Tech News on G4 Apple Doubles Solid State Capacities & Thinks Pink February 13, 2008 By Greg Gazin - Apple Gazin’ - G4 Canada

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With capacities of hard drive bloating as demand for storage soars to infinity and beyond, as my pal Buzz Lightyear would say, one of the complaints I often hear about a select few of Apple’s offerings is the meager capacities of the devices that have solid state drives.   While the iPod Classic today boasts a respectable 160GB in its compact package, albeit a traditional hard drive,  Apple’s offerings that incorporate solid state devices, more specifically the iPod Nano, the iPod Touch and iPhone (not in Canada – of course) have been limited to a mere 5-10% of those capacities-  8Gb and 16GB respectively.     Solid State Drives A solid-state drive (SSD) is a storage device comprised of flash or DRAM memory. It has no moving parts making it more robust and less susceptible to damage from movement. As we, because there are no motors and spinning platters, they are much faster, quieter, consume less power but moreover, they can have a larger capacity in the same amount of physical space. They are however a newer kid on the block and much more costly per GB than traditional hard drives. I digress. It’s only been weeks since MacWorld Expo, where like clockwork, every January Guru Steve Jobs unveils the latest thunder of new life altering Mac offerings, Nevertheless, Apple had decided to make the change - and doubled the available capacities on their iPod Touch and iPhone. The iPod Touch is now available in as an 8GB, 16GB and now 32GB model for $319, $419 and $519 respectively, in Canada, and the iPhone (of course, not in Canada…did I say that already?) in 8GB and 16GB for US$399 and US$499. I wondered why Apple didn’t make these announcements at MacWorld Expo? Were they trying to move more product before the change or was it because that it just became totally apparent that with the availability of more storage eating video downloads from the iTunes Store that the current capacities just wouldn’t cut the mustard?   And what about the 32GB iPhone? Why not match the Touch? Do iPhone users need less capacity or was there a resistance to breaking the US$500 price point? Maybe with iPhone 2.0 we’ll see removable storage capabilities along with the removable battery.   Think Pink And on a more lighter and colouful note. While it had not upped the capacities of the iPod Nano, which is available in 4GB or 8GB  it did introduce a  6th and new colour to the Nano family- pink.  And still in its all-metal enclosure.  According to Apple, the company the introduced the colour as a result of the demand for it.  Or could it be that Valentine’s Day is just around the corner? One final note on hard drives, regardless as to what kind they are. They will always get filled. Parkinson Law states:  “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”.  The same holds true for data. See the bulge! Have you looked at your hard drive lately?   Greg Gazin can be reached at gadgetguy “at” telus “dot” net.

About G4 in Canada
G4 launched on September 7, 2001 as the ultimate television resource for technology news, information and entertainment. Co-owned by G4, Rogers Media Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc., G4 is Canada's first television channel 100% dedicated to technology, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The channel features the latest technology news, information and entertainment in an exciting and high-energy format. G4 is available on digital cable and satellite.