- Details
- Home Entertainment
It's time to unlock your DVDs America! The freedom to watch your movies any time, any place is here! Walmart is giving physical DVD/Blu-ray collections across the country a second life by turning them into digital movies. The nation's largest home entertainment retailer is the first to announce an exclusive in-store disc-to-digital service which gives movie lovers the freedom to watch their DVD/Blu-ray collections from Internet-connected devices, including televisions, tablets, smartphones, gaming consoles and more. The service is powered by VUDU, the industry-leading video streaming service.
Walmart, in partnership with the major Hollywood studios: Paramount Home Media Distribution, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, is increasing the value of movie ownership for its customers. Starting April 16th, 2012 in more than 3,500 stores, Walmart customers will be able to bring their DVD and Blu-ray collections to Walmart and receive digital access to their favorite titles from the partnering studios. An equal conversion for standard DVDs and Blu-ray discs will be $2. Standard DVDs can be upgraded to High-Def (HD) for $5.
The appetite for enjoying movies is strong and growing. Walmart wants to help movie lovers download or stream their movies when they want and where they want. Walmart asked thousands of customers their thoughts regarding movie ownership. Customers want to own physical Blu-rays and DVDs and customers also want to have digital access to those same movies for convenience. Customers also cited accessibility, security, affordability, and simplicity as key decision factors for wanting a digital solution. Walmart listened and is delivering America's first disc-to-digital service.
- Details
- Network Storage
Synology Inc. today launched DiskStation DS112j, the most economical, power-saying and quiet 1-bay NAS server designed to serve as users’ private cloud and multimedia center.
“Synology DS112j comes at an entry-level price point, but makes no compromise in the richness of features offered by Synology,” said Darren Lin, a product manager of Synology Inc. “It is a gateway to Synology’s unique cloud services and applications, making it easy for users to keep their data in sync across all their PC, mobile devices and DS112j, and carry terabytes of multimedia files anywhere,” Lin added.
With a brand-new enclosure design, the DS112j is quieter and cooler. Its low-rotation 60mm fan and ventilation openings facilitate heat dispassion and minimize its noise level to 17.1dB(A), quieter even than a library. The DS112j features a new mechanical design to place the hard drive optimally, creating a smooth path for air to flow to keep the system running cooler.
- Details
- Hard Disks
Western Digital Corp. today announced that it has completed its acquisition of Viviti Technologies Ltd. (formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies), effective Mar. 8, 2012, for $3.9 billion in cash and 25 million shares of WDC common stock valued at approximately $0.9 billion. Hitachi, Ltd. now owns approximately 10 percent of WDC shares outstanding, and it has the right to designate two individuals to the board of directors of WD.
The new WD will operate with WD Technologies (WD) and HGST as wholly owned subsidiaries. Aggregated revenues of the two companies in 2011 were $15 billion. As chief executive officer of WD, John Coyne heads up the new office of the CEO, with Steve Milligan as president, Tim Leyden as chief operating officer and Wolfgang Nickl as chief financial officer.
"The completion of this acquisition is a truly momentous event in the 42-year history of our company," said Coyne. "With ownership of two successful companies and the best talent available in the industry, we expect to accomplish great things as we build the new WD to be the world's leading storage solutions provider with the industry's deepest technology capability, broadest product portfolio and best-in-class execution. Similar to successful multi-brand models in other industries, the two subsidiaries will compete in the marketplace with separate brands and product lines while sharing common values of customer delight, value creation, consistent profitability and growth."
- Details
- Network Storage
QNAP Systems, Inc. today officially launched the next generation of its extremely popular and award-winning Turbo NAS server lineup, the TS-x69 Pro series, and showcased the new NAS Firmware 3.6 and the latest VioStor NVR video surveillance systems.
The new TS-x69 Pro series, available in 2, 4, 5, 6, or 8-drive versions, are powered by a high performance dual-core Intel® Atom™ processor D2700, equipped with 1GB DDR3 RAM, and support SATA 6Gb/s 2.5” and 3.5” HDD, to provide the levels of performance required by SMB users. All models have 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports. “The QNAP lab test statistics reveal that both writing and reading speeds in a Windows environment exceed 220 MB/sec in network trunking mode,” commented Laurent Chang, product manager of QNAP.
The TS-x69 Pro series provides the perfect blend of performance, business-ready features and value that make QNAP the ideal networked storage choice for small and medium-sized businesses. The built-in USB 3.0 ports provide flexibility to attach external storage devices for high speed data backup or immediate storage expansion.
The TS-x69 Pro series can simultaneously provide storage solutions for IP-SAN (iSCSI) and NAS implementations. Being VMware® Ready™, Citrix® XenServer Ready™, and Windows® Hyper-V™ compliant, it is ideal for providing network shared storage for virtual server environments.
- Details
- Optical Storage
Buffalo Japan has definitely been on a roll lately. The company not only announced one of the industry's first 14x Blu-ray Disc writers, they've now unveiled what they claim to be the world's smallest and lightest portable Blu-ray Disc writer. The BRXL-CSPI6U2-BK weighs in at a mere 240g and, thanks to a unique clamshell design, measures only 133 × 133 × 14.8 mm. This USB powered drive is capable of 6x BD-R, 6x BD-R DL, 4x BD-R LTH, 2x BD-RE and 2x BD-RE DL writing speeds and a maximum BD-ROM read speed of 6x. The BRXL-CSPI6U2-BK also writes to triple- (100GB) and quad-layer (128GB) BD-R media at 6x and triple-layer (100GB) BD-RE media at 2x.
The BRXL-CSPI6U2-BK comes with a software bundle from CyberLink that supports BDXL recording as well as Blu-ray 3D playback. it also includes DiXiM BD Burner 2011 from DigiOn, which lets you burn copy-protected digtal content directly from DTCP-IP enabled DLNA devices on your home network. The BRXL-CSPI6U2-BK is scheduled to ship at the end of March and is expected to retail for about 21,000 Yen ($257US).
Add a comment- Details
- Flash Memory
Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced the immediate availability of the Crucial Adrenaline Solid State Cache Solution for enhancing Windows 7-based PC performance. A simple upgrade that allows users to keep their existing hard drive, Crucial Adrenaline enables PCs to boot up to twice as fast and increases data access speeds by up to eight times*. Crucial Adrenaline provides users with the best of both worlds: SSD-like performance with the high capacity of a traditional hard drive, all at an affordable cost.
Comprising a 50GB Crucial m4 SSD, 3.5” adapter bracket, SATA cable, and NVELO Dataplex™ caching software, Crucial Adrenaline improves performance by intelligently placing, or “caching,” the most frequently needed files on the SSD and leaves less frequently used files on the hard drive. Crucial Adrenaline is available now through select global channel partners, or directly at www.crucial.com/ssc, with an MSRP of $117.99.
- Details
- Flash Memory
OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced that Drobo will utilize the OCZ Talos SAS SSD Series for integration into its B1200i iSCSI SAN solutions for business environments. Drobo, makers of award-winning data storage products for businesses and professionals, has chosen to provide customers with even faster and more robust storage systems by complementing the sophisticated feature set of the B1200i with the superior performance, energy efficiency, and maximum endurance of Talos SSDs.
Ideal for small-and-medium businesses (SMBs), the Drobo B1200i provides reliable, high-performance, and self-optimizing storage for server virtualization, email, and data protection and features seamless integration with existing infrastructures as an iSCSI SAN device. With innovative automated data-aware tiering, the B1200i delivers a level of automation and technical sophistication that is easier to use and less costly to deploy than typical enterprise solutions. The B1200i is the first Drobo product to leverage the benefits of SSDs for increased bandwidth, lower power consumption, and instantaneous access times.
- Details
- Optical Storage
Buffalo Japan sent out a press release this morning, announcing its new 14x Blu-ray Disc writer, the BRXL-14FBS. Based on what appears to be the LG BH14NS40, this new drive is capable of 14x BD-R (with Sony 6x BD-R media), 12x BD-R DL, 6x BD-R LTH, 2x BD-RE and 2x BD-RE DL writing speeds. On top of that, the BRXL-14FBS can write to triple- (100GB) and quad-layer (128GB) BD-R media at 6x and triple-layer (100GB) BD-RE media at 2x.
The BRXL-14FBS comes with a software bundle from CyberLink that supports BDXL recording as well as Blu-ray 3D playback. it also includes DiXiM BD Burner 2011 from DigiOn, which lets you burn copy-protected digtal content directly from from DLNA or UPnP devices on your home network. The BRXL-14FBS is scheduled to ship at the end of March and is expected to retail for about 18,900 Yen ($232US).
Add a comment- Details
- Other
External docking stations are popular because of its flexibility and compatibility. However, because it is for external use, the interface limits the transfer speed of your hard drive while only allowing one to be use at a time. In a standard computer case, there are several 5.25" bays usually reserved for your DVD ROM drive, however, will not naturally fit with your 2.5" or 3.5" hard drives without some assistance. Using the MB971SP-B DuoSwap, you will save precious desktop space by integrating both 3.5" & 2.5" slots into a single 5.25" bay. This gives you the ability to expand and easily go from your external docking station to your computer in just seconds.
Some key features that help make using the device simple to use are: Individual LED's, power button & eject button. Because the hard drives are connected internally, you will be able to transfer your files up to SATA 6 Gb speed. You will be able to finish the job done much faster than ever before with this setup. The security of your hard drive or SSD is a non-issue as the "Eagle-Hook" mechanism switches on immediately after the 3.5" drive is inserted and locks the 3.5" hard drive in place. Having an easy way to use your hard drives as they should be used, without the worry of installing or removing makes it a must have accessory for any personal PC, Lab testing PC or HDD duplication system.
- Details
- Duplicators
Aleratec today announced an essential and portable tool for building and upgrading computer systems. The 1:3 HDD Copy Dock Duplicator is a powerful and versatile hard disk drive duplicator and HDD docking station that features PC connectivity via USB 3.0 or eSATA.
With this HDD duplicator and hard drive dock, users can copy from a single source hard drive to up to three target hard drives at one time, making hard disk duplication more efficient.
As a docking station, the 1:3 HDD Copy Dock Duplicator can be connected to a PC with an included SuperSpeed USB 3.0 or included eSATA cable. This connection allows users instant access to the contents of up to four connected hard disk drives at a time. Users can add additional storage to an existing computer or just manage their drives with greater ease.
