| Super Talent TerraNova SSD Brings Blazing-Fast Performance Posted: 09 Dec 2011 03:06 PM PST  What to do when an SSD just isn't fast enough? Super Talent would like you to buy its new TerraNova SSD. This little piece of silicon is capable of a theoretical max 540MB/s read and write speeds. The drive packs up to 480GB of storage and uses a new SandForce 2200 controller to get those insane speeds.
The drive connects to the computer over SATA III 6Gbps, and Super Talent's data shows that the smaller capacity versions of the TerraNova actually perform a little better for write speeds than the top of the line 480GB model. Specifically, the 240GB model hits 520MB/s in testing. The 480GB edition tops out at 480MB/s. Super Talent has apparently begun shipping just today, so the drives should be in stock soon. The pricing will start at $109 for a 60GB drive, and reaches a stratospheric $920 for the 480GB unit. |
| AT&T's Worst Nightmare, Judge May Delay T-Mobile Merger Case Posted: 09 Dec 2011 02:46 PM PST  Things just keep getting worse for AT&T as it tries to ram its $39 billion T-Mobile buyout through the courts. The Justice Department has asked a judge to postpone the start of the case seeking to block the merger, which was slated to start in February. AT&T was hoping that a quick resolution to the case would allow it to continue with the deal. Now that could be impossible.
The Justice Department's argument is that expedited proceedings were no longer needed since AT&T had pulled its FCC application for the merger, and the company would need that to continue anyway. The DOJ also floated the idea of dropping the case until such time as AT&T re-filed with the FCC. The judge openly expressed concern that AT&T would alter the terms of the deal when going back to the FCC. This would result in another unnecessary trial. Analysts have speculated that if the case is delayed, T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom could back out. It is eager to so something with its US branch, and waiting around for a year while the courts hash things out isn't on the agenda. |
| Motorola Wins Patent Case Against Apple in Germany, Can Block iPhone Imports Posted: 09 Dec 2011 02:32 PM PST  Apple is accustomed to being on the winning side of patent infringement suits, but a new ruling in Germany has turned the tables on Cupertino. The court has found that Apple's iPhone and 3G iPad products infringe a Motorola patent covering the implementation of GPRS mobile technology. This isn't the first win for Moto, but this one does give it the legal authority to ban sales of the infringing products in Germany.
Strictly speaking, there would not be a sales ban. The injunction, if Motorola pursues it, would only cover new imports of the devices. Apple took great pains to clarify that holiday sales of the iPhone and iPad will be unaffected by the ruling. Of course, Apple will also be appealing the case. Moto also has the option to enforce a $133 million bond against Apple. The German patent system is a bit less punitive than in other nations. A simple cash exchange is usually enough to smooth things over. Since the technology in question is fundamental to mobile devices, Motorola is barred from making excessive demands for licensing payments. |
| Super Size Me: 16 Massive and Mini Computers Posted: 09 Dec 2011 12:20 PM PST In the world of computers, size does matter. Both ways. Computers, like people, come in all shapes and sizes. Except you've never seen people who tip the scales at 200-plus tons. Or expand so radically they essentially cover the earth. Or shrink so small they're no longer visible. Or have you? If so, put down the medication. Immediately. And seek help. Lots and lots of help. And then come back and continue reading. For today we're going to look at the extremes. The smallest. The fattest. The most grandiose. And all things between—including a couple of quick jaunts down memory lane that'll have you pining for the innocent days of olde. Like a contestant on The Biggest Loser, we'll start big and go small. And what better way to lead off than with the glove-covering giant some out-of-the-box thinkers claim is the biggest computing setup ever designed. |
| Cool Site of the Week: Where's My Cellphone Posted: 09 Dec 2011 11:45 AM PST  Nothing makes you feel like more of a failure at life faster than losing or misplacing a cellphone, especially in an age where more and more of us opt to use our mobile handsets as the sole means of telecommunications in our households. Android handset owners can turn to apps like Find My Phone to keep track of the device's whereabouts. The same goes for iPhone users and Find My iPhone. But what if you're rocking a lowly feature phone or a barebones handset that does nothing else but you know, be a phone? You can try retracing your steps in order to find the misplaced device, drop a wad of cash on a new handset, or call it using Where's My Cellphone, our Cool Site of the Week.
Where's My Cellphone is a site designed for one thing and one thing only: dialing your cellphone, so that you can track your handset down by listening for its ring. To use it, enter your telephone number and area code, set the time delay and listen for your cellphone's ring as Where's My Cellphone leaps into action. 
While it doesn't offer the ability to track a missing mobile device via its GPS coordinates, giving users the option to ring their handsets without the aid of a telephone for free is a great service that, in many cases, will be exactly what's needed to track down your cellphone so that you can get on with the rest of your day. Be sure to check in Every Friday for another edition of Maximum PC's Cool Site of the Week. |
| TomTom Losing Interest in Personal Navigation Devices, Will Reduce Workforce by 10 Percent Posted: 09 Dec 2011 11:37 AM PST  Dutch GPS device maker TomTom isn't super confident in the future of personal navigation devices (PNDs) and is undergoing a restructuring effort that involves shifting its focus to pre-installed navigation devices in automobiles and fleet management applications. Unfortunately for some of TomTom's employees, the company's efforts also entail a 10 percent workforce reduction.
TomTom posted better than expected results in the third quarter of 2011 as the drop in PND demand wasn't as steep as predicted, but with smartphones and Google Maps taking over, there doesn't appear to be a long-term future in PNDs. So, TomTom is slashing its workforce by 10 percent, which is part of an effort to shave annual operating spending by €50 (around $67 million), according to a report in the Financial Times. For TomTom employees, this is crummy news going into the holiday season, though for the company at large, it's just the beginning. TomTom also plans to shake up its research and development efforts to focus on ten specific product areas, which in turn will help the company "make innovation choices" and get products to market quicker, Harold Goddijn, chief executive of TomTom, told FT. |
| Skyrim Trumps Modern Warfare 3 as Most Played Game of 2011 Posted: 09 Dec 2011 11:16 AM PST  Everyone seems to love The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and that's because there's very little not to like (unless you're just not into RPGs, in which case you should seek counseling immediately). Underscoring the widespread appeal of a game like Skyrim, the average gamer spent 23 hours hunting dragons and picking virtual pockets during Skyrim's first week of sales.
The average Skyrim player also clocked 2.92 hours in one sitting, according to data by gaming network Raptr. That's the highest one month average in Raptr history. Hands down, individual gamers invested the most amount of their time playing Skyrim, beating out popular titles like Modern Warfare 3, Gears 3, Battlefield 3, and Batman: Arkham City. In terms of total playtime, Modern Warfare 3 racked up the most amount of hours, beating Skyrim by a 9 percent margin. The lone victory wasn't enough to qualify it as Raptr's Most Played Game of 2011, though it did cruise to an easy victory as the Most Played Shooter of 2011. Raptr's data consists of gameplay activity for over 10 million users across Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC platforms combined. You can read the full report here (PDF). |
| WebOS Lives, Goes Open-Source Posted: 09 Dec 2011 11:09 AM PST  When HP named Meg Whitman the new CEO earlier this year, she wasted little time in firmly reversing the course set by Leo Apotheker, her predecessor, and declaring that the company would be keeping its PC business after all. WebOS, however, was a different matter. Whitman's dragged her feet making a call about the black sheep operating system, leading to intense speculation. Will she sell WebOS? Kill it? Keep it? Turns out the answer as D) None of the above. Today, HP announced that WebOS is going open source.
HP isn't leaving its mobile baby to the wild wolves of the Web, however; the company still plans on investing in the platform and contributing to its development, though presumably at a drastically reduced rate than before. Whether they couldn't find a decent buyer or they simply want to try and keep WebOS alive as a mobile option – one without licensing fees, nonetheless – against Android and Apple is unknown. What is known is that soon, anyone will be able to tinker with WebOS's guts, granting it an unexpected third life in two years after the operating system's presumed deaths at Palm and HP. ENYO, WebOS's application framework, will also be open-sourced before long, the company announced. HP invites devs and users to start leaving feedback at the WebOS Developer Blog starting immediately. "WebOS is the only platform designed from the ground up to be mobile, cloud-connected and scalable," Meg Whitman said in the company's press release. "By contributing this innovation, HP unleashes the creativity of the open source community to advance a new generation of applications and devices." Well, this came out of left field. Any thoughts? Do you think WebOS will thrive as an open-source, licensing fee-free operating system, or is just one last twitch before it dies quietly in the corner of the tech world? |
| Gartner Downgrades Worldwide Semiconductor Spending Outlook for 2012 Posted: 09 Dec 2011 10:50 AM PST  The sky isn't falling or anything like that, but worldwide semiconductor spending won't be quite as high as previously thought, according to market research firm Gartner. The psychic bean counters at Gartner now believe semiconductor spending in 2012 will reach $309 billion worldwide, a 2.2 percent increase from 2011, but down from Gartner's previous forecast of 4.6 percent growth.
"With continuing concern over the future of the eurozone affecting the global economy, the high degree of uncertainty impacting spending by both consumers and enterprises looks set to continue, bringing with it significant implications for the semiconductor industry," said Bryan Lewis, research vice president at Gartner. "The near-term forecast is being shaped not only by economic forces but by an inventory correction, manufacturing oversupply and natural disasters." The floods in Thailand earlier this year resulted in a hard drive shortage, and that in turn has slowed the PC market. But lest anyone talk about the post-PC era, PC production unit growth is still expected to grow 5 percent in 2012. Gartner's previous forecast had the PC market growing by 10.1 percent, but hey, it's still on an upward swing, even after factoring in the fallout from the HDD industry. |
| New Kingmax UI-03 Is A Flash Drive... And A Paperclip?! Posted: 09 Dec 2011 10:41 AM PST  Don't let the clean, neat wires and airflow-maximized layouts of our "Build It!" projects fool you: your Maximum PC editors aren't necessarily neat freaks – you did see "Inside The Bags of Maximum PC Editors," right? – but we love us some efficiency. So, apparently, do the engineers at Kingmax. The company's new UI-03 USB drive has a paper-clip-mimicking hook on the back, so you can, um, store files and collate papers on the run AT THE SAME TIME.
The UI-03 is being added to Kingmax's "Urban Series," which gives flash drives wacky looks. And hey, if the design alone isn't a wacky enough look for you, it comes in vibrant blue and orange colors (as you can see in the pic), while the hook-clip on the backside is white. So it can hold your papers together: what does the UI-03 bring to the table as an actual flash drive? Kingmax claims it's both waterproof and dustproof and comes in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB or 32GB sizes. Sorry, speed fans – this one's USB 2.0 only. All joking aside, this may come in pretty handy for hardcore desk jockeys -- depending, of course, on how much it costs. The press release gives no word on pricing or a release date. |
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