Seagate announced today that its FreeAgent Go portable hard drives are now available in six new colors. Along with the initial color options of ruby red, royal blue, tuxedo black and titanium silver, the drives are available in think pink, solar orange, spring green, forest green, sky blue and champagne gold. Seagate will also be launching its Load Me Up promotion on November 28th. As part of the promotion, those that register their FreeAgent drive will get 50 free songs from eMusic, on free movie rental and 50% a year's subscription to SmugMug.

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Seagate (Nasdaq: STX - News), the world's leading provider of storage solutions, unveiled today a gift idea that will keep on giving for years to come. Originally introduced in September with a choice of four colors, the new award-winning FreeAgent® Go portable hard drive is now available in all the colors of the rainbow, including: think pink, ruby red, solar orange, spring green, forest green, royal blue, sky blue, champagne gold, titanium silver and tuxedo black. The initial color options of ruby red, royal blue, tuxedo black and titanium silver are still offered and widely available.

Additionally, from November 28th through the beginning of the New Year, those who register their new Seagate FreeAgent external storage solution will receive a multimedia package from leading online content providers. The Seagate FreeAgent Go storage solution provides a slim, portable form factor with a load of space to back up and store all your valuable multimedia files from holiday memories to your favorite songs. With up to 500GB of available capacity, the FreeAgent Go portable hard drive has enough room to carry entire libraries of movies, music and pictures, making it a great gift for all the important people on your holiday shopping list.

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Toshiba recently introduced its MKxx55GSX series of 2.5-inch hard disk drives. Available in capacities ranging from 120GB to 500GB, these new drives features a 5,400 RPM rotation speed and SATA 3.0 Gb/s interface as well as optimizations and design changes to minimize noise and boost durability.

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Toshiba Storage Device Division (SDD), the pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), today announced a half-terabyte 5,400 RPM, Serial-ATA (SATA) 3.0 Gb/s 2.5-inch HDD with a number of enhanced features that improve the user experience in mobile applications, as well as other digital devices.

Available in capacities from 500GB(1) to 120GB, the super-quiet and durable MKxx55GSX series is targeted for integration into notebook PCs, sub- notebooks, small form factor and energy star PCs, game consoles, printers and external storage devices.

This new family raises the bar in acoustic performance for mainstream high-capacity HDDs. Advanced servo techniques combined with mechanical design changes minimize noise emanating from the MKxx55GSX drives, making them nearly inaudible during operation, with some models performing close to the threshold of human hearing.

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COMPRO Vista U890F USB TV Stick @ Futurelooks
Cooler Master ATCS 840 Computer Case RC-840 @ Benchmark Reviews
Cooler Master HAF 932 Case @ Virtual-Hideout
Func Custom U-Series and C-Series Mouse Pads @ BCCHardware
Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000 @ Hi-Techreviews.com
MSI GeForce 9800GT 512MB @ Phoronix
Panasonic Toughbook CF-F8 @ Hardware Zone
Samsung Omnia i900 @ InsideHW
Seagate FreeAgent Desk 1TB External Hard Drive @ ThinkComputers.org
Seagate Free Agent Go 320GB External Hard Drive @ Bigbruin.com
Thermaltake BlacX External Hard Drive Docking Station @ Tweaknews.net
Velocity Micro Edge Z55 Intel Core i7 Gaming System @ HotHardware.com

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Spansion announced this week that it is filing two separate patent infringement complaints against Samsung Electronics with the International Trade Commission (ITC) and in the US District Court in Delaware. According to the company's claims, Samsung has violated a large number of its patents, including those for its floating gate technology, which is the foundation for approximately 90% of the flash memory market. Spansion is seeking an injunction against electronic devices containing infringing flash memory components as well as damanges for patent violations.

Spansion Inc. (Nasdaq: SPSN), the world's leading pure-play provider of Flash memory solutions, today announced that it is filing two separate patent infringement complaints against Samsung with the International Trade Commission and in the U.S. District Court in Delaware. In one of the largest patent infringement claims ever filed, Spansion is seeking the exclusion from the U.S. market of well over one hundred million mp3 players, cell phones, digital cameras and other consumer electronic devices containing Samsung's infringing flash memory components. The complaint in the US District Court in Delaware also seeks an injunction and treble damages for patent violations relating to Samsung Flash memory, that Spansion estimates has accounted for more than $30 billion in Samsung's global revenues since 2003.

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The USB 3.0 Promoter Group announced on Monday that it has completed version 1.0 of the USB 3.0 specification. This new technology, called SuperSpeed USB, is about ten times faster than the 2.0 specification. The first SuperSpeed USB controllers are expected to appear in the second half of 2009 with the first consumer devices becoming available in 2010.

superspeed usb.jpgThe USB 3.0 Promoter Group today announced the completion of the USB 3.0 specification, the technical map for device manufacturers to deliver SuperSpeed USB technology to the market.

SuperSpeed USB brings significant power and performance enhancements to the popular USB standard while offering backward compatibility with billions of USB-enabled PCs and peripheral devices currently in use by consumers. Delivering data transfer rates up to ten times faster than Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0) with optimized power efficiency, SuperSpeed USB is the next step in the continued evolution of USB technology.

“SuperSpeed USB is the next advancement in ubiquitous technology,” said Jeff Ravencraft, USB-IF president and chairman. “Today’s consumers are using rich media and large digital files that need to be easily and quickly transferred from PCs to devices and vice versa. SuperSpeed USB meets the needs of everyone from the tech-savvy executive to the average home user.”

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Plextor LLC has finally revealed some details on its new Blu-ray combo drives. The internal PX-B310SA and external PX-B310U read single layer Blu-ray discs at 6x and are capable of 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds. The two drives also support Plextor's new PlexUTILITIES software as well as its PlexERASE and PlexREAD technologies.

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No word yet on availability. However, if preorders are any indication, you can expect to pay about $240 for the PX-B310SA and $290 for the PX-B310U.

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Transcend announced this week that it has increased the capacity of its JetFlash V90C and V90P USB flash drives to 8GB. These two ultra-compact drives feature a durable polished chrome outer case with either a metallic swirl pattern (V90C) or black mother-of-pearl faceplate (V90P).

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Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend®), a leading manufacturer of flash memory products, recently unveiled two chic new ultra-compact USB flash drives – the 8GB JetFlash® V90C and the 8GB JetFlash® V90P. Inspired by the popular 4GB JetFlash® V90C, winner of the prestigious Red Dot design award, the latest versions of the JetFlash V90P and V90C combine distinctive faceplate designs and ultra-portable convenience for people who need an elegant way to carry data effortlessly while on the move. The upgraded 8GB storage capacity lets users transfer, store, and share even more important files and data.

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Hitachi Maxell, Ltd. (TSE/OSE: 6810) today announced that it would launch Professional Disc with rewritable 50GB recording capacity worldwide in December 2008, offering compatibility with dual layer Professional Disc system for “XDCAM” of Sony Corporation. The new product makes its debut at Maxell booth of the 2008 InterBEE show (November 19 to 21, 2008) at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan. 

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Today, as demand for optical discs in professional broadcasting applications is expected to increase further in recording, retrieving, transferring, editing and saving HD contents in a file base. Professional Disc system, which satisfies all these needs, is highly reliable in rewritability, long-term storage capability, random access and is ideal for IT system, and its market demand is expected to increase in a future.

Maxell’s new Professional Disc “PD-50DL” is a recording media which is specially designed for Professional Broadcasting optical disc system “XDCAM”, offering high capacity storage and fast transfer rate by introducing a blue-violet laser. Incorporated dual-layer structure on one side and optimized recording layer which is ideal for high density recording, Maxell achieved enormous 50GB recording capacity in addition to high dependability which was enabled by precise spin-coating and durable hard-coating technology.

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Fujitsu sent out a press release this morning, announcing two new series in its line of 2.5-inch enterprise hard disk drives.  The 10,025-rpm MBD2 RC series and 15,000-rpm MBE2 RC series feature an environment-friendly, halogen-free design as well as support for the 6Gb/s SAS interface. Both series also use perpendicular magnetic recording, which enables capacities up to 300 GB in the MBD2 RC series and up to 147 GB in the MBE2 RC series.

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Fujitsu Limited today announced the development of two new series in its line of 2.5" enterprise hard disk drives (HDDs), the 10,025-rpm MBD2 RC series and 15,000-rpm MBE2 RC series, both of which provide standard support for the 6Gb/s SAS interface. The MBD2 RC series will be released in the first quarter of 2009 calendar year, and the MBE2 RC series will be available in the second quarter.

Compared to current 2.5" models, the new series improve performance by 60% in terms of internal transfer speeds. They are also more environmentally friendly, with halogen-free design - a first for Fujitsu's enterprise HDDs - and industry-leading power efficiency. Moreover, the series boast perpendicular magnetic recording, which enables increased recording density and allows the MBD2 series to have capacities up to 300 GB, noteworthy for 2.5" HDDs. The new models are well-suited to a range of applications, from servers to high-capacity storage systems.

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Team Group recently unveiled its new 2.5-inch Combo solid-state drive (SSD). Available in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB capacities, this MLC-based SSD is equipped with an SATA II interface as well as a mini USB connector, allowing it to be used as an external hard drive. Team Group's Combo SSD is capable of 170MB/s read and 100MB/s write speeds via SATA and 35MB/s read and 25MB/s write speeds when plugged into a computer's USB port.

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Still wasting your time waiting for files to load on your PC? Team Group Inc. has heard the prayers of users who wanted better solutions for mobile data storage and launched its next generation solid state drive (SSD). The innovative product incorporates SATAII high speed interface and external mini USB connectivity so as to combine the advantages of SSD (light weight, speed) and external hard disks (mobility, convenience) together. Team Group Inc. has successfully transformed SSD from a simple medium of storage into a high speed mobile storage device that is free from location restrictions. With the launch of the product, consumers will no longer have to put up with slow and bulky external hard disks! Team Group Inc.’s 2.5” Combo SSD is perfect for efficiency oriented business users and gamers with demands for massive data transfer. 

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