Valve today officially introduced the Steam for Mac. The popular game content distribution and multiplayer game networking platform will bring a wealth of casual games as well as games developed by Valve to Mac users. To celebrate this launch, Valve is giving away a free copy of Portal to anyone who downloads Steam between today and May 24, 2010. Existing steam users who don't have the game yet can simply click on the install button on the game's Store page.

"The Mac is a great platform for developers," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. "And it's also great that we now have the ability to connect with Mac gamers via Steam. This is the beginning of a groundswell of games coming out for and fully utilizing the openness and power of the Mac." Each Wednesday a new group of games highlighting an area of Steam functionality will be released. This week's titles, which show off Steam Play, include:

The 7-bay NAS is shaping up to be the go-to desktop NAS device for users who require both massive storage and blazing performance. Today, Thecus Technology is pleased to introduce the N7700+, a seven-bay storage server that retains all of the robust functionality of the N7700, but ups the ante with a PCIe x8 slot suitable for 10Gb Ethernet cards.

Thecus constantly engineers new ways to squeeze the maximum performance from existing technologies. The N7700+ one-ups its predecessor by including an internal PCIe x8 slot. Compared to the x1 slot found in the N7700, the N7700+'s PCIe slot offers up to eight times more bandwidth, which makes it perfect for 10Gb Ethernet cards. Outfitted with one of these cards, the N7700+ is fully compatible with the latest 10Gb networks, delivering unprecedented data transfer rates for the most demanding users.

WD, the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its new one terabyte (TB) and 750 gigabyte (GB) capacity My Passport SE for Mac portable USB drives. Available at WD's online store, the new My Passport SE for Mac portable drives are formatted for Mac and compatible with Apple Time Machine software.

Perfect for saving, storing and backing up Mac computers, these ultra-portable 1 TB and 750 GB My Passport SE drives are easy to carry because they are USB-powered and do not need an external power adapter1. Equipped with 256-bit hardware encryption with password protection for an extra level of security, this small drive with mega-capacity give users peace-of-mind knowing that their data is protected from unauthorized access or theft.

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:

Valve announced today it will bring Steam, Valve's gaming service, and Source, Valve's gaming engine, to the Mac. Steam and Valve's library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April. "As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services."

"Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac," said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. "Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play."

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading manufacturer of world class NAS servers, NVR Video Surveillance Systems, and Network-based Video Players today expanded its Turbo NAS lineup with two new mid-range NAS servers targeted at SMB and corporate customers. The new TS-239 Pro II (2 drive model) and TS-439 Pro II (4 drive model) incorporate the new Intel Atom D410 single-core processor, which delivers up to 8TB of high performance, highly reliable networked storage coupled with the business-essential features of QNAP's ultra-high performance Business Series NAS servers.

The TS-239 Pro II and TS-439 Pro II NAS servers are compatible with VMware's vSphere4 (ESX 4.0) virtualization platform, ideal for departmental file sharing, storage, and advanced server applications in the office environment. VMware's vSphere is the industry's first cloud operating system that offers a way to reduce IT costs and increase responsiveness. Shared networked storage is an essential component of a Cloud Computing infrastructure. SMB and corporate users are able to enjoy the interoperability between VMware virtual machines and QNAP high performance, low power consumption certified storage.

Other World Computing (OWC) a leading Mac and PC technology company, announced today the OWC Mercury Extreme Enterprise SSD as the fastest, most reliable, and longest endurance 2.5" SATA Solid State Drive (SSD) available on the market for Macs and PCs in single or multiple drive use including all RAID configurations. Designed and made in the U.S. from imported parts, the OWC Mercury Extreme Enterprise SSD is available for immediate ordering in capacities up to 200GB priced starting at $229.99.

The new OWC Mercury Extreme Enterprise SSD is available immediately in three bare drive configurations that are compatible with Mac and PC computers that can utilize a 2.5" SATA 1.5/3.0Gb/s drive:

Apple gave its flagship desktop computer, the iMac a healthy specifications update that warps the iMac right back into competing with the PCs of this generation. The update involves introducing two new models, a 21.5-inch one, and another massive 27-inch model, to replace the existing 20 and 24-inch offerings, respectively. The major update aims to achieve giving the iMac a true widescreen display that is at least full HD capable, powerful hardware including the advent of quad-core processors to the iMac, and a host of changes to the hardware and peripherals. Prices start at $1199.

To begin with, the 21.5-inch model features a 16:9 full HD display with a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, while the 27-inch model comes with 2560 x 1440 pixels resolution. The displays on both use IPS panels that provide a viewing angle as wide as 178°, with high color fidelity. The displays use LED backlit for uniform, instant-on illumination. Such technologies we previously found on Apple's high-end Cinema displays. Both feature enclosures that are distinctively "wide-screen", and slim at that. Both feature all-aluminum backs.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading manufacturer of world class NAS servers, NVR Video Surveillance Systems, and Network-based Video Players today expanded their Turbo NAS lineup with the addition of the TS-210 desktop NAS server targeted specifically at the SOHO and Prosumer market segments. The TS-210 supports up to 2 3.5" SATA hard drives with up to 4TB of total capacity (using 2TB drives) and features a Marvell 800MHz CPU and 256MB DDRII memory which provides sustained high performance with low power consumption. The TS-210 can be configured to RAID 1 for high data redundancy. The TS-210 also supports iSCSI Target service with Thin Provisioning and a Gigabit LAN port, features generally found on much higher end NAS servers. The TS-210 is equipped 3 USB ports (1 front, 2 back panel) for expanding the storage capacity, printer sharing, or data backup to an external storage device.

The TS-210 is a smart choice for installation in home or home-based business as it is fully compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and UNIX networks. It features a built-in UPnP/ DLNA media server (with TwonkyMedia enabled) supporting a wide range of DLNA media players such as Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 gaming consoles. By installing the DLNA/ UPnP application on your iPhone or iPod touch, users can access the TS-210 on the home network and play the videos, music, and photos from the server over the network. In addition, the high-speed PC-less Download Station with the unique QGet utility enables users to manage the BT/ FTP/ HTTP download tasks remotely over the local network or the Internet. The TS-210 can perform centralized backups of all computers attached to the network to protect valuable paid downloaded music and video content, digital pictures, and documents.

Lexar Media, a leading global provider of memory products for digital media, announced today the launch of the Lexar JumpDrive SAFE S3000 FIPS and JumpDrive SAFE S3000 USB flash drives. The FIPS 140-2, Level 3-validated, enterprise-class drives, co-developed with Gemalto, are the first to protect critical data with smart card-based security featuring continuous AES 256-bit hardware encryption and a waterproof composite metal housing that meets military 810-F waterproof standards. These security features offer unparalleled data protection without requiring driver or software installation and are an ideal data storage solution for military, government, and enterprise organizations.

"The JumpDrive SAFE S3000 line of secure USB flash drives safeguard information with unsurpassed data protection technology and enterprise-class features that can be easily integrated into any business environment," explained Jyh Chau, senior product marketing manager, Lexar Media. "The receipt of the FIPS 140-2 Level 3 validation is further proof that the advanced data security capabilities, coupled with the smart card technology, make the JumpDrive SAFE S3000 line among the most secure USB flash drives available today."

Iomega, an EMC company and a global leader in data protection, today announced the next generation of its popular double-drive desktop NAS appliance with the worldwide launch of the new Iomega StorCenter ix2-200. Based on industry-leading enterprise-class EMC storage technologies, the versatile yet affordable StorCenter ix2-200 wraps ease-of-use around big business data management functionality and advanced media serving and other consumer features that make it the ideal NAS appliance for small business users and home users.

Available in 1 TB, 2 TB and 4 TB capacities, the new ix2-200 utilizes a very simple four-step setup to be operational in a matter of minutes - be it in a business setting or in the digital home.

ASUS, the leader in computer-based Hi-Fi solutions and acclaimed producer of CES award-winning Xonar audio products, today launched its innovative HP-100U personal Dolby home theater set. Comprising a gorgeous, lab-tuned pair of headphones, a Xonar U1 external audio device and a high quality array microphone, the HP-100U is the total audio solution for discerning listeners who brook no compromise when it comes to PC or Mac audio.

The HP-100U comes with the lauded Xonar U1, a uniquely-styled external audio device that harnesses the power of four major Dolby technologies to deliver high fidelity, interference-free PC audio. Furthermore, it supports DirectSound, EAX 2.0 and Open AL acceleration for the best audio experience in Windows Vista / Windows XP and also on Mac platforms. It is even equipped with a Hi-Fi headphone amplifier for improved clarity when driving headphones.

WD, the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its smaller, smarter and more secure My Passport Essential and My Passport for Mac ultra-portable external hard drives featuring WD's new WD SmartWare software and equipped with hardware-based encryption. The new My Passport drives are more than 20 percent smaller than the previous generation My Passport.

The new portable drives with WD SmartWare software visually present consumers' data in a control center, providing them peace of mind that their precious photos, videos and files are securely protected. Available now at select retailers and the WD online store (shopwd.com), the new My Passport Essential and My Passport for Mac drives are offered in capacities ranging from 320 GB to 1 TB and come in a range of colors including Pacific Blue, Real Red, Cool Silver and Midnight Black.

Apple's newest operating system, the OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - one claimed to be the world's most advanced - starts shipping later this month, on 28th. The new OS is priced at US $29 (incl. shipping) for a single-user upgrade from Leopard, and $49 for 5-user family pack users. New Macs will bundle the OS, and it will also be available in bundles with iLife and iWork for $169 ($229 for 5-user family pack).

Snow Leopard brings in several major thru minor changes over its predecessor, more importantly, that it eliminates support for PowerPC-based Macs, supporting only those based on Intel x86. All major components will now support the x86-64 instruction set, to take advantage of large amounts of system memory. The OS also embraces OpenCL, which lets supporting applications tap the computing power of GPUs, while the OS itself is better optimised for multi-core/multi-threaded CPUs.

Patriot Memory, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash and computer technology, today announces the release of their Koi SSD Series.

Patriot's Koi 2.5" SATA solid state drives have been specifically designed to work with Apple Mac platforms. Using the latest in solid state technology, including 64MB onboard DRAM cache, Koi features sequential read/write speeds of up to 260MB/s and 180MB/s, respectively. To ensure complete compatibility, the Koi line has been rigorously tested in Apple's own lab.

"In designing the Koi, we wanted to bring a product to market that was specifically designed for the performance found on Apple platforms", says Meng Jay, Patriot's Flash Product Manager. "The Koi Series has been thoroughly tested in Apple's Development Center to ensure optimal compatibility and stability. We have also backed our Koi Series with one of the best warranties in the industry, 5 years."

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."

EVGA quietly slipped in the GeForce GTX 285 Mac Edition graphics card, which is its fastest offering to Mac users. The card uses a standard PCI-Express interface available with Intel x86 based Mac Pro workstations, and provides all the features of NVIDIA's fastest GPU. It is technically identical to its base-model PC counterpart, using a reference design for the PCB and cooler, reference clock speeds of 648/1476/2484 MHz (core/shader/memory), and 1 GB of GDDR3 memory across a 512-bit interface. It bundles the necessary power dongles, and packs system software for Mac. Two dual-link DVI connectors support two Apple Cinema displays with resolutions of 2560 x 1600 each. The OpenGL 3.0 acceleration backs the advanced drawing features of Adobe CS4 applications. EVGA is pricing this at US $449.99, a notch higher than the GTX 285 2 GB FTW accelerator for PC.

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.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, announced it has self certified its award winning UltraDrive SSDs for compatibility with the newest Apple MacBook (13"), MacBook Pro (15"/17"), and Mac Pro (Quad/8-Core) based on Intel's Core i7 CPUs.

During compatibility testing Super Talent was able to improve boot time by up to 58% and achieve performance gains of over 5.3x vs. the stock Apple Hard Disk Drive (HDD). The UltraDrive ME delivered 32x the bandwidth of the HDD on 256K Random Writes as measured by the xBench standard benchmark. The UltraDrive also outperformed the Apple SSD by 2.5x.

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.

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.

NVIDIA is pushing forth a special variant of its high-end GeForce GTX 285 graphics accelerator. This one is specific for use in Apple Mac systems that support PCI-Express addon-cards. Its hardware specifications remain the same: 240 stream processors and 1 GB of 512-bit GDDR3 memory. Available in June, the accelerator will benefit the upcoming Mac OS X "Snow Leopard" that makes use of GPGPU. NVIDIA partner EVGA seems to be ready with one. Pictured below, the card resembles the reference design accelerator commonly available for PCs.

Buffalo Japan introduced the HDS-CU2 USB external hard drive. Coming in capacities of 500 GB and 1 TB, this product is targeted to the SME and SOHO markets. The biggest USP of the HDS-CU2 is its automatic data encryption feature. Once configured with what type of data to auto-encrypt, the drive automatically manages encryption, using the 128-bit AES algorithm.

The drive can be configured to use Windows-level login authentication and a more compulsive authentication every time files are accessed. The encryption is care of the drive's own hardware, and has no overhead on the host computer, to which it uses USB 2.0 for connectivity. It is supported by most recent versions of Windows (2000 SP3+, XP, 2003, Vista, and 2008), and Mac OS 10.4.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and computer components, today unveiled OCZ Vertex Mac Edition Solid State Drives and mobile memory solutions qualified by OCZ for ultimate compatibility with the latest family of MacBooks. These new premium offerings are designed for Mac enthusiasts demanding the latest technology in storage and memory to increase productivity and performance on their Apple notebooks.

"OCZ is excited to announce two new products that are specifically designed for Mac consumers," commented Ryan Edwards, Director of Product Management at the OCZ Technology Group. "Both the Vertex Series Mac Edition solid state drives and the new Mac Edition SODIMMS are designed to be an easy upgrade for consumers that want to boost the performance of their MacBooks, and have been tested in Apple's Development Center (ADC) to ensure stability and compatibility."