Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

It seems fairly obvious by now that NAND flash memory is slowly overtaking hard drive based memory.  With new chips from Intel and Micron, it just came a step closer.  The two companies have been working together on flash memory and have announced that they are mass producing standard 300mm chips with 32Gb of storage space.  Continued after the break.

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Sony announced they’ve added some new partners for their connected Bravia TVs.  These TVs, when hooked up to broadband, bring the net experience to your living room.  Sony is doing this in an extremely controlled fashion.

How controlled?  One at a time, baby.  That is right: they added CBS which uses Flash 10 for content, as does Hulu but Sony does not have a partnership with them.  You’ll have access to their partners via a special link, not a browser.  Curious?

Of course you are!  So was I.  So I asked Sony.  Check out their answers after the break.

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Sections: Video, HDTV, Web, Web Apps, Websites, Online Music/Video

If the just released Flip Mino HD would be available in any of the local stores in the country where I’m currently residing, I would certainly not hesitate in getting this as a gift to myself.  In fact, I might even get another one for my son.  The Flip Mino may be so cool and attractive enough to get you to buy it even before you take a look at its specs.  In fac,t you don’t have to worry about the specs, as you would certainly not be short changed in this department.

The Flip Mino HD is Pure Digital’s take on HD-capable camcorder market.  And instead of clashing with the other HD-capable camcorders in coming out with their own units touting support for large-capacity storage SD cards, Pure Digital opted to use built-in 4GB flash memory only.  For some camcorder users this would be enough for a one-hour video which they can easily upload to YouTube or other video sharing sites.  Find out more after the break.

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If Santa is looking for stocking stuffers, or if you are just looking for some portable storage at a good price, you may want to check out one of Newegg’s latest “Special Buys.“

Right now, they are offering the Kingston DataTravelor 100 4GB flash drive for just $7.99 complete with free shipping.

I’ve compare shopped the item at some other sites.  Overstock is actually asking $21.99 for the same item. (Which is just ridiculous, even Newegg doesn’t list that as the regular price). . . .

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Sections: Computers, Gadgets / Other, Household, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Peripherals, Storage, Web, Websites

Everybody loves a challenge, but when it takes 10 minutes to work out the time you probably have the wrong watch.  However for the sake of geeky-ness and pure novelty value I will continue and introduce the “Fire,“ the new watch from Tokyoflash.

And flash it most definitely is.  It has a sleek, modern and almost minimalistic design, or at least it is until you press the buttons and the concealed red, blue and yellow LEDs spring to life.  This is where your problems begin as the lights arrange themselves in a way in which it is possible to tell the time, just not easy.  Continued after the break.

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I really like simple things.  I got this press release today about a DIY (do it yourself) flash hard drive using little more than six SDHC cards.  SDHC cards are simple things.  This tech comes straight out of Germany and almost as good as that is, it sells for just $102 US (SDHC cards not included).

The Flexi-drive S2S is slim and supposedly fast.  The modular design can handle SD cards up to 32GB meaning you can build up to a 192GB drive.  And because it is a flash drive, it is silent, uses little power, and it typically unaffected by shock so its perfect for a drive on the go.  Sweet!

I can hear you asking about speed.  Sharkoon, the manufacturer, tested six 8GB SDHC memory cards with Class 6 speed ratings.  The drive was clocked at reading at 140 MB/s and a write speed of 115 MB/s with HD-Tune.  Respectable numbers for sure.  I wonder how it will fare in the real world.

The drive will be available from retail partners now.

Product page [Sharkoon]

• SanDisk’s Cyber Monday deals
• A good old fashioned way to keep your files safe
• Micro Center’s Black Friday 2008 weekend sales

HP has just introduced their latest USB flash drive, and although flash drives rarely offer any unique features outside of the exterior design, the Floppy Drive Key does give you a little more.  The Floppy Key Drive is actually a two-in-one device that offers the traditional USB storage, but it will also work as USB floppy drive.

Sure for most people a floppy drive is long since outdated, but anyone who is still performing BIOS updates will likely find this useful.  The HP Floppy Drive Key has a small switch on the drive that allows the user to switch modes between functioning as a flash drive and a floppy drive.

The Floppy Drive Key is currently available from HP for a slightly expensive $79 (1GB) or $49 (256MB).  Aside from the convenience of having just one device, it may be a little more cost efficient to pick up an old school and much less expensive flash drive and look for a used external USB floppy drive.

Product [HP]

• HP Magic Giveaway: Register for an account now to get a head start
• SanDisk’s Cyber Monday deals
• Use a CueCat scanner with Collectorz’s Game Collector software

HP phones are all business, and the latest announcement from them shows us they will stay with that focus.  While both are based on Windows Mobile 6.1 and feature a new optical gliding navigation (one upping the BB Pearl) the two phones take different form factors.  Both are geared for Europe and are available without a SIM card or as part of a Vodafone package.

The two phones, the Voice Messenger, a candybar style and the Data Messenger, a horizontal slider with full QWERTY keypad look fantastic as compared to other iPaqs.  Style has finally infiltrated HP and hopes are high they’ll bring this sense to the US market.  Both phones feature Wi-Fi, HSDPA, AGPS and 3.1 megapixel camera with flash.

Check out more of these uncharacteristically stylish gems.

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Remember Joost?  The peer-to-peer video client made from the guys that made Skype and Kazaa?  Yeah, sometimes I forget it exists as well.  But that’s okay, because the somewhat annoying desktop client is gone.  Joost has finally gone to flash, just like Hulu and a number of other services.

Joost is touting its sort of social networking aspect to try and get people to use it.  You can use JoostFeed to watch the videos your Joost friends recently watched, or you can “Shout” about videos to your friends to tell them to watch it.  It might be a bit hard to actually use the feature unless your friends are those who haven’t already forgotten about Joost.  More after the break.

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Sections: Video, Video Providers, Computers, Web, Web 2.0, Websites, Online Music/Video

You must have heard all the hype about Hulu by now.  How it gives you the ability to watch your favorite shows online, any time you want.  How it’s easy to use, and so convenient.  How it is—(drum roll here)—FREE.

Granted, there are several different places you can go to watch different television shows, but, I’ve found that for reliability, Hulu is really way up there.  Now, I know my title said TEN reasons, but, I couldn’t knock it down to just ten.  So I’m going with eleven reasons to Hulu.  I know, what a rebel.

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Sections: Video, Content, Video Providers, Gadgets / Other, Household, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Originals, Web, Web 2.0, Web Apps, Web Browsers, Websites, Online Music/Video