Western Digital have a media player out there called the WD TV Live and is only $120 at Best Buy. The TV Live sits between your PC and HDTV and enables you to view various media from the internet on the HDTV whilst providing an ethernet connection to enable media on other PCs in your home to be viewed too. Western Digital’s TV Live simply hooks up to the PC via a USB 2.0 connection and provides a 1080p display. Other specifications as follows:

* Supports AAC, MP3 and JPEG. H.264/AVCHD formats
* Dolby Digital and DTS decoders
* High quality progressive-scan picture
* HDMI port
* Ethernet connection
* 1.6 x 4.9 x 3.9 inches
* 10.7 oz

And over at Best Buy it’s a mere $120. We must admit we can’t see why you wouldn’t just hook up your PC directly to the HDTV but that’s just us. If someone out there has a TV Live please let us know why we should have one too!

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Surfing around the internet we occasionally come across a great deal and if you’re up for a bit of portable disk space then the Western Digital My Passport Essential may be what you’re after. It comes in five capacities starting at 160 GB expanding up to 500 GBs worth of zeroes and ones. There’s a whole raft of colour options too, too numerous to mention here. However here are some hard stats on the Western Digital My Passport external hard drive

* Model WDME5000TN
* Hard Disk Size 160 GB to 500 GB
* 3 year warranty
* Plays nicely with Macs and PCs
* 2.5 inch form factor
* USB 2.0 connectivity
* Spinning at 5400 rpm
* 2 MB Buffer
* 3.1 x 5 x 0.6 inches
* 6.3 Ounces

The My Passport is powered via the USB coonection and there’s no install required, just plug it into a USB port and you’re away. Here’s a price breakdown by capacity courtesy of Amazon listing the chepest colour option for each capacity.

500 GB at $99.99 (Midnight Black)

400 GB at $94.49 (Midnight Black)

320 GB at $79.95 (Intense BLue)

250 GB at $69.95 (Midnight Black)

160 GB at 59.99 (Real Red)

For some reason Amazon don’t want you to buy the 160 GB version, but the rest of the range are nicely priced. So if you’re looking to make your zeroes and ones portable then click on your capacity choice in the table to check out the Western Digital My Passport at Amazon.

As usual if you already have one of these portable HDDs then let us know what you think.

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Disk space just seems to be getting cheaper these days, and whilst the Western Digital Caviar Green 1 TB HDD has been out a while, we couldn’t believe the price of US$85 on it at Amazon. If you’re looking to upgrade your HDD then the Caviar seems like a good option with it receiving 4.5 stars out of 5 in customer reviews which tended to promote it’s power efficiency and quietness but highlighted a possible (if negligible) performance loss. For your US$85 you get no cables or power adaptor but if this is to be a replacement unit you may well not require them. Here are some details and specs on the Caviar Green 1TB HDD

* WD has reduced power consumption by up to 40 percent compared to standard desktop drives
* GreenPower technology yields lower operating temperatures for increased reliability and low acoustics for ultra-quiet PCs and external drives
* 1 TB capacity
* 3.5 inch form factor
* 7200 rpm spin speed
* 32 MB Buffer size
* 5.8 x 4 x 1 inches
* 1.6 lbs

Whilst the 1 TB Caviar Green may not be the latest HDD unit on the street, this US$85 deal at Amazon has to be one of the sweetest HDD deals around. That is, of course, unless you know different ….

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If you’re looking for a simple solution to network storage and backup then Western Digital may just have the answer with their My Book World Edition II Dual-Drive Network Storage unit. The unit comes in two capacity flavours, namely 2 and 4 TB, both of which are initially setup as mirrored RAID units to make your backup doubly safe. If you’re the gambling type or need the extra capacity, the My Book World Edition II can be unconfigured from this RAID setup to allow the full capacity to be available. Here are a few more details on the World Edition II

* backup software for scheduling automatic data backup
* act as a media server - with DLNA support for sharing music with their Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, wireless digital photo frames etc
* internet access to the drive via the MioNet remote access service and ethernet port
* talks nicely with both Mac and Windows PCs
* funky gauge to show when it’s full of zeroes and ones
* USB 2.0 port for extra capacity
* WD GreenPower Technology to suck less juice
* 166 x 160 x 99.00 mm
* 2.50 kg

Western Digital are offering the 2TB unit for US$400 and the larger 4TB version will set you back $700. Not bad for an all singing dancing networked external hard drive. We also managed to find the 4 TB big boy hanging out at Amazon for only $600.

We like the My Book World Edition II as you can probably tell - it seems to encompass all the file server requirements we can think of necessary for a home network. If you’ve invested in one of these suckers please let us know what you think.

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Western Digital have just added a couple of 500 GB portable HDDs to their Passport range. The My Passport Elite and My Passport Essential lines have had the new drives added and come with the following bells and whistles

My Passport Elite

* WD Sync™ synchronization and encryption software
* Connect to any PC and run MioNet® Key software to remotely access files
* Plug and Play

Both Models

* USB Powered
* Includes Google™ software to search your drive and manage your photos
* Speaks nicely to Windows 2000/XP/Vista and Mac OS X 10.4.10+, 10.5.2+ (not Essential)
* USB 2.0 connectivity at 480 Mbits/sec
* 15.0 x 125.15 x 79.5 mm
* 180 g

With the Elite rocking in at US$220 and the Essential US$200, these are nicely priced external drives and they both come in a good range of colours. The 500 GB capacity is a step up from the 400 GB maximum previously offered.

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The boys over at Western Digital have taken a 2.5 inch 300 GB spinning at 10,000 rpm and enclosed it in a 3.5 inch form factor case, which, would you believe, cools this little sucker down? Yep, that’s right, you can get your mits on a 300 GB VelociRaptor unit (WD3000HLFS) or a 150 GB version (WD1500HLFS) both of which incorporate a backplane structure which acts as a heatsink for those platters spinning around at 10,000 rpm. Still not impressed? May be you will be after a few more facts and figures

* 300 or 150 GB capacity
* 10,000 rpm
* talks nicely with Macs and PCs
* 3 GBps SATA interface
* 16 MB cache

And, finally, the price tags are US$320 for the 300 GB version with its smaller 150 GB brother weighing in at US$230. Whilst the uses of these puppies are pretty specific, anyone looking for some more performance out of their HDDs may not need to look any further as these VelociRaptors offer twice the capacity and are a third faster than their Raptor predecessors and are also cooler.

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Using a couple of 320 GB platters, Western Digital have unleashed the Caviar SE16 640 GB HDD. Yeah sure, there are 1 TB versions out there, but using only two platters the SE16 is a lot quieter, cooler and sucks a lot less power than 3 or 4 platter drives. Here are a few more specs on the SE16

* SATA transfer of 3 Gb/s
* 16 MB cache
* spins at 7,200 rpm
* 25.4 x 147 x 101.6 mm

The price tag on this puppy is officially US$140 over at WD but we’re sure you can your mits on one of these at an even lower price!

Source: Western Digital

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