On Tuesday Samsung Electronics unveiled a 64 gigabyte flash drive at its Mobile Solution Forum in Taipei, Taiwan.
The Korean company says it plans to start mass production of the 1.8 inch drive in the second quarter of 2007. A 64 GB flash drive is twice the size of any flash drive used in laptops today. These solid state devices are mostly used in ultra portable laptops. This is because they require significantly less power, and result in increased battery life. Since there are no moving parts it can take more of a beating than a traditional hard drive
Price is a major consideration. Ultra portable laptops (Laptops 4lbs and less) over the last few months have averaged around $2000 US, and recently have moved to around $1800. In this competitive market it is unlikely that laptop manufacturers want to budge on price. I would suspect that by the time it hits the street, the price for this will be at par with the 32GB flash drives.
More importantly they have improved the read and write times over their 32 GB flash drive. Read times are 20% faster, and write times are up to 60% faster
I think we will be seeing more of this, and I see no reason why it can't be used in desktops, and servers. The speed and reliability factor is very attractive in any system.
Posted By:
Steve Wiseman on Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Check out our utilities for windows
If you are not familiar with it yet. Microsoft is working on a new server version of windows that is aimed at the home user. It is called Windows Home Server.
When I first heard of it I was highly skeptical. I thought that for my needs it would be too simple. On the other side of that coin I thought that it would try to do too much and keep the important parts hidden from me.
My first experience with Beta 2 has changed my mind. I think Microsoft really has something here...and so far it is the perfect balance between simplicity and the needs of the user.
I decided to take one of my machines running XP Professional, and install this right over it.
The first thing I noticed is that when it boots from the installation CD, it has the same boot loader as Vista
Many of you know I am not a
big fan of Vista (Yet...wait till SP1 and we will see). So this made my heart sink. I thought it would just be a glorified server version of the same.
I was relieved to see that the initial setup screen looked much like 2003
When installing, they make it very clear that you are about to delete the entire hard drive. Also, you will need to make sure you have at least a 35GB hard drive or it will refuse to install
After picking all of my options, it took about an hour to install on this system....about double the time it took to install XP on this same system, and about 1/4th the time it took to install Vista.
Part 2 - The Desktop
Posted By:
Steve Wiseman on Monday, March 19, 2007
Check out our utilities for windows
Click Here to go back to Part 1
Once the install finished the system rebooted and it launched right into the desktop without even typing in a password. At first this concerned me, but quickly it came up with a POPUP box:
I rebooted, and changed the password right away. A few things to notice on the new desktop. A desktop search bar is attached to the task bar, and the three icons on the desktop are the Device Manager, Shared Folders, and a new one "Server Console"
I had to try out the desktop search right away. This one is a sore spot with me and Microsoft. Every time they update the file searching within windows it gets worse. To my pleasant surprise it was better. Even better than Vista. The best part of this search is the previews it shows you when it displays the results
The device manager. Is...well...the device manager. Not much to write home about here. Lets look at the server console. Really, this is the core of the server.
It is broken up into 4 parts
-Computers and Backup
-User Accounts
-Shared Folders
-Server Storage
And an extra button that will show you the health of your network.
Computers and Backup - Looks like it is still under construction. From what I can tell it will let you schedule backup jobs for other systems on your network, and your Windows Home Server. This is always a big concern for me, as I would like to automate the backups of my home network. I don't want to lose 10 years of digital photos.
User Accounts - Allows you to add and remove user accounts. This is a special user account management interface that has been tailored to the needs of this version of Windows. It only includes options that are relevant to Windows Home Server. This is the simplicity that I was looking for. I like it
Shared Folders - Another interface that is simple, yet very functional. It has a an easy to use interface for adding new folders, and granting access.
Part 3 - The Web Interface
Posted By:
Steve Wiseman on Monday, March 19, 2007
Check out our utilities for windows
Click Here to go back to Part 1
The web interface is the most interesting part of Home Server. I was expecting the worst (Think SharePoint). And again, I was pleasantly surprised.
You can access almost everything from the web interface. Files, Pictures, Music, Printers, and even connect through your Windows Home Server to remote control other machines on your local network
In the shared files section, you can actually pick a group of files and folders and it will allow you to download it as a zip file
Still, this needs some work. Some type of progress needs to be shown (That is better than shown below) when you select a large number of files for downloads it can sit there thinking for quite some time.
I was never able to get the remote control to allow me to control other machines on my LAN. I think this may because it is still in Beta, and the feature is still in the works.
I like what I see so far, but still it needs some work. It will be interesting to see the next Beta.
I need to do some more research too...not sure if this server can act as a domain controller, or if it simply finds the list of computers from the computer browser.
I will leave you with one last screen shot of the start menu. It shows you how much of unneeded software and services that have been trimmed out of this version of Windows.
Posted By:
Steve Wiseman on Monday, March 19, 2007
Check out our utilities for windows
