Hardware

SSDs trend closer toward $1 per GB

Dave Farquhar Hardware ,

In March, I predicted that we’d see SSDs selling for $1 per GB by late 2012. I’m happy to say it’s possible we may get there sooner than that.

In fact, if you shop around now, it’s possible to find USB flash drives for very close to $1 per GB, and sometimes you can get an SSD for $1 per GB if you find a sale. It will be short-lived, you can’t be picky about brand or controller, and you’ll probably have to deal with a rebate, but you can do it.

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Intel isn’t interested in buying HP’s PC business

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , ,

This week, Paul Otellini told journalists he isn’t interested in buying HP’s PC business, elaborating by saying he doesn’t want to compete with his customers.

It makes sense.
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Someone needs to make a good $100 tablet

Dave Farquhar Hardware

Gizmodo writes: Someone needs to make a good $100 tablet.
I feel that pain, but it’s not going to happen this year. Or necessarily next year.

When you read the reviews of sub-$200 tablets, the biggest complaints are about the tablet being DOA, having difficulty getting one particular thing to run on it, the tablet just overall feeling cheap, or the screen. Better quality control can fix the first two things. But a good-quality capacitive touchscreen costs $63.50. For the tablet to retail for $100, it needs to cost less than $63 to make the whole tablet.
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Attack of the monster 4 TB hard drives

Dave Farquhar Hardware

The Register reports that Seagate is offering a massive 4 TB hard drive for $250.

Seagate brags that the drive can store 2,000 high-definition movies, thus answering the question of what you need such a large drive for.

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So Amazon’s tablet is a go

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , , , , , , ,

Reports of Amazon’s tablet plans are trickling out. Basically, it’s going to be a 7-inch tablet running a very customized version of Android, tweaked to play media purchased from Amazon, and priced at $250, half the price of an entry-level Apple Ipad. (In English, we capitalize the first letter of proper nouns, and my native language is English, not C++, if you’re wondering.) Techcrunch and The Register have some of the details. The name: Amazon Kindle. The release date: end of November.

I wouldn’t call it a can’t-miss, but it’s clear Amazon’s thought a lot of things through here.

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PC Magazine’s sub-$200 PC

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

PC Magazine has reprised its sub-$200 PC. I think it’s a good guide, and a savvy shopper can potentially do a little bit better with some care and some luck. At that price, it’s running Linux, but it also serves as a good guide for upgraders looking to upgrade an existing PC inexpensively. If you have a case and hard drive you can reuse, you can either buy better parts, or just pocket the savings.

Here’s my take on their selections.

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Cheap laptops and tablets: September 2011

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , , , , ,

My brother in law told me he saw an 8-inch Vizio wifi-only tablet running Android at Costco for $285. Its reviews aren’t exactly stellar, but if you just want a basic tablet, it seems to be OK. I’d wait a few months and see what Amazon’s tablet plans are, though.

He also asked about laptops. And there’s some good stuff going on in the low end there too.

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I got my new SSD today and can’t play with it

Dave Farquhar Hardware ,

My Kingston SSDNow V+100 arrived today. I didn’t really get to play with it, but I have some early impressions.

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A bargain SSD for the masses

Dave Farquhar Hardware

I spotted a bargain SSD: The Kingston SSDNow V+100 96 GB  is available at Amazon for $130. (It’s available other places for about the same price, but with Amazon’s free shipping, it’s probably cheaper there.) It uses a Toshiba controller that (by some accounts) lacks NCQ, but other than that, it’s a modern controller, and it has a good track record, having been the controller Apple used in its Macbook Air.
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Lessons of the HP Touchpad

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

At full price ($499 for the 16 GB model and $599 for the 32 GB model) the HP Touchpad was a colossal flop. Like AT&T’s first PC clones of the mid 1980s, it was a me-too product at a me-too price that wasn’t quite as good as the product it was imitating. So, basically, there was no reason to buy it.

At closeout prices, it became an Internet sensation. The few web sites that have it in stock can’t handle the traffic they’re getting. At $99 and $149, it’s selling like the Nintendo Wii in its glory days.

And I think there’s a significant parallel there that highlights the missed opportunity.
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