A relative gush of Project Natal information today, with BBC presenter Jonathan Ross apparently tipping an October launch date for the motion-control gaming system, while MTV take on another timing issue by measuring the peripheral’s lag.  Ross had been trying Natal at a Microsoft event this week, and proceeded to tweet “Natal on Xbox is impressive. Not quite there yet I think but they have until October and if they get it right… sky’s the limit.”

That contrasts with Microsoft’s own “in time for Holiday 2010” launch window, and as you might expect the company are not updating that estimate.  ”There have been no further announcements” said a Microsoft spokesperson.

As for Natal’s performance, MTV took along a stopwatch to a Natal demo day and came up with a 0.1 second average delay in its responses; that’s enough to introduce some lag into your gaming.  However, it’s also pretty much to be expected from a home peripheral, and there’s talk that future driver updates could tweak performance to improve matters.

[via Kotaku and via MCV]

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Specifications for the much-anticipated ATI Radeon HD 5830 have leaked, courtesy of Chinese site IT168.com, and there’s a little disappointment in store for anyone expecting a bargain HD5850 alternative.  The slide – which is tipped to have come from an internal presentation deck – confirms the rumored $250 pricing window, but also that the new card is down a significant 320 stream processors, 16 texture units and 16 ROPs on the HD 5850.

While it was expected that AMD would shave performance off the HD 5850, early estimates hadn’t assumed the difference between the two models would be quite this extensive.  The end result is a card capable of 12.8 GPixels/s, 51.2 GSamples/s and 1.79 TFLOPs, versus the HD 5850’s 23.2 GPixels/s pixel fillrate, 92.8 GSamples/s Z/Stencil and 2.09 TFLOPs of compute performance.

Bizarrely maximum power consumption is up, however, at 175W compared to the HD 5850’s 151W.  It’s not entirely clear what’s going on there, but we’ll be watching the early reviews very closely to see if the ATI Radeon HD 5830 is actually the mid-tier enthusiasts card we all hoped it would be.

[via SemiAccurate]

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SanDisk have pushed their latest solid-state drive out of the door, and the G3 SSD looks to be a real screamer.  Available in both 60GB and 120GB capacities, the drive promises double the speed of a typical 7,200rpm hard-drive, with sequential read speeds of up to 220 MB/sec and write speeds of up to 120 MB/sec.

As for longevity, SanDisk reckon you’ll be able to write up to 80TB of data to the 120GB G3 SSD before experiencing any issues, using their ExtremeFFS system that works to randomise flash memory use.  You’ll also get a 10 year warranty.

In return for all this, SanDisk are asking for $229.99 or $399.99 for the 60GB and 120GB SSDs respectively.  They’ll also be available in the UK, priced at £199.99 and £349.99 respectively.

Press Release:

SANDISK G3 SOLID STATE DRIVE SHIPS TO RETAILERS

Reliable SanDisk G3 SSD Opens Files up to Twice as Fast and is More Rugged Compared to a 7,200 RPM Hard Disk Drive

London, February 23, 2010 – SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), the global leader in flash memory cards, today announced that it has begun shipping its SanDisk® G3 Solid State Drives (SSD) to retailers in North America and Europe. The flash memory-based SanDisk G3 SSD offers a compelling alternative to a 7,200 RPM Hard Disk Drive (HDD) for many customers – including do-it-yourself enthusiasts, IT managers or anyone seeking increased durability and performance with high reliability.

“Our rugged drive enables a superior customer experience by delivering extended endurance and fast performance in a resilient SSD design,” said Eric Bone, vice president, retail product marketing, SanDisk. “SanDisk believes in an uncompromising development approach which insists that an SSD’s long term reliability and durability are just as important as its overall speed. We’re leveraging our long history of flash memory and retail expertise to bring the SanDisk G3 SSD to market.”

· Long-term reliability: The 120 gigabyte (GB)* SanDisk G3 SSD can endure up to 80 terabytes (TB)* of data written to it over its lifetimeiv. The solid state drive uses a smart flash management system called ExtremeFFSTM technology that has the potential to accelerate random write performance and thus extend the endurance of SanDisk G3 SSDs inside computers that use operating systems such as Microsoft Windows XP and Windows 7.v

· Rugged durability: SanDisk G3 SSD uses no moving parts, enabling improved durability that helps resist drive damage. Backed by rigorous shock and vibration testing procedures and a 10-year limited warrantyii, the drive offers some of the best-in-class quality assurance that could only come from a trusted leader in flash memory.

· Fast performance: SanDisk G3 SSD opens files up to twice as fast as a 7,200 RPM HDDi, so users can enjoy faster boot-ups and improved system responsiveness. SanDisk G3 SSD has sequential performance of up to 220 megabytes per second (MB/sec) read speediii and up to 120MB/sec write speediii.

· Lower maintenance costs: By replacing standard HDDs with SanDisk G3 SSDs, users can defer laptop purchase costs and reduce maintenance requests associated with disk drive failure.

SanDisk G3 SSD is Microsoft Windows 7 certified and is compatible with Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard as well as Windows XP, Windows Vista and Linux. The drive also supports the newest Windows 7 TRIM feature, which contributes to a substantial gain in the SanDisk G3 SSD’s performance by allowing the drive to continuously manage its resources and retain optimised performance throughout its lifespan.

SanDisk G3 SSD is available now at www.sandisk.com via the U.S. and UK e-commerce sites in 60GB and 120GB capacities with prices of £199.99 and £349.99 respectively. The drive will be available at retailers in North America and Europe soon, with exact pricing to be set by retailers.

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Given Apple’s previous attitude toward developers for its App Store, and the regulations it puts in place, it should come as no surprise really that they’ve thrown the cat among the saucy pigeons this week.  The Cupertino company have rolled out Phil Schiller, head of worldwide product marketing, to explain why purveyors of titillating apps – including swimsuit-clad ladies, jiggling chests and rock-hard glutes – are finding their software unceremoniously yanked, despite meeting Apple’s previous age restriction guidelines.  The answer?  Some developers had been submitting “an increasing number of apps containing very objectionable content.”

Apparently Apple was tiring of customer complaints that the App Store was turning too top-shelf in its offerings, though as we’ve seen before there’s a degree of inconsistency that has led to several accusations of hypocrisy on the company’s part.  While many titles from small developers have been pulled from the virtual shelves, others – such as from Playboy and Sports Illustrated – are still on sale.

“It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see … We obviously care about developers, but in the end have to put the needs of the kids and parents first” Phil Schiller, Apple

Says Schiller, “the difference is [Sports Illustrated] is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format”, seemingly ignoring the fact that Apple themselves approve all apps before they make it into the App Store.  With some developers finding that their previously profitable wares have suddenly stopped providing income, it looks like Apple still have a PR battle on their hands if they don’t want to be labeled prurient hypocrites.

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Small is good when it comes to trying to find a way to fit a desktop computer on your desk or into your entertainment center for use as a HTPC. A company called Habey has unveiled its latest tiny computer that is called the BIS-6620.

The machine is fanless, runs the Intel Atom Z510 CPU, and supports full 1080p HD video resolution. The tiny little computer measures 4.5″ x 4.5″ x 1.5″ and uses the Intel US15W chipset and GMA 500 graphics. A single DDR2 slot supports up to 2GB of RAM. The PC can be mounted to the rear of a TV or LCD with a VESA mount kit.

Storage is to a 1.8-inch HDD or SSD supporting micro-SATA connectivity. Connectivity options include a hot swap internal SATA II port, four external USB ports, S-Video out, and DVI out on some models. WiFi is optional and the machine runs Windows XP embedded, Vista, Linux, or Windows Embedded Standard 7 OS’. The little rig is on Newegg right now for $299.99, which doesn’t seem that bad until you realize it ships with no OS or storage inside. I’m not even sure it comes with RAM.

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Who would’ve thought memory cards could be so full of intrigue.  Andrew “bunnie” Huang – whose name you might remember from inside the chumby One – was prompted to investigate an apparent bad batch of Kingston microSD cards when the touchscreen widget device (which stores its OS on a microSD) started acting up.  He went on to discover that his dodgy batch was in fact the tip of a fake card iceberg, which seems to suggest Kingston’s suppliers have been producing so-called “ghost shift” fakes during factory downtime, with Kingston’s brand but serious quality shortcomings.

To figure that out, bunnie had to go round collecting various real and fake memory cards.  The latter would sometimes be out in huge trays, with street vendors dropping the cards into Kingston packaging and slapping on an “authenticity” hologram and serial number.

“One vendor in particular interested me; it was literally a mom, pop and one young child sitting in a small stall of the mobile phone market, and they were busily slapping dozens of non-Kingston marked cards into Kingston retail packaging. They had no desire to sell to me, but I was persistent” Andrew “bunnier” Huang

After stripping down the various samples with nitric acid and acetone, it was revealed that several of the Kingston-branded cards were in fact fakes, and that even the authentic Kingston cards used Sandisk or Toshiba chips.  It’s an interesting – if technical – read, but if you’re thinking of picking up a new memory card (or trying to save a few bucks by grabbing one in your local market) you should definitely take a look.

[via Red Ferret Journal]

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I mentioned earlier this morning that the new line of Samsung LED 3D TVs would be landing in Sears stores here in the US this March. Samsung is also set to offer up similar 3D LED TVs in Europe starting in March. The electronics giant will bring three 3D models to Europe.

The new models include the C7000, C8000, and C9000 models. The smallest screen size will be 40-inches and all will use the Samsung exclusive 200Hz processor. Along with the 3D TVs Samsung is also reported to be bringing a new BD-C6900 3D Blu-ray player to Europe at the same time.

If you have a PS3, the 3D update is expected this summer and you will not need a new Blu-ray player. Samsung is also going to bring 3D plasma TVs to market in Europe in the coming months. It’s nice to see plasma tech being updated so we have more options. One interesting feature of the Samsung TVs coming to Europe is that all of them include Freeview HD tuners built-in. Strangely none of the 3D TVs ship with 3D glasses. The ones you use in the theater won’t work either; the Samsung sets require active glasses, which won’t be cheap on their own.

[via ITProPortal]

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The technology market had one of its worst years ever in 2009 with the global economy being so poor. There were a few bright spots in the industry though like netbooks and smartphones. Sales of both netbooks and smartphones grew despite the poor economy.

Gartner has released its figures for the mobile phone market in 2009. Nokia was the top seller for the year followed by Samsung. The lucrative smartphone market was led by devices running the Symbian OS with 46.9% of the global smartphone market.

RIM was second place for 2009 with 19.9% of the global market. The iPhone was third for all of 2009 with 14.4% of the market. Windows Mobile was fourth behind the iPhone with 8.7% of the market followed by Linux, Android, and webOS. Android held 3.9% of the market with webOS having only 0.7% of the market.

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