Come now, you didn't think we'd let something like IFA pass by without shipping a few editors off to Berlin did you? We're on the ground and taking names in the best ninja gear we could sew with $5 worth of felt and tin foil. But hey, it's not the costume that keeps you coming back, it's the content. So stay tuned.

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Come now, you didn't think we'd let something like IFA pass by without shipping a few editors off to Berlin did you? We're on the ground and taking names in the best ninja gear we could sew with $5 worth of felt and tin foil. But hey, it's not the costume that keeps you coming back, it's the content. So stay tuned.

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Filed under: Storage

We have a strange feeling there's more marketing hoopla here than anything else, but whatever the case, Samsung sure feels like its newest line of SSDs will work just great within low-cost laptops. The outfit has begun to sample "low-density, higher-performance solid state drives that are only 30-percent of the size of 2.5-inch SSDs and highly cost-efficient to manufacture." The MLC-based drives only come in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB flavors, and read / write performance ranges from 90MB/sec to 70MB/sec, respectively. Mass production is scheduled to crank up next month, and while you'd expect SSDs aimed at netbooks to boast remarkably low price tags, Sammy doesn't even bother spilling those beans.

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Filed under: Storage

We have a strange feeling there's more marketing hoopla here than anything else, but whatever the case, Samsung sure feels like its newest line of SSDs will work just great within low-cost laptops. The outfit has begun to sample "low-density, higher-performance solid state drives that are only 30-percent of the size of 2.5-inch SSDs and highly cost-efficient to manufacture." The MLC-based drives only come in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB flavors, and read / write performance ranges from 90MB/sec to 70MB/sec, respectively. Mass production is scheduled to crank up next month, and while you'd expect SSDs aimed at netbooks to boast remarkably low price tags, Sammy doesn't even bother spilling those beans.

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

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Filed under: Laptops

While it doesn't appear to be nearly as serious as some of the computer problems the International Space Station has faced, it looks like a virus has managed to find its way onto some of the laptops used on the Station, which NASA is now describing only as a "nuisance." According to SpaceRef.com, the virus is the W32.Gammima.AG worm, which is normally used to swipe sensitive information for online games. As Wired's Threat Level reports, the worm has also spread to more than one laptop on the Space Station, which would seem to suggest that it has either been spread via an on-board intranet, or via a thumb drive. Somewhat disconcertingly, when asked by Threat Level if any mission critical systems were connected to the same network as the laptops, NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries simply said, "I don't know and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to tell you for IT security reasons."

[Via Threat Level, thanks a.c.e.r.]

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Filed under: GPS

Sony's Nav-U line of PNDs hasn't made big waves in the States yet, but the company's keeping at it, releasing four new touchscreen navs today. The new $400 NV-U94T (pictured) takes over from the NV-U83T at the high end, featuring a 4.8-inch touch screen in a 30 percent thinner case, gesture commands, POSITION plus accelerometer and barometer (wild)-based dead reckoning in case of signal loss, Quick Links POI icons, and an RDS-TMC traffic receiver built into the cradle, as well as basic PMP functions, Bluetooth with A2DP output and Memory Stick Duo expansion; the $300 NV-U74T is basically the same package minus the PMP features and with a 4.3-inch screen and the $350 NV-U84 keeps the 4.8-inch panel but doesn't have Bluetooth, dead reckonings, or traffic. There's also a totally new 3.5-inch unit, the $250 NV-U44, which is pretty basic but seems like a fine deal: text-to-speech nav, maps of the US and Canada, and split-screen 3D views with lane guidance. All four shoud be out in September.

[Via CNET]

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Filed under: GPS

Sony's Nav-U line of PNDs hasn't made big waves in the States yet, but the company's keeping at it, releasing four new touchscreen navs today. The new $400 NV-U94T (pictured) takes over from the NV-U83T at the high end, featuring a 4.8-inch touch screen in a 30 percent thinner case, gesture commands, POSITION plus accelerometer and barometer (wild)-based dead reckoning in case of signal loss, Quick Links POI icons, and an RDS-TMC traffic receiver built into the cradle, as well as basic PMP functions, Bluetooth with A2DP output and Memory Stick Duo expansion; the $300 NV-U74T is basically the same package minus the PMP features and with a 4.3-inch screen and the $350 NV-U84 keeps the 4.8-inch panel but doesn't have Bluetooth, dead reckonings, or traffic. There's also a totally new 3.5-inch unit, the $250 NV-U44, which is pretty basic but seems like a fine deal: text-to-speech nav, maps of the US and Canada, and split-screen 3D views with lane guidance. All four shoud be out in September.

[Via CNET]

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

It's not officially announced yet, but Samsung's expected to announce the YP-Q1 PMP at IFA this week. The vertically-oriented player will come in 4, 8 and 16GB varieties with a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, support for MP3, WMA, WAV, Ogg, FLAC, MPEG4 and WMV, and an FM RDS radio. No word on pricing yet, but does anyone else think it's funny that Samsung will now have two entirely different slow-selling Q1s?

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Filed under: Cellphones

Apple's iPhone 3G ads paint a pretty cheery picture of the device in action, but just as many of you have noted, the omission of Flash and Java means there's a big difference between what the "the real internet" and what's on the iPhone -- enough so that the UK's Advertising Standards Authority has pulled one of Apple's latest ads from the airwaves because it claims "all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone." At least two people complained to the ASA that the ad was misleading because sites that use Flash and Java don't work on the iPhone, and the board agreed, saying that "We concluded that the ad gave a misleading impression of the internet capabilities of the iPhone" because "viewers were likely to expect to be able to see all the content on a web site normally accessible through a PC rather than just having the ability to reach the website." If we had to guess, we'd say this decision is more likely to prompt Apple to be more careful with its ads in the future rather than ever bring Flash or Java to the iPhone, but you know Adobe is feeling pretty smug right about now. Check the ad after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading UK's Advertising Standards Authority yanks iPhone ad for being misleading

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