Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX) today announced the launch of a new ultra-slim external hard drive that holds 500GB of data while only being 7mm thick.  The steel drive will be available in mid to late January at a MSRP of $99.99, and pre-orders can be made now at Seagate.com and Amazon.com.

The portable hard drive looks like a stylized 2.5” notebook hard drive with a smooth finished steel case. The Seagate Seven’s case is made entirely of steel to give it structural integrity while allowing it to be as thin as possible, with the added bonus of looking pretty stunning as well.  The 500GB capacity is held in the drive that is an amazing 7mm thick, really showing just how far hard drive technology has come these last few years.  The industrial design of the drive is very nice and evokes a lot of memories of bare hard drives that Seagate has been producing for years, 35 years in fact.  The drive will make for a nice addition to users who want to back up their files and take the data with them in a small package.  Notebook users will appreciate that they can store more data with the added plus of the drive barely adding any weight to the notebook bag.  The drive features a low profile motor technology that includes extreme gyro handling capabilities ensuring that the drive operates safely in a variety of environmental factors.

The MSRP of the Seagate Seven is $99.99 for the 500GB drive, equating to just 20 cents per Gigabyte of Storage. The drive will be widely available in mid to late January.  The Seagate Seven though can already be pre-ordered for those who want to get their orders secured.  The preorders can be made at Seagate.com and Amazon.com.

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Here is the daily roundup from Japanese consumer tech and tech business websites for Dec. 3, 2014.

Keio University demonstrates single antenna MIMO system

Researchers at Keio University have successfully demonstrated through experiments the feasible efficiency of a customized single antenna for a MIMO antenna system.

MIMO antenna systems are technically by definition, systems that use multiple antennas to improve overall transmission speed and efficiency, hence the name (multiple-input multiple-output).  The recent experiment however, showed that it is also possible for a single antenna to achieve the efficiency of a MIMO system, through the use of a customized signal processing algorithm.

The new algorithm can be applied in a wireless transmitter, as new software that would allow one single antenna to function as an entire MIMO antenna array. Since one antenna is enough, a MIMO system could theoretically be built into smaller systems, even on wearable tech, possibly setting another standard in portable wireless transmission technologies.

JAXA’s Hayabusa 2 finally launched

Hayabusa 2, the upcoming follow-up mission that would send another satellite to a nearby asteroid, has just been launched. The rocket that carried it beyond Earth was the H-IIA no. 26, and was launched at exactly 1:22 AM JST.

Developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Hayabusa 2’s primary objective is to study the Apollo asteroid (162173) 1999 JU3. Despite launch delays a few days earlier, it is now en route to its target, and is expected to arrive around 43 months after its launch in 2018. Upon its arrival, the Hayabusa 2 would then study the asteroid for a year, using its enhanced instruments to obtain better samples and provide more accurate observational data.

It is scheduled to return to Earth in the year 2020.

SEMICON Japan 2014 is now open

The SEMICON Japan 2014 event is scheduled to start today, December 3, and will end on December 5. The event will be held at the Tokyo Big Sight, where all of the world’s semiconductor pioneers and industry giants will meet.

SEMICON Japan is an annually held international event that showcases various equipments, materials, concepts and breakthroughs related to semiconductors and its industry. It is considered as a once-in-a -year hub that opens technical seminars and meetings that are led by the various semiconductor companies and corporations. For this year’s opening keynote, speakers from Accenture, STSI, Toyota, and ARM will be present.

A complete event list, as well as time tables and schedules for the event can be found at the SEMICON Japan official website.

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HTC hits the shores of Japan with an announcement of its brand new flagship phone.

HTC’s new J Butterfly, the latest flagship smartphone by the Taiwanese tech company, finally takes off in Japan officially just a few days ago. It was introduced during the HTC Conference 2014, and it is currently set to enter the Japanese tech market under a KDDI carrier subscription.

The new J Butterfly (HTL23) smartphone is highly compared to the previous HTC One (M8), due to the model sharing many of its common features. It has a 5-inch 1080p superLCD3 screen for example, and will also be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 801 processor. It does however have quite a few distinct features that would separate it from its predecessor, most notably its upcoming 13-megapixel DuoCamera (the M8 only has the 4-megapixel version).

For its release in the Land of the Rising Sun, the new J Butterfly will have a few other extra features, such as a particle-proof plastic exterior, as well as mobile wallet support. It would also have a few typical Japanese phone features such as infrared connectivity and TV tuner options.

While the HTC Conference Tokyo 2014 officially presented some of the new features and specs that will be available on the new J Butterfly, the introduction of the model itself may perhaps be more than just an announcement. It can be technically considered as HTC’s declaration of its plan to challenge one of the most difficult to penetrate tech markets in the world. Despite the huge success of iPhones and other smartphones in Japan, universal adoption of smartphones as a mobile device (as opposed to a mobile phone) has been actually quite slow, due to the fact that cellular phones in Japan usually require registration to a plethora of different mobile services (which are not limited to telecommunications).

Specifically for the new J Butterfly, it would need to at least exceed the first J Butterfly (HTL21), which was the very first mobile phone the company introduced in Japan last December 2012.

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IT industry is a disruptive one, and if there was one industry that completely changed the world, we’re living and working in it. We intend to bring you information from the world of IT and ICT, but not just through products, but through ways how to use the technology in the best possible way.

This teaser was shot using RED One camera and edited on our 8-core Mac Pro machines. We’re evaluating video hosting services at the moment, and the possibility of launching our own service is not excluded. Like we wrote previously, we want to provide you with seamless experience on your computers, cellphones, TVs and many more.

For starters, enjoy in this small teaser trailer at www.brightsideofnews.com

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