state

While there have been many new 2.5-inch-standard solid-state drives (SSDs) being introduced to the market in the last two years, it's not every day that you run into one that comes in the new low-profile 7mm thickness. The first one was introduced a few months back by Intel, the 520 series, and now we have the second: The RunCore Pro V 2.5" 7mm Ultra SSD.

The purpose of the new 7mm thickness is so that the drive can fit in an ultrabook, or other ultraportable laptop, without changing the standard SATA port configuration. This means that … Read more

RunCore introduced a new SSD this week -- aptly named InVincible -- that offers one unique feature: a self-destruct button.

Well, the special hard drive actually includes two buttons; a green clicker for intelligent destruction (software-based wiping), and a red option that literally burns and cracks the storage chips within the drive via a major surge of electricity. … Read more

Mobile subscribers of three more regional carriers will soon have access to the latest iPhones.

Kentucky's Bluegrass Cellular, California's Golden State Cellular, and Kansas' Nex-Tech Wireless are next on the regional list to carry Apple's iPhone 4S and iPhone 4.

Among the three carriers, Bluegrass Cellular and Nex-Tech Wireless spilled the most beans. Both confirmed on their Web sites that on May 18, each would start offering its customers all three models of the iPhone 4S, and at prices $50 less than those charged by the three nationwide carriers.

The 16GB version will sell for $149.99, the 32GB for $249.99, and the 64GB for $349.99, all with the usual two-year contract. Both carriers will also offer the iPhone 4 for $49.99.… Read more

Adscend Media, accused by the Washington state attorney general in January of running a "likejacking" scam on Facebook, agreed today to a consent decree to stop spamming Facebook users and pay the state $100,000 in attorneys fees.

Facebook, which also sued Adscend in January over likejacking claims, settled that case for undisclosed terms last week.

In the state's suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, it accused Adscend of tricking Facebook users into clicking links that then mark a site as one they "like" on their Facebook news feed. That, in turn, … Read more

President Obama will visit a chipmaking region in New York that includes a just-completed Globalfoundries manufacturing facility, one of the most advanced in the world.

Globalfoundries (GF) announced that it will take part in hosting a visit by President Obama on May 8 at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering's (CNSE) NanoTech Complex at the State University of New York in Albany. The President's visit was originally planned to be held at Globalfoundries new Fab 8 facility but was moved to CNSE for logistical reasons, according to the chipmaker.

Fab 8 -- located in Malta, N.Y. … Read more

Intel today announced the availability of a series of solid-state drives with a 60GB version selling for $89, the least expensive dollars-per-gigabyte drive to date from Intel.

The 330 Series use a SATA 6 gigabit-per-second (Gb/s), giving "consumers a more affordable entry into the accelerated storage performance of SSDs," Intel said in a statement. The SATA 6Gb/s interface doubles the bandwidth of its current SATA 3Gb/s Intel SSD 320 Series. … Read more

Before solid-state drives (SSD), Western Digital's Raptor family of hard drives had always been the fastest internal drive for consumers. And spinning at 10,000 RPM, these drives are still very fast though offering less storage than other 7,200rpm hard drives.

That gap has just gotten narrower; the company announced today the latest VelociRaptor hard drive that caps at 1TB of storage space.

While 1TB seems small compared with other 3.5-inch hard drives that offer up to 4TB, the new VelociRaptor, like the previous two generations, actually comes in the 2.5-inch standard. However, it is extra thick and has an added metal frame to be as physically big as a regular 3.5-inch hard drive. … Read more

If you've been wondering when Thunderbolt is available for Windows, the answer is now.

LaCie, one of the two storage companies that participated in the introduction of the Thunderbolt standard, told me today that it will be showing off two Thunderbolt devices, the Little Big Disk SSD and the 2big Thunderbolt, at NAB Show 2012.

While these two devices are not new, this is going to be the first time they are demoed on both platforms: Mac and Windows. Up to now, Thunderbolt has been available only to Macs, exclusively. LaCie also revealed that the support for Thunderbolt in … Read more

When it comes to ultrabooks, you have to pick between a solid-state drive (SSD) or a hard drive as the main storage drive. The former is generally limited in terms of capacity, expensive but very fast, while the latter offers much more storage space for a much lower cost.

If you're willing to go with a hard drive, WD now offers another option.

The company announced today the availability of the new single-platter WD Scorpio Blue hard drive. The drive still uses the 2.5-inch standard but is just 7mm thick, as opposed to 9.5mm in regular laptop hard drives. … Read more