The first 50 GB Blu-Ray disc will be available to consumers on Tuesday, when Sony Pictures releases the Adam Sandler comedy "Click". 50 GB is twice the capacity of a regular Blu-Ray media. The dual-layer disc promises to deliver the interactivity and extras in high-definition optical-disc and uncompressed PCM (pulse code modulation) audio.
"Click" is one of three 50GB Blu-ray Discs in the studio's pipeline. The others are Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down," coming November 14, and "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," due December 12.
Toshiba announced the SD-L902A , a slim HD DVD drive for notebook PCs that can read and write to HD DVD, standard DVD and CD discs. It has 12.7 millimeters in height and offers 1x HD DVD-R writing for single and double layer, 3x for DVD-RAM, 2x/2.4x for DVD±R DL 4x for DVD±R SL, 4x for DVD±RW, 16x for CD-R and 10x for CD-RW. Reading capabilities of the drive include HD DVD SL/DL, HD DVD-ROM, DVD, and CD. It is expected to be shipped by the end of this year.
Seagate announces that its DB35 Series hard drives are shipping to DVR and digital entertainment device manufacturers for the next generation of DVRs.The new hard drives are now available in 250, 320, 400, 500 and 750 GB capacities. DynaPlay Technology from Seagate integrates HDDs into DVRs, allowing power, video streaming performance, acoustics and reliability. And capacities of up to 750GB enable services such as video on demand, high-definition DVRs and home media storage servers. The DB35 series offers ten simultaneous standard TV streams, up to 750 hours of standard TV capacity and up to 125 hours of high-definition capacity.
Corsair introduces a new 8GB Flash Voyager USB drive. Equipped with a security application and a dual channel technology, The new Flash Voyager is the first in the industry to feature an all-rubber housing with a water-resistant/ temperature tolerant properties. To promote data security, each Flash Voyager has a security application that allows users to create a password-protected partition on the USB drive.The password is encrypted with 256bit AES encryption. It delivers a read performance up to 33MB/sec and a write one up to 16MB/sec.
Sony Electronics unveils its new line of DVD and CD burners. The new 830 series of multi-format DVD burners support all of the industry's leading recording formats. Sony says that its drives are the fastest 18X DVD±R recording speed, delivering a full 4.7 GB media in about five minutes. The drives support 8X DVD±R, 4X DVD±R DL, 8X DVD+RW, 6X DVD-RW and 24X CD-R/RW.
The internal DRU-830A drive comes with an ATAPI interface for easy installation inside a PC and is shipping now for about $70 after a $20 mail-in rebate.
The external DRX-830U burner has a vertical design and offers connectivity with hi-speed USB (USB 2.0) digital interface. It will be available in October for around $100 after a $30 mail-in rebate.
The slim external DRX-S50U burner is perfect for notebook users. It also will be available in October for about $130. All of them come with Nero 7 software suite.
The external DRX-830UL-T drive is designed for dual Macintosh and Windows platform support. It also includes Roxio Toast 6 Lite software in the box. It is expected to ship in December for about $120 after a $30 mail-in rebate.
Plextor announces the PX-608U, an ultra-portable DVD±R/RW CD-R/RW multi-drive, designed for traveling laptop computer users. It measures just 5.43 inches x 6.38 inches x 0.87 inches and weighs less than one pound.The PX-608U supports 5X DVD-RAM functionality for removable data storage applications.
The PX-608U delivers recording speeds of 8X DVD±R on single-layer media, 4X DVD±R on Double-Layer and Dual-Layer media, 5X DVD-RAM, 8X DVD+RW, 6X DVD-RW, 8X max DVD-ROM and 24X CD-R/RW/ROM. With data transfer rates of 480 Mbps (USB), users can burn a 4.7 GB DVD+R disc in about six minutes.
Unlike other optical media formats, PX-608U doens't require a special burning software. To write a DVD-RAM media, a user can just insert a blank DVD-RAM disc and drag-and-drop files. But user can also burns CDs and DVDs using the Roxio Easy Media Creator 8, that ships with the product.It retails on September 25. Suggested price: 199.99 USD.
ASUSTeK Computer introduces the DRW-1612BL internal DVD rewriter, that features 16X DVD-R, 6X DVD-RW, 16X DVD+R, 8X DVD+RW, 8X DVD±R (double layer), 16X DVD-ROM, 12X DVD-RAM, 48X CD-Write, 32X CD-RW and 48X CD-ROM.
The new model also incorporates LightScribe's HP technology, which enables images to be burnt onto disc surfaces as labels using the same drive that wrote in the data. When data writing is completed, you just need to turn over the disc. It will be available in Taiwan later this month.
Samsung unnounces a new memory device technology that will allow a faster access to electronic devices. The 40nm NAND flash chips wil improve memory performance and enable higher scalability, which can improve manufacturing process technology from 40 nm to 20nm.The new 32 Gigabit (Gb) NAND flash device is the first memory to incorporate a Charge Trap Flash (CTF) architecture, that reduces inter-cell noise levels.
The 32Gb NAND flash memory can be used in memory cards with densities of up to 64-Gigabytes (GBs). One 64GB card can store over 64 hours of DVD resolution movies (40 movies) or 16,000 MP3 music files (1,340 hours). It will be available in 2008.
LaCie's SAFE Mobile Hard Drive, a USB 2.0 hard drive with built-in fingerprint authentication, has just become safer. Now it guarantees protection for your confidential files with two additional layers of security: a secure chain lock port to physically attach the drive to your desk, and a "drive lock" firmware, which prevents access to the hard drive content when plugged into another computer.
The desktop version comes in 160 GB, 320 GB and 500 GB and costs from USD 150 to USD 300. The Laptop Version (no power supply needed) comes in 40 GB, 80 GB and 120 GB and costs from USD 100 to USD 280.
Toshiba and Pretec have announced the highest capacity USB drives in the world, that holds 16GB of data. This is equivalent to 23 CDs or 4 regular DVDs, and can store more than 4.000 MP3 songs. Pretec's I-Disk II runs at speed of 166x, offers data transfer rate of 25MB/sec, password protection and data encryption. It will be release in Q4. Toshiba has announced a limited edition of TransMemory USB, also with 16GB, to be released in December.
Verbatim today announced that it will later this month release a 2.66 GB Mini DVD-R DL (Dual Layer) disk. The new media will launch alongside Canon’s compatible DC22 camcorder. The single-sided disk features protective coating (VideoGard) said to make it 40 times more resistant to damage. Suggested retail price for a pack containing three Mini DVD-R DLs is USD 25.
Seagate this week introduced a new Maxtor Shared Storage II solution with 1 TB capacity for small office and home network storage. The device packs two 500 GB hard drives spinning at 7,200 rpm with 16 MB buffers. Features include Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, dual USB ports and RAID 1 support for mirroring data from one drive to the other. Suggested retail price is USD 900.
Mitsubishi Chemical Media (Verbatim) will start shipping dual layer HD DVD-R media (30 GB) in late July. The company, alongside Hitachi Maxell, had already announced single layer HD DVD-R discs (15 GB), set to be available on July 5, but then there was no timetable for the bigger parts. Single and dual layer HD DVD-RW media will follow as soon as the standardization process is finished. Sony and TDK already offer 25 GB and 50 GB Blu-ray blank and rewritable discs.
Seagate has announced its first hybrid hard drive sporting non-volatile cache. Thanks to the help of 256 MB of NAND flash, the Momentus 5400 PSD promises to reduce power consumption, accelerate boot up, increase reliability and offer higher performance under the upcoming Windows Vista. The notebook-oriented HD will be available with capacities of up to 160 GB. Other specs include Serial ATA 3 Gb/s interface, 8 MB buffer and 12.5 ms average seek time.
Toshiba said this week that it will start production of a 200 GB 2.5-inch perpendicular notebook drive in August. According to the company, the MK2035GSS will feature the highest density in the industry, at 178.8 Gb per square inch. The two-platter device supports Serial ATA 3 Gb/s interface, spins at 4,200 rpm and brings 8 MB of buffer memory. Average seek time is 12 ms.
