- Details
- Other
Dell announced today that it has partnered with Sonic to bring the first Qflix-enabled drive to market. The Qflix drive is available today as a $120 option on Dell's Inspiron, Studio and XPS laptops as well as through the company's Entertainment, Software and Accessories online store. With this drive, consumers are able to download movies from CinemaNow, transfer them to digital devices in their home and then create a permanent copy on Qflix DVD media.
Dell and Sonic Solutions have teamed to make downloading and recording DVD movies easy with the first PC-based Qflix™ drives. Using an intuitive application, Roxio® Venue, movie collectors can search and select from a variety of major Hollywood hits available from CinemaNow, download them on their PC, transfer them to multiple digital devices in their home, and then create a permanent and portable DVD-format copy on Qflix DVD media.
The Qflix drive bundle is available in the U.S. today as an option on most Inspiron, Studio and XPS laptops for $120, as well as through Dell’s Entertainment, Software and Accessories online store, and will be available soon as option on select consumer desktops. The bundle includes an external Qflix-enabled drive, which also supports standard DVD read/write functions, two recordable Qflix DVD discs, Roxio Venue and CinemaNow software and a USB cable.
- Details
- Hard Disks
Seagate sent out a press release this morning, announcing the Fall 2008 lineup of its FreeAgent external hard drives. Along with its new 3.5-inch FreeAgent Desk and Xtreme drives, the company has introduced an updated version of the Go that fits in a docking station. Seagate will also be offering special versions of the Desk and Go that are formatted for use with Mac OS X and are Time Machine ready.
Seagate, the world leader in storage solutions, today announced the Fall 2008 lineup of the company’s award-winning FreeAgent™ external hard drives. This new generation of the Seagate® FreeAgent™ family includes attractive desktop and mobile options, for both Mac® and Windows® operated PCs that make it a breeze to back up, share and protect valuable digital content like photos, videos and music.
Seagate’s flagship offering, the FreeAgent Go portable storage solution, is the slimmest external drive available today. At a height of only 12.5mm, the new FreeAgent Go easily fits in a pocket while still including all the advanced shock and vibration protection people have come to expect from Seagate. Another industry first, the new FreeAgent Go is the first external hard drive to offer a docking option, providing a practical way to move from the desk to the road, while leaving the hassle of fumbling with cables and locating USB ports to the history books. With up to 500GB of capacity, the FreeAgent Go bridges the gap between standard portable solutions and desktop solutions with enough storage to carry entire libraries of movies, pictures and music. No longer does one need to sacrifice capacity for portability, Seagate FreeAgent Go provides the benefits and convenience of both in a truly seamless on-the-go package.
- Details
- Other
Sony recently unveiled two new Blu-ray equipped notebook PC's. The VAIO NS features an optionalBD-ROM drive as well as a 15.4-inch widescreen display, Intel Core 2 Duo processor and an instant A/V mode. The VAIO CS notebook sports a smaller 14.1-inch display. However, it makes up for it with an A/V slide control and a 12-tone music analyzer that translates your music into a colorful LED light show.
Sony today introduced two notebooks with Blu-ray Disc™ technology— the VAIO® NS and CS models.
“With these new units, Sony is now offering consumers a host of multi-media PC options to choose from,” said Mike Abary, senior vice president of VAIO product marketing at Sony Electronics. “And with a starting price of around $1,000 for the NS model, we’re expecting a new audience to experience HD entertainment on their computers.”
- Details
- Hard Disks
Western Digital announced today that it has begun to ship its 400GB and 500GB WD Scorpio Blue 2.5-inch notebook hard drives. The two drives feature a 3 Gb/s SATA interface, 5400 RPM rotation speed, 12 ms access time and support for WD's WhisperDrive, ShockGuard and IntelliSeek technologies.
WD® (NYSE: WDC) today announced that it has commenced volume shipments and OEM qualifications of its WD Scorpio Blue 2.5-inch notebook hard drives with capacities up to 500 GB. Utilizing industry-leading 250 GB-per-platter technology, the new WD Scorpio(R) Blue(TM) 500 GB and 400 GB SATA hard drives are designed for notebook computers and portable storage devices.
WD Scorpio Blue delivers high-performance with a 3 Gb/s transfer rate, while including proprietary features that make the drive extraordinarily quiet, while running at cool operating temperatures. The WD Scorpio Blue 500 GB is the highest capacity 2.5-inch, standard form-factor (9.5mm) hard drive shipping-to-date, and is developed for use in OEM notebook platforms that offer the highest storage capacities to the market.
- Details
- Flash Memory
SanDisk recently announced that it has added a 32GB model to its Extreme III series of CompactFlash cards. Developed for professional digital videographers and photographers, this high capacity card is capable of 30MB/s (200x) read and write speeds.
Who says big cards can’t be fast? SanDisk Corporation today announced the 32-gigabyte (GB)1 SanDisk Extreme® III CompactFlash® (CF) card, the latest addition to its award-winning SanDisk Extreme III line. Combining world-class storage capacity with fast data transfer rates, SanDisk’s new memory card is designed to meet the demands of professional digital videographers and photographers. For many cards, an increase in storage capacity often comes at a cost to speed, but the 32GB SanDisk Extreme III CF card at 30 megabytes per second (MB/s) offers customers the best of both worlds.
“High-definition camcorders require high-capacity memory cards, and our 32GB SanDisk Extreme III CompactFlash cards offer video professionals longer record times and improved data transfer rates,” said Susan Park, director of consumer product marketing for SanDisk’s performance cards. “Our award-winning SanDisk Extreme III CompactFlash cards carry a tradition of excellence, and the recent series-wide speed increase to 30MB/s advances their legacy as professional-grade storage devices.”
- Details
- Other
Chaintech APOGEE GT DDR2-1150 4GB Memory Kit @ TweakTown
Dell Studio 1535 Notebook @ InsideHW
Evercool Transformer 6 CPU Cooler @ Virtual-Hideout
Kingston HyperX XMP-1800 2GB DDR3 Memory Kit @ TweakTown
Logitech Illuminated Keyboard @ I4U
Microsoft SideWinder X5 Gaming Mouse and X6 Gaming Keyboard @ Metku.net
NZXT Sentry LX High Performance Fan Controller @ ThinkComputers.org
PowerColor PCS HD 4670 @ Hardware Zone
Samsung F400 Bang & Olufsen Music Phone @ TweakTown
Zalman CNPS9300 AT CPU Heatsink @ High Tech Reviews Add a comment
- Details
- Home Entertainment
At a recent press conference, Pioneer introduced its first hard drive equipped Blu-ray Disc recorders. Along with support for BonusView, the 1TB BDR-WD900 and 500GB BDR-WD700 offer 1080/24p output, dual digital tuners and Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio bitstream output via HDMI. The recorders also support MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 compression technology, which allows them to store nearly 11 hours of HD video onto a 25GB Blu-ray Disc or, in the case of the BDR-WD900, about 450 hours on its built in hard drive.
Pioneer Corporation announced today the introduction of the BDR-WD900, a Blu-ray Disc (BD) Recorder equipped with a 1-TB hard drive, and the BDR-WD700, a BD Recorder equipped with a 500-GB hard drive, for the Japanese market.
With digital terrestrial broadcasts becoming increasingly common, requirements of TV viewers are undergoing a change. Whereas previously viewers wanted to record as much high-definition content as possible, and as easily possible, they now want to record content in the highest quality possible. Thus, the market for BD recorders is rapidly expanding. Pioneer aims to meet this demand by launching its first HDD/BD recorders that can record two digital high-definition programs simultaneously for longer hours in the HD picture quality.
The Pioneer BD recorders BDR-WD900 and BDR-WD700 will be available in Japan in the early of October, 2008 (with no retail price suggested).
- Details
- Optical Storage
For the last few years, Sony NEC Optiarc has operated as a joint venture between Sony and NEC. The two companies announced today that they have signed an agreement to transfer NEC's stock to Sony, making Sony NEC Optiarc a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Sony group.
Sony Corporation (hereafter Sony) and NEC Corporation (hereafter NEC) today announced that they have signed an agreement to transfer NEC's 45% stock in Sony NEC Optiarc Inc. to Sony.
Sony and NEC separated their optical disc drive businesses and combined each company's respective strengths in the Sony NEC Optiarc Inc. joint venture, established April 3, 2006, with the aim of achieving further business expansion.
As a result of this agreement, Sony will make Sony NEC Optiarc Inc. a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Sony group, and will seek to strengthen its interaction with Sony group's product and device businesses to further streamline decision-making processes, enhance management responsiveness and further reinforce its next-generation optical disc drive business.
NEC will continue to contribute to the advancement of Sony NEC Optiarc Inc.'s optical disc drive products through the LSI development being carried out at NEC Electronics Corporation.
Add a comment- Details
- Flash Memory
Lexar Media has announced a 16GB version of its Professional UDMA 300x CompactFlash (CF) card. Developed for use with UDMA-enabled readers and digital SLR (DSLR) cameras, the Lexar Professional UDMA CF card is speed-rated at 300x and is capable of 45MB/s write speeds.
Lexar Media, a leading global provider of memory products for digital media, today announced the Lexar Professional UDMA 300x 16GB CompactFlash® (CF) card, a new memory card that provides an ideal combination of increased capacity, professional-level performance and reliability. Designed for professional photographers and photo enthusiasts, this lightning-fast card is UDMA-enabled (Ultra Direct Memory Access), resulting in exceedingly fast performance. Speed-rated at 300x, which represents a minimum sustained write speed of 45MB per second, the new Lexar Professional UDMA 300x 16GB CF card dramatically reduces post-production time thanks to an improved card-to-computer transfer rate when working in conjunction with a UDMA-enabled device. In addition, the very high capacity of the card allows photographers to store more images and shoot for longer periods without interruption.
Add a comment- Details
- Hard Disks
Toshiba recently announced its new 240GB 1.8-inch hard disk drive, the MK2431GAH. Developed for consumer electronics and PC devices, this dual-platter drive has an areal density of 344 gigabits per square inch, the highest in the industry. The MK2431GAH also spins at 4,200 RPM and features a 100MB/s parallel ATA interface.
Toshiba Corporation, the pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), today announced the world's first dual-platter 240GB1) HDD (MK2431GAH). The new drive delivers the highest capacity1) and areal density in the 1.8-inch drive category for integration into portable media players, camcorders and mobile PCs. Toshiba also announced new 120GB (MK1231GAL) and 80GB (MK8031GAL) capacity offerings, rounding out the most complete line of high-capacity 4,200 RPM 1.8-inch HDDs for consumer electronics (CE) and mobile PC system manufacturers.
