Stories by Digital Arts staff

Sonnet launches first storage products with Thunderbolt

Sonnet Technologies has announced its first storage products featuring the superfast Thunderbolt connection. Developed by Intel and first seen in Apple's new MacBook Pros, Thunderbolt technology supports high-speed data transfer and high-resolution displays through a single, compact port. Based on PCI Express and DisplayPort technologies, Thunderbolt provides support for two channels on the same connector with 10 Gbps of throughput per channel in both directions.Sonnet's Fusion storage products that will be available with Thunderbolt portsy include a portable 2-drive SSD system, an economical 4-drive RAID 5 unit, and a professional 8-drive video edition RAID storage system. Sonnet's Echo Express PCIe 2.0 Expansion Chassis with Thunderbolt ports enable users to plug in high-performance PCIe 2.0 adapters such as video capture cards, Fibre Channel cards, Sonnet RAID controllers, and more to a computer with a Thunderbolt port. All of these products include two Thunderbolt ports to support daisychaining of up to six devices to a single Thunderbolt port on the host computer.

Canon boosts Ixus range with high-end models

The flagship, 14.7-megapixel Digital Ixus 980 IS brings several 'firsts' to the IXUS range -- including manual control, and a striking design available in stylish, head-turning black, as well as traditional IXUS silver. The 10-megapixel Digital IXUS 870 IS features a 4.0x wide-angle (28mm) optical zoom, a high-resolution three-inch PureColor LCD screen, and comes finished in gold or silver. Both cameras use Canon's new DIGIC 4 processor, for fast performance and richly detailed, clean images in a huge number of shooting situations.

Sony adds 18.4-inch laptop aimed at creative pros

Sony has launched it calls 'a new class of portable' -- a laptop with an 18-4-inch screen that can compete with pro-level desktop monitors. The company says that the Vaio AW-Series offers screen technologies never seen on a notebook, from the massive 18.4-inch diagonal and Full HD resolution to its 3LED backlighting system.

Epson debuts 24- and 44-inch large format printers

Epson has launched the 24-inch Stylus Pro 7900 and 44-inch Stylus Pro 9900. Both feature an improved ink formulation, a new printer mechanism and a raft of new technologies to make them ideal for production and contract proofing, as well as the highest quality fine-art and photographic applications, according to the company.

Adobe updates font bundle

Adobe has announced Font Folio 11, which contains more than 2,300 fonts from the Adobe Type Library in OpenType format. Font Folio 11 provides enhanced linguistic support, advanced typographic features, and cross-platform compatibility.

Adobe adds H.264 video to Flash 9

Adobe has released a beta of a new version of its Flash Player 9 software, code-named Moviestar, which includes H.264 standard video support -- the same standard deployed in Blu-Ray and HD-DVD high definition video players

Canon adds EOS 40D to SLR range

Canon has introduced the EOS 40D, which features a 10.1-megapixel CMOS sensor, 6.5 frames per second burst performance, a newly developed AF system and 3.0-inch LCD with Live View mode.

Adobe ships Coldfusion 8

Adobe has released Coldfusion, a development tool for building web sites and internet applications. The company says that since May 2007, more than 14,000 developers have actively participated in the Coldfusion 8 public beta.