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Hybrid hard drives are similar enough to the drives we all use today, but with the addition of NV (non-volatile) memory on board. The memory acts similarly to the cache on the current crop of drives, but since it’s non-volatile, a system crash won’t cause you to lose everything that hasn’t been written to the disk. Microsoft is encouraging manufacturers to release hybrid drives in preparation of it’s Vista operating system, which is due for release later this year. The hybrid drives would increase performance and allow the system to boot faster (if configured to boot off the NV RAM).
However, the aforementioned type of hybrid isn’t what Microsoft and Samsung were showing off with the current prototype. Instead of persuing performance gains alone, they’re also looking to save power in mobile applications. The drive utilizes 1GB of Samsung’s OneNAND flash memory, and uses it to store any data destined to be written to the drive. The drive doesn’t actually start spinning until the cache is completely full, and then does a quick dump to the disk. By operating in this fashion, the drive only spins 30 to 45 seconds during a 30-minute window of time. Since a hard drive normally consumes up to 15% of a laptop’s battery charge, the hybrid drive could significantly extend runtime as well as reduce overall noise. The drive is expected to start shipping in quantity in late 2006.
Read More 
| CNet News
Gallery: Samsung Hybrid Hard Drive
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The SD-502 GPS dongle supersedes it predecessor SD-501 by including 512 MB of built-in memory, allowing for tracking signals and storing data. This is a good way to keep the memory on your PDA free, using the onboard memory GPS for storing maps and such. The device works on Pocket PC 2003, Win CE.Net, and Windows Mobile 2003 operating systems. On a normal day it will cost you about $150 USD.
Read More | GlobalSat
Gallery: GlobalSat SDIO GPS Receiver
The first of 3 new GPS Technologies released by GlobalSat - known for their receivers - is the BC-337 SiRF Star III. A Compact Flash or PCMCIA based GPS, the BC-377 is designed to fit into you PDA and such fulfilling your GPS needs. It features voice prompted turn-by-turn mapping. It’ll cost you about $90 for this navigational peace of mind.
Read More | GlobalSat
Gallery: GlobalSat BC-337 SiRF Star III
Live From CES: Game Boy Advance SP DVD Player
Posted by Chris Cardinal Categories: Accessories, USB, CES, CES 2006, Peripherals,
MyFlix was showcasing their Game Boy Advanced DVD player, a device that allows you to plug in a GBA SP through its cartridge slot and play back full DVDs. The quality of the screen was definitely watchable, and they assure me that they’ll be slimming down the actual unit, which itself was just a tad bulky. It will retail for close to $70 and be available in normal retail markets and online in July. Battery life was the one element that I had a few misgivings about—3-4 hours for four AAs. (They suggested rechargeables, natch.) The unit does have an AC adapter and they’re looking to integrate speakers. It also has a standard minijack headphone jack.
In addition to the MyFlix, they were also demoing the MyFrame, an affordable, USB-based digital picture frame. Essentially a tiny, USB-based display, the unit pulls pictures and power from your nearby computer. Adding pictures is as simple as dragging them to their software, and you can control the slideshow details. The unit will retail for about $70 as well, and the way they can get the cost down is by using a smaller, limited viewing angle LCD. It’s about 3.5”, and the easel it rests on is adjustable so you can set it for your normal sitting position at your desk. It’s actually a pretty neat solution for office pictures, and affordable enough to make sense to buy for mom.
Gallery: Live From CES: Game Boy Advance SP DVD Player
Live From CES: LaCie External SATA II RAID 1TB Enclosure
Posted by Chris Cardinal Categories: CES, CES 2006, Peripherals,
The LaCie “Two Big” [sic] enclosure is pretty fun, and includes two SATA IIe drives in configurations of either 500 GB (total capacity) or 1 terabyte. It’s user-configurable with RAID 0, RAID 1, Big Disks or JBOD. (And, although the configuration is set by a dial in the back that requires a screwdriver to change, it’s not recommended you go shift from RAID 0 to 1 after you’ve put your most precious data on it.) Coming in at $470 and $950 for the 500GB and 1TB sizes, it also includes a PCI-X SATA IIe card that lets you plug in and get going right away. It’s hot-swappable (although I’m guessing only in a few configurations) and thus, easy to boost the capacity when larger drives come out, even if it does weigh the same as a cinder block. (...almost.)
Gallery: Live From CES: LaCie External SATA II RAID 1TB Enclosure
Live From CES: LaCie Launches—Get This—More External Hard Drives
Posted by Chris Cardinal Categories: CES, CES 2006, Peripherals,
It’s true. LaCie announced yesterday a few new drive enclosure systems, including their Rugged Hard Drive (in stunning day-glo orange, above) and their LaCie Two Big SATA IIe RAID system. The Rugged can survive at least a three foot fall (when shut down) and has a nice rubber grip and a neat design. As my Jewish step-grandmother would say, “it’s a bit much,” coming in at $170 for the 80 GB 5,400 rpm, all the way up to $400 for the 100 GB 7,200 rpm drive. Now to get some gefilte in here to shut my step-grams up. (Another pic, of the rugged’s USB 2.0 and FireWire interfaces, after the jump.)
Click to continue reading Live From CES: LaCie Launches—Get This—More External Hard Drives
Gallery: Live From CES: LaCie Launches—Get This—More External Hard Drives
Live From CES: Sima Products “Hitch” Allows iPod to iPod Transfers
Posted by Chris Cardinal Categories: CES, CES 2006, Peripherals, Portable Audio / Video,
Down in the depths of the South Hall, Sima Products Corporation was telling stories of their forthcoming “Hitch” device. The Hitch allows you to quickly and easily transfer songs, files and photos amongst your myriad iPods, or any other USB device. The Neat: Hitch interfaces with the iPod library so that you can select only the songs you want to actually transfer. The nature of the device also lets you transfer from a digital camera straight to your iPod, from thumb drive to thumb drive or any other crazy combination you can come up with. The anti-neat: It doesn’t circumvent FairPlay, Apple’s less-than-pleasant DRM solution. Thus, you can’t transfer your iTunes songs… However, the box is built on Linux, which means that it’s “upgradeable,” according to the sales rep, but if you’re enterprising enough, you could probably read that as “hackable.”
Rumor has it it’ll launch on April 1st, to coincide with ThinkGeek’s joke last year, the iCopulate. Unfortunately, he said the street price will be around $120-$150, which seems a bit pricey, but useful if you frequently find yourself in the middle of USB ménage-à-trois. You know you like it.
Gallery: Live From CES: Sima Products “Hitch” Allows iPod to iPod Transfers
Live From CES: Digital Experience, Nokia N80 & More
Posted by Chris Cardinal Categories: Smartphones, CES, CES 2006, Peripherals,
After quite the two hour, four mile (seriously) trek from the airport involving a chiseling shuttle driver, a misguided monorail stop, a late attempt into the Gates Keynote and finally getting our badgeholders at the only place still open at 8 pm, we arrived at Digital Experience. DE is a press-only event that took place in the Bellagio’s Grand Ballroom. Some 100+ companies were there showing off their latest and greatest, and here’s what we found out:
TiVo claims that we’ll finally have a standalone HD TiVo by “mid 2006.” We won’t be holding our breaths for this one. Logitech released a new set of Bluetooth headphones that allow you to playback music from your (compatible) cell phone, with an integrated microphone that lets you answer calls mid-jam, right from the unit itself. It also featured some integrated play controls, letting your track forward and backward at will. (Link goes to a unit that looks almost identical.) Logitech also released what appears to be one of the first cordless desktop keyboard and mouse kits built specifically for the Mac. It includes a two-button mouse and a ten-day warning LED when the battery is low.
Nokia showed off the new N80, their first 3 megapixel camera and an absolute beauty. I got some hands on time with it, and I’ll be publishing details about it shortly. For now, it’s a slide form-factor, has a dedicated shutter button, and switches to landscape mode when you go to take a photo. The temptation to steal it was strong, until the Nokia rep informed me it’s a pre-production model that has quite a few bugs still.
We’ll be posting a lot more throughout the day, including some video interviews and more pics. For now, enjoy the picture of the chocolate fountains at Digital Experience. Stocked with fresh strawberries, marshmallows and pound cake, it’s important you know the sacrifices we make for you.
Gallery: Live From CES: Digital Experience, Nokia N80 & More
New Surge Protecting PowerSquid To Be Shown At CES 2006
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: CES, CES 2006, Design, Peripherals,
Newpoint is set to show off the next generation of their PowerSquid power multiplier at CES. The PowerSquid power multiplier’s unique design offers a flexible alternative to rigid, straight-line power strips – featuring 6 tentacle-like cords to accommodate adapters of all sizes. The new additions to the line offer surge protection for the first time as well as a $150,000 Connected Equipment Warranty, adding practical functionality to the stylish design. Expect the new PowerSquid’s price range to go from $29.99 to $69.99 USD.
Read More | PowerSquid
Gallery: New Surge Protecting PowerSquid To Be Shown At CES 2006
Planon DocuPen RC800 Launching At CES
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: CES, CES 2006, Misc. Tech, Peripherals,
Planon will launch at CES the smallest full-page portable color scanner, the DocuPen RC800. This new DocuPen will be the same size as a pen scanning an entire page of text and graphics in just four seconds. It stores up to 100 pages in its two megabytes of flash memory, weighs just two ounces, and is only eight inches long. The RC800 includes a rechargeable feature which allows users to recharge the scanner’s batteries as the DocuPen is downloading scanned information through the USB port. It will also include the ScanSoft PaperPort OCR software.
Read More | DocuPen
Gallery: Planon DocuPen RC800 Launching At CES
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