2Wire has introduced its new MediaPoint set-top box that will deliver high definition content via a broadband connection.
The media hub can connect to home networks through wired or wireless connections and can also be remotely accessed via the Internet.
The box’s built-in USB ports allow users to stream all types of video and audio content from flash drives or external hard drives and the device is compatible with UPnP- and DLNA-enabled devices.
Electronista says the box will offer Internet browsing capability through your TV set but the interface method is unknown at this point. Internet radio is another interesting feature you will be able to access from the device.
The device will not be available to consumers directly and instead will come through ISPs such as Comcast and AT&T who purchase them, and “then offer specific content and options for the MediaPoint under their own respective brands.”
Rumor has it the device will sell for $89 USD but will likely be accompanied with a subscription service and contract.
Result for: Flash
According to unnamed entertainment executives talking to CNET, YouTube may be on the verge of streaming full-length major motion films on a new service.
The service would be very similar to the popular Hulu site and would let users watch ad-supported movies in a widescreen format. CNET is under the impression that YouTube is so far into negotiations that a formal launch could happen as soon as January.
The deal would mark a major turnaround for YouTube which has so far mostly refused to host video longer than a few minutes.
The service will most likely only be available via a PC web browser as most web video services insert ads using Flash which most video-enabled devices cannot load.
Result for: Flash
SanDisk Corp. has announced a new flash memory management system that it claims will significantly boost performance from Solid-State Drives (SSD). ExtremeFSS will boost the speed of writing common types of data by 100 times, said Don Barnetson, senior director of marketing at SanDisk. The system will allow data to be written to the drive without erasing and rewriting nearby data. The ExtremeFSS system will also boost the longevity of SSDs.
Currently available SSD drives are marketed as having significant advantages over mechanical spinning hard drives; they produce less heat, use less power and would seemingly be less prone to failure. However, in reality they were found to under-perform compared to standard mechanical HDDs when they were first widely used in notebooks.
They tend to be slower at writing small amounts of data to the memory, while performing quite well with large files. This isn’t very convenient for excessive use. In addition to announcing ExtremeFSS, SanDisk also pushed for the industry to adopt a few helpful metrics. Long-term Data Endurance (LDE) for example would be a measure of the amount of data that could be written to an SSD before it fails.
As an example, a drive with a value of 40 TBW (terabytes written) would last for 11 years at an average of 10GB per day. Barnetson suggested that an LDE measure would be similar to an MPG (miles-per-gallon) measure for a car. A second metric SanDisk proposes is “virtual rpm,” which would measure how well the SSD compares to a mechanical drive at a certain speed (measured in revolutions per minute, or RPM).
[More]>>
