Tag: more-expensive

WD’s next-gen SSDs add even more speed and capacity

Hard disk specialist Western Digital (WD) acquired SSD maker SanDisk last year for a colossal $19 billion, and now we’re getting some idea as to its strategy. The company unveiled two new lineups — branded under each company’s names — that feature the first SSDs to use 64-layer 3D NAND chips developed by SanDisk. The new, higher capacity chips will allow for “lower power consumption and higher performance, endurance and capacities, ” Western Digital wrote in its press release . The two lines, WD Blue and SanDisk Ultra 3D, are identical capacity-wise, use the same controllers and have identical performance specs — though WD Blue also offers a M.2 2280 device that SanDisk doesn’t. All of the 256GB drives, both in 2.5-inch and M.2 formats, start at a very reasonable $100. They also come in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB sizes, but WD hasn’t listed prices for those items yet. That information will be particularly interesting, since the drives require fewer chips than rival SSDs, which will hopefully drive down the prices. As for the performance, it’s pretty, pretty good. The larger capacity devices can read at 550 MB/s and write 560 MB/s, and the 256GB SSD is just a touch slower (550 MB/s and 525 MB/s). Perhaps more importantly, all products have a mean time to failure (MTTF) of 1.75 million hours. WD says that’s “industry-leading, ” but it falls behind some products, including Samsung’s (more expensive) 850 Pro , which sports a two million hour MTBF. WD gave a pretty good clue as to why it’s offering identical products under different labels. “Between our two strong brands in SanDisk and WD, and their respective loyal customer bases and distribution channels, these advanced SSDs will appeal to a very broad [range of consumers], ” said WD CEO Mike Cordano. In other words, WD has huge stores of goodwill in both brands, and it’s not willing to give that up to save some marketing costs. Source: Western Digital

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WD’s next-gen SSDs add even more speed and capacity

QuirkLogic’s Quilla is a massive 42-inch E Ink whiteboard

Canada’s QuirkLogic wants to see an end to people taking pictures of their whiteboard notes with a smartphone. That’s why it’s launching the Quilla, a 42-inch smart whiteboard that’s built around the world’s largest electronic paper display. Paired with QuirkLogic’s connected writer system, anything that you draw on the display (with the stylus) will be instantly stored for retrieval later. The product is the result of a three-year partnership between QuirkLogic and E Ink, the company that’s been pushing electronic paper displays for years. The same technology will also be available, from E Ink itself, as a standalone display that can be used by the signage industry where low-power screens are useful. The Quilla weighs 22 pounds and has a built-in battery that enables it to keep working for 16 hours on a charge. If you’re sufficiently baller, you can even daisy-chain displays together to increase your workspace rather than simply moving to another page. There’s no word on pricing, although you can expect it to be significantly more expensive than, you know, just buying a whiteboard and writing things down afterward. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017. Source: QuirkLogic

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QuirkLogic’s Quilla is a massive 42-inch E Ink whiteboard

Netgear’s new Nighthawk router doubles as a Plex server

Video streaming is becoming one of the main things we do on the internet, and few things in life are more annoying than having to wait for a clip to finish buffering. To keep up with our growing appetites for speed, Netgear has unveiled the Nighthawk X10 router, which it says is the fastest in the world. It’s got a 1.7GHz quad-core processor onboard that the company says is the speediest in a home router, as well as Quad Stream Wave 2 WiFi architecture that helps the device get up to 7.2 Gbps. Plus, it supports the latest 802.11ad standard . But what’s really interesting about the Nighthawk X10 is its Plex Media support that lets you turn any USB 3.0 flash drive or hard disk into a server, without requiring a computer. Previous devices in the popular Nighthawk line have also had USB ports onboard, but the X10 is the first to offer Plex firmware in its app to let you set up one or both of the two connected drives as a server. There’s no real limit to the storage size of the drives you can attach. Other non-speed-related goodies that come with the X10 include new mobile support for OpenVPN, so you can tap into your home network even when you’re overseas. The Nighthawk X10 is now available for $500, which is more expensive than prior models. That’s because, as Netgear explained, the new iteration is more like a mini PC than a mere router. If you’re a Plex fan, or prize having a really fast, high-end router that can keep your videos and backed up files available wherever you are, that price may be worth it. Otherwise, you might be better off finding a cheaper option.

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Netgear’s new Nighthawk router doubles as a Plex server