WD, a Western Digital company and a world leader in storage solutions for the connected life, today introduced its new My Cloud family of personal cloud solutions. WD's My Cloud is a complete solution for users to organize, centralize and secure the digital content from all of their computers and mobile devices and access those files from any device, from anywhere in the world. By simply connecting a My Cloud personal cloud drive to the Internet, consumers get the anywhere, any-device access they can get from the public cloud, without having to pay monthly fees or giving up control of their personal data.

"We believe that there's no place like home for the cloud," said Jim Welsh, executive vice president and general manager of WD's branded products and consumer electronics groups. "Everyone is inundated with thousands of digital files scattered across multiple computers and mobile devices, and controlling that chaos is a challenge. WD's personal cloud is the easiest, most secure and most affordable way for customers to control that chaos, with access to all of their files anywhere, anytime."

ASUSTOR Inc., a leading innovator and provider of network storage solutions, has announced today that all of its NAS products are fully compatible with WD's three newest models in its WD Red series of NAS hard drives. These new models consist of the 3.5" 4TB WD40EFRX model, 2.5" 1TB WD10JFCX model and 2.5" 750GB WD7500BFCX model. No matter if it is the higher capacity required for business applications or versatility required for home and SOHO applications, ASUSTOR NAS users can enjoy more flexibility and choice when selecting disks for their NAS devices.

All ASUSTOR NAS devices were designed to feature easy hard disk installation and hot swapping and all support the installation of both 2.5" and 3.5" hard disks. Additionally, ASUSTOR NAS supports online capacity expansion. This allows users who have low storage capacity needs or are on a budget to first start with lower capacity hard disks and then upgrade to larger ones as their storage needs grow. During the capacity expansion process the NAS remains online and fully ready for use allowing users to freely access all their data.

WD, a Western Digital company, has redesigned its popular My Book and My Book for Mac lines of external desktop drives to provide as much as 4 TB storage capacity and enhanced data protection for those who create and collect large volumes of data, video, music and photos.

With USB 3.0 for speed, the new My Book lines are available in 2 TB, 3 TB and 4 TB capacities for the largest content collections. At any point in time, anything can happen to one's data. Whether it's a lost notebook or destructive virus, it's critical to keep data safe and maintain a backup of important documents and valued content.

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) announced today that its board of directors met in China, concluding two days in Beijing. The board is next traveling to Shenzhen SEZ, Guangdong Province, for site visits and additional meetings. "China is both a very important market for Western Digital as well as a key manufacturing base," said Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer, Western Digital Corporation. "As China further develops its technology industries, we look forward to expanding our relationships with a wide range of Chinese entities for the benefit of our shareholders, as well as our Chinese partners."

Over the course of its two days in Beijing, the board discussed China's development and future trends with a diverse group of Chinese and international experts. A highlight of the Beijing portion of the visit was a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang. "The board is extremely impressed by China's growth and development plans, as explained by the Vice Premier, and appreciative of the support the Chinese government has extended to Western Digital Corporation in this exciting market," said Western Digital board chairman, Thomas E. Pardun. Pardun also added that it was important for the board to see firsthand Western Digital's operations in this key economy.

Keeping up with its product roadmaps, Western Digital rolled out WD Green 4 TB hard drive (model: WD40EZRX). Designed for personal desktops that need energy-efficient, high-capacity storage, the drive offers 4000 GB of unformatted space, which should yield about 3.6 TB under a Windows NTFS file-system. Built in the 3.5-inch form-factor, the drive features SATA 6 Gb/s interface, variable sub-6,000 RPM spindle-speeds, 64 MB cache, and acoustics management. When spinning and idling, the drive is designed to draw about 3.3W, which goes up to 4.5W under stress, and just 0.4W, when the drive is parked and spun-down. Available now, the WD Green 4 TB is priced between $170 and $190, depending on what package you choose.

So you're planning on building a NAS system. You've already selected your NAS unit (a Thecus, of course), but you're wondering what drives to put inside. SSDs? Nah, too pricey and a little small. So HDDs it is. But which ones do you buy? Are they all made the same? What speed RPM and what buffer size would be best for a NAS environment? If only HDD manufacturers would start building custom drives for network storage!

It just so happens, dear user, that today is your day. Western Digital has officially announced the release of its latest NAS-specific Red HDDs: the RD1000M and the RM500M. Designed specifically for Network Attached Storage systems, these latest members of the Red family feature 4TB of storage in a 3.5" enclosure (RD1000M) and 1TB or 750GB of storage in a 2.5" enclosure (RM500M).

WD, a Western Digital company and storage industry leader, today announced the expansion of its category-leading WD Red line of SATA hard drives specifically designed for home and small office NAS (network attached storage) systems with one- to five-drive bays. WD Red hard drives are now available in a 2.5-inch form factor offering 1 TB and 750 GB capacities and a new 3.5-inch 4 TB capacity. Powered by NASware 2.0 technology, WD Red is compatibility-tested with top NAS system manufacturers and optimized for performance and reduced power consumption.

"WD defined the NAS drive category by leading the development of hard drives specifically built for small NAS environments," said Matt Rutledge, vice president of client storage for WD. "The WD Red product line serves the unique environment of NAS and meets the growing demand for affordable, reliable, and compatible storage.

WD, a Western Digital company, announced that it has founded the Storage Products Association (SPA) with other hard drive companies to promote the merits and value of rotating magnetic storage technologies, as well as to make consumers and professionals aware of how critical hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state hybrid drives (SSHDs) are to their digital lives.

SPA members include HGST, Seagate, Toshiba and WD. The organization helps storage manufacturers and users understand and support current and future storage needs, including the key role of hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state hybrid drives, in an effective storage mix for all consumer and business environments. SPA will provide education to its customers, partners, members and users of HDDs and SSHDs. SPA will also participate in industry and user events, and will publish materials about end users' storage needs and effective usage of a mix of storage technologies.

WD, a Western Digital company, today announced COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2013 (booth L0810) it is shipping the world's thinnest 1 TB hard drive with its new 2.5-inch WD Blue 7 mm hard drive. Offering OEMs, channel integrators and consumers a unique storage solution for thin and light systems, slimmer notebooks, as well as compatibility with the industry-standard 9.5 mm drive slots of mainstream notebooks, the WD Blue hard drive family, in capacities from 320 GB to 1 TB in the 7 mm height, now provides a singular option of thin design and high capacity storage.

"Users with large portfolios of content no longer need an Ultrabook or upgrading to a thin and light notebook," said Matt Rutledge , Vice President and General Manager for client storage products at WD. "This most compact 1TB hard drive to-date offers manufacturers of systems an upsell path for their customers who will now be able to choose systems offering both sleek design and high capacity.

WD, a Western Digital company and world leader for storage deployed in datacenters, today announced availability of its innovative WD Se line of hard drives, the first designed for scale-out datacenter deployments. Built on an enterprise-grade platform for reliable 24x7x365 datacenter operation, WD Se is tailored to deliver the right combination of performance, reliability and robustness for large-scale replicated environments, mid-sized network attached storage (NAS) deployment, and backup/archiving applications.

WD Se is a true enterprise-class drive with the right blend of affordability and capabilities to address the massive growth of semi-structured data, which is accelerating the scale-out of datacenters of all sizes. Now shipping in capacities up to 4 TB, the new WD Se hard drives enables customers to balance their data growth challenges in multi-drive enclosures without compromising enterprise-class features.

WD, a Western Digital company, today announced the availability of the My Passport Ultra line of portable hard drives, which combine additional layers of data protection with super-fast USB 3.0 connectivity, a slim, compact design and four color choices to offer mobile consumers the safest and easiest way to protect their digital content while traveling. Available in 500 GB, 1 TB and new 2 TB capacities, My Passport Ultra portable hard drives have built-in WD SmartWare Pro backup software with Dropbox integration, hardware encryption and password protection to safeguard against unauthorized drive access. A protective pouch is included with the My Passport Ultra to help shield it from the daily knocks encountered by today's mobile consumer.

DGM (aka Digimate) rolled out a trio of IPS LED PC monitors covering the 24-inch, 27-inch, and 30-inch categories. The best part? These aren't the usual 1080p tripe. The 24-inch IPS-2402WDH features a scrollwheel-pleasing 1920 x 1200-pixel resolution, 178°/178° viewing angles, 350 cd/m² brightness, 1000:1 static contrast ratio with dynamic mega-contrast, and 5 ms response time. It features in-built stereo speakers, display inputs include DVI, HDMI, and D-Sub.

Moving on, the 27-inch IPS-2703WPH features a reinforced glass surface (we're guessing some Corning Gorilla magic at play here), 2560 x 1440-pixel resolution, 6 ms response time, and other vital-stats identical to its little sibling. Display inputs include dual-link DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, and D-Sub. Lastly there's the pack-leading IPS-3004WPH. This 30-incher features 2560 x 1600-pixel resolution, 6 ms response time, 370 cd/m² maximum brightness, and the same connectivity as its 27-inch sibling. Internally, it features the same IPS panel used in Dell U3014, which features GB-LED backlighting. DGM didn't finalize pricing.

WD, a Western Digital company and a world leader in storage, today announced a new 3.5-inch SAS hard drive solution for legacy datacenter storage systems with the release of the WD XE, 2.5-inch, 10,000 RPM SAS hard drive, now available mounted in a 3.5-inch WD performance adapter. Shipping immediately, the WD XE hard drives provide best-in-class performance, low power consumption, and an easier upgrade path for existing 3.5-inch storage systems.

While demand for 3.5-inch, high-performance enterprise-class hard drives slows, a need remains for an alternate high-performance storage device as a transitional solution for legacy systems. WD XE hard drives offer best-in-class sequential performance and provide a compelling upgrade for datacenters migrating away from legacy drives nearing end-of-life.

WD, a Western Digital company, and a world leader in storage solutions for the connected life, today unveiled WD SmartWare Pro, an easy-to-use software tool that gives customers the power to back up their files to any USB external hard drive or the cloud using their personal Dropbox. Additionally, in the event that a file is deleted, lost, or a previous version of a file is needed, WD SmartWare Pro makes it easy to quickly restore and retrieve backed-up data.

WD SmartWare Pro is simple to set up with an intuitive installation interface that lets customers get up and running in just a few simple clicks. Once the software is setup and the drives are connected, WD SmartWare Pro visually presents customers' files and folders in a control center where they can manage multiple external hard drives and their Dropbox account. WD SmartWare Pro is compatible with WD products such as My Passport and WD Elements portable hard drives, as well as external USB drives from other manufacturers. Additionally, WD SmartWare Pro works seamlessly with WD network attached storage drives such as My Book Live.

Skyera Inc. and Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) today announced that Skyera has received strategic funding from Western Digital Capital as part of its recently announced Series B round of financing. Western Digital Capital co-invested in the $51 million round as an extension of the strategic relationship between the two companies that also includes joint technology development. Western Digital had previously funded Skyera as its initial outside investor.

"The backing of Western Digital has enabled us to ramp our business across marketing, sales and engineering which has been instrumental in creating the industry's most innovative solid-state solution," said Radoslav Danilak , chief executive officer of Skyera. "With our skyHawk family of enterprise solid-state storage systems we are witnessing the next era of solid-state storage and I strongly believe that having a close working relationship with Western Digital, the world's top disk drive vendor, is invaluable as we set out to reshape the storage landscape."

HGST (formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and now a Western Digital company, NASDAQ: WDC) is leading the disk drive industry to the forefront in nanolithography, long the exclusive purview of semiconductor manufacturers, by creating and replicating minute features that will allow the doubling of hard disk drive (HDD) density in future disk drives.

HGST Labs announced today they have combined two innovative nanotechnologies -- self-assembling molecules and nanoimprinting -- to create large areas of dense patterns of magnetic islands only 10 billionths of a meter (10 nanometers) wide. These features are only about 50 atoms wide and some 100,000 times thinner than a human hair.

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) today announced that Mark Long has been named executive vice president of strategy and corporate development. Long has an extensive background in corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and investment banking. He will oversee Western Digital's strategic planning and be responsible for the company's corporate development activities. Long will also lead Western Digital Capital, a strategic investment fund targeting innovative companies within the broader storage industry and related markets aligned to Western Digital's strategic plan.

"Mark is an excellent addition to the Western Digital senior leadership team," said Steve Milligan , president and chief executive officer, Western Digital. "He brings tremendous strategic and operational ability to this role, including an extensive background in mergers and acquisitions. He will focus on executing our growth strategy and capitalizing on the many opportunities present in today's dynamic storage industry."

Nowadays, new products in the SSD market have mostly been upgraded to the more efficient and high-speed SATA interface solid-state drive. However, the majority of industrial computers (IPC) are still using the PATA interface (or IDE interface), which are now facing certain problems -- malfunctioning and bad tracks are beginning to emerge in the older technology and facilities.

To solve the problem, one of the most viable upgrade options at this stage in terms of data security and cost effectiveness would be the PATA interface solid-state drive with built-in security functions. In response to customer needs, Apacer launched this value-added PATA SSDs with Data Security benefit. These products come in two specifications - 2.5-inch, 44 pin AFD 257 and 1.8-inch 40 pin AFD 187. Both models come with three built-in data security functions - Full Erase, Destroy, and Write Protect to provide advanced and upgraded data security advantages.

WD, a Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) company, and a world leader in storage solutions for the connected life, today introduced My Book AV-TV, allowing customers to instantly enable their TV recording features to store and playback hundreds of hours of entertainment by simply connecting the My Book AV-TV drive directly to a compatible TV. Additionally, customers watching live TV with the My Book AV-TV connected can press pause and rewind, or fast-forward afterward, to control and enjoy live TV at their convenience.

My Book AV-TV, available in 1 terabyte (TB) and 2 TB capacities, easily connects directly to televisions with built-in recording capability to provide plentiful storage capacity for standard or high-definition entertainment programming. Built with WD GreenPower Technology, the drive inside is engineered for the audio/video market in order to optimize the customer experience with smooth video playback of recorded content. Additionally, the WD GreenPower Technology is engineered to use less power and stay cool even in a hot entertainment center full of electronics.

Storage and application processor maker Marvell Technology has been ordered by a Federal Jury in the US state of Pennsylvania to pay a local university $1.17 billion in damages for patent-infringement. Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) developed and patented a technology that "increases the accuracy with which hard disk drive circuits read data from high-speed magnetic disks," which Marvell has been found to be infringing. Why $1.17 billion? Because these chips are an indispensable component in modern mechanical hard disk drives, made by both Seagate and WD, among others.

If and when US District Court Judge Nora Barry Fischer agrees with the Jury ruling that Marvell's infringements of CMU's patents are "willful," the fine could triple, according to K&L Gates. The jury found that Marvell sold "billions" of chips carrying the University's technology. What makes this verdict important for the PC industry is that since Marvell's HDD components are widely incorporated in HDDs across various brands, should CMU seek a sales-ban, it could potentially affect HDD production the way last year's unfortunate floods in Thailand did.

QNAP Systems, Inc. announced today a major expansion of the number of compatible peripherals available for its Turbo NAS products. The major additions include ten 3.5-inch internal SATA hard drives and a Kingston 2.5-inch internal SATA hard drive.
The newly compatible 3.5" internal SATA hard drives:

• Seagate - ST2000DM001 (2TB), ST2000NC000 (2TB), ST1000NC000 (1TB), ST3000NM0033 (Constellation ES.3) (3TB), ST2000NM0033 (Constellation ES.3) (2TB), ST1000NM0033 (Constellation ES.3) (1TB), ST500DM002 (500GB)
• Western Digital - WD4000FYYZ (4TB), WD3000FYYZ (3TB), WD2000FYYZ (2TB)
  The newly compatible 2.5" internal SATA hard drive:
• Kingston - SSDNow E100 (100GB)

With a continued focus on delivering the industry's most trusted, high-performance and reliable solutions for content creators, G-Technology today announced that its G-SPEED¹ RAID external storage solutions now come equipped with the industry's highest capacity and most reliable enterprise-class hard disk drives (HDDs), the 4TB HGST Ultrastar drives. With 7,200 RPM performance, 64MB cache, the highest 2.0 million hour mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) HDD specification, and unique enterprise-class features, the G-Technology G-SPEED family continues to deliver uncompromised performance, quality and reliability for the escalating demands of today's post-production workflows.

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) today announced that the Board of Directors declared a cash dividend for the quarter ending December 28, 2012, of $0.25 per share of common stock (the "cash dividend"). The cash dividend will be paid on December 26, 2012, to the company's stockholders of record as of December 14, 2012. On September 13, 2012, the company indicated that beginning in its current fiscal year 2013 it is targeting a return to shareholders of approximately 50 percent of its free cash flow through a mix of cash dividends and share repurchases.

The amount of future dividends under the company's dividend policy, and the declaration and payment thereof, will be based upon all relevant factors, including the company's financial position, results of operations, cash flows, capital requirements and restrictions under the company's existing credit agreement, and will be in compliance with applicable law. The Board retains the power to modify, suspend or cancel the company's dividend policy in any manner and at any time as it may deem necessary or appropriate in the future.

It will be towards the end of 2013, when Western Digital will have 5 terabyte (or 5000 GB) models of its NAS-optimized WD Red, and energy-efficient consumer-optimized WD Green lines of consumer hard drives. According to launch plans unearthed by Russian website AlwaysMoreDigital, the 5 TB WD Red (model: WD50ERFX) and 5 TB WD Green (WD50EZRX) will be launched in Q4 (in or after October 2013). A little earlier than that, the two lines will be updated with 4 TB variants, the WD40ERFX and WD40EZRX. All four drives feature 64 MB of cache, SATA 6 Gb/s interface, and are built in the 3.5-inch form-factor.

WD, a Western Digital company, and a world leader in external storage and solutions for today's connected life, announced today comprehensive support for new storage features in Windows 8 and an app for the new Windows user interface that makes it easy to discover, enjoy and backup digital media and files.

The WD app for Windows 8 automatically discovers digital content on connected WD direct attached storage solutions and showcases those photos, videos and music on a live tile on the Start screen. Within the app, customers can easily find and enjoy their digital content as well as share their media via email and social media sites with the Share charm. Windows 8 automatically installs the WD app for certified WD products or it can be downloaded from the Windows Store.