IT Masala

Samsung is claiming the fastest SSD data transfer rates to date.CNET site ZDNet Korea reports that Samsung announced the development of a 2.5-inch, 256GB solid state drive (SSD) at the fifth annual Samsung Mobile Solution Forum in Taipei, Taiwan.

Normal notebook PCs come with solid state drives with capacity of 64GB.This drive has a sequential read speed of 200 megabytes per second and sequential write speed of 160MBps.

Special feature of these SSD is they don't have any mechanical moving parts which separates them from other drives which have mechanical failures and delays. 

But there was no mention of price anywhere mentioned !

[ photo credit - samsung ]

The fortune blog says that AT&T is going to sell iPhone for as low as $199.As seen on AT&T store, it says its right now giving it away at $399 for 8GB iPhone and $499 for 16GB iPhone.

There have been lots of posts and responses about AT&T giving away iPhone at $199. Fortune's blog lead to this story everywhere, till now its not been confirmed , as its still not being reflected on the AT&T store. All you people get ready to grab one for yourself !!

Lets wait and see.. 

Have a look at the AT&T online store screenshot(taken by me,just today):

[ AT&T ] [ AT&T Store ]

Samsung, the official Worldwide Partner of the Olympic Games in wireless communications equipment has started its campaign for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games with the launch of its new, high-profile mobile phones designed especially for the event.

At the campaign launch, Samsung unveiled its E848 mobile phone that has been designed especially for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).

The company also unveiled the Samsung P318 and the U308 mobile phones for joint marketing campaigns with China Mobile.

For Samsung’s Olympic Torch Relay Plan, the company will launch a series of public events around its wireless products to drive its brand value in all major cities in the Relay Mainland China Sector (along the torch route). 

[ samsung ]

Corsair has released a extremely rugged line of USB 2.0 flash drives called Flash Survivor. Designed and engineered to be the industry’s toughest USB drive, Flash Survivor is water-resistant, CNC-milled aluminum encased, and shock-proof.

Available sizes : 

Users will find the Flash Survivor in 8GB (gigabytes) and 4GB versions.

Special features: 

- Devices come pre-loaded with a security application with 256bit AES encryption that allows users to create a hidden, password-protected partition on the drive.

- The device is water resistant to 200 Meters (650 Feet) / 20 Atmospheres.(thanks to a seal of EPDM (Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer).)

- It is also shock proof and additional protection comes from the use of rubber molded collar shielding.

Prices :

The Corsair Flash Survivor GT 8GB and Flash Survivor 4GB are available throughauthorized distributors, resellers, retailers and e-tailers worldwide, priced at US$129.99 (8GB) and US$59.99 (4GB).

[ Corsair Flash Drive ] 

Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed a new series of robots that are simple enough for almost anyone to build with off-the-shelf parts, but are sophisticated machines that wirelessly connect to the Internet.

Illah Nourbakhsh is a professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, which has one of the world's most prestigious robotics programs, and his research is funded by the likes of Google, Intel and Microsoft. But in the end, he says, he does it for the kids. 

Qwerkbot, a three-wheeled robot that can send images over the Internet, is one of several robots that can be built with the Telepresence Robot Kit (TeRK), a combination of a robot controller, commonly available parts and assembly instructions (recipes) developed by the CREATE Lab in Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute. Photo credit: Ken Andreyo/CMU

"[TeRK] is not only open from a software perspective, but also from a hardware perspective," Legrand says. "That's something this industry has never seen." 

via [ scientific american ] 

Make a video of the special thing in your pocket and share it with the world. The Video with the most number of hits will make it to the hall of fame, and if yours if judges the best of that week , you'll win a brand new Nokia N95.

Click here to participate .Win Nokia N95 

[ Win Nokia N95 ]

Nokia N95, a much-awaited smartphone with a unique handset design has started shipping in India. Nokia is never slow…their range of products is simply amazing.. Its just been 4 months in 2007 and Nokia is pretty fast ..recently it had launched N93i and now its N95.With this launch of N-95 ,the best in the hybrid N series ,Nokia is on top of the world !

Lets look at some of the features it has :

• HSDPA (3.5G) and GSM Quad-band
• 2.6-inch TFT LCD (240 x 320 pixels)
• GPRS, EDGE, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP and USB v2.0
• Built-in GPS navigation
• Symbian OS 9.2, Series 60 rel. 3.1
• WAP 2.0/xHTML & HTML support
• 5.0-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, flash and image stabiliser
• 160MB onboard memory with microSD expansion of up to 2GB (128MB included)
• 3.5mm audio output jack
• Stereo FM radio
• Office Document Viewer
• Built-in Handsfree
• Battery Life: Up to 220h (standby), Up to 6h 30 min (talk time)
• Dimensions: 99 x 53 x 21 mm
• Weight: 120g

What i liked is its navigation with its cool touch screen facility..

Some pictures :

The price of this new Nokia N95 is expected to be around 550 GBP (around Rs 48,000), which would make it the most expensive phone in India.

Surely a dream phone , but pretty expensive too..anyway..

A job well done to Nokia

via [ Nokia ] 

It’s petaDishoom’s first anniversary! For the past year, we’ve been your go-to source for everything from advice about living a cruelty-free lifestyle to info about getting active for animals. We’ve also been your source for the latest breaking dhamaka on the hottest trends and the hottest animal-friendly musicians, like Shaan, Kailash Kher, Shibani Kashyap, Palash Sen, Nitin Malik and Vishal Dadlani.

In honour of their anniversary and the awesome Indian singers who inspire PETA to challenge cruel, outdated attitudes about animals, they are giving all the dedicated “Dishoomers” a chance to win an iPod! Just fill out the form and you could be the lucky one to walk away with this awesome prize.

Contest Ends :  31 May

Demographics : (If you’re outside India, we’re sorry but this contest is not for you. Head over to peta2 for your chance to win other great goodies.)

so get rockin’!

[ PETA Contest ] [ PETA ] [ Volunteer @ PETA ]

I don't own ipod.Two days ago i had borrowed my friend's and it got stuck..completely frozen. Then i tried out these to get it back….

If your iPod is frozen or won't turn on, it may be because iPod is paused or the Hold switch is in the locked position. If so, a lock symbol appears on the screen. Slide the Hold switch to the unlocked position and check the screen.

If your iPod is frozen or won't turn on, the steps to reset it vary by model. But this works with most of them.

Steps :

1. Toggle the Hold switch on and off. (Slide it to Hold, then turn it off again.)
2. Press and hold the Menu and Center (Select) buttons simultaneously until the Apple logo appears, about 6 to 10 seconds. You may need to repeat this step.
3. After a few seconds, your device will reboot.

As i have to buy a Laptop very soon , i was going through some tips on how to use it efficiently,mainly on battery back up .. etc and fumbled upon this article by Jeremy Toeman .

Some of his tips are : 

• Brightness: how low can you go?
• Don’t use any external devices.
• Single-task, not multi-task.
• Keep it cool.
• Shut down unused services.
• Do Hibernate, Do Not Suspend
• Tweak advanced settings.
• Choose Wisely.
• Watch That Hard Drive.
• Like a Boy Scout, Be Prepared.

via [ 10 Tips on Maximizing Laptop Battery Performance ]