Friday Tech Roundup (13 July 2012)

Price cuts on the way for Intel SSD’s

Intel’s SSD 320, 330 and 520 lines are set to receive price cuts as of August, bringing prices below $1 per GB for some models – at least in the US. TechPowerUp is quoting the 300 GB SSD 320 to go down from US $519 to $464, and the 600 GB SSD 320 to go down from $1,059 down to $879. The news comes from “reliable sources” over at VR-Zone, and will also include slashes to prices of around $100 on the 240 GB varieties. With SSD prices on the way down, this is great news for consumers – but bad news for me as I just picked up a 240 GB Intel SSD two weeks ago. Weep for me.

UK Judge rules consumers not actually confused by tablets

US Patent D504,889 might sound like an innocuous series of numbers, but it’s this patent that Apple has used to beat down a number of competitors in the tablet market. Laying claim to a tablet with “slightly rounded corners,” “a flat transparent surface without any ornamentation,” and “a thin profile”, Apple has tried to force Samsung to stop selling their own tablets in the US. They were successful in the colony, but back in the UK it’s a different story: UK Judge Colin Birss ruled that “unusual details” on the back of Samsung’s tablets and a thinner profile made them “trivial to distinguish” from Apple’s products and that it was “ludicrous” to suggest that consumers would somehow be confused by the pair.

Birss also took the opportunity to show off his enjoyment of Apple products, writing in his decision that “[The Galaxy Tab line] do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design… They are not as cool.” There you have it: Samsung are legally not as cool as Apple. Thanks Bloomberg.

453,000 Yahoo passwords hacked

The presumably cool kids at “D33ds Company” have hacked into Yahoo’s userbase and freed 453,000 passwords and usernames from imprisonment. The passwords were stored in plaintext by Yahoo in what experts are describing as “a really, really bad idea”, and were accessed with simple SQL injections. Military and government email addresses were also found amongst the list of leaked accounts – if you’re a Yahoo user, head over here to see the full list of compromised details and check that you haven’t wound up there. Via DailyTech.

New chip from MIT is powered by light, vibrations and heat

Having to charge your electronic devices is so last year – or it will be, once chips like this start being refined and mass-produced. Developed by the wizards at MIT, the ‘harvesting’ chip is capable of operating at extremely low power levels by drawing from natural light, heat and vibrations in the environment, and “could ultimately be used in biomedical devices, environmental sensors in remote locations and gauges in hard-to-reach spots”. As for me, I’m thinking controller batteries. The key here apparently is that this new chip is able to harvest from multiple sources at once, while existing chips have only been able to do one at a time. Science continues to be amazing. Via MIT.

Microsoft to acquire touchscreen technology company

Microsoft’s Surface tablet not withstanding, the company has clearly set its sights upon the touchscreen market. On Monday, they announced the acquisition of Perceptive Pixel Inc., who describe themselves as “a recognized leader in research, development and production of large-scale, multi-touch display solutions”. The company is hoping to bring that touchscreen technology to market soon, describing the creation of Windows 8-based PC’s utilising Perceptive Pixel’s expertise. Interesting times ahead for Microsoft!