Let's just be honest about it, when you think of high performance solid state drive controllers the Phison name doesn't exactly jump to the top of the list. That isn't going to change anytime soon but Phison isn't looking to take on the SandForce or Marvell's of the world.

Let's break it down like this, 512GB capacity for less than 500 Dollars with 460MB/s read and 315MB/s write speed. Given that most other 512/480GB solutions are currently hovering around the 700 Dollar mark this is something to get excited about.

Then there's the performance. We didn't get a quote from the company or a specifications list but the 460MB/s read and 315MB/s write speeds were from our tests in ATTO with the very first firmware build for the new controller (S8FM0001). A performance firmware is expected to hit our lab in early June, just in time for Computex or at the latest July, just in time for retail.

There's been a lot of news today about Facebook and its IPO and here is another. Facebook has just completed its first acquisition after becoming a publicly traded company. The mobile commerce startup Karma has been acquired by Facebook. Karma specializes in apps for gifting friends and family. The acquisition sees 16 employees joining Facebook.

The terms of the deal are undisclosed as of now. The acquisition should help Facebook monetize its app and mobile offerings, something its admittedly weak in. Facebook said in a statement: "We've been really impressed with the Karma team and all they accomplished in such a short time. This acquisition combines Karma's passion and innovative mobile app with Facebook's platform to help people connect and share in new and meaningful ways."

Karma also posted on its own blog:

BitTorrent may not be all bad for the music industry which is contrary to how they would like to portray it. It seems that piracy could aid album sales, if a new study is to be believed. North Carolina State University assistant professor Robert Hammond examined prerelease albums being BitTorrented and the album sales of said albums.

The investigation netted some interesting results. What he found was that there was a correlation between the two, although it was pretty small. Keep in mind that correlation does not equate to causation. Since this is an observational study rather than an experiment, it's impossible to say with certainty that BitTorrent aids album sales.

It is, however, possible to indicate that they seem to. After watching 1095 albums, Hammond noted "The findings suggest that file sharing of an album benefits its sales. I don't find any evidence of a negative effect in any specification using any instrument." The average increase in sales was around 59.6 albums, so its not a landslide increase.

It looks as though Facebook may have to sell just a bit more stock to pay for a lawsuit that has been filed in San Jose, California Federal Court. While things may be looking great Wall Street, the courtroom picture is a bit more bleak. Stewarts Law US has combined 21 individual lawsuits into one amended class action suit seeking $15 billion.

The previous lawsuits date back to 2011 and allege that Facebook violated user privacy by tracking web usage. The new class action lawsuit alleges that Facebook violated the US Wiretap Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Stored Communications Act, along with others. The US Wiretap Act grants up to $100 a day per violation up to $10,000.

Specifically, the lawsuit makes claims that Facebook tracks users even once they are no longer logged in. "This is not just a damages action, but a groundbreaking digital-privacy rights case that could have wide and significant legal and business implications," David Straite, a Stewarts Law partner told Bloomberg via e-mail.

If you missed out on Microsoft's deal last year, don't fret as they have brought it back again this year. Requirements are similar, though it seems as though Canadian's are getting a slightly better deal than Americans. The promotion? Buy a new PC worth at least some amount at a participating retailer and get a free Xbox360!

Here are the requirements as Microsoft says, so that I won't be held to anything:

Starting May 20th in the U.S., students who buy a qualifying Windows PC worth $699 or more at participating retailers can get a 4GB Xbox 360 console for free, just like last year! Starting May 18th in Canada, students who buy a Windows PC worth $599 or more can also get a 4GB Xbox 360 console for free!

Researchers from Rice University in Houston, Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Switzerland's Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) and the University of California, Berkeley have unveiled an "inexact" chip at the ACM International Conference on Computing Frontiers in Cagliari, Italy.

The chip is allowed to make mistakes in order to gain speed and energy usage advances. This new "inexact" processor is up to 15 times more efficient than current processors. It can be used in certain applications where 100% accuracy isn't mission critical. Examples of this would be video or picture processing.

"It is exciting to see this technology in a working chip that we can measure and validate for the first time," said project leader Krishna Palem, who also serves as director of the Rice-NTU Institute for Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics (ISAID). "Our work since 2003 showed that significant gains were possible, and I am delighted that these working chips have met and even exceeded our expectations."

If you needed any evidence that the Samsung Galaxy S III was a major competitor to the Apple iPhone, why don't you take a look at the pre-sale numbers. Already the Samsung Galaxy S III has passed 9 million pre-orders, according to an unidentified Samsung official. Towards the end of last month, Samsung had said that the Galaxy S III would "substantially contribute" to Q2 earnings.

Also, it has been leaked that the factory is operating at full capacity, producing as many phones as possible. The number seems to be 5 million a month, so I'm not sure if that will be able to keep up with global demand once the phone becomes available in more places. Currently, Germany is set to be the first to get it on May 29. Afterwards, it will expand to 100 different global carriers.

Samsung has of course declined to comment on these numbers. This year has the makings to be a great year for Samsung. It has recently passed Nokia as top phone manufacturer and looks set to grab even more market share than the 18.4% it did from Q1 2011 to Q1 2012. I know I'm looking forward to getting the new Galaxy.

Nearly a year ago, EA Games President, Frank Gibeau, teased that EA were "actively looking at how to bring [Mirror's Edge] back in the right way", this was in a discussion with GameTrailers. But, now there's some more concrete, well, kinda, information available on this news.

GamerZines reports that judging from two former EA employee's LinkedIn profiles tease they've worked on a Mirror's Edge sequel. According to GamerZines, the profile of an ex-EA Software Engineer has said that he's worked on Mirror's Edge 2 between July and August of 2009, where he was implementing "the wandering of crowd system within Unreal3 engine".

Another ex-employee had a different task, where was implementing "new gadgets and interactive features" into Mirror's Edge 2, including "leaderboards" and a mini-game embedded into Mirror's Edge game story". If development started on Unreal Engine 3, EA must've switches engines mid-development to Frostbite 2, the engine that powers the beautiful first-person shooter that is Battlefield 3.

The Steam remote library management was only in beta for a little while, and has broken out of the beta and into full availability. Now you can lay in your bed, or on the bus or train and manage your library directly from your iOS- or Android-based device.

If you've got the Steam app for iOS or Android, you can start a download remotely, complete online purchases, and more. Here's what Valve have to say about it:

To kick off a remote download, simply visit your Games list on the Steam Community site, which can be accessed from your own profile using a web browser or the Steam mobile app on iOS or Android. If logged into the latest update of the Steam client on a PC or Mac, there you'll see which games are currently installed, and have the ability to install others from your library. Or, seamlessly complete your online purchase with remote installation: When a remote session is detected, the Steam store will ask whether you'd like to download your new purchases immediately.

Bloomberg has reported that the late Steve Jobs was involved with the design work for the next-generation iPhone. The new iPhone is said to feature a larger display, somewhere in the 4-inch area. We reported on this yesterday, but now news is hitting that Steve Jobs was personally involved.

I do have a problem with this, of course media outlets are going to push Steve Jobs was involved in the design. It's great PR for everyone involved. I'm not one to dig on a dead man, but they'll continue to push 'Steve Jobs inspired' for years to come. If we remember, Steve Jobs didn't like the idea of a bigger screen on the iPhone. It would mean fragmented design not just for iOS, but for apps to cater to various iPhones with varying screen sizes and resolutions.

I think we're going to see Apple change, especially with the iPhone, because of increasing competition from Google-based devices. Steve Jobs' passing will of course always be remembered, as will the visionary himself. I expect the iPhone to take on changes in the coming year, the same with iOS. Apple are one of the biggest for back peddling, and we're seeing this now with the news of a larger iPhone screen.