the proposition.” Watkin’s comments brought an air of reality to the extreme optimism that often surrounds SSD technology.

Super Talent, however, can’t be bothered by such commentary. The company is hard at work on expanding its SSD lineup and today announced what it calls the world’s thinnest 256GB SSD (FSD56GC25H). The drive is built around a 2.5″ notebook form factor and uses the SATA-I interface. According to Super Talent, the casing is 12.5mm thick which makes it 40% thinner than existing 256GB SSD drives on the market.

While the capacity of the drive is quite commendable, Watkins would likely point to the FSD56GC25H’s relatively low transfer speeds relative to its competitors. Super Talent lists read speeds at 65MB/sec while writes lag further behind at 50MB/sec.

For comparison, Samsung’s 64GB SATA SSD offers read speeds of 120MB/sec and write speeds of 100MB/sec. Mtron’s 128GB 1.8″ SATA SSD offers identical performance figures, while Samsung’s 128GB SATA SSD offers reads and writes of 100MB/sec and 70MB/sec respectively.

“We designed this drive for applications that need rugged and reliable storage in a very compact form factor. This is the world’s smallest and thinnest 256GB SSD,” said Super Talent Marketing Director, Joe James. “This product underscores our leadership in high density SSDs and demonstrates the technical capabilities of our Silicon Valley engineering team.”

Samples of Super Talent’s FSD56GC25H drive are available now. When asked to comment on pricing, Super Talent’s Joe James told DailyTech that the OEM price of the drive is $5,995.

vreaucodec.com

ASUS turned more than a few heads with its original Eee PC 401. The $399 device came out of nowhere and stole the hearts of many computer enthusiasts (and non-enthusiasts). Over time, ASUS released models that slotted under and above the original 4G model and added more colorful options.

Earlier this month, details began to leak on the Eee PC 900. The Eee PC 900 features an 8.9″, 1024×600 display (up from a 7″, 800×480 display) along with more SSD storage space (8GB for Windows XP, 12GB for Xandros Linux).

It was later revealed that the slightly larger Eee PC 900 will support HDDs in the future along with Intel’s Diamondville-based Intel Atom processor for increased battery life and performance in comparison to the existing Celeron-M. “In the near future, we also are trying to support one-day computing which would provide more than 8 hours. I think in May we might be closer to providing that,” said ASUS CEO Jerry Shen.

Other options that will come to the Eee PC lineup in the future include WiMAX and HSDPA.

Today, however, we were all greeted with a wealth of new information (and pictures) on the new Eee PC 900. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) website is abuzz with a new entry detailing ASUS’ latest and greatest. The FCC entry provides numerous pictures of the Eee PC 900 from the inside and the outside along with the device’s user manual.

Perusing through the pictures and manuals, we learn that despite what ASUS’ CEO previously mentioned, the power adapter used for the new Eee PC 900 is much larger than the original Eee PC 401. While not a deal-breaker for many people, it’s something to take note of for travel purposes.

The internal photos also show that the Eee PC now has Bluetooth. This is a welcome addition for mobile warriors that use Bluetooth mice and don’t want to carry around an addition Bluetooth dongle or RF dongle for traditional wireless mice.

Also new to the Eee PC 900 is what it calls “Multi-finger gesture input”. This allows users to perform iPhone/iPod touch-esque gestures such as “pinching” to zoom in and out in applications.

If pricing holds firm at the previously reported $500 for the Eee PC 900, this could make quite a popular entry with consumers. Throw in the rumored touch screen and GPS and things could get really interesting.

Now if only ASUS could deliver on the original $199 promise…

The iPhone’s popularity shows no signs of dying down. When the device was first unveiled in January 2007, it took the world by storm and sparked a buying frenzy when it launched a few months later.

The iPhone was clearly designed with consumers in mind, focusing on phone, music and video operations. Later updates even provided mobile access to Apple’s iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store.

The only people seemingly left out of the iPhone equation were business users. Apple announced its plans to rectify that issue earlier this month with the rollout of the iPhone SDK and a beta of the upcoming 2.0 firmware. The 2.0 firmware brings a wealth of business-oriented features to the iPhone including push email support, Cisco IPsec VPN, WPA2/802.11x and support for Microsoft Exchange/ActiveSync.

A new job posting on Apple’s website reveals yet more technology that could be coming to OS X as well as the iPhone. The listing seeks a Handwriting Recognition Engineer that is well versed in pattern recognition, C/C++ coding, Cocoa programming and neural net algorithms.

Apple notes that the main area of focus will be handwriting technology for Mac OS X and that development/design “may extend beyond Mac OS X to other applications and the iPhone.”

The handwriting technology could make for an interesting alternative input option for the iPhone. The iPhone has been oft-criticized for its on-screen keyboard, so any form of handwriting may be welcome by iPhone/iPod touch users.

Usage could also extend to the rumored tablet-based MacBook which has yet to materialize and the ModBook which use’s Apple’s existing InkWell handwriting technology.

Most movie fans that have made the jump to HDTVs are glad that the format war that raged between Blu-ray and HD DVD is over. The HD fans out there who bet on HD DVD may be a bit upset at the outcome, but on the whole the win for Blu-ray is good for everyone.With Blu-ray as the winner, more competition between Blu-ray makers should help to drive prices of the players down allowing more consumers to adopt the Blu-ray format. The first indication of a change in pricing for Blu-ray equipped notebooks came from Dell when it announced today that its Inspiron 1525 notebook with Blu-ray now starts at $879.

The Inspiron 1525 is a 15.4-inch notebook with a wide aspect ratio screen capable of 720p playbacck and features a HDMI output. The Blu-ray player Dell uses in the 1525 can also burn CD and DVD as well as play standard DVD movies.

Dell uses Broadcom Media PC technology to allow the integrated graphics machine to be able to play Blu-ray titles. HD playback is enabled through a built-in dedicated accelerator in the systems mini-card slot.

Dell offers the 1525 in three colors including Sunshine Yellow, Midnight Blue and Ruby Red. Buyers can also choose from designs including Chill, Blossom and Commotion.