New SONY Flash USB

Remember those heady days when USB drives used to cost hundreds of dollars? Well, thanks to Kingston's latest 128GB monster, they can again.

The DataTraveler 200 comes in three sizes 32GB, 64GB and the world's first 128GB USB flash drive, which sells for a whopping $546. However it doesn't look like they are expecting too many people to snap up the largest option, it is build-to-order only.

All of the capless drives have built-in password protection and are enhanced for Windows ReadyBoost. The smaller versions are priced at $120 and $213 respectively.

Rumor: PS3 Price Cut in August

This is one rumor that’s been through the mill a few times.


Analysts say Sony is all but ready to cut the price of the PS3 later this Summer, just before the launch of Madden on August 18.

Industry Gamers today reports that Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia writes in his latest industry note that “industry sources indicate Sony is planning a $100 price cut on the PS3 in mid-August, just prior the launch of Madden (8/18) and the start of the back to school shopping season,” adding that this will, “naturally be a positive for the industry.”

Similar rumors did the rounds in March, which turned out to be a price cut for the PS2. Granted a $99 PS2 is nothing to turn your nose up at, but a lot of gamers were disappointed that there wasn’t a grain of truth to the PS3 price cut rumors.

According to IG, Bhatia also said that while software sales for the first half of the year are behind that of 2008, "the second half, in contrast, will likely be up ten percent to 15 percent driven by a robust lineup, easier comparisons and potential price cut(s)."

We’re seriously hoping this time around, Sony will deliver.

Intel's Pine Trail Out Q4, Possibly October

Intel’s next iteration of its hugely popular Atom processor, codenamed Pine Trail, is now slated for a Q4 release. According to recent rumors, it's possible that we could see the processor as early as October.


Intel’s next iteration of its hugely popular Atom processor, codenamed Pine Trail, is now slated for a Q4 release. According to recent rumors, it's possible that we could see the processor as early as October.

Digitimes today reports that Intel is scheduled to phase out its Atom N270 CPU by launching its successor--the Atom N450--for netbooks in October at the earliest. Citing anonymous industry sources, DT says that Intel will issue last order notice for the Atom N270 in the first quarter of 2010, and the CPU will phase out before the end of the H1 2010

This fits in with earlier reports in May which said we’d see Atom’s Pine Trail chip with on-chip graphics, and the Tiger Point chipset (replacing the presently ubiquitous Atom N270 and 945GSE combination) "after September." When we published the news last month, most of you were uninterested and more eager to hear about machines running on Nvidia's Ion. Now that Nvidia has at least 20 manufacturers signed up and ready to produce a plethora of netbooks, nettops, all-in-ones and more, are you guys still unexcited by Pine Trail? Let us know in the comments!

ICT activities

During school term holiday middle year 2009, class students 5IT had attended to school aimed complete respective course work. This was necessary course work completed as late as late its 30 June 2009. Nevertheless there are still a number student refuse to attend. Hoped student that cannot present, find right time to finish up their assignment.

NEC Electronics Introduces World's First USB 3.0 Host Controller!

NEC today announces the world’s first USB host controller for the new SuperSpeed USB 3.0 standard supporting USB transfer speeds of up to 5Gbps.

The µPD720200 is 10 times faster than previous USB 2.0. Take a 25GB file for example, USB 2.0 requires 14 minutes to transfer the data, while USB 3.0 only needs 70 seconds. The enormous increase in transfer speed will enable system designers to transfer large-volume data quickly and without stress and develop a new generation of high-performance consumer electronic products.
The chip measures 10*10mm, and consumes at most 1W. µPD720200 is fully backward compatible with the USB 2.0, 1.1 and 1.0 versions of the USB standard, and also supports recent high-performance computer interfaces such as PCI Express and SATA.

The samples of µPD720200 host controller are expected to be available in June 2009 at US$15, and monthly production will reach one million units in September 2009. NEC plans to exhibit the new controller at the SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference to be held in Tokyo, Japan from May 20-21, 2009.

Product Specification of the µPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller
- Based upon Universal Serial Bus 3.0 Specification Revision 1.0, which is released by USB Implementers Forum, Inc
- Based upon Intel's eXtensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) Specification Revision 0.95
- Based upon PCI Express® Base Specification 2.0, which is, released PCI SIG
- Supports the following speed data rate as follows;
Low-speed (1.5 Mbps) / Full-speed (12 Mbps) /
High-speed (480 Mbps) / Super-speed (5 Gbps)
- Supports all USB compliant data transfer type as follows;
Control / Bulk / Interrupt / Isochronous transfer
- Supports 2 USB downstream ports for all speeds
- Supports USB legacy function
- Supports PCI Express® related expansion card specification
ExpressCard® Standard Release1.0
PCI Express® Card Electromechanical Specification Revision 2.0
PCI Bus Power Management Interface Specification Revision 1.2
- Operational registers are direct-mapped to PCI memory space
- Requires External Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) type FLASH PROM
- System clock: 24 MHz crystal or 48 MHz external clock
- 3.3 V and 1.05 V power supply
- PACKAGE : 176-pin plastic FBGA (10 x 10 mm, 0.65 mm ball pitch)

Pricing and Availability
Samples of NEC Electronics' µPD720200 host controller are expected to be available in June 2009 at US$15 each, along with free Windows® device driver software. Monthly production is expected to reach approximately 1,000,000 units in September 2009. Pricing and availability are subject to change without notice. More information can be found at http://www.necel. com/usb/en/ index.html.

More info:
necel.com/news/ en/archive/ 0905/1801. html

Office 2010 TP Already Leaked

Two months before Microsoft's scheduled run, somehow the upcoming Office 2010 Technical Preview (TP) has found its way onto the Internet as a torrent.


Along with The Sims 3, Angels and Demons, and full seasons of Desperate Housewives, anxious downloaders can load up their favorite BitTorrent client and leech the recently revealed Office 2010 TP, now available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. This is not the first problem with leakage within the Microsoft vault: recently a build of Windows 7 also found its way onto the torrent network, leading many to question the company's internal security measures.

Set to roll out in July, Microsoft is offering the Technical Preview of Office 2010 by invitation only; attendees of its annual TechEd event held in the US will comprise the first batch of the limited Technical Preview program, followed by consumers who signed up for the sneak peak over at the Office 2010 The Movie website . The chosen participants will have access to Word 2010, Excel 2010, Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010, Access 2010, InfoPath 2010, Project 2010, SharePoint Designer 2010, SharePoint Workspace 2010, Visio 2010, and Publisher 2010. Microsoft also plans to unleash a full-fledged beta during the second half of 2009.

Currently several BitTorrent sites display links to the Technical Preview torrents, including Mininova, isoHunt, and many others. However, according to Ars Technica , the version leaked onto the Internet is build 14.0.4006.1010, and because the build number of the official Technical Preview is not known, the torrented version may not be the final, Microsoft approved version. Surprisingly enough, the website even posted screenshots from the Technical Preview, detailing the installation process and presenting many applications. .. meaning the site actually downloaded the torrent and checked out the leaked software.

Many reports have recently pointed out that consumers currently using Office 2007 should feel right at home with Office 2010, and do not need to upgrade any hardware to get the new software up and running smoothly. For those using the current build of Windows 7, Office 2010 supposedly has a faster load time than Office 2007. However, those who disliked 2007's "ribbon" interface will still have to suffer in the new version. Of course, anyone can check out the Technical Preview now that it's making rounds across the torrent networks, and check out for themselves what's improved, what aspects stayed the same, and what features are downright annoying.

But keep this in mind: downloading known "illegal" files from torrent networks can leave consumers wide open to hostile attacks, as the files could be loaded with trojans, nasty viruses, and other malicious programs. Consumers who want to check out the Office 2010 Technical Preview should play it safe and sign up at the Office 2010 The Movie website, or wait for Microsoft to release the beta later this year.

Western Digital Does External 2 TB HDD

Western Digital announced yesterday that its My Book line of external drives will be fitted with 2 TB of storage, the largest single-drive capacity so far.

If there's one thing most multimedia consumers have figured out, it's that the hard drive can fill up mighty quick. The iPhone and iPod Touch are classic examples, featuring access to the Apps Store and iTunes right on the main menu. It's extremely easy to purchase and download tons of content--applicatio ns, books, and music of course--which can easily eat up credit cards like candy wafers. Jump on the PC and download movies through iTunes, and suddenly that huge hard drive mounted within just isn't enough to store all of that multimedia goodness. With that said, this consumer went out and picked up a 1 TB Western Digital My Book for $120 over the weekend. Now said consumer wants to kick himself in the butt for not waiting just a tad bit longer.

Yesterday Western Digital said that its My Book series of external hard drives will now feature 2 TB of storage, making it the largest available capacity in a single-drive system. The company will offer four 2 TB models: My Book Studio Edition , My Book Mac Edition , My Book Home Edition , and My Book Essential Edition . These drives won't come cheap however, ranging from $329.99 USD to $379.99 USD, depending on the model. That's quite a chunk of change, and consumers may actually want to wait a while until a larger drive hits the market, thus reducing the 2 TB price tag.

According to WD, all four models feature the same characteristics: they save power by going into standby mode after ten minutes of inactivity. A capacity gauge allows consumers to see exactly how much capacity is available on the drive (Essential Edition excluded, sorry), and the Kensington Security Slot allows users to secure the drive to the desk using a Kensington lock kit (sold separately). The drives also sport SmartPower and Safe Shutdown features, the former allowing the drive to power on and off with the PC while the latter prevents the drive from shutting off until the last bit of data has been written.

As for the separate models, the Studio Edition and the Mac Edition are formatted for Mac computers, however the Studio Edition is equipped with high speed FireWire 400/800, eSATA, and USB 2.0 interfaces. On the other hand, the Mac Edition only offers the USB 2.0 interface, and comes with a 1-year warranty as opposed to the Studio Edition's 5-year warranty. Additionally, the Home Edition and the Essential Edition are formatted for the PC, with the former offering high-speed eSATA, FireWire 400, and USB 2.0 interfaces; the Essential Edition only offers the USB 2.0 interface. As for the warranties, the Home Edition carries a 3-year limited warranty whereas WD offered no warranty information for the Essential Edition.