ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash storage application products, today announced the launch of the DashDrive Elite HE720 external hard drive, a USB 3.0 compatible device that is the world’s thinnest of its kind.

Since announcing the new product family in June, ADATA has moved quickly to release products that embody the speed and portability signified by the DashDrive name. The DashDrive Elite group is comprised of the most advanced products in terms of performance and design, and the HE720 is looking to be a strong addition to ADATA’s top tier external storage products. Initial launch capacity will be 500GB.

Sporting a brushed stainless steel surface, and with a record-breaking slim profile of only 8.9mm thickness, the HE720 demonstrates once again the company’s consistently strong ability to combine top performance with style. The brushed metal case with protective layer provides 9H scratch resistance, which prevents damage and marring even after long-term use. The drive features a bright blue LED indicator to indicate power and data transfer status, as well as the company’s popular “One touch backup” feature, which automatically backs up and synchronizes data with one easy touch. The USB 3.0 interface offers transfer efficiency up to three times that of older USB 2.0 devices, but retains full backward compatibility with earlier versions.

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WD, a Western Digital company, and a leader in the mobile, desktop, high-capacity enterprise and consumer markets for hard drives today announced it is further expanding its enterprise-class storage offerings with the release of new WD RE SAS and WD RE SATA hard drives in capacities up to 4 TB, the largest on the market today. Available immediately in 1 TB, 2 TB, 3 TB and 4 TB capacities for nearline SAS and 2 TB, 3 TB and 4 TB for SATA, the 3.5-inch WD RE SAS and WD RE SATA hard drives offer the powerful combination of enterprise-class features and superior capacity to meet the growing demands of conventional business-critical environments as well as the high-capacity and performance requirements of cloud and scale-out computing.

"Given the insatiable need for storage capacity across all market segments, WD is offering both SAS and SATA interfaces for the WD 4 TB RE hard drives to best support both private and public clouds," said Doug Pickford, senior director of business marketing for WD's enterprise business unit. "WD continues to pioneer the capacity-optimized 3.5-inch market segment, in particular, and the WD RE SAS and SATA 4 TB drives are designed, tested and optimized for enterprise storage and applications, enabling 33% greater capacity than previously available drives and up to 2.4 PB of raw capacity in a single enterprise rack."

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Silicon Power, the world’s leading provider of memory storage solutions today launches a limited edition of LuxMini 720 and Touch 830 USB flash drives for the upcoming seasonal holidays. With the iconic seasonal colors and patterns, the 2012 limited edition series is designed as a gift to light up the holiday spirits and share your cheerful joy to your loved ones.   

Both 2012 limited edition flash drives represent different holiday gestures by their designs. LuxMini 720 limited edition is built-up in an exquisite metallic case with silky touch. The combination of holiday red and joyful festival patterns genuinely gives out a sense of warmth in this winter. It’s the ideal gift choice for your special someone.

Utilizing COB (Chip on Board) packaging technology, Touch 830 limited edition is waterproof, vibration-proof and dust-proof. With the stainless steel casing in titanium black, this flash drive is carved with exquisite seasonal icons, creating a sense of Northern European holiday spirits.

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Pioneer Japan sent out a press release this morning, announcing two new professional-grade Blu-ray Disc writers. Designed for businesses, libraries and museums looking to archive important data to Blu-ray Disc, the BDR-PR1M and BDR-PR1MA follow the new guidelines set by the new Optical Archive Group (OPARG ) formed by Pioneer, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media and Victor Advanced Media. To reduce variations in recording quality, the two drives write to BD-R, 50GB BD-R DL and 100GB BD-R XL discs at 4x using CLV (Constant Linear Velocity). They also feature an extra-durable tray mechanism and are 3x more dust resistant than Pioneer's BDR-207 series. The main difference between the two is that the BDR-PR1M can be used to check the recording quality of a disc. With the included software, it is able to measure the RSER (Random Symbol Error Rate) as well as the number of Burst Errors.

The BDR-PR1M and BDR-PR1MA are scheduled to ship in early November and, while prices have not been announced, they are expect to cost about 220,000 Yen ($2,829 US) and 110,000 Yen ($1,414 US), respectively.

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Kingston, the independent world leader in memory products, today announced a new SDXC Class 10 memory card that is ideal for price-conscious consumers. The card captures full HD videos and high-resolution photos at an affordable price that will not break the budget.

Fully compliant with the latest SD Association specification, Kingston’s Secure Digital Extended Capacity (SDXC) Class 10 card operates on the exFAT file system, which is designed to handle extremely large volumes of data, such as files bigger than 4GB. Available in 64GB and 128GB, these cards are an excellent choice to meet the storage demands of high-quality digital still and video cameras as well as other personal electronic devices that are SDXC compatible. Additionally, SDXC cards offer a speed “class” rating known as Class 10 that delivers a 10MB/s minimum sustained transfer rate for optimum performance with SDXC-compatible devices.

“It is important to note that although SDXC cards are identical in size to standard SD cards, they have a different design and are only recognized by SDXC host devices,” said Nathan Su, Flash Memory Sales Director, APAC Region, Kingston. “Consumers need to make sure that their camera or camcorder carries the SDXC logo to ensure compatibility and make the most of the new, huge capacity options.”

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Today LaCie announced its award-winning Rugged hard drive is the first storage solution to feature both Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 technology on a high-performance SSD. These cutting-edge technologies make the new LaCie Rugged the fastest bus-powered solution on the market.

"Since LaCie introduced the Rugged, it has been a favorite of creative professionals," said Philippe Spruch, CEO, LaCie. "It's trusted and always with them through the content creation process. Today, LaCie gives the ultimate solution to those professionals. The most impressive speeds I've seen to revolutionize their productivity."

The LaCie Rugged brings two industry leading technologies, USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt together so users can experience the fastest transfer speeds available on PC or Mac. The LaCie Rugged SSD delivers record-breaking speeds up to 380MB/s – making it the fastest bus-powered product ever. Respectively, the hard disk version performs up to 110MB/s, a 35 percent improvement over FireWire 800. Whether you are a photographer, videographer, or power user, the LaCie Rugged can move 10GB in a few seconds and ensure zero lag-time when accessing files, viewing photos, or editing videos.

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Toshiba’s Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced the Canvio Slim Portable Hard Drive. With a capacity of 500 GB and measuring only nine millimeters thick, the Canvio Slim is the smallest portable hard drive available on the market.

“As consumer electronics continue to get thinner, lighter, and more portable, we recognized a huge demand to create a storage device that is in line with those trends,” said Maciek Brzeski, vice president of product marketing and development of branded storage products, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division. “With the Canvio Slim, consumers can now easily stash their storage device right along with their Ultrabook, knowing that their data is always safe, even they’re on the go.”

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