CD Drive

CD-ROM

Short for Compact Disc-Read Only Memory, CD-ROM drives are CD players inside computers that can have speeds in the range from 1x and beyond, and have the capability of playing audio CDs and computer data CDs. Below is a picture of the front and back of a standard CD-ROM drive.

Interfaces
Below are the different interfaces that allow a CD-ROM and other disc drives to connect to the computer.
CD-ROM transfer speeds
Below is the standard transfer rates and access times of the majority of CD-ROM drives. The below figures are averages you can expect to find on each speed of CD-ROM drive. These averages may be slower or faster than your CD-ROM drive and to where the CD-ROM is accessing the data from the CD-ROM. In general the higher this number is the faster the transfer rate or in the case of a disc burner the faster the write rate.

IDE

Short for Integrated Drive Electronics or IBM Disc Electronics, IDE is more commonly known  standard interface for IBM compatible hard drives. IDE is different from the Small Computer Systems Interface  and Enhanced Small Device Interface (ESDI) because its controllers are on each drive, meaning the drive can connect directly to the motherboard or controller. IDE and its updated successor, Enhanced IDE (EIDE), are the most common drive interfaces found in IBM compatible computers today. Below is a picture of the actual IDE connector on the back of a hard disk drive, a picture of what an IDE cable looks like, and the IDE channels it connects to on the motherboard.



CD-ROM drives
Most software today ships on CD-ROM because CD-ROMs hold much more information than the standard floppy disk and are cheaper to manufacture. Software will never ship on Zip disks or LS120 disks because the media is too expensive and CD-ROMs are really cheap to make. Another use of a CD-ROM drive is to play music CDs on your computer or extract audio data to your PC.

Plextor, a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media equipment, announces the newest addition to its Blu-ray lineup with the new external 12X Blu-ray Writer – the fastest Blu-ray writer available in the market today. This drive features the latest superspeed USB 3.0 and eSATA connections, providing bandwidth for high data transfer rate.

Supplied with advanced Blu-ray and DVD playback software and recording applications, the PX-LB950UE offers a full Blu-ray HD experience. The drive is designed to provide smooth and quiet HD Blu-ray movie playback with excellent sound reproduction and a crystal clear picture quality. This drive also supports 3D playback and is able to convert 2D contents to simulate 3D effects.
“We are excited to offer a transportable all-in-one blu-ray device to consumers,” said Christine Hsing, Marketing Manager at Plextor. “The PX-LB950UE lets you connect to any computer with USB or eSATA connection making access to Blu-ray technology a breeze.
OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today unveiled a new addition to the highly-awarded Vertex 3 SATA III Series. The Vertex 3 Max IOPS edition drives extend the company’s industry-leading Vertex 3 SSD product line to support users that require greater transactional throughput.

“Following the successful launch of our Vertex 3 SATA III 6Gbps solid state drives we are pleased to introduce the new Max IOPS edition,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group. “Vertex 3 Max IOPS drives increase random write performance, and are the ideal storage solution for applications that require high aggregate workloads and increased IO throughput.”
The Vertex 3 Max IOPS edition combines the cutting-edge SandForce® SF-2200 SSD processor with premium NAND flash components to deliver exceptional 4KB random write performance with up to 75,000 IOPS. Furthermore, these drives can significantly improve multimedia entertainment and management, and the overall computing experience compared to both traditional mechanical hard drives and competing SSDs.
Lexar Media, a leading global provider of memory products for digital media, today announced the immediate availability of Crucial m4 solid-state drives in capacities ranging from 64GB to 512GB. Designed for both business customers and general consumers, the Crucial m4 SSD product line incorporates Micron's industry-leading 25-nanometer (nm) NAND flash technology in a 2.5" form factor. Like its Crucial RealSSD C300 predecessor, the Crucial m4 also supports the SATA 6Gb/s interface, opening up the data path between the host processor and the SSD, and resulting in improved overall system responsiveness, including faster boot times and application loads.

The new Crucial m4 SSD reaches read speeds of up to 415 MB/second, a 17 percent increase over its predecessor. Likewise, write speeds on the new 512GB capacity have demonstrated increases up to 260MB/s, a 20 percent boost over the fastest C300 driv1. Ideal for client computing, Crucial m4 SSD products provide benefits for notebooks, desktops, workstations, and industrial applications, including low power consumption, lightweight construction, and resistance to shock and vibration.
 
CyberLink Corp. today released PowerDVD 11, the latest version of the award-winning media playback software for PCs. A universal player, is designed to be the only application you’ll need to view Blu-ray and DVD movies, videos, photos and listen to music.

 PowerDVD 11 introduces a multitude of new features including support for playback and transfer of content from the iPhone, , iPod Touch and Android phones and slates to PC. In addition to smart device content, PowerDVD also facilitates the playback of remote media from sources such as DLNA servers and social networking sites like Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.
“While the PC remains central to the digital entertainment experience, portable devices and online content are playing increasingly important roles,” said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink. “PowerDVD 11 smoothes the flow between the PC, smart devices and online content so that users can get the most out of their digital entertainment anywhere.”
Media playback wouldn’t be complete without top quality audio, and PowerDVD 11 takes this to the next level with a premium 5.1-channel DTS audio experience across all three retail versions, as well as new Dolby Digital Plus support for MP4 files.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a worldwide leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology, today announced the internal DVD writer with fast Lead-In that considerably reduces disc recognition time during start-up. With SAMSUNG’s new DVD writers, consumers will get ultra quick load times, dramatically reducing the wait time from disc insert to usage in the Optical Disc Drives (ODDs).

With Samsung’s new technology, the SH-222AB DVD writer reduces its Lead-In-Time up to 60 percent at maximum. Prior to this, users of traditional DVD-writers had to wait 15 to 30 seconds of load time to start after inserting a disc into the drive. By reducing the lag time, Samsung’s SH-222AB enables a much richer experience for ODD users looking for quick start-up operation.
DVD-ROM drives
DVD-ROM is a newer standard than CD-ROM, able to read 7 times as much data off of a typical DVD disk (4.7 GB) as opposed to the measly 650MB a CD-ROM drive can read, and also able to play DVD movies with the proper decoding software or hardware. With fast video cards and processors today, you typically don’t need any special DVD decoding hardware to play DVD movies. Microsoft ships a software DVD movie player with Windows XP that works fine.
DVD-ROM drives can read CD-ROM disks, so if you have a DVD-ROM drive, you don’t need an extra CD-ROM drive. Also, the x-factor for DVD drives refers to a higher transfer rate: 1x DVD-ROM drives transfer data at the rate of a 9x CD-ROM drive (150 KBytes/sec * 9 = 1.35 MBytes/second). Thus, a 5x DVD-ROM drive reads DVD data as fast as a 45x CD-ROM drive reads CD data. Most complete systems with DVD-ROM drives will ship with 12x or 16x DVD-ROM drives today. A slower drive isn’t out of the question, but with 16x and soon 20x drives available for cheap, why bother? DVD-ROM drives are dirt cheap today, so don’t even bother with plain CD-ROM drives unless you have no choice.
CD-RW drives
Remember, DVD-ROM and CD-ROM drives are read-only; that is, you can’t copy or save files to them. If you want to write CD’s, you will want to step up to a CD-RW drive for about an extra US$20. CD-RW drives can read regular CD’s and can write 650 MB of data to CD-R media (aka “greenies” – and some allow storage of 700 or 800 MB) that cost under US$1 apiece. CD-RW drives will also re-write data to CD-RW media which is slightly more expensive.
CD-R and CD-RW media can be read by standard CD-ROM drives after it is written. Also, you can use CD-R and CD-RW media in most consumer CD players, allowing you to mix your own CDs, or even to encode a CD-R full of MP3 files for play on newer consumer CD players (check to see if your CD player supports this). It’s great for long periods of music playback. We highly recommend a CD-RW drive for the functionality.
CD-RW drives are rated in three different speed categories. The speeds are listed as something like “40x/10x/4-x” and the speeds stand for: CD-ROM read spead / CD-RW write speed / CD-R write speed. Stick with at least a 40/10/40 drive if you can. Older drives write to media more slowly. If you go with those, you’re getting old technology.
A weaker option that is now nothing more than a curiosity nowadays is the plain CD-R drive. This type of drive is like the CD-RW without the “W”. Thus, it can write to CD-R media, but it cannot rewrite to CD-RW media. The cost of CD-RW drives is very reasonable, so we don’t recommend CD-R anymore, and you probably won’t see it as a selection anywhere, but is listed here for reference.
Recommendations
As you can see, you have many, many options. Nowadays, CD-RW is a necessity for the home user for making music CDs and backing up data on very cheap media. We recommend a combination DVD+RW/+R/CD-RW drive. This drive is being sold by Dell, if not others, and combines many different standards into one drive, allowing you to read CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs and write to CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R and DVD+RW.
Another option is the DVD-RAM/-R/CD-RW drive being pushed by Gateway and others. The DVD-R part is compatible with all of those Apple SuperDrives and the media they use. If you’ve got friends or family with Macs, you may want to go this route
Corporate client PC recommendations
There are not a lot of corporate uses for DVD+RW and CD-RW drives. Not only that, but they make it really easy for your users to walk out of the office carrying a lot of corporate data. You could stick with the cheaper standard old CD-ROM drives or look toward the future and go with DVD-ROM drives that now cost about the same price. Microsoft is starting to ship software on DVD, and more companies will follow. Do you want to have to deal with the marketing department saying to you, “Hey, can you get access to this clip-art DVD? My CD-ROM drive won’t read it!” It’s up to you.
Either way you choose, you should definitely have some sort of drive that can at least read a CD-ROM as that can make it easier to repair machines if you are not doing network installs. If users need DVD+RW or CD-RW for certain reasons, consider it in special cases, at least for your IT department for utility reasons. Also, you may want to give them to trusted individuals that are technically savvy that need to deliver data to clients or archive files locally. Remember, though, this is a security risk to have the capability for users to write 4.7 GB of corporate data off of your network onto a DVD+RW disk. Take proper precautions if necessary for your environment
DVD-R/RW / DVD+RW/+R / DVD-RAM
There are 3 competing DVD writeable standards: DVD-RAM, DVD-R/RW and DVD+RW/+R. DVD-R drives (aka “SuperDrives”) are shipping now in Apple Macintoshes, but Apple used used to ship DVD-RAM drives. Now, Sony, Philips, HP and Dell are backing DVD+RW. The DVD-R drive is somewhat more compatible with consumer DVD players, but DVD+RW drives have a larger group of companies backing them. If you own a DVD player and want to make DVDs of home movies to play in that player, you will need to research and find out whether DVDs produced by your DVD+RW or DVD-R drive will play in that player.
World leading flash memory manufacturer and brand Silicon Power realizes how individuals can’t help to speak for themselves; thus, for those who dare to show their capricious personality, Blaze B10, the market’s first USB 3.0 flash drive with color-changing pattern according to temperature, is born!

With USB 3.0 super speed interface, Blaze B10 boasts a remarkable read speed up to 70 MB/s. Compared to conventional USB 2.0 with 480MBps, USB 3.0 carries the bandwidth of up to 5Gbps. Based on real-world test results, transfer time of high definition data files such as videos, photos, music, etc is significantly reduced, making instant carrying and sharing rich digital contents quicker and easier.
In addition to the USB 3.0 features, Blaze B10 is especially designed for expressive individuals who are playful and bold with their portable storage devices. Smooth curves at two ends of its body get B10 a chic look while its surface is given a special finish for scratchproof and fingerprint-free purpose. Its front is designed with futuristic geometric pattern using heat-sensitive ink; color of the pattern will gradually change from Turkish blue to blazing red according to operating temperature of the drive, adding personality, style and fun to data transferring. Furthermore, Silicon Power includes a heat-sensitive sticker on B10 retail packaging for users to test out the cool color-changing effect of Blaze B10.
Tapping into the high performance potential of the USB 3.0 interface with the convenient form factor of a standard flash drive, the Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go USB 3.0 Flash Drive offers extreme speed, large capacity and plug-and-play operation. The unit supports transfer rates of up to 70MB/sec Write and 120MB/sec Read on USB 3.0 host systems. Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go USB 3.0 Flash Drive is available in capacities of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. It is available in stores in April 2011.

The Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go USB 3.0 Flash Drive comes with a push and pull design that does not only protect the connector but also makes an extra protective cap unnecessary. Compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems, the drive also works with USB 2.0/1.1 ports.
“USB 3.0 drives make a lot of sense because they are 100 percent compatible with USB 2.0 and offer far superior speeds to devices that have USB 3.0 ports,” said Hans Christoph Kaiser, Business Development Manager Flash Verbatim EUMEA. “We are expecting the bulk of the premium USB flash storage market to migrate to USB 3.0 within the next 18 months.”
Transcend Information, Inc., a worldwide leader in storage and multimedia products, today introduced two new high-capacity portable hard drives: the SuperSpeed USB 3.0-powered StoreJet 25H3P and the standard USB 2.0-powered StoreJet 25H2P. Both models boast 1TB of storage capacity, and come bundled with Transcend’s advanced new Transcend Elite data management software, which allows modern users to keep their rich digital content organized, protected and up-to-date.

Housed in a robust shockproof case, the newly released StoreJet 25H3P and StoreJet 25H2P drives offer extra capacity for more downloads and files and provide the highest level of protection against accidental drops. Besides incorporating a brilliant purple anti-slip rubber enclosure, the new models include a reinforced hard casing that evenly distributes the force of an impact, and an internal hard drive suspension damper as a last line of defense. Both two drives have passed the rigorous U.S. military drop-test tests, making them one of the most robust portable hard drives in the market today.
Kingston Digital, Inc. today announced the DataTraveler 4000-M Managed (DT4000-M) USB Flash drive, a fully managed version of the company’s DataTraveler 4000 product. Specifically developed and priced for enterprise deployments, the FIPS-certified DT4000-M leverages SafeConsole for Kingston server software from BlockMaster® to deliver best-in-class USB protection, flexibility and centralized management control at an affordable cost.

The Ponemon Institute released data last month highlighting that data breach costs are skyrocketing. Specifically, monetary loss related to mobile devices for US-based organizations surveyed rose 15 percent year-over-year to $258 per record. Data from other industry sources show a 400-percent year-over-year increase in lost USBs during 2010, with 1 in 10 employees losing a USB drive containing corporate info. Additionally, a recent survey from BlockMaster found that 76 percent of workers plug unknown USB drives into their company laptops, exponentially increasing the risk of passing on viruses and malware to their corporate networks.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, announced today its new family of hard disk drives, including two portable drives and a desktop storage station. Supporting the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface, the new external hard drives can provide data transfer speeds of up to 5 gigabits per second, delivering a maximum 10-fold higher data transfer rate over the USB 2.0, allowing users to transfer a 25-gigabyte full HD movie in just four minutes.

Samsung's portable drives come in two designs, the entry-level M2 Portable and the premium C2 Portable 3.0. The M2 Portable comes with a wave-like matte finish that covers scratches and fingerprints, with curved sides for a comfortable grip. The drives are available in densities of up to 1 terabyte, USB 2.0/3.0 interface, and four colors: Brown Black, Noble Beige, Mist Gray and Clay Orange.
 

Today, CDRLabs brings you a review of LG's new two-bay network storage device, the N2A2. While lacking a built in DVD or Blu-ray writer, this consumer oriented NAS makes up for it by offering 2TB of storage, a versatile RAID system and a long list of features including USB device backup, Apple Time Machine support, Torrent file sharing and a built in DLNA media server.





ASUS offers the most complete Blu-ray selection with the fastest performance and award-winning design, including external and internal writers, combos and players with 3D support. The company has just launched the new  the world’s fastest external 3D Blu-ray writer. It enables an easy transition from DVD, the fastest and most reliable Blu-ray burning performance, and a unique artistic approach to optical media.

With burning speeds up to 12X via USB 3.0, Optical Tuning Strategy (OTS) technology for the best writing quality available and high definition 3D playback, the BW-12D1S-U further highlights the attention ASUS pays to design, arriving in a form inspired by diamond shapes. It also includes a unique blue power indicator for an artistic touch, and features a matching stand that allows for practical two-way horizontal and vertical placement to help users save space with increased versatility.
Seagate today announced the availability of its new GoFlex Slim portable hard drive –– a svelte, 9mm, 2.5–inch external drive designed for the latest trend of portable, thin, stylish laptops and netbooks. Initially showcased at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics show in January of this year, the new GoFlex Slim performance drive is now available on in–store and at select online retailers. A 320GB version of the GoFlex Slim drive can be purchased for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $99.99 USD.

At an ultra–sleek 9mm—38 percent leaner than the current GoFlex ultra–portable drives—the new GoFlex Slim drive is roughly the width of a pencil. Sliding effortlessly into a pocket, purse or messenger bag, the GoFlex Slim portable drive enables transport, access and enjoyment of personal digital content from anywhere, making it the perfect complement to today’s mobile lifestyle. Equipped with a 7200RPM drive and a USB3.0 interface to accelerate transfer speeds up to 10x faster than USB2.0, this attractive super–slim drive delivers quick access to large, multi–media files such as HD movies and video games. The faster drive speed takes full advantage of the included plug–and–play USB 3.0 interface, while still maintaining compatibility with USB 2.0 ports. The GoFlex Slim portable drive also allows for use between Windows and Mac computers, interchangeably, without formatting or performance loss. Additionally, the drive’s included p remium backup software provides automatic and continuous backups and encrypts files and folders.

Buffalo Technology today announced the highly anticipated, revolutionary Buffalo CloudStor personal storage solution is now shipping. First revealed at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, CloudStor goes beyond simple storage, creating a portal to freely access and share photos, videos, music and much more with anyone, anywhere through the cloud. Unlike online storage services, CloudStor has no capacity or service fees. Just plug it in, turn it on and create your free account at mycloudstor.com. CloudStor comes with everything you need to get started. You just have to be free to share.

At the center of every CloudStor is the Pogoplug® cloud service. The popular service connects users to their storage and allows them to freely access and share their storage anywhere in the world. CloudStor is the first and only Pogoplug device with integrated storage. Files are securely shared between people and there is no need for user setup; just email a link to your family and friends. Consumers’ digital content always resides on CloudStor and the online service is only used to connect users and guests to specified files on the device.

Panasonic announced today that they will begin shipping the first 100GB BD-RE XL media (LM-BE100J) to the Japanese market on April 15th. These new triple-layer, rewritable Blu-ray discs are fully compliant with the BDXL specification and can hold about 12 hours of terrestrial digital HD (17 Mbps) or 8 hours and 40 minutes of BS Digital HD (24 Mbps) video. Panasonic's new BD-RE XL media also features a special coating that helps protect against dirt, fingerprints, scratches and dents.

Panasonic has not released pricing yet. However, the discs are expected to cost about 10,000 Yen ($119US) a piece. Yikes!

G.Skill International Co. Ltd., manufacturer of extreme performance memory and solid-state storage with solid quality, today announces its new Phoenix EVO SSD, utilizing the performance leading controller SandForce SF-1222 and high quality 2xnm NAND flash chips. The Phoenix EVO drive contains 115GB with rated speed of read/write 280/270 MB/sec, and will be available via G.Skill authorized distribution partners in early April.

Keeping pace with the flash manufacturers’ transition from 3xnm to 2xnm, G.Skill has utilized 2xnm flash chips for its award winning SSD, Phoenix family. To ensure the best performance and reliability during the transition, G.Skill has teamed up closely with SandForce and has run G.Skill Phoenix EVO through a wide range of rigorous tests with the latest firmware. All Phoenix EVO drives only use strictly selected original flash chips from key suppliers to guarantee the top reliability and stability.

Mach Xtreme Technology Inc., a worldwide leader in top performance, high reliability and user friendly designed PC components, today unveiled the 1.8" micro-SATA . Based on the best-in-class SandForce SF1222 controller, the 1.8" MX-MDS Series delivers an enhanced mobile computing experience with much faster application loading, ultra-fast data access, shorter boot-ups, and longer battery life of all laptops with micro-SATA interface.

This series maintains the highest level of read and write performance though the life of the SSD. Highly intelligent block management and wear leveling optimizes longevity of MX-MDS series drives. The MDS series supports DuraClass, DuraWrite and unique RAISE technologies. DuraClass technology provides best-in-class endurance, performance, and low power. DuraWrite technology extends the endurance of MLC memory providing at least 5 year lifecycles with 3-5K cycle MLC flash. RAISE provides the protection and reliability of RAID on a single drive without the significant write overhead

Intel Corporation announced today its highly anticipated third-generation solid-state drive (SSD) the Intel Solid-State Drive 320 Series (Intel SSD 320 Series). Based on its industry-leading 25-nanometer (nm) NAND flash memory, the Intel SSD 320 replaces and builds on its high-performing Intel® X25-M SATA SSD. Delivering more performance and uniquely architected reliability features, the new Intel SSD 320 offers new higher capacity models, while taking advantage of cost benefits from its 25nm process with an up to 30 percent price reduction over its current generation.

"Intel designed new quality and reliability features into our SSDs to take advantage of the latest 25nm silicon, so we could deliver cost advantages to our customers," said Pete Hazen, director of marketing for the Intel Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Solutions Group. "Intel's third generation of SSDs adds enhanced data security features, power-loss management and innovative data redundancy features to once again advance SSD technology. Whether it's a consumer or corporate IT looking to upgrade from a hard disk drive, or an enterprise seeking to deploy SSDs in their data centers, the new Intel SSD 320 Series will continue to build on our reputation of high quality and dependability over the life of the SSD."
Patriot Memory, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash, storage and enthusiast computer products, today gives professional and hobbyist photographers and videographers an extra performance boost with the professional-grade LX PRO Series SDHC cards. The Patriot LX PRO Series SDHC cards surpass existing SDHC speed classifications and deliver twice the performance of standard Class 10 SDHC memory cards.
 

Although the Patriot LX PRO Series are classified as Class 10 SDHC cards, the professional-grade SDHC deliver 20MB/s transfer speeds – twice that of typical Class 10 SDHC cards. The high-speed transfer speeds ensure photographs and video are written to the memory card instantly to the Patriot LX PRO Series.
“Image and video quality constantly improve with each generation of digital camera and camcorder. The latest generation of professional-grade digital cameras and camcorders push quality to unprecedented levels of detail and video bitrates,” says Les Henry, Patriot Memory’s Vice President of Engineering. “With the new Patriot LX PRO Series SDHC cards, photographers and videographers can capture images in continuous shot mode or shoot films at maximum video bitrates without worrying about memory card write errors due to insufficient performance.”

Buffalo Japan sent out a this morning, announcing the industry's first portable, BDXL compatible Blu-ray Disc writer. Along with the ability to playback BDXL discs, the BRXL-PC6U2-BK can write to triple- (100GB) and quad-layer (128GB) BD-R media at 6x and triple-layer (100GB) BD-RE media at 2x. On top of that, the drive is capable of 6x BD-R, 6x BD-R DL, 6x BD-R LTH, 2x BD-RE and 2x BD-RE DL writing speeds and a maximum BD-ROM read speed of 6x. The BRXL-PC6U2-BK also features an LED indicator that shows whether or not it is getting enough power as well as a second USB cable to "boost" the power to the required levels.

The BRXL-PC6U2-BK is scheduled to ship in late March and is expected to cost about 22,100 Yen ($273US).


CDRLabs has taken an in depth look at Plextor's new 128GB solid state drive, the PX-128M2S. Equipped with Marvell's 88SS9174 controller chip and a high-speed SATA 6Gb/s interface, the PX-128M2S is capable of delivering up to 420MB/s sequential read and 210MB/s sequential write speeds. Plextor's new SSD also feature support for the Windows 7 TRIM command, dynamic wear leveling and the company's own Instant Restore technology which overcomes the problem of performance degradation.



Kingston Digital  today announced it is shipping a 4GB and 8GB Class 10 microSDHC card, joining the previously released 16GB Class 10 card. Kingston will add a 32GB capacity to the family in Q2. The Class 10 cards have a fast minimum data transfer rate of 10MB/s. “Kingston’s Class 10 microSDHC cards are compatible with many of the latest mobile phones including Android™ smartphones and BlackBerry® devices, hi-def cameras and the increasingly popular tablet PCs,” said Mike Kuppinger, Flash card business manager, Kingston. “The Class 10 speed provides faster data transfer rates and the various capacities help satisfy storage needs for users with both light and heavy memory needs.”
Kingston takes mobility and versatility a step further when it makes these cards part of the Mobility Kit, which includes an SD adapter and a USB card reader. The SD adapter allows users to capture continuous images or videos in digital cameras while the reader provides a simple and fast way to transfer data to a host PC. The Class 10 microSDHC cards will ship as part of the Mobility at the end of March.






Iomega today announced the worldwide launch of the exciting new Iomega® ScreenPlay® DX HD Media Player line, a family of easy-to-use multimedia devices that changes the way you experience digital entertainment in your home. With the Iomega ScreenPlay DX HD Media Player, you can access and enjoy videos, movies, photos and music on the Internet as well as content you own – all on your own TV in full 1080p high definition.

The new lineup of Iomega ScreenPlay DX HD Media Player products is compatible with the most popular formats, including H.264, WMV and RMVB, as well as being DLNA certified for easy streaming with compatible devices on your home network. Other notable features include DivX® Plus™ HD certification for stunning playback of MKV movies, WiFi capability right out of the box thanks to the included 802.11n adaptor, and a user-friendly remote control featuring a full QWERTY keyboard for fast and easy text entry of online links, websites and more

Toshiba Europe GmbH today announced STOR.E STEEL S and STOR.E ALU 2S: two external hard disk drives featuring USB 3.0 connectivity for fast data transfers of up to 5 Gigabits per second and high enough storage capacities to host large multimedia libraries. STOR.E STEEL S and STOR.E ALU 2S will be available during the first quarter of 2011 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The ongoing digitalisation of entertainment content is fuelling user demand for reliable external hard disk drives with large capacities and fast data rates. Many users want to transmit large files such as videos, music tracks and photos quickly between the backup medium and the computer. STOR.E STEEL S and STOR.E ALU 2S both feature a USB 3.0 port offering a data rate of up to 5 Gigabits per second. However, computers and peripheral devices with USB 2.0 only can still be used with these new state-of-the-art hard disk drives.