Hitachi Gets Perpendicular

Remember the "I'm Just a Bill" cartoons? (Do they still play those anymore?) Now Hitachi has come up with a Flash animation called "Get Perpendicular" complete with a dancing bit--that looks a lot like Mr. Bill--and a talking iPod. In the video, the talking iPod teaches the bit about the superparamagnetic effect and how more bits can fit on a hard drive by making them "get perpendicular." Hitachi released the cartoon with the announcement in March that Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has achieved the highest areal density to date (230 Gb per square inch) using perpendicular recording technology. The cartoon explains how this is done, in a super-entertaining way that even a 5 year-old can understand. What does this mean for the iPod? In the next 5-7 years, according to the Hitachi website, a 60 Gb one-inch microdrive could be available for portable media devices, allowing you to store even more songs, or eventually movies, on your iPod. What do you think that little photo feature on the iPod is for, anyway? It ain't just for baby pictures....