LaCie recently launched its new line of rugged multimedia hard drives. The LaCinema Rugged features a scratch-resistant aluminium shell, internal shock absorbers, and shock-resistant rubber bumper. The drive also offers up to 500GB of storage and ,when connected to a television, it can be used to listen to music, view pictures or play videos at resolutions as high as 1080i.

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LaCie announced today the LaCinema Rugged, the latest generation in multimedia products to provide high quality movie viewing with the compact and acclaimed reliability of LaCie’s trusted mobile enclosure. Bus-powered and durable, the LaCinema Rugged allows users to enjoy their collections on the go or at home.

Designed by Neil Poulton, the Rugged features a unique scratch-resistant aluminum shell, internal anti-shock absorbers, and a shock-resistant rubber bumper to better protect media files against everyday blunders. Similar to previous LaCinema creations, the Rugged edition provides the convenience of a centralized media library with graphic menus and an easy-to-use remote control.

Compatible with both Mac and Windows environments, the USB 2.0 interface connects to the computer for easy multimedia loading. Once the data is transferred to the portable drive it is ready to be viewed on any display, where the user’s media can be accessed through an HDMI connection or legacy composite video connection. Optimized viewing through HDMI 1080i upscaling will allow you to play back videos on your HDTV or enjoy photos in clear HD resolution.

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Plextor Europe sent out a press release today, announcing a 500GB version of its pocket-sized PC-to-TV media player. Using the MediaX PX-MPM500U, consumers can take the photos, music and video stored on their PC and play them back on their TV at resolutions up to 720p.

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An ideal Christmas gift, Plextor has grown the capacity of its hugely popular HD PC-to-TV mediaplayer to 500GB, but keeps its pocket-sized case for ultra portability. The Plextor MediaX PX-MPM500U, is capable of playing HD movies and music through your TV or hi-fi simply and easily.   Rudy De Meirsman, Sales & Marketing Manager at Plextor, says: “We have only recently introduced our first pocket-sized MediaX and it has proved very popular with buyers across Europe – at 160 or 320GB. Now with 500GB it is even more appealing, especially in run-up to Christmas when it will make a fantastic present. They are ideal for transferring pictures or HD movies to your family TV.”  

With Christmas fast approaching, the combined mediaplayer/ external HDD device makes an ideal gift for loved ones – perfect for taking your holiday photos and movie footage with you wherever you go.

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Western Digital announced this week that it has begun to ship the second-generation of its WD Caviar Green desktop hard drives. Available in capacities ranging from 500 GB to 1 TB, WD's new Green hard drives consume up to 20% less power and offer a 10% increase in performance over the previous version.

WD (NYSE: WDC) today announced the second-generation of its highly popular and environmentally friendly WD® Caviar® Green™ desktop hard drives, which feature the company's GreenPower™ technology to significantly reduce power consumption, compared with standard hard drives. The new platform is based on WD's 333 GB/platter technology with 32 MB cache, producing capacities ranging from 500 GB to 1 TB1.

As an innovative leader in green storage technology, WD has ramped up its successful GreenPower technology-based hard drives to greater than 10 percent of its 3.5-inch hard drive shipments in the initial twelve months of production, making low-power technologies one of WD's fastest growing segments and WD Caviar Green one of the most successful new products in the company's recent history.

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According to Bloomberg, Fujitsu is rumored to be selling its money-losing hard drive business to Western Digital. While neither company has confirmed this rumor, the business is expected to sell for 70-100 billion yen and will include Fujitsu's plants in Japan, the Philippines and Thailand.

Fujitsu Ltd. is in talks to sell its unprofitable storage-drive business to Western Digital Corp., three Fujitsu executives said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are preliminary.

The executives declined to comment on the sale price after the Nikkei newspaper said today the business may fetch 70 billion yen ($659 million) to 100 billion yen. Tokyo-based Fujitsu said in a statement that the report had ``no factual basis.''

Fujitsu rose as much as 7.2 percent in Tokyo trading as Deutsche Bank AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co. said a sale may help raise investor confidence over management's commitment to boost earnings. A purchase may help Western Digital challenge Seagate Technology's lead in a storage-drive industry that's facing falling prices and competition from flash memory chipmakers.  

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SimpleTech has updated its line of Pro Drive and Duo Pro Drive external hard drives. Along with highter capacities, the new drives offer a quad interface (eSATA, FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0) and a reinforced design for added reliability and durability.

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If you're part of the digital media generation, a power user or even a small business owner, there's no doubt that your computer is quickly filling up with tons of video clips, songs, digital photographs and documents. To help relieve you of this data overload, SimpleTech (http://www.SimpleTech.com), a Fabrik company, today announced two affordable ways to easily add more storage capacity and backup power to your home or office computers - the 1.5TB SimpleTech® Pro Drive™ and the first 3TB two-drive RAID 0/1 solution, the SimpleTech Duo Pro Drive™. Each solution now ships with a reinforced design for added reliability and durability, higher capacities so you have room to grow, and a quad interface (eSATA, FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0) that future-proofs your investment, so you'll be prepared to connect to whatever system, device or peripheral - in the future as well as today.

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