Seagate this week announced two new hard drives for desktops and notebook computers. The new desktop hard drive is a 1TB 3.5-inch internal drive with integrated government-grade encryption technology to keep data safe from unauthorized users. The drive is called the Barracuda FDE for full disk encryption and is the world’s first 3.5-inch desktop hard drive with native encryption and uses the same technology as the Momentus FDE notebook hard drives.

Seagate employs AES, which is the strongest level of commercially available encryption protocols. The Barracuda FDE encrypts the entire drive’s contents for full protection when the system is off. Booting a computer with a Baraccuda FDE drive requires the user to enter a pre-boot password. The Barracuda FDE desktop drive is available in capacities up to 1TB and has a 7200-rpm spindle speed.

Additionally, Seagate also introduced a new notebook drive -- the Momentus 5400.4. The new Momentus notebook drive uses a standard 2.5-inch form factor with a 5400-rpm spindle speed and packs a full 250GB of storage into a notebook-sized form factor. While this Seagate drive gives up storage capacity to the 320GB Toshiba notebook drive recently announced, the new 250GB is the largest notebook drive made by Seagate.

To reach this high level of storage, Seagate employs perpendicular magnetic recording technology it pioneered on the 750GB Barracuda hard drive last year. The Momentus 5400.4 also has improved durability with an operating shock tolerance of 325 Gs and a non-operating shock tolerance of 900 Gs.

The Momentus 5400.4 is scheduled to ship to system builders in the fourth quarter of 2007 and the Barracuda FDE is on track for shipment in 2008. Seagate has no comment on pricing of either drive at this time.

Source from DailyTech

Sony announced that it will be adding two new Blu-ray Disc players to its roster of high-definition movie players. Joining the $499 entry-level BDP-S300 sometime this fall will be two higher-end machines.

The BDP-S500, set to retail for about $700, features full 1080/60p and 24p True Cinema output, 7.1 channel linear PCM and Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, as well as DTS-HD High Resolution Audio bitstream output via HDMI version 1.3.

The new players also support AVCHD discs encoded with x.v.Color (xvYCC) technology, an international standard for wide color space. The standard expands the current data range of video by about 1.8 times, allowing the players to output more natural and vivid colors.


At the very top end of Sony’s offerings is the BDP-S2000ES – the first Blu-ray Disc player in the company’s "Elevated Standard" (ES) line. Interestingly enough, this $1,300 player shares the exact same feature set as the cheaper BDP-S500, but does boast several differences in construction that could lead some of the most dedicated home theater buffs to spend the extra cash.

Setting itself apart from the BDP-S300 and BDP-S500, the BDP-S2000ES model features “dual shield construction,” to prevent dust from collecting on the disc drive, along with a rigid drive bracket to minimize vibration. The player also sports a rigid beam chassis that reduces internal vibration, possibly providing more stable playback.

Similar to other Sony ES products, the unit's aluminum insulator feet help isolate the player from external vibrations, while separate audio and video boards deliver better sound and picture quality, according to comments from Sony. The unit also includes the IR-in feature for custom installation market.

"Consumer support of Sony's Blu-ray Disc products has been outstanding and the new models are targeted to satisfy the demand of those who crave an even greater level of entertainment and performance," said Chris Fawcett, vice president of marketing for Sony Electronics' Home Product Division. "From the enthusiast level of our ES line down to the entry-level models, our commitment to the finest quality video and sound delivered by the BD format has never been stronger."

Source from DailyTech