From X-bit Labs: Toshiba Corp. on Tuesday started mass production of NAND flash memories fabricated with 24nm process technology. The new manufacturing process will be used to make low-cost 64Gb flash chips.

This latest technology advance has already been applied to 2bit-per-cell (2bpc) 64Gb chips that are the world's smallest and offer the highest density on a single chip (8GB), and which are available from today. Toshiba will also add 32Gb and 3bit per cell products fabricated with the 24nm process technology to its product line-up.

Toshiba leads the industry in fabricating high density, small die size NAND flash memory chips. Application of the 24nm generation process technology will further shrink chip size, allowing Toshiba to boost productivity and bring further enhancements to high density, small sized products. The 24nm process products are also equipped with Toggle DDR, which enhances data transfer speed.

By accelerating process migration in NAND flash memory, Toshiba aims to reinforce and extend its leadership in the NAND flash memory market.

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From DailyTech: Microsoft is eagerly eying ways to make its console business unit even more profitable. Yesterday, the company announced its decision to bump the yearly subscription fees for the various tiers of its Xbox Live Gold service.

Today Lawrence "Larry" Hyrb, Director of Programming for the Microsoft gaming network Xbox Live and better known by his Live gamertag "Major Nelson", gave the world a sneak peek of Microsoft's upcoming revamped wireless controller, which Microsoft hopes will spur accessory sales.

The controller comes pre-packaged with Microsoft's Play and Charge kit, which current retails for $19.99 USD. The price of the bundle is $64.99 USD, a relative deal, given that the current controller, sans Play and Charge retails for $49.99 USD (for a total of $69.98 with Play and Charge).

There are definite improvements to the design of the controller itself. The D-Pad can be raised about a quarter of an inch by twisting it (this video better explains this feature), making it much more usable. The analog stick is more thumb friendly in that it's slightly more concave. And last, but not least the ABXY buttons have been changed from colored to monochrome translucent. And the entire controller is cloaked in a stylish silver matte.

Microsoft has yet to reveal whether the controller is going to be bundled with any of its consoles. In all, though, the upgrade looks like a welcome improvement at a fair price.

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From DailyTech: With all the hype surrounding Apple's impending launch of new iPods, it's sometimes easy to forget about some of the the key players in the MP3 player market. One of the big names we haven't heard from in a while is SanDisk, and they're debuting the new Sansa Fuze+ today.

The Sansa Fuze+ is the successor to the older Sansa Fuze and features a completely redesigned body. The player incorporates a 2.4" QVGA LCD; a "film strip" GUI which makes allows quick navigation through photos, music, and video with left/right finger swipes; and FM radio support.

Other features include a microSDHC card slot for expanded storage capacity (SanDisk slotRadio is supported) and a microphone for audio recording. The Sansa Fuze+ can operate for 24 hours straight while playing only audio; that figure drops to five hours when playing video.

“The Sansa Fuze+ is the most versatile portable media player available for under $100,” said Tom Bailey, senior director, AV retail, SanDisk. “We developed an entirely new product to provide consumers with a stylish, affordable device that performs exactly as a sophisticated yet easy to use player should.”

The Sansa Fuze+ is available today in capacities of 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB with MSRPs of $79, $89, and $119 respectively (available colors include red, white, black, blue and purple).

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From InfoWorld: Google plans to begin rolling out to Gmail users on Tuesday a new feature designed to automatically rearrange messages in their inbox so that the most important and pressing ones appear at the top.

Called Priority Inbox, the feature will be released with the beta, or test, label and is being described for now as "experimental" by the company.

All individual Gmail users will gain access to it in the coming days. Availability for people who use it as part of Google Apps will depend on whether domain administrators allow their users to activate "pre-release" features.

The motivation behind Priority Inbox is Google's conviction that the problem of email overload continues getting worse, forcing people to spend much time and effort managing their inbox both for personal and work-related matters.

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From PC World: Google shows no signs of stopping its social networking start-up shopping spree--it acquired social gaming service SocialDeck on Monday.

The acquisition was announced Monday via the SocialDeck blog.

SocialDeck is a social gaming company that makes games for various mobile platforms (including Blackberry and iPhone) that are playable across multiple devices and social networks. For example, you can play a game on your iPhone and then switch over to Facebook on your computer and play with the same profile.

Some of SocialDeck's games include "Shake & Spell," "Pet Hero MD," and "Color Connect."

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google has been in talks with popular game developers to offer their products on "a new service it is building" (courtesy of WSJ's "people familiar with the matter"). Perhaps the acquisition of SocialDeck shows the direction in which Google wants to go with its rumored new gaming service--games that work seamlessly across multiple platforms and devices, that is. The WSJ reports that the companies in talks include Playdom Inc., EA's Playfish, and Zynga.

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From PC World: Motorola released two new Android smartphones for China on Monday, and announced details of another, as the company broadens its product offerings for the Chinese market.

Part of Motorola's MING series, the new phones have touchscreen displays and can recognize Chinese characters traced on them.

The MT810 and A1680 are now available in some areas in China, priced at 5,980 renminbi (US$877) and 3,080 renminbi respectively, a company spokeswoman said.

The MT810 will be serviced by China Mobile, has a 3.2-inch screen and can display mobile TV broadcasts in China's CMMB format. The phone also uses China Mobile's OPhone 2.0 operating system, which is based on the Android 2.1 version.

The A1680 phone, built for China Unicom, runs Android version 1.6 and has a 3.1-inch display.

The third phone, the XT806, will be go on sale in September through China Telecom, priced at 6,180 renminbi. The phone will also run Android version 2.1. Motorola describes the phone as a multimedia notebook with voice recording, a camera, and business applications.

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From DailyTech: Samsung has already sold 1 million Galaxy S smartphones in the United States, with just the variants on T-Mobile (branded the "Vibrant") and AT&T (branded the "Captivate"). Now as a launch of Verizon's variant, the "Fascinate", appears to be just weeks away, Sprint has become the third major U.S. carrier to officially open sales of the device.

Sprint's Galaxy S variant, dubbed the Sprint Epic 4G, is a bit different than the rest of the Galaxy S pack. It's the Galaxy S Pro which means it has a half-width, slide-out physical keyboard, which will delight some disappointed by the lack of a keyboard in other variants. The phone also adds in some features that were scrapped in the "Vibrant" and "Captivate", namely a front-facing camera for video-calling and a rear-facing LED flash.

On top of those advantages over its Galaxy S brethren, the new phone will be compatible with Sprint's growing fourth generation (4G) wireless network, which employs WiMAX. Many users are already enjoying this union of that network and another Android smartphone, the HTC EVO 4G. However, the Epic 4G sports a faster processor than the EVO 4G, so it should offer an even more compelling experience.

The only disappointments initially appeared to be a slightly fatter width due to the extra features and a slightly higher price of $249.99 USD. Apparently some e-tailers are remedying the latter issue, offering the phone for $199.99 USD. Both Amazon.com and Wirefly are offering the phone at this rate with free shipping.

The phone is already on sale in Sprint stores and will start shipping immediately. For customers who want to see more specs, you can visit Sprint's page for the phone, but again beware, you probably don't want to buy it there as Sprint is charging $249.99 USD with a new 2-year-contract.

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From DailyTech: Yesterday Samsung cheered the news of having sold over 1 million Galaxy S smart phones in the U.S. alone. Also, screenshots leaked that pinpointed September 9 as the date for Verizon's launch of its own Galaxy S variant, the "Fascinate".

Now the folks over at Verizon are back at it again, leaking yet another juicy screenshot to the Boy Genius Report. This time around, the leaked shot shows that Samsung's Galaxy Tab Android tablet is coming to Verizon.

A bit is already known about the upcoming tablet from a teaser video. The 7” Galaxy Tab is expected to run Android 2.2 at launch and features the same 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU (co-developed with Intrinsity) found in the Galaxy S and Galaxy S Pro. It is expected to have a moderate resolution camera in the back and a front camera for video calling.

Launching on Verizon, America's largest wireless network, should help the device take on the kingpin of the tablet industry, Apple. Apple at this point is virtually uncontested in the tablet market, and is making the best of that, selling over 2.3 million iPads a month. Numerous designs from competitors, including the webOS-powered HP Hurricane and Asus Eee Pad, are expected soon to launch and give the iPad a fight, though.

Samsung's toughest competition may come from Motorola's rumored upcoming Android tablet. While Samsung's tablet is expected to launch in September, or in October at the latest, Motorola's tablet is rumored not to launch until early next year. Reportedly Motorola is opting to wait for the Q1 2011 launch of Android 3.0 and is using the extra time to perfect the tablet. That device is rumored to be 10 inches.

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