In my opinion, flash memory (or SSD, solid-state drive) is the future of portable computing. Most hard-drives today use a platter based system that requires rotation of the hard drive (if you've ever seen an extracted hard drive, it looks almost like a small record player). Flash memory has a myriad of advantages, including that it tends to be faster and more durable than these platter systems. On the other hand, platter systems have several disadvantages, in part because moving parts reduce reliability and increase the chances of damage when a computer is dropped or strikes something. The current major barrier to wider flash memory usage in computers is simply cost.
But I want to share with you why I love flash memory. Several years ago, when I started running at night in the winter with my iPod, I noticed that my iPod would often stop functioning after about 10 minutes and would signal to me that the battery was dead, even if I had just charged the iPod. Later in the evening, after I was home and warm, I would discover that my iPod was working and was showing a full charge. At first, I thought the jostling of running was possibly screwing up the iPod (traditional iPods have a spinning hard drive, after all). However, after some research, I learned that spinning hard drives can are susceptible to cold. I'm not completely sure why, but essentially temperatures below freezing can cause the drive to stop functioning properly. If you don't believe me, go here and search "advantages".
But iPhones (and several iPod models, such as nano's) use flash memory. Tonight during my run, it occurred to me that I haven't had any problems running in the cold with my 6-month old iPhone, and I realized it's because it has a SSD! No more quiet Winter runs, unless I choose silence.
You have now learned something incredibly random that only a small group of crazy people know. After all, how many people run with their iPod in sub-freezing temperatures (at night)?
Happy running!
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