500GB
”Rumor Says Xbox 360 Getting Another Price Cut in September
The Xbox 360 "price cut" in July wasn't so much a price cut as it was a swapping of parts, but Ars says there's an actual price cut coming in September. According to their source—who also told them about the impending 60GB switch-out prior to E3—the Arcade is dropping to $199, the 60GB Pro to $299, and the 120GB Elite to $399. So say we all. [Ars Technica]Dealzmodo: 16GB Corsair Flash Drive for $34 After Rebate
Today's Newegg deal involves a $30 mail-in-rebate, but it's a pretty damn good price for a 16GB flash drive. Enter in the $5 promo code EMCAHDBAJ found on their savings page and you'll get $5 off, which coupled with the $30 rebate nets you a drive at $34. What can you do with a 16GB flash drive? What can't you do? [Newegg - Thanks Adam!]60GB XBox 360 Shows Up in a NYC Target
If you are too impatient to wait for an August delivery, you should know that a 60GB console has shown up on the shelves of a NYC Target. It's not a guarantee that your local store will have it in stock, but might be worth a trip just in case. [Penny College]Samsung's i8510 Boasts Almost Everything, Plus An 8 Megapixel Camera
Samsung has a new slider on the market in Europe and we're hoping it finds its way over here. The i8510 is a S60-powered GSM phone with very fast 3G speeds and Wi-Fi, as well as GPS. What makes this high-end phone lust-worthy, though, is the 8 Megapixel multifunction camera with Xenon flash that can record video at up to 120 frames per second. It also has image stabilization and face recognition as well as other features. Couple that with Bluetooth 2 and 16GB of internal flash storage and you've got a serious, slim phone for T-Mobile users. And it looks really nice, too. [Symbian Guru]Toshiba's Slim 2.5-inch Hard Drive Beefed Up to 400GB
Toshiba's just added a 400GB model to its range of 2.5-inch drives destined for notebook use. Not content with upping the capacity, the 9.5mm deep MK4058GSX is also designed for low noise emissions, and somehow squeezes those extra gigs onto only two platters. And it consumes 20% less power than its predecessor 320GB version, which sounds like good news for laptop battery life. It even earns green credentials as it's low enough in chlorine and bromine to be recognized as Toshiba's first 2.5-inch HDD "environmentally conscious product." It goes into mass production in September. Another five 7,200rpm HDDs also released at the same time are documented in the (enormously long) press release. More »Dell Selling 128GB SSDs in Notebooks for $600
Erica Ogg of CNet informs us that hot on the heels of the $500 price cut for the MacBook Air's 64GB SSD, Dell is offering a 128GB SSD for $600 in their "Latitude, XPS, Alienware and Precision laptop models." I'm glad to see these things moving toward more reasonable prices so quickly, perhaps thanks to recent news of Samsung's cheaper production of parts, but it can never be quick enough. [CNet]
Xbox 360 60GB Available for Amazon Pre-order, Ships Aug. 4
The 60GB Xbox 360 just popped up on Amazon for pre-order. They've got it listed for $349.99 (duh), shipping out Aug. 4. The price cut on the 20GB Xbox 360 is in full effect, too. [Amazon, Thanks Chris!]Samsung Starts Mass Production of Cheap 128GB MLC Solid State Drives
We mentioned it back in February, and Samsung has now come good with its promise, announcing today that it's started mass-production of 128GB SSDs. They're of the slightly slower but cheaper multi-level cell technology, with a read speed of 90MBps and write speed of 70MBps. And Samsung claims they'll have a life span around "20 times longer than the generally accepted 4-5 year life span of a notebook PC hard drive." It'll be interesting to see what this move does to the price of SSDs, particularly now that we like them again. Press release below. More »Pioneer Pushes Blu-ray Discs to 16 Layers, 400GB Capacity
Just last month we were reporting 42GB research DVD technology, but Panasonic's scientists have blown that figure out of the water with a 400GB optical disc. The trick's been done by making a 16-layer deep Blu-ray disc, and a player with sufficiently clever optics that it can pick up the light scattered by all those layers. The player is also compatible with standard Blu-ray, and for now it's limited to playback only, designed to demonstrate the technology. But apparently in the future you'll be able to burn 400GB Blu-ray discs, which is mind boggling. [Impress]Xbox 360 Price Cut Rumor Round-Up: 20GB Cheaper to Make Room for 60GB Model
First, there was the leaked K-Mart circular revealing a sweet $50 price cut to the Xbox 360 Premium. Since then, the possibility has gotten firmer. Notably the Hollywood Reporter says that a "major retailer" and industry sources have informed them the cut will happen before E3 (though they call it the Pro). And usually reliable Ars Technica says the 20GB model is getting cheaped out to be replaced by that rumored 60GB model. More »Sub-$500 128GB Drive from OCZ May be the SSD You've Been Saving For
OCZ's new Core Series SSD's are designed to be large and affordable. So the new 2.5-inch SATA II flash drives are coming in 128GB, 64GB and 32GB sizes at $479, $259 and $169 respectively. They don't match up to the 200Mbps read speeds Samsung has promised—managing 135Mbs— but that price point is pretty low. And while they're too big to drop into the smallest laptops (MacBook Air owners will weep), they might be just the ticket for people looking to cheaply upgrade to SSD—OCZ claim ten times faster than their HDDs and half the power. Available "soon." Press release below. More »Japanese Researchers Make 42GB DVD That's Compatible With Nothing
Dudes in the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials in Tohoku University just developed a 42GB DVD that's backwards compatible with nothing. The new tech uses a V shape in the pits—current pits are just pits—which allows nine times more information to be held on the same sized disc. The downside is that current CD and DVD drives cant' read it, so you'll have to purchase all new tech in order to use this. It's also not capable of being adapted to Blu-ray drives, so there's little to no incentive for the industry to add this in to this generation either. But nice work (in theory), Japanese researchers! [Crunchgear]
Samsung's 500GB HDD and 250GB/7200 RPM HDD For Laptops
Today Samsung announced that two new laptop hard drives, the Spinpoint M2 and M6, are ready to ship with specs that offer a 2.5-inch 250GB HDD with a 7200rpm rotation and SATA II 3.0Gbps along with a 500GB HDD with a 5400rpm spindle speed, 8MB cache, and 3.0Gbps SATA respectively. That makes the M2 one of the fastest laptop hard drives on the market and the M6 the highest capacity laptop hard drive on the market. The Spinpoint M6 is available for $299 and the MP2 fort $199. Full details are available in the press release after the break. More »Microsoft to Release 60GB Xbox 360?
With E3 just around the bend, Trusted Reviews is reporting that Microsoft will announce a new Xbox 360 SKU at the event—a 60GB unit that's been rumored for a while. There's no word on just how Microsoft will incorporate system into its line (which is currently three models offering no hard drive, a 20GB hard drive or a 120GB hard drive), but we're betting that it will outright replace the 20GB Xbox 360 Premium. And hopefully its 60GB drive will be available as a cheaper standalone upgrade than Microsoft's current college-tuition-inhaling 120GB drive. [Trusted Reviews]Toshiba Beefs Up 5400rpm 1.8-Inch Drives to 160GB
Just a few months ago we reported that Toshiba had turned up the spin-speed on its 1.8-inch hard drives to 5400 rpm. And now Toshiba's squeezed yet more storage onto those tiny spinning platters, beefing the storage capactity up to 160GB. Apparently it's the industry's first such drive with a serial ATA interface and it's exactly the sort of thing that could become your ultra-portable PC's new best friend when it goes into mass production in August, alongside a smaller 80GB version. Full press release below.
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