Storage drive maker Seagate has updated its previous outlook on hard drive shortages due to the floods in Thailand. During its latest results call, it said shipments will be affected well into 2012, and the total shortage is to reach about 150 million units. Another storage drive maker, Western Digital, has stated production volumes won't be resumed until the summer.
Just weeks after announcing its first Thunderbolt hard drives, Western Digital appropriately brought the offerings to show off at the Macworld iWorld expo in San Francisco. Electronista took a close look at several of the company's My Book Thunderbolt Duo drives, which were daisy chained to a Thunderbolt display.
Western Digital gave a more formal debut to its first Thunderbolt-equipped drive at Macworld|iWorld on Thursday. The My Book Thunderbolt Duo uses the fast 10Gbps port to feed two 3.5-inch hard drives at speeds that would be impractical for FireWire 800. On a 6TB Thunderbolt Duo, peak transfer speeds can hit over 250MBps (2Gbps), making the only bottleneck the drives themselves.
In announcing its latest financial results which showed net income of $145 million, Western Digital has offered an update on its ‘significant’ progress in restoring manufacturing capacity and supply following the Thai floods. The major hard drive manufacturer says that is continuing to ramp production in Thailand and had resumed slider production, which had been suspended since October 10.The company now believes its manufacturing capacity will be back to pre-flood capabilities in the quarter ending September 2012.
Western Digital has released the My Book Live Duo, a new external backup drive for Mac and Windows systems. The Duo takes its name from twin hard disks, which allow it to span or mirror content, depending on a user's preference. To support this it includes its own 800MHz processor, and a lid which opens to let people replace or upgrade a drive without screwdrivers.
Western Digital has updated its WD TV Remote app for WD TV Live and WD TV Live Hub users. The company will soon be adding Android support to the app as well as iOS devices (free, App Store). WD also announced it will be adding new streaming services for WD TV users, including VUDU and several sports networks.
Late last week, Seagate cut the warranty period for many of its popular hard drives. Western Digital (WD) has now followed suit. In some cases, the length of time has been cut from five years to one.
Western Digital has said that due to the dedication of its teams, it is recovering faster from the devastating floods in Thailand that have seriously constrained worldwide supplies of hard drives. In response, the company has raised its revenue forecasts to $1.8 billion for the December quarter, according to Bloomberg. After the floods had occurred, the company’s early estimates in October had only forecast sales of $1.25 billion for the period.
Seagate in an update warned that hard drive shortages relating to Thai flooding would last for the long term. It anticipated that shortages would go on for "several quarters." Although supply would improve in 2012, some PC builders would "optimize" by using fewer drives or models with lower capacity.
Western Digital has revealed that on Friday an arbitrator ruled against the company in a dispute between itself and rival Seagate over alleged misappropriation of confidential information and trade secrets. The preliminary award is for $525 million, not including any prejudgement interest. WD plans on challenging the award.
Japan's Nidec gave some hope to a quicker end to Thai flood-related drive shortages after it stated Monday that it had already resumed making hard drive motors in its factories in Ayutthaya. The company is responsible for making nearly 75 percent of the drive motors in the world and could ease production supplies at companies like Seagate, which are indirectly affected. Production in mainland China and the Philippines was also increasing and could help mitigate other losses, to the point where it was making 100 million motors just in the next quarter.
Seagate on Tuesday cut down its Barracuda desktop hard drives to just one core model line in what may be as much a supply issue as simplification. It will drop both the Barracuda Green and XT lines and fold some of their features into the main series, with performance features like SmartAlign (4K data block) formatting and hybrid SSD/hard drive models simply showing up in the regular line. Storage will start at 250GB and peak at the previous 3TB.
Seagate and Western Digital both warned late this week that continued flooding in Thailand was worsening shortages. Western Digital has been the worst affected and anticipated a major hit to supply of its hard drives made in the country. Seagate's main plants were unaffected so far, but many of the smaller companies supplying parts were temporarily shut down, the company said.
Sony has warned that it has delayed indefinitely the introduction of two of its latest cameras as a result of recent flooding in Thailand. The company has been forced to shut down two of its three production units in the country, including those that had been preparing to roll out the new NEX-7 and Alpha A65 cameras. A worldwide shortage of hard drives as well is expected in the aftermath of the flooding.
Western Digital Corp. on Wednesday announced its hard drive production in its factory near Bangkok, Thailand has been stemmed due to the recent floods in the region. The current quarter's production will drop as the floods took out transportation channels, utilities, supplier facilities, and sometimes employee homes. The company was happy to say that its 37,000 employees in the region weren't hurt.
Western Digital on Tuesday brought out its next-generation WD TV Live media box and companion WD TV Live Hub. The new version has a revamped, tray-based interface and now has Spotify music. Listeners with a Spotify Premium account can stream at the full 320Kbps with support for making playlists, sharing, and getting access to others' content through profiles and the song inbox.
Western Digital has updated the Mac-formatted editions of its My Passport drives. The most basic drive, the My Passport for Mac, is now being sold in 500GB, 750GB and 1TB capacities ranging in price from $100 to $130, although the 500GB option is currently listed as out of stock. Each model connects via USB 2.0 and supports password protection, hardware encryption, and use as a Time Machine backup.
Western Digital leapt into mobile access for remote storage on Tuesday by putting out mobile iOS and Android apps to connect to its MyBook Live networked hard drives. Both the free WD 2go (App Store, Android Market) and $3 WD 2go Pro (App Store, Android Market) let users get at music, photos, videos, and general files from a My Book Live at home. The move provides a way to stream content that wouldn't fit on a phone or tablet.
Western Digital on Tuesday revealed it has made the Hulu Plus subscription service available on its WD TV Live Plus and WD TV Live Hub media players. US residents with a Hulu Plus subscription can watch new and old TV shows and movies offered by the service. Users have access to series from ABC, Comedy Central, FOX, MTV, NBC and VH-1.
Western Digital on Wednesday shipped its first 1TB notebook drive thin enough to fit most portables. An upgraded Scorpio Blue measures 9.5mm tall and is thin enough that a MacBook Pro or most other thinner but regular-sized notebooks can take the capacity. The slimming down comes through fitting 500GB per platter and cutting out the third platter that had been needed on earlier drives.
Western Digital has launched an update to its line of Mac-styled MyBook Studio external hard drives. The new units are available with power-conserving WD Caviar Green series hard drives in 1TB, 2TB, and 3TB capacities, and have both FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0 interfaces. The drives' brushed aluminum exterior helps eliminate the need for an internal fan, which reduces noise and extends drive life. The drives are also compatible with PCs but must be reformatted.
A pair of looks at the upgraded AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule has shown more upgrades and changes than first thought, including a slightly misleading view of the hard drive. One breakdown shared between AppleInsider and iFixit has shown that the new AirPort Extreme and presumably Time Capsule output about 2.8 times more power, at 392.64mW, than the previous version. A test wasn't immediately possible, but the potential existed for as much as a 60 percent range boost, though only in ideal conditions.
Western Digital on Monday upgraded its AV-GP hard drives to provide extra space for frequent media users. New 2.5TB and 3TB versions match the capacity of the best regular drives but are designed for always-on use and a relatively low power draw. Both of them are optimized for very heavy recording demands and can grab as many as 12 simultaneous HD video streams.
A source claimed Sunday night that Samsung was looking to sell off its hard drive business. The Korean company had set a target price of $1.5 billion but was eager enough to sell it for under $1 billion if it couldn't fetch the intended target. Seagate was the only named candidate from the Wall Street Journal's tip, but it wasn't clear how likely the US company was to land the deal.
Western Digital put out one of the largest capacity dual-disk external drives on Thursday by introducing a 6TB version of the My Book Studio Edition II. The drive pairs two of the still-rare 3TB drives, optionally in a RAID mirror or stripe, and is aimed primarily at creative pros who deal with very large photos or videos on a regular basis. It comes pre-formatted for Macs; it can be reformatted for Windows, but it needs at least Vista or 7 to see more than 2.1TB.
Samsung has found a way to build 1TB platters for hard drives, which will allow it to build 4TB hard drives for computers. The news came from CeBIT courtesy of German newspaper Heise and indicates a new record. Currently, companies can only produce 3TB 3.5-inch hard drives, with each platter at 750MB. The breakthrough also applies to notebooks, as Samsung showed off a 2.5-inch, two-platter, 1TB drive that is compatible with most average notebooks thanks to its standard height.
Western Digital said on Monday that it was buying Hitachi Global Storage Technologies for the equivalent of $4.3 billion. The move includes a combination of $3.5 billion in cash as well as shares worth about $750 million. The deal will see the WD name remain but see Hitachi GST's CEO Steve Milligan join WD as president.
Seagate reportedly turned down buyout offers from rival hard-drive maker Western Digital, according to a Bloomberg report. Sources familiar with the matter claim Western Digital offered to pay somewhere between 10 percent and 50 percent more than TPG, a company which had already offered more than $7.5 billion in an unsuccessful bid.
Western Digital on Tuesday announced it has added new online services to its lineup of WD TV media players. The WD TV Live Plus media player will have access to rent or buy new movie releases at the same time as they are launched on Blu-ray or DVD through Blockbuster On Demand in the US. Both the WD TV Lice Plus and the Live will also get newfound Facebook access, letting users upload photos and videos, update their status, view their wall and get News Feed info.
Western Digital has quickly followed up on recent leaks by launching the WD TV Live Hub. Unlike the company's earlier media streamers, it's designed to be fully self-contained and has a full 1TB of space that can hold large amounts of 1080p video and is enough to become a media server for the home. While built to play media directly to a TV, it can share its content to other devices on the local network over DLNA or UPnP and even to Android and iOS hardware.
Western Digital warned late Tuesday that the iPad was leading a charge that could hurt its business. It gave a lower than expected outlook for the fall as he expected Apple and rivals to slow the growth of traditional, spinning hard drives by 10 to 20 percent over the next several months or more. CEO John Coyne tried to reassure investors by asking them to look to the long term, where he saw regular hard drives still leading mass storage for the next 10 years.
Western Digital landed a symbolic milestone today by becoming the first to ship a hinted at 3TB internal hard drive. The Caviar Green 3TB packs 750GB per disk platter and is tailored to 64-bit platforms like Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Windows 7 64-bit that can see and boot from drives larger than 2.19TB. The drive builder goes so far as to bundle a special Advanced Host Controller Interface adapter so that 32-bit Vista and Windows 7 installs can still get to the full contents.
Seagate and WD will soon release the first 3TB internal hard drives on the market, says Dutch site Hardware.info. Images of the drives have surfaced, with European online retailers listing them for pre-orders as well. The 3.5-inch drives are called the Seagate Barracuda XT and Western Digital Caviar Green.
Western Digital has unveiled its new My Book Live home network drive that delivers transfer speeds of up to 100MBps using gigabit Ethernet connectivity. The new drive offers video streaming via its built-in DLNA media server and includes automatic back-up software for Windows machines. It is also compatible with Apple’s Time Machine.
Western Digital today unveiled three additions to its external drive line. An updated My Passport Essential is Western Digital's smallest portable drive, and has a storage capacity of 500GB with USB 3.0 new to the group. The My Passport Essential SE portable drive comes in either 750GB or 1TB capacity and also uses USB 3.0. The My Book Essential desktop external drive also now reaches 3TB with the faster speed intact.
Western Digital has introduced the Livewire Powerline AV kit, a HomePlug AV-compatible networking system that sends data throughout a home via electrical outlets. The system provides a way for users to configure a high speed network without running wires or relying on Wi-Fi signals.
Toshiba said today that it had successfully tested a new hard disk technology that packs in 2.5 terabits of data per square inch. This marks a four-fold increase in density over today’s hard disks. While Toshiba has yet to prove that it can read and write data using this next-generation approach to bit patterned media, news of the breakthrough is significant as it comes at a time when the rotating media industry has not settled on an industry roadmap for the next generation of hard disks.
Western Digital dipped into the starter range of media hubs today with the WD Elements Play. It varies from from the Media Player series, including the WD TV Plus, in several key ways such as the onboard storage capacity. The WD Elements Play also strips out some features such as Netflix streaming and networking.
Western Digital expanded its set-top hubs today with the WD TV Live Plus HD. The new addition primarily brings Netflix video streaming and, unlike some other interfaces, lets users add movies to the queue from the hub instead of going to a separate device's web browser. Internet access beyond Netflix is also important as users can check Flickr photos, watch YouTube and stream Live365 or Pandora radio.
Western Digital today put out a new, high-end external My Book hard drive just for Mac users. The Studio LX replaces the usual plastic body with a modern, aluminum shell that both parallels modern Mac design and stays cooler when the drive is running. Much of the Studio's Mac-oriented features are the same and center on both the FireWire 800 ports and pre-formatting for the HFS+ Journaled file system.
Western Digital put out an update to the WD TV Live HD that makes it the first networked media hub to properly recognize Windows 7. Patching the firmware lets the hub show up as a destination for Windows' Play To feature. Viewers can now choose the content from the computer, rather than the hub, and don't have to load the media player first to load a video, photo or music.
Western Digital issued a long-expected update to its fastest mainstream drive today by adding 450GB and 600GB VelociRaptors. Besides doubling the capacity from the original 300GB, the new design supports 6Gbps SATA III with a larger 32MB cache. The company reckons that it can load data up to 15 percent faster even with the same 10,000RPM spin speed.
Western Digital today joined the ranks of those making thin 750GB mobile drives with an upgrade to the Scorpio Blue. Like its Toshiba cousin, the 2.5-inch SATA II drive fits its 750GB into two platters and can fit into a typical 9.5mm (0.37in) height used by most notebooks, including thin-and-lights. Most slimmer notebook drives have stopped at 640GB.
Western Digital has expanded its line of My Passport SE drives with two new capacities, 750GB and 1TB, formatted in HFS+ for Macs. Despite the higher capacities, both external drives still draw power from a USB connection rather than a dedicated AC adapter.
Western Digital has expanded its line of storage products with the My Passport AV. The portable drive is geared for video storage and playback, with support for a variety of game consoles, TVs, Blu-ray players, or other devices that can directly connect to a USB drive.
Western Digital this morning launched into the field of solid-state drives for the home by releasing the SiliconEdge Blue. The 2.5-inch SATA II drive is considered a drop-in replacement to speed up disk performance for notebooks or gaming desktops and has the performance to match. Among other SSDs, the Blue is fast with 250MB per second peak read speeds and 170MB for writes.
California-based Nazomi late yesterday sued several tech firms, including Amazon, Microsoft and Nokia, for allegedly violating patents it owns on translating Java code to specific devices. Filed in a Los Angeles court, the lawsuit complains that the three main firms as well as Garmin, Iomega, Sling, Vizio and Western Digital all have devices that supposedly copy its techniques. These include the Kindle and Zune as well as less common devices like the Slingbox or Nokia's tablet computers.
Western Digital today shipped its fastest My Book external hard drive, featuring the USB 3.0 interface, which is 10 times faster than the previous-generation USB 2.0 interface. According t the company, the "SuperSpeed" USB 3.0 interface on My Book 3.0 drives provides transfer rates of up to 5 gigabits-per-second, allowing users to open and save files up to 4.7 times faster than USB 2.0. In addition, the drive is compliant with the USB-IF SuperSpeed USB 3.0 standard to provide compatibility with other USB 3.0, USB 2.0 products, and USB 1.1 products.
Western Digital says it has developed a technique that provides more usable space out of a given hard drive capacity. Known as Advanced Format, it reduces the amount of overhead for each data sector by pooling together information. Instead of requiring a single Sync/DAM header and ECC (error correction) block for each sector, it would create much larger 4KB sectors that use one set of each header.
One day after it was spotted for sale at Best Buy, Western Digital officially introduced its second-generation WD TV Live HD Media Player. The device is capable of playing back full 1080p videos from attached thumb or external drives, as well as networked computers, on an HDTV.
