"The media reported that Toshiba will discontinue its HD DVD business. Toshiba has not made any announcement concerning this. Although Toshiba is currently assessing its business strategies, no decision has been made at this moment."According to a report by the Associated Press, Toshiba could hold a board meeting as soon as Tuesday, where a decision is likely. Add a comment
Toshiba climbed 5.7 percent to 829 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, a level not seen since Dec. 28. Toshiba is reviewing whether to completely end HD DVD production, said a person familiar with the plan, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private, confirming a report by Kyodo news on Feb. 16.If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
The shares also rose after Nikko Citigroup Ltd. upgraded the stock, saying a withdrawal may add 50 billion yen ($464 million) to earnings next fiscal year. U.S. retailers said last week they'll stop selling HD DVD products after Warner Bros. Entertainment, the top DVD publisher, sided with Blu-ray.
A source at Toshiba confirmed an earlier report by public broadcaster NHK that it was getting ready to pull the plug.According to the original report, Toshiba will continue to sell HD DVD players for a while but will stop further development of the format. Add a comment
"We have entered the final stage of planning to make our exit from the next generation DVD business," said the source, who asked not to be identified. He added that an official announcement could come as early as next week.
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Speeds: BD-R: 4x BD-R DL: 4x BD-RE: 2x DVD±R: 16x DVD±R DL: 8x DVD+RW: 8x DVD-RW: 6x DVD-RAM: 5x CD-R: 40x CD-RW: 24x |
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National discount retailer Wal-Mart announced Friday that it had decided to only sell Sony's Blu-ray hi-definition movie discs, and will phase out Toshiba's competing HD-DVD formatted discs over the next several months.With Wal-mart going Blu-ray, I think its safe to say that the format war is truly over. Without the support of the nation's largest retailer, there is little chance of HD DVD making a comeback. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
Wal-Mart said that by June, its 4,000 Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores would sell only Blu-ray discs and Blu-ray hardware players. Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD-DVD format are not compatible.
"We've listened to our customers, who are showing a clear preference toward Blu-ray products and movies with their purchases," said Gary Severson, Wal-Mart's Senior Vice President of Home Entertainment in a statement.
If you'd like to read more, Samsung's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, leader in advanced semiconductor technology, announced today that it has begun mass producing 64 GB solid state drives (SSDs) with its new SATA II interface, offering the highest performance rates in the industry for premium notebook PCs.
Able to read data at 100 megabytes per second and write it at 80 megabytes per second, Samsung’s SATA II SSD is up to 60 percent faster than SATA I drives and performs two to five times faster than conventional hard disk drives (HDDs). It also consumes nearly 75 percent less power than typical HDDs (1.45 watts compared to 2.1 watts) and at 73 grams, SSDs are much lighter than HDDs.
Once the get rolling, Sharp plans to produce 700,000 blue-violet lasers per month. If you'd like to read more, Sharp's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Sharp will mass-produce two models of the blue purple high power semiconductor laser that achieve the output of 250mW pulse of the top level in the industry that can be recorded about BD etc. two layer 4-6 X speed in April.
Best laptop industry's top small package adopted φ3.3 mm, and BD recorders for the PC desktop package φ5.6 mm commercialize the rapidly rising demand for recording BD market Lineup for strengthening.
If you'd like to read more, Verbatim's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Verbatim launches a whole new line of Verbatim 2.5” Portable Hard Drives (HDDs). With the new, elegantly designed External Hard Drives, consumers and businesses can immediately add 120, 160, 250, or 320GB removable capacity to their computer. The palm-sized external drives will be available for both Windows and Mac users in specialist stores from February.
The need for a fast, easy way to store, backup, share and transport data and multimedia files is fueling explosive growth in the worldwide removable storage industry. As a result, the market research company GfK predicted sales of around 10 million external hard drives in Western Europe in 2007 - an increase of just under 90 percent compared to 2006, when 5.2 million external hard drives were sold. For 2008, GfK anticipates a total sales volume of over 14 million 2.5" and 3.5" External Hard Drives in Western Europe.
No word yet on pricing or availability. As we find out more, we'll let you know. In the mean time, ASUS's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Catering to users who require high quality multimedia experiences, ASUS, producer of top-notch optical drives, has today released the ASUS DVD-E818A2/A2T. This series of optical drives is the world’s first ODD that supports 5X DVD-RW DL, and provides users with cutting-edge multimedia experiences backed with superior playback capabilities and high-speed data transfers; while built-in advanced ASUS exclusive technologies will provide a quieter, more stable and higher performance multimedia environment.
The ASUS DVD-E818A2 and ASUS DVD-E818A2T provide leading-edge multimedia experiences with the ability to read 5X DVD-RW DL - the brand new industry format. With this support, users will be able to view high quality videos directly burnt into DVDs from camcorders and obtain fabulous playback capacities. It also allows users to access all CDs, DVD-ROM/DVD±R/ DVD±RW/DVD-RAM and DVD-Video discs.