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With consumer’s growing interests in the so called ultra-low cost PC (ULPC) market, it seems only logical for data storage companies to take advantage of the situation and come up with something that is very essential for most ULPCs available on the market today. We’re talking about solid state drives (SSD), and SanDisk has come up with its 16GB pSSD to add to its line-up of flash-memory based SSD’s.

In addition to the 16GB model, SanDisk’s new pSSD is also available with 4 and 8GB capacities. Regardless of which model you get, the SanDisk pSSDs all boast a 39mbps read speed and 17mbps write speed. The SanDisk pSSD’s were built using multi-level Cell and Single-Level Cell flash memory.

If you’re wondering about the pSSD’s other features, we are glad to inform you that the pSSD are packed inside a memory device which is 1/10 of the weight of a 1.8-inch HDD. The pSSD is also rugged, reliable and fast, is also utilizes a standard low power interface and form factor. These new pSSD’s from SanDisk should definitely help boost the popularity of future ULPC’s.

Via [Electronista]

Standing by their tag line, Fujitsu will truly “make your data portable” with its new Handy Drive 400, offering 400GB of space for any kind of digital contraption you can throw at it. The drive measures a convenient 3.23 x 5.57 x 0.87-inches and weighs 8.12-ounces. This 4200rpm hard drive will connect to your PC just fine over USB 2.0, although there’s no word whether this will support Firewire. Available now in Japan for 216€ or just a little over $330 USD. Yes, it’s pricey.

Via [Akihabara News]

Let me get this straight. Creative is getting sued for supposedly lying about the true capacities of their HDD-based MP3 players, and as punishment they are going to reward customers who bought such products made between May 5, 2001 and April 30, 2008 with either a 50% discount on a new 1GB player or 20% off any item purchased at their online store? Apparently, a few “concerned citizens” thought of throwing out this class action suit, which if approved by the court would force Creative to “make certain disclosures regarding the storage capacity of its hard disc drive MP3 players,” aside from the aforementioned “monetary” rewards. So it seems being creative isn’t always all that helpful, no? We’ll find out soon enough, since applications are due by August 7, 2008. Don’t forget to bring your authentic serial numbers now, ok?

Read [Creative HDD MP3 Settlement] Via [Engadget]

Sony Japan has introduced two new Blu-ray recorders, the Sony BDZ-A70 and BDZ-T90. You got to give it to Sony for coming out with something new for every consumer product that they release. In the case of these two Blu-ray recorders, Sony has made their hard-drives compatible with Sony’s own portable devices, the Walkman and PSP.

Both the Sony BDZ-A70 and BDZ-T90 boast of 2 terrestrial digital tuners and 2 digital BS 110 analog TV tuners. Both recorders can easily connect to a PSP, Walkman and some NTT Docomo FOMA mobile phones for transferring recorded videos. The Sony BDZ-A70 has a 320GB HDD while the Sony BDZ-T90 has 500GB HDD.

Set for release in Japan sometime during the last week of April, the two Sony Blu-ray recorders will retail for around $1,600. As always, it would take some time before these two BD recorders reach the US market.

Via [I4U] Via [Sony Japan]

Transcend has added a new portable hard drive in its arsenal of data storage products – the shock resistant StoreJet 25 mobile. For a hard drive to be called portable, it must not only be small in size but light weight, high capacity and well protected. This is exemplified by Trascend’s newest portable hard drive, the StoreJet25 mobile.

Just by looking at the release photos of the StoreJet 25 mobile alone, you’d immediately notice its durability specifically if you noticed the extra-rugged silicon case that is covering the StoreJet 25. Make no mistake though, the rugged feature is not all for aesthetic purpose but it serves as a proofing for the StoreJet 25 mobile. It protects data damage due to accidental slips or falls. In fact the StoreJet 25 mobile has already passed the U.S. military drop test (MIL-STD-810F) hence making it a shock-resistant HD.

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To answer the increasing demand for high-volume data storage, Fujitsu Limited has unveiled its new series of MHZ2 BT 2.5-inch hard disk drives with storage capacity of 500 gigabytes.

The company claims MHZ2 BT is also an environmentally friendly product and a power-efficient hard disk drive since it only consumes 1.8 W of power to execute read and write operations. It is intended for use in PCs, set top boxes, digital video recorders (DVR) and external hard drive applications.

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Toshiba is making a considerable splash at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with its newest addition to the small form factor HDD market marked by an entry into 1.8-inch external HDDs. The highest available capacity, for a 2.5-inch external HDD is now available in bigger sizes, some as big as 320GB. The featured 1.8-inch external drives are expected to have backup and encryption and be available in 60GB, 80GB and 120GB capacities.

As if this isn’t amazing enough, Toshiba has also redesigned their storage devices to reflect modern tastes. They now have a smaller footprint and a sleeker visual design and a different color scheme that features three-color splash designs.

The new 12.5-inch 320GB HDD is available for sale now, that is, if you are willing to part with $199.99. The 1.8-inch external drives will be available later this year, in the spring. Prices are not available for these models at this time.

Read [Mobile Mag]

I’m not quite sure what you would do with a 1TB hard drive on your home desktop, but Hitachi is hoping you’ll need it.  In addition to your computer, the expected hard drives will even help you pimp out your TiVo for infinite feature length recordings in HD (exaggeration).  The company has already got 500GB drives (which look like they’re running about $300) under their belts so this shouldn’t be too difficult of a task to accomplish.  Get ready all of you video editing gurus out there for an truly insane amount of storage.

The Panasonic DMR-EH55S DVD-Recorder with HDD and the DMR-EH75VS DVD-VHS-HDD Recorder bring DivX to your home. Both models feature HDMI with up-conversion to 1080i. The Panasonic DMR-EH55 is a DVD recorder with a 200 GB built-in hard disc drive, SD slot and DV Input. The Panasonic DMR-EH75 is a combo VHS-DVD recorder deck with an 80GB built-in hard disc drive.

“These innovative multi-function Panasonic DVD recorders, combined with our DivX video technology, enable users to watch a wide variety of compelling content, how and when they want,” said Bill Holmes, Vice President of Consumer Electronics at DivX, Inc. “We are excited that Panasonic has expanded DivX into their recorder line to bring this solution to home theaters around the world.”