G-Technology today announced a new line of portable and desktop USB 3.0 storage solutions for a broad range of users from consumers to audio/video professionals. Given the brand's strength in the content creation and Apple Mac® community, G-Technology is well positioned to move the Mac industry forward in leveraging high-capacity, high-performance USB 3.0 drives across a variety of customer segments, all while delivering one of the industry's most respected external storage platforms with proven quality, reliability and performance.

Today, new kinds of devices and media formats require considerably more interface bandwidth and higher transfer rates to move, store and edit data quickly. Backward compatible with USB 2.0, G-Technology's USB 3.0 drives deliver speeds 10 times faster than USB 2.0 and six times faster than FireWire 800. This means that users can now transfer two full-length movies from a G-Technology USB 3.0 drive to a computer in minutes.
Seagate Technology plc today introduced Backup Plus storage devices – its reinvented consumer storage product family that delivers the easiest setup, one-click backup and the ability to save and share your content on Facebook and Flickr.

Seagate Backup Plus hard drives are newly designed external storage that work interchangeably with both Windows® and Apple® computers and deliver new features to protect, share and save nearly every aspect of one’s digital life. These products come loaded with the new hassle-free Seagate Dashboard software for one-click local backup making it easier than ever to eliminate excuses or apprehensions about backing up one’s most valuable digital content. Seagate Backup Plus products are the world’s first external hard drives to provide backup for content on social networks, such as Facebook and Flickr. Storing a local duplicate copy of photos from social networks is now as easy as backing up files on your computer. Seagate Backup Plus will provide the peace of mind that every aspect of one’s digital life is safe from loss.
Seagate Technology, the worldwide leader in hard disk drives and storage solutions, and LaCie S.A., a leading manufacturer of consumer storage products, today announced an exclusive agreement with the intent for Seagate to acquire a controlling interest in LaCie. Seagate has offered to purchase from Philippe Spruch, LaCie’s chairman and CEO, and his affiliate, all of their shares, representing 64.5% of the outstanding shares of LaCie. Following receipt of governmental approvals and the close of this transaction, Seagate would commence an all-cash simplified tender offer (followed as the case may be by a squeeze-out procedure) to acquire the remaining outstanding shares in accordance with the General Regulation of the French Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF).
Seagate has offered Mr. Spruch and his affiliate €4.05 per share in cash, minus a potential adjustment depending on the cash and debt position of LaCie at closing. This price may be increased by a possible price supplement of 3% in the event that the threshold of 95% of the shares and voting rights of LaCie would be reached by Seagate within 6 months following closing, resulting in a maximum potential price per LaCie share of €4.17. Without the price supplement, the offer currently values LaCie at an approximate €146 million, or $186 million total equity value, including acquired net cash of approximately €49 million, or $65 million, as of March 31, 2012. The €4.05 per share price represents a premium of 29% to LaCie’s average closing stock price over the 30 trading days ended May 22, 2012.
HGST (formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and now a Western Digital company) today announced a new family of CinemaStar 2.5-inch hard disk drives (HDDs) for the growing traditional and small form factor audio/video (A/V) and consumer electronics (CE) HDD markets. With continued technological advancements and increased capacities, 2.5-inch hard drives are satisfying the needs of both the traditional 3.5-inch CE market as well as the small form factor market, while allowing OEMs to design smaller, more compact A/V streaming devices.
From slim 7mm z-height 500GB HDDs to high-capacity, 2.5-inch, 9.5mm 1TB HDDs, HGST's new CinemaStar family targets the vast majority of CE capacity needs, while providing the right balance of performance, low power and quiet acoustics for multi-stream digital video recorders (DVRs) and set-top-boxes (STBs). Now in its sixth generation, each CinemaStar drive is fine-tuned with advanced streaming technology to efficiently optimize the 24/7 recording and playback of A/V content.
Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced that its Canvio 3.0 and Canvio Basics 3.0 portable hard drives will now offer consumers up to 1.5 terabytes of storage and Mac compatibility, without the need for reformatting, on a select Canvio 3.0 model. All of these offerings come equipped with USB 3.0 technology for higher data transfer speeds and enable consumers quickly and easily store, transfer and back up their valuable data.

"We understand that consumers have choices when it comes to computing and as a result, have varying storage needs," said Maciek Brzeski, vice president of product marketing and development of branded storage products, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division. "With our newest Canvio 3.0 portable hard drives, consumers can easily swap data between Mac and PC devices, eliminating the hassle of reformatting to work the way they want."
Western Digital Corp. today announced that it has completed its divestiture of certain 3.5-inch hard drive assets to Toshiba Corporation, as required by regulatory agencies that conditionally approved the company's completed acquisition of Viviti Technologies Ltd. (formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies).
The assets will enable Toshiba to manufacture and sell 3.5-inch hard drives for the desktop and consumer electronics markets and will enhance its ability to manufacture and sell 3.5-inch hard drives for near-line (business critical) applications.
As part of its deal with Toshiba, WD also completed its purchase of Toshiba Storage Device (Thailand) Company Limited (TSDT), which manufactured hard drives prior to the recent Thailand flooding. The principal assets of TSDT are its Thailand property, facilities and employees, which WD plans to integrate into its Thailand operations. The financial terms of the two agreements were not disclosed.
Add a comment
Apricorn, a leading designer and manufacturer of data security products for business, has announced a new and improved version of its popular Aegis Padlock drive, the Aegis Padlock 3.0. The reinvented Aegis Padlock 3.0 combines a super fast integrated USB 3.0 cable - increasing data transfer speeds by over 500% over the USB 2.0 version, enhanced AES-XTS hardware encryption, software free design, plus new security features to create a powerful data storage device perfect for taking your data on the road.
Available in capacities up to 1 TB with either a ruggedized, shock mounted hard drive (prices start at $169) or with a super tough SSD (prices start at $199), the Aegis Padlock 3.0 provides powerful data security that is tough enough for a wide variety of needs.
"With the addition of USB 3.0 to our Aegis Padlock drives, we are now able to benefit from improved hard drive and SSD performance. We have also added other enhancements including allowing the drive to be used as a boot device," said Mike McCandless, VP of Sales and Marketing. "This convergence of super fast performance and powerful data security is something that we couldn't wait to provide to our customers."
Freecom, part of the Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Group and award-winning manufacturer of external hard drives and portable storage devices, today unveiled the Hard Drive Sq, a 3.5” external hard drive with an innovative square form factor. With its unique appearance and state-of-the-art technology, the Hard Drive Sq strikes a perfect balance between elegant design and practicality. In addition to being able to back up and store files on a computer, the drive connects directly to a TV set for USB recording and playback, enabling users to store and watch their favourite shows quickly and easily.

“With the Hard Drive Sq, you can really put the information you need at your fingertips – whether it is on your PC, laptop of even a TV screen,” said Cas de Heus, marketing and communications manager EUMEA at Freecom. “From a practical point of view, the Hard Drive Sq is everything you would expect from a high-quality external hard drive in that it is fast, easy to use and visually stunning – but the ability to plug it into a TV set gives it an additional edge. People are changing the way that they watch television and with so much great content to choose from, many are opting to record and playback the programmes that they would most like to watch. The Hard Drive Sq enables users to make the most of this by reliably expanding their TV’s storage capacity.”
ADATA Technology announces that the DashDrive Durable HD710 portable hard drive with an USB 3.0 interface is available in the US and Canada. The DashDrive family adds military-grade waterproof and shockproof (IPX7) protection to the company’s impressive lineup of external storage device.
With the HD710 you no longer have to worry about accidental spills or drops destroying all your precious data. The housing of the HD710 is comprised of a unique silicone material making this external hard drive tough enough to handle life's daily abuses.
The HD710 is capable of handling the toughest conditions while still delivering the blazing fast USB 3.0 transmission speeds consumers have come to expect. The USB cable tucks into a wraparound exterior slot in the drive casing so you don't have to fret about the cable hanging loose.
Taking a giant leap for "Mac-Kind," G-Technology is now shipping its 8 TB G-RAID with Thunderbolt drive the extremely fast and highest-capacity, two-drive, RAID 0 external drive in the world. Incorporating 10 gigabit per second (Gbps) Thunderbolt technology by Intel and two 4 TB, 7200 RPM Deskstar hard drives, the new G-RAID with Thunderbolt drive sets a new capacity and performance standard for RAID storage.

Aimed at the professional audio/video (A/V) market, the G-RAID with Thunderbolt drive delivers blazing speed and massive capacity, helping Thunderbolt-enabled laptops and desktops morph into full-fledged video editing workstations. It features two Thunderbolt ports, enabling the connection of up to six Thunderbolt peripherals such as additional G-RAID drives, a high-resolution display and professional video capture devices. The G-RAID with Thunderbolt drive delivers up to 280 MB/sec sustained throughput for handling multi-stream compressed HD workflows, including REDCODE, DVCPro HD, XDCAM HD and ProRes 422. It can also transfer a full-length, high-definition, internet-ready H.264 movie in less than a minute.