Seagate ups ante to 1.5TB with new Barracuda hard drive

Really, 1 terabyte isn't enough? If so, you'll be pleased to know that your insatiable need for more digital storage has left Seagate no choice but to announce the world's first 1.5TB hard drive. The half-terabyte jump over previous highest capacity 1TB drives, Seagate is happy to point out, represents the largest jump in capacity in hard-drive history. The 3.5-inch Barracuda 7200.11 uses perpendicular magnetic recording, which squeezes more 1s and 0s per square inch than conventional drives, to pack 1.5TB of storage space over four platters. Seagate isn't sharing pricing details yet. The drive will begin shipping in August.

Also today, Seagate announced a pair of 500GB laptop drives, the Momentus 5400.6 and the Momentus 7200.4. These 5,400rpm and 7,200rpm 2.5-inch drives won't ship until Q4 of this year.

[Press Release]

Via CNET Crave

App Store now available in desktop iTunes--with some trickery

Although Apple has not yet updated the iTunes Store front page to link directly to the desktop version of the iPhone App Store, it can still be accessed with a little trickery. To access the desktop App Store, follow these steps:

• Download and install iTunes 7.7, if you haven't already
• Click on the iTunes Store in the left-hand panel
• Search for current iPhone application, such as Super Monkey Ball
• Click small gray arrow next to Super Monkey Ball in the search results to go to the app's download page
• In the top navigation bar in iTunes, click "App Store"

The main App Store page will appear, and you can buy and download applications then sync them to your iPhone/iPod touch.

Via CNET Crave

Hitachi announces second-generation terabyte drive

Hitachi was first to hit the terabyte mark when it announced the 1TB Deskstar 7K1000 hard drive in January 2007. Fast forward a year-and-a-half oater, and the company is back with not a larger version of the drive but a more efficient model in the Deskstar 7K1000.B. Like its predecessor, the 7K1000.B is a 3.5-inch, 7,200rpm hard drive that serves up 1TB of storage space and a 32MB buffer. It hits that magic terabyte mark, however, by using only three disks--down from the five-disk design of the older 1TB drive. It also borrows from Hitachi's 2.5-inch mobile drives and includes Bulk Data Encryption.

Hitachi says the new three-disk design improves idle power consumption up to 43 percent compared with last year's model. Fewer platters should also mean improved reliability, acoustics, and seek times. The Deskstar 7K1000.B also matches Samsung's Spinpoint F1, which was the first three-disk drive to offer 1TB of capacity.

While desktops go missing at a much slower rate than laptops, that didn't deter Hitachi from offering Bulk Data Encryption on the Deskstar 7K1000.B. This feature encrypts data as it is written to the drive and decrypts when it's retrieved. This hard drive-level security is superior to software or system-level security measures, and it has no impact on system performance.

The Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B will sell for US$239 when it starts shipping later this month. Hitachi will also ship the Deskstar E7K1000 this month for US$279, an enterprise version of the drive designed for low-duty-cycle, 24x7 applications.

Via CNET Crave

Intel and DreamWorks go to the movies

Intel and DreamWorks Animation on Tuesday announced a strategic alliance designed to power up the movie studio's 3D authoring tools.

Faced with increasing demand for 3D animated feature films, DreamWorks will receive access to Intel's latest and future high-performance chips, including those with multiple processing cores. Intel's software engineers will also work with DreamWorks to tweak the studio's applications to run on an Intel-based computing infrastructure.

"Technology plays a significant role in enabling our artists to tell great stories. By utilizing Intel's industry-leading computing products, we will create a new and innovative way for moviegoers to experience our films in 3D," Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks' chief executive, said in a statement.

One of the first projects from the alliance will be DreamWorks' upcoming Monsters vs. Aliens film, which is scheduled for release March 27.

That film is part of DreamWorks' effort to produce only stereoscopic 3D feature films beginning next year.

Via CNET News

China to pass US as second-biggest flat-panel monitor market in 2011

As desktop PCs fall further out of favor in the US, peripheral manufacturers are having no problem picking up the slack elsewhere.

China is poised to pass the US in just three years to become the second-largest market for flat-panel monitors, according to a report released Tuesday by DisplaySearch. DisplaySearch is a market research company that tracks the display business.

The EMEA region (which refers to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) will continue to provide LCD monitor makers the most lucrative market, with just over 30 percent of all shipments heading there by 2011. Greater China will represent 22 percent of the worldwide monitor market, with the US slipping to just under 18 percent of the market, according to DisplaySearch's latest Quarterly Desktop Monitor Shipment and Forecast Report. Asia Pacific follows at 15.6 percent, and Latin America at 12.2 percent.

The display business generated US$107 billion last year, which includes LCD TVs, monitors, and notebook displays. Though monitors are the second-most profitable LCD application, they're actually the most popular in terms of number of units sold worldwide.

The desktop monitor market is driven largely by commercial purchases, as opposed to those by consumers. The US is a mature market, and the upgrade process of switching to newer crops of LCD monitors is slower here than in a market such as China, where many businesses purchasing monitors over the next few years will be doing so for the first time.

Via CNET Crave

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