The drive will be a part of Western Digital’s Blue series of hard drives, and the 5mm drive is able to be so thin because of a tiny edge connector that combines both power and the SATA transfer interface, which leaves more room for the hardware to do its thing. Although, with its 5mm form factor, everything is squeezed in there rather tightly.

This marks the return of Western Digital back into the full production process. After the 2011 tsunami and earthquake over in Asia, Western Digital and other component manufacturers suffered setbacks and were unable to produce hard drives temporarily. However, the company got back on track last year, and took over the top spot in the hard drive market with $4.8 billion in revenue and 71 million hard drives produced during Q4 2012.

While the UltraSlim is definitely something to admire, this isn’t the first 5mm drive we’ve seen. A*STAR unveiled their own 5mm hybrid drive last year, and it packs in a whole 1TB of storage. Then again, the company has yet to ship the new drive, so Western Digital is certainly the first out of the gate it seems.

On the other hand, the SSD uses very fast flash storage allowing for incredibly quick access speeds, but the typical SSD has low storage capacity. SSDs also tend to be very expensive. Western Digital has announced that it has made a significant investment in a solid-state storage company called Skyera.

Western Digital has announced that it has participated in Skyera’s recently announced Series B round of financing. Western Digital Capital co-invested in the $51 million round of funding as an extension of the strategic relationship between the two companies. Western Digital had previously invested money with Skyera as an initial outside investor.

Skyera CEO Radoslav Danilak says that the new round of investment backed by Western Digital will help the company to expand its business across marketing, sales, and engineering. Skyera produces a line of enterprise solid-state storage systems in the skyHawk series. The company’s solid-state storage systems have what Western Digital calls an industry breakthrough price point of under three dollars per gigabyte. The low price of the systems allows the latest generation 19/20nm solid-state technology to be used as a direct replacement for traditional enterprise hard drive systems.

[via WDC]

On the web side, there’s support for YouTube, Netflix, Hulu Plus, SlingPlayer, VUDU, Pandora, and Spotify content, in addition to Facebook access. It’s navigable both via the bundled remote – which has pre-programmed shortcut buttons to popular services – and by the free iOS and Android remote apps, a single installation of which can control multiple WD TV Play boxes on the network.

Up to 1080p Full HD output is supported, and there’s both WiFi b/g/n and wired ethernet for getting online. Ports include HDMI and an optical digital audio output, plus an analog A/V output which, with the supplied composite cable, can get older TVs up and running.

You can even load in your favorite RSS feeds, and have those on-screen so that you can keep up to date with news. The WD TV Play is on sale from today, priced at $69.99.

Western Digital‘s fiscal Q2 results show the company pulled in $3.8 billion in revenue during the quarter, and Belkin announced that it will buy up Cisco’s home networking business. The Huawei Ascend P2 was featured in a leaked press shot today, and Logitech made it clear that it isn’t leaving the PC gaming business. Namco Bandai explained the reason some pre-orders of the Ni No Kuni Wizard’s Edition are being canceled or delayed, while Deep Silver offered up nine minutes of gameplay footage from Dead Island: Riptide.

Acer has introduced the world to its new Liquid E1 Android smartphone, and Wolfram Alpha announced a number of new upgrades to its Facebook analytics tools. Vine arrived on Twitter today, bringing six-second videos to the masses, and Internet Explorer is targeting the children of the ’90s in a new ad. Apple held a town hall meeting with employees after its financial report yesterday, and AT&T announced the end to this week’s U-Verse issues. THQ president Jason Rubin revealed that the remaining THQ IP will be sold off in a separate process, while a French court has ordered Twitter to identify racist users.

We got our first look at JOBS today, with Temple Run 2 arriving on Android after a week of exclusivity on iOS. Lenovo might be looking to buy RIM in an effort to bolster its mobile offerings, and Sony has been fined for the PlayStation Network breach two years after the fact. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 showed up in the wild earlier today, and Intel announced plans to open up a $4 billion plant in Ireland. Nokia issued its Q4 2012 results today while revealing that Symbian is going the way of the dinosaurs in the same report. Finally tonight, we have a review of Vine for you to read through, and Chris Burns goes hands-on with GeForce Experience, unboxes the Samsung ATIV Odyssey, and tells us why Apple may shake things up in 2013. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night folks!

The problem for the hard drive industry has been the fact that sales of computers have been on the decline. The hard drive industry is very closely tied to the fortunes of the PC industry so when the PC industry is down, typically the hard drive industry is down as well. One of the biggest hard drive makers in the industry is Western Digital and the company announced its Q2 financials this week.

Western Digital reported revenue of $3.8 billion on hard drive shipments totaling 59.2 million for the quarter. Net income for the quarter was $335 million, working out to $1.36 per share for fiscal Q2. Net income for the hard drive maker was $513 million working up to $2.09 per share. That is a significant improvement from the same quarter a year ago when the company reported revenues of $2 billion, with net income of $145 million working out to only $.61 per share. In the same quarter of last year, the company shipped only 28.5 million hard drives.

Western Digital notes that it generated $772 million in cash from operations during its December quarter and ended with total cash and cash equivalents $3.8 billion. The company also used $146 million to buy back 4.2 million shares of its common stock. It looks like things are turning around for Western Digital after a difficult 2012.

“We are pleased with our December quarter results, reflecting outstanding execution and value creation by our HGST and WD® teams,” said Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer. “In an environment marked by continued macroeconomic uncertainty, soft PC demand and inventory rebalancing by our customers, we continue to manage our business by focusing on those variables that we control, allowing us to generate better than expected revenue and profitability and strong cash generation.”

[via Western Digital]

The new Black 4TB HDD is a 3.5-inch drive, clocking in at 7200rpms, with 64MB of cache and 6GB/s, as well as dual-processors and dual actuator tech. Other Black drives in the series are available in 500GB, 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB capacities, as well as the new high-capacity drive. Each one offers a SATA interface,

While the WD Black is a nice hard drive depending on your needs, nothing about it particularly stands out as unique. It is, perhaps, overshadowed by the more popular HDDs in WD’s catalog, including the VelociRaptor, which reaches a highly-impressive 10,000 rpms. Also in the works is the recently-announced helium-filled drive, which is supposed to reduce friction while increasing capacity.

The Black line of hard drives are tested and recommended for PC computers, including high-performance systems; they are not recommended for RAID environments, however. The drives feature WD’s various features, including Stable Trac, which reduces vibration in the motor shaft to improve tracking and performance. In addition, all the drives are put “through extensive Functional Integrity Testing (F.I.T) prior to any product launch. This testing ensures our products consistently meet the highest quality and reliability standards of the WD brand.”

[via PC World]

The AC1300 router has a 3×3 antenna array and can simultaneously run 2.4GHz and 5GHz band networks for up to 450 x + 1300 Mbps rates. It also uses WD’s FasTrack automatic bandwidth prioritization system, which makes sure streaming applications like YouTube and Netflix video, VoIP such as Skype, and online gaming, have a stable connection no matter what other uses your broadband is being put to.

WD also equips the router with four gigabit ethernet ports and two USB 2.0 ports, allowing external storage, printers, or scanners to be hooked up and shared across multiple devices. The My Net AC Bridge, meanwhile, is intended to get wired ethernet devices – such as your smart TV, console, or cable box – online without a cable snaking across your living room, and has four gigabit ethernet ports.

Both WD models are on sale now in the US. The My Net AC1300 router is priced at $189.99, while the My Net AC Bridge is $149.99.

The My Book Studio line is composed of four models: 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, and now 4TB. The drives are enclosed in a “premium aluminum enclosure,” and are a single-drive configuration. All four drives feature WD Security, allowing users to apply a password and 256-bit encryption to keep private data away from peeking eyes. The My Studio Line “works seamlessly” with Apple Time Machine.

WD’s Executive Vice President and General Manager Jim Welsh offered this statement. “WD’s My Book Studio with USB 3.0 delivers extreme transfer speeds while maintaining the standard USB and FireWire connections computer users prefer. Its large capacity, combined with a premium aluminum enclosure, hardware-based encryption, and compatibility with Apple Time Machine, provide Mac users with a fast, secure and complete system for preserving their valuable content.”

Each My Book Studio model includes a 3 year limited warranty. The first 1TB model is priced at $159.99, the 2TB model is priced at $189.99, the 3TB model is priced at $239.99, and the 4TB model is priced at $299.99. For those who need it, the line will also be available with USB 2.0 instead of the updated 3.0, as well as FireWire 800.

The Wi-Fi Range Extender features a 3 x 3 multiple input multiple output antenna array design. According to Western Digital, most competing products use a smaller 2 x 2 design antenna. By using a 3 x 3 MIMO antenna, Western Digital is able to extend the Wi-Fi signal further than other products. The device is designed to support bandwidth intense activities such as streaming video, online gaming, and video calls.

The range extender promises to be easy to install requiring only a two-step process with no CD or software needed. The device supports Wi-Fi Protected Set up to connect the extender to the existing home network with a single button press. The device has Wi-Fi signal strength indicator lights on the front and a gigabit Ethernet port for devices that don’t have Wi-Fi built in.

The device has a switch on the front allowing you to choose support for 5 GHz or 2.4 GHz networks. Western Digital says that the range extender is compatible with all Wi-Fi certified routers and gateways as well as all Wi-Fi standards from 802.11a to 802.11ac. The My Net Wi-Fi Range Extender is available now for $89.99.

Although the internal hardware of both models is roughly identical, there are some slight differences to design, packaging and bundled apps. The My Passport Edge for Mac has an all-aluminum housing to match Apple’s notebooks, and is Time Machine compatible for easier backups.

In contrast, the My Passport Edge for PC users looks slightly different, and comes with WD SmartWare auto-backup software. Both have 500GB drives inside, and are bus-powered so you won’t need to drag around a separate power adapter.

Unfortunately, the extra glitz for the Mac model means it’s slightly more expensive. The WD My Passport Edge for Mac comes in at $119.99, while the PC version is $10 cheaper.

This new MyBook from Western Digital uses two blazing fast 1TB 10,000 RPM VelociRaptor drives in a RAID configuration to bring you some top notch speeds, and tons of storage. I want one already! Toss in the new Thunderbolt standard to help you achieve top read/write and in/out speeds and you’ll be cruising along in no time.

The new WD storage device offers speeds topping 400MB/sec and both RAID 0 and RAID 1 configurations. That is near SSD performance only you’re getting 2TB of space instead of say 512GB. What is the price your wondering? This impressive new MyBook isn’t cheap with those speeds and performance. It will run you a pretty penny of about $900. All that precious HD video now has a fast, safe, and easy to access storage option.

WD details that the new VelociRapter Duo comes with dual Thunderbolt ports so you can daisy chain should you have a spare $1800 to pick up two. Then as you see above the device is user-serviceable and accessible should the unlikely event of a drive failure. You can easily pop her open and replace a drive. You can even boot your Mac right from this external storage drive. If you’ve got the cash to spend or the need for speed head to WD.com to get started today.

[via ZDNet]

The cheapest models are the My Net N600 and My Net N750, both with FasTrack accelerated HD streaming using bandwidth priority to optimize gaming and video content, along with IPv6 and DLNA support. The N600 has four 10/100 ethernet ports and a single USB, while the N750 steps up to gigabit ethernet and doubles the USB connections.

Next up is the My Net N900, which has seven gigabit ethernet ports, two USB ports and range-extended amplified antennas. There’s also FasTrack Plus, with “intelligent, real-time traffic prioritization for simultaneous HD and 3D media streaming and online gaming.”

Finally, the My Net N900 Central includes an integrated hard-drive – either 1TB or 2TB – and four gigabit ethernet ports, FasTrack Plus, and a single USB port. It can also be used for remote data access when you’re outside of the home network, via the WD2go site or using apps for iOS and Android. The My Net Switch, meanwhile, is an 8-port gigabit home entertainment switch.

All but the My Net N900 Central will go on sale today, with the hard-drive toting version arriving next quarter.

The hard drive can hit extremely high read and write rates thanks to the combination of RPM, the SATA 6Gbit/s interface, and a 64MB cache. Western Digital are targeting the drive at servers and enterprise users, as well as those more strenuous tasks such as video editing. Western Digital believe the VelociRaptor is a better alternative for those tasks due to write limitations with NAND memory.

The VelociRaptor will be available in three different sizes: 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB. While the drives are 2.5-inches, they’ll come in a 3.5-inch enclosure which Western Digital dub the IcePack. It features a built-in heatsink designed to keep the hard drive cool.  The 250GB model will cost $159.99, the 500GB model will come in at $209.99, while the 1TB model will set you back $319.99. All the drives come with a five-year limited warranty and should be shipping right now.

The company has managed to squeeze 500GB onto a single platter, helping to reduce thickness, but also reducing noise. The drive also has shock resistance up to 400Gs, but we recommend you don’t test that out yourself. The drive is primarily designed to be used in ultrabooks, although Western Digital has chosen to make the drive available as an aftermarket part as well.

While we imagine most customers will want a solid state drive in their ultrabooks, this new drive gives OEMs flexibility if they favor hard drive space over speed. It’s bound to be cheaper too. It wouldn’t just benefit ultrabooks, either: there are a few ultraportable laptops on the market that only take 7mm drives, such as the Lenovo X130e.

The Westen Digital Scorpio Blue will ship in 320GB and 500GB models, costing $80 and $100 respectively. Both should be shipping today.

[via Electronista]

The My Passport Studio drive features a 15mm 5400 RPM hard drive inside and its 2TB storage capacity is enough for about 400,000 photos, 240 hours of video or 500,000 songs. The drive is bus-powered, freeing it from the need of an additional power cable, and its two FireWire 800 ports allow for daisy-chaining hard drives.

Its huge capacity and portability is perfect for photography and video professionals that need a convenient backup solution for both in studio and on location. The minimalist all-metal casing of the My Passport Studio also aesthetically complements any Mac setup. The drive is available now priced at $299.99.

[via MarketWatch]

The fun doesn’t stop there: you get to pick which color you’d like to house your backup of the complete Justin Bieber discography. You have a selection of white, black, silver, blue, and red. Additionally, Western Digital have improved the chassis to make it more resistant to scratches and fingerprints.

Raw capacity isn’t the only thing that Western Digital are hoping to entice you with. They also two additional features on board: WD SmartWare, an automatic backup software solution, and WD Security, which will password protect and encrypt the hard drive’s contents.

The updated My Passport line is available right now from the Western Digital store. Prices start from $129.99 for the 500GB version, although if you’re looking to spring for the 2TB version, you’ll have to throw down $249.99 for the privilege. All drives come with a two-year warranty.

Whichever mode you decide to use, Western Digital say that full Thunderbolt speeds of 10Gbit/s are supported. You’ll be limited to the speed of the hard drives inside the casing, of course, although there will still be a speed boost over the standard USB 2.0 models, especially if you’re using the RAID 0 mode.

Western Digital have also included two Thunderbolt ports on the Duo so that you can daisy chain up to six products together, handy if you’re amassing a large amount of storage for archival purposes. Good news for Mac users too: the Thunderbolt Duo is Time Machine compatible.

The Thunderbolt Duo will come in two flavours, 4TB and 6TB, although all that storage and speed comes at a price. The 4TB version will set you back $599.99, while the 6TB model will cost $699.99. Still interested? Head on over to the Western Digital online store to order them.

Western Digital purchased Hitachi for $4.5 billion last year, and in order for that acquisition to be finalized, the FTC are requiring that Western Digital sell off assets used to make its hard drives to Toshiba. Those assets will allow Toshiba to compete in the 3.5” desktop hard drive market, and prevent a duopoly with Western Digital and Seagate at the helm.

The FTC ruled that the original terms of the acquisition were anti-competitive. The steps it has taken against Western Digital will ensure that Toshiba can provide competition, allowing them access to research and development employees, as well as the resources necessary to take Hitachi’s place in the market.

Western Digital have 15 days to sell the necessary assets to Toshiba once the deal with Hitachi has closed. At the time they announced the move to purchase Hitachi, they had around 31% of the market, followed by Seagate with 29%, with Hitachi coming in at 18%.

Toshiba is also taking over Western Digital’s near-line storage for server applications. Western Digital on the other hand will acquire Toshiba Storage Device Co Limited, which is Toshiba’s wholly-owned HDD manufacturing subsidiary located in Thailand. That includes the principal assets, physical property, facilities, and workers. Operations at that facility are primarily for 2.5-inch HDD’s used in laptops. This particular facility is currently not in operation due to the flooding inside Thailand.

The deal is incomplete at this point and requires regulatory approvals before it finishes. Both companies expect the deal to be approved and finalized by the end of March. It’s interesting that Western Digital is buying a facility that is still closed due to flooding. I wonder if the facility has any damage and if that will affect the transaction at all.

“The purchase of part of Western Digital’s 3.5-inch HDD manufacturing equipment and with it the capability to produce 3.5-inch HDDs for desktop PCs, DVR and other consumer applications will expand Toshiba’s portfolio and enable the company to supply products covering all segments of the HDD market,” Toshiba said in a statement.

[via CNET]

WD says that it is working with its suppliers to maximize its current throughput and parts availability to meet the demands of customers. WD notes that in the quarter that ended on July 1 2011 it shipped 54 million HDDs from facilities located in Thailand and Malaysia. The facilities in Thailand were responsible for 60% of that amount.

WD reports that the flooding is affecting the regions infrastructure including transportation and utilities and this has resulted in the inundation of some facilities and employee homes. The company does note that 37,000 of its workers in that area have been deemed safe. The facilities in Thailand are operational, but production has been suspended to protect workers and the facility from water. Updates will be offered on the investment call to be held October 19.

You’ll also be able to recommend tracks to your friends by sending them directly to their inbox. The integration is the latest move in Spotify’s push for growth, with the streaming music service announcing that it had partnered with Facebook for its sharing system. The deal also meant Spotify access in the US was no longer dependent on an invitation, though you’ll need a paid subscription if you want access on your Western Digital hardware.

The Western Digital WD TV Live is priced at $99.99, while the WD TV Live Hub is $199.99. A premium subscription to Spotify is priced at $9.99 per month in the US, £9.99 in the UK, and €9.99 in Europe.

The compact My Passport for Macs no non-sense portable hard drives are available in 500GB, 750GB, and 1TB capacities and priced from $100 to $130. Each model comes with USB 2.0 connector ports, password protection, hardware encryption and Time Machine backup.

The My Passport Studio drives come in 750GB and 1TB capacities priced at $160 and $180, respectively. These are more advanced, featuring a more durable metal enclosure and two FireWire 800 connector ports in addition to USB 2.0.

[via Cult of Mac]

There are smaller and cheaper versions offered. Today WD has announced a new app that will allow iPhone and Android users to remotely access their files and content on the go. The app is called WD 2go and WD 2go Pro. The apps are the same with the exception that the Pro version allows you to share nay content on your drive with another person.

The basic WD 2go app allows only you to access the files on your remote cloud drive. The basic app is free on the Android Market and iTunes right now. The Pro version sells for $2.99. The Pro version also has a 4-digit pass code that locks the sharing of files. Sharing of content like documents, photos, and video using the Pro app is done via a link that can be emailed to other users.

[via Android Community]

The new Portuguese-language version of Netflix is in Brazil right now for BR$14.99 monthly. This week the Spanish language version or Netflix will hit Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay with the price in Argentina at 39 pesos and Uruguay and Paraguay will cost $7.99 monthly. On September 8, Chile will get Netflix at 3790 pesos monthly with Bolivia getting it for $7.99 USD monthly. Later in the week, the service will hit the Andean region and Columbia as well as Venezuela, Peru, and Ecuador.

Next week the service will land in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Western Digital has also announced that its WD TV Live Media Player now supports Netflix in Brazil allowing the user to access the streaming content and more. The price for the device in Brazil is R$499.

The exact definition for what comprises “server grade” isn’t clear, though it’s generally acknowledged to include a MTBF (mean time between failures) in excess of 1m hours. Unfortunately, Western Digital doesn’t quote MTBF figures for its regular consumer desktop drives, into which category the WD20EARS HDD Apple has used falls, and the company’s press team couldn’t give us a figure. What they did say was that there are specific feature sets for the server market that enterprise-class drives are geared for, and that the requirements needed between desktop- and enterprise-class drivers are definitely different.

Where that leaves the Apple Time Capsule is uncertain. This isn’t a new issue: the original Time Capsule claimed “server grade” drives but used models from Hitachi’s Deskstar range. At the time, Apple said that the HDDs were the same 7,200rpm models as used in the Xserve servers, with a higher (but unspecified) MTBF.

Any single-drive solution is always going to be less safe than a RAID array with multi-drive redundancy, so a Time Capsule shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all of your backup strategy. Still, we’d like to see more accurate figures for how long the drive inside is expected to last; 3TB certainly implies that buyers will be using it for some time.

The obvious omission is Intel Thunderbolt, with Western Digital missing the opportunity to get the first Thunderbolt-toting external drive on the market (and thus make some 2011 MacBook Pro owners very happy). Still, you do get Time Machine compatibility, and WD throw in some backup software in the box as well.

Interestingly, whereas opening up many external drives will instantly see your warranty evaporate, WD is happy for owners to swap out the internal storage on their own. The Western Digital My Book Studio Edition II 6TB is available now, priced at $549.99.

Press Release:

WD Introduces 6 TB External Hard Drive to Support Increased HD Content Creation by Creative Pros and Mac® Enthusiasts

New My Book® Studio Edition™ II Offers FireWire® Performance and Huge Storage Capacity for Today’s HD Content Productions

IRVINE, Calif., March 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Western Digital® (NYSE: WDC), the world’s leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its My Book® Studio Edition™ II dual-drive storage system with a massive 6 terabytes (TB) of storage to meet the capacity needs of today’s creative pros and Mac® enthusiasts who create, store, edit and archive large HD video and photo files. The new capacity provides users 33 percent more storage than the previous capacity, while maintaining the same footprint.
Combining its extended 6 TB storage capacity and compatibility with Apple® Time Machine®, the new My Book Studio Edition II drive becomes an instant storage solution for a variety of professions including art and design, photography, legal and medical, and a host of other small businesses.
The system offers a quad interface providing maximum performance and flexibility including eSATA and FireWire® 800 when maximum performance is essential, and FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 when system flexibility is most important.
“Thanks to advancements in HD video devices including digital SLR cameras and HD video cameras, the quality and quantity of video content being produced by professionals and enthusiasts alike has grown at an astounding pace,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group. “The My Book Studio Edition II drive now available with 6 TB of storage provides creative individuals with the expanded storage and bandwidth they need to effectively shoot, edit, and safely store their video productions without the need to compress their videos or reduce the overall quality of them for the sake of available space.”
Extra-fast Performance and RAID Supported Configurations
Fast eSATA or FireWire 800 interfaces, combined with RAID-supported configurations, will yield the speed and responsiveness users need for a variety of tasks including fast, smooth video editing; rendering complex 3D objects or special effects, and saving/transferring enormous blocks of data in a fraction of the time it once took.
Formatted for Mac computers(1), these new storage systems feature:
Massive 6 TB capacity;
Extra-fast performance with four interfaces (FireWire 800/400, eSATA, USB 2.0);
Cool, eco-friendly operation with WD’s drives with WD GreenPower Technology that consume approximately one-third less power than standard dual-drive external storage systems and efficient convection cooling architecture and power-saving mode and designed without a fan to run quietly;
Automatic and continuous backup software;
User serviceability, enabling the user to open the enclosure and replace the drive inside;
Capacity gauge to see at a glance how much space is available on the system; and,
5-year limited warranty.

Pricing and Availability
My Book Studio Edition II dual-drive storage systems are available now at WD’s online store (www.wdstore.com). MSRP for the My Book Studio Edition II 6 TB drive is $549.99 USD.

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.

Developed as Light Peak, Intel Thunderbolt consists of a bi-directional, dual-channel 10 Gbps pipe using electrical or optical cables. Compatible with existing DisplayPort devices out of the box, it’s dual protocol – with DisplayPort and PCI Express – and allows for daisy-chaining and bus-power.

What makes the daisy-chaining special is that, thanks to the dual-channel technology, the first device still gets 10 Gbps to play with even if you then plug in a second device off the back of it. Up to six can be linked up from a single port, and with simple adapters a Thunderbolt connection can be turned into HDMI, VGA, DVI, gigabit ethernet, FireWire or USB.

We already know that Promise is readying the Pegasus RAID and LaCie a new Little Big Disk, both using Thunderbolt, and more should be announced any time now. Apple’s new MacBook Pro notebooks will go on sale today.

Press Release:

Intel Announces Thunderbolt™ Technology: The Fastest Data Connection to Your PC Just Arrived

Blazingly Fast Data Transfer Combines with HD Display Connectivity to Enable New Usages and Peripheral Devices

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS:

Thunderbolt technology is a new high-speed PC connection technology that runs at 10Gbps.
Thunderbolt technology supports both data and display on a single cable, enabling greater simplicity, flexibility and new and exciting ways to use a PC.
Apple* is the first customer to offer Thunderbolt technology, coming first on its new line of MacBook* Pro laptops.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Intel Corporation today announced the availability of Thunderbolt technology, a new high-speed PC connection technology that brings together high-speed data transfer and high-definition (HD) display on to a single cable. Running at 10Gbps, Thunderbolt technology can transfer a full-length HD movie in less than 30 seconds. This Intel-developed technology is coming to market through a technical collaboration with Apple, and is available first on Apple’s new line of MacBook Pro laptop computers.

“We’re thrilled to collaborate with Intel to bring the groundbreaking Thunderbolt technology to Mac users”
Wait Less. Do More.

The vision for Thunderbolt technology (formerly codenamed “Light Peak”) is to move media faster, simplify connections between devices, and foster new and exciting ways to build and use PCs. Combining high-speed data and HD video connections together onto a single cable is instrumental to achieving that vision. Thunderbolt technology delivers this via two communications methods, or protocols — PCI Express* for data transfer and DisplayPort* for displays. PCI Express has the flexibility to connect to almost any type of device, and DisplayPort can drive greater than 1080p resolution displays and up to eight channels of audio simultaneously. Thunderbolt technology is compatible with existing DisplayPort displays and adapters. All Thunderbolt technology devices share a common connector, and let individuals simply daisy-chain their devices one after another, connected by electrical or optical cables.

Thunderbolt technology is designed to meet the demands of serious HD media creators. For example, videographers can unleash their creativity using high-bandwidth audio and video capture/mixing devices, and get both low latency and highly-accurate time synchronization for real-time processing. At 10Gbps, larger media files are transferred faster so there’s less time spent waiting to watch and edit videos. Data can be backed up and restored quicker, so there’s less waiting for archived content. For mobile PC users, it means having a single connector on their ultra-thin laptop that extends their high-speed media and HD display capabilities at home or in the office. Thunderbolt technology is complementary to other I/O technologies that Intel continues to support.

“Working with HD media is one of the most demanding things people do with their PCs,” said Mooly Eden, general manager, PC Client Group, Intel. “With Thunderbolt technology, Intel has delivered innovative technology to help professionals and consumers work faster and more easily with their growing collection of media content, from music to HD movies. We’ve taken the vision of simple, fast transfer of content between PCs and devices, and made it a reality.”

“We’re thrilled to collaborate with Intel to bring the groundbreaking Thunderbolt technology to Mac users,” said Bob Mansfield, Apple’s senior vice president of Mac Hardware Engineering. “With ultra-fast transfer speeds, support for high-resolution displays and compatibility with existing I/O technologies, Thunderbolt is a breakthrough for the entire industry and we think developers are going to have a blast with it.”

Thunderbolt technology is powered by an Intel controller chip, and uses a small connector suitable for mobile devices that will be included in products supporting the technology. Several innovative companies have announced Thunderbolt technology-based products, or currently plan to support Thunderbolt technology in upcoming products, including Aja*, Apogee*, Avid*, Blackmagic*, LaCie*, Promise*, and Western Digital*. Intel is working with the industry on a range of Thunderbolt technology-enabled products including computers, displays, storage devices, audio/video devices, cameras, docking stations and more.

The S25 was previously available in smaller 147GB and 300GB capacities only. WD is also shipping the RE SAS 3.5-inch HDD to OEMs right now. This storage device spins at 7200rpm and uses the SAS 6Gb/s interface for connectivity. The larger 3.5-inch HDD comes in 1TB and 2TB capacities and is aimed at NAS and other storage uses.

WD offers no pricing information on the new HDDs. “Meeting the demands of our customers and IT professionals in the enterprise market is the primary driver of our long-term commitment to SAS drives,” said Darwin Kauffman, WD’s vice president of enterprise storage solutions. “Our focused strategy in the enterprise continues to ensure that customers who have rewarded WD with their preference of WD drives in other application segments receive the same outstanding values of quality, reliability, performance and availability with WD’s SAS drives. It is with that commitment that we are now able to meet a wider set of customer requirements.”

Wester Digital throw a remote control into the box as well, and there’s support for DLNA and UPnP streaming so you should be able to squirt content to the TV Live Hub from your PC, Mac or smartphone.  In fact the only thing missing for your $199.99 is integrated WiFi, though the company will happily sell you a WiFi dongle.

The team over at DesktopReview has been putting the WD TV Live Hub through its paces, and they seem more than impressed, particularly given a WD 1TB standalone drive on its own is around $129.99.  They criticize the absence of third-party apps but generally can’t fault it; however, they also say that Western Digital has been making suspicious noises over Google TV, and while the company won’t confirm they have such a box in the works, that’s certainly what it sounds like.

[Thanks Kevin!]

Press Release:

WD’S NEW HD MEDIA CENTER STREAMS POPULAR MOVIES AND THE BROADEST RANGE OF PERSONAL CONTENT

WD TV® Live Hub™ Media Center With 1 TB Storage Allows Users to Centralize Video, Music and Photos and Play Full-HD 1080p Video on HD TVs Throughout the Home

LAKE FOREST, Calif. – Oct. 26., 2010 – Western Digital® (NYSE: WDC), the world’s leader in external storage solutions and maker of the popular WD TV media player family, today introduced the WD TV® Live Hub™ media center (photo), a Full-HD 1080p media player with a 1 terabyte (TB) built-in network hard drive that gives users the freedom to play all their personal media on any screen in the home. The WD TV Live Hub media center brings new experiences to the WD TV family, including instantly renting or purchasing the newest releases through the Blockbuster On Demand® service, the same day as DVD/Blu-ray release, as well as interacting with personal Facebook® communities. In the U.S., the WD TV Live Hub media center is initially available exclusively at Best Buy online and at all 1,093 Best Buy stores nationwide.

The WD TV Live Hub media center plays a wide variety of media file types, including popular Full-HD 1080p video formats such as .mkv, .mp4 and .mov. The integrated, compact and quiet 1 TB hard drive enables users to centralize their digital media from multiple sources for smooth, glitch-free playback of even the highest resolution videos. Digital media can be easily transferred to the internal drive from shared folders on PCs and Mac®s on the network or directly from external hard drives, thumb drives, camcorders or cameras connected via one of the two USB ports. Users also can stream videos from home network drives with a DLNA/UPnP™ server such as the recently announced My Book® Live™ home network drive.

The WD TV Live Hub media center also is a media server: HD video, music and photos can be streamed from the onboard hard drive to any DLNA/UPnP-compatible TV or multimedia device, anywhere in the connected home, including the WD TV Live Plus HD media player, connected TVs, Blu-ray Disc™ players, Xbox 360®, and PlayStation® 3 game consoles. Users also can stream content from their WD TV Live Hub media center to iPads™, iPhones® or Android™ smartphones using third-party applications.

The WD TV Live Hub media center offers unique Facebook integration, which lets users upload photos and videos, share their status, view their wall and get the latest newsfeed from their network of friends – all on the big screen TV. In addition, the WD TV Live Hub media center provides viewing of Netflix® for movie streaming, YouTube™ for user-generated videos and Flickr® for photo sharing, as well as listening to Pandora®, a personalized Internet radio service. Additional content includes local and international weather forecasts from AccuWeather.com®, and MediaFly® daily video podcasts from CNN®, NBC®, MTV® and ESPN®.

The customizable WD TV Live Hub media center’s user interface enables personalization of screen backgrounds and user interface themes, as well as setting of favorites and content ratings. Standard wired or wireless USB keyboards can be used for simpler text input for activities such as searches of local content and YouTube and Facebook interaction.

“The WD TV Live Hub media center lets users create a personalized media jukebox that brings your entire personal content collection and the best of Internet content to the biggest screen in the house,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group. “With the WD TV Live Hub media center, consumers can take their home entertainment experience to the next level, streaming personal content to multiple rooms at the same time, so they can play a Netflix video on their HDTV screen in the family room, while sharing vacation slideshows on the computer in their home office.”

“People are looking for a versatile, easy-to-use media player that gives them a smooth streaming experience regardless of where they are in the home and whether they’re viewing Internet content or personal media content. That’s exactly what the WD TV Live Hub media center delivers,” said Frank Bedo, merchandise director in computing at Best Buy®. “We are excited to collaborate with WD on this innovative entertainment product.”

“Connected media players are an exciting new category that is helping to redefine home entertainment,” said Wendy Fritz, senior vice president, computing, at Best Buy. “The WD TV media player series’ broad ability with personal content has made it a leading seller. Add to that the premium content services, and the new WD TV Live Hub media center is bringing a whole new dimension to home entertainment.”

Other key features of the WD TV Live Hub media center include:

Compatibility with virtually all TV sets thanks to an HDMI 1.4, composite video and component video output;
Automatic sync of shared digital media folders from PCs and Macs on the network with the internal hard drive to provide easy playback of new content;
Customizable user interface and programmable remote;
Ultra-compact design that easily fits into almost any entertainment center;
Two USB ports that allow seamless media playback from USB drives, camcorders and digital cameras;
WiFi-readiness (with adapter); and,
A 1-year limited warranty in PanAm.

The full set of features and list of file compatibility is available on WD’s website.

Capacity and Compatibility
The WD TV Live Hub media center is available in 1 TB storage capacity and supports a large variety of the most popular file formats, including HD camcorder video formats. It is also compatible with Windows® 7, including the Windows 7 Play To feature, and any DLNA/UPnP-enabled device.

Price and Availability
The WD TV Live Hub media center is available worldwide (Netflix, Blockbuster and Pandora services are available only in the U.S.) and can be purchased in the U.S. exclusively at Best Buy and online at wdstore.com. MSRP for the WD TV Live Hub media center is $199.99 USD.

The new 3TB hard drive is the world’s largest capacity SATA hard drive to date. It is also the latest edition to WD’s Caviar Green lineage of SATA hard drives. As the title suggests, you can get the new hard drive at a maximum capacity of 3TB, which is equal to about 3,000GB. WD managed to wrangle up the ridiculous amount of space by placing 750GB of storage per-patter, along with Advanced Format (AF) technology.

The eco-friendly factor comes in the fact that WD’s Caviar Green line-up of drives feature WD GreenPower Technology, which use lower operating temperatures by reducing power consumption. And, while the press release (which you can read below) focuses mainly on the larger 3TB drive, WD is also throwing in a new 2.5TB hard drive as well. You can pick both of them up right now through authorized resellers in the United States. The 2.5TB drive will cost you $189.00, while the 3TB model will run you $239.00.

Press Release

WD® Now Shipping the World’s Largest Capacity SATA Hard Drives

WD Caviar® Green™ 3 TB Hard Drives Support the Continuing Demand for Increased Capacity in External Storage and Advanced PC Applications

LAKE FOREST, Calif., Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ — WD® (NYSE: WDC) today announced that the company is shipping the world’s largest capacity SATA hard drive. As the latest addition to its WD Caviar® Green™ family of SATA hard drives (photo), the new hard drives deliver up to a massive 3 terabytes (TB) of storage capacity on a single drive. WD is leading the industry in capacity for SATA hard drives by utilizing 750 GB-per-platter areal density and Advanced Format (AF) technology.

WD Caviar Green drives are an eco-friendly storage solution with WD GreenPower Technology™, which reduces power consumption by enabling lower operating temperatures for increased reliability and decreases acoustical noise for quiet operation. The WD Caviar Green 2.5 TB and 3 TB hard drives are designed for use as secondary external storage and next-generation PC storage in 64-bit-based systems.

Drives with capacities in excess of 2.19 TB currently present barriers for PC hardware, firmware and software. To satisfy the new set of requirements of which users must be aware to successfully integrate larger capacity drives, WD is bundling its WD Caviar Green 2.5 and 3 TB hard drives with an Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI)-compliant Host Bus Adapter (HBA), which will enable the operating system to use a known driver with correct support for large capacity drives. For more information on solving the 2.19 TB drive barrier, please see the WD information sheet at http://products.wdc.com/largecapacitydrives.

“WD remains a leader of hard drive capacity and low power innovation. With our WD Caviar Green drives, we enable energy-conscious customers to build systems with the highest capacities that deliver the optimal balance of system performance, ensured reliability and energy conservation,” said Jim Morris, executive vice president and general manager of WD’s client systems storage group. “Customers will be able to take advantage of this breakthrough capacity point now for secondary external storage in legacy 32-bit systems that run on Microsoft® Vista® or Windows® 7 platforms.”
Price and Availability

WD Caviar Green 2.5 TB hard drives (model number WD25EZRSDTL) and 3 TB hard drives (model number WD30EZRSDTL) are available now in the U.S. at select resellers and distributors. MSRP for the WD Caviar Green 2.5 TB hard drive is $189.00 USD and the 3 TB hard drive is $239.00 USD. WD Caviar Green hard drives are covered by a three-year limited warranty. More information about WD Caviar Green hard drives may be found on the company’s website at http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=866.

Western Digital has announced a new free photo viewing application for the iPad and the iPhone that works with its line of external storage products like the My Book World Edition, My Book Live, and WD ShareSpace called WD Photos. The app allows the user to access up to 285,000 of their favorite images that are placed in a shared folder.

Those images can be accessed using the app from anywhere that you have a web connection. That would mean that you could show off all those photos you have stored at home while you are at the office or around the world. The app has pinch and zoom functionality, horizontal split view for iPad, and the option to post photos from the app to Facebook. Images for the iPad are viewed in 1024 x 768 resolution.

The most significant update for the three drives comes to the My Book Essential, which now comes in a 3TB capacity along with the previously available 1TB and 2TB capacity drives. The My Passport Essential is the smallest portable drive offered by WD and can be had in up to 500GB and comes in five colors.

The My Passport Essential SE comes in black, silver, red, blue, and white colors with 750GB and 1TB capacities offered. All of the drives also ship with WD SmartWare software for automatic and continuous backups. Pricing is $99.99 for the My Passport Essential, the Essential SE ranges from $129.99 to $169.99 and the My Book Essential is up to $249.99 for the new 3TB offering.

The new kit has all the parts you need to connect up to four of your home theater components or game consoles to the web without needing a wireless connection or new cables. The system uses the powerlines already ran in your home to provide fast 200 Mbps connectivity.

WD says that the connectivity speeds offered are plenty fast for shooting full HD 1080p video around your home. The system includes a pair of four port HomePlug AV adapters, Ethernet and power cables, and a setup guide along with utility software. The four ports allow you to connect four devices to your network at the entertainment center. The kit sells for $139.99 and is available right now.

The new WD Elements Play has been announced and it packs its own internal HDD for storing media directly. The Elements Play device comes with 1TB or 2TB of storage. With that much storage, it’s more like an external hard drive that has connectivity for a TV built-in.

That connectivity is for full 1080p resolution using component and composite connectivity along with USB 2.0. The device measures 1.6″ H x 8.9″ L x 5.9″ W and weighs 2.31 pounds. The device supports DTS 2.0 digital sound and has a HDMI output as well.

As far as options go, you’ll only get one when it comes to the storage department. Only the 500GB model seems ot be getting the aesthetic treatment. And how is any of this possible? Thanks to the students at the California State University, who are part of the Long Beach Industrial Design program. They’ve created some new designs, and Western Digital was nice enough to put them on their products. Choices wise, you’re looking at either the Boom Box, Cityscape, Fuchsia Leaf, Wave, and Black Hole. All of which you can see pictured above.

Features come in all sorts of ways. The My Passport Essential will work with your PC, thanks to WD’s SmartWare software. There’s 256-bit hardware-based encryption and user-selected password protection. Each of the models will cost you a cool $119.99, and it comes with a two-year warranty.

[via UberGizmo]

Western Digital packed a few interesting things into the compact TV Live Plus HD Media Player. At least its’ not the worst looking box accessory you can buy for your TV. The custom User Interface will help guide you through your listings, as you peruse the services like YouTube, Flickr, Pandora, and Live365. You’ll also have access to the MediaFly network, which will bring you podcasts from places like CNN, MTV, and ESPN. Network wise, you’ll be able to hardwire into the box itself, but you’ll also be able to stream what you want to watch courtesy of your very own (or your neighbor’s) WiFi network.

Playback comes in 1080p HD. You’ll be able to playback music, videos, and even photos from your TV Live Plus HD Media Player, so if you ever get bored of watching endless movies, or TV shows, you can pass the time by plugging a USB drive into the box, and looking over your family photos. You can pick up the HD box right now, if you really want to, and it will set you back only $149.99. It’s available only in select retailers, or WD’s website. Interested?

Press Release:

New WD TV(R) Live Plus HD Media Player Delivers Thousands of TV Episodes and Movies for Netflix(R) Members to Watch Instantly

WD TV(R) Live Plus HD Media Player Enables Consumers to Stream Their Favorite Shows and Personal Content Directly To Their Big Screen TV

LAKE FOREST, Calif., June 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world’s leader in external storage solutions, today introduced the WD TV® Live Plus HD media player, which makes it easy for Netflix® members to instantly watch thousands of TV episodes and movies on the biggest screen in their home — their HD television set. The new Netflix interface enables members to browse and add movies to their instant Queue on the Netflix Website right from their TV.

In addition to Netflix, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player also enables users to stream personalized Internet content from YouTube™, Flickr®, Pandora®, Live365™, as well as the MediaFly network which includes daily podcasts from CNN, NBC, MTV, ESPN® and other online content providers(1). Unlike most other Netflix-capable devices, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player also lets consumers enjoy a broad variety of the digital media they already own, creating a unified entertainment experience.

The onscreen menu brings together all of the users’ available media in an elegant and simple-to-navigate interface, while the network capability enables users to stream movies from PC or Mac® computers, USB storage devices such as My Passport® portable hard drives, My Book® desktop drives, or network-attached storage such as WD’s My Book® World Edition™ and WD ShareSpace™ to their HDTVs. Compatible with Windows® 7, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player enables the Windows 7 Play To feature so users can initiate and control the streaming of video, music or photos to the media player and home entertainment systems from any Windows 7-based PC on their network.

The WD TV Live Plus HD media player fulfills consumers’ growing demand for large libraries of digital videos, photos and music. According to research firm Parks Associates, the average broadband household will see its digital media storage needs grow to nearly 900 GB by year-end 2014. And users are increasingly looking for easy ways to enjoy the content on the big screen. Parks’ findings reveal that the sales of connected consumer electronics devices, such as connected TVs and digital media adapters, is expected to more than double from 57 million units in 2009 to 115 million units in 2013 (Home Networks for Consumer Electronics 2009).

Similar to the popular generations of WD TV HD media players that preceded it, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player connects directly to a users’ HDTV and plays almost any file stored on a connected USB drive such as My Passport portable hard drives. The WD TV Live Plus HD media player features powerful media processing, which enables playback in Full-HD 1080p resolution. WD TV Live Plus HD media player also plays movies, music and photos stored on other popular USB devices such as digital camcorders and digital cameras.

“Netflix has become a ‘must have’ for consumer electronics devices,” said Netflix vice president of business development Bill Holmes. “We’re proud to align with WD to include Netflix on WD’s groundbreaking WD TV Live Plus HD media player.”

“While Netflix can be found on an increasing number of products such as Internet TVs, Blu-ray Players, video game consoles, and other stand-alone devices, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player is unique as it allows digital media buffs to access and play all of their own personal HD media stored anywhere on their network or USB drives. At the same time they can easily stream Netflix, Pandora, YouTube and other Internet favorites to their HDTV,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group.

WD TV Live Plus HD Media Player

Features of the WD TV Live Plus HD media player include:

Full-HD 1080p video playback and navigation with the included remote control and crisp, animated navigation menus;
Access to thousands of TV episodes and movies to watch instantly for any Netflix member with an unlimited subscription;
Wireless ready to support wireless network connection to your home network with an optional USB wireless adapter, which is sold separately;
Supports a wide variety of the most popular file formats with no need to spend time transcoding;
Play videos, music and photos from the Internet on your big screen TV and discover new music with Pandora Internet radio or listen to thousands of radio stations via Live365 Internet radio, daily podcasts from the MediaFly network including CNN, NBC, MTV, ESPN and other online content providers;
Ethernet port for wired or WiFi connection(2) to access files anywhere on the network to play movies, music, and photos from any PC or drive on a home network;
Turns a USB drive(3) into an HD media player and plays content from most popular USB drives, digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices;
Unlimited media collection, just add more USB drives for more space;
Two USB ports that allow seamless media playback from multiple USB drives displayed in a single list and sorted by media type;
Windows 7-compatible Play To feature enables users to stream Windows 7 computer files to the TV through WD TV Plus HD media player;
Transfer files by copying, moving or deleting files stored on a USB drive, a network drive, camcorder, or a camera to the attached USB drive using the on-screen menus;
Works with digital cameras, digital video cameras and any other digital imaging device that supports Picture Transfer Protocol;
Advanced navigation options including thumbnail and list views, media library and search;
Photo viewing to create custom slide shows, zoom and pan and search;
Movie viewing with fast-forward, rewind, pause, zoom and pan, view subtitles, and search;
Music playback with fast-forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, repeat and search;
HDMI® 1.3 port, composite video and component video output(4) for the highest quality HDTV or home theater;
SPDIF digital output that sends digital signals to your AV receiver for the best surround sound experience; and,
Ultra-compact design to fit easily into a home entertainment center.

Pricing and Availability

The WD TV Live Plus HD media player is available now at select retailers and online at shopwd.com. Covered by a 1-year limited warranty, the MSRP for WD TV Live Plus HD media player is $149.99 USD.

The new external storage device is the My Book Studio LX. It sports an all-metal enclosure that matches the finish on the MacBook line of notebooks. Connectivity for the drive is via FireWire 800, it has a customizable e-label on the front, and hardware based encryption.

The e-label is always on, can show project names, and lots more information making it easy to tell what’s on the drive if you are using multiple externals. The encryption is 256-bit and the storage device comes in 1TB or 2TB capacities. The drive is available now with the 1TB selling for $199.99 and the 2TB selling for $269.99.

WD reckon likely applications for the new drive – which also has a 450GB sibling – will include blade servers, workstations and rack servers, but a fair few are also likely to find their way into gaming machines.  The Western Digital VelociRaptor 600GB 6 Gb/s SATA HDD should be available later this quarter, priced at $329.

Press Release:

WD(R) Launches Newest WD VelociRaptor(R) – The World’s Fastest SATA Hard Drive Now Has Twice the Capacity

10,000 RPM, 2.5-inch, 600 GB, 6 Gb/s SATA Hard Drive Delivers High Performance and Capacity for Both Enthusiast and Enterprise Customers

LAKE FOREST, Calif., April 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — WD® (NYSE: WDC) announced today that it is now shipping WD VelociRaptor® 450 GB and 600 GB hard drives, the next generation of its 10,000 RPM SATA family of hard drives. The new WD VelociRaptor hard drive is designed for blade servers, high-performance PCs, Mac® computers, professional workstations, as well as 1U and 2U rack servers that require a balance of high performance and capacity. As the only 10,000 RPM SATA hard drive on the market today, and a favorite amongst enthusiast and enterprise groups, the WD VelociRaptor hard drive now comes packed with twice the capacity and up to 15% performance increase over the previous generation.

The most popular hard drive for high-performance enthusiasts who demand the ultimate SATA drive, the WD VelociRaptor hard drive is built with enterprise-class mechanics that provide 24×7 durability under high-performance demands and packs up to 600 GB of capacity into a 2.5-inch enterprise form factor. The WD VelociRaptor drive is also available in the IcePack™ enclosure, a 3.5-inch mounting frame with a built-in heat sink – a factory customization that fits the drive into a standard 3.5-inch system bay and keeps this powerful drive extra cool when installed in a high-performance desktop chassis and 3.5-inch HDD form factor enterprise chassis.

“WD is a leader in the performance and reliability of enterprise SATA hard drives,” said Tom McDorman, vice president and general manager of WD’s enterprise business unit. “Demand for performance combined with an increase in capacity continues to rise and WD is the leader in this category. WD customers can rely on the new WD VelociRaptor to deliver high performance under the harshest conditions, while continuing to keep user data safe.”

Features of the new WD VelociRaptor hard drives include:
Killer speed – SATA 6 Gb/s interface and 32 MB cache enhance the next generation 10,000 RPM WD VelociRaptor making it up to 15% faster than the award-winning previous generation.
Monstrous capacity – WD VelociRaptor SATA drives are available in capacities up to 600 GB, double the capacity of the previous generation.
Rock-solid reliability – Designed and manufactured to mission-critical enterprise-class standards to provide enterprise reliability in high duty cycle environments. With 1.4 million hours MTBF, these drives have the highest available reliability rating on a high capacity SATA drive.
Ultra-cool operation – Consumes no more power than the previous generation WD VelociRaptor while offering double the capacity and higher performance.
IcePack mounting frame – The 2.5-inch WD VelociRaptor is enclosed in a backplane-ready 3.5-inch enterprise-class mounting frame with a built-in heat sink that keeps this powerful little drive extra cool when installed in high-performance desktop chassis.
Rotary Acceleration Feed Forward (RAFF™) –Optimizes operation and performance when the drives are used in vibration-prone, multi-drive chassis.
NoTouch™ ramp load technology – The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection in transit.
Environmentally conscious – In addition to being ROHS compliant, this generation of WD VelociRaptor is also a halogen-free design.

Price and Availability
WD VelociRaptor (model WD4500HLHX and WD6000HLHX – 3.5-inch version with IcePack) hard drives are available now at select distributors and resellers. WD VelociRaptor 2.5-inch hard drives (model WD4500BLHX and WD6000BLHX) are under evaluation with OEM customers and will be available through select commercial distributors within this quarter. Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for the WD VelociRaptor 450 GB (model WD4500HLHX) is $299 USD and the 600 GB (model WD6000HLHX) is $329 USD. More information about WD VelociRaptor hard drives may be found on the company’s Web site at http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=821.

There’s also shock-protection and “SecurePark”, which is used to park the heads more frequently thus reducing the likelihood of impact damage against the platters.  It’s actually a little quieter than the Toshiba drive, when idle at least: 22dBA versus 25dBA.

Shipments of the new Western Digital 2.5-inch 750GB drive have begun now, priced at $149.  We still don’t know how much its Toshiba counterpart will be.

Press Release:

WD® LEADS IN 2.5-INCH AREAL DENSITY WITH NEW 750 GB NOTEBOOK HARD DRIVES

WD Mobile Hard Drives with Advanced Format Technology Offer Highest Capacity For Mainstream Notebook Computers

LAKE FOREST, Calif. – Mar. 30, 2010 – WD® (NYSE: WDC) today announced that it is now shipping 750 GB of storage capacity in a standard-height 2.5-inch notebook hard drive — the industry’s highest capacity to date in this form factor. Designed for mainstream notebook computers, the WD Scorpio® Blue™ 750 GB hard drives utilize WD’s leading 375 GB-per-platter areal density and Advanced Format technology.

An ideal solution for notebook computers and other portable devices whose users require extreme capacities in a small package, extended battery life and cool, reliable operation, the WD Scorpio Blue 750 GB hard drive is also one of the quietest 2.5-inch drives on the market.

“WD continues to lead the market with capacity points that enable consumers and business professionals to store large quantities of data and rich media content,” said Jim Morris, WD’s senior vice president and general manager of Storage Products. “Our leading power efficiency, achieved without compromise to performance, is another example of the added features and value that our customers have come to expect from WD.”

Features of the WD Scorpio Blue include:

Advanced Format technology – Technology being pioneered by WD and adopted by other drive manufacturers to increase media format efficiencies, thus enabling larger drive capacities.
WhisperDrive™ – WD’s exclusive WhisperDrive technology combines state-of-the-art seeking algorithms to yield one of the quietest 2.5-inch hard drives on the market. These algorithms also optimize the way a drive seeks for data, which significantly improves power consumption.
ShockGuard™ – Leading-edge ShockGuard technology protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks.
SecurePark™ – WD’s SecurePark technology parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down, and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface resulting in improved long term reliability due to less head wear, and improved non-operational shock tolerance.
Fast and efficient – Ultra-fast 3 gigabits per second (Gb/s) SATA interface speed yields performance fit for demanding mobile applications.
Tested for compatibility – WD performs extensive tests on hundreds of systems and a multitude of platforms in its FIT Lab™ and Mobile Compatibility Lab to give our customers confidence that our drives will work in their systems.

Price and Availability
WD Scorpio Blue 750 GB (model WD7500BPVT) hard drives are shipping now through select distributors and resellers. Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for the WD Scorpio Blue 750 is $149.00 USD. WD Scorpio Blue hard drives are covered by a three-year limited warranty. More information about WD Scorpio Blue mobile hard drives may be found on the company’s Web site at http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=815.

About WD
WD, one of the storage industry’s pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company designs and produces reliable, high-performance hard drives and solid state drives that keep users’ data accessible and secure from loss. Its advanced technologies are configured into applications for client and enterprise computing, embedded systems and consumer electronics, as well as its own consumer storage and media products.

WD was founded in 1970. The company’s storage products are marketed to leading OEMs, systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital® and WD brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company’s Web site (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.