Western Digital announced today that it has begun to ship its 400GB and 500GB WD Scorpio Blue 2.5-inch notebook hard drives. The two drives feature a 3 Gb/s SATA interface, 5400 RPM rotation speed, 12 ms access time and support for WD's WhisperDrive, ShockGuard and IntelliSeek technologies.

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WD® (NYSE: WDC) today announced that it has commenced volume shipments and OEM qualifications of its WD Scorpio Blue 2.5-inch notebook hard drives with capacities up to 500 GB. Utilizing industry-leading 250 GB-per-platter technology, the new WD Scorpio(R) Blue(TM) 500 GB and 400 GB SATA hard drives are designed for notebook computers and portable storage devices.

WD Scorpio Blue delivers high-performance with a 3 Gb/s transfer rate, while including proprietary features that make the drive extraordinarily quiet, while running at cool operating temperatures. The WD Scorpio Blue 500 GB is the highest capacity 2.5-inch, standard form-factor (9.5mm) hard drive shipping-to-date, and is developed for use in OEM notebook platforms that offer the highest storage capacities to the market.

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Toshiba recently announced its new 240GB 1.8-inch hard disk drive, the MK2431GAH. Developed for consumer electronics and PC devices, this dual-platter drive has an areal density of 344 gigabits per square inch, the highest in the industry. The MK2431GAH also spins at 4,200 RPM and features a 100MB/s parallel ATA interface.

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Toshiba Corporation, the pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), today announced the world's first dual-platter 240GB1) HDD (MK2431GAH). The new drive delivers the highest capacity1) and areal density in the 1.8-inch drive category for integration into portable media players, camcorders and mobile PCs. Toshiba also announced new 120GB (MK1231GAL)  and 80GB  (MK8031GAL)  capacity offerings, rounding out the most complete line of high-capacity 4,200 RPM 1.8-inch HDDs for consumer electronics (CE) and mobile PC system manufacturers.

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Memorex recently announced its new line of portable hard drives. The Essential TravelDrive delivers up to 320GB of capacity and is available in four nature-inspired colors.

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Memorex, the leading brand of optical media at U.S. retail and a portfolio brand of Imation Corp (NYSE: IMN), today introduces the Essential TravelDrive(TM), the latest addition to its award-winning line of portable storage devices. The USB-based product features 2.5-inch hard drive technology, which delivers up to 320 GB of capacity, is available in several vibrant colors and easily fits into a pocketbook or purse.

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Memorex sent out a press release this morning, announcing a 500GB version of its Ultra TravelDrive. This new portable hard drive also sports an ocean and onyx black finish as well as a blue LED that illuminates when it is plugged into a computer's USB port.
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To meet the mobile users' demand for higher capacity portable storage, Memorex, a portfolio brand of Imation Corp. (NYSE: IMN), brings a new look and greater capacity to its award-winning Ultra TravelDrive(TM) line of USB hard drives. The compact, high capacity, ruggedly designed Ultra TravelDrive now delivers up to 500 GB of capacity for significant storage and back up capacity for data, photos, music and video. A cool blue LED light illuminates when the drive is plugged into any computer's USB port and flashes during data transfer, so you always know when the drive is in use.

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Hitachi has announced that it has demonstrated the technical feasibility of magnetic recording at 610 Gbit/in2. While heads and media with an ultra-narrow track pitch of 65nm are still in development, these results indicate that current hard drive capacities can be increased by 2.5x.

Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT / TSE: 6501) and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST), announced today that they have demonstrated the technical feasibility of magnetic recording at 610 Gbit/in2. This considerably exceeds the previously demonstrated capabilities of current perpendicular recording technology found in mass-production hard disk drive (HDD) products. These results hold the potential for a 2.5x increase in the storage capacities of current-generation HDDs.