Viking Modular Solutions introduces its Slim SATA SSD, a case-less, small form-factor and rugged SATA SSD. This embedded solid state drive is less than half the size of a 2.5-inch SSD. It uses 3Gb SATA II inteface and offers up to 260MB/s transfer rate.

Viking’s Slim SATA SSD is available in 25GB, 60GB and 120GB capacities. It is designed to the JEDEC MO-297 industry standard and “is ideal for telecommunications, gaming, embedded server & storage systems, field computing and defense & aerospace applications”.

[viking]

• Corsair Professional HX650W modular power supply
• Quirky Switch Modular Swiss Army Knife
• OCZ Solid Series SATA II 2.5-inch SSD
• BFG EX-1000 Modular Power Supply
• Toshiba SG2 mini-SATA SSD Module

We’ve been waiting on pins and needles for Google to announce some official Android tablet plans for so long we’d almost forgotten about Mountain View’s other operating system — but from what we’re hearing, Chrome OS is about to jump to center stage with a tablet debut on Verizon just before the holidays. Our friends at Download Squad are told by a reliable tipster that HTC is building a Tegra 2-based Chrome OS tablet for Google with a 1280 x 720 multitouch display, 2GB of RAM, at least 32GB of storage with the possibility of expansion, GPS, a webcam, and the usual wireless connectivity, including a 3G radio. Launch is pegged for Black Friday on November 26, and apparently the plan is to offer the device for extremely cheap or free on subsidy, which makes sense — it is just a browser, after all, and “free” sounds mighty nice compared to the iPad’s $499 entry point. (Of course, you’ll undoubtedly be tied to a Verizon contract, but we’ll just let that slide for now.) We’ll see how much of this comes true in the next few months — we’re certainly intrigued.

Update: The author of the Download Squad post, Lee Matthews, apparently fabricated all these specs — in comments, he confirms that they’re “pure speculation,” and this his source only provided the launch date and Verizon partnership. That part certainly seems plausible, but we wouldn’t necessarily believe any of this — it’s pretty suspect to just make things up.

Update 2: One of our own actually proven tipsters just hit us to say this whole thing — including launch date — sounds suspect, and that ARM-based Chrome OS tablets won’t hit until late 2011 at least. It’ll be Atom-based netbooks until then, we’re told. That lines up with everything else we’ve ever heard from Google and its partners, so we’re calling this entirely bunk until we actually see some hardware.

Chrome OS tablet coming from Google and Verizon on Black Friday? (update: probably not) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Back in February, Verizon Wireless made it quite clear what phones could be used with Skype Mobile, and the whole lot were smartphones. Sometime between then and now, however, it seems as if the carrier (or Skype… or both) has had a change of heart, as today a select few non-smartphones are showing up in its database as being compatible with Skype Mobile. Samsung’s $20-on-contract Reality, LG’s $80-on-contract Chocolate Touch and the enV Touch are all displayed as being in support of Skype Mobile, leading us to believe that an even larger stable of VZW handsets may soon hop onboard. Meanwhile, perfectly capable Android phones like the Nexus One can’t find a decent Skype client to save their life. For shame.

Update: Ah, ha! Now it’s official, with Skype confirming that Skype Mobile is now available on VZW multimedia phones on the BREW platform.

Verizon quietly pushes Skype Mobile onto select non-smartphones originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s called the G2, it’ll run Android, and it’s T-Mobile’s first phone to ride those wannabe-4G HSPA+ airwaves. Those are the facts we have. As to the speculation, a previous roadmap leak and T-Mobile’s own reps indicate it’ll be a HTC-built handset set for a September release, while a careful eyeballing of that silhouette leads us to thinking it’s the same device as the purported myTouch HD we’ve been seeing around here lately. Whatever it is, it’s coming soon!

[Thanks, Daniel]

T-Mobile G2 gets a teaser site, will be network’s first HSPA+ phone originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Most lamps are just that, offering light at the touch or press of a switch. Well, the iPod Lamp from Hammacher works differently, and as you can tell by its name, it will be able to play nice with an iPod thanks to its built-in iPod dock complete with speakers. This will definitely help you save whatever little space you have left in your cramped apartment (that’s the case these days what with a global population explosion). You can dock either an iPod or iPhone, where the two 10-watt speakers won’t bring the house down, but they ought to be good enough to keep a small room filled with music. A quartet of buttons control on/off for the lamp and audio, not to mention its volume as well. If you have another non-Apple portable media player, it works just as well via the auxiliary input. 3G iPod owners are out of luck though with this $199.95 thingamajic.

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