Syabas, a leading provider of over-the-top settop software and hardware and makers of the award winning Popcorn Hour A-110, today announced the Popcorn C-200, a next-generation Internet settop box that streams digital content from the Internet or its internal hard drive to your television set and home stereo. Unlike competing Internet settop boxes that support a limited number of Internet audio and video file types, the C-200 supports more than 30, including MPEG 1, 2, 4, AVI, H.264, Xvid, MKV, Windows Media and others.
“In today’s tough economic times, there are people facing the decision to either cancel their cable subscription or their Internet connection to make ends meet,” said Syabas COO, Alex Limberis. “With a C-200, people can experience the best of both worlds, as a lot of compelling content is freely available on the Internet. Today, consumers want to watch programs when they want them, not when a network or cable company tells them it’s okay.”
Like its predecessor, the Popcorn Hour A-110, the C-200 streams news and entertainment content from a number video partner sites such as YouTube, Vuze, Revision 3, CNET TV, Veoh, Blip.tv, NBC, CBS, CNN and BBC and Internet radio sites, such as Radio box and Live365 Radio. Additionally, the C-200 can stream still image content from Flickr, Pikeo and Picasa.
Silicon Power releases Touch 850 Crystal Disk and by name, no doubt it has the crystal look accompanied by a shinny metallic casing, making it a head-turning fashion accessory as well. Not just good looks, Silicon Power's Touch 850 is no slouch either when it comes to construction, using second to none quality components. It is the USB flash drive to get and the fashion accessory to have.
Touch 850's casing is constructed with zinc alloy, providing ruggedness and polished elegant looks. Coated with crystal-like cut surface, it reflects light from every angle to give off an amazing aura. Touch 850 comes with a dongle accessory and its lidless design can effective protect its USB gold fingers and prevent users from losing their USB lid. It provides the complete user data protection.
Patriot Memory®, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash and computer technology, today announced the release of their new 128GB Magnum USB Flash Drive.
Patriot's innovation has made it possible for users to have unmatchable capacity for storing, transporting and securing large amounts of data. Thanks to Patriot’s Magnum series, never before has it been so easy for users to make portable libraries of their favorite movies, TV shows, entire CD music collections and important data; anything the consumer wants to make portable and mobile. At 128GB of storage capacity and the largest USB on the market, the Magnum not only delivers on being the biggest, but also the fastest; producing an amazing 210x read speed or equivalent of 31MB/s data transfer rate.
"Patriot is elated to bring the consumer a product that is unprecedented in the market," says Meng Jay, Patriot's Product Manager. "The Magnum gives the consumer unequaled storage flexibility to make video libraries. Even in this age of Blu-Ray movies, you can store at least 14 titles and with the incredible speeds for read and write; the capabilities for storage and compiling information are endless."
WD® today announced that it has begun shipping its new SiliconDrive® III SSD product family based on technology from its March 2009 acquisition of SiliconSystems. The company's new SiliconDrive III products feature faster read/write speeds and increased capacities, and offer mechanical scalability, making them a perfect storage solution for embedded system and data streaming applications such as multimedia content delivery systems and data center media appliances.
SiliconDrive III SSDs include 2.5-inch Serial ATA (SATA) and Parallel ATA (PATA) and 1.8-inch Micro SATA products featuring native SATA 3.0 gigabits per second (Gbps) or ATA-7 interfaces with target read speeds up to 100 megabytes per second (MBps) and write speeds to 80 MBps in capacities up to 120 gigabytes (GB).
In addition to its memory module and graphic card products, PNY Technologies launches today a new collection of SSD (Solid State Drives) to complete its memory upgrade offering.
Over the last few years, SSD’s have become an ideal and efficient drop-in replacement for the traditional hard disk drive (HDD) often used with laptops and desktop computers. These drives offer significant advantages, including better shock resistance, no mechanical wear and tear (thanks to the fact that there are no moving parts) and unrivalled speed.
This range of PNY High Speed Optima SSD’s is faster, more robust and more reliable than the majority of SSD drives on the market. Moreover, PNY has selected high quality Flash memory with MLC (Multi Layer Cell) technology. The major benefit of these SSD drives lies in extremely high performance levels, with a 200 Mb/sec write speed and a 220 Mb/sec read speed.
While the popularity of Blu-ray is on the rise, this high-def format hasn't been able to make up for declining DVD rentals and sales. According to a study by Screen Digest, global revenues dropped by 4.8% in 2008, resulting in a loss of $2.6 billion. Also, due to the current economic climate, Senior analysts at Screen Digest also don't expect Blu-ray to drive even minimal sector growth until 2010.
The global video business lost more than $2.6bn in 2008 due to a combination of a fall in both DVD purchase and rentals by consumers. The figure, which equates to a downturn of 4.8 percent globally, is published in the latest report from Screen Digest (www.screendigest.com). Whilst the decline in North American DVD sales is well documented, the decline in international markets (global excluding North America) has received less coverage.
Internationally last year consumers spent $26.4bn on video software, with two thirds of that figure ($18.1bn) spent on buying DVD discs. The overall figure represents a 3.6% drop on 2007 spend and a 4.7% drop on disc sales alone. The sales figures are in line with the overall trend which saw consumer spending plateau between 2004 and 2007 and the North American market starting to decline in 2007 which signalled the start of a global downward trend.
Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the release of the DataTraveler® 200 (DT200), the world's first 128GB USB Flash drive. The large capacity along with password protection gives users the flexibility to carry critical data with them at all times in a very small form factor.
"The new DT200's robust storage capability lets consumers store complete libraries of music, photos and videos. It is also a great tool for business users who carry around large databases or files," said Andrew Ewing, USB business manager, Kingston®. "The password protection helps safeguard data and requires no admin rights, making the DT200 a terrific solution for the home or office."
The Kingston DataTraveler 200 features a capless design to protect the USB connector when not in use and is enhanced for Windows ReadyBoost™. It is available in 32-, 64- and 128GB capacities. The 128GB drive is build-to-order only. Customers who wish to purchase it can place an order through normal channels (e.g., e-tailers or resellers).
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a worldwide leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology, today announced the launch of two new “Pop” colors, Sweet Pink and Ocean Blue, to its popular S Series external hard drives, along with the introduction of a new 160 Gigabyte (GB) density for the 1.8 inch S1 Mini drive. Samsung’s S Series external hard drives, the 1.8-inch 120GB S1 Mini and 2.5-inch 500GB S2 Portable 2.5 inch external hard drives, were first introduced last October in four colors: Piano Black, Snow White, Wine Red, and Chocolate Brown.
Personal storage is among the fastest growing markets due to an increasing demand for a portable means of storing personal photos, music, HD movies, schoolwork, business data and personal finance information. To illustrate this point, the S series has achieved record-breaking sales during the last six months amid a global economic recession. The monthly sales volume of the S1 Mini and S2 Portable has tripled since last December, linked to a rise in netbook and notebook sales.
Power Quotient International Co., Ltd. (PQI)announces 2.5” SATAII SSD S527 that features a maximum read speed of 240MB/sec and a write speed of 161MB/sec. Both numbers are of significant improvements over products in the same category. S527 uses carefully selected flash memory modules and configured in Raid functionality, transfer rates are dramatically improved. Perfect for professionals often working with large file capacities such as audio / visual or other multimedia formats.
In addition to its ultra fast transfer rate, the 2.5inch PQI S527 has retained its SSD traits of low power consumption, quiet operation, shock and vibration proof. PQI’s S527 is available in 128GB / 256GB capacities and comes with a 2-year warranty.
Acronova Technology, Inc., the leading provider of affordable auto-loading systems for CD/DVD/BD, introduces a new ripping feature to the Nimbie series.
The new Nimbie NB11 is a PC-connected, 100-disc autoloader that is ideally designed for in-house duplication, LightScribe disc labeling, data back up, audio ripping and many other customized burning functions. The affordable, compact, user friendly Nimbie is targeted at home, office and studio users who are looking for a cost effective and functional solution. With a newly added audio ripping feature, Nimbie can cater to a more diverse market than traditional duplicators.
The new Windows XP/Vista compatible ripping software, called QQripper, is developed by Broadex Systems, Inc. QQripper works with iTunes or Windows Media Player to enable automated disc loading for unattended music ripping. Simply choose the desired ripping engine to start converting music from CDs to digital audio files. These digital audio files are stored in the HDD to allow users to easily archive their music collection and either play music on the computer or import to iPod or any other MP3 player.