Intel Launching Next Gen 510 Series SATA III SSDs March 1st.

As February rolls into March, the PC enthusiast sector is primed and ready for a slew of new hardware, with the most exciting being a slew of next gen SSDs from leading manufacturers. While OCZ’s Vertex 3 Pro may be the speed demon according to early previews, Intel in particular has something very interesting lurking within their new 510 series as well.

If you know anything about Intel’s current line of SSDs, you know that compared to other higher end SSDs, performance isn’t exactly mind blowing — the average read speeds of ~170MB/s and writes at just south of ~100MB/s don’t exactly “scream”. But Intel’s next gen 510 series of high-end/enthusiast SSDs look to change that, boasting speeds of 430/315 MB/s read/write respectively. That’s quite a bit faster than the current C300 series of SSDs by Crucial (fastest SATA III SSD available at the moment) which tip the scales at 355/145 MB/s.

But before you go lunging for the wallet, take a gander at prices first:

• 120GB: $280

• 256GB: $580

Not exactly cheap, though pretty close to current gen pricing. Looks like the fastest 120GB SSD you can by will still sit squarely at ~$300. For those looking for a price break, there’s always next year. According to VR-Zone’s sources, we’re looking at a March 1st release date. Will you be partaking?

Motorola XOOM Not Shipping With Flash.

It appears Motorola’s Android tablet won’t be quite the be-all-end-all tablet it is marketed as being, as one of the most highly debated features of the web, Adobe Flash, will not work at launch. Verizon’s page says Flash will come “Spring 2011″ while Adobe’s XOOM page is a bit more vague with “Early 2011″. Either way, it is a bit disappointing given the high-end nature of the Motorola XOOM and all of the hardware power packed inside its sleek shell.

Then again, the usefulness of Flash is still hotly debated. While I personally rarely find the need to enable Flash (I have it blocked by default), there are a few stubborn sites that refuse to accept change.

What about you? Is the XOOM’s lack of Flash support out the gate a problem?

GSM Operators Coming Together On Global NFC Standard Set To Launch In 2012.

It’s rare that we see cellular operators around the world come together on one single spec. Often times, each respective carrier believes they can engineer a workable solution better than anyone else. The end result ends up being the release of various “solutions” (ie: specifications) with no clear winner, meaning a headache for multi-carrier/global devices. But at least in the case of NFC, global love appears to be growing larger. According to the GSMA Chairmen and CEO of Telecom Italia, Franco Bernabe, 2012 will be the year we see an official NFC spec released. So far, support has been promised by the following carriers: América Móvil, Axiata Group Berhad, Bharti, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT Corporation, MTS, Orange, Qtel Group, SK Telecom, SOFTBANK MOBILE, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telekom Austria Group, Telenor and Vodafone.

Having a single, universal standard will go a long way into accelerating NFC adoption for both hardware and software services alike. And even though the official NFC spec isn’t scheduled for public consumption until 2012, mobile hardware manufacturers and software developers are already dipping their toes in the NFC water. Add to that the growing interesting with this years CES and MWC and you’ve got quite the story in the making. We can hardly wait.

Real Angry Birds Cake…That You Can Actually Play.

If you’ve spent any time wondering the halls here at GS, you know that we have an unhealthy obsession with Angry Birds. We’ve seen all kinds of articles of clothing, videos, games, toys, and food items. On the subject of food items, making an Angry Birds-themed treat isn’t all that difficult or unique anymore. However, ElectricPig’s own Mike Cooper went above and beyond with an actual Angry Birds cake…that you can actually play. Hop on past the break to check out 10 hours worth of work reduced to 2 minutes of destruction…

Twidroyd And UberTwitter Access Restored.

The great twitter ban of 2011 is over. Late last week, we learned that two popular Twitter mobile apps, UberTwitter and Twidroyd, were banned access to Twitter’s mobile app API for numerous policy violations. What was more odd than the actual policies reportedly broken was the fact that Twitter claimed to have given the parent company of said apps, UberMedia, over 8 months to correct the problems at hand. And then, on the day of the ban, the company issued a statement saying a fix was ready to be immediately deployed. So why wait until it becomes a big publicized event? Beats us. All we know now is that the water has calmed and that both apps’ APIs have been restored. A nice way to start Monday morning, no?

Intel CEO Changes His Story. Now Claims Nokia Should Have Gone Android Instead.

Right after Nokia and Microsoft made the big announcement that they were forming a “strategic partnership”, Intel CEO Paul Otellini came out and said that despite all the criticism, he would have done the same thing. Pretty telling for someone running the last big company behind MeeGo, another mobile OS looking for fame. But at a recent analysts meeting in London, Otellini was singing a different tune. In contrast to his previous statement, Otellini now says he wouldn’t have done what Ellop did, instead choosing Android as the mobile OS of choice. Of course, he ties up all the loose ends by stating that Nokia’s best strategy should have been MeeGo but “They [Nokia] couldn’t afford it.”

The respective parties involved have already played their cards. What’s done is done. But we’ll chime in and say Intel’s Otellini is dead wrong on MeeGo. It had potential. If Nokia, a smartphone company, couldn’t get things off the ground, a multi-faceted and much larger company such as Intel is going to have trouble hitting the nail on the head without a fellow mobile company helping push things along. As we see it, Nokia made a daring but good choice. On that note, based on recent murmurings, we won’t have too much longer to wait.

[Update] Review: FX PhotoStudio For iOS.

If you’re on the lookout for a more robust camera app for iOS, you’ve no doubt come to the realization that the sea of suitable apps is vast and chock full of options. How is a consumer such as yourself supposed to choose? It’s quite simple actually. Read GS! On that note, today we’re taking a look at PhotoStudio for iOS. For mobile photographers and photo aficionados, PhotoStudio ads a considerable amount of extra options and features the stock camera app doesn’t offer. Hop inside and check it out…