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Reuters recently interviewed the president of Sony Electronics' U.S. operations, Stan Glasgow. In the interview, Glasgow stated that Blu-ray player sales have fallen short of Sony's expectations. Along with the tough economy, player sales have been hampered by the high price of Blu-ray titles.
High definition Blu-ray disc players may be one of the holiday season's best sellers, but they will still fall short of expectations, due to the tough economy, the head of Sony's U.S. electronics unit said.
Sales of the next-generation movies players, developed by Sony and sold under brands including Panasonic and Samsung, could benefit from a late shopping spurt as budget conscious U.S. consumers find deals, Stan Glasgow told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
But they will not meet the worldwide target of 5 million units, most of which had been expected to sell in the United States.
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Acer F-22 Monitor @ InsideHW
Alienware Area-51 m15x Gaming Notebook @ I4U
Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev.2 w/Turbo Module @ BCCHardware
Intel Core i7-920 Processor BX80601920 @ Benchmark Reviews
NZXT Performance Power 800W PSU @ BCCHardware
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Sapphire HD 4830 Review @ High Tech Reviews
Sunbeam Automation Mid Tower Case @ ThinkComputers.org
Thermalright TRad2 VGA Coolers @ Virtual-Hideout
Thermaltake BlacX SE Hard Drive Dock @ Bigbruin.com
Thermaltake V9 Case @ Rbmods
Walton Chaintech APOGEE 2.5" Solid State Disk @ TweakTown
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Samsung announced today that it has begun mass producing 256 GB solid state drives (SSDs). According to Samsung's claims, this new 2.5-inch SSD offers twice the performance of its 64GB and 128GB SSDs. The drive is capable of 220 MB/s read and 200 MB/s write speeds, allowing it to store 250GB worth of high-def movies in just 21 minutes.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, announced today that it has begun mass producing 256 gigabyte (GB) solid state drives for use in notebooks and desktop PCs. With the addition of the high-speed 256GB drive, Samsung now offers the most extensive line of SSDs in the industry with 8, 16, and 32GB SSDs for low-density designs and 64, 128 and 256GB alternatives for the higher densities.
The new 256GB SSD more than doubles the performance rates of Samsung 64GB and 128GB SSDs to become the SSD with the highest overall performance in the personal computer industry, combining sequential read rates of 220MB/s (megabytes per second) with sequential write rates of 200MB/s. This sharply narrows the performance gap between read and write operations to only 10 percent, compared to a read-write speed difference of between 20 and 70 percent for other SSDs. In addition, erase cycles are a rapid 100GBs per minute, allowing the entire drive to be re-written much faster, when needed.
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Despite the recent reports of fake Blu-ray Discs, Sony Pictures is moving ahead with its plans to release movies on Blu-ray in China. According to Variety, the company will release 30 titles on Nov. 21st, including recent releases such as "Hancock," "The Water Horse" and the “Spider-Man” trilogy.
Starting Friday, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will distribute 30 current and classic movies in the Sony-developed high-definition format for 205 yuan ($30) per disc -- a considerable sum in a low-wage country.
Pics include "Hancock," "Kung Fu Hustle," the "Spider-Man" trilogy, "Hitch," "The Pursuit of Happyness" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
Warner Bros. and Disney are also looking at releasing Blu-ray titles in China. However, instead of importing the discs, they are looking to cut costs by using local manufacturers.
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Sonic® and CinemaNow recently announced a collaboration to enable the download and burn of DVD movies by integrating CinemaNow's content delivery system into new Qflix™ DVD drives. Qflix drives have recently become available from a number of companies including Dell, Pioneer and Plextor. CinemaNow will combine with Sonic's Qflix team to form a new Premium Content Group under the direction of Mark Ely, Sonic's EVP of Strategy. The group will focus on increasing the placement of CinemaNow's storefront on PCs and consumer electronics devices, and expanding the adoption of the Qflix technology platform.
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Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it is shipping its high-capacity 64GB DataTraveler® 150 (DT150) USB Flash drive. DT150 offers the largest capacity in Kingston’s entire line of DataTraveler USB drives and allows users the room and flexibility to backup important hard drive contents, and transport and share complete collections of music, videos, photos and documents in one convenient device.
“The new 64GB DataTraveler 150 takes transportable storage to the next level with big capacity in a small package,” said Jaja Lin, Flash business development manager, Kingston®. “As file sizes increase with digital media content such as music and photos, the need for USB Flash drives with high capacities will continue to rise. The DT150 certainly addresses those needs today.”
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According to DigiTimes, Lite-On is predicting that Blu-ray combo drives will go mainstream by 2011 and BD burners by 2011. Lite-On backs up this predition with statistics showing that the volume of BD drives has already increased from 700,000 units in 2007 to 1.7 million units in the first half of 2008.
Blu-ray Disc Combo drives will be the mainstream PC-use BD drive format in 2009 and BD burners will become the mainstream format in 2011, according to Lite-On IT.
Despite the impact of the global financial crisis on demand for PC-use BD drives, global volumes of BD-ROM drives, BD Combo drives and BD burners together increased from 700,000 units in 2007 to 1.7 million units in the first half of 2008, Lite-On IT cited statistics as indicating.
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Kanguru Solutions sent out a press release today, announcing the release of the Kanguru e-Flash. This high-performance flash drive is available with 16GB or 32GB of storage and features both eSATA and USB connections. According to the specs on Kanguru's website, the e-Flash is capable of 75MB/s and 25MB/s write speeds when connected to a computer via eSATA.
Kanguru Solutions, announces the release of the Kanguru e-Flash™, a cutting edge flash drive with both eSATA and USB connectivity.
Utilizing eSATA (External Serial ATA) technology allows the Kanguru e-Flash to achieve performance speeds never before obtainable with standard USB Flash Drives. This performance, coupled with large storage capacities means the Kanguru e-Flash can handle any application or data file, regardless of size. In addition to eSATA, it also contains a USB2.0 connection for universal connectivity to virtually any computer.
The Kanguru e-Flash has a powered eSATA connection so it doesn’t require any additional power source. It also comes packaged with an eSATA + Power bracket and an eSATA + Power cable for easy hookup to the computer you use it on most. Capacities are available in 16GB or 32GB with 64GB planned for January 2009.
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Seagate announced today that its FreeAgent Go portable hard drives are now available in six new colors. Along with the initial color options of ruby red, royal blue, tuxedo black and titanium silver, the drives are available in think pink, solar orange, spring green, forest green, sky blue and champagne gold. Seagate will also be launching its Load Me Up promotion on November 28th. As part of the promotion, those that register their FreeAgent drive will get 50 free songs from eMusic, on free movie rental and 50% a year's subscription to SmugMug.
Seagate (Nasdaq: STX - News), the world's leading provider of storage solutions, unveiled today a gift idea that will keep on giving for years to come. Originally introduced in September with a choice of four colors, the new award-winning FreeAgent® Go portable hard drive is now available in all the colors of the rainbow, including: think pink, ruby red, solar orange, spring green, forest green, royal blue, sky blue, champagne gold, titanium silver and tuxedo black. The initial color options of ruby red, royal blue, tuxedo black and titanium silver are still offered and widely available.
Additionally, from November 28th through the beginning of the New Year, those who register their new Seagate FreeAgent external storage solution will receive a multimedia package from leading online content providers. The Seagate FreeAgent Go storage solution provides a slim, portable form factor with a load of space to back up and store all your valuable multimedia files from holiday memories to your favorite songs. With up to 500GB of available capacity, the FreeAgent Go portable hard drive has enough room to carry entire libraries of movies, music and pictures, making it a great gift for all the important people on your holiday shopping list.
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Toshiba recently introduced its MKxx55GSX series of 2.5-inch hard disk drives. Available in capacities ranging from 120GB to 500GB, these new drives features a 5,400 RPM rotation speed and SATA 3.0 Gb/s interface as well as optimizations and design changes to minimize noise and boost durability.
Toshiba Storage Device Division (SDD), the pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), today announced a half-terabyte 5,400 RPM, Serial-ATA (SATA) 3.0 Gb/s 2.5-inch HDD with a number of enhanced features that improve the user experience in mobile applications, as well as other digital devices.
Available in capacities from 500GB(1) to 120GB, the super-quiet and durable MKxx55GSX series is targeted for integration into notebook PCs, sub- notebooks, small form factor and energy star PCs, game consoles, printers and external storage devices.
This new family raises the bar in acoustic performance for mainstream high-capacity HDDs. Advanced servo techniques combined with mechanical design changes minimize noise emanating from the MKxx55GSX drives, making them nearly inaudible during operation, with some models performing close to the threshold of human hearing.
