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Sony Corporation today announced a major reorganization and a new management team. The changes, effective April 1, 2009, will fundamentally reorganize the company's electronics and game businesses to improve profitability and strengthen competitiveness in the midst of the continued global economic crisis. They will also accelerate the production of innovative networked products and services by strategically integrating these two business groups.
"Consumers want products that are networked, multi-functional and service-enhanced utilizing open technologies, and user experiences that are rich, shared and, increasingly, green," said Mr. Stringer in announcing these changes. "This reorganization is designed to transform Sony into a more innovative, integrated and agile global company with its next generation of leadership firmly in place. The changes we're announcing today will accelerate the transformation of the Company that began four years ago. They will now make it possible for all of Sony's parts to work together to assume a position of worldwide leadership and, together, achieve great things."
The Board of Directors has endorsed a reorganization of the Company naming Mr. Stringer as President of Sony Corporation in addition to his current responsibilities of Chairman and CEO. Working with his newly appointed electronics leadership team, he will directly oversee the electronics business to enable faster implementation of his strategic direction.
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Sony Optiarc Europe announced today that it will begin shipping its new 24x DVD writer, the AD-7240S, in March of this year. While there aren't a lot of details yet, Optiarc has stated that the Serial ATA equipped AD-7240S will be capable of 24x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R DL and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds. The drive will also support Optiarc's Auto Strategy and Adaptive Self Tuning technologies which optimize writing quality and performance by compensating for disc and drive variations.
While Optiarc America has not made any official announcements regarding the AD-7240S, sources at the company indicated that the drive will be hitting the North American market about the same time as Europe.
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A-DATA Technology, a worldwide leader in high performance DRAM module and flash memory products, announced today its new 64GB S901 USB Flash Drive.
A fashion accessory both eye-pleasing and sporty
Integrating colorful design and rubber material, S901 is both eye-pleasing and sporty. It also comes with a fashionable, vibration-resistant outer casing to keep your data safe and intact. Compact in size, the A-DATA S901 is easy and convenient to carry large amounts of data around with you when you are traveling or working. It is water, dust, and shock resistant and keeps your data from being damaged. Combining the state-of-the-art technology, practical functionality and stylish design, the S901 helps to express one’s unique lifestyle!
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Addonics Technologies (www.addonics.com) today announced the 4X1 eSATA/USB Hardware Port Multiplier (HPM), which has an integrated RAID controller for superior read/write performance.
The 4X1 HPM can connect up to four SATA / SATA II hard drives to a host via a single SATA port or USB port. These connected drives can be easily set to different RAID configurations by dialing an onboard rotary switch. There is no driver or software installation required, thus making the addition of RAID storage to any system simple no matter what the operating system.
The RAID volume, once created, appears to any OS as another hard drive. It can be used as a boot drive in application servers or mission critical equipment. The 4X1 HPM is ideal in high capacity storage applications such as video storage, data archiving, home entertainment or multi-tera bytes storage farm.
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A-DATA announced today the new release of 32GB Turbo SDHC Class 6 Memory Card, the maximum capacity regulated by the 2.0 specification of SDHC.
As the demand for high-definition video and high-resolution digital photography grows rapidly higher, so do the capacity of the flash memory. The general demand for memory capacity is at its peak than ever. People just hate it when they have to delete some precious photos or downgrade the photo quality in order to make room for more pictures! Knowing that, A-DATA proudly presents the market the new A-DATA’s Turbo SDHC Class 6 Memory Card with a capacity of 32GB, the industry-leading spec by far.
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Pioneer Europe has officially announced the availability of its new 8x Blu-ray Disc writer, the BDR-203BK. The drive features 8x BD-R, 8x BD-R DL and 2x BD-RE writing speeds as well as a maximum BD-ROM read speed of 8x.
Now available on an OEM basis across Europe via our distribution network, the BDR-203BK is expected to cost in the region of €250 (although prices will be set by distributors).
The BDR-203BK is also compatible with a wide range of Blu-ray, DVD-R/RW, +R/RW, DVD-RAM and CD media types, with key specifications also including:
- 2X write speed for BD-RE (SL and DL)
- 16X write speed for DVD-R/+R
- 8X write speed for DVD-R DL/+R DL and
- 32X write speed for CD-R media.
With strong performance and features to enhance read/write accuracy, the BDR-203BK adds further momentum to the growing demand for Blu-ray devices.
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VUDU announced this week that it is the first on-demand service to sell movies in high definition. The company currently has more than 50 HD movies available on its 1080p Internet Movie Player, including the 2009 Academy Award winning documentary, Man on Wire. Movies are priced between $13.99 and $23.99 and can be stored on a consumer's VUDU box or in the VUDU Vault.
VUDU, Inc., a leading provider of digital on-demand entertainment products and services, today announced it has achieved another industry milestone by becoming the first on-demand service to offer high definition movies for download to own on its popular 1080p Internet Movie Player. HD movies are available for purchase today to all VUDU owners.
Until now consumers have been restricted to renting HD movies from on- demand services, including VUDU's library of over 1,400 HD movies, the largest HD library in the world. Today VUDU unveiled a collection of over 50 HD movies from top independent studios that are available for both rental and download to own. Movies offered in this collection will be available for purchase in both instant HD and VUDU's industry-leading HDX format at the same price. HDX is the highest quality on-demand format available anywhere on cable, satellite, broadcast, or the Internet.
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Panasonic, Philips and Sony are currently working with other Blu-ray Disc™ patent holders to establish a one-stop-shop license for Blu-ray Disc™ products. This license, which covers essential patents for Blu-ray Disc™, DVD and CD, will be introduced in the middle of this year. The license program will be offered by a new independent licensing company that will be based in the United States with branch offices in Asia, Europe and Latin America. The CEO of the new license company will be Mr. Gerald Rosenthal, former head of IP at IBM and more recently CEO of Open Invention Network.
"By establishing a new licensing entity that offers a single license for Blu-ray Disc™ products at attractive rates, I am confident that it will foster the growth of the Blu-ray Disc™ market and serve the interest of all companies participating in this market, be it as licensee or licensor." said Mr. Rosenthal.
The three founding companies believe that the introduction of this simplified one-stop shop product license will stimulate the growth of the market for Blu-ray Disc™ products. Any holder of essential patents for Blu-ray Disc™, DVD and CD patents is invited to join this licensing entity as a licensor and also as shareholder.
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Other World Computing (OWC(r)) http://www.macsales.com, a leading Mac and PC technology company, announced today its newest OWC Mercury Pro(tm) Blu-ray/SuperDrive "Quad Interface" External Drive solutions featuring super-fast 8X Blu-ray write speeds of up to 2GB per minute. The Mercury Pro Blu-ray "Quad Interface" External Drives are the only Blu-ray burners on the market that provide the flexibility of a "Quad Interface" of FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, & eSATA interfaces for Plug & Play compatibility with both Windows and Macintosh systems.
Available immediately priced starting at $399.99, the Mercury Pro Blu-ray External Drives are ideal for consumers with large amounts of High-Definition or other video, photos, music, and data files that they want to author, archive, or retrieve using a single disk. With twice the Blu-ray burn speed over earlier Mercury Pro models, the new Mercury Pro Blu-ray External Drives are capable of burning 50GB of data -- equal to 50,000 JPEG images, 17,500 MP3 songs, 25 DVD quality movies, or just under four hours of High Definition video -- onto a single disc as quickly as 30 minutes. Additionally, Mercury Pro Blu-ray drives read and/or write virtually all optical media, including DVD-RAM, DVD Dual-Layer R/RW, DVD R/RW, and CD-R/RW, as well as Blu-ray.
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Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced that it has agreed to acquire Fabrik, Inc., a privately-held supplier of personal and professional storage solutions. Fabrik, whose leading storage brands include G-Technology and SimpleTech, strategically positions Hitachi in the fast-growing external storage business.
Industry analyst firm IDC expects worldwide personal storage device shipments to grow from approximately 52 million in 2008 to 123 million in 2012. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. Closing of the acquisition, which is subject to customary conditions, is expected to occur early in the second quarter of 2009.
Fabrik’s business will continue intact and form the core of Hitachi GST’s newly-formed external storage business. Hitachi GST will fully support the G-Technology and SimpleTech product lines, building upon their success and differentiation in the market. The combined company will also leverage operational, technical and product development resources, distribution channels and global reach to accelerate delivery of a full portfolio of traditional hard drives, solid state drives and branded personal and professional storage products.
