Antec Mini P180 mATX Computer Case @ Benchmark Reviews
 Asus Eee PC 1000H Netbook @ HotHardware.com
 HighPoint RocketRAID 3120 PCI-E SATA RAID Controller @ TweakTown
 iStarUSA 2.5 & 3.5 HDD Docking Station @ High Tech Reviews
 MSI GeForce 9800 GT 512MB Graphics Card @ TweakTown
 Sans Digital MobileSTOR MS2UT+B @ Virtual-Hideout
 SilverStone Raven RVM01B Mouse @ Phoronix
 Soyo Pearl Series 24-inch Widescreen LCD Monitor @ ThinkComputers.org
 Thecus N3200 NAS System @ HardwareLogic Add a comment
nero liquidtv.jpgNero, creators of liquid media technology, and TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), announced today the unveiling of Nero LiquidTV | TiVo PC. This new offering revolutionizes the way consumers experience television by offering an enhanced TiVo DVR experience directly from the PC.

"In recent years the amount of digital entertainment content available to average consumers has exploded," said Bruce McGregor, senior analyst, Digital Home Services for Current Analysis. "Consumers have increasingly conformed to using mobile devices and the PC as sources of video entertainment; as a result they are looking for ways to port their favorite television content onto multiple mobile formats. There is an emerging opportunity for a PC-based DVR service that offers easy access to television content on a wide variety of devices."

With Nero LiquidTV | TiVo PC, consumers can watch and pause live TV on their desktop, record their favorite shows directly to their hard drive, transfer shows between computers throughout the home, or enjoy their favorite shows on-the-go by exporting them to iPod®, PlayStation® Portable (PSP®), or burning them to DVD. Now the TiVo experience can be enjoyed on the PC, including TiVo features like WishList® searches, Season Pass® recordings, TiVo KidZone, and TiVo Suggestions.

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DivX, Inc. announced today that three of Pioneer's Blu-ray Disc players have been certified for DivX playback. While the BDP-LX08 is limited to the European market, the BDP-LX71 and BDP-51FD will be available across Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand starting in October.

DivX, Inc. (NASDAQ:DIVX), a digital media company, today announced the DivX Certification of three new Blu-ray player models from Pioneer (PN: BDP-LX71, BDP-LX08, BDP-51FD).

DivX® technology enables a high-quality experience for digital video and DivX Certification of these new Blu-ray players allows consumers to play back DivX video saved on CDs or DVDs. Pioneers first DivX Certified Blu-ray Disc Players, featuring high-quality image and sound, will be available across Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand starting in October (BDP-LX08 to be released in Europe only).

Our standard DVD players that obtained DivX Certification have shipped worldwide, meeting the increasing consumer demand for devices that play high-quality DivX video. By supporting DivX in our newest Blu-ray Disc Player, we are now able to provide consumers with a greater video experience, said Ryuichiro Yoshimura, General Manager of Video Planning Department, Pioneer Corporation.

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SimpleTech has updated its line of Pro Drive and Duo Pro Drive external hard drives. Along with highter capacities, the new drives offer a quad interface (eSATA, FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0) and a reinforced design for added reliability and durability.

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If you're part of the digital media generation, a power user or even a small business owner, there's no doubt that your computer is quickly filling up with tons of video clips, songs, digital photographs and documents. To help relieve you of this data overload, SimpleTech (http://www.SimpleTech.com), a Fabrik company, today announced two affordable ways to easily add more storage capacity and backup power to your home or office computers - the 1.5TB SimpleTech® Pro Drive™ and the first 3TB two-drive RAID 0/1 solution, the SimpleTech Duo Pro Drive™. Each solution now ships with a reinforced design for added reliability and durability, higher capacities so you have room to grow, and a quad interface (eSATA, FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0) that future-proofs your investment, so you'll be prepared to connect to whatever system, device or peripheral - in the future as well as today.

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SanDisk announced today that it is bringing the world's first 16GB microSDHC and Memory Stick Micro (M2) memory cards to market. Along with mobile phones, these finger-nail sized cards can be used in other devices, including video cameras, GPS receivers or MP3 players.

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SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), a global leader in flash memory products, today announced it is bringing to market its 16GB* microSDHC™ and Memory Stick Micro (M2)® mobile memory cards - the world’s largest removable storage capacity for mobile phones. Best Buy Mobile (NYSE: BBY) and Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) stores are the first major retail outlets in the United States to carry the 16GB capacity.

The fingernail-sized 16GB memory cards allow consumers to “wake up” the many storage-intensive features offered by today’s portable handsets such as music and video playback, high-definition digital camera functions, gaming and GPS applications.  In addition to the mobile phone, consumers can use the 16GB microSDHC card in a multitude of other devices, including video cameras, GPS receivers or MP3 players with a microSD™ slots such as SanDisk’s Sansa® players.

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box-nero9.pngNero, creators of liquid media technology, today announced the release of Nero 9, the next generation of one of the world's most trusted and best-selling integrated digital media and home entertainment software solutions. Developed in direct response to customer feedback, Nero 9 gives consumers ONE solution to easily create, edit, rip, copy, backup, convert and share their music, videos and photos within their connected digital home, on online communities or on portable devices. This latest release builds on Nero's established technology leadership while delivering on the company's commitment to liquid media, allowing content to be created and distributed anytime, anywhere and on any device.

"In developing Nero 9, we polled more than 3,000 of our worldwide customers to determine the functionality that they really wanted from the suite," noted Jürgen Kurz, senior vice president, Business Line PC and Consumer Electronics, Nero AG. "This type of feedback has been invaluable to us over the last decade and has shown us that our consumers are increasingly living digital lives where the PC is the center of the home. They require cutting-edge multimedia capabilities which allow them to enjoy and share their content online and across devices with unparalleled ease of use."

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 Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Intel/AMD Processor Cooler @ Tweaknews.net
 ASUS GeForce GTX 260 TOP Graphics Card @ TweakTown
 ASUS My Cinema-PE9400 COMBO PC TV Card @ Virtual-Hideout
 Cooler Master Hyper 212 CPU Cooler @ ThinkComputers.org
 Foxconn P45A-S Motherboard @ HardwareLogic
 Gainward Radeon HD 4850 Golden Sample Graphics Card @ TweakTown
 Hiper Type R Mark-II 880 Watt Power Supply @ TweakTown
 Integrated Sound Cards Roundup @ InsideHW
 QNAP TS-509 Pro Turbo Five Bay NAS @ Tweaknews.net
 Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 512MB Video Card @ ThinkComputers.org
 Sony VAIO VGN-Z17GN Notebook @ Hardware Zone
 Zotac 9800 GTX+ ZONE Edition @ Hardware Zone Add a comment

In a recent interview with Pocket-lint, Samsung UK's director of consumer electronics forecasted that Blu-ray would last only another five years before it was replaced by something else. While it took longer than expected, someone from Sony has finally responded to this statement. Rick Clancy, senior vice president for Corporate Communications at Sony Electronics, fired back on the Sony Electronics Blog, stating that the Samsung exec's comments "couldn’t be further from the truth." With millions of Playstation 3 consoles in consumers' homes, Clancy believes that Blu-ray should be around for a least another decade.

Now, I can understand why Microsoft and Toshiba would not be immediate adopters of the format (although I predict market demand will eventually persuade them otherwise) and try to move the discussion onto networked content and DVRs, but what throws me is a recent comment by a European marketing manager of Samsung, the world second-largest seller of BD players (after Sony), who said to the press that the format only "has five years left."
 
In my opinion, he couldn’t be further from the truth.
 
First of all, there are millions of BD-based PlayStation 3 videogame consoles in consumers’ homes around the world and this number is growing fast as the device is introduced to new global markets and to new consumers every day.  I believe the value of this product is only going to increase for many years to come — perhaps a decade — as developers realize the true power of PS3 in the new games they create, and as the device’s real world features like Blu-ray compatibility blend with new virtual and, yes, networked world features like PSN and Home.

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Toshiba has announced the launch of its new 256GB solid state drive (SSD). Featuring an original MLC controller, the THNS256GE8BC is capable of 120MB/s read and 70MB/s write speeds. The company also introduced a series of small Flash Modules for netbook computers. Available in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB capacities, these Flash Modules offer read and write speeds of 80MB/s and 50MB/s, respectively.

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Toshiba Corporation today announced enhancements to its line-up of NAND-flash-based solid state drives (SSD) with the addition of an industry-leading 256-gigabyte (GB) SSD and the launch of a series of small-sized Flash Modules for netbook computers ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs) and other mobile and peripheral applications. The new drives will be showcased at the CEATEC in Makuhari, Japan, from September 30 to October 4.

Samples of both the 256GB SSD and the Flash Modules are available now, and mass production following in the fourth quarter (October to December) of the year.

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Panasonic announced this week that it has developed the world's first 3D full HD Plasma Theater System. The system uses a 103-inch plasma television and a Blu-ray Disc player capable of decoding and playing back 3D images, consisting of left and right-sided 1080p full HD images. To experience the 3D images, a user then wears a pair active shutter glasses to distribute the images to left eye and right eye.

Panasonic, the leading brand by which Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is known, has developed the world's first 3D full HD Plasma Theater System, which enables the viewing of true-to-life 3D images by using a 103-inch plasma television and a Blu-ray Disc (BD) player, distributing full high-definition (HD) (1920 x 1080 pixels) images to left eye and right eye. Panasonic will present this system at CEATEC JAPAN 2008, which is due to be held at Makuhari Messe from September 30 to October 4, 2008.

Human beings feel the 3D impression because each of the left and right eyes recognizes different images. Panasonic's system comprises a 103-inch plasma television and a BD player that plays back BD onto which 3D images, consisting of left and right-sided 1080p full HD images, are recorded. By wearing active shutter glasses that work in synchronization with the plasma television, the viewer is able to experience 3D images formed with twice the volume of information as regular full HD images, and enjoy them together with high quality surround sound. This system enables full HD signal processing on each of the left and right images in every process -- recording, playback and display.

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