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- Network Storage
Western Digital today introduced its My Book Live home network drive, which gives consumers the fastest storage of and access to their content among consumer-grade network drives and provides a seamless set-up for centralizing a home's digital media. The drives present an easy and secure way to consolidate movies, music, and photos in one location while providing convenient access to digital content from multimedia devices in the connected home.
WD has leveraged the latest processor technology to deliver transfer speeds up to 100 MBps, more than triple the speed of traditional USB 2.0 drives and at least double the speeds of other network drives in its class.
My Book Live home network drive's built-in media server makes it a fast, simple solution for users who wish to view videos, music and images on any Mac® or PC connected to the home network and stream digital media to a television set through a DLNA®-certified multimedia device such as WD TV® Live Plus HD media player, Blu-ray Disc™ player, Xbox 360® or PlayStation® 3 game console. Users can also play music and videos stored on their drive in iTunes®, as well as view their digital photos on their iPhone®, iPod touch® and iPad™ with the swipe of a finger through the included WD Photos™ application. Users can also securely access and share all the content and files stored on the My Book Live from any Internet-connected PC or Mac using WD's free remote access service.
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- Software
Western Digital today announced WD Photos™, the newest release of its photo viewer app, which is now optimized for iPad and iPhone 4. Available as a free download from iTunes®, the WD Photos app provides remote access to photos stored on a WD network hard drive including My Book® World Edition™, My Book Live™ and WD ShareSpace™. The images are displayed in native iPad and iPhone resolution, and users can access up to 285,000 of their favorite photos anywhere they can access the Internet by simply copying their pictures into the "Shared Pictures" folder on their WD network hard drive. The WD Photos photo viewer app offers a variety of new features that allow users to stay connected to more of their digital photos, including:
- Pinch and zoom functionality so consumers can digitally zoom in on the displayed photo;
- Horizontal split view for iPad;
- Option to instantly post photos from the WD Photos app to users' Facebook® wall;
- New slideshow transitions including pan and zoom, page curl, and cube;
- Increased 5 GB capacity to support iPad's larger memory and higher resolution;
- iPad full screen support at 1024x768; and,
- iPhone HD/OS 3 & 4 support.
WD Photos photo viewer app, optimized for iPad and other leading Apple® mobile devices, fulfills the growing demand to view, store, and consolidate photos on the go. With over 2 million iPads sold as of May 31, 2010 (Apple), the iPad has been embraced enthusiastically by consumers to access and share their digital content.
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- Flash Memory
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced today that it is mass producing 100 and 200 gigabyte (GB) solid state drives (SSDs) for use as the primary storage in enterprise storage systems.
“By being able to fully meet the rising demand for high-performance and eco-friendly server and storage platforms, SSDs will be able to penetrate the enterprise application market even more rapidly,” said Dong-Soo Jun, executive vice president, memory marketing, Samsung Electronics. “We will continue to deliver SSD solutions with outstanding performance and low power consumption to provide optimal value for data centers and other enterprise storage environments.”
The first recipient of the drive will be EMC. "EMC collaborated with Samsung to qualify Samsung's new enterprise-class SSDs for EMC's market-leading midrange storage portfolio," said Joel Schwartz, Sr. Vice President, Common Storage Platform Operations at EMC.
Samsung started producing its 3.5 inch 100 and 200GB SSDs last month. Adopting SSDs as a main storage media in storage systems will minimize power consumption as well as enhance overall system performance, leading to a lowering of the total cost of ownership over time.
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- Flash Memory
SandForce today announced the availability of the SF-2000 Family of SSD Processors optimized for SSDs deployed in mission-critical Enterprise and Industrial computing applications. These chips feature a 6 Gigabit-per-second SATA host interface, industry applauded DuraClass Technology, an unprecedented 60,000 sustained random read/write IOPS (Input-output Operations Per Second) and sustained sequential read/write performance of 500 Megabytes per second. In addition to state-of-the-art performance, reliability, security, and Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS) connectivity enhancements, the SF-2000 family supports single-level, multi-level, and enterprise multi-level cell (SLC, MLC, & eMLC) NAND Flash families from all major suppliers with its high-speed ONFi2 and Toggle Flash interface.
"The market for SSDs is poised to experience rapid growth over the next few years,” said Jeff Janukowicz, research manager for Solid State Drives at IDC. “Solutions, such as the SandForce SF-2000 Family of SSD Processors, that enable increased performance and higher reliability in a flexible design will enable SSD vendors to meet the demands of this fast paced market."
The SF-2000 SSD Processor Family addresses the needs of Enterprise and Industrial storage markets with configurations and firmware optimized for each segment. These devices preserve the advantageous SandForce ”DRAM-less” architecture (no DRAM components required) which is optimal for dense and custom tiny form factor native SATA SSDs, in addition to SAS- and PCI Express-based SSDs when integrated with industry-leading RAID and Host-Bus Adapter chips on one card.
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- Home Entertainment
Consumers today have access to an enormous amount of content, delivered by a range of sources and increasingly complex devices. To bring this content together through a single interface on the best screen in the house – the TV screen – Logitech has worked with Google on a line of products designed to create the best Google TV experience for the millions of U.S. households with an HDMI-ready TV. Google TV brings traditional TV programming together with the entire Internet, with the ability to search across them both.
Logitech today unveiled Logitech Revue™ with Google TV™, a compact, plug-and-play companion box with its Logitech® Keyboard Controller, which together provide seamless control over the Google TV experience and home-entertainment devices. The company’s portfolio of products for Google TV also includes the Logitech® TV Cam and Vid™ HD service for HD video calling from the comfort of one’s sofa. In addition, Logitech is offering the Logitech® Mini Controller for Logitech Revue as well as other applications designed for the Google TV platform.
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- Flash Memory
Kingston Digital, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it will ship its first 32GB microSDHC Class 4 card on Monday, October 11. The ultra-large 32GB microSDHC card is the perfect mobile storage solution for entertainment and business applications as smartphone use integrates into everyday life.
"The need for additional portable storage has grown as the mobile phone has transitioned from a simple voice device to a powerful multifunctional tool which is used to email, listen to music, take photos and watch movies," said Mike Kuppinger, Flash card product manager, Kingston®. "Mobile phones are about more than just staying in touch as we also use them to take pictures at our kids' sporting events, shoot videos on vacation and post to social media sites. An extra 32GB of expandable memory takes these capabilities even further."
Kingston's 32GB microSDHC card is capable of storing nearly 29,000 photos, over 6,000 songs and more than 2,000 minutes of video. The card has worked flawlessly when tested on the latest crop of smartphones including the HTC Evo™ 4G and Shadow™; Motorola Droid™ X; RIM (BlackBerry®) Bold™ 9000; and, Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant™.
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- Network Storage
Synology today launched the new USB Station 2, an affordable and easy to use NAS server, featuring plug-and-play file sharing, multimedia content streaming, download without a PC, and low power consumption of only 4W in operation, making it prefect for home to small office networks running multiplatform.
“USB Station 2 is the most affordable Synology’s NAS server ever. Almost everyone can afford it and experience the rich features of file sharing and multimedia enjoyment delivered by its legendary Synology DiskStation Manager 3.0 (DSM 3.0) operating system,” said Chad Cheng, product manager of Synology Inc.
By simply plugging in any USB storage devices, USB Station 2 is ready to share files and multimedia content among Windows®, Mac, and Linux, vastly increasing users’ work efficiency, yet decreasing IT administration cost. Synology’s groundbreaking File Browser feature delivers effortless and intuitive file sharing with the ease of file navigation in a web browser. The USB printer sharing capability further minimizes users’ expenses by sharing printing resources throughout the working environment.
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- Duplicators
Aleratec Inc. announced today the launch of its new 1:3 DVD/CD LightScribe Duplicator SA, a publishing system that burns or LightScribe labels up to 3 DVDs or CDs simultaneously and features high-performance 24X DVD/CD writer drives.
This new duplicator system features a simple, intuitive interface that includes 4 instant-access "Fast Keys" for common functions including PC-Connect and Source Selection. In PC-Connect mode, the unit can be connected to a PC via USB 2.0 cable for access to the duplicator’s internal hard drive. Users can simply drag and drop disc image and label files directly into the duplicator and be running duplication jobs in no time. The device also has a dedicated Source drive, allowing the device to make disc-to-disc copies without sacrificing any write capacity. You can burn the same number of discs whether burning from the hard drive or from another source disc.
In addition to making perfect copies, LightScribe technology allows this new tower duplicator to laser-etch high quality images and labels onto LightScribe-compatible discs without the hassle of costly inks or ribbons. This technology allows users to burn and label their discs with a single device.
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CyberLink Corp. is pleased to announce the release of the world’s first stereoscopic 3D photo slideshow creator – Media3D. Media3D lets users create 3D photo slideshow with their existing photos instantly. With support for a wide variety of 3D hardware, users can view their 3D photo slideshows on the PC’s 3D monitor or 3D-ready HDTV.
“Media3D is an exciting product as it lets users enjoy photo slideshows in a 3D environment that were never experienced before,” said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink. “Being the world’s first stereoscopic 3D photo slideshow generator, Media3D allows users to create 3D photo slideshows from the abundant photos stored in their computers. We have combined user’s love for photography with the advancement of 3D technology.”
Through 3D technology, Media3D brings the photo viewing experience to the next level as users can now view, with stunning realism, their own photos leaping out of the screen. With a variety of 3D slideshow templates, users can instantly transform their vacation photos into a 3D photo slideshow that will amazes friends and relatives.
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- Network Storage
Data Robotics, the company that is changing the way the world stores and protects digital content, today introduced DroboPro FS, the newest member of the Drobo family of automated storage products. Building on the success of the award-winning Drobo FS (introduced in April, 2010), the DroboPro FS with the newly integrated Drobo Sync application is tailored to enable small businesses to deploy network storage and offsite backup without complexity. DroboPro FS is ideal for any small office environment that requires a simple, safe, and affordable device for sharing and backing up files over the network.
"There is a significant need for simple, expandable storage solutions that address the relentless data growth happening within personal and small to medium business markets," said Liz Conner, Senior Research Analyst, Storage Systems and Personal Storage, IDC. "Data Robotics has had success in addressing the personal and SOHO storage market with its Drobo FS. The company is aiming to meet the increasingly rigid requirements for data availability with its DroboPro FS by enabling off-site backups while preserving its simple-to-use nature that can scale with the capacity needs of its users."
