How-To install iOS 7 on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad, and iPad Mini

Apple has just officially released iOS 7. If you have a compatible device (listed below), simply visit your device’s Settings menu, click to General, and then Software Update. You can also update to iOS 7 via iTunes 11.1, which was just released on the Apple website (and you will need it if you wish to sync your device via USB.) The original post is below, if for some reason you wish to download iOS 7 in a different way.

Updated: If your iPhone or iPad won’t download iOS 7, it’s almost certainly because Apple’s servers are being completely hammered. We finally managed to get a device to update, though it took quite a few failed attempts. It’s probably worth waiting a few hours until the deluge has calmed down, unless you want to sit there and constantly hit retry. Once you’ve installed iOS 7, check out our guide to all of its new features.

While iOS 7 won’t be released until September 18, it’s possible to download and install iOS 7 today, and install it on your existing iPhone or iPad. You can install iOS 7 on the iPhone 4, 4S, and 5, the fifth-gen iPod Touch, and every iPad and iPad Mini except the original iPad. Installing iOS 7 will give you access to some exciting new features, such as improved multitasking and AirDrop, and the complete visual overhaul will of course make your Apple device look completely different (and cause all of your friends to gape jealously).

There are two routes that you can take to install iOS 7 on your iDevice: You can either sign up for an Apple developer account, which costs you $100 per year, or you can install one of the leaked iOS 7 golden masters. The safest option is to sign up for the developer program, and if you split it between a few friends (you can install iOS 7 on up to 100 devices), it can be very cheap. Once you’ve signed up, you need to add your device’s UDID as a registered test device, and then go ahead and download the correct iOS 7 image for your device from the Apple developer portal. Once you have the image, skip to the installation section below.

If you don’t have $100 to spare, downloading a leaked golden master is a good second option — and, depressingly enough, it’s actually easier than installing the legitimate version. To install iOS 7, grab the correct image for your device from the list below, and then proceed to the installation section.

iOS 7 and iTunes 11.1 golden master images

If you don’t know which model you have, the model number can be found on the back of your iDevice. Bear in mind that some of these links may not work by the time you read this story (but a bit of googling can usually find you an alternative link). Also note that you will need iTunes 11.1 (link below) if you want to sync to your computer — but if you don’t want to install it, iCloud sync works just fine.

• iPhone 4 (GSM)
• iPhone 4 (GSM Rev. A)
• iPhone 4 (CDMA, Model A1349)
• iPhone 4S (Models A1431 & A1387)
• iPhone 5 (Model A1428)
• iPhone 5 (Model A1429)
• iPad 2 (WiFi)
• iPad 2 (Rev. A)
• iPad 2 (WiFi + GSM, Model A1396)
• iPad 2 (WiFi + CDMA, Model A1397)
• iPad 3 (WiFi, Model A1416)
• iPad 3 (WiFi + GSM, Model A1430)
• iPad 3 (WiFi + CDMA, Model A1403)
• iPad 4 (WiFi, Model A1458)
• iPad 4 (WiFi + GSM, Model A1459)
• iPad 4 (WiFi + CDMA, Model A1460)
• iPad Mini (WiFi, Model A1432)
• iPad Mini (WiFi + GSM, Model A1454)
• iPad Mini (WiFi + CDMA, Model A1455)
• iPod Touch (Fifth-generation)
• iTunes 11.1 Beta

Installing iOS 7 beta

Before you continue, make a backup of your device using iTunes. If anything goes wrong, you will want to boot your phone into DFU mode and then restore the backup. These images seem to be the real deal and safe to use, but we haven’t tested all of them, and of course you use them at your own risk.

With your iOS 7 image downloaded (if it’s a DMG file, you will need to open it up and extract the IPSW file), plug in your iDevice, and then open up iTunes. Select your device’s Summary tab. Under OS X, hold down Option and click Restore; in Windows, hold Shift and press Restore. Select the IPSW file from the dialog that pops up, and voila: Your iDevice will update to iOS 7. Once the update has completed, you may need to restore your device from a backup (and remember, you will need to update to iTunes 11.1).

Voilà: Your iPhone or iPad is now running iOS 7. Be sure to read our iOS 7 guide so that you don’t miss any of the cool new features.

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Exploring the new iOS 7 features, changes, and interface

Later today, September 18, Apple will release iOS 7 — the biggest update to iOS since the first iPhone launched way back in 2007. In some ways, iOS 7 merely brings Apple’s mobile OS up to feature parity with Android and Windows Phone — but in other areas, iOS 7 leaps ahead of the competition. If you want to find out more about iOS 7′s new features and changes, read on. If reading isn’t your thing and you own an iPhone or iPad, go ahead and download and install iOS 7 today, ahead of the official release.

iOS 7′s radically different new look

After six years of looking exactly the same, iOS 7 finally delivers a massive visual overhaul that will make your iPhone or iPad actually look modern. In general, iOS 7 is flatter, more colorful, and lacks skeuomorphism (interface elements that resemble real-world objects/materials, such as wood paneling or a leather ledger). Despite the new look, though, iOS 7 still feels very familiar; everything’s still where you expect it to be. It just looks fresher. We’ve been using various beta versions of iOS 7 for a few months, and while there’s a bit of an adjustment period, Apple has somehow ensured that almost everything is surprisingly familiar.

In-line with newer versions of Android and Windows Phone, iOS 7 also now makes much more significant use of typography; in many cases, where there used to be an icon, there is now simply a label with the action/function spelled out. Underlying changes have been made to iOS 7 to give developers easier access to advanced typography features, too, such as kerning and ligatures.

iOS 7 is also more dynamic. The new Control Center (more on that later) is semi-transparent, allowing you to see the colorful Home screen beneath. Likewise, the Notification Center (which is significantly upgraded) is semi-transparent. When you tilt your iDevice, your Home screen icons move independently of the background, creating a cute parallax effect.

iOS 7 Control Center and Notification Center

Once you look beyond the visual overhaul, which actually provides very little in the way of new functionality, the most significant changes in iOS 7 are the new Control Center and the updated Notification Center. Control Center is a new panel that is revealed by sliding up from the bottom of the screen. Control Center finally lets you configure iOS without heading deep into Settings. You can enable airplane mode, toggle WiFi/Bluetooth, change screen brightness, control music playback, use your camera’s LED as a flashlight, and more.

Notification Center has been significantly updated in iOS 7, so that (just like Control Center) it provides much the same functionality as Android. Instead of a single panel, you now have three — Today, All, Missed — that show you your notifications, appointments, emails, stock tickers, and so on.

iOS 7 Multitasking

Always one of iOS’s weaknesses, version 7 also improves multitasking. Now, instead of just a small tray at the bottom of the screen when you double tap the Home button, you get a full-screen interface with app thumbnails. Instead of having to push-and-hold to close programs, you can just swipe the preview image off the screen.

Apple also claims that iOS 7 can learn your app usage schedule, and trigger updates just before you open an app. If you always check Facebook at 9am, iOS 7 will apparently check Facebook for updates just before, so that your feed is ready and waiting. Presumably this will save some battery life over the conventional method of constant push notifications — though, to be honest, these are probably still turned on by default anyway.

iOS 7 Camera and Photos

As much as the tech press hates to admit it, faster processors and fancy features are really rather superfluous: What the vast majority of iPhone users really care about is the device’s ability to snap photos. In iOS 7, the camera app now lets you shoot in square format (ideal for Instagram), and a range of filters can be applied in real time — and you can remove filters from images later, if you don’t like it. If you have an iPhone 5S, Camera also lets you shoot in slow motion, which is pretty awesome (but the question is, will it still be awesome once you’ve seen a million slow-mo videos on Vine, Instagram, and YouTube?)

The Photos app (pictured above) has been significantly overhauled to introduce Years, Collections, and Moments — essentially new ways of viewing your photos that have been automatically organized by certain criteria. Collections and Years are self-explanatory (iOS automatically collates your photos), and Moments tries to highlight important photos, such as your visit to Times Square. If you snap a lot of photos on your iPhone, these new views provide some much-needed organization.

iOS 7: AirDropiOS 7 AirDrop

AirDrop closely mirrors Samsung/Android’s S Beam, but with the usual dollop of Apple flair and polish. Basically, AirDrop lets you easily share any file on your iPhone or iPad via WiFi or Bluetooth, with any other iOS 7 device that’s in range. Discovery of other devices is very slick and quick, and you can remain invisible if you prefer. This is obviously a lot easier than emailing a file, or sending a low-res photo via SMS/MMS.

Other changes to iOS 7

Siri has been updated so that it checks more sources for information, and so that it can interact with new features such as iTunes Radio (pictured below) — which, incidentally, is essentially free Pandora radio for every iOS user, and ad-free if you sign up for the $25/year iTunes Match.

The App Store now has Apps Near Me, which shows you apps that are relevant to your current location — and, more importantly, the App Store can now automatically update your installed apps!

Find My iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch has been updated, so that it requires your Apple ID and password to turn the feature off, or to erase or activate your device.

Safari has been significantly updated, too — now it feels a lot more like a modern browser, such as Chrome. There’s a unified search box (a la Chrome’s omnibar), and the tab switcher is very slick. Though it won’t be ready for release, iCloud Keychain will allow you to securely store/share your passwords and credit card details between your iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks devices.

All in all, iOS 7 is one of Apple’s largest and best software updates. In testing, we have found iOS 7 a lot easier and quicker to use than its predecessors. One of the biggest complaints — that too many features are buried away in menus — has been soundly addressed. In a story later today, we’ll be investigating whether iOS 7 compares favorably against Android 4.3, or whether Apple still has some ground to cover.

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Crucial M500: The first 1TB SSD, priced at just $0.60/gig

That day has finally arrived: Crucial is selling a 1TB SSD for just $600. Not only is this the first mainstream SSD to offer a terabyte (960GB) of capacity, but it also clocks in at just 60 cents per gig — by far the cheapest high-capacity SSD on the market. Crucial’s 1TB drive is actually significantly cheaper (per gig) than the smaller drives in the same range.

Crucial’s new drives, which launch under the M500 moniker, are fashioned from Micron’s 20nm MLC NAND and a Marvell 9187 controller. There are 120GB ($130), 240GB ($220), 480GB ($400), and 960GB ($600) models, all of which are theoretically capable of 500MB/sec sequential read, and up to 400MB/sec sequential read on the 480GB and 960GB models. In actual benchmarks, the 960GB and 480GB M500 is a mid-range SSD that’s outpaced by its contemporaries, including the Samsung 840 Pro. Its performance is by no means bad, though — and really, let’s be honest here: The M500′s main selling point is its ability to offer a truly usable amount of storage space at a reasonable price. The use of MLC should mean that the M500 has greater endurance than its TLC-based counterparts, such as the Samsung 840, too.

To squeeze 1TB into a single SSD, Crucial uses Micron’s new 128Gbit (16GB) 20nm MLC NAND die — double the previous max of 64Gbit (8GB) per die. To achieve such a huge density, Micron had to increase the page size from 8KB to 16KB, which increases the die’s density — but also the latency, thus reducing overall performance. Micron squeezes four of these dies into a single chip, for a total capacity of 64GB per chip — and then Crucial shoehorns 16 NAND chips into the drive, for a total capacity of 1024GB (960GB usable). The M500 is the first drive to use the 128Gbit die, which is why no other drive comes close to it in terms of capacity or cost-per-gig. We can expect other drive vendors to follow in the M500′s footsteps and release 1TB (or perhaps even larger) drives later this year.

SSD prices have been slipping below the $1/GB threshold for the last few months, but only at smaller sizes (120GB and 240GB). For a 1TB (960GB) to drop so far below $1/GB is quite simply extraordinary. To reach that density, Crucial had to make some performance sacrifices — but, put simply, Crucial couldn’t care less that the M500 is 10% slower than a drive that can only manage a puny 512GB of storage. Crucial has launched the first ever mainstream, 1TB drive at below $1 per gig — and that’s a big deal.

If you want to get your hands on a M500 drive, Newegg has some in stock at $650; Amazon is already out of stock. For benchmarks, see the always-ineffable Anandtech.

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Five-dimensional glass memory can store 360TB per disc

Scientists at the University of Southampton in the UK have succeeded in creating five-dimensional (5D), ultra-high-density storage on standard silica glass discs that, unlike DVDs or Blu-rays, seem to be capable of storing data for an unlimited period of time without a reduction in data integrity. The scientists say that 5D optical storage could allow for densities as high as 360 terabytes per disc, and unless you crush it in a vice, these discs are so non-volatile that data stored on them should “survive the human race.”

At first glance, five-dimensional storage might sound a bit like pseudoscience — but, in this case, the data really is stored on five different dimensions (surfaces, planes). There are the usual two dimensions (width, height) provided by a piece of silica glass, and depth is provided by writing at three different depths (layers) within the glass. The fourth and fifth dimensions are provided by nanostructuring the surface of the glass, so that it refracts and polarizes light in interesting ways.

To record data, spots are imprinted on the glass (pictured below) using a femtosecond laser. A femtosecond laser, in this case, produces bursts of laser light that last for just 280 femtoseconds (280 quadrillionths of a second). These spots, thanks to the nanostructuring of the surface, and some hologram cleverness, are capable of recording up to three bits of data in two “dimensions.” By varying the focus of the laser, the team are able to create layers of dots that are separated by five micrometers (0.005mm) in the z-axis (the third dimension). Then, by simply moving the laser horizontally and vertically, these tri-bits can be stored in two more dimensions, bringing the total to 5D. The image at the top of the story helps illustrate this concept.

To read these spots, an optical microscope that’s capable of untangling the polarized light reflected by the three-bit spots is used. There’s no word on whether these silica glass discs can be rewritten, but the research paper [PDF] makes it sound like this is a write-once-read-many (WORM) storage method.

As you can imagine, storing a tri-bit in a single dot, and then storing these dots in a three-dimensional medium, allows for utterly insane storage densities. The researchers say that 360 terabytes could be stored on a single 5D disc — by comparison, quad-layer Blu-ray discs that store just a single bit per pit have a total capacity of 128 gigabytes, or almost 3,000 times less. The best hard drive technology, heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), which will soon make its way into commercial drives, will max out at around 20 terabytes per disc.

Furthermore, the scientists report that their glass discs are thermally stable at temperatures up to 1000 degrees Celsius, and the imprinted spots don’t seem to degrade over time. This led Peter Kazansky, the group’s supervisor, to pipe up with this particularly memorable/questionable soundbite: “It is thrilling to think that we have created the first document which will likely survive the human race. This technology can secure the last evidence of civilisation: all we’ve learnt will not be forgotten.”

Moving forward, the University of Southampton is now looking for industry partners to commercialize this technology. Obvious applications include archival storage, where the management of huge repositories of tapes and hard drives is expensive, complex, and time-consuming business. Eventually, assuming the complex laser/microscope setup can be miniaturized, these discs might offer an upgrade path from DVDs and Blu-rays.

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Samsung debuts monster 1.6TB SSD XS175

Samsung unveiled its new XS175 line of SSDs today, with capacities of up to 1.6TB and a brand-new storage interface. The new drive uses the Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) standard, which is meant to boost SSD performance by transitioning to using PCI Express for transfers rather than conventional SATA.

The Serial ATA standard has been extended multiple times since it first debuted in 2003, but it was fundamentally designed for spinning disks. Many of the features that the SATA/AHCI interface enables, like NCQ (Native Command Queuing) were designed to address problems with that type of media — not for modern SSD architectures. (See: Crucial M500: The first 1TB SSD, priced at just $0.60/gig.)

Normally, enterprise products aren’t of much interest to the consumer market, but NVMe is a feature that’s headed for the consumer space before too long. The performance benefits over AHCI are significant — NVMe is designed to allow a drive to create multiple queues, using a model that more closely maps to the multiple NAND channels in an SSD rather than relying on spinning media to access data sequentially. It supports up to 64K submission and completion queues, with each queue holding up to 64K of entries. Queues can be prioritized or weighted differently to speed system accesses.

Samsung is the first company to implement NVMe, and it claims the standard will offer significant performance advantages. While plenty of other SSDs have used the PCIe bus before now, the benefit of NVMe is that it’s a standardized interface that won’t require specific manufacturer drivers in the future. Once widely adopted, you’ll need just a standard driver that can easily be bundled with the operating system.

Those of you who follow the storage market may be aware that the next generation of SATA controllers, dubbed SATA Express, are adopting PCI Express as their interface. SATA Express and NVMe are complementary, not competing technologies. Specifically, SATA Express specifies the design of the physical connectors and hardware, while NVMe provides the driver and interface. According to the consortium that’s in charge of SATA Express, the decision to move to NVMe was made because it offers increased performance and significantly improved power management without requiring a full doubling of bandwidth.

The current SATA transfer rate tops out at 6Gbps, while SATA Express bumps this to 8Gbps. That might not sound like much, but the SATA-IO working group believes that the benefits of NVMe, combined with the modest bump in raw bandwidth, will deliver a satisfying performance kick.

The first SATA Express chipsets are expected in 2014, with Intel’s Broadwell. SATA Express is backwards compatible with AHCI as well as supporting NVMe — there’s no reason to worry about drives becoming incompatible due to the shift.

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Hands-on with fake iPhone 5

Apple’s (AAPL) next-generation iPhone becomes a reality in just over a week, and a staggering amount of leaks and rumors will surface between now and then. As is always the case, some will be real and some will be fake. 

Just because something is fake doesn’t mean we can’t gain some insights by examining it, however, and The Verge managed to track down an “iPhone 5” mock-up while attending the IFA trade show in Berlin last week. The mock-up is said to have been created for testing purposes by a third-party case manufacturer using actual specs and measurements from Apple’s upcoming sixth iPhone. In the video below, we can see exactly how it stacks up against the current-model iPhone 4S.

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Philippines Is Among Top Mobile Phone Gray Market

The Philippines is one the largest gray-handset markets in the world, along with China, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan, and Indonesia, according to research firm IHS.

Sample of fake Samsung Galaxy S3

Gray-market handsets, as defined by IHS, include counterfeit products like fake iPhones as well as white-box cellphones on which any logo can be readily imprinted.

White-box handsets often are illegal despite sporting a logo because they use smuggled chips, lack official certification from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), use fake International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) codes and usually are trafficked through Hong Kong to avoid valued-added taxes (VAT) from being imposed on the devices.

The gray market for cellphones is expected to contract for the second consecutive year in 2013, with worldwide shipments dropping by 12 percent as both makers and buyers of these handsets turn to branded products.

Shipments reached their peak in 2011 with a total of 250.4 million gray-market cellphones. But beginning last year, the market began to shrink, contracting to 221.5 million units.

The deceleration will continue this year to 194.6 million units, followed by another steep fall to 173.8 million units in 2014. The decline will continue at least through 2017, when shipments will dwindle to 133.9 million units.

The gray market overall is impacted by an accelerated decrease in the sales of lower-end handsets known as feature phones. And while the ultra-low cost handset (ULCH) and smartphone segments of the gray market will continue to grow until 2014, expansion in these segments won’t be enough to counteract the drop in the feature phone sector.

“A combination of supply and demand factors is causing demand to decline for gray-market cellphones,” said Kevin Wang, director of China research at IHS.

“On the demand side, the consumers in emerging markets who used to be the major purchasers of gray-market cellphones increasingly are preferring brand-name handsets. On the supply side, some gray-market handset makers have become branded manufacturers in order to promote their own names in developing countries.”

Furthermore, it is becoming harder for gray-handset makers to differentiate their products from a sea of counterfeits and remain profitable. And with the Chinese currency appreciating in value, the gray handset business is no longer as profitable as it once was.

The Asia-Pacific is not immune to decline, and the regional gray-handset market will contract this year to 103 million units, on its way to 53 million units by 2017.

The Middle East and Africa in 2012 surpassed Central and Latin America as the second-largest gray handset market, driven by increasing demand from countries such as Nigeria, Turkey, Egypt, and Iran.

Gray-market handset shipments this year to the Middle East and Africa will decrease slightly to 38.2 million units.

Central and Latin America together represented the third-largest gray-handset market, with 37.3 million units forecast to be shipped in 2013.

Countries in Eastern Europe, such as Russia and Ukraine, also are major target markets.

In China, the world’s largest handset market, total cellphone shipments from Chinese companies will grow to 840 million units in 2013, up 2 percent from 2012. However, shipments will begin to decline starting in 2014, HIS said.

Within the Chinese smartphone space, shipments this year will grow to 361 million units, offsetting the decrease in shipments of feature phones from the Chinese companies.

China shipments this year will also grow in the ULCH segment, driven by demand from low-income consumers in developing countries buying the Chinese handsets.

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Why iPhones are actually cheaper in China than the US

China’s second largest telco China Unicom announced today it will offer packages for customers to receive a free iPhone 5S or 5C with a contract. The catch? The contract is three years long for a 5C and 30 months for a 5S, and you have to buy a high-end plan.

Unicom’s slightly smaller competitor China Telecom announced the preorder of iPhones on its network before the devices were even revealed. Its prices are slightly cheaper. Details of China Mobile getting its first ever TD-LTE iPhone for the upcoming national 4G rollout are still unclear but expected soon.

Despite heavy criticism about the iPhone 5C not being cheap enough in China, the new contracts bring down the price to a nearly level playing field with Western countries, even if the plans cost more than what Chinese people are used to. Most Chinese data plans are cheap, limited to just 300MB. The more expensive plan required for a free iPhone offers roughly triple the data for triple the price. Will China Unicom and Telecom be able to lure more customers to its pricier packages for a three-year commitment? See my infographic below for the breakdown.

I decided to do the math. Even though iPhones are much cheaper in the US, data plans are far more expensive (typically $60 per month). That means over the course of two years, the total cost of owning and using an iPhone is actually more expensive. That includes the price of the iPhone and what you pay over the course of two years combined. On the upside, contracts typically only last 24 months. Of course, buying any unlocked smartphone in the US without a contract is extremely expensive.- source

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Chat App Battle Heats Up as KakaoTalk Enters the Philippines

Chat apps are not only big in Asia in general, they’re becoming widely used in the Philippines, too. Filipinos have been using Wechat, Line, Whatsapp, and Viber for a time now. But today, an additional option is available as KakaoTalk launches officially in the Philippines.

KakaoTalk stars on TV

It’s not that Korea-made KakaoTalk was not available for download in the Philippines for Android and iOS before. It already is. But since KakaoTalk has not yet formally introduced itself to the market by means of advertisements in different media, it may be safe to say that hasn’t yet gained traction in the country.

We’ve already seen China-made WeChat making itself known in the Philippines by getting local stars for its TV ads. Line also followed suit with its own set of TV ads and free stickers in the country. Today, KakaoTalk also launches its TV ad in the nation featuring Philippine singer Sarah Geronimo, together with Korean boy band Big Bang. Incidentally, K-pop has a huge following in the Philippines, so featuring a K-pop group in its advertisement might give a boost to KakaoTalk in the Philippines.

Planning for localized features

KakaoTalk’s move today is a lot like its aggressive promotion elsewhere in the region. The Korean app has TV ads in Indonesia, and is being promoted in Malaysia through a partnership with Friendster.

Last June, KakaoTalk reached 100 million registered users. But it’s still lagging behind Line which already has more than 200 million users. According to Kakao Corp, its biggest markets to date are Korea, Japan, and Indonesia. To start gaining ground in the Philippines, Kakao Corp will first focus on making Filipinos familiar with the app via ads and marketing, and then listening to users’ feedback. After which, it plans to provide timely localized features for the messaging apps users.

Banking on a recent ComScore study which revealed that the internet audience in the Philippines is the fastest-growing in Southeast Asia, Tim Jang, director of Kakao Philippines, believes that Kakao Philippines “will be able to provide the right product at the right time to satisfy the needs of the local consumers.” He adds:

The country has been especially robust in the past years and we are confident that KakaoTalk will do well in such a promising environment.

Among Asia-made messaging app, Line is perhaps the leader in the Philippines on both Android and iOS, according to App Annie’s rankings. But KakaoTalk’s eventual growth in the Philippines is something we will watch out for.

KakaoTalk is available for download for Android and iOS.

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KakaoTalk Free Calls and SMS Review

KakaoTalk is a communication tool for smartphone users allowing them to make free calls to contacts using the same service and to send text messages for free. Many other features are included with the service. The most interesting point with it is that it does not require the user to register and use a nickname, and uses their mobile phone number for identifying them. KakaoTalk is available for the iPhone, for Android phones, for BlackBerry and Windows Phone, and works on Wi-Fi and 3G networks. At the time I am writing this, the user base of KakaoTalk is reaching 50 million.

Pros

• No need to register, use your mobile phone number.
• Unlimited free calls and text messages to other KakaoTalk users.
• Group text messages.
• Huge user base.
• Many other features.

Cons

• No calling and messaging to non-KakaoTalk users, not even paid service.
• Not available for most phone models including Nokia, Symbian etc.
• Dependent on Wi-Fi or 3G signals.
• No video.

Review

KakoTalk is a Korea-based VoIP service that resembles Viber a lot. Services like this that give free calls and other communication services for free to other in-network users are numerous, but what I find more interesting with services like KakaoTalk is that it uses your phone number to identify you and does not require you to register for a username.

The service can be used exclusively with people who are already users of KakaoTalk. You can’t place calls to other landline and mobile numbers, not even if you pay. So you will be happy and save money with the service only if you have buddies using it and with whom you communicate frequently. For this reason, the huge number of users using this service (reaching 50 million) makes it interesting.

KakaoTalk is also used as a social networking tool, as a means to meet new people and to chat. It has features that allow you to search for people using their names, their numbers and their email account. It manages to get hold of people and their information so easily that it makes me think a lot on security and privacy issues. For instance, when I installed and set up the app on my Android device, it automatically fed in one of my phone numbers. It was actually an old number that is no longer active. How did they get that kind of information?

One thing you need with the service is constant connectivity wherever you are. While it uses your mobile phone number to identify you, it has nothing to do with your cellular network. It relies exclusively on your 3G or Wi-Fi connection. If your smartphone is not connected, you just can’t use it.

Using the service with mobility is finally not fully free. You need to consider the cost of a 3G data plan. It is fully free when used in a Wi-Fi hotspot, but that limits you considerably in mobility.

KakaoTalk has some more features. The Plus Friend feature allows users to obtain benefits and multimedia content like songs and videos by adding artists and celebrities as their friends. The app integrates your contact list and adds friends automatically to your chat sessions once they are online. KakoTalk actually offers an ID for each user and you use it to identify your friends on the network. You can import and export friend lists, and view each friend’s mini profile. You can also register your favorite friends. The app provides funny voice filters that you can apply to your voice when engaged in voice calls. It also gives useless but funny emoticons, that are animated.

KakaoTalk also allows you to share your multimedia files like images and videos, but also links, contact information, and voice messages.

You can use your KakaoTalk account with only one phone number. If you change your phone number, you will need to complete another number registration process.

You will have to be cautious when making calls using KakaoTalk. If you select a phone number that is not recognized in the KakoTalk service, the app will let you place the call using your mobile minutes. Make sure before calling whether you are making free or paid calls.

Finally, a word about group chatting, which gives the app its social networking touch. The number of friends you can have in a group chat session in unlimited, and you can add friends therein at any time. If all the friends are KakaoTalk users, the whole session will be free for everyone. You can also choose to make voice calls to a friend in the chat session.

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Globe strengthens connections to Boracay with its fiber optic highway

Globe Telecom recently confirmed that it has successfully interconnected Boracay through fiber optics, effectively boosting the connections and strengthening the network coverage of the internationally-renowned island.

This was accomplished through the Boracay Submarine Cable System, a two-kilometer fiber optic cable which is able to transmit 80 wavelengths of Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing or DWDM systems with a capacity of 40 gigabytes per second (GBPS) per wavelength and is expandable to 100 GBPS. This can provide “near to limitless transmission capacity, which will result to crystal-clear voice call and superfast surfing,” according to Robert Tan, Chief Technical Adviser of Globe.

Along with Tan, other key officials from the company as well as project managers from its partner for the ongoing network modernization Huawei, spearheaded the landing of the submarine cable from Caticlan in the town of Malay, Antique to Boracay.

“Definitely, we consider this a major milestone for Globe as we have powered up our cell sites with 3G and HSPA+ connectivity,” Tan said, adding that “this submarine cable system will provide Globe a future-proof infrastructure, along with those for the entire archipelago, ready for the next generation communication technology.”

Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu lauded this development, noting that this further bolsters the progress of the company’s network modernization, which has already breached the 60-percent milestone “in record time.”

“We have finished our optical fiber systems highway to Boracay and this progress is a significant part of building our brand new network. This will bring the level of enjoyment of our subscribers, tourists and vacationers in the area a notch higher,” he said, affirming that “this augurs well for one of the major travel destinations not just of the Philippines but of the rest of the world, amplifying tourism economics and activities in the island jewel.”

Cu said that the building of the Globe network will involve blanketing the whole Philippine geography with the steady progression of the network transformation, which includes far-flung locations, creating seamless coverage for the entire country. The entire infrastructure change-out, according the highest ranking Globe official, is accelerating toward the homestretch earmarked on the first quarter of 2013, “with very encouraging results.”

“This puts Globe closer in delivering our 2012 capacity plans and network quality improvements to bring superior customer experience they truly deserve,” the Globe chief said.

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Virident FlashMAX 1400GB MLC NAND SSD Storage Card

FlashMAXTM Storage Class Memory (SCM)

Virident incorporates specialized software and hardware that combine to implement Storage Class Memory (SCM) within the server. Virident's SCM architecture has been designed to tightly integrate different kinds of flash media, hardware and software to deliver memory-class performance with storage-class capacity and persistence. Virident's FlashMAX SCM devices and associated software deliver performance without compromise, along with HDD-like capacity in a very compact, universal form factor.

• High performance, enterprise class PCIe flash storage
• Uncompromised performance across a wide variety of workloads and over the lifetime of the product
• Over 2X performance as compared to other flash- based solutions
• Sustained, predictable random IOPS – Best in the Industry
• Over 1 Million IOPS from a single low profile card
• Enterprise-grade reliability and advanced end-to-end ECC

Virident vFAS

vFAS stands for Virident Flash-management with Adaptive Scheduling, which is the Virident software layer that delivers the most efficient access to flash media for applications. In addition to providing optimized access for peak performance, vFAS also includes many sophisticated techniques for ensuring that applications get a steady, sustained stream of data at all times. vFAS virtualizes the underlying flash media to present a standard block device interface to applications, without leveraging inefficient storage protocols or interconnects, resulting in unprecedented gains in application performance without any change to the application.

Memory-like performance and Hard Disk Drive-like capacities

Virident's FlashMAX presents a traditional block storage volume to the host so that applications can easily access it without realizing that it is a different type of media. But that is where the similarity to a disk drive, and disk drive interfaces, ends. vFAS has been designed to treat flash media much more like an extension of memory, while maintaining a traditional block storage interface for applications. All of this is done without leveraging storage protocols, storage controllers, or storage interconnects. 

The result is access latencies under 20 μs, which is closer to DRAM performance than storage. The results are clearly demonstrated by the ability of Virident's FlashMAX with vFAS to deliver over 1.4 Million IOPS in a single low-profile card – the only product in the market capable of doing so.

Unconditional Performance

Virident's FlashMAX with vFAS delivers consistent performance across all application workloads, as well as when the device is fully utilized. FlashMAX with vFAS delivers application performance whether it is peak small block read performance, where a single low profile card can deliver over 1.4 million IOPS, or sustained mixed read/write performance when the drive is nearly full. No other product on the market today can deliver this.

Flash-aware RAID

vFAS supports flash-aware RAID for enhanced reliability and data availability. This feature allows the discrete flash components included on the card to be isolated as separate slices to provide 7+1 RAID protection, implemented in a flash optimized manner. The flash modules on a card are spread across RAID groups, allowing for multiple failures to occur without disrupting an application's access to the data. This delivers continuity of operations in the event that there are failures with the flash media itself.

Global and Local Wear Leveling

Virident FlashMAX with vFAS offers global wear leveling to maximize the lifetime of the flash media. Also, data is relocated to other parts of flash that are less-used whenever needed. FlashMAX's sophisticated wear leveling delivers maximum lifetime of the flash media.

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Micron P420m Enterprise PCIe SSD Snap Review

The Micron P420m is an enterprise application accelerator that ranges up to 1.4TB in total capacity that leverages the PCIe interface and is uniquely offered in both a half-height, half-length (HHHL) and 2.5" form factors. Micron has opted for 25nm MLC NAND for the P420m to meet not only mainstream market requirements for performance and reliability, but also to provide a more cost-effective and higher capacity offering than their P320h which is paired with SLC NAND. The other core difference between the P420m and the P320h is that Micron has added capacitors to protect in-flight data in the event of an unplanned loss of power. The additional data protection feature keeps the card powered long enough to flush all writes to the NAND, giving enterprises one more layer of data protection. The HHHL card interfaces via PCIe Gen2 x8 to achieve sequential read performance up to 3.3GB/s with writes up to 630MB/s and random reads up to 750,000 IOPS and 95,000 IOPS for write activity. The 2.5" interfaces over PCIe Gen2 x4 for up to 1.8GB/s and 430,000 IOPS, respectively.

At its core, the Micron P420m features the same custom Micron/IDT ASIC controller as its sibling the Micron P320h PCIe and the same RAIN architecture (redundant array of independent NAND). RAIN provides device-integrated algorithms that use RAID5 across flash channels, enabling Micron to deliver greater performance, reliability and data integrity. RAIN also guarantees continuous drive operation even after a channel failure by kicking off an automatic background rebuild when a failure is detected. RAIN is entirely automated and runs entirely in the background without degrading system-level performance.

The application accelerator market at large offers a wide scope of options in terms of capacity and performance, but one feature that can be overlooked is power consumption. Some solutions draw so much power and expel so much energy that in-host cooling is a serious concern. The P420m on the other hand is well within the PCIe spec and is rated at just 8W in standby (7W on the 350GB 2.5"), with active power ranging up to 30W depending on capacity, form factor and performance tuning options. The 2.5" form factor is rated at 14W for 350GB and 22W for 700GB. The HHHL form factor is rated at 22W for 700GB, while the 1.4TB model is quoted at 25W with power throttling turned on and 30W without its activation.

As noted, the Micron P420m is available in both HHHL and 2.5" PCIe form factors. The 2.5" PCIe form factor continues to be unique to Micron, though others have shown demos of the technology. Dell has created a backplane for their 12G PowerEdge servers for the drives that allows them to be mounted in groups of four in traditional front-facing drive bays. Of course being able to access the drives via front of server without having to power down the system and remove the lid to service the drive is seen as a substantial benefit by some. It also helps that Micron's 2.5" PCIe drives are by far the fastest storage available in that drive size, as seen in our 2.5" P320h review.

The 2.5" ships in 350GB and 700GB capacities, while the HHHL is available in the 700GB and upper-echelon 1.4TB capacities. The HHHL cards provide endurance of 5 PBW (700GB) and 10 PBW (1.4TB). Our review units are four 1.4TB capacity cards.

Micron P420m Enterprise PCIe SSD Specifications

• Capacities
• 700GB (MTFDGAR700MAX-1AG1Z)
• Sequential Read: 3.3GB/s (128KB, steady state)
• Sequential Write: 600MB/s (128KB, steady state)
• Random Read: 750,000 IOPS (4KB, steady state)
• Random Write: 50,000 IOPS (4KB, steady state)
• 1.4TB (MTFDGAR1T4MAX-1AG1Z)
• Sequential Read: 3.3GB/s (128KB, steady state)
• Sequential Write: 630MB/s (128KB, steady state)
• Random Read: 750,000 IOPS (4KB, steady state)
• Random Write: 95,000 IOPS (4KB, steady state)

• Ready Latency: <100 data-blogger-escaped-br="" data-blogger-escaped-s=""> Write Latency: <13 data-blogger-escaped-br="" data-blogger-escaped-s=""> Interface: PCIe Gen2 x8
• Power: 30W maximum, 8 idle
• Form Factor: HHHL
• Dimensions: 68.90mm x 167.65mm x 18.71mm
• Operating Temp: 0°C to +50°C
• Reliability and Endurance
• Uncorrectable bit error rate (UBER): <1 data-blogger-escaped-1017="" data-blogger-escaped-bits="" data-blogger-escaped-br="" data-blogger-escaped-per="" data-blogger-escaped-read="" data-blogger-escaped-sector=""> MTTF: 2 million hours
• PBW: 5 (700GB), 10 (1.4TB)
• OS Compatibility
• Microsoft: Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (x86-64), Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V (x86-64), Windows Server 2012 (x86-64) SP128, Windows 7 (x86-64)
• Linux: RHEL Linux 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 (x86-64), SLES Linux 11 SP1 and SP2 (x86-64)
• VMware 5.0, 5.1 (x86-64)
• Open source GPL (Kernel Rev. 2.6.25+)

Design and Build

The Micron P420m is a half-height, half-length x8 PCIe application accelerator that features a single controller mounted onto the mainboard, with daughter boards attached to house more MLC NAND and power-fail capacitors. As with its top of the line, SLC NAND-based P320h sibling, the P420m follows the universal HHHL spec, enabling installations for just about any open server PCIe slot.

The power-fail capacitors are new to the Micron P420m to help ensure data integrity in the event that power is lost, as Micron enabled write-back caching leveraging DRAM on the P420m. The P320h had its default configuration set to write-through, although users could (at their own discretion) enable write-back caching for increased performance. Since the default conditions changed to help drive greater performance from the new MLC platform, Micron opted to ensure reliable performance regardless of the conditions of the installed environment.

The top of the card features an adhesive black plate with Micron P420m branding. This plate also serves to protect the top layer daughter board with its power-fail capacitors, as well as the controller's heat sink. That controller is a Micron/IDT ASIC controller that was also found on the Micron P320h. As for NAND, Micron includes 64 of their own Micron 31C12NQ314 25nm MLC NAND packages. That comes out to 2048GB or raw capacity, which is then over-provisioned down to 1.4TB available.

Testing Background and Comparables

The Micron P420m Enterprise PCIe SSD uses a Micron/IDT ASIC controller and Micron MLC NAND with a PCIe 2.0 x8 interface.

Comparables for this review:

• Fusion-io ioDrive2 (1.2TB, 1 x Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA controllers, MLC NAND, PCIe 2.0 x4)
• Huawei Tecal ES3000 (1.2TB, 3 x Proprietary FPGA controllers, MLC NAND, PCIe 2.0 x8)
• Intel SSD 910 (800GB, 4 x Intel EW29AA31AA1, MLC NAND, PCIe 2.0 x 8)
• LSI Nytro WarpDrive BLP4-400 (400GB, 4 x SandForce SF-2500 controller, Toshiba eMLC NAND, PCIe 2.0 x8)
• Micron P320h (700GB, IDT Controller, SLC NAND, PCIe 2.0 x8)
• Virident FlashMAX II (2.2TB, 2 x Proprietary FPGA controllers, eMLC NAND, PCIe 2.0 x8)

All PCIe Application Accelerators are benchmarked on our second-generation enterprise testing platform based on a Lenovo ThinkServer RD630. For synthetic benchmarks, we utilize FIO version 2.0.10 for Linux and version 2.0.12.2 for Windows. In our synthetic testing environment, we use a mainstream server configuration with a clock speed of 2.0GHz, although server configurations with more powerful processors could yield even greater performance.

• 2 x Intel Xeon E5-2620 (2.0GHz, 15MB Cache, 6-cores)
• Intel C602 Chipset
• Memory - 16GB (2 x 8GB) 1333Mhz DDR3 Registered RDIMMs
• Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 64-bit, Windows Server 2012 Standard, CentOS 6.3 64-Bit
• 100GB Micron P400e Boot SSD
• LSI 9211-4i SAS/SATA 6.0Gb/s HBA (For boot SSDs)
• LSI 9207-8i SAS/SATA 6.0Gb/s HBA (For benchmarking SSDs or HDDs)

It's worth noting that the comparables we've selected are largely MLC-based drives, with the exception of the SLC Micron PCIe drive. That said, not all PCIe drives are created equally both in terms of performance targets and price. Specific applications require specific storage needs, thus we've opted to standardize the comps on NAND type rather than number of controllers, etc.

Application Performance Analysis

In the enterprise market there is a huge difference between how products claim to perform on paper and how they perform in a live production environment. We understand the importance of evaluating storage as a component of larger systems, most importantly how responsive storage is when interacting with key enterprise applications. To this end, we've rolled out application tests including our proprietary MarkLogic NoSQL Database Storage Benchmark and MySQL performance via SysBench.

In the MarkLogic NoSQL Database environment, we test single PCIe Application Accelerators with a usable capacity greater than or equal to 700GB. Our NoSQL database requires roughly 650GB of free space to work with, evenly divided between four database nodes. In our testing environment, we use an SCST host and present each SSD in JBOD (while some PCIe SSDs leverage software RAID0), with one device or partition allocated per database node. The test repeats itself over 24 intervals, requiring between 30-36 hours total for the SSDs in this category. Measuring the internal latencies seen by the MarkLogic software, we record both total average latency, as well as interval latency for each SSD. - source

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OWC Envoy Pro EX Snap Review

The OWC Envoy Pro EX is a USB 3.0 bus-powered portable storage device that offers capacities up to 480GB and is pre-formatted and primarily designed for Apple systems, though PC users can reformat and use the drive as well. The OWC Envoy Pro is the bare unit, while the EX models add SSD storage using OWC's Aura 6G SSDs. OWC's intent when they engineered the Envoy Pro EX was to create storage for the MacBook family that is ultra-portable, high-performance and protected from potential user-damage. The Envoy Pro EX meets those criteria: it can easily fit in a pocket, it offers SSD memory for superior speed compared to HDD-based portable drives, and in using SSD the device has no moving parts and is safe from physical damage in its anodized aluminum body.

OWC's Envoy Pro EX offers a solution to those users who simply require a high performance option to store files that get accessed on multiple machines or as supplemental storage for those on MacBooks with limited internal storage. Certainly bulk storage options are abound that are based around hard drives, but those of course have slower access speeds, may not travel as well and are much bulkier than the very slim Envoy Pro EX.

OWC pricing for The OWC Envoy Pro (0TB) is $79.99, Envoy Pro EX 240GB is $319.99 and Envoy Pro EX 480GB is $599.99. The Envoy Pro EX comes with a three year warranty that features a 48-hour turnaround time, and to add an even greater sense of security, OWC provides one free year of Tier-1 data recovery in the event of data loss.

OWC Envoy Pro EX Specifications

• High-performance ASMedia 1053e chipset
• USB 3.0 interface
• Features
• Bus-powered via USB 3.0 port (no AC adapter required)
• Anodized aluminum finish
• Fanless operation
• Non-skid rubber feet
• System Requirements
• Mac Requirements: Mac OS 10.3 or later and an available and supported USB 3.0 port
• PC Requirements: Windows XP or later and an available and supported USB 3.0 port
• Linux Requirements: Linux OS versions and an available and supported USB 3.0 port
• Environmental (Operating): 32°F (0°C) to 158°F Temperature (70°C)
• Environmental (Non-Operating): -67°F (-55°C) to 302°F (150°C)
• Acoustics: Idle (Typical) 0.0 bels, Seek (Typical) 0.0 bels
• Dimensions (WxDxH): 2.125" (53.98mm) x 4.5" (114.3mm) x 11.11 (0.4375mm)
• Enclosure Weight (no accessories): 3.8 ounces
• 3 Year OWC warranty and built in USA

Design and Build

The OWC Envoy Pro EX has an extremely rigid construction that feels strong enough to hold up to substantial physical impact. The design mimics that of the Apple MacBook family making it a perfect pair. The top of the ultra-portable Envoy Pro EX is all silver as is the rest of the body. The front features an LED indicator showing light blue when the device has power, and the back of the Envoy Pro EX houses the USB 3.0 port. Flipping over the Envoy Pro EX, the bottom has the product labeling and the rubber feet that grip the drive to a surface. OWC also includes a nice carrying pouch for when the Envoy Pro EX is in transit. Overall the design is quite elegant and is one of the best looking portable storage drives we've had come through the lab.

It's worth noting that users won't be able to use the OWC Envoy Pro EX with USB 2.0; only USB 3.0. The OWC Envoy Pro EX doesn't support USB 2.0, nor does OWC recommend using it. This may be due to a lack of ability for the USB 2.0 port to power the Envoy Pro EX.

Performance

We utilized our Consumer Testing Platform to measure transfer speeds from the OWC Envoy Pro EX 240GB using its USB 3.0 interface. We started with 2MB sequential read and write testing in which the Envoy Pro EX came in at 244.76MB/s and 239.56MB/s respectively, while random large-block transfers measured 240.67MB/s read and 239.63MB/s write. These figures essentially top off at the limitation of USB 3.0 - not a reflection on the Aura 6G SSD's native capabilities.

To compare the OWC Envoy Pro EX 240GB to other flash-based portable solutions on the market, we've also tested the Iomega SSD Flash External 128GB as well as the LaCie P'9223 Slim SSD 120GB using their USB 3.0 interface. We began with the Iomega by looking at 2MB sequential read and write testing. There, the Iomega SSD 128GB posted 204.62MB/s for reads and 120.49MB/s for writes. In our random large-block transfers, it measured 201.92MB/s read and 107.09MB/s write. These numbers show that the OWC Envoy Pro EX provided far better write rates and more throughput for read activity as well, but the Iomega marks are reasonable given that it has been out for a couple of years now.

We then moved on to the LaCie. For 2MB sequential read and write testing, the LaCie P'9223 Slim SSD 120GB came in at 285.50MB/s and 188.70MB/s, respectively. For random large-block transfers, the LaCie 120GB SSD had marks of 273.65MB/s for read activity and 189.14MB/s for write activity. The LaCie SSD performed with the most throughput for read activity of the 3 drives coming in just above the OWC Envoy Pro EX 240GB SSD, while the OWC 240GB produced the greatest write activity transfer rates.

Overall the OWC product performed very well, with nearly identical small and large block performance over both reads and writes. The complete picture is very respectable, offering steady performance in every case near the top scores possible from the USB 3.0 interface.

Conclusion

The OWC Envoy Pro EX is a USB 3.0 portable drive that utilizes an SSD to deliver high-end performance in a very small footprint. Our test model has a capacity of 240GB though users can opt for 480GB as well. This capacity is delivered by OWC's own Aura 6G SSDs which are backed by OWC's 3 year warranty that includes 48-hour turn around and 1 year of data recovery. The drive is also smaller than many popular smart phones currently available on the market, and it features an extremely durable aluminum enclosure that happens to look great too.

There are only things to like when it comes to the design of the OWC Envoy Pro EX. The enclosure has some super strength, and it looks just like an Apple product that matches superbly to MacBooks. In fact, if it had a white USB 3.0 cable and lost its OWC sticker, you might even confuse it with an Apple design. On top of that, the size really enables users to take the Envoy Pro EX with them anywhere: from travel bags to purses to pockets, it's slim enough to fit. When it came to test performance, the OWC Envoy Pro EX 240GB provided solid throughput around 240MB/s for both read and write activity in 2MB sequential and random large-block testing which was definitely impressive, though top-end speeds are somewhat limited by its USB 3.0 interface. Even so, it's the best overall performance portable storage device we've tested to date.

Pros

• Premium design
• Rigid enclosure
• Extremely portable

Cons

• USB 3.0 limits the Envoy from greater throughput

Bottom Line

The OWC Envoy Pro EX is a fantastic choice for users that require ultra-portability and performance coupled with a superb design when looking for expanded capacity on the go.

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Samsung Mass Producing High-Performance 128-Gigabit 3-Bit Multi-Level-Cell NAND Flash Memory

SEOUL, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced today that it has begun mass producing a 128-gigabit (Gb), 3-bit multi-level-cell (MLC) NAND memory chip using 10 nanometer (nm)-class* process technology this month. The highly advanced chip will enable high-density memory solutions such as embedded NAND storage and solid state drives (SSDs).

“By introducing next-generation memory storage products like the 128Gb NAND chip, Samsung is extremely well situated to meet growing global customer needs”

“By introducing next-generation memory storage products like the 128Gb NAND chip, Samsung is extremely well situated to meet growing global customer needs,” said Young-Hyun Jun, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing, Device Solutions Division, Samsung Electronics. “The new chip is a critical product in the evolution of NAND flash, one whose timely production will enable us to increase our competitiveness in the high density memory storage market.”

Samsung’s 128Gb NAND flash is based on a 3-bit multi-level-cell design and 10nm-class process technology. It boasts the industry’s highest density as well as the highest performance level of 400 megabits-per-second (mbps) data transfer rate based on the toggle DDR 2.0 interface.

Utilizing 128Gb NAND flash memory, Samsung will expand its supply of 128-gigabyte (GB) memory cards, which can store as many as sixteen 8GB full HD video files. Samsung now will also increase its production volume of SSDs with densities over 500GBs for wider adoption of SSDs in computer systems, while leading the transition of main storage drives in the notebook market from hard disk drives (HDDs) to SSDs.

Demand for high-performance 3-bit MLC NAND flash and 128Gb high storage capacities has been rapidly increasing, driving the adoption of SSDs with more than 250GB data storage, led by the Samsung SSD 840 Series.

Samsung started production of 10nm-class 64Gb MLC NAND flash memory in November last year, and in less than five months, has added the new 128Gb NAND flash to its wide range of high-density memory storage offerings. The new 128Gb chip also extends Samsung’s 3-bit NAND memory line-up along with the 20nm-class* 64Gb 3-bit NAND flash chip that Samsung introduced in 2010. Further, the new 128Gb 3-bit MLC NAND chip offers more than twice the productivity of a 20nm-class 64Gb MLC NAND chip.

Samsung plans to keep introducing leading-edge SSDs and embedded memory storage solutions with high-quality features, in accelerating the growth of the premium memory market.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in technology, opening new possibilities for people everywhere. Through relentless innovation and discovery, we are transforming the worlds of televisions, smartphones, personal computers, printers, cameras, home appliances, LTE systems, medical devices, semiconductors and LED solutions. We employ 236,000 people across 79 countries with annual sales exceeding US$187.8 billion. To discover more, please visit www.samsung.com.

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Skyera Adds Unified SAN/NAS To SkyHawk Series Enterprise SSD Storage Systems

Skyera has announced that it has added NAS to the company’s skyHawk series of solid-state storage systems. With SAN and NAS connectivity, the company’s unified storage vision is complete. The skyHawk series of enterprise solid-state storage systems are based entirely on latest generation Multi Level Cell (MLC) NAND Flash in a compact half-depth 1u form factor with a staggering 44 terabytes of high performance, low latency native usable capacity for the most demanding Big Data, analytics and virtualization applications.

Unlike other Flash storage software offerings, many of the skyHawk’s performance features are integrated directly into the system hardware, eliminating overhead and increasing overall performance. Skyera’s vertically integrated hardware, software, and now file system, minimizes communication and workflow between the system, RAID and Flash controllers, and eliminates the unnecessary APIs found between typical off the shelf storage operating system layers.

Multiprotocol storage systems, which combine block and file storage access protocols, are gaining interest and adoption by enterprises because they offer savings, advances in technology and simplified management. These unified storage arrays are being purchased by IT managers who are looking to reduce capital and operational expenses, as well as limit the number of IT and data storage administrators required to manage their companies’ growing block and file storage requirements.

Skyera’s new NAS offering is seamlessly integrated with SEOS, Skyera’s solid-state operating system. Key capabilities include full support for compression, read-only and writable snapshots, thin provisioning and three different levels of quality-of-service so customers can build different file systems to meet varying business requirements. The focus is not only on feature set but also on ease of use & management. Common management operations, like file system creation, export, snapshot and real-time performance monitoring can be done in a single click via the skyHawk web-based or command line interface.

“A true solid-stage storage solution must be more than sticking Flash media and controllers in a box with software that was not designed specifically for solid-state technology,” said Radoslav Danilak, CEO and co-founder of Skyera. “We wanted to simplify the life of the storage administrator by converging storage protocols into a unified enterprise solid-state storage solution rather than “bolting on” these new capabilities to old storage platforms.”

With the enterprise solid-state storage systems market expected to grow to $4 billion in 2015 from only $260 million last year, Skyera built an entirely new architecture from the ground up to fully leverage the benefits of next-generation flash memory while overcoming the limitations faced by other solution vendors. Skyera’s disruptive system-level solid-state storage technology combines storage and networking to achieve greater speed, reliability and efficiency than both traditional and solid state solutions on the market today.

Skyera will be demonstrating skyHawk with these latest advanced capabilities at Dell Enterprise Forum, June 4-6, in San Jose, CA and Cloud Expo, June 10-13, in New York City.

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Magic Wand portable scanner PDS-ST410-VP

Taking around four seconds to scan an A4-size document in B&W, this portable wand-type scanner from VuPoint Solutions is designed for copying images from books or documents with thick or fragile spines that don’t allow them to be folded back for placement on a flatbed scanner. It's also useful for scanning pages that are located a long way from your office.

Depending on the size of your microSD memory card (sold separately - up to 32GB) and your desired resolution, the device can store hundreds of images onboard and scans at resolutions up to 600x600dpi. The default setting is 300x300dpi.

Weighing 5oz more than the Planon DocuPen RC800 (but around US$200 cheaper), the VuPoint PDS-ST410-VP has an A4 color contact image sensor and can capture a full-color A4 page in around 28 seconds for high resolution, much quicker with a lower res setting. It just shows how much these type of devices have evolved in the past few months.

The scanner has an automatic white balance, utilizes USB 2.0 and is compatible with PC or Mac (drivers available free for PC, not needed with the Mac).

Scanning speeds: 28 seconds high-res color, 14 secs high-res B&W, 8 secs low res color, and 4 secs low res B&W.

Accessories including a USB cable, 2 x AA alkaline batteries, OCR software CD, pouch and cleaning cloth.

The Magic Wand is available for around US$99.

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Symantec Fingers Most Advanced Chinese Hacker Group

The most advanced hacker group in China is composed of 50-100 professional cybercrooks who have breached Google, Adobe, RSA, Bit9 and Lockheed Martin in recent years, according to a new report from Symantec.

China’s involvement in most of the cyberattacks — some of the most high profile in recent history — was already known. Although Symantec would only confirm that the hackers are based in China, other security researchers tracking the same group say its sophistication, targets and methods indicate it is working for or on behalf of the Chinese government.

Still, the 28-page report from the Mountain View, Calif., security firm is the first to publicly link the same group to the numerous breaches, and offers new technical details on its methods. It also for the first time links China to the 2012 hack of Bit9, a security company used by the U.S. government and large companies to determine which software is cleared to run on their networks.

The group, which Symantec internally calls “Hidden Lynx,” has been active since at least 2009 and is most likely a “hackers for hire” service, the report said. It’s one of several hack teams in China, though security experts claim it’s the most advanced. (Hacking Google: not easy.)

This winter, Mandiant, another security firm, outed “Comment Crew” or “Shanghai Group,” another Chinese hacking team,and linked it to the country’s military.

“There is no question they’re working on behalf of the Chinese government,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, CTO of Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity firm, who has been tracking Symantec’s group for years. It’s possible the hackers act like digital defense contractors for China, Alperovitch said.

Crowdstrike employees internally refer to the group as “Aurora Panda.”

More than half (52.8%) of its targets since November 2011 have been in the U.S., with another 15.5% in Taiwan and 9% in China. U.S. companies and officials have repeatedly documented Chinese hackers theft of intellectual property from American firms.

In 2010, Google fingered Chinese hackers in a 2009 breach of its corporate systems. The company accused the hackers of trying, unsuccessfully, to break into the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

The same hackers behind the Google attack have also gone after RSA, the computer security company known for its grey SecurID tokens, Symantec said. By accessing RSA’s systems, China was able to access the network of defense contractor Lockheed Martin. RSA disclosed it had been breached in 2011 and Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, fingered China in that hack last year.

Symantec, a public company with international clients, was careful not to lay blame on the Chinese government. The company would only note that “much of the attack infrastructure and tools sued during these campaigns originate from network infrastructure in China.”

The Chinese embassy to the U.S. did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. When Mandiant released its China report this year, it told the New York Times, “Making unfounded accusations based on preliminary results is both irresponsible and unprofessional.”

The U.S. also has cyberspies that slip into Chinese networks. The U.S. government maintains it only seeks to keep tabs on the Chinese government — not steal data from Chinese companies, current and former U.S. officials have said.

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Globe: Home security systems causing Makati signal issues

MANILA, Philippines – Globe Telecom Inc. sent out an announcement Wednesday, September 18, informing the public that aside from illegal signal repeaters, high-intensity radio frequency identification (RFID) systems used for home security are causing signal issues for its users in Makati City.

According to the company, "services in the areas of Guadalupe all the way to Magallanes including the stretch of EDSA along these two areas" are affected by the issue.

RFID technology is a wireless non-contact use of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields to send and receive data from receivers to tags, which store electronic information. Because some of these systems operate outside the technical specifications of frequency bands allowed by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), they act as a source of interference for telecommunications.

Regarding the interference, Atty. Froilan Castelo, Globe's head for Corporate Legal Services, said, “It is unfortunate that a RFID system aimed at providing security in certain villages has been the cause of a major source of signal interference in the area. We would like to assure our subscribers that the company is doing everything within its reach to resolve the issue.”

Castelo added that Globe is working with NTC and the homeowners’ association representatives from a number of exclusive residential subdivisions to resolve the interference issue. These include Forbes Park, Dasmarinas Village, Urdaneta Village and Bel-Air.

Scanning tests will also be done in other locations to ensure that the RFID systems of other locations do not affect the quality of Globe's network.

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Globe rolls out undersea cable system in Palawan

Philippines telecommunications provider Globe Telecom has completed the rollout of a submarine fibre optic backbone in Palawan, Philippines. The 400-kilometre undersea cable system serves as a transmission system of telecommunication services between the province and the main island of Luzon, enhancing Palawan's connectivity with the country and the rest of the world.

The Palawan cable system will provide high-speed internet connection and a network for text and voice calls. The undersea cable system is designed to transmit 40 wavelengths at 40 gigabits per second capacity per fibre pair and upgradable to 100-gigabits per second DWDM system, allowing the company to accommodate future traffic growth.

The Palawan cable system, which has a total transmission capacity of 19.2 terabits per second, powered up mobile sites with fourth-generation Evolved High-Speed Packet Access or HSPA+ connectivity and supports LTE services. The transmission upgrade in Palawan forms part of Globe Telecom's USD 700 million network transformation initiative, involving as a component the roll-out of about 12,000 kilometres of optical fibre lines nationwide.

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Google Nexus 7 Review

I viewed Google I/O, Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) and the first Nexus tablet as Google's last chance to deliver a knockout in the tablet space before the onslaught of Windows 8 and Windows RT devices later this year. While the show was undoubtedly a success, I don't know that the market for $499+ Android tablets has a life after Windows 8/RT hit. We should see Windows RT tablets at $499, and Ivy/Haswell based Windows 8 tablets will handle the higher price points.

It seems that Google also realized this as the Nexus 7, its first Nexus branded tablet, starts at just $199. There's a huge market for tablets as a primary computing device, and I believe Windows RT/8 offers something unique and compelling for that usage model. At the same time however, there's decent demand for a tablet to augment your existing computing world. It's a far more specific usage model but one that really demands a lower price point. Users are willing to spend a lot for something that does everything in your life, but for something that's more nice than necessity, price matters even more.

The Nexus 7 is aimed at the latter. It's a device for users who need ultra portability and tons of battery life for content consumption. While Apple has been quietly empowering the iPad to be a content creation device, and dockable Windows 8/RT tablets will attempt to replace your notebook, the Nexus 7 is a more traditional ARM based tablet by default.

It's clearly Google that I have to thank because the Nexus 7 is the most solidly built ASUS tablet I've ever used. That's not to say that its predecessors were examples of shoddy workmanship, it's just that the Nexus 7 is damn near perfect. The back has a great grip to it. The whole thing actually feels like a well made book because of the soft touch plastic back. The book comparison is sort of hilarious because it's a feel that Amazon couldn't get right with its overly generic Kindle Fire. The book illusion stops once your hands touch the glass for obvious reasons, but man does it feel nice to hold.

The Nexus 7 feels considerably lighter than the Kindle Fire, but I still had to prop it up on something or hold it in two hands if I was going to use it for a long period of time.

The power button and volume rocker are placed much like they would be on a phone - at the top right edge of the device. The sole buttons on the device do feel a bit ambiguous, something I feel that I would get used to over time. I had the disadvantage of switching between several tablets during this review and never did get used to the position and feel of the buttons on the N7. That's probably the biggest gripe I have about the design of the device. In other words, there's not much to hate.

The Nexus 7 features two mics for noise canceling action (likely in support of Google Now). You get NFC, Bluetooth and 802.11n WiFi but there's no LTE option as of now. I know there's internal debate about releasing an LTE enabled version at some point in the future.

Cost is the major selling point for the Nexus 7: for $199 Google will sell you an 8GB version with a $25 credit at the Google Play store, along with some preloaded magazines, books and a movie (Transformers: Dark of the Moon). It's tough to buy a new tablet and not buy apps for it, so the $25 credit is likely to be incredibly useful - making the effective retail price of the Nexus 7 $174. If you want 16GB of storage the price does go up to $249 however. Unfortunately even Google is not above charging $50 for $4 of MLC NAND.

The limited NAND capacity prevents the Nexus 7 from being home to more than a single full length movie or a couple of TV shows. Streaming video content isn't a problem, Netflix works beautifully on the device but there's no hope if you want to keep a ton of content local. Unfortunately USB OTG isn't supported for storage, so you're left with no other option for expanding local storage (short of rooting the device).

In every sense outside of portability, a 10-inch display is much nicer to look at than a 7-inch one in my opinion. There's less zooming in you need to do on web pages or magazines. Text in general is just easier to read and perhaps I'm getting too old, but there's something nice about everything being comfortably bigger.

Does the Nexus 7's form factor make it feel substantially better than using a smartphone? Yes, I'd say so. The same reasons I gave above for a 10-inch tablet being nicer to use than a 7-inch tablet are equally applicable to 7-inch tablet vs. a smartphone. There's this size/usability optimization curve that requires some soul searching to figure out exactly where you land on it. I suspect most people fall into the small smartphone + large tablet dichotomy, but the beauty of this current mobile revolution is the availability of choice. The Nexus 7 in many ways is very much like the 11-inch MacBook Air. A bit impractical for many, but those who crave portability are drawn to it. The Nexus 7 still feels like you're using a tablet, just a small one.

I needn't dwell on the benefits of a 7-inch form factor for portability any longer. If I'm wearing baggy enough pants I can even pocket the Nexus 7, something I simply couldn't do with the iPad. I'm more likely to carry the Nexus 7 with me than I would the iPad, but the comparison isn't quite as open and shut as that. The iPad offers LTE, the Nexus 7 is more portable, the iPad is easier to look at, the Nexus 7 is more affordable...the back and forth is endless.

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