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- Home Entertainment
Due in part to a 25 percent reduction in box-office revenue of the home entertainment new release slate for the first quarter of 2011, U.S. home entertainment spending in the period was down 9.8 percent.
Sell-through was down 18 percent for the quarter, as anticipated, since there were four tentpoles accounting for $1 billion of box office released on Blu-ray and DVD in first quarter 2010 but no such equivalent for first quarter 2011. Further, the Easter holiday, a considerable home entertainment buying season, was not part of first quarter this year, accounting for some of the period’s decline. However, the second quarter is off to a strong start, with sell-through up 20 percent in the first few weeks alone.
The industry has proven resilient, with modest gains posted in a number of key areas. According to The NPD Group’s recent “Entertainment Trends in America” report, while digital home video options are gaining in popularity, more than three quarters of U.S. consumers continue to view movies on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
In Blu-ray Disc software sales, consumer spending was up nearly 10 percent over the same period 2010. Blu-ray 3D software is also beginning to show signs of material growth, with anticipated retail sales of more than $100 million for the year.
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- Optical Storage
CyberLink Corp., innovative solutions provider for the connected digital lifestyle, today announced joining Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung and Sony, in establishing One-Blue, LLC, an independent licensing company that will administer a one-stop shop product license for patents essential to Blu-ray Disc™ products. One-Blue is designed to provide an important licensing service to the entire industry while at the same time stimulating the growth and adoption of Blu-ray Disc™ products. Under the one-stop shop product license, potential licensees no longer need to handle issues with respective patent owners individually.
“We are excited and honored to be among the elite companies who had dedicated to Blu-ray discs innovations,” said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink. “And it marks a milestone of our mission to become the leading company in terms of innovative ingenuity.”
CyberLink has been dedicated in developing Blu-ray disc software solutions and patented technologies, offering a complete range of software to play movie titles; capture, and edit videos; author photo and video discs and burn all types of media to Blu-ray Discs and DVDs. The investment in One-Blue not only demonstrates CyberLink’s strengths pioneering in Blu-ray technologies, but also marks an important advancement to its vision of Blu-ray format universalization in the near future.
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SSD Caching has become the “Hot” Storage topic of the PC industry. In the near future, motherboards based on the Intel SandyBridge (Z68) will bring SSD Caching to the desktop PC. SSD Caching boots system performance by using high-speed solid state disks to offset slower, but high-capacity hard disk drives. Once limited to enterprise server applications, SSD Caching is now within the reach of PC users. The mainstream consumer market has embraced SSD’s sub $100 models are now commonplace; ideal for caching applications.
Recently, HighPoint Technologies has launched a pair of 6Gb/s PCI-Express 2.0 HBA’s that deliver SSD Caching solutions to any PCI-Express Platform, sharing the high-performance benefits of this technology with PC users worldwide. HighPoint SSD Caching HBA’s combine any SSD and HDD of any capacity into a single storage drive. SSD Caching Drives can be used to boot the system, host applications or simply serve as libraries for file storage and Home Media Networks. HighPoint SSD Caching HBA’s provide two distinct modes of operation: Safe-Mode stores all permanent data safely on the HDD for security, while Capacity Mode uses the space provided by each device to optimize storage and performance.
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- Flash Memory
OCZ Technology Group, Inc, a leading designer, manufacturer and distributor of high-performance solid state drives (SSDs), today unveiled the VeloDrive PCI-Express SSD. Designed to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), enterprise clients and system integrators, the VeloDrive optimizes high-performance computing and storage applications, providing unparalleled versatility and simplified integration.
“The VeloDrive is the latest addition to our comprehensive lineup of PCIe SSDs. A truly configurable solution, it helps a range of customers accelerate their application performance,” said Daryl Lang, VP of Product Management, OCZ Technology Group. “The ability to run the VeloDrive in multiple modes provides clients with the freedom to use the raid stack of their choice. This maximizes performance and creates faster, more seamless deployments with RAID stacks that may already have been qualified for their unique usage model.”
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- Optical Storage
Buffalo Technology, a global leader in the design, development, and manufacturing of storage and wireless networking solutions, is today announcing a stylish and convenient design for its optical storage range.
The compact and sleek portable DVD device will allow users to watch DVDs and burn data to CDs/DVDs at their convenience, anytime anywhere. The drive is powered by integrated USB cables which snap to the chassis for easy mobility, contributing to the compact design. The lightweight and slim drive fits comfortably into any travel bag, making it an ideal product for laptop and netbook users on-the-go.
The portable DVD is effortless to set-up and comes complete with CyberLink Media Suite pre-loaded. Users are notified of the drives current status by LED lights, blue indicating that DVD drive is ready and red showing that the DVD power supply is low.
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- Flash Memory
Patriot Memory, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash, storage and enthusiast computer products, today announces the new high-performance Torqx 2 – a new SSD that delivers the perfect balance of price and performance. The Patriot Torqx 2 series enables users to boost performance of existing desktops and notebooks to achieve maximum performance with SATA II 3.0 Gb/s interfaces.
By combining a cutting-edge new SSD controller with high-performance 3x-nm NAND flash memory, the Patriot Torqx 2 SSDs achieve up to read speeds up to 270MB/s for a noticeable performance boost with daily computing tasks. Write speeds up to 230MB/s ensure the Patriot Torqx 2 series can write virtually as fast as it reads for lightning-fast software installations and large-file creation.
“We recognize there are a lot of users with desktops and notebooks that want the SSD performance experience but lack SATA III 6.0 Gb/s compatibility to fully take advantage of our higher-end drives,” says Meng Jay Choo, Patriot Memory’s Flash Memory Product Manager. “With the new Patriot Torqx 2 series, we are able to deliver a significant performance boost at attractive prices.”
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- Flash Memory
Dane-Elec, a global leader in consumer electronics, announced that its new line of USB drives based on characters from the popular Disney Club Penguin online site are arriving at retailer this month. These colorful and playful 4 GB USB drives come in three popular characters: Gary the Gadget Guy, Captain Rockhopper, and Cadence. The new Dane-Elec USB drives are available now, just in time for spring.
“We are proud to be associated with one of the most popular and safest online sites designed specifically for young children and tweens,” commented Sherry Chapman, Director of Marketing for Dane-Elec. “These imaginative new USB drives will enhance their enjoyment of the Club Penguin world. Plus, they will be excited to take their school work on one of these fun drives from their home to school computers.”
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- Optical Storage
Plextor, a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media equipment, announces the newest addition to its Blu-ray lineup with the new PX-LB950UE external 12X Blu-ray Writer – the fastest Blu-ray writer available in the market today. This drive features the latest superspeed USB 3.0 and eSATA connections, providing bandwidth for high data transfer rate.
Supplied with advanced Blu-ray and DVD playback software and recording applications, the PX-LB950UE offers a full Blu-ray HD experience. The drive is designed to provide smooth and quiet HD Blu-ray movie playback with excellent sound reproduction and a crystal clear picture quality. This drive also supports 3D playback and is able to convert 2D contents to simulate 3D effects.
“We are excited to offer a transportable all-in-one blu-ray device to consumers,” said Christine Hsing, Marketing Manager at Plextor. “The PX-LB950UE lets you connect to any computer with USB or eSATA connection making access to Blu-ray technology a breeze.”
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- Flash Memory
OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today unveiled a new addition to the highly-awarded Vertex 3 SATA III Series. The Vertex 3 Max IOPS edition drives extend the company’s industry-leading Vertex 3 SSD product line to support users that require greater transactional throughput.
“Following the successful launch of our Vertex 3 SATA III 6Gbps solid state drives we are pleased to introduce the new Max IOPS edition,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group. “Vertex 3 Max IOPS drives increase random write performance, and are the ideal storage solution for applications that require high aggregate workloads and increased IO throughput.”
The Vertex 3 Max IOPS edition combines the cutting-edge SandForce® SF-2200 SSD processor with premium NAND flash components to deliver exceptional 4KB random write performance with up to 75,000 IOPS. Furthermore, these drives can significantly improve multimedia entertainment and management, and the overall computing experience compared to both traditional mechanical hard drives and competing SSDs.
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- Flash Memory
Lexar Media, a leading global provider of memory products for digital media, today announced the immediate availability of Crucial m4 solid-state drives in capacities ranging from 64GB to 512GB. Designed for both business customers and general consumers, the Crucial m4 SSD product line incorporates Micron's industry-leading 25-nanometer (nm) NAND flash technology in a 2.5" form factor. Like its Crucial RealSSD C300 predecessor, the Crucial m4 also supports the SATA 6Gb/s interface, opening up the data path between the host processor and the SSD, and resulting in improved overall system responsiveness, including faster boot times and application loads.
The new Crucial m4 SSD reaches read speeds of up to 415 MB/second, a 17 percent increase over its predecessor. Likewise, write speeds on the new 512GB capacity have demonstrated increases up to 260MB/s, a 20 percent boost over the fastest C300 driv1. Ideal for client computing, Crucial m4 SSD products provide benefits for notebooks, desktops, workstations, and industrial applications, including low power consumption, lightweight construction, and resistance to shock and vibration.
