OCZ Apex 60GB SSD
It’s fair to say that we are still waiting for SSDs to take over the world. That’s partly due to pricing and also because most laptops shipping with them aren’t yet showing the earth-shattering benefits originally hoped for.
All the way from the lowly Asus EEE PC 2G Surf to the MacBook Air SSD, hopes of instant response performance and wild improvements in battery life have not quite materialized. Why is this?
There are several reasons which mostly boil down to ‘you get what you pay for’. In the SSD world, not every offering is ultra fast and low power. The ultra fast end of the SSD spectrum has until recently been hideously expensive to consumers and OEMs alike. This explains why not only the EEE Surf but also the original MacBook Air SSD failed to demonstrate groundbreaking performance improvements over traditional hard disk variants.
So should we still wait? Actually I say no. 
The way to do this is to find a computer you like and then find a great SSD to put in it. That way you can find an ultra fast SSD bargain at one of the many e-tailers striving for your business in this hammered economy. Best of all you pick the specs, not the OEM – and that’s crucial with the wide range of SSDs available at the moment. Many things which say SSD on the box sound exciting but are not actually anything spectacular.
With Windows 7 RC on the horizon I recently bought myself a 230MB/sec read OCZ Apex 60GB SSD for $149. By comparison Ars Technica benchmarked the Rev A MacBook Air SSD at just under 50MB/sec. My EEE and Acer Aspire One never even came close to 50MB/sec, let alone a wild 230MB/sec. Until recently 230MB/sec reads have been simply unattainable. After finding a free SATA port (as you can see my computer is a spaghetti of wires – do not mimic my setup) and the customarily breezy Windows 7 install, this thing simply flies. Random file and application access is really really fast, even on my ancient single core Pentium 4.
It’s a great time to look for a fast drive, prices have fallen and some great spec SSDs are going cheap. On a per GB basis they’re still very expensive, mine cost the same as having two 1TB spinning drives in a RAID setup. But if you choose wisely the performance gain is huge. I just hope the interior of your computer is a little more organized than mine!
Neil Berman
SSD: Would you like to supersize that?
Several recent ultraportables have sported a Solid State Drive, most notably the Asus EEE which has sold bucketloads to eager buyers (including myself).
Until now most SSDs have been conservatively sized, with the larger commercial offerings topping out at 64GB in the Samsung Q1 and MacBook Air. BitMicro clearly has bigger plans for the format though.
The company, which already has a one terabyte SSD in production, has recently announced plans to produce a 1.6 terabyte model. Applications include field use where extremely rugged hardware is required. By ‘extremely’ I mean your requirement would probably need to be ‘mission critical rugged’ for an organization to justify the likely huge price tag.
So although regular consumers might not be the first to purchase, it could be coming to your local infantry brigade sometime soon.
CES 2008 News: Trick Technologies
My CES 2008 news update comes in the following sections: Laptops & UMPCs, Home Entertainment, Media Players, Cellphones, Gaming and Trick Technologies. To read all the CES 2008 articles, click here. Details of dates, pricing and specifications described below are given from the best information available at the time of writing and may change at any time at each manufacturer’s discretion.
Trick Technologies
Solid State Drives
although this was a working concept rather than a production unit. 
Samsung were running a video showing the relative merits of SSD versus traditional hard disks, which highlighted SSD benefits in file access timing, battery performance and vibration tests. The company, which has been fitting 32GB SSDs into production Q1s for a while, announced that a 64 GB SSD version will be available in the new Q1 Ultra Premium range. Toshiba had an open SSD on display and as expected the drive simply looks like a 
large memory board with an array of storage chips in place of a traditional spinning platter. I would expect SSDs to become an ever increasing part of portable commputing and to fall in price as production volumes increase.
Killer SSD fact: SSDs are governed by Moore’s law, which states that the number of transistors on a chip doubles about every two years. We could therefore assume that at a given price point the capacity of an SSD should double every two years. Or, the cost of a given SSD capacity should roughly halve every two years. This means that at some future point I expect SSDs to become cheaper than traditional hard drives and therefore more widely implemented given the relative benefits of SSDs.
Toshiba Hand Gesture Recognition
Giving us hope that Minority Report style hand waving technology may be possible one day, Toshiba demonstrated a prototype Qosmio laptop which responded to hand gestures. 
By making certain gestures in front of the laptop’s webcam, the demonstrator was able to play, pause and search through a movie. Another gesture turned the hand into a vitual pointer, controlling on-screen mouse movement. This was made possible by development of Toshiba’s SpursEngine, a co-processor which takes processing of certain highly data intensive functions away from the CPU and graphics card. This allows the latter two to concentrate on what they are doing and gives the overall system more horsepower for rendering HDTV and certain other multimedia tasks. The software is already compatible with Windows Media Center. The best news about this technology is that we could see Qosmios rolling into stores with it onboard as soon as this year.
Wireless Rechargeable External Drives
External drives are great…until you want to access them on the move at which point you wish you’d bought a laptop with a bigger hard drive. Not for much longer.
Seagate demonstrated a prototype 1.8 inch external hard drive called the DAVE equipped with WiFi and a battery (rechargeable via USB). So this drive could stay in a bag whilst you access it from a laptop on a coffee table nearby. Seagate is aiming to give it cellphone-like battery life. It is unlikely that Seagate will sell the drive themselves just yet, at present the company is working with third parties to build software and market the product.
Organic Light Emmitting Diode Screens (OLED Screens)
This technology, once emerging, has now definitely emerged and is retail stores. OLED screens were some of the stars of the show, with dazzling screens on display from Samsung and Sony. See the home entertainment section for more details.
See photos and read CES news about: Laptops & UMPCs, Home Entertainment, Media Players, Cellphones, Gaming and Trick Technologies.
To read all the CES 2008 articles, click here.
Neil Berman
CES 2008 News: Laptops & UMPCs
For Part 2, click here.
In alphabetical order:
Asus came to CES with the R50A, which is a UMPC with a 5.6 inch screen due for release around the middle of 2008.
The R50A features a 1.33 GHz processor, 32 GB solid state drive (SSD), 1024 x 600 pixel widescreen, WiMax option and built-in GPS. It weighs only 520 grams but will face stiff competition from LG’s new UMPC entrant below. The Asus R2H will continue to be available and will be replaced by the R7 later this year. The R7 will retain the 7 inch screen form factor of the current R2.
Asus confirmed that 8 and 8.9 inch versions of the EEE PC are being developed. The current EEE PC was present in all its colors, with no confirmed release dates for either the successor models or Windows XP preloaded versions. 
Dell had an XPS M1730 World of Warcraft Edition on display with both an onboard Physics Accelerator and Logitech Game Control. 
The accelerator, previously only seen on their desktop range, enhances gameplay graphics whilst the Game Control gives the player live reporting of key in-game stats at all times. The M1730’s keyboard is backlit for gameplay in dark environments. The Dell XPS M1330 was also on show and continues to be a great looking design.
HTC’s Shift was on display and is due to ship in Q1 in the US or CDMA networks (Sprint and Verizon). 
The Shift uses an 800 MHz processor complemented by 1 GB RAM, a 7 inch screen and a 40 GB hard drive. The initial cost of the Shift should be around $1400, plus the cost of any subscriber services from the wireless carriers.
Intel said that laptops with embedded Wimax technology will be released in mid-2008.
LG were showing off a prototype UMPC with a 4.8 inch screen and a built in slide out keyboard with trackpad. Powered by a 1.6 GHz Intel Menlow processor, the UMPC was running Vista Home Premium. 
Also onboard are 1 GB of RAM, a 40 GB hard drive and it all weighs in at just 590 grams. There’s no pricing yet but an LG representative said that production is likely in 2008. In an interesting design cue, the pointer is stored in a tiny lipstick style hard case which dangles off the side of the computer.
New entrant LimePC showed off three pre-production UMPCs of various screen sizes ranging from mid-size down to very small (approx 3 inches or so). 
All had a Linux distro with a Web 2.0 interface driven by a Power PC triple-core architecture from Freescale. The CPU has a miniscule 2w power consumption. Q2 production was being suggested and sales channels are being worked out as we speak, although no details or pricing are currently available. There were also desktop and living room versions on display.
Microsoft’s ‘Spotlight on Fashion’ show highlighted some Vista laptops at the cutting edge of design. Featured models included Lenovo’s new U110 and the wafer thin Sony Vaio TZ (see top).
Sandisk demonstrated a few proof of concept laptops with solid state drives (SSD) installed. One was an Apple Macbook, which had a 64 GB SSD onboard and booted up in seventeen seconds. 
The Sandisk representative I spoke to said that he was not aware of any plans to start supplying SSD drives into MacBooks in a production capacity; the prototype on display was solely a concept machine.
Tablet Kiosk had an EO 7300 concept on display, which is a prototype UMPC with modular add-ons. These modules include USB ports and additional batteries. The 7300 concept can accommodate one module on either side of the screen, so two batteries can be fitted simultaneously. The company is currently seeking feedback from the community and hopes to release a production version sometime in Q3 2008. Meanwhile the current EO will shortly be updated to offer a 1.2 GHz VIA processor.
Read more in part 2
See photos and read CES news about: Laptops & UMPCs, Home Entertainment, Media Players, Cellphones, Gaming and Trick Technologies.
To read all the CES 2008 articles, click here.
Neil Berman
Asus EEE PC Review
Latest: Click here to read the CES 2008 laptop and UMPC news, including details of the Asus R50 UMPC
After weeks of low supply, the Asus EEE PC has finally appeared. I spent some eagerly awaited quality time with the small, cute and cheap 4G model.
UMPCs: When size does matter
Next to a regular ultraportable the Asus EEE PC is noticeably smaller. It´s also thinner, most likely due its lack of optical or mechanical hard drives. It does however still manage to pack in a VGA output, Ethernet port and 3 USB 2.0 connectors without needing a port replicator.
The screen is also smaller than most ultraportables at seven imches, the same size as Samsung’s Q1 series. However in the case of the EEE this seems to be to keep the cost down than anything else.
The keyboard is also a shrunken affair but is surprisingly easy to use. I was able to type lines of text accurately without any need to acclimatize. This will depend on finger size but I was pleasantly surprised. For such a thin laptop the keys also have a positive feel with a decent amount of travel.
The EEE PC has a traditional trackpad which 
has a separated section on the right hand side. Using the media player this section controlled playback volume. The trackpad was fairly responsive to movement but less so to taps, although it is usable. There´s only one button, like a Mac, but improving on Apple’s design the left side of the button gives a left click and the right side gives a right click (thanks for the pointer Neil). Great idea and works well in practise.
In comparison to competitors, the EEE dwarfs the Fujitsu U810 (above) and Sony UX380N (below).
It’s cheap, but can I actually use this thing in real life?
Switch on the EEE and it boots quickly (I counted 24 seconds) into a home screen with big icons and tabs. It looks ultra easy to use and find what you want.
In this regard it’s similar to the iPhone home screen. But then I always thought the iPhone home screen looks simple because it only has a few preloaded applications. The EEE is similar, with limited applications it’s easy to give everything a big icon. I expect most owners will never add any applications anyway, as much of what you need to get going is included right out of the box.
The EEE ships with internet, office and media playback software sitting on top of its Linux operating system. The look and feel is overtly Windows XP and when I was using the file explorer I actually had to do a double-take to check I was not using an early shipment of XP preloaded EEEs.
Following years of anti-Microsof sentiment from some corners of the IT community, it is somehow ironic that Windows has become so popular that competitors either mimic it or allow users to run it on their own environment to attract switchers.
Using the internet browser will be straightforward for most owners, with the exception that some sites optimized for Internet Explorer may not work properly. I occasionally find this on my Macbook and Nokia tablet with their respective Safari and Mozilla browsers. Similarly the office software is not Microsoft Office so again there may be compatibility issues if you are trying to share files with MS Office users, although some common file formats are supported. The media player is also less friendly than iTunes or Windows Media Player but is usable nonetheless.
All of this of course results from the low cost of the EEE. Building a Linux system is much cheaper than building a Mac or Windows system. Unfortunately file, application and peripheral compatibility is where you ultimately pay for this. So make sure that whatever you want to do is Linux compatible before you purchase your EEE. The alternative is to either install Windows (which can be done by running the installation from an external drive), or wait for the Windows preloaded version to be released. Of course this will have a cost implication and if you then want to run Microsoft Office then this is another $150 as a home user.
The EEE PC 4G’s lid houses a webcam. This is missing from the cheaper models in the range, but a fantastic feature to have if you can afford a higher end EEE. The quality of the camera is on a par with similar devices in other laptops. Every laptop should have one of these!
EEE owners are likely to take their units around with them due to the small sixe, so how is it likely to stand up to road use? 
First impressions are that the EEE seems well built with an assuringly solid looking hinge mechanism. Apart from this and the keys, the EEE is pretty low on moving parts. There are no mechanical hard or optical drives to break in transit so some risk associated with traditional laptops is not present in the EEE. Of course it is still vulnerable to failure like all electronics, but hopefully Asus’ choice to go for a solid state drive will save many a users’ data on a bad day.
So is it the bEEE’s knEEE’s?
If you’re a light, or adventurous, user then don’t let my compatibility comments put you off. For mobile corporate users running thin client software this is also a winning solution. It’s the middle tier of users I think are likely to struggle. These are the people who want to do funky things now and again and might not have the knowledge to do it quickly in Linux. If you’re one of these people then you may prefer to wait for the Windows version.
If on the other hand you’re happy with EEE’s preloaded goodies or are a Linux lover then this is the IT bargain of 2007. Expect other companies to follow…
May 2008 update: Read the Asus EEE 900 vs HP Mini-Note 2133 comparo here.
Jan 2008 update: As predicted above, others have followed. Read about Everex’s $399 here.
See photos and read CES news about: Laptops & UMPCs, Home Entertainment, Media Players, Cellphones, Gaming and Trick Technologies.
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To read all the CES 2008 articles, click here.
For details of the new Asus R50 UMPC, click here.
The colored EEEs are now available, click here for photos
Neil Berman
Asus EEE, Where Art Thou?
The Asus EEE PC is here. At under four hundred dollars, this is THE hottest property in IT right now.
With a proper stength Intel processor, the two pound ultraportable ships with Linux (Windows XP version apparently on the way), an integrated webcam and a solid state 4Gb hard drive for ultra-fast access times. Wifi, USB and an SD expansion slot are included.
Neil Berman
theONbutton
Turning the world on, one gadget at a time.
