Dell spins towards a solid state future

Dell is shedding more weight from two of its Latitudes laptops by replacing their hard disks with solid state drives (SSD).

It's using SanDisk's 32GB SSD, flash memory that uses no moving parts, unlike traditional hard disks used in computers. The helps make the laptop lighter, more reliable and in theory should improve battery life a bit because the notebook will require less time with the fans spinning to cool the unit. The move comes hot on the heels of Sony making a similar announcement for its ultra-portable laptops.

Dell said it "sees potential for flash-based drives" because they enable better reliability, increased performance and noise reduction. It claimed that solid state drives are more reliable than traditional hard disks and so less prone to failure. Hard disks have spinning discs and read/write heads, which can fail.

The downside is current capacities are small, having only recently reached 32GB, and they are expensive. The SSD adds $549 to the cost of the D420 and D620 Latitudes, which will initially be available in the US, with Europe to follow later. While some laptops come with only 40GB hard disks - making the solid state drive only a tiny drop in capacity - this is still low-end and would be considered too small by many potential buyers.

In January, SanDisk has said that it can double the capacity of its SSDs within a year, which brings it to a more realistic size for a laptop. So towards the end of this year, we could start seeing laptops using 64GB solid state drives, and the beginning of the end for traditional hard disks in not just laptops but portable media players as well.

Sony unveils compact flash line up

Sony today revealed its compact flash line up, following its surprise announcement in January that it would begin production of the format after years of doggedly making only the Memory Sticks that are used in its devices.

In reality, the decision wasn’t such a surprise. It entered the digital SLR camera market last year with its Alpha D100, and the Memory Stick simply wasn’t going to cut it with photography enthusiasts. So, if it was already selling a product that supported compact flash, why not make the damn things as well.

The biggest surprise in its compact flash line up is the lack of an 8GB capacity, it’s sticking with 1GB, 2GB and 4GB cards, with transfer speeds of 66x and 133x. They are available to buy from May.

“Our first product line-up is designed to handle the demanding speed and performance requirements of ambitious amateur and semi-professional photographers,” said Renaud Isnard, from Sony Europe’s Network Media division.

The slower 66x transfer speed cards have a data transfer read rate of 10MB/s and 9MB/s for writing an image to memory. The 133x cards have a read/write rate of 20MB/s. This means it is quicker to save an image to the card, allowing you to take more photos in for instance continuous shooting mode, although most people would be unlikely to notice any difference in the speeds.

The cards come with a five year warranty, but enter a crowded, very price competitive market.

Sony memory caught in Spider-Man's web

With Spider-Man 3 out in a few days, Sony has wasted no time in releasing a set of memory sticks and micro vaults themed around the webbed one.

The Memory Stick Pro Duo seems to offer the better deal - inside boxes for the 2GB, 4GB or 8GB versions you’ll also find the first two Spider-Man films on DVD. Shame Sony didn't put them on the memory sticks though.

The 2GB USB Micro Vault Midi comes pre-loaded with only a ‘sneak preview’ of the latest Spider-Man film – the movie trailer, which is available all over the web as well. You also get four high definition wallpaper images, which you can use on your computer.