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

Storage capacity never ceases to increase, while form factor appears to move in the inverse direction. Toshiba Storage Device Division announced its 160GB 1.8-inch hard disk drive. The new drive uses the CE-ATA interface – designed for optimal performance and power utilization in small devices – and marks the first drive from Toshiba with the technology.

In addition to the two-platter 160GB drive, Toshiba will also offer a single-platter 80GB model. Both drives achieve an areal density of 353 megabits per square millimetre (228 gigabits per square inch). In addition to increased capacity, Toshiba has reduced the power consumption of the 160GB HDD to 0.002W/GB, which is 33 percent less than the previous 1.8-inch 100GB model, said the company.

"Toshiba's new 1.8-inch HDDs build on our long-time leadership in this key product segment and gives CE manufacturers the tools to create smaller, lighter and more compelling handheld devices," said Scott Maccabe, vice president and general manager of Toshiba Storage Device Division. "Storage is an integral part of the digital experience, and these small form factor HDDs deliver the capacity, power efficiency and throughput to support, if not accelerate, consumer demand for sophisticated portable computing, multimedia and entertainment devices."

Toshiba’s new 80 and 160GB drives are expected to be used digital audio players, digital video recorders, copiers, mobile PCs and more. Interestingly, the capacities of Toshiba’s newly announced drives match up with the storage sizes of the newest iPod classic players announced yesterday – though neither company has made any indication of which drives Apple is sourcing.

The new 1.8-inch HDDs are being integrated by OEM partners for consumer products slated for the holiday season.


Source from DailyTech

Shuttle today introduced a new small form factor computer aimed at gamers: the SP35P2 Pro. This barebone system is designed to work with the latest Intel dual core and quad core parts and future 45 nm CPUs all with a 1333 MHz front side bus.

For security both in the home and on the go Shuttle integrated a finger print reader into the computer. Speed-Link is a function integrated into the system that allows PC-to-PC communications across a USB cable at high speed.

The case used in the SP35P2 Pro is made form aluminum and has a brushed black finish. Inside the case the mainboard has one PCI Express X16 slot that is suitable for dual slot graphics cards. External drive bays include one 5.25-inch drive bay and one 3.5-inch drive bay with an additional pair of internal 3.5-inch drive bays.

The chipset used in the system is the Intel P35 Express with the ICH9R controller hub. A 400 Watt ATX mini power supply is included that is certified for 80% or greater energy efficiency. Four memory slots are included on the mainboard that can hold up to 8GB of DDR2-667/800 RAM. One single PCI 32 bit slot is included, but will be blocked by a dual slot graphics card.

Shuttle includes onboard 7.1 channel high definition audio with the Realtek ALC888 codecs and an analog line-out. On the back panel are a pair of eSATA ports, and internally there are four SATA ports that allow for RAID functionality. For a small system there are six USB 2.0 ports, which is quite good.

Source from DailyTech

At the Consumer Electronics Show 2007, LG launched the industry’s first dual-format high-definition player that was capable of playing both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD media. While LG’s $1,200 player – model designation BH100 – did play both formats, its support for special interactive features such as picture-in-picture were completely lacking.

LG is now looking to right the wrongs of its first attempt at a dual-format player with the announcement of a second-generation player dubbed the BH200. The new model is due in mid-October and will sell for around $1,000.

Like the earlier model, the BH200 will play both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc movies – but added in the new model is support for interactive features on both formats. LG says that BH200 will support both HDi for HD DVD and BD-Java – adhering to the new features mandated by the Blu-ray Disc Association earlier this year.

Source from DailyTech

Although LG was the first arrival to the dual-format game, it isn’t the only one playing for both sides. In July, Samsung Electronics announced the BD-UP5000 Duo, which claims to also support HDi and BD-Java. Samsung’s player is set to launch this holiday season for $1,049.

HP and Voodoo PC are set to unveil the fruition of their efforts after the acquisition of Voodoo PC in the form of a new enthusiast oriented gaming machine next week – the HP Blackbird 002. The new HP Blackbird 002 sports a completely new chassis design, built from the ground up for looks, performance and versatility.

The new Blackbird 002 chassis features a completely aluminum chassis sporting a wedge-shaped design. HP’s Blackbird 002 features a hover design, where the chassis sits on a cast aluminum stand for a hovering look. The cast aluminum stand raises the chassis off the ground to provide airflow to the system’s 1100 Watt power supply mounted at the bottom of the chassis. The stand can also support up to 600 pounds, allowing users to stand on the system or set a couple concrete blocks on it.

HP touts the Blackbird 002’s superior thermal capabilities. The Blackbird 002 features a sealed, maintenance free water-cooling system. The water-cooling system cools the processor and graphics cards while keeping the system quiet. HP also touts the chassis’ isolated design, keeping every component chamber isolated and preventing hot air from contaminating the cool air stream.

The chassis also features a completely tool-less design, allowing owners to remove or replace all components without the needs of any tools. HP equips the Blackbird 002 with plenty of lighting. The chassis features accent and task lighting, according to Mark Solomon, lead designer, HP Gaming. Accent lighting highlights certain aspects of the Blackbird 002 such as the stand and front grille while task lighting highlights helpful portions of the case such as the chassis interior and rear ports.

The company claims it will equip the Blackbird 002 with industry standard components and the best components available. The chassis will accommodate standard off the shelf components such as motherboards, video cards, hard drives and memory. The system will also come with standard BIOS, allowing users to tweak and overclock the system to their liking.

Expect the HP Blackbird 002 to show up on HP’s online store immediately, ready to take on Dell’s XPS 720 H2C. Pricing can vary from $2,500 to $6,500 depending on configuration.

Source from DailyTech

Dell is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Precision lineup with the announcement of the Precision M6300 notebook. The new notebook replaces the old Precision M90 and is aimed at the business market.

The M6300 features a 17" "Road Ready" chassis design (magnesium alloy). The use of lightweight materials has allowed Dell to trim the weight of the M6300 to 8.5 pounds compared to 9 pounds for the older M90. The M6300 also makes use of a metal display backing to aid in rigidity and durability.

When it comes to hardware specs, the Santa Rosa-based M6300 doesn't disappoint. The notebook features NVIDIA's Quadro FX 1600M with 512MB of TurboCache (256MB dedicated). Dell offers the M6300 in WXGA+ (1440x900) and WUXGA (1920x1200) screen resolutions with TrueLife or anti-glare screen coatings. Unfortunately at this time, LED backlighting will not be available for the M6300 although company representatives note that the option could be made available at a later date.

On the processor front, the M6300 will make available Intel's new Core 2 Duo X7900 processor which clocks in at 2.8GHz (800MHz FSB). As is standard fare with most Santa Rosa notebooks today, the M6300 supports up to 4GB of DDR2 memory. Dell notes that the M6300 can support the full 4GB (rather than 3GB) due to 36-bit addressing when paired with a 64-bit capable operating system.

Storage options abound for the M6300. Dell offers traditional HDDs up to 200GB in size with a 7200RPM spindle speed as well as a 120GB encrypted HDD. Dell will also make available a SanDisk 32GB solid-state disk (SSD) for those that crave the ultimate in performance and durability. Optical drive options include an 8x DVD, 24x CD-RW, 8x DVD+/-RW and a Blu-ray drive (2x writeable).

For those that need wireless connectivity, Dell offers its branded 802.11a/g/n network solutions as well as competing solutions from Intel. Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and the Dell Wireless 5510 HSDPA (AT&T) card are optional.

Other features include six USB 2.0 ports, DVI, VGA, S-video, FireWire, 5-in-1 media reader, Express Card slot and an optional UPEK fingerprint reader.

Dell claims that the M6300 will operate for up to four hours on its standard 9-cell battery and is Energy Star 4.0 compliant in all of its configurations.

When it comes to operating systems, Dell will offer Windows XP, Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. RedHat Linux 5.1 will also be made available in October.

"Customers buy workstations because they need maximum performance to get a job done, said Dell Product Group VP Vivek Mohindra. "The M6300 is ideal for customers who want to run demanding professional applications no matter where they are."


Source from DailyTech

Wireless is certainly the way to go for many computer users. Many users strive to shed wires from everything from network connections to headphones. It stands to reason that many want wireless mice and keyboards as well.

Logitech makes some of the most desirable wireless keyboards and mice around, but has lacked a wireless desktop that used its Revolution series mice. Logitech’s recently announced Wave keyboard was even left out of the loop when it comes to the Revolution mice. Today the company rectified that misstep with the announcement of a new wireless desktop called the MX5500.

The MX5500 combines the popular MX Revolution wireless mouse (with its hyper-fast scroll wheel) and a new wireless keyboard with LCD display. The LCD display can be used for different functions like a calculator, date, time or current music track info. Connectivity is accomplished via a Bluetooth 2.0 and Vista users will even find that the keyboard has several shortcut keys for Vista gadgets.

The MX5500 is priced at $170 and will be available in early 2008.


Source from DailyTech

Dell is one of those company's lots of people love or hate. They put out lots of high tech devices at good prices that make your average consumer happy. Then when stuff goes wrong with their gear they have some of the worst support on the planet.

When you couple that animosity, with some fudging of financial numbers not too long ago; you have a recipe for lack of trust in Dell products. Dell isn’t known to be that much of an innovator when it comes to their products, but recently they have been changing that notion with the introduction of the XPS M1330 and XPS M1730 notebooks.

Dell is also getting ready to announce a new 20-inch LCD display that has a webcam built-in. The display is called the SP2008EFP and it has a native resolution of 1680 x 1050, a 2ms response time, 300cd/m2 brightness and a 2000:1 contrast ratio.

Connectivity options include DVI with HDCP for protected HD content and a VGA D-sub. Too bad Dell doesn’t equip their displays with dual DVI ports for those running multiple computers. The display also has four USB ports with two of them on the side and two on the rear.

No speakers are built-in, but an optional sound bar is available for those wanting speakers on the display. The built-in webcam is a VGA fixed focus design with an array microphone. The release date is set for September 12 and no pricing information is available at this time.


Source from DailyTech

Solid-state disks (SSDs) are still a long way from entering the regular mainstream market, but that isn't stopping companies from releasing larger and faster products on a continual basis.

SanDisk and Samsung are currently sitting at 64GB with their SSDs. SanDisk's offering features read speeds of 67MB/sec (write speeds are unknown) while Samsung quotes 65MB/sec reads and 45MB/sec writes. Adtron's 160GB SSD trumps both with a maximum read speed of 70MB/sec and maximum write speed of 55MB/sec.

Mtron is leaving all three manufacturers in the dust with its new range of SSDs. The South Korean manufacturer boasts that its new 2.5" and 3.5" drives feature read speeds of 120MB/sec and write speeds of 90MB/sec.

According to Mtron, the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB drives will be available in September. During the fourth quarter, the company is expected to launch a 128GB SSD in a 1.8" form factor.

Mtron has not released pricing for the drives, but expect to pay a pretty penny considering the read/write speeds of the memory chips being used. For those looking for a more cost-effective solution, there's always SanDisk's new uSSD 5000 lineup.


Source from DailyTech

If you are a gamer, graphic designer or just like to work from a large screen monitor, 24-inch displays are coming down in price and going up in features. HP is set to unveil its latest 24-inch LCD display on Wednesday.

The new HP w2408 24-inch LCD display features BrightView anti-reflective technology for a wide viewing angle – 160 degrees vertical and horizontal. The monitor is HDCP compliant for viewing protected HD content such as HD DVD or Blu-ray, when paired with an HDCP compliant graphics card.

The display has a 92% wide color gamut making it appropriate for graphic designers and others wanting the most accurate color display. Under the display is a keyboard parking area. HP also integrates a four-port USB hub, speakers and a headphone jack. The integrated speakers are rear facing and output 2-watts per channel.

HP equips the w2408 with rotational capabilities and includes software that automatically adjusts the screen orientation as the display is rotated. The display also features a detachable base and a standard VESA100 4-hole mounting pattern.

Like all 24-inch displays the HP v2408 features a 16:10 aspect ratio with a 1920x1200 native resolution at 60Hz. The display features a 400 nits brightness rating with a 1000:1 contrast ratio. The panel has a typical response time of 5ms, on-off. The display features traditional CCFL backlighting and not LED.

HP integrates the power adapter is internally into the display, removing the need of an external power brick. The w2408 is Energy Star compliant as well.

Expect the display to show up in retail this month with included VGA and DVI cables.

Source from DailyTech