Intel cuts SSD drive prices

Have your eye on a work laptop with a solid state drive? You may want to hold on a bit, because Intel just announced its next-generation solid state disks Tuesday--at a 42 percent price cut compared with the previous models.

InformationWeek is reporting that the price cut resulted from Intel moving from a 50-nanometer manufacturing process to a 34-nm process for its NAND flash memory. The 34-nm process makes the die smaller and allows for more advanced engineering. "Our goal was to not only be first to achieve 34-nm NAND flash memory lithography, but to do so with the same or better performance than our 50-nm version," Randy Wilhelm, VP and general manager of the Intel NAND Solutions Group, said in a statement.

The SSDs will be available in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch sizes, at 80GB and 160GB capacities. The 2.5-inch disks are available as of today; the 1.8-inch drives (which are really for gadgets like the iPod touch, and not for laptops) will be available later in the summer. Intel claims the 2.5-inch drives will support Windows 7 when it ships in October via a firmware update, the report said.

Time Capsule Upgrade Double Storage at Same Price

I hope you didn't just spend $499 to buy a measly single-terabyte Time Capsule backup-drive/NAS/router combo product from Apple. Because as of today, Time Capsule has been upgraded to 2 full terabytes of storage at that same price. The 1TB model is now going for $299.

The new 2TB unit is the same in every other way as the 1TB, using dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n for wireless connections and sporting three Gigabit Ethernet ports for wired clients. There's also a USB port for connecting more storage (if 2TB isn't enough for you) or a USB printer. Time Capsule works directly with the Mac OS X feature called Time Machine to provide automatic backups for Mac OS computers on the network, so the more Macs you have, the more storage you want/need.

Epson Latest Scans Everything for SMBs

Epson's new Perfection V500 Office scanner focuses on offices with a need to digitize documents. Especially big piles of documents; it has a 30-page automatic document feeder that can slide pages in as it scans up to three per minute. Supposedly the unit has no warm-up time, and consumes less juice than other scanners. The 6,400 dots per inch (dpi) resolution means quality good enough for photographs, slides, and negatives. Software will remove dust and scratches from images; it also comes with optical character recognition (OCR) tools to convert pages to editable documents, and Adobe Photoshop Elements to get started on image editing. The scanner is going to sell for $349.99 (street) in September and works with Windows and Mac.

Ovum: Wi-Fi, GPS Driving Smartphone Adoption

Smartphones have been in the workplace for years, but two features are increasingly becoming key: GPS and Wi-Fi radios.

That's the word from Ovum, which released the results of a study Tuesday that examined 77 smartphone models, according to InformationWeek. Of the group, 59 turned out to have GPS radios, while only 49 had Wi-Fi capability. (The other 28 must have been on Verizon.)

Ovum is projecting 23 percent growth for smartphone shipments through 2009, which mirrors what many analysts have said recently, and remains impressive in a down economy. Handsets like the T-Mobile myTouch 3G with Google--which just today got a new turn-by-turn GPS navigation app from TeleNav--are leading the charge.

"The widespread availability of GPS across all of the major smartphone platforms is great news for developers wishing to deploy location-based applications and services," said Tim Renowden, an Ovum analyst, in a company statement. "But so far few developers have taken advantage of this beyond basic navigation products."

Business (and Home) Ink-Jet Printers That Do It All

If you need mutlitalented printers at home or office, there's no reason not to go ink-jet. They're economical and can handle just as much as a laser when it comes to the extras like scanning, copying, and even faxing (if you still do that). Of course, printing photos and other graphics is where ink-jets excel, but even plain text looks good for office use. We've collected a number of AIO printers in this new round-up including Editors' Choice printers like the Epson WorkForce 310 All-In-One (pictured), the HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless All-in-One, and the HP Photosmart Premium Fax All-in-One. Find one at the price that's right for you.

Epson's New Artisan AIO Printers

Today, Epson has introduced two new home all-in-one (AIO) printers to its Artisan line, the Epson Artisan 710 and 810. Both printers print, scan, copy, and are photo-friendly so they can handle some special creative projects. The 810 also comes with a built-in fax machine.

The Epson 810 includes a 7.8-inch touch screen and 3.5-inch tilt LCD, a 30-page automatic document feeder, automatic duplexing (two-sided printing). The Epson 710 comes with a 2.5-inch tilt LCD. The 810 offers 4,800-dpi scanning, while the 710 scans at up to 2,400 dpi. Both models have built in Ethernet and Wi-Fi, letting you print from iPhone or via Bluetooth (with optional adaptor). Get more details and prices for the Artisan AIOs at PCMag.com.

Pyramid Scheme

Pyramid Scheme

Doubtless you’ve heard that pyramids have all sorts of strange and mystical powers. Apparently razor blades stay sharper and food stays fresher longer when put under one, so what happens when you put a PC inside one? Well, there’s only one way to find out and for around $335 Etsy will sell you one, made by Vertex, finished in black, blue or red finish. There’s room inside, and mounting hardware for all of the usual bits and bobs, though judging by some of the pictures we’ve seen of the insides it all looks a bit Heath Robinson. It could be the best investment you’ve ever made if the pyramid works its legendary magic on your PC maybe it will never crash or go wrong, or maybe it’ll generate so much good karma in your workspace you just won’t care…