Seagate and DensBits team up on solid-state drives for the home, call truce in the HDD versus SSD war

Seagate and DensBits Announce Strategic Agreement for Development of Solid State Drives for Consumer and Enterprise Markets

Seagate Makes Equity Investment in DensBits

CUPERTINO, Calif. & HAIFA, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX) the worldwide leader in hard disk drives and storage solutions, and DensBits Technologies Ltd ("DensBits") the inventor of the world's first Memory ModemTM have announced today a strategic agreement for the development of low-cost, high-performance Solid State Drives ("SSD") for the consumer and enterprise markets. In conjunction with the agreement, Seagate has made an undisclosed equity investment in DensBits.

Seagate and DensBits are joining forces, to develop future products that are intended to provide customers with significant cost savings, extremely high reliability, and unparalleled performance. Under the agreement, DensBits' Memory ModemTM controller technology will be integrated with Seagate's various storage technologies to power a wide range of consumer and enterprise applications including 3 bits/cell ("TLC") 1Xnm Flash-based consumer-grade SSD, and 2 bits/cell ("MLC") 1Xnm Flash-based enterprise-grade SSD.

"For the last 30 years, Seagate has delivered technology and product innovation to become the global leader in storage solutions, from high-end enterprise drives to solid-state hybrid drives," said Rocky Pimentel, Seagate chief sales and marketing officer. "Seagate is excited to be working with the talented DensBits team and believes we have a significant opportunity with our new strategic relationship to extend our leadership into the SSD market."

"We are very excited at the opportunity of collaborating with Seagate," said Ilan Hen, DensBits' Chairman and CEO. "This is yet another testament to our technology leadership, and we strongly believe that the coupling between DensBits' unique Memory ModemTM controller technology and Seagate's exceptional storage capabilities across the board could truly disrupt the industry."

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T-Mobile to offer prepaid and monthly4G service at participating Dollar General stores

Dollar General and T-Mobile Introduce No Annual Contract and Device Offering
Partnership brings T-Mobile device and service to more than 6,400 Dollar General stores

Bellevue, Wash. and Goodlettsville, Tenn. - Jun. 25, 2012
2012-06-25 14:52:42

Today, T-Mobile USA, Inc. and Dollar General Corporation announced a new distribution arrangement, bringing an affordable phone and convenient access to T-Mobile's prepaid and Monthly4GTM No Annual Contract service to Dollar General customers. Beginning in July, more than 6,400 Dollar General stores will offer numerous T-Mobile prepaid plan options and the Samsung t139 phone, which features messaging, Web browsing, a camera and Bluetooth connectivity.

"Dollar General is dedicated to making shopping for everyday needs simple, hassle-free and convenient," said Todd Vasos, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer, Dollar General. "Since 2004, our customers have had access to great T-Mobile plans, and we know that our customers will appreciate more communications options that are affordable and flexible."

The T-Mobile Monthly4G No Annual Contract $50 unlimited plan offers unlimited talk, text and Web with no overage charges, and the first 100 MB of data at up to 4G speeds all on America's Largest 4G Network®. In addition, Dollar General offers T-Mobile's Pay As You Go plans, and other Monthly4G No Annual Contract plans, giving customers a flexible option at any price point.

"Dollar General is the nation's largest small-box retailer and a well-respected company that customers go to when looking to get the most for their money," said Amy McCune, senior vice president of national accounts, T-Mobile USA. "This is a natural partnership to help bring Dollar General customers to America's Largest 4G Network at an incredible value."

T-Mobile product and plan offerings will be displayed in a bright end cap at the front of the store, featuring a variety of units and services to make selection simple for customers.

Monthly4G plans provide access to wireless service for 30 days; capable device required to achieve 4G speeds. After high-speed allotment is used, speeds slowed to up to 2G speeds for remainder of month. T-Mobile's HSPA+ 4G network not available everywhere. See coverage details at T-Mobile.com.

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Boingo, Google Offers bring free WiFi to select Manhattan subway stations, let you tweet the heat

By Brian Heater posted Jun 25th 2012 3:43PM

Boingo has surely overestimated New York City's desire to "soa[k] up the warm weather" this summer, but when it comes to complaining about the heat, no one does it like the Big Apple. And now, thanks to the hotspot provider (with some promotional help from the folks at Google Offers), Manhattanites will be able to do just that all over Twitter from the convenience of a handful of subway stations on 14th and 23rd street. The promotion begins today and runs through September 7th. Including the hashtag #FreeNYCWiFi puts you in the running for Boingo rewards. We also recommend #wheresthatdamnEtrain, which will surely be trending for the next few months. For a full list of stations, check out the source link below.

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NASA's Seven Minutes of Terror: Curiosity's precarious Mars landing explained (video)

By Joseph Volpe posted Jun 25th 2012 9:29PM

Edited and scored with dramatic tension of a summer blockbuster trailer, NASA's put together a gripping short clip that dresses down Curiosity's mission to Mars for the layman. The "car-sized" rover, set to touchdown on August 5th of this year at 10:31PM PDT, is currently journeying towards the Red Planet on a suicide mission of sorts, with the success of its make it or break it EDL (enter, descent, landing) wracking the nerves of our Space Agency's greatest minds in advance. Their cause for concern? A period of radio silence, dubbed the "seven minutes of terror" for the amount of time it takes a signal to reach Earth, during which the craft will have already either smashed disastrously into the Martian landscape or nestled perfectly down from the ascend phase on a 21ft long tether. The logistics involved are so numerous and prone to error -- slowing the craft from 13,000 mph to 0 mph and then deploying, detaching and avoiding collision with the supersonic parachute for starters -- that it's a wonder the government ever signed off on the project. If it all does come off without a hitch, however, the ladies and gents down at Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory certainly deserve several thousand bottles of the finest bubbly taxpayer's money can buy. Click on past the break to gape at the sequence of engineering feats required to make this landing on terra incognita.

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Amazon Lockers hit 7-Elevens in Washington DC, let you grab your parcel and a Slurpee

By Joe Pollicino posted Jun 25th 2012 5:51PM

The convenience of shopping at Amazon just got bumped up a few notches in the Northern Virginia sector of Washington DC. Folks who swear their delivery person never rings the bell before dropping off packages will be pleased to know that Amazon Lockers have popped up at multiple 7-Elevens around the region. As Zatz Not Funny notes, Amazon has yet to officially list the market under the service, but at least four locations are searchable -- and the site did find one more that's currently off the radar. If you're eager to get a glimpse of the P.O. Box-esque units for yourself or get access on your account, you'll find more info at the source links below.

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Bing Maps gets another 165TB of satellite images, Google Earth seen sulking in a corner

By Michael Gorman posted Jun 25th 2012 8:57PM

Thought that Google had cornered the market on free, overhead-view photo mapping solutions? You clearly don't reside in Redmond, because Bing Maps' aerial image library just got another 165TB worth of hi-res data that covers an additional 38 million square kilometers of the globe. To put that in perspective, Microsoft's mapping solution previously had but 129TB worth of such eye-in-the-sky imagery, so this new batch of satellite shots more than doubles your viewing pleasure. Go ahead, check out all the new visuals at the source link below, we promise not to tell the folks in Mountain View.

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Crayolascope hacks toys into foot-thick 3D display

By Terrence O'Brien posted Jun 25th 2012 4:59PM

Artist Blair Neal, as many other great creators have before him, turned to children's toys as the source of inspiration for his latest project. Crayolascope is a rudimentary 3D display hacked together from several Glow Books, a light-up play on a flip-book from the titular company. The installation, currently housed at the New York Hall of Science in Flushing, layers 12 of its component clear plastic sheets to create a roughly one-foot deep display that plays a simple pre-drawn animation. The whole thing is controlled by an Arduino Mega, that can either play back the neon scribbles at varying speeds (controlled by a knob built into the console) or scrub through frame by frame. Neal isn't quite done tweaking the Crayolascope either. As it stands he's limited to between 14 and 18 frames, before it becomes too difficult to see through the sheets. And it requires near total darkness for optimal operation. To see it in action check out the video after the break.

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Marquee Media Center hands-on (video)

Winning gdgt's StartUp contest has its perks -- just ask recent winner Marquee, which is showcasing version 2.0 of its Media Center here on the showfloor. The imposing device, currently available on the outfit's site for $899, packs 2TB of storage, 4GB DDR3 RAM, DVD player and a 2.4GHz dual-core Intel processor into an aluminum-lidded box to let you stream a mix of online and locally-stored multimedia content. Seen from above, the unit is mostly unadorned, save for a quite sizable power button, three circular vents and two notification LEDs. Off to the right side hiding just beneath that generous metal hood, lies ports for audio I/O and standard USB, with HDMI-out on the back.

Naturally, you need a way to parse through the goods and that's where Plex XBMC -- running atop Ubuntu 12.04 -- and a custom wireless controller outfitted with a full QWERTY keyboard come in handy. According to Marquee's CEO, set-up out of the box is a no-brainer and requires nothing more than connecting to an external display and your home network (via ethernet or WiFi) to get things started. We had the opportunity to take the Media Center for a quick test spin and immediately noticed a calibration issue that, combined with the cluttered remote, made for some extremely unintuitive navigation. You can check out some pics of the startup's progeny below and, while you're at it, click past the break to view a video demo of this pricey kit in action.

Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.

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The New York Times is coming to Flipboard Thursday

By Terrence O'Brien posted Jun 25th 2012 11:54AM

Well, it's hardly the release of a new summer blockbuster, but getting full length content from the New York Times in Flipboard is certainly going to excite news hounds that also appreciate fine UI design. A lot of content from magazines and newspapers is presented in abbreviated format in the slick app, but now Times subscribers will have unfettered access to the "paper of record's" reporting. Even non-subscribers will be able to read some of the publications articles for free, just as they can through the site. Now all you have to do is wait for the switch to be flipped on Thursday and hope that other outlets follow suit.

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Hands-on with G-Technology's Mac-friendly, USB 3.0-packing G-Drive slim

When we set out to get hands-on with a hard drive, of all things, you can bet we're going to do more than just pick it up and marvel at how lightweight it is. Here at a gdgt event in New York City, we spotted G-Technology's new Mac-friendly USB 3.0 drives on display and immediately got to work running some speed tests on the thinnest of the bunch, the G-Drive slim. Though transfer rates varied, both download and upload speeds tended to hover around 95 MB/s, and that was after ten or so runs in the Blackmagic benchmark. (Next time we'll bring a USB 2.0 cable to test a backward-compatible setup.)

According to a company rep staffing the event, the other drives in the lineup, the G-Drive mini, mobile and mobile USB 3.0, should deliver similar performance. Really, the differences here are in the specs: the G-Drive mobile and mini have FireWire ports, and all three offer more storage (750GB to 1TB, as opposed to 500GB for the slim). Design-wise, all the drives on display here seemed fairly impervious to scratches, and that rubberized band around the edges also makes the devices feel a little less delicate. On that point, you can check out the hands-on photos to see what we're talking about, though you'll just have to take our word on the speed testing.

Zach Honig contributed to this report.

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