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QNAP Systems today announced the latest refresh of its rack-mounted Business Series Turbo NAS servers which are hugely popular with corporate and entry-level enterprise customers for their sheer performance and business-ready features. Announced today are two new 4-drive units, the TS-459U-RP+ and the TS-459U-SP+ with up to 8TB of networked storage, and the TS-859U-RP+ with up to a whopping 16TB of online storage (using 2TB hard drives).
These new rack-mounted Business Series TS-x59U-RP+ models incorporate the new dual-core Intel Atom processor D525 with 1.8GHz clock speed and 1GB RAM, which can achieve up to 113MB/s transfer rates (FTP/Samba reads) via dual Gigabit LAN ports while maintaining guaranteed low power consumption.
The TS-459U-RP+ and the TS-859U-RP+ contain redundant power supplies, which ensure continuous services and maximum up-time of the NAS in the data centre even if one of the power supply units failed. The system will notify the administrator via SMS or email should any power supply failure occur. The TS-459U-SP+ contains a single power supply. The SP+ model can be upgraded to a TS-459U-RP+ by simply adding a redundant power supply, sold separately.
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Western Digital today announced the addition of several entertainment and social sites to the popular WD TV media player family. WD TV Live and WD TV Live Plus media player customers will now be able to connect with their friends and family through Facebook – including uploading photos and videos, sharing their status, viewing their wall and getting the latest updates from their News Feed – among other entertainment choices, all from their HDTV. Meanwhile, WD TV Live Plus media player customers in the U.S. can now instantly rent or purchase the newest movie releases the same day they become available on DVD and Blu-ray Disc through the Blockbuster On Demand service.
In addition, new features for the WD TV Live and WD TV Live Plus media players include:
- Deezer: a personalized on-demand music service for listening to 7 million tracks anytime, anywhere and one of the most popular Internet and mobile music offerings in Europe;
- Flingo: free Internet television from leading studios, TV networks, and video websites;
- AccuWeather.com: a worldwide weather forecasting service; and,
- USB wireless keyboard support: use any popular wireless keyboard with USB dongle to easily update Facebook status and conduct YouTube searches.
"The WD TV family of media players lets our customers enjoy all of their personal media plus the best of the Internet on the biggest screen in the house," said Brian Miller, director of business development for WD. "We listen to our user community and integrate their feedback to continuously improve the experience with our products. That includes working with our content partners to curate the best set of Internet services to meet customers' needs."
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TRENDnet, a best-in-class wired and wireless networking hardware brand, today announces the availability of the first to market 500Mbps Powerline AV Adapter, model TPL-401E, and the 500Mbps Powerline AV Adapter Kit, model TPL-401E2K. Each device represents the fastest Powerline solutions available to consumers today.
Plug the 500Mbps Powerline AV Adapter into any electrical outlet to create a secure 500Mbps building-wide network. Connect one adapter to your router and plug another adapter into any outlet on your electrical system for instant high speed network access. Connect adapters quickly using the convenient one-touch connect button. Use up to 16 Powerline adapters to network devices in different rooms without running new cabling.
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- Flash Memory
Kingston Digital today announced the HyperX MAX 3.0 External USB 3.0 Drive. Shipping in December, the SuperSpeed USB certified HyperX MAX 3.0 drive is a fast and durable external USB 3.0 storage drive. SuperSpeed USB is the specification delivering USB 3.0 transfer speeds up to 10 times faster than USB 2.0.
Kingston's HyperX MAX 3.0 has a read speed of up to 195MB/sec., and a write speed of up to 160MB/sec., when paired with a USB 3.0 compatible device. It is also fully compatible with USB 2.0 devices, as the speed defaults back to USB 2.0 capability. During internal testing, a 10GB movie file was transferred in only 1 minute, 12 seconds to the HyperX MAX 3.0 from a USB 3.0 system. The transfer time increased to 5 minutes, 52 seconds using a USB 2.0 port with the same test bed.
HyperX MAX 3.0 is an excellent drive solution for any prosumer, computer enthusiast or professional requiring extremely fast file transfer to their PC with portability requirements. Moving or backing up HD video, RAW images or other large project files are examples that can take advantage of the extremely high-speed data transfers of the USB 3.0 interface.
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With its members now watching more content streamed over the Internet than on discs delivered by mail, Netflix, Inc. today introduced a $7.99 streaming-only subscription plan in the United States, the first time it is promoting a 100 percent streaming option in the U.S. The plan, which allows members to instantly watch unlimited movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix to TVs and computers, is available now to both new and existing members.
"We are now primarily a streaming video company delivering a wide selection of TV shows and films over the Internet," said Reed Hastings, Netflix co-founder and CEO. "Today's action reflects the tremendous customer value we've injected into streaming from Netflix, our initial success with a pure streaming service in Canada for $7.99 a month and what our U.S. members tell us they want."
The company also announced that the price of its popular subscription combining unlimited movies and TV shows streamed instantly over the Internet and unlimited DVDs delivered quickly by mail, with one DVD out at a time, will increase by a dollar a month to $9.99. Prices of subscription plans allowing for more DVDs out at a time will also increase and are detailed at http://blog.netflix.com. Price changes take effect now for new sign-ups and in January for existing members.
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Newer Technology, Inc. (NewerTech) announced today the NewerTech USB 3.0 Universal Drive Adapter for connecting any 2.5", 3.5", or 5.25" hard drive, SSD, or optical drive to Macs and PCs via USB 3.0 for file transfer after the upgrade of an internal hard drive; for backing-up and storing file archives; and for data access from stored backup drives with driverless, Plug & Play ease and SuperSpeed 5Gb/s data transfer rate performance.
The NewerTech USB 3.0 Universal Drive Adapter is available immediately for $39.99 MSRP from NewerTech's exclusive distributor, Other World Computing (OWC), as well as through the retail channel. It comes with everything needed for immediate use including power cables, interface connecting cables, a heavy duty UL listed 2.0 Amp AC adapter, and a full one year NewerTech warranty. It is compatible with Mac computers running OS 8.6 or higher including all versions of OS X and Microsoft Windows based systems.
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The CompactFlash Association (CFA) announces the CF 6.0 specification, a new CFA logo, and a refreshed website coinciding with the CFA celebrating fifteen years of performance leadership in flash memory card markets.
The CF 6.0 specification adds performance and functionality to the current CF 5.0 specification based on the PATA (Parallel ATA) interface while maintaining backward compatibility. In conjunction with this new specification, CFA has completed a refresh to both the CFA logo and website allowing for improved navigation, future product and market application information along with enhanced member benefits. The CF 6.0 specification includes a new Sanitize Command, Trim Usage Guidelines and an Operating Temperature Range function along with adding Ultra DMA Mode 7 which supports 167 MB/second speed. The new CF 6.0 specification is available for immediate download from the new enhanced CFA website.
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Lite-On announces today the introduction of their most versatile 24X DVD writer to date: the iHAS624. The iHAS624 is a fast and reliable SATA DVD Writer with various disc labeling techniques as well as Smart-Erase for safe and permanent disc erasing. The drive is designed for DVD writing at 24X and features the latest optical drive technologies for accurate disc writing. This DVD Writer reduces the time it takes to reliably secure business files, backup personal files or create DVD videos.
Using LabelTag means a convenient and cost-effective way for labeling any DVD±R single layer disc without using additional software. LabelTag is a patented Lite-On feature that allows users to create a circular label on the data discs. When creating the disc, users can add text and/or images printed on the same side of the disc where the data is stored. No need to use markers, stickers, or even the hassle of flipping the disc. There is no special media required and the disc remains fully compatible with other playback devices.
Additionally, users can choose to label their discs with LightScribe technology. With LightScribe one can directly create customized labels and burn them onto LightScribe compatible DVDs and CDs.
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CyberLink Corp. today released the latest version of its award-winning video editing software, PowerDirector 9. Designed with high usability for consumers and powerful, pro-like features for prosumers, PowerDirector 9 unleashes users’ full creative potential with performance-driven technologies including CyberLink’s new TrueVelocity Engine.
PowerDirector 9 is designed to make the editing process not only easier, but also faster. TrueVelocity editing technologies take advantage of native 64-bit OS support and leading CPU/GPU components to significantly reduce video processing time, while powerful, high quality tools such as the new unified keyframe control and a greatly improved timeline editor allow users to create even the most demanding and complex video productions.
“When designing PowerDirector 9 we focused on four fundamental aspects of the video editing process – speed, power, creativity and sharing,” said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink. “Through innovations like TrueVelocity and significant advancements to existing technologies we have been able to deliver a product that will dramatically improve consumers’ video editing experience.”
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QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading manufacturer of world class NAS servers today refreshes its popular mid-range NAS business lineup with new 2- and 4-drive desktop models, TS-239 Pro II+ and TS-439 Pro II+. The Turbo NAS servers adopt Intel's new D425 single-core Atom CPU with 1.8GHz clock speed and 1GB RAM, which delivers superior performance and high reliability with versatile business features. The new models provide maximum storage of 8TB (using four 2TB hard drives and single disk volume/JBOD configuration). The TS-239 Pro II+ and TS-439 Pro II+ NAS servers are compatible with VMware, Citrix and Windows 2008 Hyper-V clusters virtualization platform, ideal for file sharing, backup, and advanced server applications in the office environment.
"The new Intel Atom-based single-core NAS continues to perform an important niche as a mid-range NAS server at price points which are attractive to small business users," said Laurent Cheng, Product Manager of QNAP Systems, Inc. "QNAP refreshes the CPU clock speed of TS-239 Pro II+ and TS-439 Pro II+ to 1.8GHz which deliver even faster and better performance while executing concurrent applications and intensive data transfer," Mr. Cheng added. The new Turbo NAS supports 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch hard drives housed in lockable, hot-swappable drive carriers, advanced RAID configurations with online RAID capacity expansion, online RAID level migration, and RAID recovery.
