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Patriot Memory, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash and computer technology, as a part of their year long 25 year anniversary celebration, today announced an exclusive software licensing and bundling agreement with Futuremark®, granting rights to manufacture and market products bundled with the multiplayer first-person shooter, Shattered Horizon™.
Patriot is now offering select capacities of the popular Xporter USB Flash Drive products bundled with the zero gravity first-person shooter, Shattered Horizon. The Shattered Horizon bundle will include a Steam download code enabling users to easily download and install the game and then jump into the action. The first Shattered Horizon bundles will be 8GB and 16GB USB Flash Drives easily recognized by their unique packaging featuring design elements from the Shattered Horizon game. Additional Patriot products will be bundled with Shattered Horizon and introduced at a later time.
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Sonic Solutions, today announced a broad program to support the "next big thing" in home video — the arrival of 3D in the home — with new professional and consumer solutions for the creation, publishing, and playback of 3D digital video content. Sonic is unique in its focus on "Hollywood-to-Home" solutions that enable the growth of new video formats, and Sonic's new 3D offerings will help to fuel the availability and consumer adoption of 3D video.
"With Stereo-3D hits blowing the doors off the box office, it's clear that this new format has strong consumer appeal," said Dr. Jon Peddie, President, Jon Peddie Research. "Now that Stereo-3D displays can be delivered to the family room, the industry needs a technology supplier who can handle the content chain from authoring to delivery and playback – and that's far from a trivial task. With a strong track record in helping to establish new formats, Sonic is ideally positioned to deliver on this challenge."
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Lexar Media, a leading global provider of memory products for digital media, today announced the availability of the award-winning Lexar Professional ExpressCard CompactFlash (CF) Reader and the Lexar Professional 600x and 300x 32GB CF cards in traditional and online retail channels.
"High-end amateur and professional photographers are consistently capturing larger file sizes, either in the form of RAW digital images or high-definition videos, and retailers are now providing solutions to store and manage that content," said Manisha Sharma, director of worldwide memory card product marketing, Lexar Media. "The Lexar Professional 600x and 300x 32GB cards store more of the images and memories that matter, and provide enhanced file transfer speeds when paired with the Professional ExpressCard CF Reader. We're pleased to be offering these workflow-improving solutions to our extensive network of photo resellers."
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Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology solutions, today announced the industry’s first multi-chip package (MCP) with PRAM – for use in mobile handsets beginning later this quarter.
The 512 megabit Samsung PRAM in the MCP is backward compatible with 40 nanometer-class NOR flash memory in both its hardware and software functionality, allowing mobile handset designers the convenience of having multi-chip packaging fully compatible with past stand-alone PRAM chip technology. PRAM is expected to be widely embraced by next year as the successor to NOR flash in consumer electronics designs, to become a major memory technology.
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DivX, Inc., a leading digital media company, and Panasonic today announced that Panasonic will introduce DivX Plus™ HD playback technology in its next generation of 3D Blu-ray products. Panasonic's new line of Blu-ray players will enable the playback of DivX Plus HD video using the MKV container, providing consumers with a true cinematic video experience at HD resolutions up to 1080p.
Available to consumers first in Europe late April 2010 and soon after in Russia and Oceania, the DMP-BDT300 is Panasonic's first full HD 3D Blu-ray Disc player and the first to receive DivX Plus HD Certification. With the introduction of 3D products for the home, Panasonic customers will receive an unparalleled 3D experience with realistic and immersive sensation.
DivX Plus HD Certification is the premium level of certification available from DivX, optimized for consumer electronics products and supports the playback of all content created with DivX software. Available on www.divx.com, the newly released DivX Plus Software allows users to create and playback H.264 video in an .mkv file container. DivX Plus HD Certified devices will playback all previous versions of DivX video, premium Hollywood content in the DivX format, and DivX Plus HD video files with the .mkv file extension and AAC audio created with third-party tools.
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Denon Electronics, a premier manufacturer of high-quality home entertainment components celebrating 100 years of innovation and technology leadership in 2010, is providing discriminating consumers the opportunity to enjoy an enriched Blu-ray experience with the addition of two new 3D-Ready Universal Blu-ray players to its lineup. The new models, with expected SRP and availability in parenthesis, include the DBP-2011UDCI (SRP: $799, Aug.) and the DBP-1611UD (SRP: $399, June) that will join Denon’s DBP-4010UDCI (SRP: $1,999) and critically acclaimed DVD-A1UDCI (SRP: $4,499) Universal Blu-ray Disc Players in the company’s line of Blu-ray components, which also includes the S-5BD BD/Receiver (SRP: $1,799), a single-component that combines a 5.1-channel surround sound receiver with an advanced Profile 2.0 Blu-ray player.
Denon’s Blu-ray players represent the leading edge in performance and features for the fast-growing high-definition format. The “universal” Blu-ray models provide superior playback of virtually all 5-inch silver discs. To ensure total future-readiness, an upcoming firmware update is scheduled to be available in the fall for 3D capability in the new Blu-ray players. In addition to their ultimate-quality video reproduction, all Denon players reflect the company’s longstanding heritage as an audio leader, offering impeccable high-resolution sonic playback, including DVD-Audio and SACD.
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Today LaCie announced the latest addition to its Rugged family of mobile hard drives – the LaCie Rugged USB 3.0, combining the super speeds of USB 3.0 and LaCie's award-winning Rugged design. The LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 is one the most power-efficient and fast-performing mobile hard drives offered by LaCie.
The LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 provides speeds up to 110 MB/s – three times the speed of USB 2.0. The speed enhancement allows you to transfer one HD movie in less than 3 minutes (versus more than 8 minutes in USB 2.0). It offers improved power efficiency, so you only need one cable to be assured optimal performance.
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Renesas Electronics Corporation, a leading provider of semiconductor solutions, today announced the company's first blue-violet semiconductor laser diode with a wavelength of 405 nm and a new structure incorporating an optical waveguide into the semiconductor device, which enables high power output and excellent suitability for mass production.
The new blue-violet semiconductor laser diode, part number NV4A61MF, is ideal for Blu-ray disc recording and playback, and features a new inner-stripe structure in which the optical waveguide that substantially influences the quality of the laser diode is incorporated into the semiconductor. In this new structure, the optical waveguide is fabricated on a gallium nitride (GaN) substrate with approximately ten times improved accuracy and 20 percent increased heat dissipation compared to the conventional devices, in which the optical waveguide is formed on the surface of the laser chip. With this innovative structure, the new device provides the following features. (1) It offers high optical power output of 350 milliwatts (mW) suitable for 8x Blu-ray disc recording even at temperatures of up to 85°C; (2) The current and optical output characteristics provide excellent linearity from the low-output range through the high-temperature, high-output range. (3) It reduces laser noise (output fluctuation) that occurs during playback to less than one third of the company's existing devices, realizing 5 decibel per hertz (dB/Hz) improvement.
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Samsung Electronics today announced the fastest external hard drive yet in its STORY™ Station product portfolio – the Samsung STORY™ Station 3.0 with the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface. The top-of-line 3.5-inch external hard drive now offers 10 times faster speed compared to the previous USB 2.0 interface, making it the ideal storage solution for saving and retrieving crucial data in the blink of an eye.
“The Samsung STORY™ Station 3.0 has been built for advanced users who demand fast transfer speed and data security without sacrificing design,” said H.S. Lee, vice president, storage marketing, Samsung Electronics. “The STORY Station creates a seamless user experience that allows users to move large chunks of high-quality multimedia content with minimal wait time.”
The SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface offers a maximum transfer rate of 5 gigabits per second (Gbps) compared to 480 megabits per second (Mbps) in USB 2.0. Users can now transfer 4 MB of music (equivalent of a 3-minute song) or image files (6megapixel camera in hi-resolution photos) in approximately 0.02 seconds and an HD movie in 2.3 minutes. The new interface is backward-compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1 interfaces.
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Sonic Solutions, today introduced RoxioNow™, a broad technology platform designed to simplify media access. RoxioNow allows PC makers, consumer electronics companies, and retailers to participate in the "over-the-top" video market and provides consumers a convenient way to access new Hollywood content, as well as their existing libraries of entertainment and personal media.
The RoxioNow platform involves Sonic's complete range of Hollywood to Home™ products for creating, distributing, and enjoying digital content. This includes Sonic's professional Scenarist® authoring workstations used in the production of Hollywood titles, its digital supply chain and cloud-based storage technologies for digital movie delivery and its successful consumer software products and services for on-device content access, management and enjoyment.
"For all of the conveniences and capabilities technology has afforded consumers, it has yet to address a very basic need – easy access to our media when and where we want," said Dave Habiger, President and CEO, Sonic Solutions. "With a 20-year history of developing digital media tools for professionals and consumers, and long-standing ties to PC vendors and CE manufacturers, Sonic is uniquely positioned to create the content delivery network required to fulfill this need. Whether it's a Hollywood blockbuster or a home movie, our goal with RoxioNow is to provide consumers with persistent access to their favorite content from virtually anywhere."
