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WD TV adds streaming options, tunes televisions near and far to your Slingbox
A raft of goodies has been tacked on to Western Digital's TV Live and TV Live Hub media players including new streams and Vudu movie downloading, but the addition of SlingPlayer might be the most intriguing. Depending on your region, you'll see new channels on the WD set-tops, including The AOL On Network, Red Bull TV, ABC iview (Australia), Acetrax Movies, Maxdome and BILD TV-App. Walmart's Vudu service will also be added, letting domestic and some foreign users buy or rent from a library of 70,000 downloadable films and TV shows. Finally, if you're a frequent traveler, you can pack your WD box and fire up the new SlingPlayer on your hotel TV to watch hometown broadcasts wherever you may be. Provided you've got a Slingbox back home, of course. To find out more and see what's available in your country, check the source or PR below. Show full PR text New International and Domestic Entertainment Options Complement WD TV® Live™ and WD TV® Live Hub™'s 'Play Anything' Popularity IRVINE, Calif., June 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Western Digital® (NASDAQ: WDC), the world's leader in external storage solutions and maker of the popular WD TV® media player family, today introduced a variety of new entertainment options for the WD TV Live™ and WD TV Live Hub™ media players. Current and new users can now enjoy Red Bull TV™, ABC iview (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), Acetrax™, Maxdome, the BILD TV-App, and the AOL On Network. They can also watch live and recorded TV with the new SlingPlayer® app and save their premium HD movies to the WD TV Live Hub's internal storage with VUDU. WD's new entertainment choices add to the WD TV media player family's prodigious ability to play personal content such as videos, photos and music by supporting a wide range of media formats. Users can watch content located on any networked PC or Mac® computer in the home, from a network drive such as WD's My Book® Live™ personal cloud storage, and from any directly connected digital camcorder, camera, or USB drive. WD TV Live Hub owners can also save and share pictures and videos from outside the home, using the WD Photos™ app for iPhone®, iPad® and Android™ mobile devices. "WD continuously listens to its customers, and adds the content options they want," said Scott Vouri, vice president and general manager, WD connected home solutions. "With today's addition of hot international and domestic channels, live TV through SlingPlayer, and HD movie rentals, purchases and downloads through VUDU, the WD TV media players truly provide the most entertainment." The WD TV Live Hub is the only media player to offer direct HD movie download service for today's hottest new movie releases purchased from VUDU's large library of movies and TV shows. VUDU is a subscription-free, HD video streaming service, which offers more than 70,000 blockbuster titles including new releases, Hollywood classics, independent films, and TV shows. Because it has an integrated 1TB hard drive, the WD TV Live Hub can save and play back purchased digital content from VUDU, including the high-quality HDX™ video format that features 1080p Full HD and rich Dolby Digital Plus™ 7.1 audio. "By centralizing their entertainment on the WD TV Live Hub, our customers get high-performance full-HD movie playback without overloading their home network or cluttering up the hard drives of other PCs in the house," added Vouri. From "Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol" to "The Muppets" WD brings today's top movies to the WD TV Live Hub for a cinema-like experience at home through the available VUDU service. New Services[1] Now Available: SlingPlayer (worldwide) – With a Slingbox® connected in your home, the SlingPlayer app brings your living room TV experience to your connected device in any room – around the home or around the world. The AOL On Network (US) – The AOL HD app, part of The AOL On Network, features high-definition technology, lifestyle, celebrity and entertainment content updated daily from The AOL On Network, which features video from brands like Engadget, TechCrunch, The Huffington Post and Moviefone. Red Bull TV (worldwide) – A unique online portal offering exclusive high quality programs from the World of Red Bull in HD. Available to nearly all devices – Red Bull TV offers worldwide live webcasts and a thematic catalogue of VODs complementing exclusive shows of the multimedia content of redbull.com. ABC iview (Australia) – ABC iview is Australia's most popular catch-up TV service and is run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It features 14-day catch-up from channels ABC1, ABC2, ABC3, ABC4Kids and ABC News 24. Acetrax movies (UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy and Austria) – Available on the WD TV Live only, this service offers blockbuster new release and library movies from the major Hollywood studios. maxdome (Germany) – Available on the WD TV Live only, the most popular German video-on-demand service maxdome delivers over 45,000 major film and TV titles. BILD TV-App (Germany) – With the BILD TV-App users navigate easily and comfortably with the remote control through Germany's largest news and entertainment portal. The application offers the latest news and videos from politics, lifestyle, entertainment and sports, as well as the pictures of the day. Availability The WD TV Live and WD TV Live Hub can be purchased at select retailers and online at wdstore.com. About WD WD, a storage industry pioneer and long-time leader, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company designs and produces reliable, high-performance hard drives and solid state drives that keep users' data accessible and secure from loss. Its storage technologies serve a wide range of host applications including client and enterprise computing, embedded systems and consumer electronics, as well as its own storage systems. Its home entertainment products enable rich engagement with stored digital content. WD was founded in 1970. The company's products are marketed to leading OEMs, systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital®, WD® and HGST™ brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company's website (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information. Western Digital, WD, the WD logo, WD TV, and My Book are registered trademarks in the U.S. and other countries; WD TV Live and My Book Live are trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Other marks may be mentioned herein that belong to other companies. Pictures shown may vary from actual products. Not all products may be available in all regions of the world. All product and packaging specifications subject to change without notice. As used for storage capacity, one terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment. Source: PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1dpR0)
WD's 1TB VelociRaptor HDD gets reviewed: substantial gains, moderate price
Western Digital has expanded its line of desktop-grade VelociRaptors to include a 1TB model that's available now for $320, but those kidding themselves with that whole "250GB is enough" thing can get in for as little as $160. Top-level specs include a 10,000RPM spindle rate and a SATA 6Gb/s interface housed within a 3.5-inch heat sink -- useful for lessening the burden of the drive's thermal output on the rest of the machine. Storage Review's tests reveal that sequential read and write transfer speeds top out around 206MB/s, thermal dissipation is excellent with low power consumption, and that random access has improved compared with its 600GB predecessor. They consider the new HDD to be a "very appealing value proposition" and "a blend of high performance, storage, capacity, and low cost." Hot Hardware discovered virtually identical numbers with their tests, but wasn't quite as forgiving when it comes to the cost-per-GB versus 7200RPM hard drives. However, they call this VelociRaptor the "fastest HDD yet" at "nearly double the capacity of previous" model. You can find even more stats and impressions to chew on at the sources below.
IRL: Blue Mics Yeti, Western Digital My Passport and Razer's Naga Hex gaming mouse
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. It's been a busy week for tech writers. Capping out a week populated by not one, not two, but three smartphone reviews, we're happy to take a breather and return our attention to life's littler pleasures. Like USB mics and portable 2TB hard drives. And also, gaming mice.
Western Digital intros My Passport Studio 2TB portable HDD, twin FireWire 800 ports included
Just days after WD revealed new 2TB My Passport drives for the USB 3.0-respecting world, along comes an option for those running OS X. Aside from the conventional USB 2.0 socket on the My Passport Studio, the Mac-friendly unit also packs a pair of FireWire 800 sockets. Not surprisingly, it ships with hardware-based encryption and password protection software, and while it'll probably come formatted for an Apple, there's nothing at all stopping other platforms from taking advantage. It'll ship in any capacity you want so long as you're happy with 2TB, and it'll be available at fine retailers around the globe this month for $299.99.
Western Digital unveils new My Passport portable hard drives, upgrades visa to 2TB
Sure, six terabytes of storage might seem like hot stuff, but Western Digital's stackable MyBook Thunderbolt Duo drives aren't exactly portable. Lucky for you and your massive photo, music and film collections, WD's My Passport drive just crossed the 2TB border. At $250, this USB 3.0 storage sanctum claims to be the first -- and so far, only -- portable hard drive to break the two terabyte mark. "It's the perfect blend of monstrous capacity, reliability and user-friendly technology in a sleek form factor," said WD executive vice president and general manager Jim Welsh, "now in five colors." Count 'em, five. You didn't think the lizards were after your data, did you? Read on for WD's official press release.
Fox, Warner, SanDisk and Western Digital's Project Phenix: promotes DRM, misspelling
Studios Fox and Warner Bros. have teamed up with SanDisk and Western Digital to create "Project Phenix." Beneath the orthographically offensive name, it's pitched as DRM that'll permit you to organize, move and watch high-definition content on more than one device. It's the brainchild of the Secure Content Storage Association (SCSA), which has ensured compatibility with UltraViolet, so that users will be able to download cloud-based media to compliant WD and SanDisk storage -- to play on any alliance-approved TVs, tablets and display devices. We'll see the technology available to license later in the year, which promises to render content ten times faster than streaming media on "over the top internet" (translation: streaming services). Yes, there's PR after the break, but we'd only suggest taking a look if you've got a good pair of waders.
Western Digital shows off a Thunderbolt hard drive at Macworld | iWorld 2012
Hard drive storage company Western Digital was in attendance at Macworld | iWorld 2012 last week showing off its MyBook Thunderbolt Duo setup. The unit is a two-drive box that can hook up to your Mac through the Thunderbolt port, and it's Western Digital's first entry into the protocol. As you might imagine, using Thunderbolt means the transfers are much faster. Western Digital's rep said that while a transfer of 6 terabytes (the drive will likely debut in 4 or 6 TB models) would normally take up to 6 days to completely write over, the Thunderbolt drives can do it in six hours. That's big news for backup fans, who are very much awaiting WD's new models. The drive we saw was only a prototype model, and official pricing or release information hasn't yet been announced, unfortunately. But the units on display at the show had two built-in Thunderbolt ports, which actually allowed them to be daisy-chained off of the iMac on display. That means that users can either run the drives in Raid 0 or Raid 1 configuration, either using the two drives as one storage unit, or allowing one drive to back up the other. Additional units can then be added on to the setup -- the display at WD's both had three such units all hooked together, allowing for 18 TB of storage total, or any number of splits across those drives for backups. It was all very impressive, though again, WD hasn't yet announced plans for release. We should see these drives hitting the market later on this year, however, so we'll stay tuned for that.
Western Digital's My Book Live Duo marries RAID and cloud storage, bytes everywhere celebrate
Not only is it the chunkiest My Book we've ever seen, but it possesses the otherworldly ability to live in the here and now and the hereafter. Analogies aside, the new My Book Live Duo is hailed as such: "a personal cloud storage system that combines the benefits of shared storage and remote access with double-safe backup or increased capacity of a dual-drive system with RAID." It's compatible with Mac and PC systems (and yes, Time Machine support is thrown in for good measure), and you'll find a pair of drives within the casing alongside an 800MHz CPU and an Ethernet port. WD's hawking these in 4TB (2 x 2TB) and 6TB (2 x 3TB) capacities, and if you weren't already sold, the units ship with support for the company's WD2go remote access platform -- something that's accessible via the web, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch or Android. Finally, there's a DLNA-certified media streaming badge, and it's available as we speak at select US retailers for $399.99 (4TB) / $499.99 (6TB).
Western Digital rolls out My Passport, My Passport Studio hard drives for Mac users
No rainbow of colors or stylized designs here, but Mac users do now have a pair of fairly sleek and streamlined new portable hard drives to consider from Western Digital. That includes the latest My Passport and My Passport Studio (pictured above), the latter of which boasts an all metal enclosure and a pair of FireWire 800 ports in addition to the standard USB 2.0 connector. Otherwise, both are available in 500GB, 750GB and 1TB capacities, and they are of course fully compatible with Apple's Time Machine. Look for the standard My Passport to run between $100 and $130, while the My Passport Studio starts at $130 and tops out at $180. Update: Storage Review has already taken a look at both drives, and is particularly impressed by the pricier My Passport Studio. Hit the links below for a closer look at them.
WD's 9.5mm Scorpio Blue 1TB laptop hard drive gets benchmarked
These days, it's hard to shake the urge to pop a solid state drive into your next laptop, but even if you're down with dropping the requisite coin, the restrictive capacity choices may make it darn near impossible for pack rats to bite. For those fitting squarely into that category, there's Western Digital's newest laptop drive: the 9.5mm 1TB Scorpio Blue. It's one of the first in this form factor (read: the one that slips into most everything smaller than a Clevo) to hit the 1TB milestone, and at just $99, it's a veritable bargain. The benchmarking gurus over at Hot Hardware threw it through the usual gauntlet of tests, pitting it against a 500GB Scorpio Black and a 640GB Seagate Momentus. As you'd likely expect, the 1TB spinner bested the competition in SiSoftware, ATTO and CrystalDiskMark tests, though not by a tremendous margin. Still, taking performance up a notch while also boasting a full terabyte of space makes it somewhat of a no-brainer for capacity freaks, and you can hit the source for a barrage of charts proving as much.
Western Digital now shipping 2.5-inch 1TB Scorpio Blue HDD in standard height
Be still, our hearts! Could it be? One thousand twenty-four gigabytes of spinning Scorpio Blue fixed disk finally sized for standard height? If you'll recall, the line of laptop-oriented HDDs was bumped up to 750GB way back in 2010, and now Western Digital's shipping its 9.5mm-high 1TB Scorpio Blue HDDs (shortened from 12.5mm). Aside from the storage capacity increase, the dual-platter drive is essentially the same as any other Blue sporting a 5,400 RPM spin-speed and 8MB cache with Advanced Format support. This latest go-getter will be available for the rather reasonable price of $140, but hey, if that SSD-esque Scorpio black's what you're really lusting after, we understand. Full PR after the break.
Western Digital's My Book Studio jumps to 3TB, dons Mac-approved brushed aluminum garb
Hard to say how long WD's going to keep its My Book line a-churnin', but when you've got a good thing going.... The outfit has just announced a gently refreshed version of its My Book Studio, now available in capacities reaching 3TB and sporting a flashy new exterior that should blend right into your Mac Pro + Cinema Display setup. Much like the G-Force drives of yesteryear, these new models are equipped with a brushed aluminum casing and rely on Western Digital's Caviar Green HDDs to handle the ints and outs. You'll also find FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 interfaces, meaning that Thunderbolt aficionados should probably be turning their nose up right about now. The new guys are available at "select retailers and distributors" as we speak, with pricing set at $149.99 (1TB), $199.99 (2TB) and $249.99 (3TB).
Western Digital Nomad case protects your My Passport drive from falls, spills, and curious lizards
It's possible -- likely, even -- that you're reading this while jumping out of a plane, wrestling a mountain lion, or having some equally hardcore adventure. If so, you're just the type of active consumer Western Digital's courting with its Nomad case. Designed for the My Passport external hard drive line, it combines a hard polycarbonate exterior with an elastomer interior that keeps the drive snug and secure, and provides another option if you'd rather upgrade your existing drive than spend the clams on a rugged one. It includes a USB port, making your data accessible even when the case is closed, and will set you back $30 according to WD. Lizard not included.
Western Digital Photos app on iOS and Android update allows sharing directly to WD TV Live Hubs
The latest version of the WD Photos app for iOS and Android devices has a new trick, it can directly share photos from your mobile device to a WD TV Live Hub set-top box. The press release calls it the first smartphone-to-HDTV sharing app, but we've seen similar concepts from Verizon's Flex View and apps that use DLNA to share media from mobile to the TV or TV connected devices. Still, one button press sharing is a neat trick and with the addition of the free app may be a nice feature to compete with other set-top boxes like the Roku family, Boxee Box or the Apple TV's tight iTunes / iPhoto integration. Users can grab the apps from iTunes or the Android Market at the links below, there's more details available in the press release after the break.
Western Digital's new My Book Studio Edition II has 6TB on offer, but no Thunderbolt or USB 3.0
If you want a lot of the GBs in not a lot of space, 3TB per disk is about as good as you're going to get. Western Digital has slapped two of its triple-terabyte monsters into a dual-disk enclosure and paired it with eSATA and FireWire 800 interfaces to create the My Book Studio Edition II. There's a good 'ol USB 2.0 hole in there as well, but no USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt for those getting hip with the new connections. Time Machine support is baked in as well as your choice of RAID configurations, all at a cost of $549.99. That's a good bit more than you'd spend if you bought a pair of disks and an empty enclosure, but such is the price of convenience. %Gallery-119224%
WD throws out 2.5-inch 750GB Scorpio Black hard drive, makes your laptop beg for an upgrade
Too broke to spring for an SSD? Fret not, as you're most definitely not alone. Thankfully for you, Western Digital's still cranking out lust-worthy hard drives, with its latest Scorpio Black being particularly so. Offering 750GB of capacity, 16MB of cache and a 7200RPM spindle speed, the WD7500BPKT relies on Advanced Format technology to make the magic happen. It's on sale starting right about now for $149, giving you little reason to continue to conserve space on that 128GB drive you've been living with for the past three years.
Seagate reportedly turned down takeover bid from Western Digital
File this one under industry-changing mergers that never were -- Bloomberg is reporting that Seagate rejected a takeover bid from rival Western Digital in October, which would have created a hard drive company to dwarf all others. According to "two people with knowledge of the matter," Western Digital was willing to offer as much as ten to fifty percent more than a competing takeover proposal from TPG Capital, which had already put more than $7.5 billion on the table for Seagate. As you might expect, however, the sheer size of the merger was apparently largely responsible for its refusal. Not only would it have created a huge amount of product overlap and likely led to numerous management departures, but it would have almost certainly faced some pretty significant antitrust obstacles. Of course, neither company is actually commenting on the matter itself and, for the time being at least, it looks like Seagate is content with going it alone.
Apricorn's Mac Array puts 512GB of RAIDed SSD into a single Mac Pro PCIe slot
So, the whole wide world knows that the inside of your Mac Pro is fairly lust-worthy, but what's the use if you never crack open the side and install anything new? Apricorn -- a small, albeit respected name in storage -- has just concocted what may be the best reason yet to do precisely that. The outfit's new Mac Array is pretty straightforward: you'll get a foursome of 128GB MLC Western Digital SiliconEdge Blue SSDs strung together in a RAID 0 configuration, all on a single full-length PCIe X4 slot. That's 512GB of pure, unadulterated SSD power connected directly to the motherboard, and considering that it only takes up a single slot, there's nothing but a shortage of funds keeping you from adding a couple more and grinning over a 1.5TB SSD solution. A single Mac Array promises read rates of 760MB/sec and write rates of 524MB/sec, and if you double up, you'll see those surge to 1408MB/sec and 1027MB/sec, respectively. It's available now to make your every dream come true -- yeah, even that one about you dropping $1,499 on a new storage setup for your Apple desktop.
Western Digital stuffs 1TB HDD into Live Hub networked media streamer
WD's no stranger to the media streaming game, but things apparently just got serious. Gone is the My Book-esque design that has been used on all of the units prior, and in is a sleeker, sexier box that's quite clearly designed to slip right on top of your existing cable set-top. The WD TV Live Hub is easily Western Digital's most feature-packed streamer yet, with a 1TB HDD within for storing who knows what locally. There's also an Ethernet socket for pulling down content via the web or your local network, and a pair of USB ports allow for storage expansion or transfers. Naturally, it'll handle Netflix, YouTube, Pandora, Blockbuster on Demand and UPnP / DLNA streaming to your favorite game console, but the lack of inbuilt WiFi (it's available via an optional adapter) puts a mild damper on an otherwise fantastic sounding product. It's available immediately around the globe, with Americans able to snag one for $199.99 directly from WD or at Best Buy. Update: Looks as if Desktop Review has a lengthy review on this guy, along with a slew of user interface shots. The botto line? It's the best player yet from the company, though the price tag did present a bit of sadness. Hit it up for the full skinny. %Gallery-105974%
Western Digital ships 3TB Caviar Green 3.5-inch hard drive for $239, 2.5TB for $189
You know that 3TB hard drive that Western Digital slapped into its range of My Book external units earlier this month? Looks like it's finally ready to free itself from those shackles. WD has today announced that it's shipping the component 3TB Caviar Green drive (WD30EZRSDTL) by its lonesome, perfect for those looking to beef up their NAS drives or just add a capacious archive drive to their SSD-equipped desktop rig. The 3TB monster is hitting just under two years after the 2TB Caviar Green went official, with this guy boasting 750 GB-per-platter areal density and Advanced Format technology. The outfit's also shipping a 2.5TB version (WD25EZRSDTL) for those who aren't quite able to swallow the full three, and both of 'em are bundled with an Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI)-compliant Host Bus Adapter (HBA), which will enable the operating system to use a known driver with correct support for large capacity drives. Both units should be available to purchase from respected retailers as we speak, with the 3TB demanding $239 and the 2.5TB unit going for $189. Remember when the world's first 1TB drive in this form factor debuted for $400? Yeah... not too shabby! Update: Storage Review, Legit Reviews and Hot Hardware have put this thing through its paces, and they all seem pretty darn stoked on the performance. Though, LR did seem to run into a few HD Tach issues, so be sure to peek that carefully.
