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Plextor Says 6-Gbps M2 Series Are Fastest SSDs on the Market

The adoption of 6-Gbps SATA is only gradually starting to take hold in the world of spinning hard drives, and solid-state drives (SSDs) are even further behind. This has not slowed down Plextor, however, which today announced the immediate availability of its new M2 Series of 2.5-inch, 6-Gbps SSDs. Plextor claims the drives are among the fastest to be found in the market.

The drives, which use Marvell 88SS9174 controllers, come in three capacities: 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB. According to Plextor, the two higher-capacity models offer sequential read rates of up to 480 Mbps and sequential write rates of up to 330 Mbps. In addition, the drives contain 128MB of DDR3 cache; and incorporate Plextor's Instant Restore and Dynamic Wear Leveling technologies, as well as Windows 7 TRIM command support, which the company claims can compensate for performance degradation often associated with heavy-duty SSD usage. The drives are rated to have a Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) of 1.5 million hours.

In a statement, Kathy Huynh from Plextor's product marketing department, said, "Plextor is pleased to continue building its presence in the SSD market by offering a new and faster generation of SSD. The M2 Series SSD is ideal for any demanding gamer, system integrator or user who demands dependability but won't sacrifice speed."

All drives in the M2 Series come with a three-year warranty and a bundled copy offor disk imaging and backing up individual files. Prices for the M2 Series drives range from $179.99 for the 64GB drive, $329.99 for the 128GB drive, and $699.99 for the 256GB drive.

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Egypt Q&A: Internal politics and key players

Egypt has long been one of America's strongest allies in the Middle East, but with popular protests on the verge of driving President Hosni Mubarak from office, Egypt's future relationship with the United States is in doubt. What is the current state of affairs in Egypt politically and who are the key players?

David Patel, a Cornell University professor of government who specializes in Middle East politics, Islamic institutions and political culture, talked about Egypt in a Q&A interview this week:

Q: A few days ago, you released a statement that the current regime was trying to foment chaos as an attempt to retain power. Can you talk about the seeming change in policy in light of Vice President Suleiman's more recent efforts to suppress the rioting through peaceful negotiation?

Patel: What we're seeing is a lot of movement within the party, pushing some people out. I think it's pretty clear that one faction within the [the ruling National Democratic Party] (NDP) is willing to sacrifice another faction within the NDP. A lot of the people associated with Gamal Mubarak [President Hosni Mubarak's son] have seen their assets frozen and their passports taken if they are not already out of the country. My sense is that a lot of the violence we saw a couple of day ago was orchestrated not from the cabinet, not from Omar Suleiman, the vice-president, or Mubarak, it was probably from mid-level NDP officials, other NDP officials, and people in the intelligence agencies.

There's a lot of competition within the party and they're pretty good at using thugs like this. There are networks of thugs that are used in elections and used to intimidate opponents. My sense isn't that the violence we saw a few days ago was from the top down, but from somebody else within the ruling party.

And you're right; the prime minister even apologized for it and said it was unacceptable. The military seems to be intervening more than they were before and that's why it stopped. The atmosphere in Tahrir is changed. It was a group of demonstrators under siege and now an almost festival-like atmosphere seems to be back with families and women in large numbers.

Q: Given the protesters' call for the immediate resignation of Mubarak and the current regime, who do you see as well-placed organizationally to take advantage of that and assume power in the short term?

Patel: The protesters are calling for a lot of things. Mubarak stepping down is the one that's easiest to chant. The real issue is: how is the transition going to be handled, and there are a couple different options? In Egypt the vice president is really the president-in-waiting. So picking Omar Suleiman is clearly designating him as the successor, and he is also someone who makes the Americans and the Israelis very comfortable. They know him very well from his time running the Egyptian Mukhabarat.

When you talk about a transition, what matters is really what's going to happen between now and September. Are they actually going to go ahead with presidential election in September? If so, how free will those elections be? Other people are talking about having parliamentary elections first, which could change things. Other people are talking about having some sort of triumvirate of one or two or three people leading some sort of transitional period which could be longer than September, delaying presidential elections and having some sort of constitutional review process first. Omar Suleiman would clearly play a prominent role, maybe even as a first among equals if that occurs.

Q: The constitution of Egypt clearly spells out the rules for succession, which would leave the NDP firmly in power if they were to follow those rules and Mubarak resigned. So it doesn't seem as though that's going to be an acceptable solution for most of the parties involved (other than the NDP).

Patel: It goes to the speaker of parliament. It also would limit the ability of a new president to call for new parliamentary elections. My understanding is that only an "elected president" can dissolve parliament and call for new elections. So, these are debates about the role of the constitution and how important that constitution and the words of that constitution should be for guiding this process.

It's pretty clear Mubarak isn't calling the shots anymore, right? Authority has moved away from him. Omar Suleiman is calling the shots. The people who were around and relied on access to Mubarak for their influence have found new patrons within the military and the party or are scrambling to find them. Mubarak is president in name only at this point.

He is hugely symbolically important, especially for the protesters, but even if he doesn't step down, his influence right now is minimal. He's not the one making statements anymore. It's Omar Suleiman who went on television the other day. It's Ahmed Shafik who's making statements. It's Tantawi, the defense minister, who's going down to Tahrir. So Mubarak's no longer the acting president. Even within the party, I don't think he's that important anymore.

Q: Of the other factions, there's the Muslim Brothers with whom the U.S. seems quite preoccupied. What is their actual influence in Egypt?

Patel: The Muslim Brothers are the largest and best organized of those opposition groups. We don't know how much support they have for several reasons. A lot of people supported the Muslim Brothers because they were seen as the only viable alternative to Mubarak. We know that a lot of the support for the Muslim Brothers comes from their ability to provide services that the Egyptian people need through clinics, schools and training centers. Well, if a new Egyptian government provides better for the Egyptian people and provides those services for the Egyptian people, maybe the influence of the Muslim Brothers in that avenue will decline.

There are a lot of people who like to say that they Egyptian Brothers have 15-20 percent of the Egyptian population behind them now. That's based not on how they did in the last election, but the previous election. There wasn't a free and fair election. There clearly wasn't a good expression of people's ultimate preferences, so you really can't estimate the support for the Muslim Brothers that way.

The Brothers have come out and said that they are not going to rule. They're not going to run somebody for president, and in fact, it looks like they are going to back a secular candidate for president. It seems like they've done everything they could to say that they will support a democratic process in terms of elections. They're working with secularists, and they'll be a part of the new order. They're not going to dominate it though. There's good reason, both empirically and theoretically, to think that they're not going to dominate Egypt in the short, medium, or long run.

The military is very well-trained, it's very large, it's very well-equipped. Order is not going to break down in Egypt. It's not like the Muslim Brothers are going to send their people out in the streets and seize power. The military isn't going to let that happen.

Q: One of the other groups that has become prominent is that of ElBaradei. Do you see him and his group, which, one might argue, has less in-country organization at this point, as playing a strong role?

Patel: He's been very prominent in the western media because he's a name and a face people recognize. He tried to position himself at the head of the protesters. You saw that there was a very dramatic scene of him going to Tahrir Square and giving a speech. My sense is that he doesn't have much of an organization in Egypt. Which could be both an advantage and a disadvantage, right?

He might be less threatening to various opposition groups as a figurehead, but he hasn't been able to consolidate all the opposition groups and voices behind him. There are a number of other groups that are negotiating not through him, but directly with the Egyptian government. The Muslim Brothers have said they would support him as a potential candidate for president. He's somebody who probably will emerge as one of the top two or three opposition leaders at least in the interim period. How much staying power he has in the long run, whether or not he can develop a political party and organization of his own is another matter entirely.

Q: Minister of Defense Tantawi is seen by many to be someone separate from Mubarak and Suleiman. While he may be following orders, the west is reporting that the military is taking more of a stand-offish role in support of the government. Do you see that as entirely false and only a western perspective?

Patel: You're trying to ask me if there's going to be a coup? The military is massive, at least 350,000 to 400,000. The Egyptian military currently runs between 15 and 24 factories around the country. They have massive economic and business interests throughout the country. Military officers and businesses and people connected to them are incredibly influential in the Egyptian economy. There's a lot of people in the Egyptian military interested in preserving their access to things, making sure that military contractors are involved in building all those new roads around Cairo, making sure that the military is the dominant player, especially in food industries.

They've gotten very good at dividing the kitty. They have become very good at balancing factions within the military. They've been a pretty stable military regime. You don't hear about coup attempts within the military in Egypt very often. I'd say the likelihood of a coup is very low. A lot of people have incentive to make sure the military comes out, as a whole, in a strong position, economically, perhaps even more importantly than politically.

Q: What do you see, in the near term, as a catalyst for ending the protests and getting back to ordinary life in Egypt?

Patel: Cairo and the surrounding areas are 18 million people, and the protests are concentrated in one area, Tahrir Square. Most of Cairo is, if not business as usual, seeing people going to work. People are going out and selling things, even in the middle of Tahrir.

The government is hoping that the protesters will get tired, that they'll, through attrition, go home. That doesn't seem to be happening. Those protesters there seem to be extremely resilient. If anything, the numbers have grown over time and they have tremendous staying power.

So the regime's strategy now seems to be to try to buy off some of the opposition. They've made what they see as some concessions to the protesters. They're hoping that the opposition groups will make some concessions. The Muslim Brothers sitting down to talk to Omar Suleiman the other day was a concession. They didn't agree to anything, as I understand it, but they did sit down with him.

A lot of different people try to represent the protesters and try to negotiate with the government, various groups of wisemen, ElBaradei, various political parties. The government's hoping that some of the opposition groups will pull their support away. They're hoping that some of the Egyptians who aren't involved in any way will say, "This has gone on too long. You've achieved enough; we can achieve more without being there in Tahrir." So they're hoping that public opinion in Egypt will turn against public protests. The protesters have said that they'll stay there indefinitely. It's been going on for two weeks now. The military has said they're not going to crack down so the protesters have a sense of safety now that they didn't have a couple days ago. I think you could see this continuing to go on for several more weeks, if you don't see some sort of agreement between various opposition groups and the government as to how a transition would occur... and for Mubarak to step down.

Q: The one thing that almost all the parties agree upon, is that they don't want outsiders to determine their future. They don't want people outside Egypt either corrupting the situation or exerting undue influence. That could be the United States, Iran, or whomever. What countries are well-poised, other than the United States, to continue or to begin to have a strong influence in Egypt?

Patel: In the short run, nobody. This is going to be resolved by Egypt one way or another. I don't think the United States can force Mubarak out of office. I don't think any other actors can put the pressure that will be decisive one way or another. Egyptians are determining the future of Egypt and that's a good thing. The Egyptian government continuously repeats the line that these are foreign agitators. Sometimes they blame Iranians. Sometimes they blame Israelis. Sometimes they blame Americans. They're all sorts of rumors flying around about outside agitation to weaken the homeland, to weaken the stability of Egypt. I haven't seen any evidence of foreign influence in the protests whatsoever. This is clearly an Egyptian, and a very diverse Egyptian, protest.

Kindle 3.1 Upgrade Allows Sharing of Book Notes

Amazon.com has rolled out a free software update for the latest generation of Kindle and Kindle 3G e-readers that adds capabilities requested by users. Among other things, the preview edition of Kindle 3.1 sports Public Notes -- a new opt-in feature to let users share their personal book notes and highlights with other Kindle users.

Amazon's goal is to make Kindle reading activities more socially oriented, which is hardly a new idea. When Barnes & Noble first launched its nook e-reader at the end of 2009, the device's innovative "loan a book" feature gave readers their first taste of the technology's socializing potential.

At the time, Forrester Research Vice President James McQuivey called the nook's feature a "huge step in an increasingly important direction for e-readers." However, Amazon has elected to leverage the popularity of social networking in other ways, such as the introduction of a new "before you go" feature that enables users finishing a new book to share their thoughts about the title with their social-networking contacts on Facebook and Twitter.

Real Page Numbers

In this case, Amazon is following Barnes & Noble's lead. Launched last November, the nook color sports built-in social features that allow users to link their Twitter, Facebook and Gmail accounts to the device for seamless content sharing, noted Gartner Vice President Al Weiner.

"The device is slightly heavier than the original nook, but still has a portable 'stick it in your pocket' feel to it, unlike a larger tablet device," Weiner wrote in a blog.

Kindle 3.1 also aims to make the e-reading experience more social by generating real book page numbers that match the layout of print-style books. This will let Kindle users easily reference and cite passages during social-networking sessions with friends, family and professional contacts.

Kindle users who manually download the new software preview from Amazon's web site will be able to immediately access real page numbers from the tens of thousands of Kindle books that have matching print editions and thousands more of the most popular books, Amazon observed. Eventually, however, everyone who owns the latest generation of the Kindle or Kindle 3G "will receive this software update automatically via Wi-Fi once it becomes available," the retail giant said.

What To Read Next

With Kindle 3.1, real page numbers are only displayed when the Menu button is pushed. "If your Kindle book includes page numbers, you'll see page numbers displayed next to locations when you push the Menu button," Amazon explained in a web-site post. "Page numbers will also be available on our free 'buy once, read everywhere' Kindle apps in the coming months."

Kindle 3.1 also sports a new and improved Kindle screen layout for displaying newspapers and magazines. The aim is to give Kindle users access to a snapshot of the news that helps readers quickly decide what they wish to read first.

Additionally, commuters will be able to command their devices to read them selected books and other text content while driving to and from work. Though the new software will enable them to select a male or female voice, as well as slow down or increase the rate of speech, this text-to-speech option is only available on published works for which the rights holders have expressly granted permission.

Q&A with CNN Worldwide president

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – As president of CNN Worldwide, Jim Walton oversees the news operation's television, online and mobile businesses around the world.

A day after CNN's parent company Time Warner reported its latest earnings, Walton spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the cable network's 2010 financials, the early performance of Piers Morgan Tonight and the importance of U.S. primetime show.

The Hollywood Reporter: CNN had a record operating profit in 2009, and I hear you brought in another record profit for 2010. Is that true, and how big was it?

Jim Walton: We had a really good year in 2010. We had a fantastic year, and yes, we grew up profits over 2009. It was another earnings record, so we are really pleased...I am speaking about the worldwide business of CNN.

THR: How big a profit?

Walton: As you know, Time Warner doesn't break out our earnings, so I am not allowed to either. I can't.

THR: That is several record years in a row, isn't it?

Walton: That is seven years in a row of profit growth. That's pretty good. While the journalism industry is under siege, we continue to grow.

THR: What were the main drivers of your growth?

Walton: There are a lot of men and women here who work really hard. We have a pretty diverse business that is spread out around the world. And we got multiple revenue streams - television, the Web and mobile. It's not one television network. It's a big old honking news machine.

THR: The continued profit growth seems to be in some contrast with your continued U.S. primetime ratings challenges that are often in focus. Is that just not as important a factor?

Walton: I don't want to minimize it. The primetime programming on CNN U.S. is very, very important, and those ratings are important to us. But the ad revenue generated by our primetime programming on CNN U.S. is only about 10% of our total revenues. We have other parts of our business that are as big or bigger than that.

THR: What were some of the growth drivers for CNN last year?

Walton: Over the years, as various economies go up and down around the world, we are in so many different economies that we have a lot of touch points and are not weighed down by any one thing. We also have television, Web and mobile. Advertising is a huge component of our business domestically and internationally, but the distribution business is big for us. The Web business is big for us, mobile is growing, and we are in the syndication business as well.

THR: What do you predict for your business for this year?

Walton: I'm not allowed to give forward-leaning statements on financials. What I can tell you is that I am confident that we are going to have another great year. We have some new programs on CNN. We will be launching a new primetime program on HLN. We have some digital additions that we are going to make over the next four, five months. And the international business continues to evolve. So, I am very confident that we are going to have another strong year.

THR: You mentioned new programs. How do you feel about the performance of Piers Morgan so far?

Walton: It's spectacular. I'm really pleased. He is so clever, he is really smart, he is a big personality. And he works hard and does his homework. He's been stepping into the Egypt story now. We couldn't be happier.

THR: What about ratings? Have you noticed what kind of guests and topics do better for him or whether the show does better when he steps into breaking news versus has celebrity guests?

Walton: It's really too early to put a stamp on it. Piers and his producers and Ken Jautz who runs CNN U.S. will work together and look at what happens each day, review and always try to make it better each day. I can assure you that Piers will be every bit a part of the conversation, and the interview will be the basis of what that program is. But I think it is in its early days. He has tried all sorts of different types of shows in the two and a half weeks he has been on the air. Maybe that's what it will always be like.

THR: Parker Spitzer has been on the air longer, and you have tweaked that a bit. How happy are you with it now?

Walton: Much has been said and much has been written about the program. If you look at it just on its merits, it's one of the smartest programs on television - whether cable or broadcast. It fits very much within the brand of CNN and what it stands for. And if you look at the last 10 days or so, its performance has gotten a lot better and the past couple of nights it has beaten MSNBC. It's got some momentum right now.

THR: How do you explain that?

Walton: We had a couple of folks who weren't television professionals, and now they have got some time under their belts. They are performing, and the show just gets better and better.

THR: Anything you can say about the chatter that it will be just Spitzer one day?

Walton: I have got a little saying here at CNN internally that you can't burp without somebody somewhere writing. CNN commands a lot of attention, which is great. What you can count on is that we have Dr. Drew coming on HLN in primetime soon. That's the talent focus for our company right now.

THR: You have added personalities to primetime since Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes joked last year that some time CNN may be a bit boring. Do you feel you have made real progress?

Walton: It's in the eye of the beholder. What is funny to somebody is not funny to somebody else. What is exciting to one person might be boring to somebody else. But everybody who performs at CNN in an anchor role needs to be very, very smart and be able to relate to and be relevant to their audiences. We are not trying to be funny necessarily.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant)

Ethiopia, U.N. launch food appeal for 2.8 million people

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopia and the United Nations said on Monday 2.8 millions Ethiopians will need emergency food aid in 2011, and appealed for $227 million to fund programs for the first six months.

The Horn of Africa nation is still one of the world's poorest countries, with nearly 10 percent of the population of 77 million people relying on emergency food aid last year.

The U.N. cited poor performance of rains in the Somali and Oromiya regions late last year for the increasing food problem.

In addition, donor representatives said access was still restricted in nine out of the 52 localities in the Somali region, where a low-level insurgency still prevails. About 40 percent of the beneficiaries are in the Somali region.

"Presently, we all remain concerned about the situation in the eastern and southeastern lowlands of Somali and Oromiya regions, where renewed drought conditions are having a significant humanitarian impact," said Eugene Owusu, the resident United Nations coordinator.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has said his country may not need any food aid within five years thanks to an ambitious development plan that targets an average economic growth of 14.9 percent over the period.

Addis Ababa has posted high economic growth figures over the past five years, averaging about 11 percent, according to government figures.

Ethiopia is one of the world's largest recipients of foreign aid, receiving more than $3 billion in 2008, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Ethiopia is a key Western ally in the Horn of Africa, where it is seen as a bulwark against militant Islamism. Addis Ababa also wants to attract foreign investment in large-scale farming and oil and gas exploration.

(Reporting by Aaron Maasho; Editing by James Macharia and Mark Heinrich)