Kingston Digital, the flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, today announced the addition of 128 GB capacity options to three of its encrypted USB flash drives. The drives are part of a full line of encrypted solutions to suit customer needs of all levels.

Consumers and organisations have become more aware of data privacy and protection needs due to regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. Additional data security options have become a necessity as work-from-home increases. The simple inclusion of encrypted USB flash drives into a daily workflow is a simple step to ensuring data is safe. Whether it's personal, company or client information, finding the right encrypted drive can make all the difference between peace of mind and the worry of loss of data.

Thecus releases an all new 2-bay N2520 and 4-bay N4520 NAS server to lead the competition. The latest 2 and 4 bay NAS are designed to offer a revolutionary experience to the NAS industry. It utilizes the latest Intel Atom processor with 1GB RAM (N2520) and 2GB RAM (N4520). In addition, superspeed USB 3.0 fosters quick transfers, HDMI output is convenient for multimedia playback and McAfee Antivirus protection is to keep your NAS operating smoothly. The past proves merit; innovative technologies have been utilized to develop the new N2520/N4520 NAS to serve one single purpose: improve user experience and satisfaction.

"The integration of the new Intel Atom processor CE5315 and Thecus award-winning NAS is truly a revolution. We are proud to be the initial storage manufacture to embed Intel's first SoC storage dedicated chip, said Florence Shih, General Manager of Thecus. This pairing is phenomenal because it offers a new energy efficient, multimedia powerhouse and performance driven NAS solution to the storage industry."

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today launched its latest HD series motherboards, bringing unprecedented dual digital display support, including HDMI and DVI, to a range of value segment motherboard models.

The new GIGABYTE HD motherboard series defies the current ethos that means true digital display outputs are reserved for upper mainstream models, adding both HDMI and DVI ports to a range of motherboard models at attractive and affordable price points. All DIY enthusiasts can now enjoy true HD display capability using the most commonly integrated digital output technologies on today's HD displays and TVs.

Synology Inc. introduced the DVBLink package, a 3rd party application for live streaming and recording TV programs with Synology NAS servers. The DVBLink package was developed by DVBLogic.

The DVBLink package is compatible with a wide range of digital TV broadcast standards which include DVB-S2 and DVB-T/T2, and supports up to 4 DTV tuners. By installing the package and plugging the supported DTV tuners into Synology NAS servers, users can view TV programs live and record their favorite channels. TV content can be streamed to XBMC or DLNA compatible devices. What's more, DVBLink mobile apps allow iOS, Android, and Windows Phone users to watch TV live and manage recording schedules remotely.

Intel releases their new 64-bit driver for multimedia support, thus advances Thecus new module that allows direct connection from Thecus NAS to HDTV - the highly anticipated Local Display module. The module allows for users to eliminate a computer or laptop to display visuals on a TV, display multimedia via third party modules and utilize internet browser features. In addition, local display allows users to enter the NAS UI and conduct managements easily. Lastly, a terminal icon appears on the local display homepage for developer use. Local display module is now supported.

With local display, displaying your Thecus NAS to a HDTV is hassle free. Often, a computer is required to manage display on a TV or projector. Local display module is the ultimate tool for those who seek a clean infrastructure set up. Eliminating a computer or laptop creates a sense that the NAS itself functions as a small computer.

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) today announced the release of the Mobility DisplayPort (MyDP) Standard. MyDP is an extension of the DisplayPort connectivity standard that enables mobile devices to share high-definition video, audio, and 3D content with the broad universe of larger external displays through common, widely adopted connectors. Offering the industry's highest mobile-to-display image resolution, MyDP allows consumers to experience their mobile content in full, uncompressed 1080p (HDTV).

"Today's mobile devices with powerful processors and mass storage capacities have become the new hub of media content," said Soumendra Mohanty, senior director of marketing for Analogix. "However, consumers wish to experience their mobile content in a more diverse manner, beyond what a four-inch screen can offer. MyDP gives the industry a standard interface to break down screen size limitations, and Analogix is ready today with its compatible SlimPort products."

Buffalo Japan released a new LS-VL series home NAS model, LS-V4.0TLJ, which packs 4 TB of storage, a faster CPU, and software with a new web-access (remote-access over internet) feature. The single-drive NAS is designed for home convergence, with support for a large variety of entertainment devices such as 3D HDTVs, with support for DTCP-IP, providing recording features. Gigabit Ethernet is its only network interface, while it features USB 2.0. Measuring 45 x 175 x 156 mm (WxDxH), and weighing about 1 kg, the device draws about 24W of power under typical load. It is priced at 46,725 JPY (US $585).

Buffalo Japan also launched the HD-AMC3.0TU3 / V family of external hard drives that can record TV. Available in 3 TB, 2 TB, and 1 TB capacities, these drives can be programmed to independently record TV while you're away, so you can catch up with your favourite programmes later. Since the native logic of the drive has address-space limitations, the drive can be switched between a virtual partition mode, where the logic sees the installed 3 TB HDD as two 1.5 TB partitions, letting you switch between the two when recording, or as a single solid 3 TB volume that can be accessed by PCs with support for large address-space. This mode doesn't apply to the 2 TB and 1 TB models. The drive also has an LED-based indicator that gives you a rough measurement of the free-space left. The drive connects to DTV over interfaces localized to the markets it's selling in, it connects to the PC over fast USB 3.0 interface. Buffalo will launch these drives in early March, pricing was not revealed.

Buffalo Japan released two new lines of portable HDDs to the market, that are capable of recording TV (compatible with DTV specifications), without needing a set-top DVR. The drives feature LSI-made native transcoders that record TV programs as they're streamed on to a recording format and quality-setting of your choice, which can later be transferred to the dozen-HDD data reservoir on your PC.

Launched today are the HDX-PNU2/V, a 2.5-inch drive that come with TV-mounting kits that let you mount them on to TVs' VESA mount (through its holes or through a stand that attaches the TV to the wall); and the HDX-LSU2/V, a 3.5-incher that lazes around on a table-top. The HDX-PNU2/V is available in capacities of 500 GB and 1 TB, priced at 13,800 JPY (US $175) street-price and US $149 manufacturer-price, (street-price will be way higher), respectively; while the HDX-LSU2/V is available in 1 TB, 2 TB, and 3 TB models, priced at priced at 13,800 JPY (US $175) street-price, US $149 manufacturer-price, and 22,800 JPY (US $289), respectively. The drives connect to a PC over USB 2.0, and draw power over an AC adapter when connected to a TV.

Welcome to the TechPowerUp 2011 PC technology Christmas special. We hope that you will enjoy reading it while tucking into your turkey, Christmas presents and a little too much wine... In this article, we go through the technology of 2011 that has had the most significance, the most impact and was generally the most talked about. It's not necessarily the best tech of 2011 which is the most significant though, since lemons can be just as significant as the ground-breakers in how they fail to deliver - and the backlash that goes with it.

January: Intel Sandy Bridge i5 & i7

Released on January 9th, the new Intel Core i5 & i7 processors were based on Intel's second generation Core architecture built on a 32 nm production process (HEXUS review). They included an IGP (Integrated Graphics Processor) physically on the same piece of silicon along with HyperThreading. These new dual and quad core processors soundly beat all previous generations of Intel processors in terms of processing performance, heat, power use, features and left AMD in the dust. Therefore, Intel badly needed some competition from AMD and unless you have been living under a rock, you will know how that turned out in October with the launch of Bulldozer. Sandy Bridge was a sound win and is generally considered to be the only architecture worth considering at this point. The i5-2500K is currently at the sweet spot of price/performance. It comes at a stock speed of 3.3 GHz, but typically overclocks to an amazing 4.5 - 5 GHz with a decent air cooler and without too much difficulty in getting there. Models in the budget i3 range were released at various times later. See this Wikipedia article for details.

Lenovo, today announced the IdeaCentre Q180 - a consumer desktop PC no larger than a paperback book, yet powerful enough to turn a digital TV into a multimedia hub for enjoying music, videos, games, web browsing and more.

"With the IdeaCentre Q180, we upped our game in the compact PC category," said Nick Reynolds, executive director, Product Group Marketing, Lenovo. "Featuring the latest HD Graphics and Blu-ray 3D playback, the Q180 enables consumers to change the way they enjoy multimedia and the Web in their living room at an affordable price point."

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the DataTraveler 6000 (DT6000) USB Flash drive, which protects sensitive data with Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 Level 3 Validation and 100-percent encryption. For financial service organizations and government agencies that need the strongest data protection in mobile storage devices, the DT6000 meets data-at-rest regulations and is the most secure USB Flash drive available on the market.

The Kingston DT6000 utilizes patented Secured by Spyrus technology which supports 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption using XTS block cipher mode. XTS is current generation technology that provides much stronger protection than other block cipher modes such as CBC and ECB. The DT6000 uses 'military-grade' elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), which is recommended by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) as part of its Suite B set of cryptographic algorithms.

MSI has rolled out the X460 and X460DX, the newest additions to its X-Slim Series of notebook computers. The 14-inch X460, for example, is less than 1" thick and tips the scales as just 1.98 kg-currently the lightest Intel Core i7 quad core processor packing laptop out there. Also worthy of note, a second internal hard drive is optional with the X460 and X460DX to greatly enlarge storage capacity and if you go with the optional SSD hard drive, you'll kick up system performance. This pair of laptops packs plenty of punch.

Eric Kuo, associate vice president for global sales, MSI Notebook, notes that the X460 also comes with new generation Intel Wireless Display to transmit 1080p HD programs to large screen full HDTVs, so you can enjoy high resolution pictures and 5.1 channel wrap around sound without the hassle of wires.

Earlier this month, it was reported that the master-key that overrides or unlocks HDCP-encrypted digital content may have been leaked. The worst fears of the HDCP team are coming true, with Intel, a main developer of HDCP, confirming that the master-key leak is genuine. High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) is everywhere, wherever there's commercial high-definition video content, such as Blu-ray movie titles, HDTV set-top boxes, PCs capable of Blu-ray playback, and so on. It is an encryption layer that protects the HD content in its natural audio-video quality from being ripped. Without HDCP one would still be able to watch HD content, albeit with degraded quality.

The immediate repercussions of the master key leak are directed at consumer electronics manufacturers, they might hesitate to adopt HDCP paying its royalty for making use of the protocol, there is technically no fidelity left in it. Grey-market and el-cheapo consumer electronic manufacturers can circumvent HDCP compliance to offer near-perfect video playback. What's worse, it's party-time for pirates. Devices that recover digital content while retaining perfect picture/audio quality by stripping out the encryption can be made. Whatever the consequences Intel maintains it won't affect HDCP much.

Samsung Electronics America, Inc., a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Corporation, the number one worldwide brand of LCD display products, today announced two new lines of multi-function monitors (MFMs) offering consumers a computer monitor and HDTV in one. Ranging from 21.5 to 24 inches, the 30 and 90 display series allow viewers to switch easily from work to play with enhanced picture quality all in one space-saving device.

"People are looking to do more in smaller areas and multi-function monitors are a great way to maximize the functionality of a single device," said Young Bae, director of display marketing Samsung Enterprise Business Division. "Samsung continues to expand our multi-function offerings and these two new lines - the 30 and 90 series - provide a new range of options and value for our customers."

Rambus Inc., one of the world's premier technology licensing companies specializing in high-speed memory architectures, today announces the implementation of its award-winning XDR memory architecture using an ultra low-cost LQFP package. In a paper to be presented at DesignCon, Rambus will discuss the benefits of differential signaling delivering high memory bandwidth in a cost-effective package, ideal for consumer electronics such as set-top boxes and HDTVs.

"Today's consumer electronics require high bandwidth and low-cost manufacturability," said Martin Scott, senior vice president of Research and Technology Development at Rambus. "Our team has demonstrated that the superior signal integrity of the XDR memory architecture, which enables the highest data rates of any DRAM technology, also makes possible high-speed operation in very low-cost device packaging."

The company slogan change, from "Smarter Choice" to "The future is fusion" marked a major shift in core-Strategy for AMD. The company now focuses on delivering solutions, more so than mere products, with a solution comprising of several products working together to let the PC serve a purpose. One such solution is the AMD Maui entertainment platform. Maui platform makes AMD hardware work with AMD's own Live! Media Center software to deliver a complete home-theater PC solution.

On the hardware front, Maui includes a qualifying AMD Athlon X2 or Phenom series processor, a motherboard based on the AMD 7-series chipset with integrated graphics. Video is handled by the 7-series IGP, while audio is handled by a special audio component-riser card that has pre-amp circuitry onboard, which enables users to connect speakers in the 5.1 channel configuration directly to the motherboard. Future models would bring in 7.1 channel support. The first motherboard to use this design, is the MSI Media Live DIVA 5.1 780M.

AMD today announced completion of the sale of its Digital TV (DTV) processor business to Broadcom Corporation. AMD announced a definitive agreement to sell its DTV business on August 25 as part of its strategy to become leaner and more focused, while seeking to create a business model to deliver sustainable profitability and leadership in core x86 computing and graphics businesses.

In connection with the business sale, AMD received approximately $141.5 million in cash, subject to certain escrows and adjustments pursuant to the terms of the definitive asset purchase agreement.