slysoft-logo.gifAs of January 1st, 2009, SlySoft will change its update policy from free lifetime updates to an annual subscription fee. All license purchases made before January 1st, 2009 will not be affected by this change; as promised, all licenses purchased before 2009 will still be honoured under Slysoft's free lifetime update policy.

SlySoft announces this step in advance in order to provide its customers with the choice between the old and new licensing model. Buyers who act quickly can get an additional discount with the current ongoing special promotion.

Until Wednesday, December 31 2008 Slysoft offers a 20% discount on all software products--except upgrades. If you are entertaining the thought of purchasing one of Slysoft's products, now is the right time to act!

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Addonics Technologies (www.addonics.com) today announced the Addonics NAS (network attached storage) adapter, a low-cost way to add USB storage devices onto a local area network.

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Once on the network, USB storage can be shared by any network user just like any NAS device. In addition, the new solution allows users to custom build their own NAS appliance with unlimited expansion and RAID capability by using Addonics family of drive enclosures, port multipliers and IO converters. When used with Addonics storage towers or racks, users can instantly add to any LAN multi-tera bytes of storage with RAID capabilities.

The NAS adapter supports both SMB (Server Message Block) and the open source Samba network protocols. This allows for cross-platform access of all shared data for most versions of Windows, Mac OS X, and various Linux distributions. The adapter comes with a USB 2.0/1.1 connection and a fast Ethernet 10/100Mbps connection.

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GfK Retail and Technology announced this week that Blu-ray sales have reached record levels in Japan. Their latest sales figures revealed that unit sales of Blu-ray Disc recorders surpassed that of DVD recorders during the first week of November. GfK also reports that Blu-ray Disc recorders are replacing DVD Recorders 1.5 times faster than DVD recorders replaced VHS recorders.

Latest GfK Retail and Technology Japan figures have revealed that in the first week of November 2008, Blu-ray Disc Recorders have surpassed a 50% market share for DVD Recorders in unit terms.

Looking back to October 2007, Blu-ray Disc Recorders accounted for a market share of 10% and have since exhibited rapid growth.

The average sales price has begun to come down in 2008.  In the first week of June 2008, the average sales price of Blu-ray Disc Recorders was between 110,000 – 120,000 JPY. By the third week of October, it dropped to between 100,000 – 110,000 JPY.

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OCZ Technology sent out a press release this morning, announcing its new Vertex Series of Solid State Drives (SSDs). Available in capacities up to 250GB, the Vertex Series features OCZ's newest architecture and controller design complete with 64MB of cache, which allows the drives to reach 200MB/sec read and 160MB/sec write speeds.

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OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and computer components, today unveiled the OCZ Vertex SATA II 2.5” Solid State Drive (SSD) Series, a premium offering for enthusiasts demanding the latest technology in this fast-developing sector of the storage market. The latest high-performance and cost-efficient SSD, OCZ has gained momentum in pioneering flash storage technology while maintaining a price point that is truly within the reach of a wide range of consumers.

“The new Vertex Series of SSD drives are a premium MLC based SSD solution that are designed for consumers that require fast, rugged, and reliable solid state storage,” commented Eugene Chang, Director of Product Management for the OCZ Technology Group. “The Vertex makes use of our newest architecture and controller design complete with 64MB of cache to offer faster transfers and superior overall system response times in a broad range of applications and games.”

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Advanced Media, Inc., manufacturer and marketer of the popular Ridata brand of recordable DVD, flash media, electronic storage products, solar power and digital accessories announces a new 300X speed CF flash Memory card for professional photographers and other critical mobile devices. The Ridata 16GB/300x SLC (Single Level Cell) Supreme CompactFlash card boasts a large capacity (16GB) and one of the fastest transfer rates available.

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"Professional photographers are faced with shooting larger, high resolution - once in a lifetime photos. They cannot risk losing these photos or their clients. We developed the Ridata 300X SLC CF card for these people," remarked Harvey Liu, president of Advanced Media, Inc. "In today's world of sophisticated mobile digital products needing secure SLC data storage and faster read times it just makes sense."

The Ridata 16GB/300X CF card is ideal for users of higher megapixel digital cameras, MP3 players, and PDAs. Its large 16GB capacity allows more storage while virtually eliminating the nagging wait time for data to record. Designed to work with most devices and operating systems, it can withstand extreme operating temperatures, ranging from below freezing to excessive heat.

Its 300x high-speed reading capability equates to approximately 45MB/per sec, while the high-speed writing capability is about 31MB/per second. (Note: Speeds may vary depending on device used.)

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Super Talent sent out a press release today, announcing its new line of UltraDrive solid state drives (SSDs). The MLC-based UltraDrive ME is available in capacities up to 256GB and is capable of 200 MB/sec read and 160 MB/sec write speeds. Designed for enterprise servers and data centers, the SLC-based UltraDrive ME boosts performance even further with 230MB/s read and 170MB/s write speeds.

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Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced a new line of UltraDrive solid state drives (SSDs) that are twice as fast as the world’s speediest SATA hard drives and are offered in capacities up to 256GB.

UltraDrive LE SSDs are designed expressly for enterprise servers and data centers where exceptional performance, reliability and endurance are paramount. The UltraDrive LE supports very high transaction speeds (IOPS), and supports sequential read/write speeds of 230/170 MB per second. While outperforming 10,000 RPM hard drives, the UltraDrive LE uses substantially less power and generates less heat. Based on SLC NAND Flash, the UltraDrive LE is offered in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB capacities.

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OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today introduced the Slate Series ExpressCard™, a storage expansion drive for the latest generation of performance notebooks. The integration of express card storage is ideal for mobile users who want the peace of mind knowing they will always have a backup option and experience the convenience of an internal solution that eliminates peripheral devices.

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The Slate Series ExpressCard is ideal for the on-the-go notebook user that needs a backup storage method but does not want to carry a USB drive or external hard drive. The Slate series is an excellent solution for backing up your music, photos, and documents, and its low power consumption won’t deplete the life of your notebook’s battery when you’re on the go.

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Roxio®, a division of Sonic Solutions® (Nasdaq: SNIC - News), the leader in digital media software, today announced the immediate availability of Roxio Easy VHS to DVD, a combination of software and hardware that enables users to quickly digitize analog recordings stored on VHS tapes. Users simply attach the included hardware to their high-speed USB 2.0 port, then capture from virtually any analog video or audio source. S-Video and composite-video inputs enable full-resolution DVD recording from VCRs, VCR/DVD combo players, and analog camcorders including Hi8 and V8 models. Roxio's latest consumer application, Roxio Easy VHS to DVD, is available direct from Roxio at http://www.roxio.com for $59.99 and will be introduced in retail stores worldwide in January.

"The clock is ticking on massive amounts of irreplaceable analog recordings from aging footage of weddings, baby's first steps, reunions, and other special family moments, to collections of classic TV episodes, movies and concerts," said Vito Salvaggio, vice president of consumer products, Roxio division of Sonic Solutions. "With Easy VHS to DVD, we've made it point-and-click easy for families to preserve, rediscover, revive, and relive this content on PC, DVD, or mobile devices."

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Cables Unlimited Certified Wireless USB Adapter Kit @ Everything USB
Cooler Master ATCS 840 EATX @ Phoronix
Cooler Master HAF 932 Computer Case @ TweakPC
GIGABYTE GM-M8000 GHOST Gaming Mouse @ TweakTown
Icy Dock MB664UEA-1S USB/Firewire HDD Enclosure @ Tweaknews.net
Noctua NH-U12P Heatsink @ OCModShop
Palit Revolution 700 Radeon HD 4870 X2 Video Card @ Benchmark Reviews
Silverstone Noble Breeze NB01B Notebook Cooler @ HardwareLogic

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Broadcom announced today its third generation Blu-ray chipset solution has been chose by Samsung to power its 2009 lineup of Blu-ray Disc players and home theater systems. Along with the BCM7620 optical front-end solution, Samsung plans to use Broadcom's new BCM7601 Blu-ray decoder solution. Building upon Broadcom's proven BCM7440 system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution, the BCM7601 is smaller in size, uses less power and features enhancements such as full HDMI 1.3 support.

Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM - News), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that its third generation Blu-ray chipset solution has been selected by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. to power products in its 2009 lineup of Blu-ray Disc® players and home theater systems. Broadcom's newest chipset solution provides all of the processing functionality to enable playback of the Blu-ray optical disc format, enabling Samsung to introduce next generation Blu-ray Disc players based on this technology as early as the first quarter of 2009.

Announced today is the new Broadcom® BCM7601 Blu-ray decoder solution, which builds upon Broadcom's highly successful and proven BCM7440 system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution that has been widely deployed by Samsung in its 2008 Blu-ray Disc players, and the Broadcom BCM7620 optical front-end solution.

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