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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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PCWorld reports on Toshiba's newly announced 100GB 1.8" hard drive.

The new drive is expected to start production in January 2007. Similar drives are currently being used in the Apple iPod but top out at a maximum of 80GB. The drive will be on show at the Consumer Electronic Show which takes place between January 8th to 11th.

While the drive is being billed as the largest 1.8" drive, Seagate announced 120GB 1.8" drives which were targeted for the last quarter of 2006.
 

68134

macrumors member
Feb 27, 2006
55
0


PCWorld reports on Toshiba's newly announced 100GB 1.8" hard drive.

The new drive is expected to start production in January 2007. Similar drives are currently being used in the Apple iPod but top out at a maximum of 80GB. The drive will be on show at the Consumer Electronic Show which takes place between January 8th to 11th.

While the drive is being billed as the largest 1.8" drive, Seagate announced 120GB 1.8" drives which were targeted for the last quarter of 2006.

Cool, but I doubt Apple will take advantage of this 'till the true Video iPod is released
 

Digitaljim

macrumors regular
Nov 14, 2006
103
0
Edinburgh, UK
Always good to have another 20GB to play with in the premium model, but I can't see them being put into the current iPod line-up - they'll possibly surface with the 6G full video ones.

And to be honest i'd always choose a thinner, smaller capacity model.
 

LillieDesigns

macrumors 6502
Oct 18, 2005
323
56
Los Angeles
Always good to have another 20GB to play with in the premium model, but I can't see them being put into the current iPod line-up - they'll possibly surface with the 6G full video ones.

And to be honest i'd always choose a thinner, smaller capacity model.

If it's just music than yes, but if I'm gonna be stuffing my movies on the thing I want as much space as I can get. i do agree with you on the music front, but unfortunately I can't get 1/8th of my library on my 4 gig Nano.
 

Hattig

macrumors 65816
Jan 3, 2003
1,457
92
London, UK
The advancement of capacities in the 1.8" hard drive sector amaze me. 100GB on a 1.8" platter (well, 4 sides of platters, so 25GB a side, but ...). Far more progress in this area than in the 2.5" hard drive sector.

This will see use in a future iPod, it just depends on when, which depends on how many can be made - Apple need quite a few!

Hopefully this will mean 40-50GB single-platter drives too, replacing the 30GB drives in the $249 iPod.

My iBook only has 40GB :(
 

spicyapple

macrumors 68000
Jul 20, 2006
1,724
1
Put these babies in the rumoured 12" ultra-thin notebooks, and we might have a winner. :)
 

MarkCollette

macrumors 68000
Mar 6, 2003
1,559
36
Toronto, Canada
It'd be cool to have a subnotebook that incorporates an 8GB flash drive for the operating system and applications, and one of these drives for /Users.

More and more we have the situation that we have a lot of small files that we need quick access to, and a bunch of large media files that we infrequently need slow access to. And a spinning hard drive will either be too slow and use some power, or fast and use a lot of power. Might as well use things that use way less power, and get the speed where we need it.
 

scrambledwonder

macrumors 6502
Dec 4, 2006
314
18
Berkeley, CA
It'd be cool to have a subnotebook that incorporates an 8GB flash drive for the operating system and applications, and one of these drives for /Users.

More and more we have the situation that we have a lot of small files that we need quick access to, and a bunch of large media files that we infrequently need slow access to. And a spinning hard drive will either be too slow and use some power, or fast and use a lot of power. Might as well use things that use way less power, and get the speed where we need it.

I read a rumor a while back about Apple considering NAND flash memory for its laptops, for the OS and apps, just like you said. I hope to see it in MacBooks and MacBook Pros in Q1 2007, but we'll see. I suppose it would depend on the availability of cheap memory. Right now, 8GB of memory in a compact package isn't cheap. Then again, they could use these tiny drives and multiple memory chips and still keep the same form factor. . .
 

maxp1

macrumors regular
Feb 12, 2005
204
0
When are these going to be available for laptops?

A 1.8 microdrive/flash drive combo. That would be great for laptops. Power saving up the wazoo.
 

racebit

macrumors newbie
Sep 13, 2006
18
0
The Ham, Bama
Keep in mind

Lets not get too carried away with it. I only glossed over the article so maybe I missed read/write times, but I don't see this replacing your default hd in a notebook. If it is a microdrive then read/writes will be slower then what you will get on a 3.5" or 2.5" hard drive.

Just my thoughts.:cool:
 

SeaFox

macrumors 68030
Jul 22, 2003
2,619
954
Somewhere Else
A 1.8 microdrive/flash drive combo. That would be great for laptops. Power saving up the wazoo.

Actually, it's funny you mentioned that. With the price of flash memory so much lower now than it was a few years ago. maybe it's time for Apple to boost the internal memory on the iPod (the one that gives you 8 minutes or so of skip protection)? More memory would mean fewer spins up of the hard drive if you're listening to play lists straight through. So more battery time.
 
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