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.

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.

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced its entry into the design manufacturing service business to offer provide flexible system hardware solutions, starting with the new VIA NSD7200 home storage and media server.

Building on its success as a pioneer of system level innovation in small form factor and IPC markets, VIA can provide OEM and ODM customers with customized versions of home and SOHO storage platforms targeting specific markets. By combining energy-efficient processor platforms and high quality chassis designs with a full design manufacturing service and comprehensive engineering support, VIA enables customers to more accurately address the needs of system integrators and retailers by speeding up product cycles and reducing production costs.

Buffalo's optical drive line-up has been updated to include a new model, the BRC-P258U2 external Blu-Ray drive. The drive measures 141 (W) x 23 (H) x 155 (D) mm and weights 370 grams, has a 4.5 MB buffer, a USB 2.0 interface, and can read Blu-Ray discs at 2x and write DVD-R/+R SL at 8x, DVD-R/+R DL, DVD-RW/+RW at 8x, CD-R at 16x and CD-RW at 10x.

According to its maker, the BRC-P258U2 should already be hitting stores in Japan with a price tag of about $218.

It looks like NVIDIA's attempts to let Tegra make it to bigger platforms are beginning to bear fruit. LaptopMag got its hands on one of the first mini-notebooks based on Tegra, a fully-integrated computing architecture that focuses on making more powerful and visual portable computing devices possible. The Tegra CPU core is based on the ARM11 architecture, working along with NVIDIA's own graphics processing, and system controlling technologies.

The model in use with the mini-notebook is Tegra 650, which runs at 750 MHz (core clock speed), supports hardware HD video decoding, an S-Video out, and USB. It supports DDR memory running at 200 MHz, and an IDE channel for a sold-state drive for primary storage. Apart from the IDE interface, Tegra has its own NAND-flash controller so small amounts of flash memory (up to 8 GB) could be embedded onto the main PCB. The mini-notebook features an OS that lets the user achieve all the tasks one would ask from this 90~200 Dollar mini-notebook. Windows CE and Linux are the likely candidates. The screenshot below is that of the Windows CE-based prototype that takes advantage of the 3D processing power of the core. Also pictured is the prototype system board by NVIDIA.

Pretec, creator of the world's smallest USB drive and pioneer of SSD technology innovation, today introduced fresh line of 32 GB and 64 GB eSATA/USB dual interface solid-state drives compliant with the Power Over eSATA specification. In other words these SSDs do not need external power connector to operate normal and transfer data via either eSATA or USB. Another nifty feature of the new Pretec Cobra pocket SSDs are their super fast read and write speeds of 90 MB/s and 60 MB/s respectively. Considering the size and the mobility of the drives, these speeds are more than you can ever want. Unfortunately, Pretec didn't mention the price and availability date in their announcement.

Corsair, a worldwide leader in high-performance computer and flash memory products, today announced the Voyager Port portable backup solution for USB flash drives.
The Voyager Port transforms any USB flash drive into a powerful data backup solution, complete with a simple, one-button file backup feature. The Voyager Port requires no external power supply and features a USB 2.0 port for the latest, high-speed USB flash drives.

Finnish software developer Jerry Jalava, in an unfortunate motorcycle accident lost a digit of his left ring (leech) finger. The prosthetic that took its place went on to become his claim to fame: it packs a USB flash drive. What looks like a good attempt at looking like a real finger, can be peeled of at its nail to reveal a USB connector. Once separated, the finger can be connected to a computer like any other USB flash drive.

Jalava modified a traditional prosthetic to pack a tiny 2 GB drive. "When I'm using the USB, I just leave my finger inside the slot and pick it up after I'm ready" says Jalava. The developer already has plans for the next version of his 'smart digit', which will have more storage, and an RFID tag. 'I'm planning to use anther prosthetic as a shell for the next version, which will have removable fingertip and an RFID tag,' he added.

Today LaCie announced three new ways to carry digital content - LaCie itsaKey, iamaKey and PassKey USB key drives, design by 5.5 Designers. The inventive, compact key-shaped design conveniently fits in a pocket or on a key ring. The itsaKey and iamaKey store up to 8 gigabytes of flash memory. Alternatively, the PassKey has a built-in microSD card reader, which allows you to use your memory cards as stylish and handy USB keys.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today introduces the enterprise-grade TS-809U-RP Turbo NAS, the 2U chassis 8-bay NAS with high redundancy, performance, and reliability. Featuring the powerful Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8 GHz CPU and 2GB DDRII memory, the giant TS-809U-RP delivers superior performance in high density data access environment. It supports 8 hot-swappable SATA hard drives and is able to serve up to a whopping 16TB storage capacity. Designed with excellent power and network redundancy, the NAS supports redundant power supply and two Giga LAN ports for load balancing or failover. Other advanced features include RAID 0/ 1/ 5/ 6/ 5+spare/ 6+spare, Online RAID Capacity Expansion, Online RAID Level Migration, iSCSI with Thin Provisioning, AES 256-bit volume-based encryption, automatic policy-based IP blocking, hard disk drive S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) etc.

"The TS-809U-RP is equipped with two power supply units, which share the load equally in normal operation. When one of them fails for any reasons, the other one will take over to supply the power of the entire NAS to ensure continuous operation. The IT administrator can replace the failed unit without turning off the server. This largely enhances the productivity of the business environment and minimizes the system maintenance cost," said Troy Lin, Product Manager from QNAP.

Silicon Power introduces today the 64 GB version of its combo eSATA/USB solid-state drive. With the size of a normal USB flash drive, this external solid-state drive can take up to 64 GB worth of data from any computer that has a free eSATA or mini-USB port. The 64 GB eSATA/USB SSD also features an integrated ECC (Error Correction Code) to ensure an accurate data transfer, as well as built-in wear leveling technology that guarantees long-term reliability and ultra-long storage lifespan. The new product is also available in 8 GB, 16 GB and 32 GB versions.

Japanese hardware manufacturer Logitec (≠ Logitech) released the new LHD-ED line of 1.5TB external hard drives, variants of which are segregated on the basis of connectivity options:

• Model LHD-EDU2 provides just USB 2.0
• Model LHD-EDFU2 provides USB 2.0 and FireWire
• Model LHD-EDSAU2 provides USB 2.0 and eSATA

Connectivity aside, the variants are identical in measuring 42 × 225 × 132.5 mm, weighing 1.1 kg (around 2.42 lbs), and feature hard drives with spindle-speeds of 7,200 rpm. They are backed by a one-year company warranty, and will go on sale by the end of this month at prices ranging between US $282 and $304.

As a globally renowned manufacturer of computer peripherals and optical drives, ASUS is constantly at the forefront of cutting edge technologies, providing users with innovative solutions for everyday computing. In pursuing this philosophy, the new ASUS External Slim SDRW-08D1S-U utilizes user-centric design in the Scenario-Based Design model to better address the needs of the user. By integrating these needs into its development and creation, the ASUS External Slim SDRW-08D1S-U combines both aesthetics and practicality.

Specialists with external data storage, I-O Data has come up with a new ultra-slim external DVD-burner it claims to be netbook friendly, given that most netbooks rely on external optical drives. The new drive (model: DVRP-U8XLE2) is 21mm thick and comes with a square profile. The drive roughly measures up to be the size of a portable CD player. It burns dual-layer DVDs at 6X speeds, DVD-R, DVD+R at 8X speeds. It sports a standard USB 2.0 interface. Interestingly, its makers claim this drive to perform identically, an in at its full operational write speeds on any netbook.

Transcend Information, Inc., the leading manufacturer of memory products, proudly announces the release of its stylish new 1.8-inch portable solid state drive (SSD) - the SSD18M. Combining the speed and durability advantages solid-state technology with the versatility of eSATA and USB connection interfaces, Transcend's SSD18M is an innovative new type of storage device that offers fashionable good looks and high-capacity mobile storage convenience. Unlike traditional hard disk drives, this handy device is made of reliable NAND flash memory that contains no moving parts, which not only eliminates the possibility of mechanical failure resulting from vibration and shock, but also provides substantial weight savings and reduced power consumption. With both eSATA and USB2.0 interface options, this portable SSD features the ultimate in connection flexibility, offering guaranteed speed along with multi-platform compatibility. Its new high-speed eSATA interface provides a maximum read speed of 90MB/s and write speeds of 50MB/s, while its USB2.0 interface assures maximum compatibility with all types of notebook and desktop PCs.