Creative Technology Ltd today announced its new ultra high-performance Z-Series of Sound Blaster PCI-Express sound cards, elevating the standards of technology and performance for the future of gaming and entertainment on the PC.  Creative will preview the new Sound Blaster ZxR, Sound Blaster Zx and Sound Blaster Z at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany from 15-19 August 2012.

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“The audio landscape for gaming and entertainment on the PC has changed.  As content creation and consumption evolves with the interactivity of the Internet, our vision is to enable the best listening experiences for music, video and games, and to transcend the basic concept of sound quality as a specification with enabling technologies that allow users to completely customise their PC audio,” said Low Long Chye, Director of Product Marketing for Audio.  “For audio playback, we use studio-grade components to deliver outstanding fidelity, and then greatly enhance the listening experience by implementing our SBX Pro Studio™ suite of audio technologies.  This enables complete customisation of audio playback, uniquely catered to suit individual tastes.  Our mixture of outstanding components and proprietary technologies also enables us to provide the highest quality recording experience for audio creation, which today expands beyond just music recording to include user interaction and creation with YouTube, eSports, and more.”

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Sony Creative Software, a leading provider of professional video and audio editing applications, today announced the availability of Pixelcast, a new online media sharing service. Pixelcast encourages collaboration between friends and family with videos, photos and music to create a complete multimedia experience. Videos can also be uploaded directly to Pixelcast.com from within the newly upgraded Movie Studio Platinum 12 software, making it easier than ever for users to share creations with others.

“It’s not unusual for photos from a family event to become scattered across multiple social sites, computers, or even e-mails. Pixelcast offers a new solution by enabling users to interact and collaborate with one another to create jointly-produced albums, or experiences. Collaboration is only part of the fun. Pixelcast also ensures that photos and videos uploaded to an experience can only be accessed by someone who is invited to view, edit, or contribute to it,” said Dave Chaimson, vice president of global marketing for Sony Creative Software. “We’re thrilled to introduce Pixelcast as a new service for our users to create unique experiences to share and collaborate with friends and family. Check out the introductory video at Pixelcast.com for information on uploading and sharing to the Pixelcast cloud and, while you’re there, give the service a try by signing up for a free account.”

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LaCie announced today that it has updated its entire USB 3.0 portfolio to include 2nd generation USB 3.0 products. The next generation USB 3.0 products are available now in Apple® retail locations.

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For the last three years, LaCie has delivered premium USB 3.0 solutions to millions of Mac and PC customers. Building on this industry experience and momentum, LaCie has re-engineered its USB 3.0 range to take full advantage of computers that include the Intel® Ivy Bridge processor with native USB 3.0 interfaces. LaCie's new USB 3.0 storage solutions will also benefit from performance enhancements within OS X® Lion and Mountain Lion. Thanks to UAS (USB Attached SCSI Protocol), people with the latest Macbook Air®, Macbook Pro® and Macbook Pro with Retina Display will experience maximum USB 3.0 performance.

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Patriot Memory, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash, storage, and enthusiast computer products today launches its new wireless personal storage enclosure the Gauntlet Node. Previously announced as the Gauntlet Wifi, the Gauntlet Node will allow users to break free from the hardware limited storage options offered in today’s most popular tablets, smart phones, and laptops by offering up to 1 terabyte of untethered external storage.

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Providing an extremely flexible wireless storage solution, the Gauntlet Node can be fitted with any new or used 2.5” mechanical hard drive or solid state drive and is hot swappable for no hassle use with multiple drives. Using Gauntlet Connect, available through Google Play, Amazon App Store, and iTunes, the Gauntlet Node is capable of sharing or streaming to 8 connected devices for excellent on the go productivity or entertainment. Powered by a lithium ion battery, the Gauntlet Node can stream movies, music, and photos or transfer data continuously for up to 5.5 hours.

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TRENDnet, a best-in-class wired and wireless networking hardware brand, announces today the availability of the 500 Mbps Compact Powerline AV Adapter Kit, model TPL-406E2K, which comes with two TPL-406E powerline adapters. These high performance 500 Mbps adapters are fifty percent smaller than the average 500 Mbps adapter.

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New media center devices such as Internet televisions, digital video recorders (DVRs), receivers, and game consoles are capable of streaming large HD files directly from the Internet. TRENDnet's ground breaking TPL-406E2K connects all of these devices to the Internet using existing electrical lines.

Network one adapter to a router and plug the other adapter into any outlet on the same electrical system for instant high speed network access. Different TRENDnet adapters automatically connect to each other over a secure encrypted signal with no CD installation required. For additional security, press the Sync button to change existing encryption keys. Embedded power saving technology lowers power consumption by up to 70% in standby mode -- resulting in measurable power savings, given that the adapters are always plugged in.

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Introducing the MB994IPO-3SB, a full metal dual bay 2.5" SATA/SAS hard drive / SSD mobile rack backplane designed with a Slim Optical Disk Drive (ODD) slot for use in a single 5.25" device bay. It's a perfect device designed for small form factor system or server such as: IPC, HTPC, NAS, Home Servers and All-In-One computers. Dual 4-pin power connectors are used to ensure secured and consistent power supply to both drives and ODD, whether they are low power consumption 2.5" SATA SSD's or power hungry 15000 RPM 2.5" SAS drives. Also included is a single 40mm cooling fan with on & off switch to assist the drives running at their optimal temperatures, in even the most intense applications.

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The MB994IPO-3SB separates itself from the rest of the MB994 series by the unique Slim Optical Disk Drive slot that is available. The Slim ODD slot uses our EZ-ODD Tray made of full metal, and is easily removable by use of the provided key or via a side latch. This allows system integrators more freedom to better meet their potential client's needs.

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LSI Corporation today introduced its latest MegaRAID 6Gb/s SAS+SATA controllers and host bus adapters (HBAs) featuring the PCI Express 3.0 interface.

Seven new LSI MegaRAID controllers are offered with four or eight ports and provide a powerful combination of intelligent performance, enterprise RAID data protection and proven interoperability. Three new LSI HBA models provide state-of-the-art connectivity for servers and appliances in a variety of enterprise-level environments including corporate datacenters, the cloud and high-performance computing.

“In the face of massive data growth, system builders and resellers are racing to meet increasing demand for larger, more scalable systems that deliver reliability and high performance,” said Brent Blanchard, director of worldwide channel sales and marketing, LSI. “The addition of PCIe 3.0 on the new MegaRAID controllers and HBAs brings dramatically higher levels of performance and allows greater system design flexibility, with proven LSI product quality and reliability.”

The MegaRAID controllers announced today increase performance  and protection for business and mission-critical data stored on high-performance SAS hard drives, high-capacity SATA hard drives or application-accelerating solid state drives (SSDs). Each controller is powered by the LSI SAS 2208/2308 RAID-on-Chip using 6Gb/s SAS technology and includes dual 800MHz PowerPC® Processor cores with 1GB cache memory.

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Belkin, creator of people-inspired consumer technology products, today announced a new way to watch, record, and experience television content at home or on the go with @TV. @TV works over Wi-Fi or a 3G/4G network and allows users to access all content from their home theater on tablets, smartphones, and laptops.

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“Americans have long had a love affair with TV, and now they are increasingly demanding the ability to access their TV content wherever and whenever they want. It’s no longer enough to record content to watch later,” said Jamie Elgie, senior director of product management at Belkin. “With @TV you aren’t limited to certain channels, and you have full access to both recorded content and live TV, so it’s easy to watch the game in the backyard or your favorite movie at the dentist.”

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d-link_shareport_dir-505.pngD-Link today announced its SharePort All-in-One Mobile Companion (DIR-505) – an innovative new product every tablet and smartphone owner needs – is now shipping. SharePort offers instant USB sharing capabilities with the free D-Link SharePort Mobile app, enabling users to share videos, music, and photos from an external hard drive or thumb drive to any iPad®, iPhone® or Android® device. In addition, SharePort provides wireless access wherever an existing network is available and adds instant storage to a mobile device, offering the ultimate set of features for home or on-the-go convenience.

"SharePort is an all-in-one mobile companion that is ideal for anyone who enjoys playing music, movies or viewing photos from their iPad, iPhone or Android device,"said Daniel Kelley, associate vice president of marketing, D-Link North America. "It allows for easy sharing of media to Android and iOS mobile devices.  Plus, SharePort instantly adds storage to your mobile device and can also serve as a portable router/access point, Wi-Fi hotspot and Wi-Fi repeater for instant wireless access from anywhere a network already exists, whether at home or traveling."

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Hybrid hard disk drives (HDD) containing a built-in layer of NAND flash memory may offer the advantage of consolidated storage for increasingly popular ultrabook laptops, but cache solid state drives (SSD) will remain the mainstream Ultrabook storage solution, according to an IHS iSuppli Storage Market Brief report from information and analytics provider IHS.

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Already the leading storage form factor in ultrabooks, cache SSDs will see their shipments rise even more this year to 23.9 million units, up by an astounding 2,660 percent from just 864,000 units in 2011, as shown in the figure below. Shipments will then jump to 67.7 million units next year, cross the hundred-million-unit mark in 2015, and hit 163 million units by 2016.

In comparison, shipments of hybrid HDDs will reach 2.0 million units this year, up from 1.0 million units in 2011, on their way to reaching 25.0 million units by 2016. A third form of flash storage—dedicated SSDs that contain no cache component—will attain shipments this year of 18.0 million in consumer applications, gradually ramping up to 69.0 million units in 2016.

Consisting of a traditional hard disk drive and an integrated NAND flash layer within one self-contained form factor, hybrid HDDs are a new storage option being considered for the super-thin ultrabooks.

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