Portable Electronics // Technology you can carry.

I think all the video lovers or holiday goers would love to have one of these mobile projector connected to a PMP player...........and enjoy VGA resolution images at as large as 40 inches.

I wonder how much the unit cost...........I think it would be fantastic to connect one into our next generation PMP

Some useful statements as quoted from Tom's hardware

"The most energy-efficient drives are those that run at low rotation speeds such as 4,200 RPM - or even 3,600 RPM for 1.8" hard drives."

"SATA drives generally require more power than UltraATA models."

"to the power consumption results: Samsung is slightly more efficient, while the WD drive requires slightly more power. The Travelstar 5K250 doesn't have any significant disadvantage either."

Hitachi have announced the availability of 500GB 2.5" hard disk 5k500 worldwide from Feb 2008.

Note: this is a 3 platter 12.5mm drive. Not the traditional 2 platter 9.5mm notebook hard disk.

US$400 for 500GB, US$350 for 450GB

Can't wait to see that happen

Fujitsu released the news in Engadget, MacNN, Digital Trends, Physorg, etc

Seagate is going to offer SSD (solid state drives) for desktop and laptop computers sometime in 2008.

Nice, looks like end-users will have more choices and affordable prices for SSD drives in 2008. Current SSD drive price in NZ/AU is insane, RRP price is often several times of normal USB stick and literally forbids anyone from using it as an alternative to standard hard disk in laptop or mobile storage devices or mp3/mp4/pmp players.

From the inquirer

• Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR)
• Bit Patterned Media (BPM)
• E-beam lithography

= ~10 more years till we see 10TB laptop drives.....

See Zdnet for the details

Key points

Largest 2.5" hard disk today - 320GB Toshiba MK3253GSX, MK3252GSX

Largest 1.8" hard disk today - 160GB Toshiba MK1626GCB (press release) 

Rumour has it that some manufacturers have stopped manufacturing PATA 2.5" hard drives.

Looking at the market, the absence of new PATA drive models does signify this point. The inquirer reported that Seagate's roadmap points to the end of IDE by the end of this year and everything will be SATA in the future...........this means that those who are still using PATA drives and looking for upgrades should do so before PATA disappears from the market!!!!!