Monday, March 30, 2009

Western Digital enters SSD market via $65m SiliconSystems acquisition

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/30/western-digital-enters-ssd-market-via-65m-siliconsystems-acquis/


Man, the consolidation efforts are really heating up. Just days after Cisco forked out a small fortune to acquire Pure Digital, HDD mainstay Western Digital has penned a check for $65 million in cold, hard cash in order to acquire SiliconSystems, Inc. Said outfit is an Aliso Viejo, California-based supplier of solid-state drives for the embedded systems market, and rather than wasting any more time falling behind in the SSD realm, WD figured it prudent to just buy the technology it needed to position itself as a legitimate competitor. WD has already made clear that it hopes to sell SSDs for the netbook, client and enterprise markets, and given that integration will begin "immediately," we're hoping to see some shipping products sooner rather than later.

Filed under:

Western Digital enters SSD market via $65m SiliconSystems acquisition originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Posted by Augustine at 2:34 PM

Asus makes optical-endowed Eee PC 1004DN official

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/30/asus-succumbs-makes-eee-pc-1004dn-official/

Asus makes optical-endowed Eee PC 1004DN official
What's that, didn't trust last week's DigiTimes rumory confirmation of the new 1004DN addition to the Eee PC family? Rest easy, as Asus has come forward and made the first optical-offering Eee officially official. The machine packs a Super-Multi DVD writer, what looks to be the same pinkie-friendly chiclet keyboard as the 1000HE, a 1.66GHz Atom N280 processor, up to 120GB of storage, and even a fingerprint scanner. Price and release date are still undecided, but it shouldn't be long before we find out just how well those legendarily long-winded Eee batteries fare at spinning up your Battlestar Galactica boxed sets.

Filed under:

Asus makes optical-endowed Eee PC 1004DN official originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Posted by Augustine at 8:46 AM

LG Xenon, Neon join Samsung Magnet and Impression on AT&T

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/30/lg-xenon-neon-join-samsung-magnet-and-impression-on-atandt/

Outside of the smartphone realm, AT&T's really stepping up its game in the feature phone game, too -- so let's take this clockwise from the top left, shall we? First up, we have the brightly-colored Samsung Magnet, targeted squarely at the teen audience looking for serious texting power in a cheap package. Pricing hasn't been announced, but it should be easy on the wallet; it'll be available in the next few weeks. Next is the Impression -- also from Samsung -- which we'd previously known as the a877, the very first handset to officially launch on a US carrier with a full AMOLED up front. The screen's 3.2 inches of organic touchscreen awesomeness, accompanied by a 3 megapixel cam and a full HTML browser, all launching on April 7 for $199.99 on contract after rebate. Down below, we have the LG Neon -- a phone that's already launched up north on Rogers -- offering a full landscape QWERTY keyboard in addition to a touchscreen display for a low price, thanks in no small part to its lack of 3G data. The launch day hasn't been set for this one, but it'll come shortly. Finally, we have the long-rumored Xenon, featuring 3G, a 2 megapixel cam, QWERTY slide, GPS, and your choice of colors -- black, blue, or red -- all for $99.99 when it launches on April 8.

Filed under:

LG Xenon, Neon join Samsung Magnet and Impression on AT&T originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Posted by Augustine at 6:49 AM

Skype Coming to iPhone Tuesday, BlackBerry in May [Skype]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/bYXsHkJ6NX4/skype-coming-to-iphone-tuesday-blackberry-in-may

Landing a day earlier than predicted, Skype's official iPhone client will show its green 'n' white face in the App Store tomorrow. The other conspicuously neglected market, BlackBerry owners, can expect a client by May.

The iPhone client feature set is more or less what we've come to expect from Skype mobile apps: free Skype-to-Skype calls, SkypeOut support, pretty interface integration (they went with the iPhone aesthetic over the Skype desktop aesthetic, thankfully) and instant messaging to other users. You can even snap a profile picture from within the app. The app will also support 2G iPod Touches with external mics.

But! For those of you who held onto the vain hope that an official client might be able to somehow skirt the universal App Store ban on voice over IP over 3G (VoIPo3G?), forget it—you won't be able to Skype unless you're connected to a wireless network, and text messaging has been entirely excluded. You can't even top up your SkypeOut account or purchase other services like voicemail, which, by the way, can't be accessed from the app.

Not to poop on Skype's party, but this announcement leaves me with questions—specifically, why should I download this? Third party apps like Fring picked up Skype's slack a long time ago, and lump in multiprotocol IMing, something which gives them a distinct advantage over this official client on the one-app-at-a-time-plea! se iPhon e. Skype told CNET that their app will have better voice quality (and probably lower latency), but aside from that was unable to offer many significant advantages over other apps. [CNET and NYT —Images from CNET]



Read More...

Posted by Augustine at 6:49 AM

GeoBulb LED light bulb uses just eight watts, rings up at $120

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/29/geobulb-led-light-bulb-uses-just-eight-watts-rings-up-at-120/


Ah, progress. Right around two years ago, we spotted a LED-filled light bulb that used "just" nine watts and cost a staggering $65. Now, we've got yet another option that sucks down even less power and costs nearly twice as much. C. Crane Company has been working on its so-called GeoBulb for a solid three years now, but at long last the device is shipping to affluent homeowners and headstrong Earth lovers. The bulb can provide as much light as a traditional 60W incandescent with just 7.5W, and it features a 30,000 hour (10 years) lifespan with typical usage. Now, the hard part: choosing between cool, soft and warm white.

[Via Times-Standard]

Filed under:

GeoBulb LED light bulb uses just eight watts, rings up at $120 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Posted by Augustine at 6:49 AM

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)