This new business will be run by Young-ha Lee as Chief Executive Officer and Hidenao Kawai as Chief Operating Officer. Lee has expressed his excitement for the birth and growth of the company and the joint venture has been very vocal about how his recent role as CEO and president of LG’s Home Appliance Company has brought him in on Japanese corporate culture via his station between 1986 and 1990 well enough that he’ll be a fine selection for this new venture. Lee spoke thusly on the situation:

“Human use of water has increased more than 30-fold over the past three centuries but less than 1 percent of the world’s fresh water is readily accessible for human use. LG and the Hitachi -– two of the most diversified companies in the world — will combine their resources to developing innovative solutions for the world’s water problems.” – Lee

Certainly an encouraging project, and with Hitachi’s power in advanced R&D and water-related industries tied with LG’s manufacturing and technology backing them up, we’re looking at company that’ll certainly have s strong start. This group will be focusing on manufacturing and selling water treatment equipment at the start. This includes Engineering, Procurement, and Construction of water treatment systems and O&M for water treatment facilities. This project will center around drinking water and sewage treatment facilities as well as wastewater treatment facilities, and will be researching and developing water treatment technologies for all of them.

The move is to save money. Previously, Hitachi, Sony, and Toshiba all agreed to an operations merger back in November 2011 that would have all operations for LCD manufacturing merging into the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan. Each of the three firms would hold 10% of the merged company with the deal expected to close this April. The announcement that Hitachi is moving its flat screen LCD TV business out of the country.

Hitachi is moving the flat screen TVs from its consumer electronics arm to the Hitachi brand home appliances arm. That transfer will start April 1 and will be completed by the end of September. That is a strange move since TVs have more to do with consumer electronics than home appliances though the two do converge with some refrigerators having TVs for instance.

A probe into allegations of similar anti-competitive activities among LCD manufacturers took place back in December 2006, which led to the several companies and execs pleading guilty and paying more than $890 million in fines. This latest settlement is to address claims by consumers as well as by eight states, including Arkansas, California, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, New York, West Virgina, and Wisconsin.

The companies involved include Samsung, Sharp, Hitachi, Epson, Chi Mei, HannStar, and Chunghwa. In addition to the fine, they will be required to engage in antitrust compliance programs and cooperate with ongoing prosecution of other companies that may have participated.

[via Engadget]

Hitachi 4TB Deskstar 5K4000 Hard Drive Retail Kit with CoolSpin Technology

This first of two drives is a 3.5-inch hard drive housing a 32MB cache buffer and 33 percent more capacity than Hitachi’s last drive solution. Inside you’ll also find CoolSpin technology which allows your hard drive to run both cooler and with much less power. Hitachi notes that with CoolSpin and other power management techniques, this drive has up to 28 percent idle power savings over the Deskstar 7K3000 7,200 RPM drives in addition to an idle acoustic level or only a tiny 2.5 bels.

This drive comes complete with instructions, mounting screws, and software downloads that make sure your 32- and 64-bit Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, and Linux® systems are able to tap into the full capacity and power of the drive as “one big massive data drive” without having to install additional hardware. The Deskstar 5K4000 (bare drives and bulk pack) will be shipping to manufacturers, distributors, and channel partners around the world in the first quarter of 2012 — meanwhile the 4TB Hitachi Deskstar 5K4000 Hard Drive Retail Kit is currently shipping in limited quantities to online and retail stores with a suggested retail price of $399.99.

4TB Hitachi Touro Desk External Drive

Built to fit alongside the rest of the storage equipment you’ve got without a hitch, you’ve got a simple smooth black body on this drive with textured finish. Inside you’ve of course got the massive 4TB of space but you ALSO get a free 3GB of cloud storage from HitachiBackup.com with every purchase. You can access this cloud-stored data at any time from your computer or mobile device web browser. An upgraded account will yield 250GB of storage as well as iPhone and iPad companion apps.

You’ll be using the ultra-fast USB 3.0 interface on this monster, and the drive is compatible with both Mac and PC computers. You can get the Touro Desk External Drive in 4, 4, 2, and 1TB capacities. The 4GB version will be available in January for $419.99 MSRP. Think about getting one now!

In addition to the 4-inch panel, both firms have apparently also begun shipping the LCD display for the iPad 3. The third-gen tablet is rumored to be the first to use a so-called Retina Display, offering considerably higher pixel-density than the existing 1024 x 768. Instead, that’s expected to double to 2048 x 1536, offering improved text rendering and crisper images.

According to previous leaks, Apple will lengthen the iPhone 5 by around 8mm to accommodate the increase in screen size. The phone will have a metal casing, though not the distinctive teardrop-shaped profile rumored ahead of the iPhone 4S launch this year. That, it’s suggested, has been a casualty of fitting an LTE 4G radio and a battery capable of sustaining it.

Hitachi and Sony are set to merge with Toshiba to produce Japan Display Co. as the three businesses align their mobile screen production. The Apple contracts come with new challenges, however, with insiders claiming significant production line changes have been required to meet the company’s demands. One such change is in backlighting, with Apple reportedly looking to a new source so as to suitably illuminate the extra pixels in its iPad 3 screen.

[via Recombu]

The agreement is in place with the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan to integrate all three display businesses. The resulting company will be a semi-public entity and INCJ will hold 70% of the new firm called Japan Display Inc. The three original firms will each have 10% of the merged company. Once merged there will be $2.6 billion in new shares issued to INCJ for its part of the new company.

Japan Display has also announced that it intends to buy the small and medium LCD making facilities that Panasonic owns for an undisclosed amount. The plant in question is located in Mobara near Tokyo, Japan and makes in the area of 600,000 LCD TVs monthly. The deal should be final next April.

[via TechCrunch]

The specifications, in fact, are broadly similar to the 4.5-inch LTPS 720p panel Hitachi showed off back in February (and shown in the image above), though the new panel should be more affordable. Both offer 500 cd/m2 brightness and 16.77m color support, along with 160-degree horizontal and vertical viewing angles. The original LTPS panel does have a slightly better contrast ratio, however, at 1,100:1 (the new version runs at 1,000:1).

Hitachi, however, has worked on the aperture of each pixel so as to reduce the amount of backlighting required, which will hopefully add up to lower power consumption in whatever mobile devices the panels end up inside. No word on when that actual implementation will happen, though given the appetite for HD-capable smartphones of late – with the Samsung Galaxy S II HD being recently announced for the South Korean market – Hitachi is likely to want to get its more affordable panel on the market as soon as possible.

[via Impress]

Each of those HDDs hiding inside the shiny aluminum enclosure has 4TB of storage so this is an 8TB total capacity drive. With two drives inside the storage device, it is configure with RAID 0 right out of the box. The drive is going to be offered with a Thunderbolt port for your Mac providing 10 Gbps of data transfer to make for some speedy backups and file transfers. Other interface versions will also be offered. The drive is specifically designed with video editing in mind and promises excellent cooling.

The drive is preformatted for use with Mac OS X computers and the fan inside the enclosure to keep the drives cool is very quiet. The HDDs inside the enclosure are the new Hitachi 4TB 7,200 rpm offerings. Each TB of storage space on the drive can hold 2.5 hours of HD 1080/60i video. The drive will also be offered with eSATA, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 ports. It will land in October with the Thunderbolt version coming in Q4. Pricing is unannounced.

Hitachi has a new 7mm thick z-height Travelstar HDD as well with 1TB of storage that is aimed at desktops and mobile computing. The Deskstar 7K1000.D HDD has a 6Gb/second SATA interface and a 32MB cache buffer. The drive is also designed to conserve power with 15% power savings at idle compared to other HDDs.

The Deskstar 5K1000.B is even more power efficient with lower operating speed and saves 23% power at idle compared to the previous drives. The CinemaStar line is aimed at HD, IPTV, and Internet TV as well as the DVR market. This market is dominated by single platter HDDs and the new 1TB per platter drives will be very good for the market. The CinemaStar HDDs will ship this fall and the Deskstar is shipping right now.

Margins have dropped tremendously for Japanese TV manufacturers who not only experienced hurdles during the earthquake and tsunami disaster earlier this year, but also face a now ever strengthening Japanese Yen that eats away at export profits. Its currency strength has been a result of investor reactions to the slowing down of the US economic recovery and the continued debt crisis in Europe.

Hitachi reported an 86 percent drop in year-over-year first quarter net profits, and wants to transition to manufacturing more profitable products. Perhaps mobile related? The company did just show off a 4.5-inch 3D glasses-free display recently. However, Hitachi isn’t pulling out of the TV sector completely. The company assures that it will continue to sell TVs but that the production will be outsourced to other Asian countries.

[via TechCrunch]

The new screen is IPS-based and is rated for 300 cd/m2 brightness with 2D mode and in 3D mode, the brightness is rated at 470 cd/m2. The resolution of the little screen is 1280 x 720. That is a much higher resolution than the similar 3.1-inch screen Hitachi launched last year with only 480 x 854 resolution. The screen from last year used a barrier approach for the glasses-free 3D tech, which reduced the brightness of the screen and reduced image quality.

The new screen uses a new lenticular lens approach rather the the barrier approach of the old screen from last year. The new screen has a lens, IPS panel, and backlight where last year a barrier layer was placed over the IPS panel and backlight. The screen is aimed at mobile phones, portable TVs, and handheld gaming devices.

[via TechCrunch]

The device will provide access for up to five devices at one time and depending on the workload can support up to five standard def or three HD streams at the same time to different devices. The G-connect can also be connected to a network to become a cloud storage device. With that connectivity to the web, the Apple gear can access files locally on the G-Connect and access the internet as well.

To view content stored on the G-Connect will require an app from the App Store, a browser, or one of the coming apps for other devices running Android. G-Connect will also let you stream music and surf the web at the same time. The storage device has 500GB of storage space and will sell for $199.99 starting in July. Android apps are coming this fall.

Flash storage, DRAM, LCD panels, microcontrollers and other materials will all be impacted, according to iSuppli, though high existing stock levels of some components are expected to smooth the transition somewhat. Semiconductors, for instance, are only expected to be delayed by weeks, whereas NAND and DRAM are already seeing price surges of around 10- and 17-percent respectively. Solar panel production has also been affected, with AUO owned M. Setek shutting down its facilities as it investigates damage.

Texas Instruments has confirmed that its Miho plant – responsible primarily for analog and DLP wafer production – suffered substantial damage, and doesn’t expect full shipment capability until September 2011. Panasonic’s LCD fab has been more moderately impacted, though will suffer downtime due to its proximity to the most affected areas. Hitachi – which supplies displays for LG phones and Nintendo’s DS – has halted production as it assesses damage, while eight Sony production facilities have been similarly frozen while assessments take place. These include CD and Blu-ray production, Li-Ion battery manufacture and other components. Toshiba [pdf link] has warned its NAND production could drop by up to 20-percent, Apple being one well-known client of the flash storage, while it has also closed its CMOS image sensor plant which supplies Nokia among other clients.

Meanwhile, power shortages are impacting areas less physically affected by the earthquake, with TI reporting its attempts to shift production to other facilities are being delayed by the absence of stable power. Several undamaged Sony facilities are voluntarily offline in an attempt to conserve electricity, while Hitachi, Fujitsu, Toshiba and others are shutting down various levels of production, business operations and electronic signage in response. Specific products affected include Fujifilm’s X100 camera, according to reports, manufacture of which has temporarily ceased.

Even if production levels are stable, actually shipping components to OEMs remains an issue. Transport links have been heavily impacted, in addition to preventing employees from reaching production facilities. Although it’s easy to dismiss tech manufacture as a luxury amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis, Japan’s economic recovery is essential if the population is to get the long-term assistance and support it needs. That includes not just the sizable donations from Japanese businesses this past week, but stable employment moving forward.

It bears repeating, though, that the various aid, relief and rescue operations ongoing in Japan continue to need support today. You can find out more on how you can help here.

Western Digital will remain the in-use brand, with Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer of Hitachi GST, joining at closing as president. He’ll report to WD CEO John Coyne. Neither company is talking specific plans for the future, but “enhanced R&D capabilities” and economy of scale both get a name-check in the press release.

Press Release:

Western Digital to Acquire Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

Combination of Hard Drive Companies Will Create Industry’s Broadest Product Portfolio and a Significant Pool of Resources for Innovation

IRVINE, Calif. and SAN JOSE, Calif., March 7, 2011 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) and Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT / TSE:6501) announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement whereby WD will acquire Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $4.3 billion. The proposed combination will result in a customer-focused storage company, with significant operating scale, strong global talent and the industry’s broadest product lineup backed by a rich technology portfolio.
Under the terms of the agreement, WD will acquire Hitachi GST for $3.5 billion in cash and 25 million WD common shares valued at $750 million, based on a WD closing stock price of $30.01 as of March 4, 2011. Hitachi, Ltd. will own approximately ten percent of Western Digital shares outstanding after issuance of the shares and two representatives of Hitachi will be added to the WD board of directors at closing. The transaction has been approved by the board of directors of each company and is expected to close during the third calendar quarter of 2011, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. WD plans to fund the transaction with a combination of existing cash and total debt of approximately $2.5 billion.
WD expects the transaction to be immediately accretive to its earnings per share on a non-GAAP basis, excluding acquisition-related expenses, restructuring charges and amortization of intangibles.
The resulting company will retain the Western Digital name and remain headquartered in Irvine, California. John Coyne will remain chief executive officer of WD, Tim Leyden chief operating officer and Wolfgang Nickl chief financial officer. Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer of Hitachi GST, will join WD at closing as president, reporting to John Coyne.
“The acquisition of Hitachi GST is a unique opportunity for WD to create further value for our customers, stockholders, employees, suppliers and the communities in which we operate,” said John Coyne, president and chief executive officer of WD. “We believe this step will result in several key benefits-enhanced R&D capabilities, innovation and expansion of a rich product portfolio, comprehensive market coverage and scale that will enhance our cost structure and ability to compete in a dynamic marketplace. The skills and contributions of both workforces were key considerations in assessing this compelling opportunity. We will be relying on the proven integration capabilities of both companies to assure the ongoing satisfaction of our customers and to bring this combination to successful fruition.”
“This brings together two industry leaders with consistent track records of strong execution and industry outperformance,” said Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. “Together we can provide customers worldwide with the industry’s most compelling and diverse set of products and services, from innovative personal storage to solid state drives for the enterprise.”
Hiroaki Nakanishi, president, Hitachi, Ltd. said, “As the former CEO of Hitachi GST, I always believed in the potential of Hitachi GST to become a larger and more agile company. This is a strategic combination of two industry leaders, both growing and profitable. It provides an opportunity for the new company to increase customer and shareholder value and expand into new markets. Additionally, it is important to us that WD shares common values with Hitachi GST to create a more global company that is well positioned to define a broader role in the evolving storage industry.”
WD’s exclusive financial adviser on the transaction is Bank of America Merrill Lynch; its lead legal adviser is O’Melveny & Myers LLP. Goldman, Sachs & Co serves as financial adviser to Hitachi, Ltd. and Hitachi GST. Legal advisers to Hitachi, Ltd. and Hitachi GST are Morrison Foerster LLP and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates, respectively.

The 4.5-inch IPS display will boast a 720 x 1280 (16:9) display that can fit 329 pixels per inch and a contrast ratio 0f 1,100:1. Compare that to Apple’s much touted “Retina Display” which can do 326 ppi, 800:1 contrast ratio, and a 960×640 resolution on a smaller 3.5 inch screen. Hitachi’s display is going to look very good.

Mass production on the new displays won’t begin until October of this year so don’t expect to get your hands on these anytime soon. Most likely you will find them by early 2012 at CES or the MWC. The display seems like it will be amazing, so it will be interesting to see how it faces off against Apple’s Retina Display and Samsung’s Super AMOLED screens.

[Via IntoMobile]

The 3.5-inch HDDs include a 2TB and a 1.5TB offering. The 2.5-inch drives are in the C5K750 line and include capacities of 750GB, 640GB, and 500GB. The 2.5-inch line has 375GB of storage per platter and use 4096-byte sectors. The drives need 0.5W of power at idle and 1.5W during operation.

The 3.5-inch drives have 667GB per platter and use 4.2W of power or under at idle and produce 2.4bels of noise during operation. Hitachi says that the HDDs are shipping all around the world to customers right now.

The HDD is able to be so thin thanks to needing only a single platter. That single platter doesn’t mean a small amount of storage though; the new Travelstar Z5K500 HDD has 500GB of storage on that single platter. Hitachi GST claims that the new drive is the thinnest 500GB HDD in the world.

The thin drive has the best cost per gigabyte and gigabyte per cubic millimeter on the market when compared to SSDs and some other HDDs. The drive needs only 1.8W of power in read and write operations and has a 0.55W low power idle and it’s very quiet as well with 2.1 bels of sound output during seek operation. That means the drive is quieter than the ambient noise in most homes making it virtually silent. The drive will ship this month at undisclosed pricing.

R3 Media Network

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Hitachi is also offering a new kit with the 3TB HDD and the other items like screws and instructions needed for installing a new high-capacity HDD inside an existing computer system. The 3TB HDD spins at 7200rpm and it comes with software to allow 32 and 64-bit OS’ to see and use the entire 3TB of storage.

The 3TB kit uses the 6Gb/s SATA port and is shipping this week for $249.99. Hitachi is also shipping a couple new external storage solutions with the Hitachi XL Desktop external drives at $249.99 for 3TB, $169.99 for 2TB, and $99.99 for 1TB.

Hitachi say that, beyond the improvement in sensed materials, the specifications of the touch-panel are roughly in line with regular capacitive screens. Maximum size is currently 10-inches – though the company expects 3-4 inches to be most in demand, presumably for smartphones and touchscreen PMPs – and they can recognize two or three points of multitouch contact and use no more power than a regular model.

The main improvement, though, is accuracy. Hitachi says a 0.8mm stylus offers ±0.5mm coordinate sensing error, and is considerably smaller than the so-called capacitive stylus we’ve seen until now. Best of all, the new panel doesn’t require a new controller IC, meaning upgrades should be more straightforward for manufacturers.

[via Patently Apple]

Inside the slick looking little enclosure hides a new Hitachi GST 7mm Travelstar Z5K320 HDD. That thin Hitachi drive makes the G-Drive the thinnest 2.5-inch external storage device in the world. The drive is also quiet and rugged.

The G-Drive is formatted for Mac computers right out of the box and is Time machine ready for backing up Mac data. Power for the drive comes from the USB port and the 320GB HDD sells for $99.99. You should be able to reformat and use the G-Drive on a Windows machine if needed.

The HDD delivers 15% better random and 18% faster sequential performance than other products on the market today. Hitachi also claims that the HDD needs 22% less power during operation compared to other products on the market. In addition to the 600GB version of the drive, Hitachi also offers 300GB and 450GB HDDs in the family.

The drive is also the only in its class to use a 64MB cache to optimize the drives read/write response time. The drive needs 5.6W of power during random read/write operations and 3.1w of power in idle mode. Bulk data encryption is also available on the series.

The 6.6-inch IPS display from Hitachi features a resolution of 1600×1200, and 302ppi. Compare that to the iPhone 4′s Retina Display, which offers 326ppi, it’s obvious that Hitachi got pretty close to what Apple offers on the smaller screen. However, comparing the display to the IPS-based iPad, Apple’s tablet device, then things get a bit more interesting. The Hitachi display offers up more resolution, as well as more ppi. Although, it is more than three inches smaller. The iPad offers 132ppi, and a resolution of 1024×768.

The contrast ratio of the new Hitachi tablet display is 800:1, and it offers up 400 nits of brightness. And, grabbing a similarity to the iPad, has an aspect ratio of 4:3. Unfortunately, while we know there’s already people out there wanting to get their hands on this, Hitachi didn’t offer a timeframe as to when these displays would hit the scene.

[via UberGizmo]

Meanwhile there are 500GB and 640GB versions of the same drive for those not quite so demanding.  Hitachi is also offering the Travelstar 5K750 family, with the same capacity options but the lower spin rate of 5,400rpm.  They get an 8MB buffer instead, and a lower read/write power consumption rate of 1.4W (versus the faster drives’ 1.8W).

The 7K750 drives also offer self-encryption using Hitachi’s Bulk Data Encryption, and by deleting the encryption key you can render all the data on the drive useless.  The Hitachi 5K750 is shipping now, while the Hitachi 7K750 will arrive in Q1 2011; price tba.

Press Release:

Hitachi GST Launches New Family of 750GB Mobile Hard Drives

Full Portfolio of 5,400 RPM and 7,200 RPM 2.5-Inch Travelstar Hard Drives Deliver the Perfect Balance of Capacity, Ruggedness and Low-Power to Meet the Needs of Mobile Computing Devices

October 05, 2010 03:04 AM Eastern Daylight Time
SAN JOSE, Calif.–Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced its new 375GB/platter, 5,400 RPM and 7,200 RPM, 2.5-inch hard drives – the Travelstar™ 5K750 and the Travelstar 7K750 hard drive families. Featuring the industry’s highest capacities in a standard 9.5mm two-disk design, the new drives come in capacities of 750GB, 640GB and 500GB. The drives are built on Hitachi’s proven platform for quality and reliability, and feature innovative technology that delivers high shock protection, low power and fast performance for a variety of notebook computers, external storage solutions, gaming consoles and other mobile devices.

“Couple this with our proven design platforms and broad 2.5-inch portfolio, and Hitachi GST continues to demonstrate its leadership in the 2.5-inch mobile hard drive market.”
The Travelstar 5K750 and 7K750 drive families are the first Hitachi GST hard drives that feature Advanced Format. Advanced Format increases the physical sector size on hard drives from 512 bytes to 4096 (4K) bytes. This helps utilize the storage surface area more efficiently, allowing for increased drive capacities and improved data integrity at higher storage densities. By integrating Hitachi drives with the new Advanced Format, IT managers, system integrators and OEMs can take advantage of the latest operating systems to deliver new high-capacity, power-efficient systems.

“From their recently announced slim, 7mm 2.5-inch drives to their broad new family of standard 9.5mm 2.5-inch hard drives, Hitachi offers a wide variety of capacities, speeds and form factors that support virtually all of our notebook computing needs,” said Wentao Yang, vice president, Global Procurement of Lenovo. “We are currently qualifying and integrating Hitachi’s new 750GB family in to our mainstream and performance systems, and look forward to continuing our relationship with them now and into the future.”

5,400 RPM Travelstar 5K750 Family

The Travelstar 5K750 family is the next generation of Hitachi’s mainstream mobile hard drive line engineered to achieve the best capacity, reliability and cost per gigabyte. It is a 5,400 RPM hard drive offered with an 8 MB buffer and a Serial ATA 3Gb/s interface for fast data transfer rates. The Travelstar 5K750 family has been designed with superior low power consumption for energy efficiency, offering 0.5 watts low power idle and 1.4 watts power during read/write operations, which contributes to longer battery life in notebooks and other unplugged applications. The new Travelstar 5K750 also offers the best non operating shock at 1000G/1ms to protect against bumps and rough handling in mobile environments.

7,200 RPM Travelstar 7K750 Family

The Travelstar 7K750 is the latest hard drive in Hitachi’s most popular 7,200 RPM family, that meets the growing demand for performance computing. With a 16MB buffer, 3Gb/s SATA interface, and excellent media transfer rates, Hitachi Travelstar 7K750 series allows quicker access to data and faster system performance, especially for multi-tasking, and other high performance office and home applications. With the lowest read/write power specification in its class at 1.8W, users don’t have to sacrifice battery life for fast 7,200 RPM performance.

Both Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 and 7K750 families feature exceptional operating shock, Thermal Fly-height Control (TFC) for better soft error rate and improved reliability, and Hitachi’s TrueTrack Technology™ for tracking accuracy in high shock or vibration environments. Fluid dynamic bearing motors also deliver a near silent operation. The drives use halogen-reduced components to support the “green” computing initiatives that are of increasing importance in today’s end users. Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 and 7K750 have also earned the Hitachi EcoTrac classification, used to describe products that minimize environmental impact in the areas of product design, manufacturing, operation and disposal.

Self-encryption Options

Travelstar 7K750 is a self-encrypting drive (SED) designed to meet the industry-standard Trusted Computer Group (TCG) Opal Storage Security specification. This drive is the fifth generation to feature Hitachi’s Bulk Data Encryption (BDE). These self-encrypting drives encrypt data using protected keys in real time, providing users with the highest level of data protection available. It also speeds and simplifies the drive re-deployment process. By deleting the encryption key, the data on the drive is rendered unreadable, thereby eliminating the need for time-consuming data-overwrite.

Enhanced Availably Options

Designed specifically for use in blade servers, network routers and video surveillance systems, the new Travelstar 5K750 and 7K750 EA models bring together a host of features such as high capacity, durability and low power for applications needing 24×7 access to data.1 Based on a proven platform for quality and reliability, the Travelstar drives help system designers, integrators and IT managers build and maintain their storage systems, achieving greater storage density in the same 2.5-inch footprint, while maximizing performance, and improving data integrity in “always-on” applications in lower-transaction environments.

Travelstar Retail Hard Drive Kits

Hitachi Retail Hard Drive Kits are designed for Mac® and PC users who want to replace or upgrade their internal hard drives in their notebooks or compact desktop systems. Providing solid warranty protection, service and support, Hitachi Retail Hard Drive Kits give users the additional capacity and/or performance needed for demanding multimedia applications such as games and video, or for those who want to upgrade to a new operating system such as Microsoft® Windows® 7 or Apple® Mac OS X. In capacities up to 750GB, Hitachi Retail Kits include simple step-by-step instructions – making it easy to upgrade.

“Our new Travelstar 5K750 and 7K750 offerings address the growing demand for high-capacity and low-power hard drives, which are at the heart of today’s notebooks, external storage devices, gaming consoles and other mobile computing applications,” said Brendan Collins, vice president of Product Marketing at Hitachi GST. “Couple this with our proven design platforms and broad 2.5-inch portfolio, and Hitachi GST continues to demonstrate its leadership in the 2.5-inch mobile hard drive market.”

Availability

The Travelstar 5K750 is currently shipping in volume. Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 Retail Hard Drive Kits will be available in November with a suggested retail price of $129.99. The Travelstar 5K750 EA version will be shipping to OEMs for qualification by the end of the year. The 7,200 RPM Travelstar 7K750 family, including EA versions and retail kits, will be available in Q1 2011.

Hitachi has grown to be one of those companies that’s focusing a lot on technology of the future lately, and we don’t have a problem with that at all. Especially when they’re making movies like Minority Report come to life. This time around, though, they’ve managed to create the same kind of touch panel that devices like the iPad and iPhone use, but with a bit of a twist.

When it comes to touchscreens, resistive panels let you use pretty much whatever you want, because instead of utilizing the electricity in your skin to make actions happen, it actually uses “pressure.” Meaning you’ve got to put some effort into making a resistive screen do what you want it to do. However, it does mean you get to use stylus devices, or use your fingers tucked away nicely in an insulating material like a glove. Overall, though, capacitive touch panels have become the focus of mainstream consumers, based on their ease of use.

Hitachi must see some market in a capacitive touchscreen that will let you use a stylus, and even your gloved hand, because that’s exactly what they’ve done. The stylus is actually a synthetic-resin pen, but the panel itself will allow owners to use it by a myriad of methods. You can use multi-touch if you want, that syn-resin pen, or even your gloved hand, without ever having to switch devices. The panel is able to fully detect both conductive materials and insulating materials seamlessly, by converting the input information to capacitive. What’s better, though, is that a normal controller chip can be used for the whole thing, so more money doesn’t have to get utilized for inclusion of special chips.

Hitachi, who loves to show off their future tech, plans on showcasing the display at this year’s Createc trade show that takes place in Japan from October 5th to the 9th. As soon as we get to see more of it, you will to, so stay tuned.

[via Tech-On; thanks, Mike!]

And, truth be told, it still looks amazing. Watching as the user navigates through a Google Maps-like layout, zooming in and out of a particular location in Japan, and then making his way through a crowded street, all the while just using hand gestures to make it happen. You can see in the video that the actions and results are not instantaneous at all times, but the more we watch the video, we’re leaning more towards the fact that whoever is using the contraption keeps moving his hand out of the camera’s field of vision. That would explain the double actions.

The demo showcases swiping to turn the camera around, and it also shows how, after the user enters a store, you can use your hands to navigate a quadrant of pop-up menus. Even the menus look great, especially as he navigates them. And then he accesses an advertisement, and suddenly he’s playing around with an X-ray of a human brain. The potential here is pretty great, and it’s even better to see that we will be able to do all of this without actually having to touch anything.

Unfortunately, Hitachi says that this technology isn’t ready for the prime time. They’re guess? Some time by mid-2011. So, while we find ourselves somewhere in the mid-2010, we’re already wishing for the future to catch up with the present. Hopefully Hitachi will continue to show off this technology over the coming moths, so we can watch with them as it improves.

[via Akihabara News]

As for the detachable USB key, on the LifeStudio Plus drives there’s a dockable 4GB memory stick that users can set up with specific files from the main unit that they want to be able to take out and about with them.  The USB key always has the latest versions, and when you return it automatically syncs back any changes you’ve made.

There’s of course the usual backup functionality, with PC and Mac compatibility, and Hitachi are throwing in 3GB of cloud-based storage with every purchase (you can upgrade to 250GB for $49 per year).  The Hitachi LifeStudio Mobile drives kick off at $79.99 for a 250MB model, while the LifeStudio Plus Mobile drives start at $119.99 for 320GB; the desktop versions are obviously cheaper.

Press Release:

Hitachi GST Redefines External Storage with the LifeStudio™ Drive Family

Meet the Hard Drive Evolved: Going Beyond Simple Design Changes, Storage and Backup, Hitachi LifeStudio Drives are the First and Only All-in-One External Drives that Make it Easier to Organize, Protect and Relive Life’s Greatest Moments

Industry Firsts / Product Highlights

Automatic Organization and Easy Sharing: First drive in the industry that automatically pulls together and organizes your photos, videos, music and documents from your computer, any connected USB device or your social media outlets; making them easier to access, view and share. Easily upload, view and interact with photos on Facebook™, Flickr™ and Picasa Web Albums™ without leaving the app.
Stunning 3D Navigation: The only external drive that effortlessly displays all your favorite memories on a 3D wall so you no longer need to dig through folders and files to find them.
Backup Redefined: Hitachi LifeStudio drives take data protection to the next level, offering both local and online cloud backup in one integrated solution, within one interface – no more downloading and installing two separate programs. All online content is stored in its natural format, so files are available from any Internet browser anywhere in the world, and even from an iPhone® and iPad®.
Access to Favorite Premium Content: For the first time within an external drive, users can search, filter, watch or subscribe to millions of titles from online content providers. Catch the latest news, TV shows and music videos, or even play online games all from within the LifeStudio app.
Grab n’ Go Flexibility: Pushing design boundaries beyond a hard drive in a box, LifeStudio Plus external drives are the first in the industry that feature an integrated USB key for ultimate flexibility. The USB key easily syncs content for grab n’ go convenience.

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Meet the hard drive evolved: the Hitachi LifeStudio external hard drive family. During the last decade, external hard drives have offered little beyond design changes and simple storage and backup. With the new LifeStudio family, launched today by Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST), the company is breaking through the long-established confines of the category and delivering an external drive that combines highly reliable storage and new levels of data protection with content organization, management, socialization and navigation for both local and online content.

“Personal storage solutions have become an integral part of a consumer’s digital life in terms of providing simple storage and backup”
The LifeStudio family, offered in both portable and desktop models, creates an unprecedented solution that seamlessly pulls in, organizes and protects consumers’ priceless stored digital content – photos, videos, music and documents – and unifies them with online digital content from social networks such as Facebook and photo sites such as Flickr and Picasa Web Albums. These important digital memories are laid out on a stunning 3D visual wall, instead of in random and hard-to-find files and folders, creating a comprehensive and organized catalog of the user’s digital life. Redefining backup, consumers receive the benefits of both local and cloud backup within one single application, making it easy to view, download, and share protected cloud content from any web browser, anywhere.

“Our LifeStudio drive starts where others stop,” said Mike Williams, vice president and general manager, Branded Business for Hitachi GST. “These drives aren’t just about interfaces and capacity, or backup. While these elements are important in an external storage solution, the value comes in creating lifestyle solutions that become part of the way we organize and relive digital memories. Our LifeStudio solution connects consumers to their online and local content in a more intimate way than ever before. For the first time, consumers truly have an integrated experience – one solution to find, view, protect and relive their digital memories. This is a huge milestone for our category.”

“Personal storage solutions have become an integral part of a consumer’s digital life in terms of providing simple storage and backup,” says Liz Conner, senior research analyst at IDC. “Pushing these boundaries, Hitachi’s new LifeStudio drive brings an innovative approach to the market, addressing how consumers organize, navigate and relive digital memories, seamlessly across multiple digital devices and online sites. Coupled with Hitachi’s local and cloud backup strategy, end users truly have an all-in-one solution to help manage their digital life.”

Automatic Organization and Easy Sharing on a Stunning 3D Wall

Today it’s not just early adopters using external drives to store and protect their digital lives — it’s a huge segment of the population that are deeply connected to the content they create, collect and share. Hitachi research has shown that organization is one of the most frustrating components of a consumer’s digital life. Often hectic lifestyles lead to a lack of time spent organizing the growing amount of digital content received daily. What’s left is a random storage process, which multiplies a user’s frustration when trying to backup, share, find and relieve memories. Additionally, much of what consumers’ value from a content perspective is online and socialized on dozens or hundreds of sites. Hitachi is cleaning up the “digital mess” with the LifeStudio family of drives because, in the end, it’s about content – protecting it, reliving it and sharing it.

After a quick install of the software, the drive’s innovative technology instantly kicks in. Your content – photos, videos, music and documents stored on your computer, any connected USB storage device or online sites such as Facebook, Flickr and Picasa Web Albums – automatically begins to appear in chronological order on your stunning 3D wall. Music is organized by artist or album. Now all of your most precious digital content is easily available at your finger tips. No more searching through files and folders.

Breakthrough Backup

Revolutionizing the way consumers protect their content, the Hitachi LifeStudio drive is the first to provide local and online cloud backup integrated into one single solution, within one install process. The LifeStudio application gives users multiple ways to easily protect their digital content on site or in the cloud. Every customer receives 3GB of online storage for free and for more storage there is an option to upgrade to a quarter of a terabyte (250GB) for only $49 per year, which includes multiple computer protection.

Hitachi Backup™ is simple and easy-to-use with default options that cover virtually every Mac™ or PC™ users’ backup needs. When using Hitachi’s cloud service, all content is stored in its natural format (no proprietary formatting), so files are protected and easy to view, download and share from any web browser, anywhere, even from an iPhone® and iPad®. Backup runs every 30 minutes or can be scheduled at one’s convenience.

LifeStudio Plus Drives with Integrated USB Keys

Hitachi understands the need to fit into consumers’ fast-paced, increasingly digital lifestyles. The LifeStudio products move beyond a hard drive in a box, into a category all their own. The patent-pending design of the LifeStudio Plus family provides the ultimate in flexibility with an integrated 4GB USB key, which provides a quick way to sync important files and folders for grab n’ go ease.

With the LifeStudio Plus family, the drive’s content management software conveniently allows you to select specific files or folders to sync to the USB key. As a result, users can simply remove the key and take what they need, while leaving the rest of their content safely stored at home. On return, the key docks on the drive to automatically sync everything back together.

Pricing and Availability

Designed for both Mac and PC users, the LifeStudio USB 2.0 external drive family comes in both mobile and desktop solutions. Each comes preloaded with the Hitachi LifeStudio content management app and Hitachi Backup software. Hitachi LifeStudio external drives will be available at retail and online stores in mid-July.

All of the LED backlit versions are full 1080p sets with 120Hz picture quality. The sets use CONEQ surround and CONEQ 3D sound to improve performance. The sets will come in 46-inch and 42-inch sizes. The 42-inch set will ship in July for $1199 and the 46-inch set will ship in August for $1499.

Hitachi will also offer several new CCFL sets with 1080p resolution, 120Hz panel speed, and CONEQ 3D sound and more. The CCFL sets will come in 32-inch for $649, 42-inch for $899, 46-inch for $1199, and 55-inch for $1699. The two smaller sets will land in June with the other two coming in July.

The EMIEW 2, which stands for Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existence as Work-Mate . . . 2, has just gotten upgrades to voice recognition and its overall driving performance. When the EMIEW 2 hit the scene a couple of years ago, it was unique in that it had wheels for feet. Pretty standard now-a-days, but still, it stands out for being one of the originals. With the upgrade, EMIEW 2 can now drive up to 6km/h, which means that it should be able to keep pace with people as it rolls along side them. It can now also step over objects, just in case they’re too big to roll over.

Also, it’s designed to be a work-mate, so if it does need to carry something, it can actually bend over a bit, carry the load, and then scoot around, making sure that the weight is evenly distributed. But, to make things better, it’s also been given adaptive suspension control technology, making it far more stable when its rolling over uneven ground. The legs move independently of one another, making this easier. We’re not sure when this might actually get released into the wild, but considering Vietnam’s TOPIO Dio, we consider the race to be on.

[via Plastic Pals]

The Travelstar Z7K320 has 16MB of RAM and uses 1.8W in operation; there’s a SATA 3Gbps interface and 0.8W idle power consumption.  As for the slower version, that uses just 1.5W when active and 0.55W when idle.  As well as the 320GB models, there’ll be 160GB and 250GB versions too.

Mass production of the Z7K320 is expected to kick off in August 2010; meanwhile the 5,400rpm K5K320 is expected to start in August.  No word on pricing at this stage.

[via PC Watch]

Hitachi claims to have invented a new process that will double the lifespan of lithium-ion batteries. This is a very important breakthrough for the hybrid and electric vehicle market where batteries need to be replaced in the area of every five years at a cost of thousands of dollars.

Hitachi’s new breakthrough would let the batteries used last for up to ten years before they need to be replaced. Hitachi plans to focus the battery tech to start within the grid-scale storage market for storing solar and wind power. I am sure the technology will reach other markets eventually.

The downside to the system is that, since only roughly half the pixels are seen by each eye, you need a relatively high resolution LCD panel in order for the end result to be smooth rather than blocky.  Hitachi have already built demo systems using 5-inch WXGA 1280 x 768 panels, however; the DSi XL, for comparison, uses twin 4.2-inch displays.

Because the Hitachi system uses round microlenses rather than regular lenticular bars, the 3D effect is possible when viewing the display from above or below the regular angle of vision, not just when tilting it left and right.  Of course, Nintendo haven’t made any announcements regarding 3D panel suppliers, nor which technology the Nintendo 3DS might use, but the one main drawback about the Hitachi system – that filming real-life 3D content for the display is time consuming – wouldn’t perhaps be such an issue when you’re dealing with computer generated gaming graphics.

Hitachi 3D phone demo:

[via Twitter 1 and 2]

The new gear includes four plasma screens and seven LCDs. If you are tired of black, some of the sets come in other colors as well. The new sets include the XP05, HP05, and H05 series. The top of the line in the new range is the XP05 series with 42-inch, 46-inch, and 50-inch models costing up to $3650. A 32-inch and 37-inch LCD version is offered in the series and all XP05 sets have a 320GB HDD inside.

The HP05 series has a pair of plasma sets in it with 42-inch and 32-inch screens supporting 720p resolution and featuring 250GB HDD inside. The sets are $2,200 for the 42-inch and $1,600 for the 32-inch. The H05 series includes four LCD sets with 720p resolution in 19-inch, 22-inch, and 32-inch versions using IPS panels. All of the sets will launch in Japan on April 17 with no word on US availability.

The SimpleDrive USB 2.0 external hard drive has 2TB capacity for $249.99 and works with Mac and PC computers. The SimpleDrive can also be had in 500GB and 1TB capacities. The SimpleTech line is made by Hitachi and includes the Pro Drive with USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800, and eSATA connectivity. The 2TB drive is $299.99.

The SimpleTech Duo Pro drive has dual HDDs inside and supports RAID 0/1. The drive can be had in 2TB capacity for $299.99 and a 4TB capacity is $499.99. Connectivity options include eSATA and USB 2.0. The internal hard drive kit with a single 2TB HDD sells for $249.99.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the US DOJ issued the subpoenas in an investigation of alleged price fixing in the optical drive segments of each business. The companies say that their optical drive businesses in the US will cooperate fully with the inquiry. Details of the subpoenas were not revealed.

A person close to the investigation claims that the DOJ has initiated a criminal antitrust probe into the optical disk market in recent months and are investigating possible price fixing, bid-rigging, and allocation of markets. Sony has reported that the US DOJ and agencies outside of the US are investigating competition in optical disk drive markets.

The 15K600 is the highest capacity drive for performance enterprise use. It has a 3.5-inch form factor with 33% more storage space compared to the drive it replaces. The 15K600 comes in 6Gb/s SAS or 4Gb/s FCAL interfaces. Hitachi uses a 64MB cache on the drive for better performance and the drive comes in 300GB, 450GB, and 600GB capacities.

The Ultrastar C15K147 is a new 2.5-inch 15,000 RPM HDD designed to allow integrators and OEMs to cram more drives inside of servicers they offer. Hitachi uses advanced power management techniques with the drive to save 50% more power compared to similar 3.5-inch drives. The C15K147 is available in 73GB and 147GB capacities and has a 64MB cache.

That gift card can be used to buy accessories or anything else from the carrier, or put toward payment of a bill.  We’re wondering whether it’s valid toward early termination fees; many Sidekick users are talking about abandoning the platform altogether after this most recent incident.

T-Mobile have already given all Sidekick users a month of free data service as apology for last week’s outages.  The data loss has been blamed on a poorly managed upgrade to the Sidekick data servers by Microsoft and Hitachi.

T-Mobile Statement:

T-MOBILE STATUS UPDATE ON SIDEKICK DATA DISRUPTION, MON., OCT. 12

Dear valued T-Mobile Sidekick customers:

We are thankful for your continued patience as Microsoft/Danger continues to work on preserving platform stability and restoring all services for our Sidekick customers. We have made significant progress this past weekend, restoring services to virtually every customer. Microsoft/Danger has teams of experts in place who are working around-the-clock to ensure this stability is maintained.

Regarding those of you who have lost personal content, T-Mobile and Microsoft/Danger continue to do all we can to recover and return any lost information. Recent efforts indicate the prospects of recovering some lost content may now be possible. We will continue to keep you updated on this front; we know how important this is to you.

In the event certain customers have experienced a significant and permanent loss of personal content, T-Mobile will be sending these customers a $100 customer appreciation card. This will be in addition to the free month of data service that already went to Sidekick data customers. This card can be used towards T-Mobile products and services, or a customer’s T-Mobile bill. For those who fall into this category, details will be sent out in the next 14 days – there is no action needed on the part of these customers. We however remain hopeful that for the majority of our customers, personal content can be recovered.

Sidekick customers can continue to visit T-Mobile Sidekick Forums (http://www.t-mobile.com/sidekick) on a regular basis to access the latest updates, as well as FAQs regarding this service disruption. The Forums also offers tips and suggestions for rebuilding content on your device.

The UPIC 56-M is covered in almost invisible microdots that are recognized by a special Bluetooth stylus; the pen can also track eight levels of pressure.  All of that data is passed to the controlling PC, which also handles the projector.

While in principle this is nothing new – there are plenty of “intelligent” whiteboards being used in schools and colleges – what makes the Hitachi system stand out is the fact that it’s incredibly compact and portable.  The projector only needs to be sat on the table with the UPIC display, and the display itself is rollable, wireless and has a magnetic backing for wall-mounting.  Ideal for whipping out when the kids aren’t doing their chores and you want to show them in great detail when they’re meant to take the trash out on your huge family planner.

The new drives include the CinemaStar 5K1000 CoolSpin and the 7K1000.C. Both of the drives offer 1TB of storage and use platters with 500GB each. The 7K1000.C spins at 7,200 rpm and the massive capacity will allow both drives to store up to 250 hours of MPEG-4 video and handle multiple simultaneous streams.

The CoolSpin tech in the 5K1000 controls the speed of the motor to balance performance with power utilization and noise production. Hitachi claims that the drive needs 3.3W at idle and produces only 2.4 bels during operation. Both drives will debut in Q4 2009.

Sony had the specs for a pair of coming eReaders leak this week ahead of their official launch. The readers are available in two sizes and look to battle the Kindle for the dollars of avid readers around the country. Apple’s coming new OS X Snow Leopard hit Amazon for pre-order this week. The prices should make Bill Gates blush, an individual upgrade is a mere $29 and a five-user upgrade pack is $49.

Nikon’s VP650 point-and-shoot camera was tipped for launch in September on Monday. The slick camera is the first to integrate a projector into the feature list to allow easy sharing of photos with friends without having to crowd around the screen. Amazon added the Palm Pre to its online catalog Monday at the same $199.99 price everyone else is offering the device for.

OCZ’s massive 1TB SSD appropriately called the Colossus had pricing and availability released, the bad news is the SSD will sell for $2,500! WildCharge unveiled its oh so desirable wire-free charging system for the iPhone this week and me want. The catch is that you have to remove the phone from the included case to sync.

Hardware geeks were thrilled this week when Intel’s new Core i9 32nm six-core beast of a CPU was caught in the wild. The CPU is an engineering sample and said to run at 2.4GHz. An app for the Pre surfaced this week that does something sure to make Sprint mad. The app lets users tether the Pre for use as a 3G USB router. Who knows how long it will last before Sprint sues the maker into oblivion, so get the app fast.

Rumors cropped up on Tuesday that have Intel and Dell releasing a tablet that requires a subscription to battle the Kindle. The tablet will reportedly be given free to users who sign up for one or more subscriptions, presumably to digital magazines and newspapers. Logitech released a USB transceiver this week that will work with up to six different peripherals at the same time. The littleUnifying USB receiver sticks out of the port only 8mm and will let you move from work to home without having to plug in a new wireless receiver for your mouse and keyboard.

Android smartphone users got their own Amazon app this week that lets them take pics of things like CDs, DVDs and barcodes and find out how much they can buy the same product for from Amazon. Those rumors about a slim PS3 just won’t die. They resurfaced again this week after the 80GB PS3 was killed off in Japan as evidenced by a leaked letter that final 80GB PS3 orders had to be place before Sunday August 9. The model is expected to be replaced by the 80GB PS3 slim.

Images of that sexy Zune HD that we have been hearing about have surfaced that show a sexy device that looks a lot like the original iPhone with a few more angles to me. Apparently, the device will come in black and silver colors. BFG unveiled some hot NVIDIA GTX 295 and 285 video cards this week that have self-contained liquid cooling units built in. Knowing BFG that will mean that the cards are overclocked significantly compared to stock cards. Expect the cards to be expensive though.

more fuel was thrown on the Apple tablet rumor fire this week when a listing for a device called iProd was unearthed in the code for the iPhone OS 3.1 beta. Speculation has the iProd as the tablet that was rumored again this week. Earlier in the week some leaked photos of the Zune HD surfaced and then on Wednesday CNET got hands on with the sexy device. This is the first Zune that looked like something a technophile would actually want to own.

If you are the sort who has a lot of Apple products like iPods and iPhone lying around, the dock for you showed up Wednesday called the Parat Parasync. The device is capable of synching 20 different dockable Apple products at one time. The much anticipated T-Mobile myTouch 3G went on sale Wednesday for $199.99 to replace the G1 as the top-of-the-line Android smartphone on the T-Mobile network.

Sprint announced new 3G and 4G wireless routers this week that allow up to four or more users to access a WiMax connection or a 3G connection at one time. The devices create mobile Wi-Fi hotspots. Toshiba says that it will be ready to launch its first fuel cell in the next two months. I have been waiting for fuel cells to be available for a while that are refillable and can power my notebook.

A screen shot from Rogers Wireless was leaked this week that shows the 8GB iPhone 3G will be replaced by an 8GB iPhone 3GS. The rub is that the screen shot shows that stores are expected to use all the 3G iPhones before selling the 8GB 3GS. WildCharge unveiled a very strange wired, wireless charging system called the PowerDisc. You have to plug the PowerDisc into your device with a cable and then the PowerDisc charges from the WildCharge pad.

Sony has unveiled a new and odd three-legged tripod device called the Party-shot that uses face detection and 360-degree panning capability to snap pictures of people at your parties without having to carry the camera with you. The upside is that you have an extra hand free to carry more beer if you use this thing. Sony detailed its Memory Stick XC with a whopping 2TB of storage this week. What happened to the Sony getting away from proprietary formats thing?

Samsung unveiled an eco-friendly phone made from bio-plastic on Thursday appropriately called the Reclaim. The device isn’t a smartphone, but it sports a full QWERTY keyboard and is only $49.99 after rebates. Hitachi reveled its highest capacity and fastest hard drive ever with 2TB of storage and 7200 rpm speed called the Deskstar 7K2000. Strangely, the company has 500GB platters, but the drive uses five platters instead of four.

Microsoft unveiled a prototype keyboard Friday that uses pressure sensitive technology that is sure to force us all to learn to type again. The idea is that different amounts of pressure on keys would activate caps, lower case letters, or alternate characters. I can only imagine the illegible text that would result from my use of such a keyboard. The Chimera Killer Special Edition gaming desktop broke cover this week with some very nice specs at reasonable prices. If you have the money to buy a gaming machine right now, this is a machine worth considering.

One of the things I always take with me if I am working from a netbook is a mouse. I hate track pads and especially hate them on netbooks where they are so close to the keyboard. Newton unveiled its thin Mogo Mouse for Netbooks that comes with its own dock for sticking to the outside of a netbook allowing you to always have a mouse with you. The svelte Acer Aspire Timeline 1810T was sighted in the wild this week. The Timeline notebook is one of the latest CULV ultraportables around and should post some nice battery life figures.

We also had another Apple tablet rumor pop up Friday. An analyst claims that Apple could sell $1.2 billion worth of its tablet machines in only a year. That’s assuming the new batch of rumors that the machine is coming turn out to be true.

There you have it, another week down and another week in review completed for your enjoyment. See you next week!