Western Digital Corporation, a world leader in storage solutions, today announced the expansion of its award-winning color portfolio with a new line; WD Gold datacenter hard drives. WD Gold datacenter hard drives are designed for a broad range of applications – including small- to medium-scale enterprise servers and storage, and rack-mount datacenter servers and storage enclosures. WD Gold drives are currently available at select U.S. distributors, resellers and through the WD Store.

With purpose-driven designs for the datacenter, WD Gold datacenter hard drives are launching with a new, high-capacity configuration of up to 8TB that offers HelioSeal® helium-technology for performance, ideal capacity per square foot, power efficiency and low power consumption for datacenter environments. WD Gold datacenter hard drives feature an optimized design with an 8TB option that helps reduce the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of servers and storage systems, benefiting IT administrators challenged with growing storage capacity needs on limited budgets. WD Gold hard drives will also include a premium dedicated support line for customers worldwide.

Lexar, a leading global brand of flash memory products, today announced the Lexar microSD Reader, allowing users to easily offload content from their sports camcorder or aerial camera to an iPhone or iPad. The small, portable reader features a Lightning connector for quick transfer of files on the go, allowing users to view and playback photos and videos on their Apple device. It also works with an easy-to-use and free file management app on the App Store.

“Users who are looking to capture more content in real time while on the move can find it challenging to manage that content, especially in an iOS device,” said Steffi Ho, product marketing manager, Lexar. “Shooters can now take advantage of the large screens and connectivity of their iOS devices by editing and uploading content captured on their action sports and aerial cameras wirelessly. Users no longer need to wait until they’re back in front of their main computer at home or in the office to upload content captured on-the-go.”

The new microSD Reader also allows users to offload files and store more on the card, creating more device space to capture content on the go. It also provides an easy way to move files from Android™ or other microSD-based device to an iPhone or iPad, and swap content between iOS devices. It has a small, portable design that makes it easy to take on the go, and its Lightning connector fits with most iOS cases, providing simple plug-and-play functionality. Furthermore, the microSD reader works with a free file management app on the App Store, allowing users to back up files when connected.

CDRLabs kicks off the week with a review of PNY's new CS1311 solid state drive. Designed for the cost-conscious consumer looking to upgrade their laptop or desktop computer, the CS1311 combines Phison's quad-core, eight-channel PS3110-S10 controller with Toshiba's 15nm TLC NAND flash to deliver faster boot times, quicker application launches and better overall system performance. The CS1311 is also highly durable and offers cool, quiet operation and low power consumption for longer battery life.

ASUSTOR Inc., a leading innovator and provider of network storage solutions, has announced the launch of its newest NAS series in the powerful 8-bay AS6208T and 10-bay AS6210T models. These two NAS models both feature powerful core specifications and rich expansion interfaces that enterprise environments demand. They are not only able to integrate existing resources and equipment but also provide 4 high speed Ethernet ports, allowing businesses to flexibly deploy them in high traffic environments. Under RAID 5 configurations and link aggregation these two new models feature read and write speeds of over 398 MB/s and 355 MB/s, providing stable performance and enhancing productivity in high traffic enterprise environments.

Featuring impressive hardware specifications like all ASUSTOR NAS devices, the AS6208T and AS6210T both feature HDMI 1.4b ports, S/PDIF fibre optic audio output, infrared receivers, hardware acceleration engines and stunning playback performance of ultra high resolution 4K and 2K videos. Additionally, both of these high capacity models are compatible with the largest hard disks on the market (8TB), making them the first choice for multimedia prosumers looking to create a digital entertainment storage center and hub.