Solid state drives (SSD) are slowly making their way on the market and a recent Dell announcement brings them closers to the consumers. In a press release, the hardware giant announced it will start including the SanDisk 1.8″ 32 GB flash based drives on selected notebooks.

Clients can choose to use the SSD on Latitude D420 ultra-mobile and D620 ATG semi-rugged notebooks as an alternative to regular magnetic storage hard disk drives. With only the price as a disadvantage the SSD will certainly replace HDD as they offer faster response times, need less power and are more reliable.

“This represents an important milestone in the evolution of personal computers with the arrival of solid state flash memory as a durable, efficient alternative to the hard drive,” said Eli Harari, SanDisk’s founder and CEO

Already available in America the SSD will soon hit the Asian and Europena markets. However the $549 (US price) may not appeal to customers yet. - Marius TRUSCULESCU -

The new Samsung SGH-i400 smartphone was recently showed to the media representatives last week at the S60 summit in Madrid, Spain.

“We are happy to introduce our new Symbian based smartphone SGH-i400 which follows the earlier release of SGH-i520, the first Symbian OS smartphone. We can provide a convenient mobile phone experience for our users by adopting Symbian S60.”

Featuring a 2.3” QVGA TFT display, the mobile phone is ideal for multimedia applications as it has built-in music and video playback, a 2 MP digital camera and two stereo speakers. Due to the use of the Symbian operating system additional applications can be easily downloaded and installed on the smartphone to satisfy various needs of the customers.

As for connectivity we have USB 2.0 support and Bluetooth v2.0 to go along the Tri-Band GPRS/EDGE (900/1800/1900) compatibility. To obtain better storage on the smartphone a microSD slot was included with support for cards that offer up to 4 GB. The SGH-i400 will be available in Rusia starting July 2007 but soon after other Europena markets should receive the smartphone too.- Marius TRUSCULESCU -

Have you ever wondered what is the smallest, lightest mouse you can get for your laptop? Well we may have a winner. It’s not yet available on the market, but MoGO has a new product for us, the X54 measuring just 3.1″ x 2.125″ x .2″
(78 x 54 x 5 mm) and weighing 0.5 oz. (14 grams).

As you can see in the picture the new card size device is incredibly thin though it can fit any pocket, but it better fits the ExpressCard/54 slot of your laptop. Complying with the Bluetooth 2.0 standard it is completely autonomous as it features a built-in battery (90 mAh) that recharges automatically trough the ExpressCard/54 slot of you notebook computer. And if you think you won’t get quality with this device think again, cause this (little) bad boy comes with an 800 dpi optical sensor and a scroll pad.

Although i don’t see myself using a card as a mouse I might give this mouse a try in June when it will be released. It’s not that much to wait and customers can even make preorders on its webpage.- Marius TRUSCULESCU -

Samsung Electronics announced yesterday that the company is the first to produce the 16GB NAND Flash, which is the highest capacity memory chip available now. Samsung will use the ultimate technology in mass production for the 16GB NAND. The devices will be fabricated in 51 nanometers (nm).

The new chip uses the multi-level cell (MLC) structure and can offer 16GB of memory in a single card. In addition, using the new technology the speeds for writing and reading increased. You can see a comparison in the table below.

The NAND flash memory cards uses the data units called “pages”. The old chips worked with 2KB pages, while the new ones process the data in 4 KB pages. Samsung will provide software and firmware updates for MP3 players and phones to support the 4KB data pages. The production of the 16GB NAND flash cards will boost very soon as the demand of high-density data storage is increasing everyday. -MIHNEA BOIANGIU

[via Samsung]

Seventeen telecommunications companies from Southern Asia and from the United States partnered to create the $500M undersea fiber optic cable for better internet. During the recent earthquakes and tsunamis, connections between the U.S. and the SouthEastern Asia have been disrupted, which is why the idea of an underwater cable that will be relatively safe from nature’s forces, is great. The cable will be as long as 12,428 miles and will connect the U.S. West Coast with Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii.

The plan is to offer higher bandwidth connections from December 2008, said CEO of Telekom Malaysia, leader of the companies consortium. Communications will also be facilitated to those users in Europe, Africa and Australia routing either directly with U.S or with Southeast Asian countries. Included in the project are AT&T Inc, Bharti AirTel from India, BT Global Network Services, CAT Telekom from Thailand, Eastern Telecommunications Philippines Inc, Indosat from Indonesia and Pacific Communications Pte Ltd from Cambodia. - ALEX ION

BusinessWeek

We have Sony Ericsson K800i, with 3.2mpix auto-focus camera and available in Dual Mode GSM/UMTS/GPRS, is available for at least 1 year now and it looks like Ferrari comes in to boost it a little. They’ve tuned laptops, cellphones and a few other gizmos that carry the Ferrari logo, that’s why I am thinking what will be next?

Don’t get me wrong, but the phone is great and in Ferrrari red it looks even better so the carrier that will sell it will have a great deal. I wonder who will do that because I remember the McLaren phones from Vodafone, so I guess they are out of the list. My question now, is where would you like to see the Ferrari logo on, of course except on a Ferrari car in your garage!? On what gadget, mobile phone, camera, TV, toilet seat or toothbrush? - ALEX ION

[via Gizmodo]

Clarion Japan has recently launched a new GPS system called Clarion MAX9700DT. The device is special because it offers GPS navigation and entertainment in the same unit. The Clarion MAX9700DT navigator will be available from June at the price of ¥341,250, nearly $2850.

The price would be too much just for a GPS system, but MAX9700DT packs many entertainment features. It has a built-in TV tuner, 40GB HDD and DVD drive. The 1-seg TV tuner broadcasts TV stations for mobile devices. This one is available for all models, but the top ones have a digital tuner to pick up all the free stations in your area.

What could you do with all that entertainment features without a good screen? Clarion MAX9700DT has a 7″widescreen touch LCD display so you won’t have any trouble. In addition the device has a good audio system (5.1) and AM/FM radio.

The GPS module offers the regular 3D street details, but the software can search for shops and stores based on data transmitted on digital TV channels. - MIHNEA BOIANGIU

[via Ubergizmo]

There is a new launch from Sony, the Cybershot DSC S800, not very big but offering high quality pictures. It has high quality Sony Lens with 6x optical zoom, 8.1 megapixel resolution 1/1.8″ Super HAD CCD and 230k colors on the 2.5-inch TFT LCD with on-screen functions. It has 54MB built-in memory which can be expanded thanks to Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick PRO Duo cards, has a 16:9 feature to playback on widescreen TVs and thanks to the 2cm macro focus makes great close-ups.

CyberShot S800 has PictBridge to connect it directly to the printer and not through your PC. For night shooting when the light is not good enough or for cloudy days it has ISO high sensitivity. You can also use the new Sony S800 to shoot videos at 30fps with sound. It uses 2 NiMH batteries that are good for 390 shots. You can see full specs on LetsGoDigital. - ALEX ION

Data Evolution Corporation, a mobile solutions developer, launched an UMPC exclusively for North American market. The Cathena CX UMPC is their new product. The device has a starting price of $800 and it is perfect for business as well as for individual use.

The Cathena CX is powered by an AMD Geode LX800 processor and pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows XP. The notebook uses 512MB SDRAM supporting ram memory up to 1GB. You have three choices for the HDD:40, 80 or 100GB storage. The 7” TFT touch-screen LCD offers 800×480 resolution. Regarding the connectivity, the Cathena CX features 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0+ with EDR. A near full size QWERTY keyboard will help you to use easily the office utilities. The Cathena CX UMPC weights approximately two pounds and the dimensions are 8.6×6.4×1 inches. - MIHNEA BOIANGIU

[Product page via Digital Trends]

Probably you have guessed I am going to write about Nintendo Wii. A team of British experts sustains that Nintendo Wii can be dangerous for its users. The Japanese game console uses a motion-sensitive wireless remote which allows movements of sports games like tennis, box, golf, baseball etc.

The problems regarding the injuries appeared to persons who didn’t warm up properly before starting the game. Tim Hutchful, from the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) told that “gamers should treat a ‘Wii session’ like any form of exercise and warm-up adequately beforehand to prevent stiffness and possible injuries”. Medical reports revealed that Wii players suffered injuries called “Wii elbow”. The injury is common for tennis players and represent the inflammation of the elbow joint.

The BCA advised the Wii users to make warming up exercises and to take breaks at 20-30 minutes. They developed a five-point “Wii warm-up” for the shoulders, wrists, arms, neck and back. Also the Nintendo’s website warns the players against the risks of excessive gaming.

The Wii console burns more calories than the classic ones. For an average weekly use of 13 hours, 1,840 calories would be burned. That means 40 percent higher than the classic consoles. In addition to the game playing, Wii adds the movements. - MIHNEA BOIANGIU