Archive for October 18th, 2005
Maxtor today announced its new Maxtor OneTouch III, Turbo Edition external storage solution that takes the complexities out of RAID and delivers a simple-to-use, easy-to-understand solution for the consumer mass market. Backing up all those (legally owned) DVDs in your collection may now be a reality.
With capacities up to one terabyte (1,000GB), the new Maxtor OneTouch III, Turbo Edition integrates Maxtor’s award-winning automated backup and restore capabilities for Mac and PC users, allows users to easily configure the solution for either RAID 0 or RAID 1 and includes new software tools to synchronise data between two or more computers and to help repair PC systems after a damaging spyware or virus attack.
Building on Maxtor’s years of success as a leader in external storage, the Maxtor OneTouch III, Turbo Edition also sports a completely new customer experience, including a cool new industrial design, an improved software user interface and redesigned retail package from award-winning consulting firm frog design inc. The solution’s new industrial design provides added reliability and robustness, while being soft to the touch and easily stackable.
The improved user-friendly interface creates a level of consistency and ease of use, and the redesigned retail packaging system protects the product during transit. Built to last, the new high-capacity, dual-drive Maxtor OneTouch III, Turbo Edition solution is aesthetically appealing for either a home or office setting. It features improved acoustics, a self-adjusting cooling system and an inner disk drive casing and shock mounts for additional drive protection, underscoring Maxtor’s commitment to providing durable and innovative storage solutions.
“As a leader in consumer storage and backup solutions, our job is to help protect our customers’ digital lives. We’re thinking about the difficult things so our consumers don’t have to. We want data backup and protection to be virtually effortless,” said Stacey Lund, vice president of marketing, Maxtor Branded Products Group. “We’ve designed our new Maxtor OneTouch III, Turbo Edition to be the easiest, most trustworthy way to reap the benefits of RAID, and to back up and store photos, videos, games, music, business data and personal information in the most demanding environments. Whether you’re a consumer, creative professional, mobile warrior or small business owner, you can use our trusted, intuitive storage solutions in safeguarding your digital life or life’s work.”
Until very recently, a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) – which can increase data safety, performance or both – was only found on very expensive servers.
But now even mainstream computer users can easily take advantage of these benefits by using the new Maxtor OneTouch III, Turbo Edition in a RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration. RAID 0 divides a data stream and writes pieces of it to both drives at once, a process called striping. This process enables significantly faster write and read times for speed-hungry applications like streaming video. RAID 1, also called mirroring, simply takes everything that gets written to the primary hard drive and creates a copy of it on the second drive. That way, if calamity hits the first drive, the second one swings into action so the user does not experience data loss or downtime.
Maxtor has also added Sync – a feature with the ability to automatically synchronise files between two or more systems on the same operating platform – to its newest external storage solution. Increasingly, customers want to share data easily and automatically between home and office, syncing files and folders in both computers. Also, to combat spyware, adware and viruses that can slow a system to a crawl or even a screeching halt, the new Maxtor OneTouch III, Turbo Edition includes a System Rollback feature that reverts a PC system to a healthier point in time while preserving current data. All of these features are easily accessed through Maxtor’s completely redesigned graphical user interface.
All Maxtor OneTouch external storage and backup solutions come with a data security feature called Maxtor DriveLock, providing a password protection option to safeguard contents if the drive is ever lost or stolen. If the Maxtor OneTouch solution falls into the wrong hands, special firmware embedded on the hard drive restricts data access. Even if the internal hard drive is removed from the casing and attached to another computer, access will be denied without the correct password.
The Maxtor OneTouch III, Turbo Edition comes in a 600GB or 1TB capacity and features a triple USB 2.0/FireWire 400/FireWire 800 interface for easy connection to a Mac or PC. Availability begins in December at major retailers and distributors. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) for the 600GB is approximately £410 and aproximately £684 for the 1TB. Please visit www.maxtor.com for local distribution channels and retail outlets.
October 18th, 2005
Dirty discs can damage consoles, so PSP gamers need the MaxCare UMD Cleaner. The MaxCare UMD Cleaner cleans your UMD discs thoroughly and safely, and also repairs scratched PSP UMDs. In fact the makers claims it’s the greatest PSP disc cleaner around.
If you need to clean your PSP game or clean a PSP movie, MaxCare UMD Cleaner is for you. It’s easy to use. Just slot it into the unit, which is powered buy batteries or your main PSP power lead, and press a button. It’s as simple as that!
MaxCare UMD Cleaner and scratch repairer cleans away mucky fingerprints, fixes minor scratches and generally gets your PSP games and movies into tip-top shape. This not only prevents the discs from sticking or misreading when in use, but it also prevents potential damage to your PSP itself. Dust and dirt can accumulate on the disc and damage your console’s inner workings, but MaxCare UMD Cleaner keeps them pristine clean!
* Includes cleaning unit, cleaning fluid and two special cleaning pads.
* Powered either by batteries or your PSP mains power lead.
* Easy to use.
* Environmentally friendly
MaxCare UMD Cleaner is out now, and costs a mere £14.00, + £2.95 p+p. For more information, head for www.max.tv
October 18th, 2005
Sony Ericsson today adds its first UMTS handset to the Walkman range of music phones bringing the total number of phones in the range to four.
The W900 is a high quality fully specified music player, phone and imaging device capable of super-fast downloads of all types of multimedia – music, video and graphics. It follows the highly successful global market launch of the W800. Two previously announced Walkman phones are also about to launch, the W600 in the Americas and W550 in the rest of the world, meaning there are now Walkman phones meeting a broad spectrum of mobile music needs and price segments.
As a music player, the W900 makes it easy to import, transfer, manage and play music from operators’ over-the-air (OTA) music download services, allowing tracks to be downloaded directly to the phone while on the move and, from a PC when tracks have been copied from the owner’s CD collection.
“The W900, along with the rest of the Walkman phone family, will establish a new life-style habit of enjoying superb quality music and video and a full internet web experience on the move from a single mobile device,” says Rikko Sakaguchi, Senior Vice President, Product and Application Planning of Sony Ericsson. “In our first UMTS Walkman phone we have combined fast download speeds with superb sound quality and crystal clear 30 frames a second video recording and play-back in a really simple and easy to use device. The W900 will not only appeal as a music phone. The superb communications, multimedia and imaging functionality will appeal to all those wanting a true multi-media capable device.”
One of the most appealing features of the W900 is how easy it is to import, transfer, play and manage music files. Tracks can be imported from a variety of sources, either over-the-air direct to the phone if it supports an available operator music download service, or via a PC.
Transferring digital music files from a PC to the phone is a simple ‘drag and drop’ and the W900 is also fully compatible with user-copied content from all leading music management software packages. This is particularly useful for consumers already owning another type of digital music player who want to transfer tracks that originate from their CD collection on to the W900.
The supplied Disc2Phone PC software allows the user to easily transfer music to the phone from audio CDs and a PC music collection. Disc2Phone can transfer music based on playlists and has a fun and easy-to-use shuffle functionality. The W900’s large internal 470MB user free memory provides space for between 120 and 240 songs. The storage capacity is easily increased however by inserting a Memory Stick PRO Duo, currently available in retail outlets at up to 2GB, giving space for up to 1,000 tracks. Music files can be stored in all the key formats: MP3, AAC or AAC+, MIDI, WAV and XMF.
The versatile swivel design makes it easy to multitask between the W900’s many functions, a feature which gives the phone an advantage over dedicated music players. The direct music buttons get the user swiftly into the Walkman player where it is possible to scroll through play lists, artists or individual songs. Users fed up with missing calls because they are listening to music will love the fact that the phone’s ringtone cuts into the audio and pauses the track while the user takes the call.
The phone swivels open automatically with the lightest of touches, revealing a large keypad. Virtually all functions can be performed with the phone closed, and users can read messages or search through their music library without opening the phone.
More than a fully featured music player, the W900 is a highly advanced imaging and multimedia device with broadband-fast download speeds, smooth, responsive browse capabilities and a large, 2.2 inch QVGA 262K TFT screen, one of the brightest ever seen on a mobile phone.
The 2 Megapixel, autofocus camera with LED flash- or picture-light is perfect for capturing priceless moments and, thanks to the Sony Ericsson dual fronted design, is operated with both hands in a horizontal position for maximum stability. The camera also shoots video at up to 30fps (frames per second), double the speed of most conventional imaging phones and the playback quality threshold for television.
With the supplied Adobe PC software, pictures and videos can be easily imported to a PC as soon as the phone is connected using the fast USB connection. They can then be edited, printed and shared using the easy-to-use and powerful Adobe software, and videos can be played back using Apple QuickTime Player.
As an entertainment device the W900 exploits the UMTS-delivered capabilities to the full, delivering fast and smooth download and browsing of video, games, sound and graphics. The high performance 3D Java gaming engine is put to the test with the embedded Asphalt Urban GT 3D from Gameloft, where users can experience the thrills of extreme racing at the wheel of the ultimate sports cars.
The W900 is the first Sony Ericsson phone to be supplied with a Stereo Portable Handsfree HPM-80 with remote control, that allows the user to operate the Walkman player without removing it from their pocket. A USB cable and Disc2Phone PC software for transfer and management of music files are also included in the box.
W900 Availability
The W900 UMTS Walkman phone is available in black or white and will be commercially available end Q4 2005. The variants will be:
* W900i - Dual mode UMTS (2100MHz) - GPRS 900/1800/1900 for Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa
* W900c - Dual mode UMTS (2100MHz) - GPRS 900/1800/1900 for Mainland China. Launch for mainland China dependant on availability of 3G services.
October 18th, 2005