flash memory

When Palm launched the Pre smartphone last June, I considered it a close second to the iPhone in the race for best smartphone on the market.

The smartphone market has changed a lot since then. Unfortunately, Palm hasn't kept pace.

Billions of microscopic cells on a single chip will soon add eight gigabytes of nonvolatile memory to smartphones and other devices, creating new possibilities for mobile applications and potentially lowering prices in the long term. IM Flash Technologies, a joint venture between chipmakers Intel and Micron Technology, on Monday unveiled a 64-gigabit NAND flash die based on 25-nanometer process technology.

The new process doubles the density of the partnership's previous milestone creation, a 32-gigabit die based on 34-nanometer technology. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter.

It has been only one day since Oracle announced details of its $7.4 billion acquisition of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun Microsystems, and the dust is far from settling. Oracle, a software company, needs to pacify Sun's customers and build confidence in those asking how they will conduct business with a hardware company operated by a software company.

Sun's hardware customers may especially be questioning Oracle's devotion to Sun's hardware business since Oracle CEO Larry Ellison in the past attempted to acquire only Sun's software assets.

Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs has unveiled the iPad, a tablet-style computer that resembles the iPhone, but larger.

"It's so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smart phone," Jobs said Wednesday at the device's highly anticipated debut in San Francisco.

Apple had kept its "latest creation" tightly under wraps, though many analysts had correctly speculated that it would be a one-piece tablet computer with a big touch screen, larger than an iPhone but smaller than a laptop.

Verizon Wireless has begun shipping Research In Motion's new Blackberry Storm2 handset. Verizon is offering the new smartphone, which incorporates improved touchscreen technology, at a post-rebate price of $179.99 for customers signing up for a two-year service contract.

RIM's latest BlackBerry sports a QWERTY-style keypad, a 3.2-megapixel camera with camcorder capabilities, built-in Wi-Fi, 2GB of onboard media storage, and 256MB of flash memory. What's more, the Storm2 ships with a 16GB SD memory card.

A new BlackBerry with the best features of its brethren has been born. On Wednesday, Research in Motion announced the BlackBerry Bold 9700, which it described as having "cutting-edge engineering and premium finishes."

The new smartphone, available from AT&T and T-Mobile beginning next month, is T-Mobile's first 3G BlackBerry. It is intended to replace the original Bold, now a year old.

Solid-state drives (SSD) -- computer data storage units with no moving parts -- are becoming the new standard in computer data storage.

Indeed, a recent report from iSuppli, a US marketing company, showed that more than half of all mobile computers are expected to come with SSDs in 2010, as the new drive slowly edges out traditional hard drives.

But beware. Experts say SSDs aren't quite ready for prime time. Although they might perform well, it might not yet be time to purchase.

Like a sidekick supporting a hero, a peripheral used to need a computer. Now peripherals are becoming more like the computer, a development that may make sidekicks everywhere rejoice. The latest peripheral-as-computer incarnation is the HP DreamScreen, a wireless display that can surf the Web, connect to Facebook, or present photos, music and video.

SSDs -- short for "solid state drives" -- are the future of storage. And they're available now, in capacities that are sufficient and at prices that are within reach.

So what's stopping their widespread adoption? The main problem is that their price relative to standard magnetic platter hard drives is still high.

But another stumbling block is that many computer users are simply unfamiliar with the technology and unsure about how the drives fit in to their current computing needs. Read on for some answers.

Q: How do SSDs work? Are they a direct replacement for hard drives?

Once again, it's time to peer into Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs' cup and try to read the tea leaves.

Apple, as usual, has said almost nothing about the new products it plans to unveil at an invitation-only affair Wednesday in San Francisco. Playing their part, bloggers and Apple fans have filled the vacuum with "leaks," rumors and wish-list items that, while often far-fetched, can't completely be ignored. Sometimes, just sometimes, a bit of truth shines through.