PATREONItems tagged with TAL
Concerns over the working conditions in the Chinese factories that pump out our beloved electronics--particularly those electronics with the Apple logo emblazoned upon them--have certainly been raised before, but an episode of the radio show “This American Life” back in January sparked very focused interest on the subject. TAL brought in Mike Daisey to convert his one-man show about the working conditions in Apple's Shenzen factories and other locations into a compelling radio program, which generated enough attention that major media outlets such as the New York Times looked into it. Public pressure on Apple to take more responsibility over its overseas factories and increase transparency...
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At a time when many hard drive manufacturers are looking into producing SSDs (solid state drives) as a way to create a new market opportunity, Western Digital is dragging its feet. Claiming the company is open to entering the SSD market when it presents "appropriate opportunity," Richard Rutledge, Western Digital's SVP for marketing, recently shed a bit more light on the company’s position with regards to this segment of the market.According to Rutledge, "Western Digital enters markets that exist, announces products when they are available, and runs a tight model with opportunities greater than resources such that we take a controlled, methodical, sequential, incremental approach to product portfolio...
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Today, Olympus announced a new D-SLR that rounds out the company’s E-System lineup and offers new features that the company expects to be particularly appealing to users who are looking for artistic gratification. The new E-30 fits in Olympus’s E-System lineup above the E-520 as a mid-range D-SLR, while remaining below the flagship E-3 model. The E-30 offers many of the consumer-friendly features you’ll find on the E-520, while still offering high performance and imagining quality that professionals demand. The two new, and perhaps most innovative, features included with the E-30 are Art Filters and Multiple Exposure capabilities. Many of us use Photoshop or another powerful image editing program...
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Super Talent Announces 18-Carat Solid Gold USB DriveLimited Edition 8GB Pico-C Drive is the Ultimate Executive GiftSan Jose, California – October 28, 2008 – Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced a limited edition 18-carat solid gold USB drive that comes with a serialized Certificate of Authenticity. The Pico-C has become the hallmark of style and quality in USB drives. Prized for its beautiful design and incredibly small size, the Pico-C is also water resistant and fast, supporting up to 200X (30MB/sec) data transfer speeds. The Pico-Cs amazing qualities account for the scores of prestigious Awards the Pico-C has amassed,...
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It looks like Dell is moving forward with its somewhat bizarre idea of pre-bundling movies starting at $25 a pop onto new systems. Dell's first foray into this new business model was a few weeks ago when you could order Iron Man pre-installed on a Dell system. Now that it has partnered with CinemaNow, the selection of titles grow. The press release is below...Dell Jump-Starts Digital Libraries with Pre-Installed Movies Powered by CinemaNowMovie Bundles include Spider-Man, The Matrix, and Children’s pack starting at $25Round Rock, Texas, October 23, 2008--Today Dell and CinemaNow teamed to provide a simple, economical way to jump-start a digital music library by pre-loading movie bundles on select...
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Super Talent Develops Small Solid-State Drives (SSDs) for Hard Disk Drive Replacement 0.85-Inch and 1.0-Inch SSD Uses Intel® NAND Flash-based Solid-State Drive technology SAN JOSE, Calif. – Oct. 22, 2008 – Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced two new ultra-small solid-state drives (SSDs) that were developed using Intel technology for use in UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) and DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) devices.Super Talent is introducing 1.0-inch and 0.85-inch SSD models, both of which employ a parallel ATA (PATA/IDE) interface with a ZIF connector. These are definitely among the world’s tiniest SSDs, designed...
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Super Talent Rolls Out Luxio™ 64GB USB Drives High Capacity USB Flash Drives with Premium Style and FeaturesSan Jose, California – October 21, 2008 – Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today launched a new family of high performance, feature rich Luxio USB drives in capacities up to 64GB. A 64GB Luxio drive can store as many as 20,000 six megapixel photos or 16,000 MP3 songs. Luxio drives are housed in a sleek 21 x 76 x 10 mm UV coated ABS/PC case with chrome plated zinc trim. All models include advanced AES-256 hardware encryption as a standard feature for fast, convenient data security. Offered in three colors, black,...
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Super Talent Launches SSDs for Asus Eee PCsUp to 64GB Mini PCI-Express Cards Give Eee PC Users New Upgrade Options San Jose, California – October 7, 2008 – Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced a new line of mini PCI-Express SSDs, available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities, that were designed explicitly for the Asus Eee PC. Standard Eee PCs have maximum 20GB of storage. These cost-effective upgrade cards offer up to 64GB of solid state storage. Super Talent’s Mini PCIe cards have been tested extensively with Asus Eee PCs to ensure performance and compatibility. Super Talent Director of Marketing, Joe James mentioned,...
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EVGA 790i SLI FTW DIGITAL PWMThe Mainboard for the Champions – Engineered For The WinHolding 4 new world records - https://www.futuremark.com/community/halloffame/ Brea, California and Munich, Germany - October 01, 2008 - EVGA Corporation, the leading-edge 3D processor and motherboard manufacturer, announces the latest EVGA-designed addition to its line of high-performance 3-Way-SLI-ready motherboards, the EVGA nForce 790i SLI FTW DIGITAL PWM. Engineered For The Win, early samples of this motherboard already set 4 new performance world records at NVIDIA’s NVISION in late August 2008 in San Jose, California. Featuring an EVGA enthusiast BIOS for extended range voltage settings, 100% solid...
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As anyone with a teenager knows, text messaging is quite popular among those in that age range. And a recent Nielsen Mobile survey has concluded that not only has text messaging become the most popular form of communication using a cell phone, the group that texts the mosts (go figure) is in the 13 - 17 year range.The study determined that in the period from Q1 2006 - Q2 2008, the number of monthly calls per user has remained stable, at around 200. But the number of text messages have skyrocketed from 65 per month in Q1 2006 to 357 per month in Q2 2008. And take a look at the distribution of text messages per age group:Average Number of Monthly Calls vs. Text Messages Among...
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Super Talent Launches Dangerously Fast New SATA-II SSDsSupport up to 170MB/sec Read and 130MB/sec Sequential Write Speeds San Jose, California – September 16, 2008 – Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today added two new series of SSD products in their MasterDrive family that deliver substantially faster performance than existing SSDs.These new SSDs are based on a sophisticated new multi-channel SATA-II (3.0 Gbits per sec) controller. The MasterDrive OX uses MLC NAND Flash to transfer data at speeds up to 150 MB/sec (sequential read) and 100 MB/sec (sequential write). The MasterDrive OX is offered in capacities up to 128GB, and...
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WD SHIPS 500 GB CAPACITY NOTEBOOK HARD DRIVESCompany Expands Industry Leadership in Areal Density at 250 GB-Per-Platter For 2.5-inch Standard Form Factor Notebook Hard Drives LAKE FOREST, Calif. – Sept. 12, 2008 - WD (NYSE: WDC) today announced that it has commenced volume shipments and OEM qualifications of its WD Scorpio Blue 2.5-inch notebook hard drives with capacities up to 500 GB. Utilizing industry-leading 250 GB-per-platter technology, the new WD Scorpio Blue 500 GB and 400 GB SATA hard drives are designed for notebook computers and portable storage devices.WD Scorpio Blue delivers high-performance with a 3 Gb/s transfer rate, while including proprietary features that make the drive extraordinarily...
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As we wrote earlier, Wilmington, N.C. was getting to be the victim, er, volunteer city in a full-on digital TV experiment. What was the expectation? Well, the hope was that it would be a smooth transition, especially since Wilimington has a lower percentage of residents who would be affected by the changeover. But it sure as heck wasn't smooth, after the switch was thrown on Monday at 12 noon EDT.The test in Wilmington, where officials had made a concerted effort to get the word out about the switch, is a good indication that more education is needed. According to the Journal, by mid-afternoon roughly 74 calls had been placed to two TV stations, WSFX-TV, a Fox affiliate, and...
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Solid State Drive technology is set to turn the storage industry on its ear; there is little doubt of this. When you consider the intrinsic benefits of anything built on solid state technology versus anything mechanical, it doesn't take a degree in physics to understand the obvious advantages. On the following pages, we thought we'd level-set the features, performance and pricing landscape for you with respect to the current state of SSDs. Today, we have a look at four different SSD offerings, two from OCZ, one from Mtron and another from Super Talent. Is a Solid State Disk in your future? We'll try to help you answer that question in this full performance evaluation...
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Solid State Drive technology is set to turn the storage industry on its ear; there is little doubt of this. When you consider the intrinsic benefits of anything built on solid state technology versus anything mechanical, it doesn't take a degree in physics to understand the obvious advantages. Consider the vacuum tube in its day before the advent of the transistor and you'll get the idea. Though audiophiles may argue the tube still sounds "warmer" and more natural, you certainly wouldn't even been reading this page, if it were not for solid state technology. As such, it's a natural evolution that obviously, some day, better technology needed to be developed for mass storage. ...
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There's simply no denying that many tech enthusiasts love all things small. As of late, with the likes of products such as the Asus Eee PC, Lenovo ThinkPad X200, Dell Studio Hybrid and other small form-factor systems; thin, small and light is definitely "in" and has become a fad of sorts. What is this obsession with small? What ever happend to big, clunkly and overbearing? You can't turn around these days without bumping into something that looks like it was designed to work best in Munchkin Land or Gary Coleman's gym bag. Regardless, it seems Super Talent isn't about to give us manly men, who like big, nasty, in-your-face computer gear, a break from the...
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Broadcom to Acquire Digital TV Business from AMD- Acquisition Expected to Bring Broadcom Scale, a Complete Product Line to Address All Segments of the Digital TV Market and Expand Tier One Customer Base -IRVINE and SUNNYVALE, Calif. — August 25, 2008 — Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, and AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that the companies have entered into a definitive agreement for Broadcom to acquire AMD’s digital TV (DTV) business.The acquisition of AMD’s DTV business is expected to enable Broadcom to immediately scale its DTV business, and, in conjunction with its existing products, to offer a complete product line...
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Vudu might be on to something with its new promotion: "Stay in. Rent four movies for the price of 1 gallon gas!" At today's prices for movie tickets, concession snacks, and the cost of gas for getting to and from the theater, a family of four could easily spend upwards of a $100 for a night out at the movies. Staying at home and watching movie rentals means you'll miss out on the latest releases, but a quick gander at Vudu's catalog shows that its rental offerings include many A-list titles, including some films that were recently in the theaters. Vudu is a video on-demand streaming service that streams movies over a broadband Internet connection to a $299 Vudu Box device connected to your TV....
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Italy has been showing BitTorrent no mercy lately. First, Italy shuts down the country's largest BitTorrent tracker site, Colombo-BT.org, a couple of weeks ago; and now it is trying to block country-wide access to The Pirate Bay--the Swedish-based BitTorrent site that claims to be "the world's largest BitTorrent tracker"--by ordering all Italian ISPs to block access to The Pirate Bay. According to TorrentFreak, the initial country-wide blocking of the site was successful: "An insider working at an Internet provider in Italy told TorrentFreak that all the relevant large access ISPs in Italy have complied with the request to block the popular BitTorrent tracker." However, The Pirate Bay was quick...
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The latest Catalyst driver suite, version 8.7, is available for download from the AMD website. In addition to a number of big fixes for both Windows XP and Vista, these drivers add official support for the recently release Radeon HD series of graphics cards and a handful of performance enhancements for single-card and CrossFire configurations. Here's a snip from the release notes... Performance Improvements: The following performance gains are noticed with this release of Catalyst. 3DMark Vantage: Performance increases of up to 20% is noticed in the Performance Preset on single card configured systems when using ATI Radeon HD 36xx or ATI Radeon HD 34xx products Company of Heroes...
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Super Talent MasterDrive SSD Gets a Performance Boost Notebook SSD Line Now Supports Dramatically Faster Write Speeds San Jose, California – July 22, 2008 – Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced that the company has dramatically improved the write speeds of its MasterDrive DX, MasterDrive KX and MasterDrive MX solid state drives (SSDs). These three series of SSDs already boast exceptionally fast read speeds of up to 120 MB/sec. But, fast write speeds are important in applications such as video editing and encoding, image processing, compressing and extracting files, installing applications and copying files to the drive....
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OCZ Technology Unveils First Fatal1ty Brand DDR2 and DDR3 Memory After Partnership Announcement Get the Gear Used by the Pros Sunnyvale, Calif. -July 21, 2008- OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and PC components, today announced the first memory modules available in their Fatal1ty Series after the partnership was announced last month. These high-performance memory kits were co-developed with the expertise of Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel, 12-time World champion, to meet the specific needs of fellow gamers. OCZ Fatal1ty Professional Series kits are the official memory modules of Championship Gaming Series (CGS), and feature...
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