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Along with all the talk about a possible new iPad and  Apple TV, the rumor mill has turned to acquisition talk – specifically Israeli fabless memory firm Anobit. Info:

Anobit provides flash storage solutions for the Enterprise and Mobile markets. It’s MSP™ (Memory Signal Processing) technology significantly improves the endurance, performance and cost of flash storage products and systems. Anobit’s products are used by world leading flash manufacturers, consumer electronics vendors and storage system providers.

If the rumors are true and the acquisition goes through, it would be another step into Apple philosophy of a closed ecosystem – vertical business structure in which Apple controls all aspects of their product lines. Finally, the price tag that has been rumored is in the $400-500 million range, making it the most expensive Apple acquisition to date (NeXT cost Apple $404million).

UPDATE:

Source: AppleInsider

HD video has a new enemy – the Lexar SDXC 128 GB memory card! Lexar’s new family member is a massive SDXC card that also packs high-speed performance, with a minimum guaranteed speed of 133x (20MB/s) – perfect for the photographer that like to pop off rapid fire shots. As if that wasn’t enough, this class 10 monster also comes with bundled back up software (you’ll never use it), limited lifetime warranty and a mind boggling $330 price tag! Still want one, Lexar is taking pre-orders: Click here

Source: Engadget

The Korean Economic Daily is reporting that Apple is in closing talks with Samsung on a partnership worth $7.8 Billion in hardware. If this goes through, Apple would become Samsung’s top partner and top rival – weird. The deal possibly involves hardware such as displays, chip manufacturing and NAND flash memory.

Most blogs have covered this story in terms of possible hardware Apple will release this year and the sheer number of devices that could come from such an investments but I have another idea. Not doubt, Apple will build tons of devices for 2011 and part of their problem in 2010 was component shortages but remember what Apple did between 2005-2009 for NAND memory? Essentially, Apple bought the world’s supply of NAND memory, which limited it’s competitor’s reach – could they be doing the same thing again for displays and memory? I think so. NEXT!!

Source: MacRumors.com

Found some RAM lying around the house today and was in an “Upgrade” mood. Glanced over at my Mac Mini and decided that it might need some extra juice – which never hurts. In classic Apple fashion, upgrading any piece of hardware is ridiculously tough but with the help of our friends over at ifixit.com – nothing is impossible! Overall, the RAM upgrade took about 20 minutes, with the hardest part being the removal of the exterior aluminum casing. One note, when removing the motherboard, be sure to take care of any wires attached with electrical tape to the housing. System Profiler has just told me that I’m working with 4 gigs now – Yea!! NEXT!!

Source: ifixit.com