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News & Opinion
Tech Trends
Products & Services
News & Opinion
Will 2012 Be the Year of the MacBook Air?
T-GAAP's Karl Johnson notes that the MacBook Air had a great year in
2011, with its available 256 GB solid state drive (SSD) and Sandy
Bridge processor allowing it to finally became a mainstream computer
and one of Apple's top selling Macs for 2011 - and it showing no signs
of slowing down.
Johnson predicts that the MacBook Air will enjoy even greater
success in 2012, with new Intel Ivy Bridge processors and more powerful
graphics support anticipated.
He also thinks there will be a 15" Air in 2012. This will fuel even
more interest in the MacBook Airs, which will bleed sales of users
upgrading from old MacBook Pros and other PC laptops, and rendering the
"Pro" models a niche product for video editors, 3D artists, 3D gamers,
and other scientific computing tasks, or, if Thunderbolt gains
traction, a new paradigm of one-port-for-all external devices may
eventually make the MacBook Pro obsolete.
Johnson contends that the MacBook Air has already changed the way we
think of computers due to its size and weight, noting that at 2.4 lb.,
the 11.6" Air is only a
pound heavier than the iPad, and at
less than 2/3" thick it can fit in almost any bag and takes up almost
no space - light and small enough to take along wherever one goes.
Consequently, Johnson predicts that MacBook Air will define Mac
computing for 2012 and outsell all other Macs combined, making 2012 the
year of the MacBook Air.
Link: Year of the
MacBook Air
Article from 1394 Trade Association Explains How to
Use Target Disk Mode with FireWire
The 1394 Trade Association has published a new technical article
describing how to use FireWire in Apple target disk mode (TDM)
applications.
Authored by Brian Karr, a 15-year engineering veteran with extensive
audio experience, the article describes the various uses of TDM beyond
copying files between machines including system backup and restore,
disk troubleshooting and repair. Also, TDM will present any optical
drives, to another Macintosh, which can be useful for MacBook Air
owners or for Mac PCs that have older optical drives that do not
support dual-layer DVDs, for example.
TDM also incorporates a timesaving feature for users who want to
upgrade to a larger hard drive, or to migrate files and settings to a
new Mac. Most, if not all, of the tools users will need for all of this
are included in OS X, according to the article.
Publisher's note: Low End Mac has covered Target Disk Mode, which
was first available over SCSI, numerous times over the years:
Note that Apple's new Thunderbolt port also supports Target Disk
Mode. dk
Link: Using Apple's
Target Disk Mode with FireWire
Tech Trends
Can Wintel Win the Ultrabook Market?
ZDNet has posted a "head-to-head" feature moderated by Jason Hiner
pitting two veteran commentators in a debate over whether Intel-powered
Ultrabooks can beat Apple at the game it created four years ago
with the first MacBook
Air.
PC advocate Ed Bott makes the case for the affirmative, while
longtime Apple fan Robin Harris argues the contrary.
Bott acknowledges that Apple has been kicking ass in the high-end
portable PC market over the last couple years and that the MacBook Air
has become deservedly popular for its exquisite engineering, but he
predicts that ultrabooks will be a big hit with PC buyers who like the
MacBook Air form factor but prefer Windows to OS X.
Harris counters that Apple dominates over-$1,000 PC revenue with a
90% share, and that the same tired "cheaper, not better" strategy that
lost PC vendors the profitable market segments in high-end PCs in an
Ultrabook iteration amounts to another profitless bit of
me-too-ism.
Link: Can Wintel Win the
Ultrabook Market?
AMD to Launch Lower Cost Ultrabook Competitor
Platform
DigiTimes' Monica Chen and Joseph Tsai report that as Intel gears up
to launch its next-generation Ivy Bridge platform for Ultrabooks (and
the MacBook Air) in April, hoping to lower the average Ultrabook price
to $799 to $999 with enhanced performance, AMD is getting set to launch
its Trinity-based platform compete in the Ultrabook/MBA market in June.
They say that AMD has code named its light-and-slim laptop category
"Ultrathin" and is projecting an overall cost 10-20% lower than for
computers built to Intel's Ultrabook spec, and to compete against
Intel's Ivy Bridge CPU family in 2012 and the next generation Haswell
in 2013. Chen and Tsai note that the new AMD platform is expected to
attract vendors such as Hewlett-Packard, Acer, and Asus.
The DigiTimes reporters say that 75 new ultrabooks based on Intel's
platform are expected in 2012, plus another 20 units based on AMD's
Ultrathin spec, although the latter are not anticipated to offer any
significant innovations in terms of performance or function compared to
Intel's Ivy Bridge-based ultrabooks - just a cost advantage of $100 to
$200 lower than Intel's Ultrabooks.
Link: AMD to Launch Lower
Cost Ultrabook Competitor Platform (subscription required)
Asus Expects US Notebook Shipments to Grow 30% in
2012
DigiTimes' Aaron Lee and Joseph Tsai report that despite seeing the
PC market experiencing decline, and economies of the US and Europe
weakening, Asustek Computer (Asus) still expects its notebook shipments
in the US to grow 30% in 2012, according to Asustek US president Steven
Chang.
Chang noted to DigiTimes that Best Buy is the company's first retail
channel partner in the US, and the company added Office Depot as its
second partner in 2011. In 2012, Asustek will also add Walmart and
Staples as marketing partners to help achieve its US shipment
goals.
However, 2012 is not exactly getting of to an auspicious start for
Asustek. Lee and Tsai note that in January the company expects its
consolidated revenues for the month to drop 25%.
Link: Asustek Expects Its
US Notebook Shipments to Grow 30% in 2012 (subscription
required)
Notebooks Increasingly Important in Samsung's
Business Plan
DigiTimes' Max Wang and Steve Shen report that its notebook product
lines are becoming increasingly important to the overall product mix of
Samsung Electronics, with the company's ultimate goal no less ambitious
than to capture the top-rank status in the segment, according to the
company's executive vice president Gregory Lee.
Samsung unveiled a series of new notebook lineups at CES 2012, some
to hit the market starting in February, Lee told DigiTimes, and that in
addition to stressing product designs and high-end applications,
Samsung will also optimize vertical integration resources available
in-house, including Samsung's manufacture if flat panels and
memory.
Link: Notebooks
Increasingly Important in Samsung's Business Plan (subscription
required)
Products & Services
IDrive Universal Online Backup for PCs, Macs,
Smartphones, and Tablets
PR: IDrive has made public the latest versions of its
Windows, Mac, and mobile software - home users and small businesses can
now protect as many computers, iOS, and Android devices as they own
with one easy plan.
"We're excited about the latest updates to IDrive," says Raghu
Kulkarni, founder and CEO of Pro Softnet Corp. "With a single account
new customers can back up as many computers and mobile devices as they
want and then view their files from any of those connected devices or
on our website. Plus, the mobile app can now back up contacts, photos
and videos and make them available online as well."
Those interested can create a free account and store their first 5
GB at no charge.
IDrive offers two plans for home users: 150 GB for $4.95/month or
500 GB for $14.95/month, with no limits on the number of Windows, Mac,
iOS, or Android devices that can be protected or the length of time for
file retention. For businesses, plans range from 50 GB to 1 TB
starting at $9.95/month with priority customer support. Customers can
receive two months free by paying annually, and IDrive also offers 50%
discounts for teachers, students, and faculty.
Not All Backups Are Created Equally
"Many backup services offer 'unlimited' storage space for a single
computer at a flat rate, like $50 per year per computer - it sounds
like a good deal at first, but back up 100 GB from that one computer
and you pay $50/year, back up just 50 GB and you still have to pay
$50/year: that's where they get you," says Stephen Gold, Business
Development Manager. "Not only that, 'unlimited' storage plans almost
always have very limited file retention, meaning they automatically
remove data from your backup after you delete the files from your
computer, usually just 30 days later. The question is, 'What use is a
backup that doesn't contain files you accidentally deleted, say, six
months ago?' On the other hand, IDrive allows people to actually use
all of the online storage they are paying for."
A quick summary of IDrive's features and benefits:
- Get full access to files from any PC, Mac, iOS or Android
device,
- Share any file/folder using an email address - easily swap large
files with others,
- Intelligent incremental backups/restores over a secure
connection,
- Available private key encryption for maximum security,
- "True Archive" storage - data is never automatically deleted and
the last 30 versions of each file are held without counting against GB
stored,
- Continuous Data Protection for real-time backup of commonly used
files,
- No file size or type limitations - no bandwidth throttling,
- Rapid Serve Restore - large restores can be physically shipped for
quick disaster recovery,
- IDrive builds its own hardware and software; the speed and
performance can rarely be matched,
- Live phone and 24-hour chat support.
IDrive Online Backup Mobile App Gets New Features
The IDrive mobile app makes it possible for users to access their
account and share files while on the go. New updates bring the ability
to back up contact information, photos and videos over a WiFi or 3G
connection to the IDrive cloud from iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices
running iOS 4.0 or later as well as Google Android devices running 1.6
or later. The information is then made available via other connected
computers and mobile devices as well as on the IDrive website.
IDrive is available for home and server editions of Windows and Mac
OS X and for mobile devices in the Apple App Store and Android
Market.
Why EVS (Encrypted, Versioned File System) for developers?
- EVS was built to be faster, easier to secure and more affordable
than other cloud platforms like Amazon S3, Rackspace and others.
- As low as $4.95/month for 150 GB of storage and no bandwidth fees -
build and test apps using the free 5 GB IDrive Basic plan,
- Efficient and built-in 256-bit AES encryption with the option for a
private user key for maximized security,
- Upload/download thousands of files and folders with a single line
of code,
- The past 30 versions of each file are archived indefinitely -
storage is calculated only for the most current version,
- Incremental and compressed data transfers make uploads and
downloads quick.
- The EVS development team actively assists developers and partners
with integrating APIs into their applications and new API codes can be
created based on special needs.
Link: IDrive
DriveSavers Dedicated to Solid State Data
Recovery
PR: DriveSavers Data Recovery has announced that it has
formed a dedicated research and development team to conquer the
challenges of solid state drive (SSD) data recovery. DriveSavers began
working with solid state storage technology around 1995 when SmartMedia
cards were introduced with some of the first consumer-priced digital
cameras. Since then, DriveSavers has aggressively researched and
developed unique techniques for SSD and NAND flash recoveries, as well
as partnered with premier SSD manufacturers including Samsung and
SandForce.
Storage manufacturers currently use nonvolatile flash memory for
portable USB drives, camera cards, SSDs, Apple iPhones and iPads. One
of the greatest benefits of flash memory is that it doesn't require
power to retain data it stores, unlike other types of memory chips such
as DRAM or SRAM. Because SSDs have no moving parts, they eliminate
common problems experienced with typical hard drives that employ flying
read/write heads such as: head crashes; bad motors and damaged head
stacks.
"As SSDs continue to grow in popularity and market share, everyone
wants the speed and quick boot times, but have questions about
reliability and trusting a new technology with their precious data,"
says Chris Bross, Strategic Technical Alliance Engineer at DriveSavers.
"Having years of experience in achieving early data recovery success
with SSD technology, DriveSavers can provide a safety net should the
unexpected SSD failure happen and data loss occurs."
"Nevertheless, for all that you gain from a SSD; data is still at
risk. The technology is still relatively new and failures do occur.
These devices are susceptible to problems such as bad chips, directory
corruption, virus attacks, accidental file deletion, impact damage,
electrical spikes and fire or water damage.
"SSD data recovery can be challenging for a number of reasons. Data
is stored across multiple memory chips, similar to the way data is
striped across multiple hard drives in a RAID 0 configuration. The SSD
controller is the brain of the device and determines how and where the
data is to be written on the flash media via complex proprietary
algorithms. And many of these SSDs are self-encrypting as well. For a
successful recovery to be achieved, we must understand the controller
technology and be able to access all the NAND chips on the drive. Some
or all chips may be removed from the printed circuit board and make
repairs as needed. One-of-a-kind solutions must often be developed very
quickly to satisfy our customers needs.
"We have a long history of understanding complex data structures,
overcoming technological challenges and generating successful SSD
recoveries. We continually invest in SSD data recovery research and
development to ensure our engineers and technology are ahead of the
curve as these devices continue to gain market share."
Link: DriveSavers
Sumo Laptop, Tablet Combo Backpacks
PR: Mobile Edge has introduced two new Ultrabook/Tablet
Backpacks under the Sumo brand. These new backpacks are designed to
accommodate laptops up to a 15" MacBook Pro in a tailored padded pocket
plus a separate fleece-lined pocket specifically for iPads or other
computer tablets.
Designed for smaller profile laptops (Ultrabooks)
and an iPad, the stylish Sumo Combo Backpacks are built to suit the
current evolution in computing hardware. The lightweight (only 1.7 lb.)
design features lots of storage space for everyday items, front and
side pockets for quick access items and a unique drawstring opening
with a secure flap to ensure user convenience. A convenient front
zippered pocket makes storing a phone or other gadgets quick and easy.
The adjustable padded shoulder straps and ergonomically padded back
panel make carrying your gear comfortable.
"Based on user feedback and the recent explosion in tablet sales,
our design team created a stylish backpack that is ideally suited for
toady's active women," says G. David Cartwright, President & CEO,
Mobile Edge. "Combining protection for a Tablet and an Ultrabook, our
new Sumo Combo Backpack reflects the changing environment in mobile
computing."
The Sumo Combo Backpack Collection comes in two colors, Red and
Black with Pink stitching. Both carry an SRP of $79.99 and are backed
by the Mobile Edge Lifetime Warranty.
Link: Sumo
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