CDRLabs has taken an in depth look at Western Digital's new dual drive, the Black². Taking the concept of pairing an SSD with a traditional hard drive to the next level, this innovative storage solution fuses the two into a single device. The SSD portion of the Black² is intended as a boot drive and provides 120GB of 20nm NAND flash for your operating system, games and applications. Larger, infrequently accessed files can then be migrated to the 1 TB hard drive to increase the overall endurance and mileage of the SSD. Best of all, the Black² connects through a single cable and fits into a conventional 9.5 mm slot, making it an ideal upgrade for notebooks and all-in-one PCs.

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Are you still buying the traditional gifts such as flowers or chocolates to your sweetheart? Why not try something special and digital this year? SP/Silicon Power, the world’s leading provider of memory storage solutions, today selects the Valentine’s Special set for you, two 16GB diamond-cut swivel USB flash drives, USB 3.0 Blaze B30 and USB 2.0 Ultima U30, and they are exclusively available on Amazon.com. With the jewelry-like appearance and big storage capacity, you will be able to store your all-time favorite love songs, films, and photos into the Valentine’s Special flash drive set, which would definitely make your gift one-of-the-kind special and unique.

Coated with the color of mystery black, Blaze B30 symbolizes the sophistication and masculinity for the men, whereas the rough-red of Ultima U03 represents the elegance and grace of the women. These two flash drives make the perfect match for you and your loved one. Just go to amazon.com and search for “Silicon Power Valentine”, and you will be able to create your own romantic gift and romantic memory.

Along with the ultra-light BDR-XD05J, Pioneer Japan announced its new 16x Blu-ray Disc writer, the BDR-209JBK. This Windows 8.1 compatible drive is is capable of 16x BD-R, 14x BD-R DL, 8x BD-R LTH, 2x BD-RE and 2x BD-RE DL writing speeds and a maximum BD-ROM read speed of 12x. The BDR-209JBK also writes to triple-layer (100GB) BD-R media at 8x, quad-layer (128GB) BD-R media at 6x and triple-layer (100GB) BD-RE media at 2x.

The BDR-209JBK includes features like Pioneer's PureRead2 technology and a special power-saving mode. The drive also ships with authoring and playback software from CyberLink and is expected to cost 14,000 Yen ($136US) when it hits stores at the end of January.

Pioneer Japan sent out a press today, announcing what it claims to be the world's lightest BDXL compatible Blu-ray Disc writer. The BDR-XD05J measures only 133 × 133 × 14.8 mm and weighs in at a mere 230g. This USB 3.0 equipped drive is capable of 6x BD-R, 6x BD-R DL, 6x BD-R LTH, 2x BD-RE and 2x BD-RE DL writing speeds and a maximum BD-ROM read speed of 6x. The BDR-XD05J also writes to triple- (100GB) and quad-layer (128GB) BD-R media at 4x and triple-layer (100GB) BD-RE media at 2x.

The BDR-XD05J includes features like Pioneer's PureRead2+ technology and an "advanced silent mode" for when playing movies and audio discs. The drive is also compatible with the company's new APS-WF01J wireless dock, which lets it be used with Windows-based tablets. The BDR-XD05J ships with authoring and playback software from CyberLink and is expected to hit stores in late January for about 10,000 Yen ($97US).

OCZ Storage Solutions - a Toshiba Group Company and leading provider of high-performance solid state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced its new Vertex 460 SATA III SSD Series. As part of the renowned Vertex series, Vertex 460 continues the legacy by delivering an exceptional mainstream solution with advanced storage performance, reliability, and quality that meet the demands of today’s client applications. 

Evolving from the 20nm-based Vertex 450, the new Vertex 460 uses the company’s proprietary Barefoot 3 (BF3) M10 controller with state-of-the-art Toshiba 19nm MLC NAND flash memory to deliver a superior, cost-effective solid state storage solution. With an emphasis on real-world performance across all capacities, Vertex 460 SSDs start fast and continue that way over time, excelling in write speeds without the use of synthetic software-based optimization. The new series delivers excellent sustained and mixed-workload performance across the board whether the data is in compressed or uncompressed formats, as well as an accelerated and more responsive computing experience. Vertex 460 offers up to 545 MB/s sequential reads, 525 MB/s sequential writes, 95,000 4K random read IOPS, and up to 90,000 4K random write IOPS, while featuring sustained 4K random write performance up to 23,000 IOPS.

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Toshiba Corporation, a global technology leader and manufacturer of NAND flash memory, today announced that the Company has finalized the purchase of substantially all assets of OCZ Technology Group, making it a wholly owned subsidiary and Toshiba Group Company. Effective immediately, the Group company will operate independently as OCZ Storage Solutions, a leading provider of high-performance solid state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems.

The acquisition provides Toshiba with OCZ’s enterprise and client SSD businesses and enables the established OCZ brand to continue in full force with a current product portfolio that includes SATA and PCIe consumer drives for high-performance and mainstream applications, and SATA, SAS and PCIe enterprise drives supported by virtualization, cache and acceleration software.  OCZ Storage Solutions will leverage Toshiba’s cutting-edge NAND and combine it with the Company’s proprietary controllers, firmware and software to provide both client and enterprise customers with innovative and cost-effective solid-state storage solutions.

“The acquisition of OCZ further expands our solid-state storage capabilities and represents Toshiba’s commitment to this high-growth area,” said Mr. Seiichi Mori, Vice President of Toshiba's Semiconductor and Storage Company and Corporate Vice President of Toshiba.  “Our goal is to offer a leading edge portfolio of solid state solutions to address the storage challenges faced by both client and enterprise customers, and the acquisition of OCZ is an ideal addition to our team in realizing this strategy.”

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The popularity of smartphones and tablets, staunch mainstays of business professionals,hasrepeatedly hit record highs. To boost convenience and free-style portability in the business world, Apacer rolls out AH173 OTG (On-The-Go) mobile flash drive, featuring dual interfaces, ultra-large capacity, ultra-svelte thinness, and metallic chic.

Once connected to a OTG-supported device, AH173 mobile flash drive doubles your Android smartphone and tablet capacity with maximum 32GB. It allows you to carry video, audio and large presentation files more easily. The ultra-thin zinc alloy body of the AH173 mobile flash drive exudes the sharp professional image of business people. With built-in USB/MicroUSB interfaces, files can be transferred between mobile devices and PCs at exceedingly high speeds!

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