If you think that the current Blu-ray disc is the best there is, think again. Pioneer has unveiled its 16-layer optical disc that can store a huge 400GB worth of data. The Pioneer disk is based on Blu-ray Disc (BD) with an added breakthrough in material of reflective layers.

The specs of the pick-up head of the disc are the same as those of blank BD discs. That means that the Pioneer discs can be read on BD players that are now on the market. Pioneer will release its read-only (ROM) 400GB discs from 2008 to 2010, while rewritable 400GB discs will make their appearance between 2010 to 2012 and the 1TB capacity disc should show up in 2013.

Dell has a computer for every need and more than one type of computer user can see benefit from the new Intel Core i7 CPUs. The benefit to gamers of a fast CPU is obvious so it makes sense to see the i7 CPU in a gaming rig. However, Dell is also putting the processor into computers not aimed at gamers.

Dell announced a new Studio XPS PC that uses the new Core i7 processors with pricing starting at only $949. At that price you can be the CPU used is the low-end Core i7, but it should still offer good performance.

External storage is important for backing up your files and other content on your computer. If you take lots of digital photos or video that you archive, you can eat through lots of storage capacity very quickly. It’s always best to buy as large an external hard drive as you can afford. Today SimpleTech has announced upgrades to connectivity and capacity for some of its external HDDs.

Both the SimpleTech Pro Drive and the SimpleTech Duo Pro Drive have been upgraded to include eSATA, FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and USB 2.0 connectivity options. SimpleTech also offers a PCI expansion card for computers that lack eSATA connectivity.

Buffalo Technology has unveiled a hybrid device which marries an “external USB drive and a network attached storage solution.” It is called the DriveStation FlexNet and it will be available around $150 for the 500GB (HD-CE500LU2), $170 for the 640GB (HD-CE640LU2) and $260 for the 1TB (HD-CE1.0TLU2) storage models.

Buffalo says the FlexNet lets one toggle between USB 2.0 and NAS via a single button. It features a 10/100 Ethernet interface and makes use of Buffalo’s USB technology to offer up to “20 percent” faster transfer rates over standard USB drives.

Sony’s got a new heavyweight multimedia notebook it is throwing around Stateside for those seeking a desktop replacement model. It is called the VAIO AW series, and you’ll find it pricing with starting pricing of around $1,600 for standard or $2,000 for premium.

The Sony VAIO AW series comes in at a chunky eight pounds, sporting a 18.4-inch widescreen display and standard Blu-ray Disc drive. Select models will also be able to record, store and play back personal content on BD media. HDMI connectivity is offered as well for those seeking output to a larger HD display.

LaCie’s got itself a new designer external hard drive today which is networked for NAS duty. It is called Network Space and you’ll find this drive offering 500GB or 1TB of storage when it becomes available next month.

The LaCie Network Space, which starts pricing around $150, is the latest design for the company by Neil Poulton. It has a black mirror-polished finish, fanless operation and blue LED strip. LaCie says it is usable right from the box by just plugging into an Ethernet port.

External hard drives are a great way to protect important data stored on your computer in the event of a computer crash. The bad part about external storage is that the drives are typically small and easy to steal. That means if the data on the drive is sensitive, you might want to encrypt the data.

The catch with encrypting data is that the data is only as safe as your password. Aluratek has introduced a new Tornado plus external hard drive that features RFID keys. The drive can’t be accessed and the data stored on the drive won’t be unencrypted without first swiping one of the two included RFID keys.

Newer Technology was busy this past week showing off a new  FireWire/USB hub for data storage. It is called the Newertech miniStack v2.5 and pricing, depending upon hard drive storage size, runs up to around $280 for 1TB.

The Newertech miniStack v2.5 is a FireWire 400/USB 2.0 powered hub storage solution, according to its maker. At its maximum storage offering of 1TB it can reportedly store upwards of 1 million JPEGs, 350,000 MP3s or 500 DVD quality movies.

Hard drive capacities are growing all the time, which is great news for computer users with lots of stuff to store. More storage capacity is also great news for DVR users looking to be able to record more programming before their hard drive fills up.

Today Hitachi announced a pair of new hard drives in its CinemaStar line. The flagship product is the CinemaStar 7K1000.B with up to 1TB of storage space. Hitachi previously announced a 1TB desktop drive a few weeks back. Other capacities are available for the 7K1000.B in addition to the 1TB version. Hitachi also announced the CinemaStar 5K320 with 320GB of storage space. The 1TB drive can store 247 hours of MPEG-4 HD video.

Other World Computing is out today with an expanded line up of external FireWire-based hard drives it believes are “value done right.” This line of Neptune drives ranges in size from 80GB to 1TB, with pricing ranging from around $85 to $230.

The Nepture hard drives from OWC  feature two six-pin FireWire 400 ports for connectivity to Macs or PCs. Key hardware specifications include a 7200RPM drive mechanism, up to 32MB data buffer and data transfer rates of up to 400Mbps.

One thing we always want more of for our computer is storage capacity. Hitachi was first out of the gate with its 1TB HDD back in January of 2007 and Hitachi recently announced its second generation 1TB drive with some significant power savings.

Seagate wasn’t going to be beat to market with a hard drive of over 1TB, like it was beat to market with the original 1TB drives. Today Seagate announced the world’s first 1.5TB desktop hard drive called the Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB.

If you were excited when Hitachi came out with the first 1TB internal hard drive early last year then be prepared to be just slightly more excited. Hitachi today introduced that same 1TB Deskstar drive but now using 43% less power consumption, naming it the Deskstar 7K1000.B.

The “.B” means that you can buy this whopping internal hard drive with less concern that it’s going to sit there and suck loads more power than your old 80GB drive, which it will, but not as much as it used to according to Hitachi. The drive is actually available in sizes from 160GB up to the largest 1TB capacity.

Maxtor is betting your home network is bursting at the seams with data needing back up support and is therefore unveiling a new home NAS solution. It is called the Maxtor Central Axis and you’ll find it pricing at around $330.

The Maxtor Central Axis offers you a generous 1TB of NAS storage to fill with your travel photos and MP3s. The drive allows for each computer in the home to be automatically backed up and files can be accessed and stored from both Mac OS X and Windows operated PCs.

Western Digital (WD) said today it was introducing a dual drive storage option to its popular My Book line of external hard drives. This new model is known as the WD My Book Mirror Edition and you find it pricing around $290 for 1TB or $550 for 2TB.

The WD My Book Mirror Edition is a dual drive system designed to automatically and continusously duplicate your data. It does RAID-based data protection to mirror your files twice. Included backup software also lets you do additional, more selective backups.

LaCie said today it would be unveiling a 1TB version of its Little Big Disk Quadra external hard drive for use on the go. The LaCie Little Big Disk Quadra 1TB is pricing at around $660.

The LaCie Little Big Disk Quadra 1TB is an external hard drive which can fit “into the palm of your hand.” It consists of two 2.5-inch hard drives working together in a RAID 0 configuration. Data transfers speeds are said to be upwards of 110MB/s using e-SATA or 80MB/s via FireWire 800.