With the threat of cheap, Chinese manufactured Blu-ray players looming on the horizon, companies like Sony, Samsung and LG have begun to reduce the price of their entry-level Blu-ray Disc players. According to DigiTimes, retail prices in the US have by dropped by an average of 25%, bringing the price of BD players below $300.
Japan-based vendors including Sony, Sharp and Pioneer as well as South Korea-based Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have reduced retail prices for their entry-level Blu-ray Disc (BD) players in the US market by an average of 25% to prices less than US$300.
For example, Samsung has lowered the retail price of its BD-P1400 to US$298 at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Amazon and other large retail channels in a bid to clear inventories, according to industry sources in Taiwan.
If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes.
Lexar sent out a press release earlier today, announcing its new FIPS validated USB flash drive. Available in 2GB and 4GB capacities, the JumpDrive Solo Vault offers security features such as 256-bit AES encryption and a FIPS-approved algorithm for securely deleting files.
Lexar Media, a leading global provider of memory products for digital media, today introduced Lexar JumpDrive Solo Vault, a FIPS validated USB personal storage device. The high-speed USB flash drive is a standalone portable drive that offers advanced 256-bit AES encryption with Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2 Level 1 (FIPS 140-2) certified security software that requires no centralized management. The complete out-of-the-box solution offers tamper-proof data security-ideal for organizations working with sensitive materials, such as health care and insurance institutions, government agencies, and banks as well as small- to medium-sized businesses.
FIPS-Certified Security Protects Critical Data Lexar JumpDrive Solo Vault utilizes one of the world's most secure and proven software encryption algorithms. Notably, the device's standards-based 256-bit AES encryption is distinguished with FIPS 140-2 certification, the definitive testing standard for any hardware used by the United States Military, as well as other departments and agencies of the Federal Government. All FIPS 140-2 certified memory devices must adhere to a rigorous set of standards and conditions.
No word on pricing or availability. If you'd like to read more, Lexar's entire press release can be found here.
Kingston announced this week that its DataTraveler 400 and 100 USB flash drives are now available in 16GB capacities. The company also introduced the DataTravaler 101 which sports bright colors, a swivel design and capacities up to 8GB.
Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it is shipping its popular DataTraveler® 400 with MigoSync software and DataTraveler 100 in 16GB capacities. Also, Kingston® has released the DT101, a drive featuring security software and available in bold, fashionable colors.
"The DT400 with MigoSync has been recognized by business travelers as the perfect solution for keeping files and documents up-to-date while on the road," said Jean Wong, Flash memory product manager, Kingston. "The DT100 now available up to 16GB is an affordable, portable storage solution allowing users to save large amounts of data while our new DT101 is an attention getter with its bright colors."
No word yet on availability. However, the price of the DataTraveler 101 ranges from $14 to $44, depending on capacity. If you'd like to read more, Kingston's entire press release can be found here.
Samsung announced this week that it is adding a new, more affordable model to its line of Blu-ray equipped "home theater in a box" (HTiB) systems. According to Twice, the $799 HT-BD2E features an integrated BD 1.0 Blu-ray player as well as five small satellite speakers, a passive subwoofer and 800 watts of RMS power.
Only Samsung and Panasonic offer HTiBs with included Blu-ray players, but the new HT-BD2E is the most aggressively priced Blu-ray-equipped HTiB system announced to date, said Reid Sullivan, marketing VP for digital audio, video and imaging. A Panasonic model retails for an everyday $999. “As the Blu-ray market broadens,” Sullivan said, “more people will be interested in home theater systems with built-in Blu-ray.”
Samsung’s three models feature integrated single-disc BD 1.0 Blu-ray player, HDMI-CEC, 1080p up-scaling of DVD content, outboard subwoofer, selectable 24/60 fps BD playback, Ethernet port for firmware upgrades, FM tuner, no AM tuner, and decoders for all surround formats approved for use on BD discs except for the DTS HD Master lossless-compression format. The systems also play CDs encoded with MP3, JPEG and WMA files.
The HT-BD2E will probably be a big hit with the everyday consumer. However, its lack of support for BD-Live and DTS-HD Master Audio probably won't sit well with enthusiasts. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here.
Buffalo has announced a new series drives based on Panasonic's 8x Blu-ray Disc writer, the SW-5584. The internal BR-816FBS and external BR-816SU2 feature 8x BD-R, 8x BD-R DL, 2x BD-R LTH and 2x BD-RE writing speeds and a maximum BD-ROM read speed of 8x. Here are some of the specs:
Read Speeds: BD-ROM: 8x BD-R: 8x BD-R DL: 8x BD-R (LTH): 2x BD-RE: 2x DVD-ROM (Single): 16x Max DVD-ROM (Dual): 8x Max DVD±R: 16x Max DVD±RW: 8x Max DVD±R DL: 8x Max DVD-RAM: 5x Max CD-R/ROM: 48x Max CD-RW: 32x Max
The BR-816FBS and BR-816SU2 will ship in early August and are priced at 41,055 Yen ($381US) and 46,725 Yen ($434US), respectively. More information on both drives can be found here.
Western Digital sent out a press release earlier today, announcing its new enterprise-class 2.5-inch SATA hard drives. The WD VelociRaptor offers 300GB of capacity and features a 10,000 rotation speed, SATA 3 Gb/s interface and 16 MB cache.
WD® (NYSE: WDC) announced today the WD VelociRaptor™ 10,000 RPM enterprise SATA hard drives in an enterprise-class 2.5-inch form factor for blade servers and 1U and 2U rack servers. The newest WD VelociRaptor hard drive is built for business-critical applications with enterprise-class mechanics and packs up to 300 GB of capacity into the enterprise small form factor bays, while consuming 35 percent less power than the previous-generation WD Raptor® drive.
"WD is bringing to enterprise customers what PC enthusiasts already appreciate about the WD VelociRaptor: a combination of high performance and high capacity for hard drive storage," said John Rydning, IDC's research director for hard disk drives. "WD's new WD VelociRaptor, designed specifically for the enterprise in an energy efficient 2.5-inch form factor, gives system OEMs and end users a new storage option to consider to meet growing storage requirements."
Western Digital's new VelociRaptor 2.5-inch hard drives will be available through select commercial distributors by the end of the month. If you'd like to read more, WD's entire press release can be found here.
Over the last year or so, there has been a lot of hype surrounding solid-state drives (SSDs). Unfortunately, in many cases, they've come up short in regards to performance and power consumption. During SanDisk's second-quarter earnings conference call, Chairman and CEO Eli Harari blamed Windows Vista for many of these shortcomings, stating that the OS is not optimized for SSDs.
Speaking during SanDisk's second-quarter earnings conference call, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Eli Harari said that Windows Vista will present a special challenge for solid-state drive makers. "As soon as you get into Vista applications in notebook and desktop, you start running into very demanding applications because Vista is not optimized for flash memory solid-state disk," he said.
This is due to Vista's design. "The next generation controllers need to basically compensate for Vista shortfalls," he said.
"Unfortunately, (SSDs) performance in the Vista environment falls short of what the market really needs and that is why we need to develop the next generation, which we'll start sampling end of this year, early next year," Harari said.
SanDisk has delayed the delivery of its Vista optimized drives until next year. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here.
