IRVINE, Calif. – Mar. 20, 2012 – Western Digital® (NYSE: WDC) today announced the next generation of its top-selling My Passport® line of portable hard drives, offering consumers a fresh new enclosure design and the first-ever 2 TB capacity in a portable drive. Now available in five popular colors: white, black, silver, blue, and red, with a range of capacities beginning from 500 GB, the new sleeker My Passport portable drives offer digital consumers an appealing array of storage options that reflect their personal style. Additionally, the new My Passport drives offer

WD SmartWareâ„¢ automatic backup software and WD Securityâ„¢ for password protection and hardware encryption.
With the addition of premium finishes, specially-engineered to make the outer shell more resistant to scratches and fingerprints, the new My Passport external drives feature ultra-fast USB 3.0 connectivity; USB 2.0 compatibility; continuous, automatic backup software; and password protection with hardware encryption. The included software offers the flexibility to customize the drive to a user’s storage preferences: installing all features, just the components needed, or using the drive without the software. The new 2 TB model offers massive capacity in an amazing pocket-sized enclosure, affording plenty of secure storage for all of one’s photos, video, music and other important files.

Given the small form factor and easy portability of My Passport drives, the built-in security features of password protection and hardware encryption help protect files from unauthorized use, making the drives safe data repositories for data while offering peace of mind to busy consumers on the go.
“More than money, jewelry and other valuables, the item most missed if ever lost or stolen is one’s computer – and everything on it – so our goal in launching the next-generation of the popular My Passport drives is to encourage more consumers to protect their data before something happens,” said Jim Welsh, executive vice president and general manager of WD’s branded products and consumer electronics groups. “The new My Passport makes backing up and preserving one’s digital life easier, reliable and more secure than ever – it’s the perfect blend of monstrous capacity, reliability and user-friendly technology in a sleek form factor, now in five colors.”

Pricing and Availability
My Passport drives come with a 2-year limited warranty are available online at the WD store at www.wdstore.com and at select retailers and distributors. MSRP is $129.99 USD for 500 GB, $149.99 USD for 750 GB, $179.99 USD for 1 TB, $199.99 for 1.5 TB and $249.99 USD for the new 2 TB edition

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Deliver Preshow Keynote Address at the 2012 International CES

Arlington, Va., July 6, 2011 – The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® announced today that Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corporation, will deliver a preshow keynote address at the 2012 International CES®. Owned and produced by CEA, the 2012 International CES, the world's largest consumer technology tradeshow, is scheduled January 10-13, 2012, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"We are pleased to welcome Microsoft back to the CES keynote stage," said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CEA. "From mobile to desktop to gaming and beyond, Microsoft has a significant impact on all aspects of the consumer technology industry, and Steve Ballmer's keynote is a great way to kick off the exciting 2012 International CES. We are excited to hear Microsoft's latest initiatives and Ballmer's vision for where consumer technology is heading."

Ballmer's preshow keynote address is slated for 6:30 p.m., Monday, January 9, in The Venetian. Microsoft has used the CES keynote stage in previous years to unveil innovative new products, including the original Xbox and Avatar Kinect.

The full line-up of 2012 International CES keynote addresses will be announced in coming months.

The 2012 International CES will feature more than 2,700 global technology companies unveiling the latest consumer technology products and services across 15 major product categories including the latest in audio, automotive electronics, connected home technologies, digital imaging, electronic gaming, entertainment/content and more. For more information on the 2012 International CES, visit CESweb.org.

About CEA
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $186 billion U.S. consumer electronics industry. More than 2,000 companies enjoy the benefits of CEA membership, including legislative advocacy, market research, technical training and education, industry promotion, standards development and the fostering of business and strategic relationships. CEA also owns and produces the International CES – The Global Stage for Innovation. All profits from CES are reinvested into CEA's industry services. Find CEA online at www.CE.org and www.Innovation-Movement.com.

Intel is apparently going to launch its new Cloverdale processors along with Windows 8. The tidbit comes by way of Intel Director of Product and Technology Media relations Bill Kircos. According to Kircos the Atom Cloverview platform and the Clover Trial CPU are being designed specifically to work with Windows 8. The new OS is set for launch in the second half of 2012 right. There is a chance that the Cloverview platform will beat Windows 8 to market too.

The details on Cloverview are still scant at this point. What we do know is that the Cloverview will be one of the first processors built using the 32nm manufacturing process by Intel. Intel has maintained that the processor will not be aimed at tablets, but the 32nm shrink will mean the processor needs less power and will extend battery life on tablets and notebooks. The Intel Medfield processor will also be on the 32nm process and it is aimed at phones and tablet use. Time will tell if the parts can compete with ARM and others on power consumption.

There is one thing on which we can all agree: Office 365 solidifies that one of the most established technology companies in the world has realized that the computing world is changing and that it must make that transition or die.

Perhaps the most telling statement about this transition, particularly of business IT moving from a locally deployed systems world to one hosted in the cloud, was an anecdote from Ballmer about a small business customer. The customer was pondering placing a jacuzzi in his old server room because Office 365 would allow him to dismantle many of the servers running his on-premise infrastructure.

Ballmer admitted he wasn’t sure if that customer was joking or not, but what he said next was no joke: with Office 365, one Microsoft customer was able to take 60 servers offline.

Microsoft executives drove home not only the benefits of Office 365 but also improvements made since the beta was released in April. According to Eron Kelly, senior director of online services at Microsoft, there have been some enhancements since the beta release, including scalability improvements and some changes to the UI.

“In the small business offering, there have been improvements in the way Web apps are profiled, things have popped up a bit more. These changes are based on feedback,” he said.

Kelly also waved off criticism that Microsoft is late to the cloud space. “For me personally it’s kind of funny when I hear that,” he said. “I started working in late 2004, early 2005 on cloud services. Late 2005, 2006 we put down the business plan for BPOS and now 365.”

He also addressed speculation that Office 365 could cannibalize sales of the popular Office desktop suite. “Over time we see [this] mixed shift – we’re excited about that–moving customers to the newest version more readily. We make more money, customers save more money, we don’t see this as cannibalization.”
Not everyone is so optimistic. Especially Microsoft partners. “What is the danger that clients will compare prices with their current hosting partner offers and then request Office365 services from their service provider as an agent of Microsoft, or worse still sign up directly with Microsoft?” blogger and cloud consultant Walter Adamson wrote in a blog post.

Mike Eden, president and CEO of Allarus Technology Management and a longtime Microsoft partner, also expressed his concerns. “Microsoft’s expectations that partners, particularly the SMB partners, are going to just jump and migrate all of their clients is very wishful thinking. The dollars aren’t there for the partner side,” he said.

Eden noted that a specific challenge is integrating line-of-business apps with the cloud and Office 365. “Without exception, every single one of our clients has a line-of-business app” and Office 365 creates “pieces in different places. It’s wonderful I can use my Office apps from home, but I can’t get to my accounting app—how does it interact with the cloud?”

Other vendors in the tech industy insist that Microsoft is too late to the cloud space. OfficeDrop’s Co-Founder and CEO Prasad Thammineni said, “Office 365 is too little, too late. iCloud’s APIs are better and more open. Contrast Apple’s combined phone and computer platform with Microsoft’s little-adopted Windows phone operating system and the choice to get the lion’s share of developer investment dollars is pretty clear.”

Microsoft has addressed some of its partners concerns. Tom Rizzo, senior director of Microsoft Online Services said “we’re very partner-friendly, we allow the reseller to release Office 365 licenses. Customers can come to us directly, or the partner can sign up for what we call a syndication deal. They are the front person and they become the partner on behalf of the customer. With the cloud model, partners have a more consistent touch with the customers. The great thing we have heard from partners is [the cloud shift] is not removing them, it’s placing them more in front of customers.”

Some partners are more in-line with Rizzo. “Overall, we see Office 365 as a big leap forward for Microsoft in the cloud services space,” said Tim Smith, vice president at Avanade. “They now have an offering that is marketing leading in terms of capabilities and has a variety of price points to compete in the marketplace.”

Office 365 is just off to the races and it will be interesting to see how it will be embraced and how its adoption will play out for partners.
As of today’s launch, Microsoft Office 365 is now available in 40 markets. Service plans run from $2 to $27 per user, per month. It includes Office Web Apps, Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online, and an external Web site in minutes, for $6 (U.S.) per user, per month.
Businesses can try it for free for 30 days by signing up at www.office365.com or from their local Microsoft partner.

With Microsoft now embracing GPUs in their future higher level language and OS roadmap, it makes the decision to go with GPU computing even easier for those programmers still on the fence.

Its intent with C++ AMP is to expose C++ language capabilities to millions of Windows developers with the goal of enabling them to take advantage of GPUs. It promises to give millions of C++ developers the option of using Microsoft Visual Studio-based development tools to accelerate applications using the parallel processing power of GPUs. CUDA C and CUDA C++ will continue to be the preferred platform for Linux apps or demanding HPC (high performance computing) applications that need to maximize performance.

In the Spring 2007, there was just one language (CUDA C) supporting NVIDIA GPUs. Fast forward to today and our customers now have a much wider selection of languages and APIs for GPU computing – CUDA C, CUDA C++, CUDA Fortran, OpenCL, DirectCompute and in the future Microsoft C++ AMP. There are even Java and Python wrappers, as well as.NET integration, available that sit on top of CUDA C or CUDA C++.

If you are a Windows C++ developer looking at GPU Computing for the first time, there is no need to wait. Visual C++ developers today use our high performance CUDA C++ with the Thrust C++ template library to easily accelerate applications by parallelizing as little as 1 to 5 percent of their application code and mapping it to NVIDIA GPUs. CUDA C++ comes with a rich eco-system of profilers, debuggers, and libraries like cuFFT, cuBLAS, LAPACK, cuSPARSE, cuRAND, etc. NVIDIA’s Parallel Nsight™ for Visual Studio 2010 provides these Windows developers a familiar development environment, combined with excellent GPU profiling and debugging tools.

The take away from Microsoft’s announcement today is that the GPU computing space has reached maturity, with the company that produces the world’s most widely used commercial C++ developer tools – Microsoft — completely embracing GPU computing in their core tools. Rest assured, NVIDIA continues to work closely with Microsoft to help make C++ AMP a success, and we will continue to deliver the best GPU developer tools and training.

Stay tuned for more details.

For 3DS owners, Nyko has the Shock n’ Rock cradle, which offers two times the battery life and four powered speakers, along with vibration feedback. The company is also showing off the Game Boost, an accessory that adds an extra hour or two of battery life. There’s also the Power Grip, which supposedly adds three times the battery without removing the device’s power.

Most extravagantly, there’s the Play Clock for 3DS. A combination: charging dock, alarm clock and powered speaker system. There’s also a line-in port for connecting your MP3 player of choice. It’s actually pretty nifty, depending on what the final price ends up being.

Pricing and release dates are still unconfirmed for all the products, but all of the items should be available in time for the holidays.

So what is AES? It’s a unique pre-programmed 128-bit encryption key which is designed to help prevent your keystrokes, which are transmitted over-the-air, from being intercepted and deciphered. So you can type away in confidence. Not only does the Wireless Desktop 2000 use advanced security technology, but it includes some pretty cool features for performance and comfort as well. The keyboard is paired with the Wireless Mouse 2000 sporting BlueTrack Technology for smooth tracking on virtually any surface1, Windows 7 Taskbar Favorites for easy toggling between applications and a pillow-textured palm rest for added comfort.

The Wireless Desktop 2000 is a great option for anyone looking for a new keyboard with great security and performance features. So whether you’re looking to upgrade or redecorate, the Wireless Desktop 2000 will help protect your information and keep your desktop looking stylish.

[1] BlueTrack Technology does not work on clear glass or mirrored surfaces.

- Suneel Goud, Senior Product Marketing Manager

Microsoft has teamed up with Tritton to produce a series of cobranded headsets, which will offer unparalleled integration with the Xbox 360, including on-screen battery status and 100-percent wire-free functionality with both game audio and chat.

Devastator with Base Station

The range is broken down into two premium wireless headsets, the Warhead 7.1 and Devastator, and an entry-level wired solution, the Detonator.

All three headsets utilize stereo 50mm drivers, though only the Warhead 7.1 supports Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II, and Dolby Headphone decoding for simulated surround sound. The Devastator and Detonator only produce stereo audio.

Both the Warhead 7.1 and Devastator utilize 5.8GHz wireless technology, for stronger, clearer connectivity, and come with a specialized wireless base station that uses only two cables connected to the Xbox 360 — USB for power and optical digital or stereo RCA for audio. Additionally, the base stations accept auxiliary input from iPods or smartphones.

Watch our Tritton Headset Preview

For those who want to share the experience, the base stations bundled with the Warhead 7.1 and Devastator can feed audio to four headsets simultaneously. Both also support three different listening modes for either gaming, movies, or music.

All three headsets feature active voice monitoring, so you’ll never find yourself shouting unnecessarily, as well as removable boom microphones with easy-to-reach mute buttons, and an LED lights located at the end to indicate when the microphone is active.

Detonator, Devastator, Warhead 7.1

For power, the Detonator is powered by wired USB, while the Devastator uses AA battery, and the Warhead 7.1 uses a specialized rechargeable battery pack system. The wireless transmitter base station features an integrated battery charger, allowing users to seamlessly swap between two included battery packs for uninterrupted gameplay. Since the base station is powered by the Xbox 360, if you power down the console before the battery is fully recharged, it will continue charging through standby power until complete.

In terms of design, all three headsets feature earcups that turn inward for easy shoulder resting, as well as streamlined headband padding, and isolating around the ear padding. The Devastator and Warhead 7.1 sport easily accessible volume, preset, power, voice monitoring, and syncing controls built into the headsets themselves, while the Detonator has an inline cable controller.

Warhad 7.1 Headband

Though official pricing and release information has yet to be revealed, Tritton assures us that all three models will be available before Holiday 2011 and none of the headsets will exceed $300.

TAIPEI, Taiwan, June 1, 2011 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) announced today that its upcoming award-winning Snapdragonâ„¢ family of smart mobile processors, including the MSM8960â„¢ with integrated 3G/LTE modem, is designed to power devices running the next version of Windows. The companies’ collaboration continues to address the converging and fast-changing mobile computing landscape, and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon family of dual-core and quad-core processors will enable optimal computing performance, extended battery life and connectivity, and top-notch graphics and multimedia in devices.

“Qualcomm and Microsoft have a long and productive history of collaboration focused on driving innovation forward, and we are pleased to be among the leaders of the next evolution of mobile computing,” said Luis Pineda, senior vice president of product management, computing and consumer products at Qualcomm. “Our upcoming family of Snapdragon processors is intelligently integrated, optimized for mobile and built smarter, making it the ideal processor to address consumers’ growing demands for new, innovative experiences and usage scenarios that we believe will be delivered by the next version of Windows.”

The first processor in the Snapdragon family to power devices using the next version of Windows will be the MSM8960, which is sampling this month, followed by the quad-core Snapdragon APQ8064â„¢, which is anticipated to sample in early 2012. Qualcomm has built its Snapdragon family of mobile processors from the ground up to deliver enhanced power efficiency for devices running the next version of Windows. The MSM8960 from the Snapdragon family of mobile processors provides the first dual-core solution with an integrated multi-mode 3G/LTE modem and is designed to meet the multi-tasking requirements of the next version of Windows. The Snapdragon family of mobile processors will include dual and quad asynchronous CPU cores that can be independently controlled to deliver maximum performance at maximum efficiency.

“Windows 8 will enable customers to have the flexibility, connectivity and power that they expect from Windows today with new, touch-only devices like tablets. This will require high-performing, low-power processors like those from Qualcomm, with features like 3G and 4G wireless wide area network (WWAN) connectivity,” said Mike Angiulo, corporate vice president of Windows planning, hardware and PC ecosystem. “We collaborate with Qualcomm because Snapdragon-powered devices will help Windows 8 consumers experience more out of their Windows device and enable hardware manufacturers to try exciting new PC designs.”
Qualcomm will be showcasing the latest Snapdragon-powered tablets and smartphones at COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2011. For more information on Snapdragon processors, please visit www.qualcomm.com/snapdragon.