Friday, October 9, 2009

Samsung Announced Its First Internal Blu-ray Disc Combo Drive

Samsung has launched an internal Blu-ray disc COMBO, the SH-B083, which marks the company's first attempt to enter the market of Blu-ray drives for PCs.

The Samsung Blu-ray disc (BD) drive is available with capacities of up to 25GB for a single layer disc and 50GB for a double layer disc for use in PCs. The drive reads BD-R and BD-ROMs at up to 8x speeds. The COMBO drive also reads CDs at up to 40x and DVDs at up to 16x.

Samsung?s fast dual layer jumping algorithm, the new SH-B083 COMBO drive features an average access speed of 350ms which is much faster than any other drive on the market. The new drive reads Blu-ray discs and reads and writes CD/DVDs.

"With Samsung?s new BD drive, users can not only watch HD movies on their PC but they can also record HDTV broadcasting on to a DVD with the bundled software Cyberlink Powerproducer. They also can record HD camcorder movies to a DVD disc with Powerproducer," said John Suh, director of OMS sales and marketing.

The higher precision Blu-ray technology dictates the need for more advanced reliability features to ensure HD viewing. The SH-B083 is equipped with two lenses for more stable reading and writing: one lens for BD read and the other lens for CD/DVD read/write. Spherical aberration compensation technology (SACT) improves reading quality on a BD drive whose protective layer does not have a uniform thickness. Also, precision step control technology (PSCT) accommodates the higher resolution in the optical pickup head unit (OPU) position control system that the smaller track pitch of BD demands.

For more precise BD drive reading, Samsung?s drive includes a four point skew adjustment instead of the typical three point skew found in regular DVD writers. For increased thermal reliability, an optical pickup lens cooling system reduces heat buildup.

The new eco-friendly drive features low power consumption and an aerodynamic frame design to lower acoustic noise by preventing pressure concentration in several areas of the bezel and door.

Samsung has also paid attention to the design of its BD drive, which comes with a mirror front door design and blue LED.

The drive will ship in the U.S. with Cyberlink TrueTheater software, which allows users to upscale a DVD resolution movie to full HD resolution. Like all the other Samsung ODD drives, the BD drive supports Firmware Live Update which allows users to ensure they always have the latest BD drive firmware version.

Samsung has delayed the introduction of BD drive for PCs for quite some time now. The company's policy could make sense, considering the slow expansion of the format itself. Despite a rapid rise in the sales of consumer Blu-ray players, Blu-ray Drives (BDs) in PC systems have been left singing the blues.

According to iSupply, by 2013, BDs will be found in only 16.3 percent of PCs shipped, up from 3.6 percent in 2009. The research firm predicts that BDs won't be replacing DVDs as the primary optical drive in PC systems through at least the year 2013. The two main reasons hampering the adoption of Blu-ray drives in PCs include costs as well as the lack of a library of movies that justifies the need for consumers to move to a different drive in their PCs.

The SH-B083 is available from November in the US through retail and eRetail channels like amazon.com and newegg.com.

Twitter is seeking for translators

Twitter is currently available only in English and Japanese. The company is seeking for translators in order to roll out support for French, Italian, German, and Spanish.

These languages are commonly referred to using the acronym FIGS and are often the starting point for services like Twitter when its time for more language support.

Starting today,Twitter is offering a simple tool for people with experience in other languages to suggest translations for the Twitter web site.

Twitter is inviting a small group of people to become volunteer translators at first. As more folks volunteer, the translation suggestions should accumulate faster and Twitter will have enough material to respond by making Twitter available not only in English and Japanese but also French, Italian, German, and Spanish.

Plextor Launched PX-B940SA 12x Blu-ray Burner

Plextor launched the PX-B940SA, a Blu-ray disc burner which writes at 12-speed (BD-R DL/SL), an important step up when burning complete Blu-ray discs which can hold anything up to 50GB of data.

Using a Serial ATA
interface, the internal Plextor PX-B940SA offers extra convenience through faster operation and saving time.

The PX-B940SA not only uses the latest Blu-ray technology, but is also a dual-layer DVD drive that combines multiple formats - DVD R/RW and RAM - into one. It can accept both 12cm and 8cm discs (in the horizontal position) and has an 8MB buffer to ensure there is no data interruption.






Write speeds: 12x BD-R DL/SL, 2x BD-RE, 16x DVD+R/-R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+/-R DL, 5x DVD-RAM, 40x CD-R and 24x CD-RW.



The Plextor PX-B940SA will be available from November 2009 at Plextor?s network of dealers. It is covered by Plextor?s Fast Warranty Service (2-year warranty in the EU, Norway and Switzerland (Collect & Return); other countries 1-year carry-in).

Software is included: InterVideo WinDVD 8, Ulead MusicFactory 5 and Ulead Burn.NOW 4.5 .

Download apple iPhone software 3.1.2

Rest in peace, iPhone 3.1. It was just last month that the most recent iPhone update hit the streets and already it’s been superseded by the younger, faster, better-looking iPhone 3.1.2 that Apple released on Thursday. Whither iPhone 3.1.1? I’m afraid we may never know.

iPhone 3.1.2 appears to be focused mainly on providing bug fixes for a few problems introduced in iPhone 3.1. Apple specifically calls out a problem where iPhones may not wake from sleep—it remains to be seen if this is the issue that some users had dubbed "coma mode". In addition, the update fixes an intermittent issue that could interfere with cellular network services and require a restart, and a bug that could cause a crash while streaming video.

Once you update to 3.1.2, you'll also be able to download a new carrier update, though what exactly that's for we don't know at this time.

The update weighs in at a hefty 306.2MB on my iPhone 3GS, and is also available for the iPhone 3G, the original iPhone, and the iPod touch. As always, it's available only via iTunes.

Download

Reliance BIG TV announces Diwali Movie Festival

As part of its on-going festive celebrations, Reliance BIG TV has announced the showcase of 3 Blockbuster Bollywood movies on their Pay-Per-View channels. The recently released Aushotosh Gowariker movie What’s your Rashee?, Abhishek Kapoor directed Rock On and Black Friday by Anurag Kashyap will be available only on Reliance BIG TV from 12 October,09 onwards for a month. The content offering is presented keeping in mind the festive period, for wholesome family viewing experience by Reliance BIG TV.

“Reliance BIG TV has always offered great content and value to its subscribers. With this initiative we’re ensuring that our subscribers enjoy the festive period by watching movies on our Pay-Per-View channels. Reliance BIG TV is wishing it’s subscribers a prosperous Diwali by offering a bouquet of movies like What’s Your Rashee? Rock On and Black Friday” said Mr. Umesh Rao, Senior Vice-President, Reliance BIG TV.

This latest Bollywood flick, What’s Your Rashee? is directed by well-known director, Aushotosh Gowariker featuring Harman Baweja and Priyanka Chopra. Harman plays an eligible bachelor who has to save his family from calamity of loans and must find a bride in 10 days. The story takes an interesting turn when he decides to meet one girl from each horoscope to find the one who fits his horoscope.

Rock On, a movie of four friends namely Aditya (Farhan), Joe (Arjun), KD(Purab) and Rob (Luke Kenny), fight hard to take their band ‘Magik’ to the position of number one. But no victory comes without its different effects. The story rolls for ten years and fate conspires to bring them together again and sets them on a journey back to where they left off. The reunion gives a rebirth to the band – Magik. Anurag Kashyap’s, Black Friday is a movie about the conspiracy and conspirators, the people who engineered the heinous and monstrous crime and the aftermath of 1993 Mumbai Blasts.

This is a part of Reliance BIG TV’s effort to showcase new releases on its DTH platform especially during the festive season and offer innovative content to its subscribers. This festive offering gives the entire family an opportunity to view the film together on Reliance BIG TV at an attractive price of only Rs 75/-, 50/- and 25/- for What’s Your Rashee? Rock On and Black Friday respectively.

Dell will Release Its First Smartphone With AT&T

 Dell reportedly plans to launch a smartphone with Google's Android mobile software on carrier AT&T's network, marking the PC maker's first foray into the U.S. cellphone arena.

A source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters Dell plans to introduce a U.S. version of its "oPhone" for China -- which runs on Android -- and that the device had been certified by AT&T for its domestic network.

The Wall Street Journal wrote Dell's Android phone for AT&T would come with a touch-screen and a camera. The paper added that the phone could be launched as soon as early 2010.

On Tuesday, Google said it was partnering with Verizon Wireless to co-develop multiple phones based on Android. They plan to bring two phones to market this year.