CDRLabs has taken a long overdue look at Samsung's EVO and PRO microSD cards. Completely redesigned with bright, color-coded hues, these memory cards are available in a variety of capacities and performance levels for use in many different consumer electronic devices. Samsung's PRO and EVO microSD cards support Ultra High Speed (UHS-I) Grade 1 level performance and offer fast read speeds of up to 90MB/s and 48MB/s, respectively. The cards have also been designed to be waterproof, temperature proof, X-ray proof and magnet proof, allowing them to withstand some of the harshest conditions.

Synology Inc. today launched the new DiskStation DS115. Featuring a dual-core processor and compact design, this 1-bay NAS server allows homes and small businesses to take advantage of centralized data storage, borderless file sharing, easy cloud synchronization, multimedia streaming, home surveillance, and much more.

"DS115 makes it easy to work, play, and share files from anywhere. With its speedy performance, intuitive interface, and diverse ecosystem of add-on packages, DS115 is a great NAS server for homes or small businesses — especially for people who still rely on external hard drives, flash drives, or cloud services to swap and share files," said Jonathan Wang, product manager at Synology Inc.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today announced the release of the business-class TVS-x71 series Turbo vNAS that supports 10GbE networks and provides a high-efficiency storage solution for 4K video playback, transcoding and on-the-fly editing.

Besides incorporating comprehensive business-demanding applications and advanced virtualization features, the TVS-x71 series features the exclusive QvPC Technology that allows the NAS to be used as a cost-effective PC by allowing users to directly access stored data, monitor live surveillance feeds, enjoy digital entertainment, and much more.

Available in 4, 6 and 8-bay tower form-factor models, the TVS-x71 series is powered by the latest Intel® Haswell CPU with numerous options including Pentium®, Core™ i3, Core™ i5 and Core™ i7 processors for users to flexibly choose based on their demands. These processors deliver high performance with over 2,300 MB/s throughput and 135,000 IOPS for CPU-consuming tasks such as running Virtualization Station, real-time 4K video playback and transcoding, and serving large numbers of simultaneous connections.

Pioneer Japan sent out a press release today, announcing yet another new 16x Blu-ray Disc writer, the BDR-S09J-X. Like the original BDR-S09J, 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-S09J-X 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.

What makes the BDR-S09J-X unique is its ability to check and display the playback quality of an audio CD (CD-DA) and, in the case of a low quality level, recommend the settings for optimal playback. In the case of a read error caused by dirt or a scratch, the drive uses Pioneer's PureRead3+ technology to reread these sections of a disc. Last, but not least, the BDR-S09J-X features a new technology called RealTime PureRead which reduces the occurrance of data interpolation in real time so that a CD can be played with the original sound quality.

The BDR-S09J-X ships with authoring and playback software from CyberLink and is expected to cost about 33,000 Yen ($276US) when it hits stores in late January.