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While Steve Jobs may consider Blu-ray to be "a bag of hurt," the folks at Psystar have already begun to ship OS X-compatible PCs with Blu-ray drives. The company announced this week that a Blu-ray writer is now available as a $350 option on its Open and OpenPro computers.
Psystar Corporation, the leading manufacturer of OS X-compatible PCs, is now shipping PCs with Blu-ray® optical disc drives and the nVidia® 9800GT graphics card. Psystar is shipping Blue-ray® and 9800GT equipped computers before Apple's release of these peripheral products on their own computers. Apple, developer of the OS X operating system, has chosen to delay support for Blu-ray® with Apple CEO Steve Jobs citing it as "a bag of hurt" during the recent release of the new Apple notebooks. Psystar president Rudy Pedraza countered:
"Blu-ray has already won the format war. Not only is there fully functional and mature support for Blu-ray in other operating systems but you can now rent Blu-ray discs from almost any rental chain. Blu-ray has become pervasive technology that is being widely adopted by consumers everywhere," says Pedraza.
Pedraza also pointed out that "Blu-ray is not just for movies. The ability to burn 25-gigabyte discs is a feature that can help users in media editing or enterprise environments keep archives of large file sets. Our systems, regardless of configured operating system, can now provide this functionality."
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AOpen sent out a press release this morning, announcing the launch of its new Blu-ray equipped mini PC, the XC mini MP45-BDR. Along with a built in Blu-ray combo drive, the MP45-BDR features the Intel GM45+ICH9M (Montevina) chipset which supports the Intel Core 2 Duo (Penryn) processor and up to 4GB of dual channel SO-DIMM DDR-II 667/800MHz memory. The MP45-BDR also features 5.1 channel High definition audio and full 1080p high definition video playback via DVI or HDMI.
AOpen launched the XC mini MP45-BDR, a latest addition of the mini PC product family featured the Intel® GM45+ICH9M (Montevina) chipset and the new generation Blu-ray disc reader/DVD writer (Blu-ray Combo drive). It supports new Intel® Core™ 2 Duo (Penryn) processor and provides external frequency up to 800/1066MHz, thus maximizing the performance of the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo. It s also supports up to 4GB dual channel SO-DIMM DDR-II 667/800MHz. Its built-in GMAX4500MHD graphics engine offers full support for Microsoft® DirectX™ 10 to meet image quality and performance requirements for 3D games. In addition, a total of six USB 2.0 ports eliminates the scalability limitation of min PCs and ensures greater flexibility and space.
“Available in limited quantity only, the XC mini featured the high-end Blu-ray disc reader/DVD writer (Blu-ray Combo drive) aims to meet the world needs in high-quality video playback,” said Tony Yang, AOpen’s senior marketing Director. “It proves that its high performance has earned the trust of consumers and it becomes the hub of the digital home entertainment.“ He adds, “in addition to Blu-ray disc playback functions, the XC mini MP45-BDR also delivers DVD±R, DVD±RW, DVD-RAM and CD-R capabilities for data backup and video burning. Eliminating the installation and configuration processes, the preinstalled Blu-ray Combo drive enhances user convenience and is shipped with exclusive Blu-ray video playback edition of Cyberlink PowerDVD software. It offers one-stop shopping for all consumer needs in both hardware and software, demonstrating AOpen’s considerate services to the consumers.”
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Netflix and TiVo signed a deal this week that will give TiVo subscribers the ability to instantly watch content from Netflix on their TV. By partnering together, Netflix subscribers will be able to add movies and TV episodes to their queues and have them available to watch instantly through the TiVo service.
TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs) and Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX), the world's largest online movie rental service, today announced that they are teaming up to provide Netflix and TiVo(R) Series3, TiVo HD, and TiVo HD XL subscribers with the ability to have thousands of movies and TV episodes instantly streamed from Netflix directly to their TVs.
he two companies said they are initiating a test of the new capability today in several thousand U.S. households and expect it to be broadly available in early December, in time for the holidays. The ability to instantly watch content from Netflix on the TV via TiVo DVRs will be offered at no additional charge to customers who subscribe to both services.
The agreement provides Netflix with an important new technology partner to instantly stream a growing library of more than 12,000 choices of movies and TV episodes directly from Netflix to the TV. It also solidifies TiVo's leading position for simple navigation and delivery of the best entertainment content to the TV.
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DreamStream announced this week that it has been chosen by Royal Digital Media (RDM) to encrypt its new optical media format. While not much is known about this format, DreamStream's press release states that it will offer 100GB of storage capacity, allowing it to hold four hours of video at 1920p resolution. Best of all, players and discs are expected to be priced "equal those of the traditional DVD format."
DreamStream has signed on to encrypt Royal Digital Media's new optical media format. The agreement will allow RDM to employ DreamStream's military-strength encryption in the copyright protection of their high-definition discs.
The deal marks the first time a military-grade encryption has been implemented in the copyright protection of commercial motion picture discs.
"DreamStream and RDM's technologies align perfectly, as they both rest exponentially beyond the standards currently being employed," said DreamStream's Chief Development Officer Ulf Diebel, in a statement issued at the signing in Paris.
DreamStream is the first company to implement a 2,048-bit encryption in consumer media. AES encryption, used in Sony's Blu-ray discs, relies on only a 128-bit system.
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Western Digital announced today its new My Passport Studio portable hard drives now support FireWire 800 as well as USB 2.0. These new Mac-ready drives are available in 400GB and 500GB capacities and come formatted HFS+for use with Mac OS X and are compatible with Apple Time Machine application.
"Photographers and videographers, be they creative pros or Mac computer enthusiasts, have a genuine need for large amounts of fast, portable storage for their high-definition files," said Jim Welsh, senior vice president and general manager of WD's Branded Products and Consumer Electronics Groups. "With a new FireWire 800 interface, My Passport Studio speeds up editing and transferring of big media files making it perfect for performance-minded Mac computer users on the go."
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As a leader in the storage and upgrade markets, PNY is proud to be the first company to introduce a range of products dedicated to the most promising and fastest growing PC market segment (+69% growth expected in 2009 in units which means a market of 8 billions WW): Netbooks. The first product to be launched is the SDHC Memory Card.
The mainstream Netbooks models offer a small storage capacity (4 to 8GB) but include a SDHC slot. That makes the PNY netbook SDHC card the ideal accessory: once plugged you just never remove it, and double (or more) your storage capacity!
Available in 8GB and 16GB, the SDHC netbook edition is the first product of a complete PNY NetBook upgrade range which will be launched in the following month.
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Iomega sent out a press release this morning, announcing its new ScreenPlay Pro HD Multimedia Drive. Using this multimedia drive, consumers can connect to their PC to their TV over their home network and play back photos, music and video at resolutions up to 1080i. The ScreenPlay Pro HD Multimedia Drive features ethernet and wireless capability and offers 1TB of storage.
Iomega, an EMC company (NYSE: EMC) and a global leader in data protection, today added to its ScreenPlay™ series of Multimedia drives with the new Iomega® ScreenPlay™ Pro HD 1.0TB* Multimedia Drive.
The new ScreenPlay Pro HD Multimedia Drive creates a convenient link between the home network and the home theater, giving users a convenient way to show off their family photos, play music, and enjoy their videos from the best seat in the house.
New features in the ScreenPlay Pro HD Multimedia Drive include 10/100 Fast Ethernet for true network storage and more convenient access to files on the home network; wireless capability (USB WiFi dongle sold separately); new 1TB capacity (as well as a 500GB model in EMEA); better support for native high definition 720p and 1080i video; an Energy Star qualified adapter; a USB 2.0 connector for accessing additional storage from a portable hard drive or a USB Flash drive; as well as support for an even broader selection of formats for enjoying photos, music, and video selections.
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pureSilicon unveiled its Renegade Series Solid-State Drives this week. These new SSDs are available in capacities up to 128GB and are protected from harsh physical environments by a hard-anodized unibody enclosure, carved from a single piece of aluminum. They also features hardware-based 256-bit AES encryption that delivers instantaneous encryption and decryption of data with no performance degredation.
pureSilicon Inc. unveiled the Renegade Series Solid-State Drives (SSD), the first SSDs to integrate hardware-based encryption approved by the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS). The Renegade SSD is also compliant with MIL-STD-810F, a military standard that requires the SSD to sustain reliable operation during a series of rigorous tests that validate its ability to endure the extreme environments typically seen in industrial and military applications.
The pureSilicon Renegade SSD addresses the demands of the most challenging environments where heat, vibration, and humidity preclude the use of traditional hard disk drives or regular, 'consumer-grade' SSDs. A dedicated on-board cryptographic processor provides hardware-driven 256-bit AES encryption that delivers instantaneous encryption and decryption of data without degrading performance.
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Just a reminder that our TMPGEnc MPEG Editor 3 Giveaway ends on November 3rd. To enter the contest, simply register on the forum and make a post in this thread. You can also enter a second time by answering a few questions about TMPGEnc MPEG Editor 3. The list of questions can be found here. Good luck everyone!
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Antec Notebook Cooler 200 @ Virtual-Hideout
Antec NSK 6580B Mid-Tower Case @ High Tech Reviews
Asus 9800GT Matrix Videocard @ Rbmods
Cooler Master Hyper Z600R CPU Cooler @ TweakTown
Dell Studio 1735 Notebook @ InsideHW
FSP Group Everest 900w PSU @ High Tech Reviews
Lancool Metal Boned K12 @ Hardware Zone
Microsoft Explorer Mini Mouse @ Hardware Zone
Microsoft Sidewinder X6 Gaming Keyboard @ Benchmark Reviews
Nextar M3-MX GPS @ I4U
WolfKing Trooper MVP Gaming Mouse @ Tweaknews.net
Xigmatek NRP-MC651 650 watt Power Supply @ TweakTown
