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Sony introduces another hot China-only PMP, the PMX-M80
Sony's China-only PMPs have always been a little more interesting than the gear we see Stateside, and the new PMX-M80 is no exception. The 4.3-inch touchscreen player packs 16GB of storage and decent codec support into a sleek white box, as well as a new mapping application that's apparently a novelty in China. Too bad this thing won't ever make it over here -- although at 2,260 yuan ($331), it probably wouldn't shake things up too much.[Via PMP Today]
Samsung crashes the perpendicular party with bevy of laptop drives
While Toshiba's sittin' pretty with its 200GB perpendicular laptop drive, Samsung is finally deciding to join Hitachi, Seagate, and Western Digital (just to name a few) in the perpendicular byte stacking game. The newly-unveiled 2.5-inch M80 / M80 SATA series features a trio of drives each, with capacities in 80GB, 120GB, and 160GB, 8MB of onboard cache, and a 5400RPM spindle speed. While the swifter SATA drives will likely benchmark a bit better than the PATA counterparts, both versions sport perpendicular magnetic recording to prevent data corruption, as well as "industry leading free-fall sensors" that pack 700G of operating shock tolerance. Furthermore, Samsung equipped these newfangled drives with a fluid dynamic bearing motor and its own Hybrid Latch System, which reportedly "eliminates unpleasant rattling noises and significantly reduces the clicking noise generated when a drive moves its heads on and off the disk." Although Samsung left us in the dark regarding pricing and availability, we don't envision the firm keeping these behind closed doors much longer than they already have.[Via TG Daily]
Canon's Media Storage M30 and M80 photo and video viewers
Well, this makes sense: Canon, like Epson (long) before them, just jumped into the digital storage game with their Media Storage M30 and M80 devices. Equipped with either a 1.8-inch 30GB or 80GB disk (we'll let you guess which model has which), each brings a biggie, 3.7-inch ultra-bright TFT screen with 160-degree viewing angle for image and video review -- just a hair smaller than that offered by Epson's lineup. Both of these rugged magnesium alloy units feature a USB 2.0 interface, slots for CF and SD cards, a password option to protect your media, and 1/8-inch audio jack to review sound. Supported formats include Canon RAW, MPEG, MP3, and WAV. And just to lock you in, this device uses the same battery as the Canon EOS 5D, 20D or 30D and WFT E1 Wireless File Transmitter unit. Price and availability? We'll just have to wait since Canon hasn't even gone live with the deets on their site yet.
