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- Flash Memory
Kingston Technology Co., Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, announced today that its DataTraveler® Vault – Privacy Edition (DTVP) USB Flash drive is now compatible with Apple® Mac® operating systems (OSX 10.4x – 10.5x).
“Our DataTraveler Vault – Privacy Edition has been popular with enterprise and government customers who use Windows-based systems and are looking for a safe and secure way to transport portable data,” said Mark Akoubian, Flash memory business manager, Kingston®. “We are happy to add Mac support to this 100-percent secured drive so the Apple community can be assured they have an on-the-go storage solution that is the best on the market at safeguarding data.”
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- Flash Memory
LaCie announced today a creative new way to access the data from SD and microSD cards. Created exclusively for LaCie by the award-winning 5.5 designers firm, the LaCie Data/Share is an inventive product designed to combine these standard memory cards and the ubiquitous USB interface to enhance and simplify user’s digital lives. In addition, the LaCie Data/Share recently received a 2009 iF product design award by the iF International Forum Design.
The Data/Share’s stylish red and white design is attention grabbing, but by effortlessly converting SD card and microSD information into the more accessible USB format, the Data/Share distinguishes itself as more than just a colorful accessory. Customers can insert their SD and microSD cards into the corresponding LaCie Data/Share slot and instantly create a USB-ready storage key, or just a quick and easy way to access their SD and microSD card information on their computers.
The two delineated sides of the Data/Share help customers easily organize and prioritize their data. Users can choose to keep their personal data on one side, while using the other side for shared data. Both sides have the advantage of High-Speed USB transfer rates of up to 480MB/s.
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- Optical Storage
GE’s micro-holographic discs will be able to be read and recorded on systems very similar to a typical Blu-ray or DVD player. Holographic storage is different from today’s optical storage formats like DVDs and Blu-ray discs. DVDs and Blu-ray discs store information only on the surface of the disc; holographic storage technology uses the entire volume of the disc material. Holograms, or three-dimensional patterns that represent bits of information, are written into the disc and can then be read out. Although GE’s holographic storage technology represents a breakthrough in capacity, the hardware and formats are so similar to current optical storage technology that the micro-holographic players will enable consumers to play back their CDs, DVDs and BDs.
The GE team successfully recorded micro-holographic marks approaching one percent reflectivity with a diameter of approximately one micron. When using standard DVD or Blu-ray disc optics, the scaled down marks will have sufficient reflectivity to enable over 500 GB of total capacity in a CD-size disc.
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- Hard Disks
Continuing its commitment to helping people preserve, protect and enjoy their digital content, Seagate today introduced a new backup appliance that completely eliminates the need to manually learn, manage, or dedicate any time to the backup process. Unlike most backup utilities, the new Seagate® Replica™ backup appliance is a complete PC backup system, which automatically and continuously stores up-to-date copies of everything on a PC, including installed applications, operating system, e-mail, pictures, music, movies, Internet bookmarks and settings. Available in two configurations, the Seagate Replica solution delivers seamless backup for either a single PC or multiple PCs in a household.
“The computer continues to become an indispensable family tool for homework, e-mail, storing digital photos and downloading Internet videos,” said Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst, Parks Associates. “As consumers today continue to amass increasing volumes of digital content, having an easy, time-efficient way to backup computers in the home will become an imperative.”
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- Hard Disks
Sans Digital, a leading provider of high performance storage subsystems, is introducing the MobileSTOR MS1CT, a newly designed portable 1-bay storage unit with four of the most popular host interfaces. Aside from the common USB 2.0 and eSATA interfaces, the MS1CT also utilizes Firewire 400 and 800 for ultimate flexibility. The quad-interface design conveniently allows the integration of the MS1CT with standard expansion ports on both PC and MAC platforms without the need to purchase additional host bus adapters.
The MobileSTOR MS1CT enclosure utilizes a fan-less design for ultra quiet operation, and lightweight aluminum for effective heat dispensing as well as contemporary design. The MS1CT features a removable hard drive tray that is compatible with other Sans Digital MobileSTOR, MobileRAID, and MobileNAS storage units. With host computer support, the MS1CT allows hot-swapping, where a tray with hard drive could be taken from a larger Mobile series unit and placed in the MS1CT for portability. Additional hard drive trays could be purchased separately with a protective leatherette case to shield the hard drives from physical damage. When combined with the InstaRAID IR12TB, the MS1CT is capable of achieving RAID 0 stripping and RAID 1 mirroring in the size of a 3.5” enclosure.
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NEC Electronics Corporation, Renesas Technology Corp., NEC Corporation, Hitachi, Ltd., and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation today agreed to enter into negotiations to integrate business operations at NEC Electronics and Renesas.
NEC Electronics was established in 2002, separating from NEC, and Renesas was established in 2003, integrating semiconductor units at Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric. Both as leading semiconductor companies, NEC Electronics and Renesas provide a wide variety of semiconductor solutions, primarily specializing in microcontroller units (MCUs). In light of fierce global competition in the semiconductor market, NEC Electronics and Renesas have agreed to explore the possibility of business integration in order to further strengthen their business foundations and technological assets while increasing corporate value through enhanced customer satisfaction.
By integrating the world’s two largest MCU suppliers, the new company will provide one of the most competitive MCU product lineups throughout the world.
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- Optical Storage
Philips has scored another win in their ongoing legal battle with Princo. According to DigiTimes, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Court (IPC) has determined that Princo shall pay a total of 7.606 billion yen (US$77.6 million) to Philips for CD-R royalty fees and interest due to delay in payment.
The Taiwan Intellectual Property Court (IPC) on April 23 determined that Princo, a Taiwan-based maker of blank optical discs, shall pay a total of 7.606 billion yen (US$77.6 million) to Royal Philips Electronics for CD-R royalty fees and interest due to delay in payment, according to the court.
Because Princo defaulted on CD-R royalty payment for the period from the fourth quarter of 1997 to the fourth quarter of 1999 (Philips terminated CD-R licensing in the first quarter of 2000), Philips launched legal proceedings against Princo at a district court in northern Taiwan to claim the payment, according to industry sources.
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- Hard Disks
Verbatim is now assembling external hard disk drives in Europe, enabling it to respond more quickly and with greater flexibility to European market demands. The assembly is being undertaken by Rhenus AG & Co. KG in Duisburg Germany and since starting production in December 2008 has been assembling and shipping up to 60,000 units every month.
Rhenus Logistics, which is situated on the Logport Park in Duisburg, has provided the European central distribution warehouse for Verbatim since 2006. With a capacity of 40.000 pallet bays, goods are packed within 24 hours of receipt or order, with orders placed before 4 pm ready for shipment the same day. More than 800 different Verbatim products can be shipped at any time and around 315,000 orders are processed by Rhenus for Verbatim each year.
On December 1st 2008, two new assembly lines were set up at Rhenus for Verbatim, to meet the increasing external HDD market requirements in Europe. 42 new jobs were created, trained staff work in two shifts to assemble 3,5-inch external hard drives on a customised basis in response to orders from Verbatim’s customers. The supplied hard drives are formatted and installed into the enclosures, then checked and packaged. Previously, these services were only performed in Asia.
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Lite-On announces today that their next generation of external slim DVD-writers will be equipped with a smart USB power detection feature.
The eSAU108 external DVD-writer from Lite-On is a USB powered drive. Users don’t need a power adapter to operate the drive, as it will get its power directly from the computer through a USB cable. Most notebooks deliver enough power to operate the drive through a single USB port, but for some notebooks an extra USB port is needed to get sufficient power.
Smart USB power detection is a feature that helps users to determine whether they need one or two USB ports to operate the drive. After plugging in the main USB connector in the computer’s USB port and the mini USB connector into the drive’s port, a LED indicator on the drive will light up. BLUE means that the drive is ready to operate, while RED means that a second USB connector is needed. As the drive is equipped with a USB Y-cable, a cable with two USB connectors and one mini USB connector, a second USB connector can be plugged into the computer very easily.
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- Software
NVIDIA today announced that NERO has released an update to its Nero Move it software that reduces video encoding time by up to five times by utilizing NVIDIA's CUDA computing architecture built inside select NVIDIA Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). NVIDIA CUDA technology dramatically reduces the time it takes to transfer video files to portable devices, while freeing up the CPU to perform other tasks.
Nero Move it is designed to allow consumers to effortlessly convert and share digital media content among a variety of popular entertainment devices. It is a complete software solution for collecting, organizing, transferring, and publishing digital media files from one device to another, as well as for uploading digital content to online communities. By using CUDA technology to tap the massively parallel processing power of NVIDIA GPUs, Nero Move it converts videos in a fraction of the usual time, reducing the length of time to perform such tasks as customizing an HD video for an iPod, from hours to mere minutes.
