October 17, 2006, 12:40 PM PDT
Another CNET blog to crave
Posted by: Lindsey Turrentine

Rev up your RSS reader--CNET has a brand-new blog. Its name says it all: Crave (http://crave.cnet.com) will cover the hottest and coolest digital gadgetry that you must have. Check it out (over and over and over again) for the latest in freaky, funny, or just plain awesome consumer electronics.

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• Read also: Emerging tech, MP3, Smart phones, Notebooks, Car tech, Cell phones
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October 04, 2006, 11:11 AM PDT
Blu-ray and flash-based hard drives on display at CEATEC
Posted by: Matthew Elliott

The Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies, or CEATEC, got underway yesterday in Japan. While I can't claim to be on the show floor or, truth be told, anywhere near the land of the rising sun, Akihabara News has correspondents onsite. Blu-ray announcements are dominating the coverage, with solid-state storage garnering headlines, as well.

In next-gen optical storage news, Blu-ray looks to be outpacing rival HD-DVD at the show. Hitachi is showing off a number of camcorders, including a model that uses mini Blu-ray discs. Sony announced its VAIO L series all-in-one PC, which will feature a Blu-ray burner, while NEC showed off a sub-$1,000 ValueStar PC with a Blu-ray drive (BD-ROM means reading but, sadly, no writing). Sony also had a pair of stand-alone Blu-ray recorders on display, as did Pioneer, while Toshiba countered with a prototype of an external (USB 2.0) HD-DVD player.

Tired of hard drives that have the gall to spin in order to find your data? Then take a peek at the flash-based drives that TDK and Taiwanese company iNNODISK have on hand. It'll be interesting to see what new laptop designs these small, fast, and durable drives will afford. Perhaps such mobile devices will dominate next year's show.

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• Read also: computers, emerging tech, drives and burners, storage
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September 26, 2006, 3:42 PM PDT
Sony Reader gets pricing and closer launch date
Posted by: Bonnie Cha

After a number of delays, it looks like the Sony Reader may finally be coming to market. According to Gizmodo, the Sony Reader will cost $350 and will start shipping in October. No mention of a specific date (great), but we're trying to hunt down that information now. With the purchase of the device, you'll also get $50 worth of free e-books from the Sony Connect Store.

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• See product information for Sony Reader
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September 12, 2006, 10:56 AM PDT
BMW launches hydrogen-powered 7 series
Posted by: Wayne Cunningham

While other car manufacturers research powering electric cars with hydrogen fuel cells, BMW recently ran hydrogen directly into the cylinders of a combustion engine. BMW engineers, obviously unscarred from the whole Hindenburg incident, announced the fruits of their labor today, a 7-series sedan that burns hydrogen and gasoline. BMW has been working on hydrogen combustion for some time, demonstrating its work with last year's launch of the record-breaking H2R hydrogen-burning test car.

The just-announced 7 series, dubbed the Hydrogen 7, uses a similar 12-cylinder engine as that in the H2R. The Hydrogen 7's engine produces 260 horsepower and runs the car to 62mph from zero in unimpressive 9.5 seconds. The car holds gas and hydrogen tanks, which the car can seamlessly switch between. The 17.6-pound hydrogen tank gives the car a 125-mile range, while the 19.6-gallon gas tank gives it an additional 300 miles. BMW plans to build a test fleet of Hydrogen 7s that will go into general use next year.

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• Read also: Car tech, emerging tech
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September 11, 2006, 12:01 PM PDT
Chinese automaker shows off driverless car
Posted by: Wayne Cunningham

According to Inside Line, Chinese automaker First Auto Works showed off a robotic version of its Hongqi HQ3 sedan at the Northeast Asia Investment and Trade Expo. The company demonstrated the car driving at speeds up to 37mph, and claims it can handle speeds up to 93mph. Considering the car uses only two cameras as its sensors, that sounds pretty scary. But if First Auto Works wants to win next year's DARPA Grand Challenge, which will cover 60 miles in a simulated urban environment, it had better fill in an entry form. Track A submissions are already closed, and Track B closes on October 5, 2006.

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• Read also: Car Tech, Emerging Tech
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August 25, 2006, 10:27 AM PDT
Dell gets green points, but Lenovo gets trashed
Posted by: Elsa Wenzel

Dell, Nokia, and HP win top marks today in Greenpeace's ranking of how tech companies manage toxic chemicals and old equipment. The environmental group's Guide to Greener Electronics ranked Lenovo at the bottom of the heap--not far beneath Apple, despite its recently expanded recycling program. Get more dirt by reading Greenpeace's scorecard here.

Dell and HP are also among the few vendors whose products made it to the EPEAT list of eco-friendly computers. Both companies offer good e-waste recycling programs; Dell will even pick up your old goods of any brand for free. Last month, Europe's ROHS rules started forcing global manufacturers to reduce the use of toxic metals and flame retardants in all sorts of gadgets. And in California, your cell phone company now has to take back your unwanted handsets.

Each month, the world's consumers dump millions of tons of poisonous, high-tech trash. At the same time, companies touting cleaner, greener tech are now getting newfound attention and big money; read ongoing coverage here.

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• Read also: environment and energy, emerging tech, laptops, desktops, monitors, peripherals
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August 04, 2006, 8:38 AM PDT
Holographic storage by year's end
Posted by: Matthew Elliott

Hitachi Maxell stated this week that we'll see holographic storage products by Christmas. At prices that make $1,000 Blu-ray burners and $500 HD-DVD players look downright cheap, holographic storage will be the plaything of the enterprise market and not this year's Tickle Me Elmo hot holiday gift. The first holographic storage discs will hold 300GB of data and cost $120 to $180. Sitting down? Good, because here comes the part where we tell you that you'll need a $15,000 drive to read or write the discs when they're released in November or December. Capacity is expected to increase; Maxell's director of technical marketing expects we'll see 800GB discs in 2008 and 1.6TB discs by 2010. Pricing will obviously come down by then, too. Media is expected to range from regular CD-size cartridges to smaller formats the size of credit cards and postage stamps.

Want to know how holographic storage works? Check out this illustrated explainer.

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• Read also: Emerging tech, drives and burners
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July 26, 2006, 12:41 PM PDT
A (NAND) flash of the future
Posted by: Andrew Gruen

We here at CNET have a need for speed (just take a look at our reviews of the BMW M5 and the Chevy Corvette Z06), so we'll really be excited to see flash-based hard drives as soon as they're available. When we heard that an Intel and Micron joint venture, IM Flash Technologies, had started sampling new, higher-capacity NAND flash memory on July 25, 2006, we got excited. The new chips are manufactured using a smaller process: 50 nanometers down from 72 nanometers. Smaller processes are key to both lowering cost and increasing capacity. They allow for higher capacity at the same physical size and therefore, lower the price. As prices head down and capacities increase, we should start seeing flash-based hard drives in notebooks and other models where durability and size are critical. These hard drives should also offer serious seek-time improvements over traditional spinning disk drives.

To tide us over, TG Daily reports that the world's largest NAND flash manufacturer, Samsung, has released a 4GB flash drive that works with the Ready Boost feature of Windows Vista. The technology combines the capacity of spinning disks with the speed of flash and decreases power consumption to boot. It transfers commonly used applications and data to the flash dis, meaning a notebook can function for extended periods of time without spinning up its hard drive. It can also use the flash memory to restore from sleep or hibernation faster.

Until we see flash in ridiculously high capacities, we're dreaming of a RAID of 127 USB memory keys...

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• Read also: Notebooks, laptops, desktops, computers, flash cards, emerging tech
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July 26, 2006, 9:23 AM PDT
WiMax this year?
Posted by: Matthew Elliott

Intel is readying its WiMax chipset, and we might see actual product in a few short months. The oft-delayed WiMax is a sort of a wide-area Wi-Fi--think citywide or campuswide coverage versus coffee house hotspot. It'll also be used by broadband providers to replace the pricey last mile your Internet bits must travel. WiMax will also bring broadband service to remote rural areas currently stuck with dial-up service. Its benefits are many, and Intel just announced that it has shipped its Rosedale 2 WiMax chipset to partners. Laptop WiMax cards could hit the United States by the end of the year.

Source: via Ars Technica.

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July 24, 2006, 12:03 AM PDT
Green computers: a convenient truth?
Posted by: Elsa Wenzel

If greener cars rev your engine, you'll probably pick a computer that minimizes its ecological impact and your energy bills, if you can find one. Today, for the first time, you can look up laptops, desktops, and monitors that meet the definition of green agreed upon by electronics makers, environmental groups, and the government. Check out the new EPEAT database at epeat.net.

The Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool is a voluntary badge, similar to Energy Star, but it rates more than energy efficiency. EPEAT products earn a Gold, Silver, or Bronze label according to how well they satisfy strict standards of energy usage as well as design, recyclability, durability, materials, and packaging. Corporate policies are also taken into consideration.

You can search on the site by brand or for qualities such as CRT or flat-panel monitors between 15 and 30 inches in size. I couldn't find a single product that rated Gold, while 54 shone Silver, and 7 were Bronze. Read the ratings details for a menu of cutting-edge design techniques, such as modular components, reduced mercury, and cases made of postconsumer recycled plastic.

HP, Dell, and CTL Corporation are early EPEAT adopters (HP and Dell also offer good curbside tech recycling pickup). Other big brands are absent from the database, but the initial list of 61 items is sure to expand, especially as demand grows among makers of green homes as well as within the government. The Department of Homeland Security, NASA, and Massachusetts State will require equipping their offices with EPEAT-labeled products. The EPA funded EPEAT, expecting it to save enough energy to power 6 million homes and save 13 million pounds of hazardous waste by 2011.

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• Read also: environment and energy, desktops, laptops, printers, peripherals, emerging tech, monitors
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