Gizmodo: blue

WD Scorpio Blue Drive Is First One Terabyte Mobile Drive Ever—Yes, 1TB

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 08:05:38 EDT

I seriously need the new WD Scorpio one terabyte drive. I want to be able to tote around all my desktop data, without any external drives hanging around, and $250 seems like a little price to pay for that.

LAKE FOREST, Calif., July 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — WD (NYSE: WDC) today announced two new mobile hard drives that reach new capacity extremes. The highlight is a one terabyte model — the industry's highest-capacity 2.5-inch drive available. Industry-leading 333 GB-per-platter technology enables the new WD Scorpio® Blue(TM) SATA 2.5-inch hard drives to offer mobile storage device and notebook users an enormous 1 TB capacity. A 750 GB WD Scorpio Blue model also will be available.

The WD Scorpio Blue 750 GB and 1 TB hard drives have a 12.5 mm form factor(1) and are ideally suited for use in portable storage solutions, such as the newly released My Passport(TM) Essential(TM) SE Portable USB Drives. Other applications include select notebooks and small form factor desktop PCs, where quiet and cool operation are important. Both WD Scorpio Blue drives deliver high-performance with a 3 gigabits per second (Gb/s) transfer rate.

"The convergence of the growing mobile computing and digital media trends produces demand for desktop-like capacities in portable devices," said Jim Morris, senior vice president and general manager of client systems at WD. "Our new WD Scorpio Blue drives enable people to take even more of their digital collections with them wherever they go and, realizing the value of their data, back up their notebooks on their My Passport drives."

WD Scorpio Blue hard drives offer high-performance, low power consumption and cool operation in portable applications. They are designed with WD features to be reliable and shock resistant while also delivering industry-leading capacity and performance.

WD Scorpio Blue Features

WhisperDrive(TM) - WD's exclusive WhisperDrive technology combines state-of-the-art seeking algorithms to produce one of the quietest 2.5-inch drives available.

ShockGuard(TM) - Leading-edge ShockGuard technology combines firmware and hardware advancements to meet the highest combined shock tolerance specifications required for mobile and notebook applications.

SecurePark(TM) - Parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface, resulting in improved long-term reliability due to less head wear and improved shock tolerance.

Price and Availability

WD Scorpio Blue 750 GB drives (model WD7500KEVT) are available now through select distributors and resellers; the 1 TB capacity (model WD10TEVT) is available now configured into My Passport Essential SE USB drives. The manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) for the WD Scorpio Blue 1 TB drive is $249.99 USD and for the 750 GB version it is $189.99 USD. WD Scorpio Blue hard drives are covered by a three-year limited warranty.

Sorry, The Midnight Blue Xbox 360 Is Not for Sale

Mark Wilson — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:40:00 EDT

Not only is this blue Xbox 360 so cool it can only be photographed at night; it's got twice the RAM (1GB) of a stock 360. Of course, it's only made for developers.

The Xbox 360 Midnight (totally a name I just made up) is Microsoft's latest 360 development kit. And its main feature, other than running test code from burned discs, is that it features double the memory of a stock 360—a little bit of wiggle room in the hardware for devs to debug.

So it looks nice, runs burned discs and might even speed through menus with a bit more ease. How much would you pay for such a system? I'm just going to toss $400 out there for your discussion. [MTV]

Make a Blue Laser Gun Out of the Corpse of an HD-DVD Drive

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 15:00:00 EST

Instructables has posted a guide for how to yank the blue diode out of a dusty Xbox 360 HD-DVD player and attach it to a (fake) gun to create.... a laser gun! It's a pretty easy little mod, if you have the equipment lying around (and a laser gun sight you don't use), and when you're done, you've got a blue laser pistol powerful enough to light a match or pop a balloon. [Instructables]

Blue Nintendo DS Coming February 10

Mark Wilson — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:40:34 EST

That sexy cobalt blue Nintendo DS is coming February 10, according to GameSpot ads. [kotaku]

Scientists Create the First Super-duper "Pure White LED"

blongo3 — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 14:45:12 EDT

The American Chemical Society is claiming that the "holy grail" of the LED world has been reached. A pair of Indian Scientists have created a pure white LED. No longer will we have to suffer with odd blue- or yellow-like white LED's. The method used to achieve the white color was so blatantly obvious, they used "phosphors made from semiconductor nanocrystals of cadmium sulfide mixed with manganese." The scientific duo is currently attempting to raise its production consistency so that it can be brought to the masses. [Physorg via ACS]

Rumor Smashed: Blue Zune Not Blue Zune

Jason Chen — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:35:27 EDT

False alarm. The Blue Zune we showed you in the Target ad isn't actually a Blue Zune, it's a Black Zune that just looks blue thanks to the crappy image. The black one does actually look slightly blue when you look at it (the doubleshot is blue), so we can see where the confusion comes from. But still, the image was REALLY blue. [Zune Online]

Target Ad Scoops Blue Zune Release

Jason Chen — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 16:30:32 EDT

Next week's Target ad shows both a $199 price cut in the Microsoft Zune player—something we've covered before—and a brand new Blue Zune. We haven't seen this anywhere yet, but it looks like it's blue with light blue doubleshotting, and will be the same $199 that all the other Zunes are priced at. If Target's going to start getting Zune scoops, we're going to have to start teaming up with Martha Stewart and selling crocheted underpants. [Electronista]

Sony's Blue Laser Diodes Down to $8 - PS3 and BD Player Price Cuts Soon?

Jason Chen — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:45:27 EDT

Good news for Blu-ray fans. Sony's just announced that they're ramping up blue laser diode production yet again, which will lower the price to just around $8 each by June. What will this mean to you? Well, seeing as the diodes were the reason for the PS3 shortages this fall (and contributed to both the PlayStation's and Blu-ray players' high prices), this huge windfall of diodes could mean lowered prices for all Blu-ray related items.

Some analyst from Wedbush Morgan Securities agrees, saying "Sony is definitely in a position to cut price," and that prices will be lowered once costs hit around $499. So those of you who are on the fence about dumping $599 may want to wait it out just a little longer.

Also, since HD DVD also uses blue laser diodes (a different type, and they just don't call theirs blue), this news could also mean they will ramp up production of theirs as well. – Jason Chen

Blue Laser Costs Coming Down; Could PS3 Price Cut Be Far Behind? [GameDaily]

Giant Big Ben Blue LED Clock

Travis Hudson — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:00:56 EDT

We love our clocks around these parts and this is a good one. It's giant, it's digital and it's blue, which is all you really need. The interesting fact is that the clock reads 4:20 in the product photo, which is commonly associated with an alternate hobby. I've personally never dabbled, but does this hobby possibly hinder vision? If so, pick up this clock and always know when Taco Bell is closing and when the cartoons are beginning. $120. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via Red Ferret]

Blue-Violet Laser Speeds Up Blu-ray Read, Write Times in 2008

Jason Chen — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 16:00:16 EST

Nichia, a Japanese company, has just made a blue/violet laser diode that will be able to write Blu-ray discs at up to 10x for double-layer and 2x for four-layer discs.

Why should you care? Well, if you've already purchased a PS3, you know that slow Blu-ray load times are causing game companies to cache data on the hard drive. With a faster laser (possibly in later iterations of the PS3), you'll be able to hopefully stream that same data off the disc itself. – Jason Chen

New Laser Could Support 10x Recording on Dual-Layer Blu-Ray Media [CDRInfo via PCLaunches]

Sizemodo: LG BH100 Super Multi Blue Actually Smaller Than Standalones

Jason Chen — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 19:45:07 EST

How is this possible? How does LG's Blu-ray/HD DVD player end up being smaller than the cheapest HD DVD and Blu-ray player? Apparently by skimping on the HD features, though we don't imagine that'd add any noticible size to the device.

So if you buy a LG BH100 instead of the Toshiba HD-A1 and the Samsung BD-P1000, you save shelf space at the expense of cash ($1200 vs. $600 + $400).

More after the jump.

– Jason Chen

Thanks to Sizeasy!

IUBI Blue PMP Updated: Bigger Disk, Lower Price

Charlie White — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 08:42:50 EST

We already liked the IUBI Blue personal media player when our main man Travis took a look at it in June, but now the dang thing's got twice as much disk space at 60GB and it costs $433, $17 less than its predecessor. Plus it plays just about every video and audio format you can imagine.

We've noticed that a 4.3-inch display size such as the 480x272 screen on this IUBI Blue PMP hits that sweet spot between portability and viewability. We want one. – Charlie White

IUBI upgrades its Blue PMP [Akhihabara News]

Colorful Sony PSPs On the Way

Charlie White — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 08:34:06 EST

You can have your Sony PlayStation Portable in any color you want, as long as it's black. Until later this month, that is. We've heard rumblings of the pink PSP, and now we know that's due on November 22. We're also hearing that Sony plans to start rolling out other colors, up to five in all.

The company announced the silver PSP will be delivered on December 14 with the blue one following closely behind on December 22. Is it us, or do these look like cheap toys? See two more colors and a couple of helpful hints, after the jump.

If you're really hot for different colors for your PSP, there's no need to buy a new one—just get a faceplate for $50, or you can get decal/skins in your choice of 40 colors for just $9. – Charlie White

Silver and Blue PSPs Coming Soon [Newlaunches]

Cingular Gets Blue RAZR

Travis Hudson — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 13:57:21 EDT

Oh joy. Now every piece of my wardrobe will have a RAZR or PEBL handset to match. Mobiletracker is reporting that Cingular has released the blue Motorola RAZR V3. Cingular is the first U.S. carrier to release this new, trendy color. It has the same crap on the inside: quadband GSM, Bluetooth, VGA camera, etc, but different casing. The blue RAZR is available for $99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a ball-busting contract with Cingular. Maybe my pink RAZR can mate with the blue RAZR and create a hideous puke green RAZR that will match all of my puke green blazers. – Travis Hudson

Motorola RAZR V3 Blue launched by Cingular [MobileTracker]

Cray to Create PetaFlop Computer with 24,000 Opterons

Charlie White — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 09:34:47 EST

Cray, that maker of supercomputers from days of yore, has decided to jump into the biggest ~~superschlong~~ computer contest, creating a machine it has given the prosaic name of "Baker." The company expects it to be the first computer to break the petaflop barrier. That is, unless IBM beats Cray to the punch with its newest honking monster, Blue Gene.

Baker will be up to the challenge, with 24,000 quad-core 2.6GHz AMD Opteron processors. It'll be no slouch with memory, either, where its makers are considering using between 187TB or 400TB of RAM, and have settled for just 11 petabytes of disk space. All this hardware squeezes into a mere 187 cabinets. But can it play Doom?

24,000 quad core Opteron system slated [The Inquirer]

Pentax His and Hers Digital Cameras

tgrumet — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 16:50:38 EST

You say you want romance? Valentine's Day would be nothing without Pentax's his and hers versions of its OptioWpi waterproof digital camera in red and blue. The camera is the same in all other features: 6.0 megapixel sensor, 2.0-inch LCD monitor, 3x optical lens and 9-point Autofocus. Just in cooler colors. For love. The waterproof part means that you can also submerge it in up to 5 feet of water. So you can't take it scuba diving, but the bathtub is fair game. Hubba hubba. Can you say "undersea crotch shots?" Goes for $350 and you'll have to order by tomorrow (Feb 7) if you want to hand that baby over on the 14th.

Pentax releases limited edition waterproof cam for Valentine s Day
[Mobilemag]

Specs and pricing for original Pentax Optio WPi [Amazon]

Lasers, Now in Yellow

tgrumet — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 10:17:00 EST

Oh yes, you read correctly. Now, you can get yourself a yellow, green or even blue laser pointer instead of that red one. I know, it's been a dream of yours for a long time, so feel free to cry or do a little dance. Whatever makes it real for you. Made by Laserglow, the Aries Series Professional Portable Laser starts at just $389, so really, what's stopping you from picking one up right now?

Aries [laserglow.com]