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