Sony announced earlier today that it had stopped the manufacturing process for the 20 GB version of its next-generation console:“Due to the overwhelming demand for the 60GB model from both retailers and consumers, we have ceased offering the 20GB model here in North America.”

Last year, when the PlayStation 3 was first launched in North America and Japan, the console came in two versions:

• The 20 GB version priced at $500
• A 60 GB version with wireless adapter and memory card reader priced at $600

Although the 20 GB version was cheaper, sales reports hinted that only 10% of the demand was for that model. Based on these figures, Best Buy decided last month that it would only sell the 60 GB PS3. Furthermore, the European market and the rest of the world were only offered the more expensive model at this March launch.

The cheaper PS3 model will still be available for purchase until the existing products will be sold, but Sony has no intention for manufacturing more.

Earlier today, Samsung presented its two new SpinPoint hard disk series for both the enterprise market (the MP1) and for consumers devices (the M5). Both of the 2.5″ models use perpendicular magnetics storage achieving higher memory/volume ratio.

The MP1 is a 7200 rpm hard drive reaching a storage capacity of up to 200 GB in the 2.5 inches form factor, while the M5 5400 rpm drive reaches 160 GB. The 160 GB per disk is the maximum available now, but a two disk HDD with 250 GB maximum storage is currently in development. The new SpinPoint M5 is lighter, quieter and more power efficient, which makes it ideal for portable devices.

The SpinPoint MP1 series will be available in 80/ 120/ 160/ 200GB capacities with either 8 or 16MB cache memory, as the mass production will start in May, but samples will be available in early May. The M5 has already been shipped in sample quantities to some manufacturers, but mass production is said to begin late April.

Nec announced earlier today its latest 2.7″ (68 mm) QVGA (320×240) color LCD display for portable devices. Featuring a 550cd/m2 brightness, the new model is claiming the first place as the brightest of its kind in the industry.

Nec is claiming it has improved the luminescence by 2.75 times when comparing to the previous model, but the increase in power consumption reaches just 60%. Another improvement has been made in the size of the device, which measures just 2.6 mm in thickness (20% or 0.6 mm slimier), breaking the 3 mm barrier.

In today’s press release Nec also announced it will start shipping samples of the new NL2432HC17-07A TFT screen in August, so you can soon have a brighter/thinner PDA, iPod or other portable device.

Belkin, a well known company on the accessories market for computers and other electronic devices, announced today a new series of products. The company released information on their latest accessories, the in-desk hubs meant to connect several peripherals to your computer.

Featuring an elegant and discrete design the new USB hubs are targeted at eliminating the mess of wires on your desk by providing the needed USB connection trough your desk’s grommet hole. For iPod owners there is also an iPod dock available compatible with the latest versions of Apple’s famous mp3 player.

The products are expected to hit the market this May with a $39.99 price tag.

[More info at Belkin]

Intel marked its 30 years anniversary on the embedded processors market with the release of the Quad Core Intel Xeon processor 5300 series and the new Intel IP Network Server NSC2U.

Although we enjoy the computing power we also are glad to notice the Intel themed Bike the famous Orange County Choppers built for the event. When referring to the event, Intel’s Doug Davis said: “The breakthrough performance and power efficiency that characterize the industry’s first quad-core processors for embedded are as unmistakable as the raw power of the four cylinders of the Intel Chopper’s quad engine.”

Special designed gaming gear is the new cool in computer accessories, from laser mouses to specially designed keyboards the new trend is turning into an industry and manufacturers are trying to attract the professional gamers for advertising purposes. This is the situation for the Fatal1ty line of computer accessories from Creative. If you don’t already know, Fatal1ty is one of the most renowned gamers in the whole world as it has won an impressive amount of prizes (and money) by competing in a wide variety of games.

However, even if I agree that special keyboards and mouses help, I don’t think gamers have a really big advantage from using the new headset. Yes the sound quality is better, and there is a microphone for team communications, but sound is not as important as speed and regular headsets provide fine enough sound quality.

However if you are interested in finding out more details about the device be sure to check the product’s webpage at Creative.

Splashpower aims at being a universal charger for all you electronic devices. On top of that it will be able to charge your devices wireless and multiple devices will be able to be recharged simultaneously.

How will that be possible? Well you will need the Splashpower pad, which is something like a support, and the Splashpower capable device would need to be put on this pad for recharging, with no electrical contacts needed for the process. The only needed wire is the wire from the AC power outlet to the Slashpower pad.

There is no date set for the release of the product and no price has been communicated but we are eagerly expecting its arrival as we all liked the idea.

[More info on Splashpower]

It’ s a pretty well known fact that when it comes to processors you want them kept as cool as possible. But with the increase in computing power, the power consumption and therefore the dissipated heat are becoming a real challenge for cooler manufacturers.

Last week Asus has presented one of its solutions to this problem with the Arctic Square cooler. Designed to remove the heat out of even the newest quad core processors (4 cores on the same die), the new model has the base and fins made out of copper (better, but pricier than aluminum). The heat transfer from the warm bottom to the cooler top is boosted with a 4 heat pipes system. For effective air flow control Asus used a 90 mm blue led fan which makes both the processor and the looks cool.

[For more details visit Asus]

Last week Intel announced its own SSD (solid state drive) based on NAND flash memory with the Intel Z-U130 Value Solid-State Drive family to compete with similar products. As the cost for NAND memory is rapidly going down the future belongs to this kind of hard drives as they offer both higher data speeds with considerably lower power requirements.

Intel’s product will deliver read speeds of 28 MB/s (megabytes per second) and write speeds of 20 MB/s leading to better performance due to lower access time for files on the hard drive. Another advantage Intel Z-U130 has over the competition is the MTBF (mean time between failure), meaning the average time a hard drive will end working which is supposed to be around 5 million hours.

Available in 4 flavors (1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB and 8 GB) the Intel Z-U130 has no release date yet and no price has been communicated by Intel either.

AsusAsus just launched a new series of sexy slim computer chassis to complete its previous products available on the market.

If several years ago the only thing you would search in a computer chassis was good looks. Times have changed as the power consumption has grown for bCPU’sCPU’sGPU’sGPU’sf the chassis.

Based on the mATX design, the slim (140 x 360 x 410 mm) TS-8 includes drives for two optical drives, a 3.5″ drive, two hard drives and four expansion cards. All the products in the line feature a 250W power supply, two front USB ports and two front audio connecmATX each.