Toshiba Storage Device Division (SDD) announced it will introduce a mobile personal storage line based on its market-leading 1.8-inch HDD, along with the industry’s highest-capacity portable external hard drive based on the 2.5-inch HDD platform at 320GB.

Toshiba’s new USB 2.0 Mobile External Hard Drive based on the 1.8-inch HDD platform will be available in 60GB, 80GB and 120GB models for unparalleled capacity in a pocket-sized mobile storage device. This new line of personal storage devices combines the portability of a USB flash drive with the high capacity of a hard drive for the ultimate mobile digital warehouse for entertainment and data files.The new 1.8-inch external HDD can be easily slipped into a briefcase, purse or backpack for easy transport of digital photos, music, videos or other data files. Because the 1.8-inch HDD is designed for mobility, Toshiba plans to include encryption and backup software with its 1.8-inch line to protect data should the HDD ever be lost or stolen. The product also will include a USB cable and will be bus-powered for easy plug-and-play operation.

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Presented in this year’s CES Convention, Canon DW-100 was designed to be compatible with Canon camcorders. It has the functionality to burn videos from Canon camcorders not only in standard DVD format but also in AVCHD DVD format. Connectivity from camcorder to burner is through USB and the device is operated using three buttons: power, record and eject. If you got a Canon VIXIA HF100, VIXIA HG10 or VIXIA HF10 camcorder, you can connect the DVD burner to an HDTV is use it as a player. It will sell for USD$269 starting late April of 2008.

Samsung Electronics America announced the nationwide distribution of its uniquely designed, multifunction laser printer (the SCX – 4500).

Both printers utilize Samsung’s leadership in design and innovation by crafting a contemporary high gloss black shell encasing their exclusive ultra quiet engine, ideally equipped for the any office or home environment.The new printers are not only stylish – they are designed for high performance; with fast print speeds of up to 17 pages per minute, 5K monthly duty cycle and industry recognized printer reliability.

The SCX – 4500 takes that work capability further with its quick copy speeds, blue LED status indicator lights for PC free operation, and high resolution color scanning capabilities.
“Samsung is consistently looking for opportunities to enrich and diversify the global printer market,” said Ken Colby, senior product manager, Samsung Electronics America, Inc. “We are thrilled to now offer our consumers nationwide, our unique lineup of slim, sleek and silent printers so they can not only work with reliable products that they have come to know with the Samsung brand, but they can work in style.”

The SCX – 4500 are also designed to address common user concerns with button-less touch-sensor panels that reduce the user interface, a semi-automatic paper tray for easy paper replacement, guided toner path to ensure easy toner replacement plus easily recognizable warning lights. All to ensure the devices are extremely easy to use and maintain. Beginning mid-January Samsung printers will be available at most national retailers, and national online websites.

Apple(R) today introduced the new Mac(R) Pro with eight processor cores and a new system architecture that delivers up to twice the performance of its predecessor*. The new Mac Pro combines two of Intel’s new 45 nanometer Quad-Core Xeon processors running up to 3.2 GHz, powerful new graphics and up to 4TB of internal storage to offer the ideal system for creative professionals, 3D digital content creators and scientists. The standard 8-core configuration starts at just $2,799.

“The new Mac Pro is the fastest Mac we’ve ever made,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With 3.2 GHz 8-core Xeon processing, a 1600 MHz front side bus and 800 MHz memory, the new Mac Pro uses the fastest Intel Xeon architecture on the market.” The new Mac Pro features the latest Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5400 series processors based on state-of-the-art 45nm Intel Core microarchitecture running up to 3.2 GHz, each with 12MB of L2 cache per processor for breakthrough performance and power efficiency. With a new high-bandwidth hardware architecture, dual-independent 1600 MHz front side buses and up to 32GB of 800 MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMM memory, the new Mac Pro achieves a 61 percent increase in memory throughput

Pricing & Availability
The new Mac Pro is shipping today and will be available through the Apple Store(R) (http://www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

The standard 8-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $2,799 (US), includes:
– two 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors with dual-independent 1600 MHz front side buses;
– 2GB of 800 MHz DDR2 ECC fully-buffered DIMM memory, expandable up to 32GB;
– ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 256MB of GDDR3 memory;
– 320GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
– 16x SuperDrive(TM) with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);
– two PCI Express 2.0 slots and two PCI Express slots;
– Bluetooth 2.0+EDR; and
– ships with Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse.

In addition to the standard configuration, the Mac Pro offers numerous build-to-order options including: one 2.8 GHz, two 3.0 GHz, or two 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors; up to 32GB of 800 MHz DDR2 fully-buffered ECC memory; up to four 1TB Serial ATA hard drives running at 7200 rpm or up to four 300GB SAS drives running at 15000 rpm; Mac Pro RAID card; up to two 16x SuperDrives with double-layer support; NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT or NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 graphics cards; AirPort Extreme 802.11n; Apple USB Modem; Apple wireless Aluminum Keyboard; Apple wireless Mighty Mouse; and Mac OS X Server Leopard. Complete build-to-order options and pricing are available at http://www.apple.com/macpro.

Measures 350 x 410 x 60mm and weighs 4kg, the LimePC WideScreen PC offers an all-in-one form factor computer, complete with monitor and keyboard. Not much detail on its specs, except that it comes with a 17-inch glossy widescreen LCD display with 16:10 aspect ratio and a TruSound speakers. If you wonder why would anyone buy something ugly like Widescreen, well, an all-in-one PC like this is useful if you want to build your own home-theatre PC or if you limited space on your room.

The updated TP home theater PC now includes a Blu-ray reader that can play HD movies at a full 1080p when attached to an HDMI-equipped HDTV or computer display; it also becomes the first home theater PC to switch to Intel’s 45nm Core 2 Duo and runs a 2.1GHz processor instead of the old 1.83GHz chip. On a premium model, a dual-CableCARD tuner allows it to watch and record cable HD at the same time. The TP is similarly better integrated into a home theater with support for HDMI’s CEC spec that allows the PC to control TVs, receivers, and other devices automatically from the VAIO’s remote. Both the basic and premium TPs ship with a dedicated graphics chip and a 500GB hard drive; they ship towards the end of January for $1,600 (in white) and $3,000 (in black).

Sony also touts what it says is the least expensive Blu-ray drive for desktop computers. Rather than try to offer full recording, the company’s BDU-X10S is meant as a companion for an existing DVD burner. While it can only read Blu-ray, DVD, and CD, it pushes the cost down to $200, less than half the price of combo or full BD-R burners. It initially ships with Windows PCs in mind and comes with a Blu-ray version of PowerDVD. Shipments start this month for the Serial ATA drive, which needs HDMI or an HDCP-protected DVI connection for full 1080p playback of some copy-protected movies.