Sony Ericsson W8: First Walkman Android Phone

Packs Android 2.1 Eclair, 3-inch display, 600 MHz processor and 3.2 megapixel camera

Sony Ericsson has announced its first ever Walkman brand smartphone running Google Android 2.1 Eclair update in Indonesia. Sporting 3-inch capacitive touchscreen display, the new Sony Ericsson W8 walkman smartphone looks very similar to Xperia X8. There's no word on the pricing and this phone will be available in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Malayasia, Phillipines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam from Q2 2011 in Azure Blue, Metallic Red and Iconic Orange.

New Sony Ericsson W8 has a 3-inch capacitive HVGA (320x480) display and houses 600Mhz processor under the hood. With 128MB memory on board, this handset comes with Android 2.1 Eclair running on it and I doubt if it will get Froyo richness. Kindly forget about the phone getting Gingerbread. Sony Ericsson has layered the Timescape UI on the top of Android.

Branded as a Walkman series smartphone, the W8 will have Walkman Music Player ported to Android, TrackID music recognition, and PlayNow technologies. At the back lies a 3.2 megapixel camera that would give you mediocre quality photos along with Geo-tagging capability.

Being 3G Network compatible, the new W8 Android phone offers 23 hours and 40 minutes worth of music listening time. The phone is connectible wirelessly via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Apart from that, the W8 offers Twitter and Facebook integration in the Timescape UI.

Sounds like a good contender for sub Rs. 10,000 Android based smartphone, the Sony Ericsson W8 does look a bit tacky in Iconic Orange, may be its just me.

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World's Smallest 64Gb NAND Flash Memory

World's Smallest 64Gb NAND Flash Memory

SanDisk and Tsohiba announced the world's smallest and the most advanced memory process technology node in the world.It is 64-gigabit (Gb), 2-bits-per-cell (X2) based monolithic chip made on 19-nanometer (nm) NAND flash memory chip.

Sampling world's smallest NAND flash memory device begin this quarter and high-volume production will begin in the second half of 2011 by Toshiba. With increase in production, SanDisk is planing to add 3-bits-per-cell (X3) products fabricated with the 19nm process technology.

Yoram Cedar, executive vice president and chief technology officer of SanDisk said that "We are excited to introduce the world's smallest and lowest-cost NAND flash chips based on industry-leading 19nm process technology in our ongoing collaboration with our manufacturing partner Toshiba" . Further adding he said "Products based on this technology are designed to enable new applications, form factors and consumer experience that will continue to drive the flash industry to new heights."

The companies said the smaller process would help device makers to get more storage in less space. There's no mention of the chip's actual dimensions besides citing the prospect of stacking a batch of 16 to deliver 128GB modules for use in mobile phones, tablet computers and other devices. The 19nm NAND chips are equipped with Toggle DDR2.0 to enhance data transfer speed, and use an All-Bit-Line architecture with proprietary programming algorithms and multi-level data storage management that will allegedly uphold performance and reliability.

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