Other World Computing, a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced today its OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini is the first 2.5" 1TB "Quad Interface" bus powered portable storage solution on the market and available for immediate ordering with 10 models priced from $119.99. Featuring a "Quad Interface" of FireWire 800/400, USB 2.0, and eSATA interface connectivity for data transfer speeds up to 300MB/s, the fanless Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini delivers high performance storage/backup to Mac or PC users in a portable, brushed aluminum, no AC adapter required Plug and Play footprint.In addition to the new 1TB model, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini is available in nine other "Quad Interface" models offering a variety of speed, capacity, and drive type options:

WD, the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its new My Passport Studio portable drives featuring the super-fast FireWire 800 interface and a customizable e-label that's always visible, even when the drive is unplugged. Sporting a sleek and stylish design, the new high-performance My Passport Studio drives are formatted for Mac computers, compatible with Apple TimeMachine software, and feature automatic and continuous backup with WD SmartWare software, and 256-bit hardware-based encryption. Available now at select retailers and shopwd.com, the new My Passport Studio drives are offered in capacities of 320 GB, 500 GB and 640 GB.

WD's My Passport Studio drives are designed for creative professionals and Mac enthusiasts. Their production and use of many large files require the fast transfers from computer to My Passport Studio drives that FireWire 800 provides. Professionals such as photographers also benefit from the e-labeling system to effectively organize their work.

MSI seems to be almost ready with a new high-end motherboard for the socket LGA-1366 Intel Core i7 platform. The new MSI Big Bang XPower motherboard is based on the usual Intel X58 Express + ICH10R chipset, and offers six PCI-Express x16 slots, which which it can support CrossFireX, SLI, and still have room for dedicated PhysX accelerators or other PCI-E devices. The XPower also features support for SATA 6 Gb/s and USB 3.0 using additional controllers.

The CPU is powered by a 16-phase DrMOS PWM, which draws power from two 8-pin power connectors. It makes use of High-C capacitors for higher durability. An additional 6-pin PCI-Express power input adds electrical stability to the PCI-Express x16 slots. The socket is wired to six DDR3 DIMM slots for triple-channel memory support, which are powered by a 3-phase VRM.

As an ongoing supporter of professional content creators both large and small, G-Technology by Hitachi : is aligning with today's premiere filmmakers and creative professionals as an official Leadership Sponsor of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, January 21-31, 2010, in Park City, Utah.

Making its debut at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival is G-Tech's new G-DRIVE mobile family of portable hard drives - the G-DRIVE mobile USB : and the G-DRIVE mobile. Each is specifically designed for Apple users who strive for external storage solutions that complement their Mac lifestyle. The new G-DRIVE mobile USB is designed to match the silky white design of the new MacBook and features a USB 2.0 interface for reliable storage on the go. The new G-DRIVE mobile, with FireWire 800 and USB 2.0, features a polished black and silver appearance, making it a perfect companion for the new MacBook Pro.

Lexar Media, a leading global provider of memory products for digital media, today announced improvements to the Professional line of CompactFlash (CF) and Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) memory cards for an enhanced imaging experience. Lexar has increased the capacity of Professional 300x CF cards to 32GB, and Professional 233x CF cards are now available in 16GB and 32GB capacities. In addition, the Lexar Professional 133x SDHC card has achieved a Class 10 speed rating. The improvements to the Lexar Professional line allow professional photographers and advanced enthusiasts to capture more high-resolution images and high-definition (HD) video with their digital SLRs. For additional information about the Lexar Professional CF and SDHC cards, visit Lexar.

The Lexar Professional 133x SDHC memory card now offers the maximum Class 10 speed rating, providing a blazing-fast minimum sustained write speed capability of 133x (20MB per second) for shooting higher-resolution images and large-sized, high-definition video files with SDHC-enabled devices. Additionally, the Lexar Professional 133x SDHC card significantly improves camera performance and image transfer speeds from card to computer, reducing post-production time and enabling shooters to focus on the business of photography.

Come Q1 2010, and Intel will be expanding its socket LGA-1156 platform with dual-core processors, and processors with on-die graphics. Along with these, Intel will be releasing the H57 Express chipset which supports the Flexible Display technology which handles the connectivity for the processors' on-die graphics. Motherboard vendors seem to be ready well ahead, and the second such company with a product on display is MSI, with its H57M-ED65. This motherboard is based on the micro-ATX form-factor, and builds on the chipset's features, while also appearing to be enthusiast-friendly.

The CPU is powered by a lavish 10-phase VRM with elaborate heatsinks over the DrMOS chips. It completely does away with PCI, and features only PCI-Express slots. There are are two PCI-Express x16 slots (electrical x16, x4), and two PCI-Expres x1 slots. Apart from the six SATA 3 Gb/s ports the chipset provides, an additional storage controller provides two more SATA 3 Gb/s ports, and an IDE connector. The board makes full use of the Flexible Display technology, providing DVI, D-Sub, HDMI, and DisplayPort as display connectivity options. A number of USB ports, PS/2, gigabit Ethernet, 8-channel audio with optical SPDIF, eSATA, and FireWire make for the rest of the rear-panel. Its enthusiast-friendliness is further vindicated by the presence of the OC Genie feature, on the fly base clock controls, and power/reset buttons onboard. Expect this to feature in the company's first wave of H57 motherboards.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced the availability of the newly designed SimpleDrive desktop external hard drive with capacities of up to two terabytes (2TB). In addition, the company announced that all of its 3.5-inch retail drives are now available in 2TB capacities, featuring the Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000, the industry's first 2TB 7,200 RPM hard drive that blends performance and high capacity with low power features. New, upgraded solutions include the Hitachi SimpleTech Pro Drive; the two-drive, RAID 0/1 Duo Pro Drive; and the Hitachi Internal Hard Drive Kit for the do-it-yourself (DIY) computer-upgrade market. All products are now available.

"Hitachi continues to build its channel presence with an expanded portfolio of 2TB storage solutions for business users, consumers or virtually anyone who needs additional capacity to manage the growing number and size of their digital files," said Azmat Ali, vice president of marketing, Branded Business, Hitachi GST. "Even though people are inundated with digital content daily, many are not taking the necessary precautions to safeguard their content. Our external drives, together with consistent backup practices, will help people keep their digital memories, entertainment and business documents safe."

After releasing a wave of socket LGA-1156 motherboards under the P7P55D series, ASUS is ready with its newest socket LGA-1366 offering, based on the Intel X58 Express chipset, supporting Core i7 "Bloomfield" processors. The P6X58D Premium first surfaced back in July, but hit development roadblocks due to industry-wide issues with the SATA 6 Gb/s controller it used, which now seem to have been ironed-out. It brings to the table support for new technologies such as USB 3.0, and SATA 6 Gb/s, along with making use of the company's Xtreme Phase motherboard component design. The two SATA 6 Gb/s ports are color-coded white, and placed next to the SATA 3 Gb/s ports color-coded blue, provided by the ICH10R southbridge. The white ports are driven by a Marvell SATA 6 Gb/s controller. The two USB 3.0 ports on the other hand, are color-coded blue, and are placed next to the PS/2 connectors on the rear-panel. They are driven by an NEC-made controller.

The LGA-1366 socket is powered by a 16-phase circuit. The six DDR3 memory slots support up to 24 GB of DDR3 memory across a triple-channel (192-bit) memory interface. Components, heatsinks, and slots on the board stick to the blue/white/black color-scheme. Heatsinks over the VRM, northbridge, and southbridge are connected by heatpipes. Expansion slots include three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrically x16, x8, x8, or x16, x16, NC, depending on how they're populated), two PCI, and one PCI-Express x1. Connectivity includes two gigabit Ethernet interfaces, USB 3.0, FireWire, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. ASUS-exclusive features include Precision Tweaker 2 (that provides voltage control with a fine-resolution), Stepless Frequency Selection, and ASUS CPU Parameter Recall. The new motherboard should reach markets this November.

WD, the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its new high-performance My Book Studio desktop external drives with a customizable e-label that is always visible, even when unplugged, so it's easy to know the contents of the drive. Designed for Mac users and creative professionals, the new My Book Studio drives are equipped with a FireWire 800 interface to give users the speed they need for demanding tasks like photo and video editing and graphic design.

The new My Book Studio drives are TimeMachine compatible, offer automatic, continuous backup with WD SmartWare software, and include 256-bit hardware-based encryption to provide a high level of security. Available now at select retailers and the WD online store, the new My Book Studio drives are formatted for Mac and offered in capacities of 500 GB, 1 TB, 1.5 TB and 2 TB.

Data storage specialist Verbatim today introduced its SureFire line of portable hard-drives. These palm-sized, portable HDDs come with storage capacities of 250, 320, and 500 GB, and boast of two interfaces: USB 2.0 and FireWire 800, making it out of the box compatible with PCs and Macs. It measures 81 x 128 x 15 mm, and weighs in at 186 g. Enclosed in it, is a 2.5 inch hard drive with 5400 rpm spindle-speed and an 8 MB cache. It draws its power from an AC adaptor, though when used with USB 2.0, it can rely on the port for all its power. The Verbatim SureFire is compatible with Mac OS X Leopard's Time Machine backup application. Backed by a 3-year warranty, these drives go for US $109.99, $139.99, and $179.99 for the 250 GB, 320 GB, and 500 GB models, respectively.

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."

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.

Shuttle Inc., the market leader in the Mini-PC segment and manufacturer of Multi-Form-Factor solutions, today introduces the XPC H7 4500H complete system for satellite TV reception. Unlike present proprietary solutions, the H7 4500H now comes with satellite television conveniently and reliably integrated in Windows Vista.

The whole feature set of Windows Media Center that had previously been available for DVB-T tuners and analogue cable TV only, can now be used with a DVB-S TV tuner card as well. Timeshifting (pausing TV programmes), EPG (Electronic Program Guide) and recording, all this can be done right from the sofa by remote control.

After the heated feedback of the M912 Series with swivel screens that were launched in 2008, GIGABYTE will demonstrate various 10.1-inch mobile PCs at the CeBIT 2009 held in Hannover according to public expectation. These include the Touch Note M1028 also equipped with the swivel screen, the Thin Note M1024 which is only 890 grams and 2cm thick, and the Booktop M1022 equipped with the exclusive docking station for turning the Booktop into a desktop. These models will again display GIGABYTE's excelling R&D power. Also, the new-generation Intel Centrino 2 notebook PCs with different screen sizes will be the focus at the present CeBIT. As one of the leading brands in notebook PCs, GIGABYTE will surely bring refreshing models to the public in 2009.

Touch Note M1028: With a fashionable and elegant appearance, the Touch Note M1028 has a golden coffee top cover of exquisite quality and a 10.1-inch LED backlight swivel screen. It is a combination of notebook and tablet PCs that delivers multiple application modes for convenience use. The two resolution options for this model include 1024x600 and 1366x768, which are the mainstreams of the market. In addition to the mobile features like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Express Card slot. What is noteworthy is that the M1028 is equipped with a wide range of crafty designs from GIGABYTE. Besides the 92% full-scale keyboard with premium quality, the M1028 supports the embedded 3.5G (HSDPA) module for users to experience the wonder of mobile life.

Today LaCie announced its new LaCie d2 DVD±RW 22x with LightScribe and Hi-Speed USB 2.0 and/or FireWire disc burners. The new products let customers backup large multimedia files on strikingly original-looking DVDs or CDs. With the LightScribe labeling tools available from LaCie on the 22x rewritable DVD drive, users can customize their content easily and quickly for professional and personal use. And it works with the three major personal computer operating systems.

Verbatim Americas, LLC, a global leader in digital storage solutions, announced today two new Quad Interface Desktop Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) with capacities of 500GB and 1TB. The pro audio/video-grade storage and backup solutions offer Mac and PC users universal connectivity with plug and play support for all four of the leading interfaces: USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800 and eSATA II (external Serial ATA II). With these connection options and the equivalent of 1000 Gigabytes of storage backed by Verbatim's reputation for reliability, the new external drives are ideal for audio, video, digital photography and music professionals as well as graphics applications where capacity, performance and reliability are essential. Affordably priced, the drive also puts volumes of storage within the reach of consumers and small businesses with large amounts of video, photos, music, and data files that they want to store, edit and protect.

WD today added a high-speed FireWire 800 interface to its popular My Passport Studio portable drive to give Mac computer users and creative professionals the fast performance they need. The new interface also makes this drive a perfect storage companion for the newly introduced Apple MacBook Pro computer. With FireWire 800/400 and USB interfaces, the new My Passport Studio portable drives offer up to 500 GB of storage capacity, are formatted for Mac computers and weigh less than 7 ounces.

The 1394 Trade Association today announced a new specification to quadruple the speed of FireWire to reach 3.2 gigabits per second.

The new electrical specification, known as S3200, builds upon the IEEE 1394b standard, preserving all the advantages of FireWire while offering a major and unprecedented boost in performance. The new speed uses the cables and connectors already deployed for FireWire 800 products, making the transition forward easy and convenient for 1394 product vendors and their customers. Because the 1394 arbitration, data, and service protocols were not modified for S3200, silicon and software vendors can deploy the faster speed FireWire quickly and with confidence that it will deliver its full potential performance. The S3200 specification is expected to be ratified by early February.