Verbatim EMEA released a colourful new line of portable hard drives. Inside its shell is a 2.5 inch hard drive with an unformatted capacity of 500 GB. The drive has a spindle speed of 5400 rpm. The unit weighs in at a mere 161 g (5.68 oz) and uses the standard USB 2.0 interface for power and data transfer. It comes in shell colours labeled "Sun kissed Yellow", "Eucalyptus Green", "Hot Pink", "Caribbean Blue" and "Volcanic Orange". The bundle includes a copy of Nero BackItUp 4 Essentials. Verbatim will ask €109 for this.

Spire, famous for over a decade in the field of PC Cooling is proudly introducing the universally compatible PacificBreeze II is designed for multiple application and comfort. The top aluminum surface works like a heat sink and enables fast heat dissipation, it also provides a sophisticated look. The gentle slope improves typing comfort, raises the laptop screen and reduces neck strain. The PacificBreeze accommodates laptop performance, comfort and is affordable. Trust the brand with the industry experience and 3-year warranty, Spire - Powered by Innovation.

Long renowned as one of the top providers of power supplies in desktop computing, Cooler Master makes a move into universal notebook power adapters with the SNA (Slim Notebook Adapter) 95; targeting business travelers carrying a notebook and other USB devices. With a sleek design and being the slimmest 95W notebook adapter available, the SNA 95 was immediately recognized as one of COMPUTEX 2009's hottest products by receiving the Design & Innovation Award 2009.

We've learned that Microsoft might be considering the opportunity to distribute Windows 7 on USB flash drives to ease netbook owners when installing operating systems. Although nothing is confirmed yet, this approach makes distribution of Microsoft software products a lot more convenient, bravo Microsoft for the idea. These drives will be used primary for netbooks and computers without any optical drives installed.
Unfortunately, the use of USB flash drives for this tight segment is just one of the many choices Microsoft is thinking over. Currently the company sells a downloadable version of Windows, so the same might apply to Windows 7, also users might download the content to an external hard drive and then hook it up to their netbook or a notebook for installation, instead of buying the more expensive USB flash drive with the licensed software. Read more at CNET.

Active Media Products, manufacturer of unique USB drives including the WWF Penguin and Panda drives, today announced immediate availability of the new 8GB Obama USB drive. the new USB flash drive that commemorates President Barack Obama, and comes pre-loaded with President Obama's Inaugural Address.

The Obama drive comes preloaded with 80MB of free bonus material that includes: high resolution photos of President Obama and the First Lady; over two hours of landmark speeches in MP3 format including the Inaugural Address and the Victory speech; text of 35+ speeches that track the President from 2002, to Senate addresses, the campaign trail, Presidential addresses and college commencement addresses in PDF format. Every Obama drive also includes a smiling rubber Obama charm that fits on the keychain. The drive itself is an impressive product. The waterproof drive features a chrome plated steel pivot-style lid that is adorned with a holographic image of the President. Measuring only 40 x 14 x 5 mm, the drive is exceptionally small and lightweight. The Obama drive is USB 2.0 compliant and works in any computer.

Western Digital, the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its newly redesigned My Book World Edition II dual-drive network storage system in capacities of up to 4 TB. With the double protection of two Mirrored (RAID 1) drives and continuous backup software, the My Book World Edition II network storage system provides an extra-safe place for users to back up and store the data and digital media from all the computers on their network in one central location. Available now at select retailers and the WD online store, the new dual-drive systems join the recently introduced (Feb. 2009) My Book World Edition and are compatible with PC and Mac computers.

According to a July 2008 report by research firm Parks Associates, the number of households worldwide with data networks will grow from around 170 million in 2008 to 240 million by year-end 2012. The firm also reports that the average broadband household will see its digital media storage needs grow to nearly 900 GB by year-end 2012. In addition, consumers indicate that the most important feature for a network-attached storage (NAS) device is the amount of available storage. With its massive 4 TB capacity, the My Book World Edition II network storage system will serve this rapidly growing need for home data storage.

Delivering on the specialized requirements of the Mac community, Seagate today introduced an advanced line-up of mobile and desktop FreeAgent for Mac storage solutions and accessories: the FreeAgent Go for Mac with USB, FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac, the 2TB FreeAgent Desk for Mac and FreeAgent Go Dock+, a powered USB hub and dock for the FreeAgent Go.Providing a complete storage toolkit for today's creative professionals, such as web designers, musicians and graphic artists, as well as multimedia enthusiasts, these enhanced FreeAgent for Mac external hard drives each include performance and capacity improvements to help store, record, protect and share creative inspirations.

"Performance is all that counts when I record," said Rami Jaffee, award-winning keyboard player for the Wallflowers and Foo Fighters. "I can depend on Seagate hard drives for quality and convenience. When recording, a song could take up to a few gigabytes, but the fact that I can have a whole record ready for me to attack and record on a slim external hard drive is so convenient that its value is immeasurable."

Buffalo announced a new USB flash drive that pushes the limits of how small these drives can get, giving similarly sized flash-storage cards a challenge. The Buffalo RUF2-PS packs up to 16 GB of data in 18 (W) x 18 (H) x 8 (D) mm, and comes in variants of 2, 4, 8, and 16 GB. It is truly feather-weight at 3 g. The drive is so compact that the a couple of these could stay latched on to a notebook even when carrying it around. It uses a standard USB 2.0 interface. Its transfer rates or availability haven't surfaced.

Japanese company Green-House unveiled two new lines of SSDs, the internal MLC-based GH-SSDxxGS-2MA (where "xx" can be 32, 64, 128, or 256, corresponding to the model's capacity in GB), and the portable GH-SSDExxGU-M. To begin with, the GH-SSDxxGS-2MA comes in the standard 2.5" form-factor. It comes in capacities of 32, 64, 128, and 256 GB, and sports a 64 MB cache. It uses standard SATA II interface, and offers read/write speeds of 220/140 MB/s.

The GH-SSDExxGU-M portable SSD on the other hand, comes in capacities of 32, 64, and 128 GB. It measures 117 x 72 x 10 mm (WxDxH), and weighs in at a pocketable 63 g. The connectivity however, is limited to USB 2.0 for some reason, with lack of a faster interface such as eSATA. Its read/write speeds are limited to 20/18 MB/s. Perhaps the only selling point is its higher durability compared to mechanical portable HDDs. With USB sticks already touching 64 GB capacities, choose with your wallet. The pricing and avilability for the two are yet to surface.

Pioneer rolled out the DVR-XD09J portable DVD writer. It sports a slim cuboid design, and uses a top-loading mechanism like retro portable CD players. It measures 133x133x14.8 mm, and weighs in at 240 g. It relies on USB for both connectivity with the host PC, and power. It burns DVD±R at 8x and DVD±R DL at 6x speeds without requiring any external power other than what USB provides.
It packs CyberLink Power2Go 6, InstantBurn 5, MediaShow 4, and PowerBackup 2. It hits stores in Japan next month.

Active Media Products, manufacturer of unique USB drives including the Obama drive, today introduced the new Predator GT series of 2.5-inch Serial ATA solid state drives that support outrageously fast data transfer speeds and include a Flex-fit adapter bracket to facilitate mounting in 3.5-inch drive bays.

The Predator GT is immediately available through Amazon and other online resellers in 64 GB and 128 GB capacities. Predator GT SSDs are based on a new 8-channel controller and employ a beefy 128 MB SDRAM cache to reach blistering fast speeds. The 128GB model supports sequential write speeds up to 200 MB/sec while the 64GB drive supports sequential write speeds up to 120 MB/sec. Both models are capable of sequential read speeds up to 220 MB/sec and 0.1ms access times.

Reacting to users' demands for portable, high speed storage, Walton Chaintech has announced its new APOGEE Pronto eSATA drive. Modeled after APOGEE's award-winning SSD design, the Pronto uses the eSATA port instead of the USB 2.0 port for its file transfers. This product specifically targets users who require better performance and capacities than conventional flash pen drives but do not require speeds to run software and operating systems like SSDs.

The APOGEE Pronto eSATA has dualistic connectors, supporting both the eSATA and USB ports. This flexibility allows users to use the Pronto as a simple high capacity storage device, while also supporting read/write speeds of 90/50MB/s respectively, about three times faster than conventional flash pen drives. Available in 32G and 64G capacities, the Pronto supports users to store a multitude of different file types, from multimedia to office documents or any combination of both.

Photofast is on a roll with its G-Monster series solid-state storage, with product launches on a monthly basis. This time around, the company is readying two products that are unique in their own ways. First up, is the G-Monster-3.5, the company's first SSD in the standard 3.5" form-factor. The drive uses internal RAID to achieve high-capacities. While most other SSD manufacturers would simply stripe two SSD modules in internal RAID 0 configurations, Photofast used an internal RAID 5 configuration that ups reliability. The array is completely abstract to the host machine, which only sees it as a single drive. The drive uses a standard SATA II interface. It comes in capacities of 64, 128, 256, 512 GB, and 1, 2 TB. As far as its performance goes, the company rates the read/write speeds around 270 MB/s. The drive will be backed by a one-year warranty.

Next up, is the G-Monster ExpressCard/54 SSD. This drive serves the purpose of expandable, removable storage for notebooks, that performs on par or faster than the hard-drive. The card comes in the standard 54 mm ExpressCard form-factor. It can function in both PCI-Express and USB 2.0 modes for the slot. When in PCI-Express mode, the drive provides stellar read/write speeds of 170/100 MB/s, and in USB 2.0 mode, 36/30 MB/s. It comes in 32, 48, and 64 GB variants, and boasts of 1.5 million hours MTBF. It will be backed by a standard one-year warranty. There is no word on the pricing and availability.

ASUS, the leading provider of integrated Home Entertainment PC solutions, today unveiled an innovative suite of entertainment solutions for home users. Slim, stunningly beautiful, and incorporating the latest standards in dynamic home entertainment, the solutions include the ultra-slim ASUS LS and MS Series monitors, the versatile ASUS 24T1E TV Monitor that receives both analog and digital TV signals, the convenient ASUS O!Play HDP-R1 HD Media Player that supports a wide array of media formats, the aurally superior ASUS Xonar Essence ST audio card which minimizes jitters for clearer and crisper audio output, and the highly portable ASUS External Slim Blu-ray Optical Disk Drives for high quality, high definition entertainment on the go.

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading PC and Mac technology company, announced today the OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro, the largest capacity, fastest bus powered portable storage solution on the market. The Mercury On-The-Go Pro is a high-performance, 500GB 7200RPM pocket-sized portable storage solution for Mac or PC users featuring FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and/or USB 2.0 interfaces for data transfer speeds up to 100MB/s. With its 500GB of storage capacity, the Mercury On-The-Go Pro can hold up to 500,000 JPEG photos, 250 DVD movies, 38 hours of digital video, or 175,000 MP3 songs.

The Mercury On-The-Go Pro 500GB 7200RPM line features three models, including a "Triple Interface" model for FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0; a "Combo Interface" model for FireWire 400 and USB 2.0; and a USB 2.0 model priced starting at $189.99.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today announces the first 2-bay network-attached storage (NAS) which supports both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SATA hard drives - TS-219P Turbo NAS. Dedicated to home and SOHO users, the TS-219P is an advanced version of the previously released TS-219. Powering Marvell 1.2GHz high performance processor and 512 MB DDRII memory, the NAS comes with 3 USB ports and 2 eSATA ports to deliver the best storage expansion capability compared with other 2-bay NAS in the market.

The TS-219P supports two hot-swappable 2.5" or 3.5" SATA hard drives with maximum 4TB storage capacity. The device can be accessed across Windows, Mac, Linux, and UNIX. It is a highly reliable and powerful NAS with abundant business-class features, such as built-in iSCSI target service (max 8 iSCSI devices) with Thin Provisioning, Online RAID Capacity Expansion, Online RAID Level Migration, automatic policy-based IP blocking, hard drive status report, instant SMS and email alert, built-in TwonkyMedia UPnP/ DLNA media server, BT and eMule download, schedule power on and power off, one Giga LAN port, and 2 IP cameras for network surveillance.

Silicon Power, the leading brand among Solid State Disk (SSD) Manufacturers lifts the benchmark another notch with their new Portable eSATA / USB SSD II. It is the world's first eSATA (eSATA; External Serial ATA) /USB dual interface portable SSD drive. The new drive emphasis the convenience of USB connection and the ultra fast performance of eSATA interface as an external drive. Overall, the drive has excellent aesthetics and the performance to match.

Having won rave reviews with their 64GB eSATA /USB SSD, Silicon Power releases the new lidless and portable eSATA/USB SSD II. Through the eSATA interface, maximum read speed reaches 90MB/Sec and maximum write reaches 50 MB/Sec. Maximum read through the USB connection is rated at 30MB/Sec and 20MB/sec for write. It is the perfect solution for professional multimedia enthusiasts or users that often carry and transfer large capacity files.

Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, announced today it is shipping a bundle kit with the popular SSDNow M Series 80GB and 160GB solid-state drives. The SSDNow M Series are the Intel X-25M SATA SSDs. The bundle combines the solid-state drives (SSD) with the software tools necessary to clone the contents of one's hard-disk drive to the SSD, as well as installation hardware.

"This all-in-one kit is the perfect solution for enterprise companies, corporate end users and consumers to incorporate SSD technology into existing systems," said Ariel Perez, SSD business manager, Kingston. "The Kingston SSDNow M Series Bundle makes moving the operating system, applications and all other data from a hard-disk drive to a solid-state drive quick and easy whether for a notebook, desktop or workstation."

QNAP Systems, Inc. today announces the first 2.5" SATA HDD, 4-bay, Intel Atom-based SS-439 Pro Turbo NAS dedicated to SMB and SOHO users. Designed with Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz CPU, 1GB DDRII memory, and DOM (Disk on Module) architecture, the SS-439 Pro is the most compact, powerful, and power-saving 2.5" 4-bay NAS that supports RAID 5/ RAID 6 for highly secure data protection. The NAS supports four 2.5" SATA hard drives which are featured with high stability, low power consumption, low vibration, and longer life expectancy. With excellent cooling and energy-saving design, the power consumption of the NAS with four hard drives installed is as low as 18W. Moreover, the SS-439 Pro supports 3 USB 2.0 ports and 2 eSATA ports for storage capacity expansion and backup destination, and advanced features such as built-in iSCSI target service (max 8 iSCSI devices) with Thin Provisioning, Online RAID Capacity Expansion, Online RAID Level Migration, AES 256-bit volume-based encryption, Wake on LAN, automatic policy-based IP blocking, instant SMS and email alert, BT and eMule download, schedule power on and power off, 2 Giga LAN ports, 4 IP cameras for network surveillance, etc.

"The SS-439 Pro is a compact, silent, and power-saving server which is ideal to work for long hours in the office. When four low power 2.5" hard drives are installed, the power consumption of the NAS is only 18W, which is almost the same as an energy-saving light bulb. It is an environment-friendly storage solution that largely saves the electricity expense of the users and minimizes pollution to the earth," says Jerry Deng, Product Manager from QNAP.

NEC unveiled the first add-on cards based on its recently announced µPD720200 USB 3.0 host controller. This is the typical route taken by a company to propagate the standard in an environment where motherboard vendors and chipset makers haven't yet embraced it. For the desktop segment, the reference-design PCI-Express x1 add-on card provides two SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports that are backwards-compatible with USB 2.0, 1.1, and 1.0. NEC also released an add-on card for notebooks, in the ExpressCard-34 form-factor based on the same controller, offering the same two ports. With these reference designs, NEC plans to propagate add-on card vendors to design their own cards based on the NEC µPD720200 controller. Typically, these cards should be priced around the $15~20 mark. A successor to USB 2.0, USB 3.0 offers 10-times the bandwidth (4.8 Gbps), although it will take a while for devices to use all that bandwidth, let alone support the standard. Perhaps this is why the company seems to find PCI-Express x1 sufficient as its system interface.

The all new Slider Pro Hard Drive Enclosure Series offers you the very best in design, combined with the peace of mind that Spire is protecting your harddrive with its all aluminum casing for maximum heat dissipation and strength. And to make it that much easier, the innovative SliderPro is equipped with a slide tray that will save you time and hassle installing or replacing your Hard Drive into the enclosure. Equipped with a pre-installed 30mm cooling fan in the front for fresh cool air intake to keep your drive at best operating temperatures.

The Slider Pro HDD enclosures are portable and stand alone, not base or support is required. Date transfer is safe and fast between office, home or laptop computer with the RIFD and OTB features available on the Slider Pro enclosures. Enjoy that piece of mind and ensure safe back up and data storage with the new Slider Pro from Spire - Powered by Innovation!

DisplayLink Corp. today celebrated reaching sales of more than one million USB graphics semiconductors. Embedded in more than thirty consumer and business products, DisplayLink chips - the DL-120 and DL-160 - make it possible for people to connect various visual computing devices to displays with an easy USB connection.

"DisplayLink has completely reinvented the way computers talk to displays. Our IC's make it possible to use standard plug and play USB to connect a laptop to one or more displsys, bringing the world a major step closer to the ideal "single world connector" status. Achieving sales of one million chips clearly shows the mainstream reach of our technology with customers and end-users who readily appreciate the simplicity of our approach and the productivity benefits of using multiple displays" said Hamid Farzaneh, president and CEO of DisplayLink.

LaCie announced today the availability of two new high capacity Network Attached Storage (NAS) solutions - Big Disk Network and d2 Network. These professional file servers are optimized for users to instantly store, share, and back up files, from any PC or Mac on a wired or wireless network. LaCie's new NAS solutions deliver high-performance and professional-class reliability, in an easy-to-use network solution for the home or small office.

The d2 Network supports up to 1.5TB capacity, while the Big Disk Network combines two drives in a RAID 0 setting, for up to 3TBs of storage. Both NAS solutions are perfect for advanced users or small to medium sized offices that want to develop workgroup environments for up to 50 users (15 at one time). Network administrators can choose from various security levels for user profiles, groups, and public or guest access. Users can connect an external USB drive to increase security through scheduled backups, or even expand capacity. The d2 Network also includes an eSATA connection for storage expansion.

After several technical hurdles and some controversy with Intel, NVIDIA was able to go ahead with its Ion platform initiative, where partners are allowed to use Intel Atom processors (both single and dual-core variants) with NVIDIA MCP79-class chipsets. The most distinct feature on offer is the powerful integrated GPU in the form of GeForce 9400M. NVIDIA partner Zotac is ready with two ULPC-friendly mini-ITX motherboards based on the platform, that promise features filled to their brims.

The Zotac IONITX-A-U and IONITX-B-E are powered by Intel Atom 330 dual-core or Atom N230 single-core processors respectively. The only other difference is that the former features an onboard DC-DC power supply. Both feature NVIDIA MCP79 chipset with onboard GeForce 9400M graphics, that comes with clock speeds of 450/1100 MHz (core/shader). Two 240-pin standard DDR2 DIMM slots support DDR2-667/800 MHz memory. There are three SATA II ports provided on the board, with the fourth one placed as an eSATA connector. RAID 0/1 modes are supported. Display outputs are taken care of by D-Sub, DVI and HDMI connectors. The 8-channel audio also provides co-axial and optical SPDIF connections. Six USB 2.0 ports on the back, four through headers, a gigabit Ethernet and WiFi make for the rest of the concoction. It is indicated that the two will hit Japanese stores at prices of JPY 29980 (US$303) for the IONITX-A-U and JPY 19980 ($202) for the IONITX-B-E.

Lian-Li Industrial Co. Ltd has launched the NC-09 Notebook cooler pad. The brushed all aluminum black anodized structure has a huge 220mm 5V silent DC Fan with a blue LED and a large steel mesh which allows extra air-flow under the notebook. The Notebook Cooler has dual USB connectors with one mini USB power connector which can accept either a notebook power source, or a Universal 5V USB Cellphone charger. In addition there is a on/off switch to facilitate ease of use. The mini USB provides power to the fan and other USB connectors (Fan uses 300MA only).

The NC-09 cooler has a three level height adjustment, or alternatively the smooth base panel can conveniently be placed on a flat sur face or on one's lap. The NC-09 is perfect for High End notebooks, since Aluminum is four times more effective than steel to transfer and dissipate heat. The NC-09 has been designed for 12.1"/14"/15"/17" notebooks. For more details on features for the NC-09 please go to the Lian-Li website.