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- Flash Memory
Toshiba and SanDisk announced this week that they will be temporarily cutting back the production of NAND flash memory by 30% at their manufacturing facilities in Yokkaichi, Japan. The two companies decided to cut production due to the decreased demand for flash memory caused by the recent recession and slowdown in consumer spending.
SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) today announced temporary cuts to its Flash wafer production in its joint-venture manufacturing facilities in Yokkaichi, Japan. Production in Fab 3 and Fab 4 will be temporarily halted from December 31 to January 12. Following this shut-down, joint venture production will resume at approximately 70 percent of current capacity. The duration and extent of this reduction in fab output will depend upon market conditions. These steps will result in higher wafer cost due to underutilization of capacity; however, they are expected to better align SanDisk’s captive output in 2009 with the projected demand in the current global economic slowdown.
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- Hard Disks
With the rising popularity of netbooks, PC vendors are under pressure to reduce costs by all means possible. In response to these cost reductions, Seagate, Western Digital and Hitachi have begun to develop low-cost 2.5-inch hard disk drives. By minimizing the cost of drive ICs, magnetic platters, and pick-up heads, these new models are expected to be priced 40-50% less than existing entry-level 2.5-inch hard drives.
Seagate Technology, Western Digital and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, in response to the calls for cost reductions from PC vendors, are developing low-cost 2.5-inch hard disk drives (HDDs) for use in netbooks and other low-cost PCs. The HDDs are targeted to be 40-50% less expensive than existing 2.5-inch entry-level HDD models. Availability could start as early as the second half of 2009, according to industry sources in Taiwan.
As the consensus among PC vendors is that low-cost PCs will dominate the global market in 2009, they are under pressure to reduce production costs by all means possible, the sources indicated. For netbooks, the cost of key components including CPUs, LCD panels, optical disc drives and batteries mostly fall between US$20 and US$25 each while a 2.5-inch HDD can cost as high as US$43-45, thus making them the target for cost reduction, the sources pointed out.
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- Flash Memory
Advanced Media, Inc., manufacturer and marketer of the popular Ridata brand of recordable DVD, flash media, electronic storage products, and digital accessories, is adding photo recovery software to its new 300X SLC based and 233x Lightning Series of CompactFlash® cards. Although the professional's choice 233X card boasts less than a one per cent return rate, Ridata is adding a photo recovery software download on its site accessible after product registration that will recover up to 80 per cent of lost photos due to a variety of hardware or card issues.
"Photographers make their livelihood through photographs. As memory card products become more sophisticated by offering higher speeds and more capacity, we need additional safeguards to ensure each and every photo is accurately recorded," commented Harvey Liu, president of Advanced Media, Inc. "To that end, our photo recovery software will correct user, hardware or in the worst event, memory card problems. In today's digital, flash media world, dependability matters and Ridata has it."
Most photo storage problems occur when battery power is running low or the user turns off the camera while it is still writing data to the card. Ridata's photo recovery software can effectively recover lost, deleted, corrupted or quick formatted photos.
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- Flash Memory
Sony sent out a press release today, announcing a new series of its MicroVault Click USB flash drives pre-loaded with movies and music. Starting in December, the company will be offering a 2GB Click drive pre-loaded with the “Thriller: 25th Anniversary Edition” album as well as the movies “The Da Vinci Code” and “Men in Black" on a 4GB drive.
Sony is bringing some of the top music and movie titles in entertainment history to consumers in an easy-to-use, portable electronic format. The company is introducing a new series of its MicroVault® Click USB flash drives pre-loaded with a choice of either “Thriller: 25th Anniversary Edition” – the best-selling album of all time – or the blockbuster movies “The Da Vinci Code” and “Men in Black.”
“We’re excited to provide consumers with a new way to enjoy some of today’s most popular titles, using our MicroVault Click USB flash drives,” said Shane Higby, director of marketing for Sony Electronics’ consumer media group. “By pre-loading content in this way, we are expanding the applications for flash drives, while offering a unique value that only Sony can deliver.”
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Canadians will soon be paying more for their blank CDs. The Copyright Board Of Canada recently issued a decision that will increase the private copying levy on all blank CDs from 21¢ to 29¢ for the years 2008 and 2009.
The Copyright Board of Canada issued today a decision on private copying levies for the years 2008 and 2009. The decision maintains the rate for audiocassettes at 24¢, and increases the rate for all CDs to 29¢. Since 2001, the certified rate for CDs had been 21¢.
“Two main factors led the Board to raise the CD levy rate to 29¢”, said Claude Majeau, Secretary General of the Board. “First, the mechanical royalties that record labels pay to record a song onto a prerecorded CD have increased. Second, because consumers now use compression technology when they record music, the average number of music tracks copied onto a CD went from 15 to more than 18.”
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- Flash Memory
OCZ Technology today announced the launch of its new Gold Series Secure Digital High-Capacity (SDHC) flash memory cards. Designed and optimized for HD video enthusiasts and photography professionals, this Class 6 rated card is capable of a 150X write rate and is available in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities.
OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced the launch of its new Gold Series Secure Digital™ High-Capacity (SDHC) flash memory cards, to offer professional phographers and videographers unbridled performance combined with ample storage capabilities for high-resolution pictures and video. These premium memory cards offer photography enthusiasts incredible speeds and capacities to deliver the tailored storage they demand.
“OCZ’s new Gold Series SDHC cards are designed for professional photography and high definition video applications where enthusiasts demand the highest level of performance to match the file sizes and speed capabilities of their specialized cameras and video equipment,” commented Alex Mei, Chief Marketing Officer of the OCZ Technology Group. “The new Gold Series cards make use of premium quality flash and are optimized for shooting large RAW files with the latest D-SLR cameras and exceed the performance requirements of the latest 1080 high definition camcorders.”
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- Home Entertainment
A new survey conducted by the NPD Group has found that consumers who have purchased a video on DVD or Blu-ray Disc are enthusiastic about the Digital Copy feature available on many new releases. The survey found that one third of DVD or BD buyers in the U.S. were aware of the Digital Copy feature. Of those who had already purchased a Digital Copy version, more than 80% were interested in buying another with this feature. Consumers also made it clear that they prefer to receive a digital copy on a video they've purchased, rather than downloading it from the Internet.
According to NPD more than half of DVD or BD buyers have watched a full-length TV show or movie on a portable device. One-third of DVD or BD buyers in the U.S. are aware of the Digital Copy feature. Three out of four DVD or BD buyers who view movies or TV shows on a portable device expressed interest in buying a physical disc with Digital Copy. More than 80 percent of consumers who have already purchased a Digital Copy version claimed they were interested in purchasing other titles published with this feature.
“At this point every major studio is offering video buyers the option for a portable, digital copy of films and TV shows,” said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD. “For consumers who don’t have the time or know-how to download full-length movies or TV shows, Digital Copy provides a flexible and safe solution for transferring a legal version from a purchased disc to a portable device.”
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ASUS EN9800GT Matrix GeForce 9800GT @ HotHardware.com
ASUS N10J Netbook @ InsideHW
GIGABYTE GM-M7700 Wireless Laser Laptop Mouse @ TweakTown
Intel i7-920 Nehalem Processor @ Tweaknews.net
Kingwin EZ-Dock Hard Drive Dock @ Virtual-Hideout
Lian Li PC-A7010 All Aluminum Full Tower ATX Case @ Futurelooks
NZXT Avatar Gaming Mouse @ Bigbruin.com
Vizo Armada II RAM Cooler @ Rbmods
Xigmatek BattleAxe VGA Cooler VD964 @ Hardware Zone
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- Software
As of January 1st, 2009, SlySoft will change its update policy from free lifetime updates to an annual subscription fee. All license purchases made before January 1st, 2009 will not be affected by this change; as promised, all licenses purchased before 2009 will still be honoured under Slysoft's free lifetime update policy.
SlySoft announces this step in advance in order to provide its customers with the choice between the old and new licensing model. Buyers who act quickly can get an additional discount with the current ongoing special promotion.
Until Wednesday, December 31 2008 Slysoft offers a 20% discount on all software products--except upgrades. If you are entertaining the thought of purchasing one of Slysoft's products, now is the right time to act!
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- Network Storage
Addonics Technologies (www.addonics.com) today announced the Addonics NAS (network attached storage) adapter, a low-cost way to add USB storage devices onto a local area network.
Once on the network, USB storage can be shared by any network user just like any NAS device. In addition, the new solution allows users to custom build their own NAS appliance with unlimited expansion and RAID capability by using Addonics family of drive enclosures, port multipliers and IO converters. When used with Addonics storage towers or racks, users can instantly add to any LAN multi-tera bytes of storage with RAID capabilities.
The NAS adapter supports both SMB (Server Message Block) and the open source Samba network protocols. This allows for cross-platform access of all shared data for most versions of Windows, Mac OS X, and various Linux distributions. The adapter comes with a USB 2.0/1.1 connection and a fast Ethernet 10/100Mbps connection.
