Toshiba develops 320Gb, 5400rpm credit card-size hard disk

1.8” hard drives — as used in the iPod Classic, the cheaper MacBook Air and some netbooks — a much slower than their more commonly used 2.5” counterparts, but their capacities are catching up.

Toshiba has just announced a 1.8” drive with capacities up to 320Gb and, better still, a 5400rpm spin-speed — those smaller, slower drives spin at 4200rpm. The drive has a 16Mb cache and data transfer rates “up to” 830Mbit/s.

The Toshiba MK1235GSL SATA drive is about the size of a credit card and can withstand operating shocks up to 500G — that’s a drop of a few feet onto the floor with the drive still spinning.

Faster, higher capacity 1.8” hard drives should make it possible for computer manufacturers to make slimmer netbooks with out sacrificing performance. They also offer a more cost effective option than SSD storage — the only real storage option if space is at a premium.

[Toshiba]

Dell Adamo XPS has a 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo and costs $1,800

The Dell Adamo XPS has broken cover again and several US tech sites have spent some quality time with the world’s thinnest laptop.

As we’ve already seen, the Adamo XPS has a folding case design that makes it particularly unsuited for use on a lap, but its extreme thinness — just 9.9mm — and 1.45kg weight mean that it’s still highly portable.

Less impressive is the reported battery life of two and a half hours, particularly for the entry-level $1,800 price tag (around £1,200). Still, at least the battery is replaceable…

There’s little in the way of new information in these fresh reports, but Dell has also revealed some more of the Adamo XPS’ specification and we now know that it has a 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo ULV processor and 4Gb of RAM. It’s also interesting to see some different photos of the Adamo XPS and get some first-hand feedback.

PC World has also seen some of the Dell Adamo XPS prototypes and the idea seems to have started out as a condensed all-in-one desktop PC. It’s also interesting to see how Dell’s engineers split the Adamo XPS motherboard in two to fit around the keyboard — there simply isn’t room inside the case for a more traditional stacked layout. Or at least there isn’t with a keyboard that has moving keys — one other idea Dell considered was a keyboard that used solid, touch-sensitive keys.

Here’s the rest of the specification:

• 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 4GB 800MHz DDR3 dual-channel memory
• Intel Ultimate-N WiFi Link 5300 (802.11a/g/n) Half Mini card
• Dell Bluetooth 2.1 adapter

Nokia Booklet 3G netbook

We’re still waiting to get our hands on the Nokia Booklet 3G, but review units are starting to circulate. Gizmodo has published a very short write-up of its experience with the netbook and it doesn’t have much to say, other than it’s very nicely made and has a very impressive battery life — six and a half hours of heavy use (constant 3G web browsing with the screen at 80% brightness).

The Nokia Booklet 3G is one of the first carrier-subsidised netbooks in the US and the verdict of both Gizmodo and CrunchGear is that it just isn’t worth the unsubsidised price of $600. It may have a 1280 x 720 screen, and built-in 3G and GPS, but the rest of the specification is as generic as they come — Intel Atom Z530 process, 1Gb RAM, 120Gb hard disk, and so on.

There’s no news on UK availability of the Nokia Booklet 3G yet, nor its price. With mobile operators already offering free netbooks with 3G data contracts over here, Nokia will need to be careful with the contract-free price if it’s going to tempt people away from a £300 netbook and a PAYG dongle deal.

First Windows 7 zero day exploit is spotted

A WINDOWS 7 zero day exploit has been spotted just a day after the operating system was declared risk free in Microsoft's monthly security bulletin.

The newly found bug was discovered by Laurent Gaffie and details were posted on the Full Disclosure mailing list.

The Vole is investigating the reported flaw which basically crashes a Windows 7 system when exploited.

It is caused by a flaw in the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol that forms the backbone of Windows file sharing. When triggered, the flaw results in an infinite loop that renders the computer useless, or at least more useless than it was before when Windows was still running.

The vulnerability hits Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. There are a couple different proof-of-concept exploits circulating but nothing so far that indicates the flaw is being attacked.

Crashing the system is not really much good for hackers and the flaw does not provide any unauthorized remote access that could lead to compromising information or performing other malicious activities.

A work-around to fix the problem involves blocking TCP ports 135 through 139 along with port 445, which stops SMB traffic from entering the network.

All fairly minor and unlikely, still it does rain on the Vole's parade a little. On Tuesday it was proudly saying there were no security bugs in Windows 7 and now it has to admit that there is one, even if it is no big deal. µ

Qualcomm combines 3G and 4G wireless technology

MOBILE CHIP SHOP Qualcomm has started providing wireless chipsets that combine 3G and 4G wireless technology.

The cunning plan is to help carriers transition to the next generation of wireless technology. While many carriers around the world plan to upgrade their networks to 4G using LTE, 4G signals will not be available everywhere and punters will need to roam on 3G networks.

Huawei Technologies, LG Electronics Novatel Wireless, Sierra Wireless, and ZTE have been named as testing the new chips, which will be in the shops in the second half of 2010.

Each chip allows wireless phones and other portable devices to switch between a 4G wireless network using LTE and HSPA Plus, a 3G wireless technology.

Meanwhile Qualcomm is providing a new set of mobile-device chips to manufacturers for testing that will add more multimedia features to new smartphones.

This chipset family supports high-definition video recording and playback, enhanced graphics, and an overall chip design that is optimised for the web.

Qualcomm expects phone makers to have devices that use the MSM7x30 family of chipsets commercially available by the end of 2010.

The chipsets will allow phones to operate on the most advanced 3G wireless networks, such as those running the latest generation of HSPA and EV-DO .

They have been adapted for use on Android, Brew, Symbian, and Windows Mobile operating systems. The company says that applications the chips could enable include a 12-megapixel camera, 720p video recording, and 3D gaming.

Meanwhile Qualcomm has been telling the world plus dog that its 1Ghz Snapdragon ARM chip will ship in an upcoming Lenovo smartbook.

AT&T will be flogging the ARM powered Lenovo smartbook and there is some talk that ARM is also into the small form-factor laptop market and could give Intel's Atom some serious competition.

The ARM Cortex-A8 core has 1GHz of processing power and is already being seen in a few smartphones. µ

Three Quiet PC Cases Reviewed

The ExtremeTech staff tends to build high-horsepower systems. First, we're all fairly serious PC gamers, but each of us also has uses for our PCs that require substantial compute and graphics horsepower.

We're also not big fans of noisy PCs.

Now, you can take an existing case, and tweak it substantially to be less noisy. We did that with our current system, which lives in an Antec P182. The P182 is designed to be a quiet case, but replacing the case fans with PWM controlled fans has made it even less noisy.

It's difficult making a high-performance PC that can handle serious visual computing chores absolutely silent without spending vast amounts of time and money. You can, however, build a PC that's reasonably quiet under idle conditions, with minimal noise increases at full load.

In the past, that would have meant some degree of case modding. This mostly involves adding sound deadening material and vibration-reduction accessories. The major PC case manufacturers have recently begun to step up to the plate, offering cases that ostensibly reduce noise levels and add some insulation to their designs. Today, we look at three such cases: the Antec Sonata Elite, the Cooler Master Sileo 500, and the NZXT Whisper.

These three cases have several things in common:

• Rolled steel construction
• No FireWire (1394) port
• An eSATA port (instead of the FireWire port)

Of course, to test quiet cases, you first need to build a system into them.

Testing Process

Testing cases that are designed to minimize noise necessarily means building a system and then seeing how much noise it produces. So we built up a fairly high-end system:

• Intel Core 2 Extreme Q9650 @ 3GHz (Check prices)
• Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro socket 775 CPU cooler (Check prices)
• Intel DX48BT2 motherboard based on the X48 chipset (Check prices)
• 2GB Corsair DDR3-1800 memory (Check prices)
• Western Digital VelociRaptor 10,000RPM, 300GB hard drive (Check prices)
• Lite-On 16x DVD+/-RW optical drive
• eVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 SSC (Check prices)
• Antec TruePower TP-750 750W PSU (Check prices)

Once we built the system, we installed Windows Vista Ultimate Service Pack 1 with all updates, plus the latest drivers. We also installed FurMark, a graphics card benchmark and stress test app, plus Prime95.

Note that we did not dress or organize the cabling. Taking a little care to tie down the cables could potentially reduce noise just a bit more, by reducing airflow blockage.

We kept the default fans installed in each case. If the case fans had the ability to attach to motherboard fan power connecters, we used that (two of the three cases had that capability).

Sound pressure level (SPL) readings were taken with an Extech 407759 SPL meter. Readings were A-weighted, and data was gathered in "slow" mode. First, we took the SPL reading in my basement lab, with no computers running, as a baseline. Next, we took readings of my production system, which has similar hardware to the test system, but lives in an Antec P182 case with quieter fans replacing the original Antec fans.

The sensor itself was mounted at roughly seated head height, one meter from the case, and pointed directly at the center, front of the chassis.

Readings were taken at two performance levels: idle and full load. Note that idle time readings were taken about 30 minutes after the system had booted and had time to stabilize. "Idle" means that all normal background tasks were running, but no foreground apps. "Full load" is defined with Prime95 running with four threads and FurMark running at 1920x1200 in stability test mode.

The full load SPL readings were taken after the system had been running under load for ten minutes.

So that's how testing was done. Now let's look at each case and then the noise levels generated by each system.

NZXT Whisper

The NZXT whisper is a big case, designed to support multiple graphics cards and extended ATX (eATX) server and workstation-class boards.

click on image for full view

The first impression when unpacking the case isn't positive: The door is a flimsy, plastic door. It has vents for airflow, but seems quite fragile. The door also lacks a 270-degree hinge, so doesn't lie flat against the case side when open. The power and reset switches are at the top left, and are exposed even with the door closed. Under the door are the 5.25-inch drive bays and a 120mm fan with the now-common blue LED.

click on image for full view

The Whisper actually ships with all its mounting hardware in individually categorized bags, neatly labeled. Also included is a rubber dampener for the power supply, to reduce vibration a bit. One thoughtful touch is the included PC beeper, since most cases (including the Whisper) no longer ship with a speaker.

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The Whisper offers the usual set of amenities you'd expect from a high-end case, including punchouts inside for cable management, liquid coolant tube cutouts with rubber grommets for external liquid cooling radiators, and bays for up to nine hard drives. Case fans are dual-power type, supporting both Molex four-pin power supply connectors and three-pin motherboard connectors.

click on image for full view

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The power supply is mounted at the bottom of the case, which lessens power supply fan noise.

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Front I/O ports are built into a flip-up block that's built into the top of the case. However, the pop-up doesn't always pop up cleanly, nor does it always snap back into place, contributing to a sense of flimsiness we felt when we saw the door. The tool-free optical drive blips also feel a little too light and fall off a little too easily.

click on image for full view

The case sides, bottom, and top are lined with eggcrate-style soundproofing foam.

click on image for full view

Note that the front of the case isn't foam lined, nor is the plastic door made of any type of composite sandwich material, unlike the Antec P180 or P190 series.

Since it's a large case, it's very easy to work inside the Whisper. Here's what the system looks like after component installation. Note that cables are not tied down or otherwise dressed. Continued…

click on image for full view

Novatech brings Nvidia stereoscopic specs to UK

BRITISH E-TAILER Novatech is boasting it will be the first in the UK market to flog Nvidia's expensive Stereoscopic 3D Glasses.

For the eye-popping price of £120.74 inc. VAT, punters can buy themselves a pair of the geeky wireless glasses, designed to even fit over prescription glasses.

Also, users with abnormally shaped noses, fear not! Nvidia has bunged no less than three adjustable nose pieces in the box so the specs will sit comfortably atop your shnozz.

Nvidia reckons the high price for its glasses is justified due to the super high quality plastic used to make them, and of course the fact it will allow users hours of dizzy nausea watching 3D films, playing 3D video games.

The glasses, which work via an infrared transmitter plugged into a PC's USB, are also powered by standard USB cable and can purportedly last a whole week without a recharge.

Of course, a user would have to have the appropriate Nvidia hardware and drivers to be able to use the specs, namely a GeForce 8800-series graphics card or better.

Apparently "over 350 games" are automatically converted to 3D when the glasses are donned, just so long as users also shell out enough for the special 120Hz LCD monitor which works with them.

Novatech, hoping to persuade punters to part with their hard-earned cash has decided to bundle a Samsung 2233RZ monitor with a pair of the geeky goggles for a hefty £290 inc. VAT.

Novatech reckons the Samsung 2233RZ, "displays 5:4 and 4:3 images at accurate aspect ratios without enlargement or distortion" and lets users set up a shortcut key to switch quickly between 2D and 3D.

We're not sure how many people are going to be willing to shell out close to £300 for a novelty 3D gaming experience, but we could just be being short sighted on theis one.

NV brings Quadro FX 4800 to the Mac

NVIDIA ANNOUNCED it is bringing its Quadro FX 4800 high-end graphics card to the Mac Pro platform.

The card sports 1.5GB of graphics memory and boasts memory bandwidth of up to 76.8 GB/sec. It has two Dual-Link DVI connectors, for big displays, and a a three-pin mini-DIN connector for you to plug in stereoscopic glasses, shoudl you feel the need.

And, if you don't have any nice pictures to look at or games to play, you can always use the card to work out your shopping bill, as it supports Nvidia's Cuda parallel processing jiggery-pokery.

Users wanting use Windows apps on their Macs can use the card with Boot Camp, or buy a proper PC.

Nvidia said the Quadro FX 4800 for Mac arrives in May at a cost of $1800.

Zotac's Atom-based, Ion ready M-ITX motherboards tip up

THE INQ HAS STUMBLED across not just the specs but also some pictures of Zotac's new Atom-based M-ITX motherboards, all set up for Nvidia's Ion platform.

Just weeks after Acer announced its mini-PC , the Aspire Revo - a mongrel with an Atom CPU and an NV 9400 chipset - Zotac appears to be jumping on the bandwagon and releasing two of its own Atom-based Mini-ITX motherboard models for the Ion.

The specs and a picture were originally posted on Chinese hardware site Expreview, but were forcibly pulled down by the powers that be.

Now the INQ has managed to get hold of them for your viewing pleasure.

According to the specs, Zotac's Ion ITX-A-U sports an Atom N330 dual core while the Ion ITX-B-E comes with an Atom N230 single core processor. Both boast Nvidia's MCP79 chipset and built-in GeForce 9400 GPU, all the better to support PureVideo HD, CUDA and PhysX, apparently.

The boards are fully equipped with HDMI, DVI and VGA outputs and both offer two DDR2 memory slots for a maximum capacity of DDR2-800.

Nvidia may want to make a lot of noise about Ion, but in the name of system silence, Zotac seems to have designed its kit so that the CPU and GPU sit quietly inside a big aluminum cooling rib.

Initial pricing indicates that the Ion ITX-A-U will cost some $303, whilst punters will have to shell out $202 for the Ion ITX-B-E.

Both will purportedly be available first in Japan, before hitting shelves elsewhere in the world.

Acer announces 10-inch Aspire One

Acer has this morning announced an updated version of its hugely popular Aspire One netbook which comes complete with a 10-inch screen, Windows XP and integrated Bluetooth.

Weighing in at 1.18kg, the new Aspire One should extend Acer's penetration into the netbook market, as it has rapidly moved on from smaller, sub 10-inch form factors adopted by earlier netbooks like the original Aspire One.

It combines a typical 10-inch LED-backlit LCD panel with a 1,024 x 600 native resolution and most of the remaining specifications will be familiar to anyone who has followed the netbook market over the past twelve months.

There's an Intel Atom processor (presumably clocked at 1.6GHz), an Intel 945GSE chipset and up to 2GB of memory. Networking is handled by the integrated 802.11b/g wireless module and there's also 10/100 Ethernet for those that love plugging themselves into the Internet. Bluetooth is also integrated and Acer says that there is the option to specify integrated WiMAX or 3G connectivity as well, should they float your boat.

Other specifications include a 160GB mechanical hard drive, a multi-card reader and an integrated Acer Crystal Eye webcam which the company says is optimised for "poorly lit environments."

The new Aspire One is equipped with a six cell battery, which Acer claims will last for up to seven hours - we'll be checking that out when we get one in for review. Interestingly, Acer has decided to drop the original Aspire One's custom Linpus Linux Lite operating system in favour of Windows XP on the updated model - a sign of the times, we reckon, as Windows XP seems to be the most popular option for netbooks these days.

Finally, Acer has said the new Aspire One will be available in mid-February for around £299 (inc. VAT) in its base configuration. This will include a one year warranty and none of the optional connectivity options. We'll leave you with some pictures of the device.

Sponticelli ShakingWeb

Web browsing on the iPhone takes a turn for the worse.

Price :

AU$2.49

Hovering over links shows detailed information

Extremely buggy, poor idea with poor execution, lacking necessary features

Sponticelli brings vibration reduction technology to a place where it wasn't needed. We can't think of a reason why anyone should pay for this app.

When Apple suddenly began allowing third-party Web browsers into the App Store (provided they are built off Web Kit), it sparked a question: is there room to improve on Safari? If ShakingWeb is any indication of the sophistication of third-party browser development for the iPhone, Apple has little to fear. Designed to make it easier to browse the Web while on public transport, the app is inferior to Safari and in no way a useful replacement.

Sponticelli has toyed with the user interface, changing Safari's greyish blue for a graphite scheme. It isn't the ugliest interface we have seen in a third-party iPhone app. ShakingWeb has most of the same controls as Safari, with a basic search bar as well as back, forward and reload controls. Unfortunately, the buttons are smaller than those in Safari; while this allows the app to maximise the screen real estate available for displaying Web pages, it makes the buttons harder to press.

Compared to Safari, the speed of ShakingWeb's user interface almost always lags — everything from clicking a link to zooming in to a Web page using multi-touch. Even screen reorientation — flipping the iPhone on its side for a wider view of a Web page — takes over four seconds, and sometimes freezes the app. Web site loading times are acceptably fast, but the cumbersome user interface makes site navigation a much poorer experience than using Safari.

Tabbed browsing, bookmarks, auto-complete and integrated search — all staples of browsing with Safari — are absent from ShakingWeb. Sponticelli admits that any link that requires a new window will not work as a result of the lack of tabbed browsing capability.

The lack of auto-complete and bookmarks forces users to type out whole Web site addresses even if they are regularly visited. Even small flaws, like automatic capitalisation, make using ShakingWeb arduous.

These failures could be dismissed if the app fulfilled its primary function of providing an easier browsing experience for public transport users. The app is based on the idea that public transport users are subjected to constant shakes and bumps, making Web browsing a difficult task. ShakingWeb uses the iPhone's integrated accelerometer to determine the amount of bumping and compensates by shaking the Web page portion of the screen. This is supposed to make it easier to read the screen.

By default, ShakingWeb will only shake the screen vertically; turn on Turbo mode and the app will shake horizontally as well. The amount of shaking that ShakingWeb applies is quite small, so the browser won't bounce around like an antiquated Windows screensaver.

Unfortunately, when we tested ShakingWeb on public transport and in other environments involving motion it did more to impair rather than improve our ability to read. The shaking isn't enough to blur the text, but it is enough to cause one's eyes to veer off focus, making reading harder.

Even if the algorithms behind ShakingWeb are tuned perfectly, the app solves a problem that no one seems to have. Even on the worst CityRail train it is generally possible to read the iPhone's screen. For those who do have a problem browsing Web sites on the iPhone in such situations, ShakingWeb will do little to help.

QStarz BT-Q1300

This GPS receiver is small as a keyring, but powerful enough to track your trek.

Price :

AU$149.00

QStarz's BT-Q1300 Travel Recorder is a Bluetooth GPS device that can be used to track and log your movements. Designed as a keyring, the BT-Q1300 can interact with Google Earth and Google Maps.

The Q1300 is one of the smallest GPS receivers we’ve come across. It's constructed largely of plastic, with gold edges and a fancy pattern on the front; the anti-slip rubber backing on the rear is also a nice touch. The unit has a power switch and a standard mini-USB port for charging, as well as four LED lights that denote power, GPS activity, logging and Bluetooth.

In addition to providing a GPS signal, the BT-Q1300 allows you to track your movements using Google Earth. To use this, you need to install the supplied software and drivers on your computer.

The GPS receiver isn't too difficult to use, though a quick read of the user guide is advised. The one-button operation may allow a slimline design, but it means a bit of fiddling is required to change modes. Holding down the button for four seconds turns it on, and holding for two seconds activates the logger. Simply tapping the button marks your current location as a waypoint. We were very impressed with speed — in most instances, the BT-Q1300 manages to lock onto a GPS signal in less than 30 seconds.

Once you've completed your trip or journey, you simply connect the unit to your PC and select the Read GPS option in the included travel recorder software. For Google Maps you can view your trip within the application window. For Google Earth, you'll need to export the log file. Conveniently, moving the mouse over the log trail shows relevant data, including time, date and speed.

The travel recorder software included with the unit allows you to adjust a number of settings, including how often data is logged. You can adjust this according to both time and speed. The software is largely unremarkable and could use a facelift, so like with the receiver itself it's best to read through the provided instructions before using it.

QStarz claims the BT-Q1300 can provide up to 12 hours of battery life from one full charge. An in-car charger is included in the sales package.

LG's new X120 netbook with Splashtop-powered instant on

We just bumped into LG's X120, a barely-differentiated followup to the X110 that's floating around the show floor. There's still a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, Windows XP and a 10-inch WSVGA screen, but what's new is the Splashtop-powered "LG Smart On" OS, which does the quick boot thing we've come to know and love on many ASUS products, the Voodoo Envy 133 and elsewhere. The effect, as always, is pretty stunning, and the OS should be helpful for a quick look at the web or to hop on IM over the laptop's WiFi connectivity. The netbook itself seems to have been tweaked a tad on aesthetics, but it's still a bit thicker than we'd like at this point for the netbook market. We're short on further details, but since the X110 did 3G, there's a good chance that'll be in play as well -- we're still waiting on PR from LG. In the meantime, you can check out a video of the startup after the break.