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MillimeterFields & Frames
May 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Dan Ochiva
With hard drives now commodity items, there's usually little reason to take notice when a new drive debuts. Except when something new comes along that sounds something like an April Fools' joke. ▸ What's that? Well, Microsoft and Samsung say they have a hard drive that can record data even while it's not moving. ▸ You had to attend Microsoft's recent WinHEC (Windows Hardware Engineering Conference) to hear about that. There, the two companies presented a prototype Samsung notebook drive that joins some RAM with a disk. Incoming data first records to 1GB of flash memory. Then, when the RAM is almost full, the hard drive turns on, records, and then turns off again. Battery life extends, which is ideal for laptops. It's the drives — along with LCD displays — that suck up the most power. ▸ But don't give up on disks yet. Hitachi Global Storage Technologies recently announced a new recording technique that delivers ultra-high capacities that could, for example, create a 1-square-inch Microdrive — similar to one in an iPod — that holds 20GB of data. Or how about a 1TB, 3.5in. hard drive? In an interesting twist, the technique used to achieve such areal densities reaches back 100 years to the work of Valdemar Poulsen. The Danish scientist is said to be the first to employ perpendicular recording, in which the data bits align vertically — unlike today's longitudinal recording, which lays down magnetic bits end to end. ▪ Tiring of playing Gran Turismo 4 on your new Sony PlayStation Portable? Maybe it's time to watch some video on it, but don't forget those commercials. That's the hope of Heavy.com (www.heavy.com), a website that hosts short films and animation. Sony selected the company as a content provider for its portable game device. With that entry, Heavy.com will try to sell PlayStation users on keeping still long enough to watch short commercials from companies such as Unilever, the first to sign up. ▸ Don't want to watch that small PSP screen? Consider cruising down to your local MoviebankUSA (www.moviebankusa.com) video and game vending machine. The first of these ATM-like devices — described as “fun and user-friendly machines” — recently opened in New York's Soho neighborhood. ▪ If you're the more active type, consider letting Google, well, ogle your videos by submitting them at https://upload.video.google.com. What's there? Another Google attempt to figure out what to do with all that data our culture constantly generates, which now, of course, includes plenty of vacation and wedding videos. As this worldwide video-library project develops, those who care will be able to search, preview, purchase, and play their proffered keepsakes. But in a more relevant twist, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company also offers major producers a chance to upload their 1,000-or-more hours of video if their work has been “shown on TV networks or distributed by major motion picture studios.” If your lawyer doesn't stop you first, check this out at https://services.google.com/inquiry/video.
