After more than three years, the patent lawsuit between Ricoh and Quanta has finally reached a verdict. According to DigiTimes, a US Court in Wisconsin has ordered Quanta to pay Ricoh $14.5 million for infringing on their patents.

A US Court in Wisconsin on November 20 made a judgment that Quanta Storage, the largest Taiwan-based ODM/OEM maker of slim-type optical disc drives, should pay US$14.5 million to compensate Japan-based Ricoh for infringement of the latter's patents, according to a Quanta Storage filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange on November 23.

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lexar gaming sdhc 8gb.jpgLexar Media, a leading global provider of memory products for digital media, today announced the expansion of its line of gaming solutions with the Lexar® Gaming Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) and Gaming Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC™) memory cards. Designed to take the gaming experience to the next level, the cards enable users to reliably save and store gaming data and multimedia content on popular gaming consoles. With the introduction of the new Gaming memory cards, Lexar is expanding its leadership in high-performance digital media gaming solutions to improve the overall video game experience for the growing number of consumers playing and competing on popular gaming consoles.

Available in 4GB and 8GB capacities, the Lexar Gaming M2 and Lexar Gaming SDHC memory cards give gamers the ability to store critical gaming data and information, such as cheat codes, checkpoints, custom settings, high scores, bonus materials, and player profiles. The new Gaming memory cards also enable gamers to store and manage games and downloaded multimedia content.

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Imation Corp. today announced availability of its next-generation Solid State Drive (SSD) Upgrade Kit, simplifying migration from a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) to SSD in just three easy steps for the road warrior, laptop aficionado or home user wanting to get the most out of their systems. Unlike other SSDs on the market, only Imation’s SSD Upgrade Kit provides a specially designed case that enables users to repurpose an existing drive and turn it into an external USB drive for additional storage, further leveraging their hardware investment. Designed based on its award-winning predecessor, Imation’s 2.5” M-Class SSD Upgrade Kit includes an all-in-one solution that offers a performance-enhancing solid state drive replacement for a traditional spinning hard disk drive.

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Imation’s M-Class SSDs use sophisticated error detection and correction techniques. Unlike other SSDs that typically use up to 10 bits of Error Correction Code (ECC) in 512 user bytes for the detection and correction of corrupted data, Imation includes a 20 percent boost in its M-Class SSD and uses 48 bits in 2k user bytes to guarantee extreme data reliability, while still showing increases in application speed and boot times – something the user experiences every day. Boost in sequential read and write performance is to 230MB/second and 170MB/second, respectively.

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Iomega, an EMC company and a global leader in data protection, and Sonic Solutions®  today announced a relationship that will allow consumers to buy or rent premium entertainment to watch on their televisions without leaving the comfort of their livingroom.

Just in time for the holidays, upcoming U.S. models in Iomega's award-winning ScreenPlay(TM) HD Media Player line will incorporate the Roxio CinemaNow(TM) entertainment platform, giving consumers instant access to buy or rent movies and other premium content via the Internet to watch on standard and high definition televisions.

"Iomega's award-winning ScreenPlay products make it easy for consumers to access video, photos, and music on home networks and enjoy that content on the television in the livingroom," said Jonathan Huberman, president of Iomega and the Consumer and Small Business Products Division of EMC. "With Roxio CinemaNow, consumers will be able to access premium content directly from Iomega's ScreenPlay HD Media devices. Now U.S. consumers can rent or buy movies over the Internet without needing their computer or ever leaving the livingroom. We are pleased to partner with Sonic Solutions to add this functionality to our industry leading ScreenPlay line up and further differentiate our products from others in the marketplace."

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Imation Corp. today announced U.S. availability of its much-anticipated Pro WX Wireless USB hard drive. Built on Imation’s award-winning platform of external hard drive products, the Imation Pro WX drive is the world’s first Wireless USB external hard drive. Offering the convenience of fast data transfer rates, speed and capacity required in today’s graphics and data intensive environments, the Imation Pro WX hard drive provides 1.5TB of storage capacity for digitally driven users who crave the freedom of the wireless workspace.

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Imation’s Pro WX Wireless USB hard drive provides a unique combination of speed, capacity and security in a convenient 3.5-inch form factor. With a fast Wireless USB data transfer rate of up to 15MBs/second, the product can back up a typical CD in under 50 seconds, and store up to 300,000 photos or 750 hours of video. Inherent in its Wireless USB technology, Pro WX wireless hard drive offers an innovative one-to-one connection that limits the possibility of signal interception and securely backs up data whenever it is in range up to 30 feet, similar to a direct attached storage device.

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Lite-On, a global leader of optical storage solutions, announces the eHAU424 external 24X DVD/CD writer. Incorporating a USB 2.0 connection, the eHAU424 allows for greater flexibility when using the drive across different computer systems.

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Along with Lite-On’s internal 24X DVD writers, the eHAU424 offers the fastest DVD recording available. The eHAU424 also features both LightScribe and SmartErase ­technologies designed for true power users who are concerned with more than just writing speeds. 

“PLDS is excited to bring the extremely fast 24X writing speeds to an external unit,” said Christine Hsing, Marketing Manager at PLDS. “With features like LightScribe and SmartErase included, the drive is both high-quality and convenient to meet any user’s needs.”

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Patriot Memory, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash and computer technology, today announced the release of their new PS-100 Series SSDs.

The PS-100 is the latest in Patriot's "cache" based SSD drives and has been targeted for cost-conscious consumers pursuing performance and reliability without having to empty their bank account. The 2.5" SSD makes use of a 64MB cache, power consumption of 5.3W when operating, and .5W when in standby mode; an option that is sure to attract notebook and laptop users alike. The PS-100 boosts sequential read speeds of up to 210MB/s, with sequential write speeds up to 150MB/s, another feature that will be attractive to end users. The low power consumption of the PS-100 drives extends battery life on notebooks and netbooks while the performance reduces system boot times and application load times improving overall system responsiveness.

"Our PS-100 is a great option for consumers that want all the reliability and performance of an SSD, but are looking for aggressive pricing," say Eric Ackerson, Patriot's Director of Marketing. "We are excited about getting this product into the market just in time for the holiday season, and with capacities from 32GB to 256GB, the PS-100 family brings improved system performance and longevity with a broad range of capacities and price points."

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At this year’s MEDICA, the world’s largest medical trade show that is being held in Düsseldorf, Germany (November 18 – 21), visitors to the Panasonic booth can have a closer look at the Advanced Disc for Archive. This new type of optical disc with a cassette-type shell case is an ideal solution for archiving data of pictures in the medical field.

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The volume of archive data in the medical field has been drastically increasing due to the introduction of advanced modalities that generate higher definition or larger numbers of scanned pictures. In order to meet the requirements to archive these amounts of data securely, Panasonic has developed “Advanced Disc for Archive” (ADA). The storage medium is based on Panasonic’s advanced Blu-ray Disc technology and is thus an ideal successor for DVD-RAM with cartridge, which has been highly successful in the medical field.

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Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the release of the DataTraveler® Locker+ USB Flash drive. The DataTraveler Locker+ allows companies of any size to secure mobile data with the ease and confidence of knowing that their data is encrypted and safe. The DataTraveler Locker+ also comes at a lower cost in times of shrinking IT budgets, making it ideal for budget-conscious companies.

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"Kingston created this drive to address the rise in data loss and theft which has been a growing problem with expensive consequences. This device gives companies a solution that is not only affordable but provides peace of mind in securing mobile data," said Mark Akoubian, business manager, Secure USB Products, Kingston®. "The DataTraveler Locker+ encrypts 100 percent of the contents and is available at a price point that is very attractive for all entities looking to comply with corporate security policies."

Data on the Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ is secured with 256-bit hardware-based AES encryption. Access to the drive's contents is through a simple to use interface requiring a complex password. The likelihood of successful brute force attacks on the DataTraveler Locker+ is reduced as the drive locks down and reformats after 10 incorrect password attempts.

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OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and flash-based storage as an alternative to hard disk drives (HDDs), today released the Colossus 3.5” Solid State Drive (SSD) Series, designed to meet the performance and storage demands of high-end desktop users and enterprise clients. Available in up to one terabyte configurations, the Colossus Series marks a milestone in solid state drive technology, making it possible to have both high performance and high capacity in one solution.

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“The new Colossus Series is designed to boost desktop and workstation performance and is for high power users that put a premium on speed, reliability and maximum storage capacity,” said Eugene Chang, VP of Product Management at the OCZ Technology Group. “The Colossus core-architecture is also available to enterprise clients with locked BOMs (build of materials) and customized firmware to match their unique applications.”

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