TechCrunch » Western Digital

Stock Up Now, Seagate And Western Digital Are Chopping Hard Drive Warranties In 2012

Matt Burns — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:18:45 +0000

You better overnight Santa an addendum to your Christmas list. You’re going to want to acquire as many hard drives as possible before 2012 rolls around. Both Seagate and Western Digital are slashing hard drive warrants for hard drives shipped next year. Tell Santa, tell your mother-in-law, tell you boss. All you want for Christmas this year are hard drives.

Currently the Seagate Barracuda XT, Constellation 2, ES.2 and Momentus XT hard drives ship with a stellar 5 year warranty. However, come 2012, the warranty drops to just three years. Seagate’s other lines are also seeing warranty cuts. The SV35 Series and Pipeline HD drives will soon have a two-year promise while the Barracuda, barracuda Green and 2.5-inch Momentus will ship with only 12 months of coverage.

Western Digital is also cutting hard drive warranties. The Scorpio Blue, Caviar Blue and Green will soon only have a two year warranty rather than the current three-year note. However, the company is letting buyers extend the warranties if they don’t mind coughing up a bit more cake.

These changes come after a period of amazing hard drive deals abruptly interrupted by mother nature. Widespread flooding in Thailand forced many consumer electronic companies to close factories, which in turn, caused prices to spike. Once upon a time 2TB hard drives could be had for less than $70. Now, as 2011 is coming to a close, 2TB drives are priced around $100 and steadily increasing. Hard drive manufacturers are no doubt looking at ways to keep prices competitive. Slashes warrants no doubt helps with short-term loses by increasing the profit margin. As always, back up your data. Hard drives do not last forever.

Western Digital Fires Up First Flooded Factory In Thailand As Recovery Continues

Devin Coldewey — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 01:12:17 +0000

The recent floods in Thailand have wreaked devastation on the factories in the area; some were under a dozen feet or more of water, and all manner of companies were affected by the damage. Nikon and Samsung delayed cameras and a shortage of hard drives has caused a spike in prices.

The recovery effort is progressing apace, and the affected areas are being pumped or drained clear of water. Power was restored in the last week in some areas and Western Digital has just turned the lights back on at one of its factories there.

It’s not as simply as just sweeping out the seaweed and waiting for the conveyor belts to dry, though. The production of hard drives is an incredibly high-precision business, and the slightest amount of warping or the slightest contamination of an instrument could do a huge amount of damage.

Western Digital expects to resume production of the mechanisms made there in March, though previous estimates suggested that it will still be many months more before they reach pre-flood levels of production.

The loss of these factories for such a long time guarantees a huge deficit in the number of drives on the market — the early effects of which we’ve already seen in higher prices. The market will likely settle down a bit once inventories are confirmed and long-term plans made, but Western Digital alone says they’ll be short at least 50 million units this year.

If you like, you can donate to the Thai Red Cross here.

Western Digital Fits 1TB On Two Platters For The New Standard Size Scorpio Blue HDD

Matt Burns — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:46:32 +0000

Western Digital is now shipping a new hard drive and you’re going to love it. The Scorpio Blue is a 2.5-inch 5,400rpm drive that manages to store 1TB of data over just two platters.

That means, unlike previous 2.5-inch 1TB drives, this boy will fit into any standard notebook. The old version spanned 1TB of data over three platters, resulting in a 12.5mm thick casing, which was perfect for small external storage drives but not so much for notebooks. The new one is only 9.5mm thick.

Both Seagate and Samsung previously announced similar 2-platter 2.5-inch hard drives. Seagate has yet to release it as a standalone drive though, instead sell it as an external drive in the FreeAgent GoFlex line. Samsung’s SpinPoint M8 was announced last month and ultimately destined for notebook use. But since that drive is not shipping , the $140 Scorpio Blue is the first, internal 2-platter 1TB hard drive to hit the market.

The Latest Western Digital My Book Takes The Mac Look To The Max

Matt Burns — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:23:09 +0000

Western Digital, like most storage companies, has long had a line of products designed for the Mac crowd. The latest incarnation of the My Book Studio takes up a notch with a brushed aluminum enclouser and perforated top grill — you know, just like the Mac Pro. Also like the Mac Pro, this Apple-ified Firewire/USB 2.0 drive carries a premium with the 1TB, 2TB and 3TB drives costing $150, $200 and $250, respectively. Got to pay to play, I guess. [WD]

The WD Nomad Rugged Case Will Protect And Serve My Passport External Hard Drives

Matt Burns — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:38:19 +0000

External hard drives are notoriously fragile devices. They do, after all, contain what is essentially a miniaturized multilayer record player. It’s in this spirit that Western Digital just announced the WD Nomad case for the My Passport External hard drive line. A elastomer interior holds the drive tight while a polycarbonate casing serves as the front line defense. Best of all the case has an included USB port so owners can still access the drive while it’s still protected. The WD Nomad is compatible with all the My Passport products and carries a $29.99 MSRP.

WD® KEEPS PRECIOUS MEMORIES ON MY PASSPORT® DRIVES SAFE FROM BUMPS, DROPS AND SPILLS OF AN ACTIVE LIFESTYLE

WD Nomad™ Rugged Case Protects My Passport® Hard Drives for Outdoor Photographers, Adventurers and Other Road Warriors

IRVINE, Calif. – June 14, 2011 – WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world’s leader in external storage solutions, today introduced the WD Nomad™ rugged case (photos), a durable case designed to protect My Passport® portable hard drives from drops as high as seven feet, moisture and spills and other mishaps associated with active, on-the-go lifestyles, such as those of outdoor photographers, adventurers and other road warriors.
The WD Nomad rugged case features a polycarbonate exterior and shock-absorbing elastomer cushion inside. It conforms to strict military standards (MIL-STD-810G) for ruggedness. The heavy-duty latch and silicon liner seal out dirt, dust, and moisture.
The WD Nomad rugged case is ideal for hikers, business travelers, outdoor and travel photographers, and others who professionally or personally bring their digital equipment and assets with them. The uniquely functional design includes an opening for the drive’s USB connector, so the user can access the drive while it remains in the case. In addition, a molded exterior ring allows users to attach a carabiner, cable, or nylon strap for more convenient accessibility.
“Consumers and professionals are more mobile than ever before and portable hard drives allow them to take their videos, photos and other files everywhere they go,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group. “As the worldwide leader in external storage, WD understands how to protect data on hard drives, and we have put the same commitment to quality into the design of this rugged case. With the My Passport drive and WD Nomad rugged case, owners can rest assured they are doing everything they can to protect their digital lives whether they’re traveling for fun or doing their daily commute.”
“My work as an adventure photographer/filmmaker takes me to remote locations all over the planet. I have always depended upon the ultra-reliable My Passport portable hard drives to back-up my images and video, but Mother Nature has often made this task a bit of a challenge,” said Bruce Dorn of the Directors Guild of America and WD Creative Master. “I am often in the wettest, nastiest, grimiest, and most remote locations, so I am thrilled by the new WD Nomad rugged case. Tough as a vault, these handsome new cases are now a permanent part of my kit.”
The new WD Nomad rugged case is compatible with My Passport drives including My Passport Essential™, My Passport Essential SE, My Passport Elite™, My Passport for Mac®, and My Passport SE for Mac.
The WD Nomad rugged case is available now at WD’s online store (www.wdstore.com) and select U.S. retailers. MSRP is $29.95 USD.

WD TV Live Now With Netflix 3.0 And CinemaNow

Contributor — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:30:42 +0000

Today, Wester Digital announced an update to their WD TV Live devices to include Netflix 3.0 software along with the addition of CinemaNow. CinemaNow, operated by Best Buy, can access more than 10,000 movies and TV shows that users can either rent or purchase. The Netflix 3.0 update allows users to now search on the TV without having to set up queues on a PC. Also, the Netflix update includes support for movies with Dolby Digital Plus.

CrunchDeals: 3TB Western Digital USB 3.0 Drive For $150

Matt Burns — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 13:45:16 +0000

I’m pretty satisfied that we live in a world where A) I can order a pizza online and B) 3TB hard drives are only $150. What more could you want? The USB 3.0 Western Digital My Book Essential 3TB drive is on sale for $150 at Best Buy — no coupon code required. Just jump over to the site and order it up with free shipping. The Best Buy price is $30 less than Newegg or Amazon. Best Buy via DealNews

Western Digital Stuffs 6TB In The My Book Studio Edition II

Matt Burns — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:29:39 +0000

The latest My Book Studio Edition is a massive digital tome for storing your pics, music and spreadsheets. The model has always been a big boy, but the second edition ups the storage to a whooping 6TB and now supports Apple Time Machine backups. The backside houses FireWire 800/400, eSATA, and lowly USB 2.0. The $550 price tag is a bit much to swallow considering there’s various NAS solutions like Drobo that offer so much more functionality for the price, but hey, who I am to question how you spread data over six terabytes.

WD Introduces 6 TB External Hard Drive to Support Increased HD Content Creation by Creative Pros and Mac® Enthusiasts

New My Book® Studio Edition™ II Offers FireWire® Performance and Huge Storage Capacity for Today’s HD Content Productions

IRVINE, Calif., March 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Western Digital® (NYSE: WDC), the world’s leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its My Book® Studio Edition™ II dual-drive storage system with a massive 6 terabytes (TB) of storage to meet the capacity needs of today’s creative pros and Mac® enthusiasts who create, store, edit and archive large HD video and photo files. The new capacity provides users 33 percent more storage than the previous capacity, while maintaining the same footprint.

Combining its extended 6 TB storage capacity and compatibility with Apple® Time Machine®, the new My Book Studio Edition II drive becomes an instant storage solution for a variety of professions including art and design, photography, legal and medical, and a host of other small businesses.

The system offers a quad interface providing maximum performance and flexibility including eSATA and FireWire® 800 when maximum performance is essential, and FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 when system flexibility is most important.

“Thanks to advancements in HD video devices including digital SLR cameras and HD video cameras, the quality and quantity of video content being produced by professionals and enthusiasts alike has grown at an astounding pace,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group. “The My Book Studio Edition II drive now available with 6 TB of storage provides creative individuals with the expanded storage and bandwidth they need to effectively shoot, edit, and safely store their video productions without the need to compress their videos or reduce the overall quality of them for the sake of available space.”

Extra-fast Performance and RAID Supported Configurations

Fast eSATA or FireWire 800 interfaces, combined with RAID-supported configurations, will yield the speed and responsiveness users need for a variety of tasks including fast, smooth video editing; rendering complex 3D objects or special effects, and saving/transferring enormous blocks of data in a fraction of the time it once took.

Formatted for Mac computers(1), these new storage systems feature:

Massive 6 TB capacity;
Extra-fast performance with four interfaces (FireWire 800/400, eSATA, USB 2.0);
Cool, eco-friendly operation with WD’s drives with WD GreenPower Technology that consume approximately one-third less power than standard dual-drive external storage systems and efficient convection cooling architecture and power-saving mode and designed without a fan to run quietly;
Automatic and continuous backup software;
User serviceability, enabling the user to open the enclosure and replace the drive inside;
Capacity gauge to see at a glance how much space is available on the system; and,
5-year limited warranty.

Pricing and Availability

My Book Studio Edition II dual-drive storage systems are available now at WD’s online store (http://www.wdstore.com/). MSRP for the My Book Studio Edition II 6 TB drive is $549.99 USD.

Hitachi GST Sold To Western Digital For $4.3 Billion

Devin Coldewey — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 21:30:11 +0000

The storage arm of Hitachi, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, has been bought by Western Digital for a combination of cash and shares totaling $4.3 billion. It was just last year that WD surpassed Seagate in terms of hard drives shipped, but both companies are facing a challenge as consumer and local storage trends more towards high-speed flash, leaving spinning drives in their dust.

There’s also cloud storage, but of course that relies on traditional spinning drives as well, since they still provide an excellent value for bulk storage. I don’t think they’re in danger there just yet.

What does this mean for consumers? Not a lot for now, but if all WD wanted to do was keep building big 3.5″ HDDs all year round, they would use that money to build factories. By acquiring Hitachi GST they’re also acquiring a lot of R&D and facilities. The next fight is probably creating a new standard for affordable bulk storage that doesn’t rely on a tech like spinning platters, something approaching endgame research-wise.

At all events nothing will happen for a year or two at least as the two companies learn to love one another, work out redundancies and hires, combine facilities, etc.

WD TV Live Now Packs Facebook, AccuWeather, USB Wireless Keyboard Support

Matt Burns — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 14:49:14 +0000

The Internet’s fav little media streamer just got a bunch of new notable features. Of course you already know what they are if you read the headline, but here it goes again: Facebook! AccuWeather! Deezer! and USB keyboard support meaning you can finally utilize a wireless keyboard feed through a wireless USB dongle to control your little streamer! All great selling points verse the similiarly priced Roku or Apple TV, but these features ride on the back of a major update for current owners. Nothing makes Jebus smile more than when companies update aging product lines with new features. Maybe baby squirrels…

LAKE FOREST, Calif., Nov. 23, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Western Digital(R) (WDC 33.71, -0.27, -0.79%), the world’s leader in external storage solutions, today announced the addition of several entertainment and social sites to the popular WD TV(R) media player family. WD TV Live(TM) (photo) and WD TV Live Plus media player (photo) customers will now be able to connect with their friends and family through Facebook(R) – including uploading photos and videos, sharing their status, viewing their wall and getting the latest updates from their News Feed – among other entertainment choices, all from their HDTV. Meanwhile, WD TV Live Plus media player customers in the U.S. can now instantly rent or purchase the newest movie releases the same day they become available on DVD and Blu-ray Disc(TM) through the Blockbuster(R) On Demand service.

In addition, new features for the WD TV Live and WD TV Live Plus media players include:

Deezer(TM): a personalized on-demand music service for listening to 7 million tracks anytime, anywhere and one of the most popular Internet and mobile music offerings in Europe;

Flingo(R): free Internet television from leading studios, TV networks, and video websites;

AccuWeather.com(R): a worldwide weather forecasting service; and,

USB wireless keyboard support: use any popular wireless keyboard with USB dongle to easily update Facebook status and conduct YouTube(R) searches.

“The WD TV family of media players lets our customers enjoy all of their personal media plus the best of the Internet on the biggest screen in the house,” said Brian Miller, director of business development for WD. “We listen to our user community and integrate their feedback to continuously improve the experience with our products. That includes working with our content partners to curate the best set of Internet services to meet customers’ needs.”

For more information on the WD TV Live and WD TV Live Plus media players, please visit the WD TV media player family website.

Price and Availability

The WD TV Live media player is available worldwide, and the WD TV Live Plus media player is available in the U.S. and Canada (1). Products can be purchased at select U.S. and Canadian retailers and online at wdstore.com. MSRP for the WD TV Live and WD TV Live Plus media players is $129.99 USD.

Western Digital Ups Its Media Offering With The WD TV Live Hub

Matt Burns — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:12:24 +0000

The WD TV has long been atop the enthusiast’s list of favorite media streamers thanks to its low price and robust media format support. But the just-announced WD TV Live Hub does things a bit different. While it still dances with local networks and USB drives, the Live Hub packs a 1TB hard drive for local storage. Nearly anything can be stored on this drive and triggers can be set up to automagically sync content from certain folders across your network to this drive for easier playback.

So now with the WD TV Live Hub, the media stream race just got a bit more interesting. There’s the updated Apple TV, Roku, this Western Digital option, and soon the Boxee box. You know what? Everyone is going to get at least a participation ribbon in this race. There’s more than enough of marketshare pie for everyone to get a healthy helping.

Of course this new WD TV supports a whole suite of Internet apps: Facebook, YouTube, AccuWeather, flickr, Pandora, Live365.com, and the two staples of Netflix and Blockbuster On Demand. Wireless USB keyboard support is even included, which will no doubt improve the overall Internet app experience. Around the backside is a set of composite and component jacks, as well as HDMI, USB, Gigabit Ethernet (finally), and a TOSLINK jack.

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1

The user interface seems to be wildly different from the previous generation. It looks like a fine UI now, something that even your parents will be able to work. The WD TV Live Hub will hit the usual electronic retailers starting as soon as today for $199.

Western Digital Starts Shipping 3TB, 2.5TB Internal Hard Drives

Matt Burns — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 12:56:38 +0000

Western Digital outed a 3TB external hard drive under the My Book line just a few weeks ago, but now, the same 5400 RPM hard drive along with a slightly smaller 2.5TB version are available sans the enclosure. Both drives ship with an PCI-E Advanced Host Controller Interface Host Bus Adapter that will add operating system support for the large drives. Even with this card, the drive will not talk with Windows XP either as a boot or secondary drive and won’t boot the 32-bit versions of Windows Vista or 7.

This goes back to the days of DOS when the LBA (logcial block addressing) standard was developed and is the main reason why Seagate, despite releasing its 3TB external drive way back in June, hasn’t released the hard drive itself on the market just yet. It’s a fustercluck of compatibility, but apparently Western Digital feels the world is ready for these drives. Fine with us. We can read a compatibility chart.

These drives aren’t all that expensive with the 3TB shipping for $239 and $189 for the 2.5TB version. Although unless you’re low on hard drive trays and must have the absolute most storage possible, 2TB hard drives are still a little better deal right now with a few options available around $100.

Western Digital Catches Up To Seagate With 3TB External HDD

Devin Coldewey — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 19:20:08 +0000

Seagate has been pushing its 3TB-per-drive advantage ever since it put out the 3TB GoFlex back in late June. They used ‘em to put 12TB into a 4-drive NAS, and I think some of that love must have trickled down to make this little 1.5TB baby possible. But their nemesis, Western Digital, may catch up in the coming months, having just announced a 3TB drive of their own.

The MyBook Essential 3TBis… exactly what you expect. It’s a MyBook drive with USB 3.0 and… yeah, that’s all. But what more do you need?

We’ll probably be seeing the new 3TB drives spread out to other Western Digital products soon, so if you’re a die-hard WD guy, just hang on for a little longer. The Register reports that the 3TB bug should spread to their desktop drives soon as well, which should be just in time for my new system to be built.

10,000 Hard Drives Stolen, Craigslist Hard Drive Market Crashes

Contributor — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 00:30:18 +0000

Thieves in Malaysia managed to drive off in a truck containing 10,800 Western Digital hard drives. Don’t expect to see the drives hit the market though, Malaysian police were able to identify the culprits, as they used to work at the warehouse the drives were stolen from. The Malaysian news site NST reports that the people driving the truck were in fact waved through security after being recognized by the guard on duty as employees. Apparently the guard hadn’t got the memo about the men being fired.

[via HardOCP]

Your Instant Network: Western Digital Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit

Nicholas Deleon — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:30:13 +0000

Western Digital has a fancy, new device, the Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit, that will extend the range of your network to anywhere there’s an electrical outlet. Sounds like HomePlug, right? That’s because it is! Funny how that works.

It’s HomePlug, so there’s not too much involved. You plug one bit into your router and into a nearby electrical outlet. Then you plug a separate bit into another electrical outlet, say, near your DirecTV box so you can order pay-per-view events without fussing with telephone wires.

The resulting network connection runs at up to 200 mbps, which should be enough to transmit even 1080p video. I would imagine that would depend on the quality of wiring in your house, however.

Could be handy if you want to use an Internet service and don’t have a nearby router and can’t tap into Wi-Fi.

$139 for the little guy.

WD TV Live Plus HD Media Player plays just about everything

John Biggs — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:56:21 +0000

Not to be outdone, Western Digital just released the Live Plus HD Media Player with Netflix streaming. The $149 box will stream just about anything to any TV and includes a direct storage access system, allowing you to stream video right off of a hard drive.

The device outputs 1080p video over HDMI 1.3. It also streams over Wi-Fi.

Product Page

New WD TV(R) Live Plus HD Media Player Delivers Thousands of TV Episodes and Movies for Netflix(R) Members to Watch Instantly

WD TV(R) Live Plus HD Media Player Enables Consumers to Stream Their Favorite Shows and Personal Content Directly To Their Big Screen TV

LAKE FOREST, Calif., June 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world’s leader in external storage solutions, today introduced the WD TV® Live Plus HD media player, which makes it easy for Netflix® members to instantly watch thousands of TV episodes and movies on the biggest screen in their home — their HD television set. The new Netflix interface enables members to browse and add movies to their instant Queue on the Netflix Website right from their TV.

In addition to Netflix, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player also enables users to stream personalized Internet content from YouTube™, Flickr®, Pandora®, Live365™, as well as the MediaFly network which includes daily podcasts from CNN, NBC, MTV, ESPN® and other online content providers(1). Unlike most other Netflix-capable devices, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player also lets consumers enjoy a broad variety of the digital media they already own, creating a unified entertainment experience.

The onscreen menu brings together all of the users’ available media in an elegant and simple-to-navigate interface, while the network capability enables users to stream movies from PC or Mac® computers, USB storage devices such as My Passport® portable hard drives, My Book® desktop drives, or network-attached storage such as WD’s My Book® World Edition™ and WD ShareSpace™ to their HDTVs. Compatible with Windows® 7, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player enables the Windows 7 Play To feature so users can initiate and control the streaming of video, music or photos to the media player and home entertainment systems from any Windows 7-based PC on their network.

The WD TV Live Plus HD media player fulfills consumers’ growing demand for large libraries of digital videos, photos and music. According to research firm Parks Associates, the average broadband household will see its digital media storage needs grow to nearly 900 GB by year-end 2014. And users are increasingly looking for easy ways to enjoy the content on the big screen. Parks’ findings reveal that the sales of connected consumer electronics devices, such as connected TVs and digital media adapters, is expected to more than double from 57 million units in 2009 to 115 million units in 2013 (Home Networks for Consumer Electronics 2009).

Similar to the popular generations of WD TV HD media players that preceded it, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player connects directly to a users’ HDTV and plays almost any file stored on a connected USB drive such as My Passport portable hard drives. The WD TV Live Plus HD media player features powerful media processing, which enables playback in Full-HD 1080p resolution. WD TV Live Plus HD media player also plays movies, music and photos stored on other popular USB devices such as digital camcorders and digital cameras.

“Netflix has become a ‘must have’ for consumer electronics devices,” said Netflix vice president of business development Bill Holmes. “We’re proud to align with WD to include Netflix on WD’s groundbreaking WD TV Live Plus HD media player.”

“While Netflix can be found on an increasing number of products such as Internet TVs, Blu-ray Players, video game consoles, and other stand-alone devices, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player is unique as it allows digital media buffs to access and play all of their own personal HD media stored anywhere on their network or USB drives. At the same time they can easily stream Netflix, Pandora, YouTube and other Internet favorites to their HDTV,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group.

WD TV Live Plus HD Media Player

Features of the WD TV Live Plus HD media player include:

Full-HD 1080p video playback and navigation with the included remote control and crisp, animated navigation menus;
Access to thousands of TV episodes and movies to watch instantly for any Netflix member with an unlimited subscription;
Wireless ready to support wireless network connection to your home network with an optional USB wireless adapter, which is sold separately;
Supports a wide variety of the most popular file formats with no need to spend time transcoding;
Play videos, music and photos from the Internet on your big screen TV and discover new music with Pandora Internet radio or listen to thousands of radio stations via Live365 Internet radio, daily podcasts from the MediaFly network including CNN, NBC, MTV, ESPN and other online content providers;
Ethernet port for wired or WiFi connection(2) to access files anywhere on the network to play movies, music, and photos from any PC or drive on a home network;
Turns a USB drive(3) into an HD media player and plays content from most popular USB drives, digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices;
Unlimited media collection, just add more USB drives for more space;
Two USB ports that allow seamless media playback from multiple USB drives displayed in a single list and sorted by media type;
Windows 7-compatible Play To feature enables users to stream Windows 7 computer files to the TV through WD TV Plus HD media player;
Transfer files by copying, moving or deleting files stored on a USB drive, a network drive, camcorder, or a camera to the attached USB drive using the on-screen menus;
Works with digital cameras, digital video cameras and any other digital imaging device that supports Picture Transfer Protocol;
Advanced navigation options including thumbnail and list views, media library and search;
Photo viewing to create custom slide shows, zoom and pan and search;
Movie viewing with fast-forward, rewind, pause, zoom and pan, view subtitles, and search;
Music playback with fast-forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, repeat and search;
HDMI® 1.3 port, composite video and component video output(4) for the highest quality HDTV or home theater;
SPDIF digital output that sends digital signals to your AV receiver for the best surround sound experience; and,
Ultra-compact design to fit easily into a home entertainment center.

Pricing and Availability

The WD TV Live Plus HD media player is available now at select retailers and online at shopwd.com. Covered by a 1-year limited warranty, the MSRP for WD TV Live Plus HD media player is $149.99 USD.

Western Digital outships Seagate for the first time ever

Matt Burns — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:30:51 +0000

Seagate is no longer the reigning hard drive king. Western Digital edged-out Seagate in the first quarter of 2010 by shipping 51.1 million hard drives.

That’s a 3.2 percent increase from the last part of 2009, which was just enough to pass Seagate who only shipped 50.3 million. But that’s only half the story. Seagate still managed to net more revenue than WD, which probably is more important to the investors anyway.

Western Digital has sold more hard drives this year than Seagate

Scott Merrill — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:30:46 +0000

Five hundred and fifty eight million hard drives were shipped in 2009. Think about that for a moment. Five hundred and fifty eight million. Of those, 175.2 million (or 31.4%) carried the Seagate brand name while 165.2 million came from Western Digital. According to The Information Network, WD pulled ahead in the first quarter of 2010, selling 51.1 million hard drives compared to Seagate’s 50.3 million sold. I guess that’s big news, if you’re really into hard drives, or have strong brand loyalty to the drive in your computer. Me, I don’t care so much.

According to Robert Castellano, president of The Information Network, the “mobile HDD market, which is WD’s strength, will outperform the desktop market, which is Seagate’s strength, in 2010.”

I’m still contemplating 558 million hard drives. That’s an awful lot of hard drives.

Via DigiTimes.

CrunchDeal: 1TB for $70

Contributor — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 01:00:07 +0000

Just to help you spend your paycheck today, we’ve got another CrunchDeal for you. Let’s say you’re running out of space, so you don’t have enough room to download Left 4 Dead 2. No problem, Newegg.com is selling a Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB drive for $70. This is the SATA 3.0Gb/s version, with the 4kb physical sectors. That makes it perfect for Windows 7, but no so great for XP. You can still use it, but it’ll require WD’s Align application. It’s still a great deal at $70, particularly if you have something like a NAS. The Western Digital Caviar Green drives actually run a little cooler then most other models, so you shouldn’t run into thermal issues.

[via Tech Report]

Western Digital Velociraptor SATA 3.0 hard drives are the fastest money can buy

Nicholas Deleon — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:00:27 +0000

It’s like Christmas morning for PC enthusiasts today. Western Digital has released its SATA 3.0 (that’s a maximum transfer rate of 6.0 Gb/s, which translates to 768 MB/s) Velociraptor hard drives. The Velociraptor name basically means “OMG FAST!” when it comes to hard drives. The thing is, unlike the last time Western Digital released Velociraptor hard drives, two years ago, solid state drives are on the market, and they’re clearly faster than even the fastest traditional hard drive. Doesn’t matter: if you’re looking for absolute, top-of-the-line performance when it comes to traditional hard drives, it looks like these new Velociraptors are the way to go.

You will, of course, need a fancy new motherboard to fully take advantage of the new drives. These motherboards aren’t exactly cheap: ASUS’ current top dog, the P6X58D Premium, goes for $309 on Newegg. You really do have to weigh whether or not it’s worth that kind of money to “future-proof” yourself (the motherboard also supports USB 3.0). I lean toward yes, if only because I like the idea of dropping fat cash on PC components.

Some people build and maintain cars. Others build and maintain PCs!

Right, so the drive! In the words of TomsHardware, “Once again, a hard drive carrying the Raptor name claims the crown for being the fastest desktop hard drive available.” You’re looking at 17 percent faster gaming performance (compared to the next fastest hard drive), 27 percent application loading, and so on. You’re encouraged to read the actual benchmarks—that’s why they’re there!

Now, let’s talk value. Western Digital wants $329 for the 600GB version. You can grab a 2TB (!) Western Digital Caviar Black for $279. (I have a 1TB Caviar Black in my PC right now.) Are you willing to pay a little bit more for a significantly smaller drive, but one that’s quite a bit faster? That’s your call.

Then it gets even crazier when you consider SSDs, though those are still on the expensive side at capacities of more than a few gigabytes.

I think the conclusion here is, yeah, these new Velociraptor drives are the bee’s knees. There are cheaper alternatives out there, but they’re not as fast. There are more expensive alternatives out there, but they’re faster, at least theoretically.

But let’s face it: if you’re the kind of person who buys $300+ motherboards then you can probably afford a hard drive like this. Heck, you can probably afford SSDs, too, so why not use ‘em both: install Windows on a super-fast SSD, then leave “everything else” on these new Velociraptor.

Or just look at the benchmarks and sigh, like me.