Today SMART Storage Systems and IBM discussed the topic of server side flash and the benefits of using drive form factor SSDs in comparison to deploying PCIe SSD solutions in a live webinar titled "Is PCIe SSD Dead?". The webinar is also available for playback at your convenience at the BrightTALK website.

The far-ranging conversation of the benefits of drive form-factor SSDs in wide deployment in the server was certainly eye-opening and worth a view from anyone considering deploying these types of solutions into an enterprise environment. The density, performance and latency of 2.5" and 1.8" form factor SSDs is rapidly increasing in the new generation of SSDs. SAS equipped SSDs in particular are providing latency that is in the range of PCIe solutions.

These massive performance improvements are beginning to challenge PCIe SSDs in datacenter deployments. One key to the performance of drive form factor SSDs lies in the fact that they are self-contained units. All management of the storage device is handled by the SSD itself and does not impede upon precious host server resources.

Motorola's upcoming X Phone is no stranger to the rumor mill, but today we may be seeing the first image of the soon to be Googlerola flagship. A rendering of the X Phone has surfaced on the popular mobile phone site GSMArena, along with more specifications.

The X Phone rendering shows off an almost concept-like rendering of what could be one of the best looking phones I have seen to date. The screen appears to be slightly convex and surrounded by an aluminum body or bezel. The superimposed Android UI is of course Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, but it is highly believed that the device will run Android 5.0 when it goes on sale.

The X Phone is said to run a Snapdragon 800 chipset and will feature a 4.7" 1280x768 display. A 4000mAh battery will provide a super long life, which is in line with current Motorola policies. The phone is said to be IP57 compliant, which means that it will be water resistant up to 30 minutes at a depth of up to one meter. Unfortunately the tipster said that the phone will not feature an SD slot, which would be a major mistake on Motorola's part in my opinion.

In a weird twist of a rumor that is built off of another rumor, we are hearing reports this morning that the Apple iTV does exist and that it could be getting a 4K resolution. Reports are suggesting that the long-anticipated Apple iTV will arrive by the end of 2013.

In an interview with Bloomberg, renowned Apple analyst Gene Munster said that we will see an iTV device launched in Q4 of 2013, stating that there is "no question whether it's a set-top box versus a TV, it's an actual TV".

Bolstering these rumors is DigiTimes who is suggesting that the iTV will be getting a 4K resolution refresh shortly after launch. The 3840 x 2160 resolution screen could make its way into the iTV sometime in the first half of 2014, if rumors ring true. Additionally, DigiTimes cited sources familiar with Apple's supply chain stating that the internet connected TV will be voice controlled and feature a Kinect like motion sensor.

Thermaltake has been bringing us exciting new PC cases for years and they have hit a home run with its latest release. This morning Thermaltake announced its newest PC case in the Urban series, the Urban S41.

It's being billed as having a "sophisticated and cutting-edge look; designed for users who looks for powerful performance and high expandability". A brushed aluminum front panel instantly commands your attention and then you begin to notice stubble features that really set this case off like the thin blue power bar at the top, or the sleek looking top mesh.

The Urban S41 comes in both windowed and windowless designs and is capable of holding three optical drives and up to six 3.5-inch / 2.5-inch storage devices. A HDD docking station is recessed into the top, and the chassis is designed with enough room above the motherboard to place a 240 size radiator such as the one used in Thermaltake's Water 2.0.

At the Intel Solutions Summit (ISS) 2013 last week, Intel teased the world that we should expect new Ultrabooks in the near future based on their fourth-generation Core processors, otherwise known as Haswell.

Better yet, they'll start at just $599. The news came from Senior Vice President and GM of Intel's PC Client Group, Kirk Skaugen, who told an audience of top Intel parts that new Haswell-based Ultrabooks would not only arrive at cheaper price points, but with more compelling features. Skaugen said that early Ultrabooks were "just a retrofit of what was already on the market," but has promised that Haswell-based Ultrabooks will require touch-screen support and faster SSDs, high-resolution displays, voice and facial recognition technology and finally, "all-day" battery life.

Skaugen had some interesting things to say about Haswell and the future of Ultrabooks, where he said "we designed this chip from the ground up for the Ultrabook. You'll truly be able to leave your [Ultrabook] battery pack at home."

EA and DICE have officially taken the wraps off of Battlefield 4, where it has been completely and utterly announced to the world. EA have confirmed it is indeed launching in Fall 2013, and will be powered by Frostbite 3, not Frostbite 2 as previously thought.

Today, we have a 17-minute gameplay demo unleashed upon us, which I'm about to check out once I click the submit button on this news. Patrick Soderlund, Executive Vice President, EA Games Label has said:

We are so humbled and proud to debut Battlefield 4 on a global stage with simultaneous events in San Francisco and Stockholm. To be this early in development, and to already be so polished is a huge achievement for the DICE team and reflection of their passion and commitment to driving the franchise forward. Today's demo was just the beginning -- we have so much more in store. It is thrilling to witness peoples' reaction when seeing the game for the first time. It really makes you realize that we are at the beginning of a whole new era for gaming. As artists and craftspeople, we are focused on creating a dynamic, open design that brings people together with amazing, surprising unscripted moments that they'll talk about for days. That's the beauty of Battlefield.

AMD are striking while the iron is hot with GPU news today, first we just heard about the dual-GPU Radeon HD 7990, and now we're hearing that AMD are entering the cloud gaming business.

They'll be entering this business with a new range of graphics cards, the Radeon Sky series. These cards will come in three flavors, the Radeon Sky 900, Radeon Sky 700 and Radeon Sky 500. They'll come with varying amounts of stream processors, RAM, and memory bandwidth. These new GPUs are designed to power servers for cloud gaming.

The Radeon Sky 900 will feature two Radeon GPUs, providing it with 3584 stream processors, and 3GB of GDDR5 RAM for each GPU. Its siblings, the Radeon Sky 700 and Radeon Sky 500 will feature 1792 and 1280 stream processors, respectively, as well as 6GB of GDDR5 and 4GB of GDDR5, respectively.

NVIDIA have already entered the dual-GPU arena with their GeForce GTX 690, and have taken the crown once again with their Titan GPU, so AMD have been sitting out of the GPU spotlight for a while now.

This might all end with the unveiling of their Radeon HD 7990, their dual-GPU behemoth. GM of AMD's Graphics Business Unit, Matt Skynner, held up the card for the world to see, saying: "This is the first public showing. We're not saying much about it other than it's two series-7900 GPUs on a single card, and it's whisper quiet."

AMD's Radeon HD 7990 will be a full-sized, dual-slot card, which was expected. The heatsink and fan design runs down the entire card, with no less than three fans keeping the two GPUs cool. We should hear more on this card in the coming weeks, and I'm sure a proper unveiling before, or at Computex in Taipei in June.

Activist in Tibet might want to reconsider spreading the word about their next rally through their Android based smartphones. Researchers at Kaspersky Labs have just discovered a new Trojan virus that is designed to target Tibetan and Uyghur Activist.

The malware is specifically designed for Android Phones and is injected into the device when the unsuspecting user opens an email that references the recent World Uyghur Conference. Kaspersky says that this is the first documented attack that targets Android smartphones but it will most certainly not be the last.

In an interview with Mashable, Kurt Baumgartner, a senior security researcher at Kaspersky, said:

This is the first time a precisely targeted attack is implementing an Android-based Trojan... this is the first instance that it was used in a targeted attack that's publicly documented.

Yahoo are on a continued mission to revamp their digital news and media business, with their latest acquisition of Summly, a startup that specializes in summarizing web content into a format made easier to consume media on a mobile device.

AllThingsD reports that the transaction saw Yahoo shifting $30 million to acquire the startup, 90% of it in cash with the remaining 10% in stock. The news gets better; with the iPhone app first designed by London-based Nick D'Aloisio, who was just fifteen years old when he created Summly.

What exactly does Summly do? Well, it allows you to choose your news sources from a bunch of pre-packages categories, or from your favorite websites. From there, it will let you enter keywords for topics that might be of interest too. Summly will also show you the latest stories that it has summarized in up to 400 characters, presented with a beautifully clean interface.