How Much Storage Do You Need?

With barely one month passing since the arrival of 128GB thumb drives, Kingston steps up to the plate by releasing a thumb drive capable of 256GB of storage! That's right, it's not a typo. This is a 256 GB thumb drive! Although it's not available in the United States as of yet, the street price is estimated to be around $900 US. So I wouldn't rush out and get one just yet, but I would expect the prices to drop rapidly once its been on the market for awhile. 

Just how much is 256GB anyway? Well, to put it in perspective, Kingston says that's enough space to hold: 

 365 CD's (~700MB each) 

54 DVD's (~4.7 GB each) 

 or 10 Blue-Ray Disks (~25GB each) 

This is more storage than most DVR players hooked to Televisions at the present. Oh, and in case you are wondering how many photos it can hold, that's over 230,000 photos saved in the 3 megapixel format. 

Will this barrier be surpassed? In a word, yes! We just don't know if it will be as quickly as the 256GB barrier. 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

Windows 7 Moves To Production

Windows 7 has been in Release Candidate status for a few months. We have received information from Microsoft that Windows 7 will go to RTM, or Release To Manufacturing on October 22, 2009. That means it will be released in its final production form, available for purchase. 

Release Candidate downloads will end on August 20th. After then, you can't download the software, but you can still get a key for installation until the production date. 

Microsoft is making a concerted effort to get the public to accept Windows 7. I have to say, it is pretty impressive so far, with my experiences coming from the Release Candidate software running on non-production machines. They are offering pretty competitive pricing on this new version of operating system, unlike versions of Vista. 

So, if you have been thinking about taking Windows 7 for a test drive, hurry up and download the RC software before August 20th. You can do that here. 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

According To Amazon, You Don't Own It Even If You Buy It!

According to Amazon, You Don't Own It Even If You Buy It! According to a news report, Amazon removed some electronic versions of George Orwell's books from the kindle store, and deposited a refund in accounts of people who had previously bought them. 

What's a kindle? It's the wildly popular handheld reader that can download and store newspapers, books, and virtually anything else originally published on paper. Owners of the Kindle can get their favorite newspaper or book, store it on the device and read it at their leisure. Convenient AND environmentally friendly (for a fee, of course). 

Apparently the publisher of the Orwell books (one of the books was the famous 1984) changed its mind about publishing electronic versions and pressured Amazon to remove the books from their store AND remotely delete versions on individuals' Kindle devices. While Amazon did reimburse those who had previously purchased the books, it does raise the question, "Do you ever really own the book in the first place?" 

This is akin to your favorite bookstore taking your favorite paperback away and giving you a "store credit". I really feel sorry for the people halfway through the book! That's just mean! 

To Your Success, 

 Tim

Mega Telecoms under investigation by DOJ?

According to the Wall Street Journal, ATT, Verizon, Sprint and some others are under investigation by the Department of Justice. It seems the DOJ thinks they may be abusing their power on the cell phone market. How, you ask? One reason that comes to mind is the fact you can only get an i-phone from one carrier, and it cannot be used on any other carrier. 

I have to say, I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the entreprenour in me wants to commend a carrier for being proactive and inking a deal with a phone manufacturer that gives them exclusive access to a product. On the other hand, I have many friends who feel most of this technology should be open-source in order for anybody to make improvements to the software for these products, effectively accelerating the process of improvements. 

Regardless of which way you feel about this, I wouldn't look for an answer anytime soon. This investigation is just now beginning, and given the enormous size of these carriers, and the potential implications of monkeying with the American business model, this will be a long drawn-out investigation. Let me know your thoughts by posting here. 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim