MacBook Air from Yurii Smitana on Vimeo.

Yurii loves his MacBook Air so much, he made an advertisement for it. I like the moment at 1:33, when he compares the thickness of an old Acer machine with the thinness of an Air.

Have you made any Apple product advertisements recently?

Come to think of it, have you made any advertisements for products you like recently? Even Acers? Just wondered.

Samsung currently offers 64GB and 128GB SSDs for laptops.

The new 256GB drives are faster too, the company claims, more than doubling the performance rate of Samsung 64GB and 128GB SSDs.

The drives combine sequential read rates of 220 megabytes per second, with sequential write rates of 200MBps. "This sharply narrows the performance gap between read and write operations to only 10 percent, compared to a read-write speed difference of between 20 (percent) and 70 percent for other SSDs," the company said.

Samsung did not mention random write performance, however. Despite being generally faster than hard-disk drives (particularly at reading data), solid-state drives fall short of hard disks when they randomly write data. Random writes are generally considered to be the Achilles' heel of solid-state drives.

Getting this 256GB SSD in a notebook "is analogous to having a 15,000-(revolutions-per-minute) drive, without all of its size, noise, power, and heating drawbacks," Jim Elliott, vice president of memory marketing at Samsung Semiconductor, said in a statement.

The 256GB SSD boosts data transfer when large multimedia files are simultaneously read and stored. "It can store 25 high-definition movies in just 21 minutes, a significant advancement over a 7,200rpm hard disk drive (HDD), which takes about 70 minutes," the company said in a statement.

The drive's performance is derived from a new single-platform design consisting of a chip controller, NAND flash, and special drive firmware developed by Samsung. "This single platform is designed to easily adapt to Samsung's 40-(nanometer) class NAND flash memory," according to the company.

It consumes 1.1 watts of power, versus 2 or more watts for a comparable HDD. Similar in weight to a 128GB SSD, at 81 grams, the 2.5-inch multilevel cell 256GB SSD has the same 9.5-millimeter drive thickness.

Samsung's 256GB SSD is also available with optional proprietary encryption programming that provides full-disk encryption, a key feature for some corporate users.

Pricing was not immediately available.

What do you do when a box shows up at your door one day and you haven’t been expecting it? Well, you do what I do when stuff from JAVOedge shows up - you rip it open like its Christmas morning. This time though I was in for a HUGE shock - this particular box (which again I wasn’t expecting) had not one, not two but over twenty cases in it! Naturally, I sent an email to my friends at JAVOedge and made sure they really meant to send this to me - because frankly I thought maybe they made a mistake. Turns out I was wrong, they really did mean to send all these cases to me, and they really did want me to review them and better yet they want me to give them away! So, I will be doing that soon - I’m just not quite sure yet how to do that, so make sure you keep an eye on the site because I’ll figure out how to do it soon.

Well, enough talking! Let’s get started!!

(All images open up to a larger image) Click on through for a look at each set of cases!

Tattoo Collection

Naturally I didn’t use the Tattoo case for very long, because well frankly butterflies just aren’t my style. However, I think this back cover is one of the sharpest looking of the whole group. The blue one in particular caught my eye because its got a really nice sheen to it which looks great with the white and the black iPhone 3G. These are the thinnest of the group (about a single credit card thick), and also the least "grippy" of the group. "grippy" meaning the least likely to help prevent you from dripping your phone. They aren’t slippery, but they have a very smooth texture unlike most of the others. JAVOedge - make some (less girly) designs of this style and I’d definitely be interested.

Zig-Zag Collection

The Zig-Zag collection was another case that definitely caught my eye immediately. I’ve Got a white iPhone 3G so naturally I gravitated to the white case and I frankly love it. The case is somewhat slicker grip wise than I expected, but its not slick enough to make me worry about dropping it either. I’m not really sure what material they are using here (the case itself is made of plastic) but the external layer has got to be some kind of cloth with a coating on it - because it definitely looks like cloth but has a slight sheen to it. Anyway, this case (like most of the rest) will add some minor bulk to the device (2-3 credit cards thick) but the solid plastic of the case makes it feel very secure.

Estate Collection

These are by far the shiniest of the pack but also one of the most grippy. Again, I’m not totally sure what the material is but it almost feels like a stitched material with a plastic injection. Its really hard to describe. Thickness remains on par with the Zig-Zag collection, but for me these ones add just a bit more "bling" than I personally care for. Still, the look is classy and fitting of the name "Estate".

Metallic Checker Collection

This is another group that I love the look of. Unfortunately I wasn’t really able to image capture this set as well as I really wanted to but the best way to describe the feel of this back cover is if you were to imagine the thinnest thread you can, crossing back and forth on the cover. It feels a lot like thin cloth close to what you would feel on the shoulder straps of a dress. Very classy feel to it, looks great on the device, feels even better in your hand when you’re holding onto the iPhone 3G. The shimmer of the cover makes the middle one look like a cream color and the one on the right like a gold - however that’s really not accurate - colors for me look like a light tan and a bronze.

Pebble Leather Collection

Classic soft leather feel. End of story. We all know what leather feels like - so there’s no sense in beating this one to death. If you love the feel of a soft leather case but want more protection than one that it just made of leather this is a definite winner. Hard plastic backing with leather molded to it.

Cyber Cover (left)

Cork Cover (middle)

Fiber Cover (right)

I’m going to skip the Cork one for a minute (more below). The Cyber cover also comes in white and was quickly stolen by one of my friends for his black iPhone. This one has a very cool "tech" look to it and the white version with a black iPhone 3G is just incredible. The cover is very smooth, incredibly grippy and one of the best looking and feeling cases of the group. While not the one I would chose for myself (my favorite is coming up) this one would be my second choice if I had a black iPhone. The pink looks great (if you like pink) on both the white and the black 3G.

The Fiber cover is a very deep bronze wood color (despite the lying colors of my DSLR and the flash). Feels very much like the thin thread stitched feeling of the Metallic Checker case.

Urban Collection

My bad on this one. There is and should be a black cover in this collection - but alas it was quickly stolen as well by a friend and for good reason - this is the coolest feeling case - almost like a soft felt. Yes felt. I absolutely 100% love the feel of this back cover and with the black one already taken - I’m keeping the red one for myself. If you’re going to buy one of these covers - my good buy recommendation is for these ones. Black, Red or Tan - all three look really good and feel over better in use.

I said above that I would be mentioning this one again - because it really is deserving of its own section. This is the Cork cover and surprise, surprise its got cork on the outside. Now when I first saw this case I honestly couldn’t imagine that JAVOedge would be able to pull this one off… but they really did. I’m VERY impressed with this cover. Its not the grippiest, its not the shiniest, its definitely not the most hip case of the group, but for everything it lacks in all of that it makes up for in sheer "how the heck did they do this" cool. Make no mistake about it - this looks and feels like a wood cover for you iPhone 3G, and much like the iPhone 3G will definitely have people looking and asking questions. If you’re looking for something different, something to set you apart for the millions of other iPhone 3G owners this is the one.

Before I begin the barrage of other images I’ve got - here’s some quick info - obviously the links above go to the individual product pages. All of the back covers retail at $19.95 - some of them are on sale right now for 15% off. For the long listing of all the covers - click HERE and remember - I’ll be giving away almost all of these cases soon - so keep an eye out for that.

Being so heavily Windows Mobile-centric, I find it interesting when I can get my hands on devices from companies that compete with Windows Mobile. I had an opportunity to play with a RIM Blackberry Bold earlier this week, and was extremely impressed with the hardware. I thought it might be useful to share what I thought was good about the Bold, if for no other reason than to point out to anyone from Microsoft, HTC, etc. reading this site that Windows Mobile devices are lacking somewhat in the area that the Bold inhabits.

The 2.66 inch, 320 x 480 screen was simply gorgeous - very crisp, with great contrast. It made everything look excellent - I think the Blackberry OS, for all its faults, gets many things right on the home screen - the indicator icons on Windows Mobile are huge in comparison, so even by making them smaller, things look sharper and more organized on the Blackberry home screen. The keyboard felt really good, although I thought the width of the device was a bit much - it's closer to the Motorola Q9h in width, while I prefer the more slender Blackjack II. Not a deal-breaker though, I'd put up with the extra width to get that screen. Device thickness and weight were reasonable.

Performance was very snappy - apps just flew, screens appeared and vanished quickly. I've always felt that other Blackberry models had a nice home screen, but looked like pagers once you dug a layer deeper, but the Bold has a pretty good second level as well. Video playback was very impressive as well - there was a Speed Racer sample clip that looked amazing, the best I've seen on a mobile device in a long time. The media player software was pretty weak though - it was a combination of VCR-like buttons and a DOS-like directory listing of videos. I'm spoiled by how fun and easy media browsing is on my Zune, and everything else pales in comparison.

I could only sigh as I heard my friend explain that he leaves WiFi turned on all the time, and still gets 2-3 days of heavy use out of it, because the WiFi is smart enough to stay in a super low power mode until it detects he comes home, then it connects WiFi and uses that rather than 3G. When he leaves the house, it seamlessly moves back to 3G. Now that's smart software! There were certainly parts of the software that screamed "I used to be wireless pager software!", but RIM has done a pretty good job sprucing up the look and feel of the operating system.

Oh yeah, it didn't have a high-gloss back that attracted smudges (are you listening HTC?). It really is a great hardware design. I'm sure if I spent a week using it I'd see more flaws in the software and hardware, but I have to say that as first impressions go, the Bold makes a good one - and first impressions are generally what sell phones to the public. I can't think of any Windows Mobile device that comes close to matching the Bold in terms of hardware, and that's really unfortunate.

I'm convinced that HTC in particular is so fixated on beating Apple in the touch game, that even though they don't have a great touch-friendly operating system to work with (Windows Mobile Professional is still far too stylus-based), they're ignoring the popular consumer market that RIM is making big inroads into now. When I hear a 25-year old female friend gush about how much she loves her new Blackberry Curve, a device I'd always perceived as a business device, I know there's a missing piece in Microsoft's consumer strategy - a very big piece. RIM has somehow pivoted with their product strategy just enough to allow the carriers to heavily promote Blackberry devices as being consumer devices, and based mostly on nice hardware design, consumers are buying Blackberry devices in big numbers. Microsoft and their hardware partners have to come up with a solution to this problem - and a good start would be a device that competes head-on with the Blackberry Bold and wins.

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He has a thing for high-resolution screens.

Being so heavily Windows Mobile-centric, I find it interesting when I can get my hands on devices from companies that compete with Windows Mobile. I had an opportunity to play with a RIM Blackberry Bold earlier this week, and was extremely impressed with the hardware. I thought it might be useful to share what I thought was good about the Bold, if for no other reason than to point out to anyone from Microsoft, HTC, etc. reading this site that Windows Mobile devices are lacking somewhat in the area that the Bold inhabits.

The 2.66 inch, 320 x 480 screen was simply gorgeous - very crisp, with great contrast. It made everything look excellent - I think the Blackberry OS, for all its faults, gets many things right on the home screen - the indicator icons on Windows Mobile are huge in comparison, so even by making them smaller, things look sharper and more organized on the Blackberry home screen. The keyboard felt really good, although I thought the width of the device was a bit much - it's closer to the Motorola Q9h in width, while I prefer the more slender Blackjack II. Not a deal-breaker though, I'd put up with the extra width to get that screen. Device thickness and weight were reasonable.

Performance was very snappy - apps just flew, screens appeared and vanished quickly. I've always felt that other Blackberry models had a nice home screen, but looked like pagers once you dug a layer deeper, but the Bold has a pretty good second level as well. Video playback was very impressive as well - there was a Speed Racer sample clip that looked amazing, the best I've seen on a mobile device in a long time. The media player software was pretty weak though - it was a combination of VCR-like buttons and a DOS-like directory listing of videos. I'm spoiled by how fun and easy media browsing is on my Zune, and everything else pales in comparison.

I could only sigh as I heard my friend explain that he leaves WiFi turned on all the time, and still gets 2-3 days of heavy use out of it, because the WiFi is smart enough to stay in a super low power mode until it detects he comes home, then it connects WiFi and uses that rather than 3G. When he leaves the house, it seamlessly moves back to 3G. Now that's smart software! There were certainly parts of the software that screamed "I used to be wireless pager software!", but RIM has done a pretty good job sprucing up the look and feel of the operating system.

Oh yeah, it didn't have a high-gloss back that attracted smudges (are you listening HTC?). It really is a great hardware design. I'm sure if I spent a week using it I'd see more flaws in the software and hardware, but I have to say that as first impressions go, the Bold makes a good one - and first impressions are generally what sell phones to the public. I can't think of any Windows Mobile device that comes close to matching the Bold in terms of hardware, and that's really unfortunate.

I'm convinced that HTC in particular is so fixated on beating Apple in the touch game, that even though they don't have a great touch-friendly operating system to work with (Windows Mobile Professional is still far too stylus-based), they're ignoring the popular consumer market that RIM is making big inroads into now. When I hear a 25-year old female friend gush about how much she loves her new Blackberry Curve, a device I'd always perceived as a business device, I know there's a missing piece in Microsoft's consumer strategy - a very big piece. RIM has somehow pivoted with their product strategy just enough to allow the carriers to heavily promote Blackberry devices as being consumer devices, and based mostly on nice hardware design, consumers are buying Blackberry devices in big numbers. Microsoft and their hardware partners have to come up with a solution to this problem - and a good start would be a device that competes head-on with the Blackberry Bold and wins.

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He has a thing for high-resolution screens.

"One thing that stood out 1st and foremost when taking the HTC FUZE out of the box was it's size. You can look at pictures, you can check out size charts and the actual dimensions, but you can not describe the way a device feels in your hand in words. The FUZE just amazed me, it's not much smaller than the Tilt on paper, but when you hold it in your hands, it feels much smaller. It's not any lighter feeling and the bulk from the thickness is the same, but the feel of the FUZE in hand is quite awesome."

AT&T's latest and greatest Windows Mobile smartphone is reviewed in detail by Chris Leckness over at MobilitySite. Lot of pictures, lots of screen shots - worth the read if you're considering this as your next device...

"One thing that stood out 1st and foremost when taking the HTC FUZE out of the box was it's size. You can look at pictures, you can check out size charts and the actual dimensions, but you can not describe the way a device feels in your hand in words. The FUZE just amazed me, it's not much smaller than the Tilt on paper, but when you hold it in your hands, it feels much smaller. It's not any lighter feeling and the bulk from the thickness is the same, but the feel of the FUZE in hand is quite awesome."

AT&T's latest and greatest Windows Mobile smartphone is reviewed in detail by Chris Leckness over at MobilitySite. Lot of pictures, lots of screen shots - worth the read if you're considering this as your next device...

"One thing that stood out 1st and foremost when taking the HTC FUZE out of the box was it's size. You can look at pictures, you can check out size charts and the actual dimensions, but you can not describe the way a device feels in your hand in words. The FUZE just amazed me, it's not much smaller than the Tilt on paper, but when you hold it in your hands, it feels much smaller. It's not any lighter feeling and the bulk from the thickness is the same, but the feel of the FUZE in hand is quite awesome."

AT&T's latest and greatest Windows Mobile smartphone is reviewed in detail by Chris Leckness over at MobilitySite. Lot of pictures, lots of screen shots - worth the read if you're considering this as your next device...

[Via: Business Wire]

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