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- Other
AMD Radeon HD 6450 and 6570 Graphics Cards @ InsideHW.com
ASUS O!Play HD2 HD Media Player @ ThinkComputers.org
ASUS RT-N56U Wireless-N Gigabit Router @ Benchmark Reviews
Evercool Transformer 4+ Plus CPU Cooler @ Tweaknews
GIGABYTE Aivia M8600 Wireless Gaming Mouse @ Techgage
GIGABYTE GA-E350N-USB3 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo @ OCIA.net
GIGABYTE T1125N-CF1 11.6-inch Tablet Convertible Notebook @ TweakTown
HTC Thunderbolt Android Smartphone @ HotHardware
Razer Nostromo Gaming Keypad @ Metku.net
Thermaltake Frio - CLP0564 @ Computing on Demand
Thermaltake Max 5G USB Drive Enclosure @ Bigbruin.com
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- Home Entertainment
According to The NPD Group, a leading market research company, consumers are still using DVDs and Blu-ray Disc (BD) to watch movies more than all digital-video options combined. Over the past three months, 77 percent of consumers reported watching a movie on a DVD or BD, which is unchanged from last year. Those who viewed movies from physical discs reported watching an average of four hours per week, which is also unchanged from the prior year. By comparison 68 percent watched a movie on a TV or cable network channel, 49 percent at a theater, and 21 percent used paid video on demand through their TVs.
According to data from NPD’s “Entertainment Trends in America” report, when asked about their recent spending on home video, consumers reported that 78 percent of their home video budgets went to the purchase and rental of DVD and BD, including online and in-store retail purchases and rentals, while 15 percent was spent on video subscription services like Netflix that offer a mix of physical and streaming rentals. Digital video downloads, paid streaming, paid transactional video on demand (VOD), and pay per view (PPV) comprised the remaining 8 percent. Overall per-capita spending on home video fell by 2 percent.
“With the well publicized struggles of Blockbuster and retail video stores closing around the country, and with media attention increasingly focused on the newest digital home-video offerings, the value and importance of physical formats to the home video industry and to consumers is often overlooked,” said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for The NPD Group. “Even though DVD sales and rentals are slowing, there is no evidence that consumers are abandoning physical discs for watching movies, even as the choices for viewing are expanding.”
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- Duplicators
MF Digital, an industry leader in disc duplicator equipment has announced the release of its latest product – The Asynchronous Cougar 6600.
Cougar is a high volume, high speed, industrial standalone production duplicator. With 600 disc capacity and 6 CD / DVD drives, Cougar delivers fast operation with its full Asynchronous mode. By eliminating the need to wait for all drives to load as used in limited technology Synchronous systems, Cougar outperforms most 8 drive synchronous mode competitors.
Cougar has been built on our industrial light-weight cast aluminium chassis. Cougar offers easy to use intuitive front panel keypad operation, high capacity, high speed operation and provides the key ability for the system to be expanded for high volume operational requirements.
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- Home Entertainment
ASUS has launched WAVI, the world’s first wireless HDMI kit to feature innovative two-way wireless USB control designed to stream PC content to the big screen TV. WAVI (Wireless Audio Video Interaction) is offered as a pair of devices that bridges the gap between the home office and living room. Watch movies, play the latest PC games, enjoy social networking or even do online shopping, all on the big screen TV from the comfort of a couch.
The WAVI HDMI streaming kit consists of a transmitter and receiver for two-way input and streaming. Unlike other wireless HDMI kits, the WAVI allows users to control the PC content in the living room with a wireless keyboard and mouse, thanks to wireless USB support. The WAVI operates at the wireless 5GHz band and provides up to 25 meters of coverage. Additionally, under the Extend Mode, users can continue working on the PC screen while streaming multimedia content to the living room TV – maximizing the use of a single home PC while also providing home entertainment experiences.
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- Flash Memory
Intel Corporation and Micron Technology Inc. today introduced a new, finer 20-nanometer (nm) process technology for manufacturing NAND flash memory. The new 20nm process produces an 8-gigabyte (GB) multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash device, providing a high-capacity, small form factor storage option for saving music, video, books and other data on smartphones, tablets and computing solutions such as solid-state drives (SSDs).
The growth in data storage combined with feature enhancements for tablets and smartphones is creating new demands for NAND flash technology, especially greater capacity in smaller designs. The new 20nm 8GB device measures just 118mm2 and enables a 30 to 40 percent reduction in board space (depending on package type) compared to the companies' existing 25nm 8GB NAND device. A reduction in the flash storage layout provides greater system level efficiency as it enables tablet and smartphone manufacturers to use the extra space for end-product improvements such as a bigger battery, larger screen or adding another chip to handle new features.
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- Hard Disks
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, announced today its new family of hard disk drives, including two portable drives and a desktop storage station. Supporting the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface, the new external hard drives can provide data transfer speeds of up to 5 gigabits per second, delivering a maximum 10-fold higher data transfer rate over the USB 2.0, allowing users to transfer a 25-gigabyte full HD movie in just four minutes.
Samsung's portable drives come in two designs, the entry-level M2 Portable and the premium C2 Portable 3.0. The M2 Portable comes with a wave-like matte finish that covers scratches and fingerprints, with curved sides for a comfortable grip. The drives are available in densities of up to 1 terabyte, USB 2.0/3.0 interface, and four colors: Brown Black, Noble Beige, Mist Gray and Clay Orange.
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- Optical Storage
Today, Aleratec Inc. added two new types of 6x Blu-ray BD-R media to its existing lineup of duplicator grade media. The new lineup consists of a 25-pack of white inkjet printable BD-R 6x media and a 10-pack of traditional silver BD-R 6x media.
"Our customers look to us for the latest technology in hardware and media," said Perry Solomon, President and CEO of Aleratec. "We are pleased to offer 6x BD-R in both inkjet printable and standard silver formats for faster disc burning. In fact, we've gone a step further and optimized our Aleratec Stand Alone Blu-ray Duplicators (part #260201 and 260202) to burn at speeds up to an amazing 10x with this new media!"
Unlike other Blu-ray media, Aleratec's new 6x BD-R media is designed for use in demanding professional duplication applications, resulting in fewer bad copies due to poor disc quality. Additionally, the white surface of the inkjet printable 6x BD-R media produces professional quality labels and supports high-resolution color graphics. The company also offers a wide assortment of duplicator-grade LightScribe and traditional blank media, which have all been optimized for maximum reliability when used with Aleratec duplicators.
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- Hard Disks
Toshiba Corporation today announced the launch of the world's first series of Self-Encrypting Drives (SED) equipped with Wipe Technology, Toshiba's proprietary suite of security functions that bring an unsurpassed level of data protection to IT equipment. Wipe Technology allows users to determine a range of security settings, including invalidation of encryption keys and data invalidation when a drive is removed from its housing or connected to an unauthorized host system.
The five models in the 2.5-type MK6461GSYG family range from 160 gigabytes (GB) to 640GB and are designed for use in copiers, printers, POS systems, PCs and other IT devices. Sampling will start from the end of April with mass production following at the end of June.
IT departments must contend with various security risks, from lost and stolen PC through to compliance with increasingly strict privacy laws and regulations governing data security. These concerns also go beyond PCs. Today, most office copier and printing systems utilize HDD capacity and performance to support productivity and the security of recorded document image data that must be maintained. Furthermore, data invalidation required overwriting for hours or physically disrupting until now.
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- Home Entertainment
The ASUS O!Play Gallery takes all-around high definition enjoyment to the TV with the ASUS exclusive O!Direct streaming function and extensive internet-based services and content management. The multi-role design of the O!Play Gallery offers easy connectivity with the iPhone and iPod, the latest USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s devices and support for 7.1-channel Dolby TrueHD audio. It provides a true home entertainment center that’s perfect for video, photos and music, with support for all major media formats.
Entertainment on demand! The O!Play Gallery allows users to plug and play media content from an iPod and iPhone in full HD on the living room TV, with no additional software needed. The intuitive remote control with a built-in rotary wheel bundled with the O!Play Gallery helps users make their multimedia experience fun and easy to use.
The ASUS exclusive O!Direct function offers consumers fast and reliable one-click streaming of content from PC to TV. Hassle-free streaming brings broader enjoyment in the living room in both wired and wireless modes, without the need for USB storage devices and their storage restrictions.
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- Hard Disks
Sharkoon expands their portfolio of internal removable frames for SATA drives. The two new models of the "Sharkoon SATA QuickPort Intern" series fit in a 5.25 inch PC bay, and offers a respective four or six installation bays for SATA hard drives and SSDs in a 2.5 inch format.
The storage medium can simply be removed and re-attached by use of the screwable mounting frame, the lockable front covers guard against unwanted access. Cooling is provided by the fan on the backside of the case. To connect the hard drive slots with the main board SATA ports each has an appropriate number of SATA cables. Power is supplied via a 4-pin power connector.
The removable frame supports SATA Standards I to III, and provides a transfer rate of up to 6 GB/s. The case measures 146 x 150 x 41 mm (L x W x H) and weighs 573 grams (4-Bay) or 683 grams (6-Bay), respectively. Shipping includes an instructional manual, assembly screws, two keys plus the respective four or six SATA cables.
