Gadget Reviews

GeoEye-2 Will Provide the World’s Highest Resolution and Most Accurate Color Imagery to Government and Commercial Customers

GeoEye announced it selected Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, a major operating unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation  to build GeoEye-2, the Company’s next-generation, high-resolution Earth-imaging satellite system. Lockheed has already begun purchasing long-lead material and labor for the design, engineering and manufacturing of the satellite and the associated command and control system.

Matt O’Connell, GeoEye’s chief executive officer and president, said, “We chose Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company to build GeoEye-2 to ensure high confidence in mission success. They have a 50-year heritage of building imaging systems for the U.S. Government and have built several hundred Earth-imaging satellites–more than anyone else.”

Bill Schuster, GeoEye’s chief operating officer, said, “GeoEye-2 will be the same class of satellite as GeoEye-1 but will benefit from significant improvements in capabilities to better serve our customers’ demands for increased quantities of imagery at higher resolution. Some of these improvements include enhanced tasking capabilities and the ability to collect more imagery at a faster rate.”

Joanne Maguire, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, said, “GeoEye-2’s increased resolution, along with the need for greater spacecraft agility, leverages our unparalleled experience in delivering highly reliable, precision remote sensing space systems for our customers.”

Lockheed Martin built GeoEye’s IKONOS satellite. Launched in 1999, IKONOS has exceeded 10 years of successful on-orbit operations. It continues to provide high-resolution imagery of the Earth to GeoEye’s commercial and government customers around the world.

“The IKONOS satellite, which continues to perform with outstanding results for GeoEye, ushered in the first generation of commercial high-resolution space imaging systems, and we look forward to building a third-generation satellite that will provide even greater remote sensing capabilities for GeoEye’s customers,” added Maguire.

In October 2007, GeoEye announced it had contracted with ITT Corporation’s Geospatial Systems Division (Rochester, N.Y., NYSE: ITT) to begin advance work on the camera for GeoEye-2.

Chris Young, president of ITT Corporation’s Geospatial Systems Division, commented, “We designed GeoEye-2’s advanced optics and sensor using a combination of flight-proven and state-of-the-art technologies. We feel confident that our imaging system’s improved resolution and outstanding image quality will offer GeoEye the best sensor and most comprehensive capabilities for years to come.”

“This two-year head start on the development of the camera and camera electronics enables us to launch GeoEye-2 in late 2012,” added Schuster. “Our goal is to be ready when our government moves ahead with any contracting activity, so our government and other customers overseas have continued access to high-quality satellite imagery well into this decade.”

Optimized for Video Storage and Playback, My Passport AV Media Drives are Designed to Work with Select Sony(R) Camcorders, Blu-ray Players and Other Popular Media Players

WD introduced its new My Passport(TM) AV portable media drives. Designed specifically for video storage and playback, the new My Passport AV portable media drives deliver a plug-and-play experience for digital media enthusiasts. Available now at select retailers and WD’s online store, the My Passport AV portable media drive is offered with 320 GB of capacity.

A large and increasing number of game consoles, camcorders, TVs, DVRs, Blu-ray players and media players, including the WD TV® Media Player family, allow consumers to connect a USB drive and play the multimedia content from the drive on an HD TV. The My Passport AV portable media drive is designed to meet the requirements of this demanding video streaming environment. It delivers the formatting and low-power consumption that assures out-of-the-box compatibility with many leading CE (consumer electronics) devices.

WD worked to ensure that the My Passport AV portable media drives operate seamlessly with the Direct Copy feature offered in Sony’s new Handycam® video recorders. Direct Copy lets Handycam users offload and archive HD video directly to a My Passport AV portable media drive without a computer, creating room to shoot more HD videos when their Handycam hard drive becomes full.

Consumers can then play back their stored videos using Sony’s latest Blu-ray players or any of the WD TV media players by just connecting the My Passport AV portable media drive via the USB port on these players. Specific Handycam and Blu-ray model compatibility information is available on the WD Web site.

With its small footprint, the My Passport AV portable media drives are designed to fit neatly in a home entertainment center. The included stand and extra long cable makes it easy to position the drive neatly in entertainment centers, maximizing the airflow and minimizing heat around the drive.

“With more and more devices capable of generating and playing back HD video – camcorders, Blu-ray players, game consoles – portable hard drives are the best solution for this 8 GB-per-hour capacity-intensive content. The My Passport AV portable media drive is optimized for a better digital video experience with a growing list of consumer electronics, starting with Sony’s latest camcorders and Blu-ray players,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group.

Price and Availability

The New My Passport AV portable media drives feature a 2-year limited warranty and are available now at select retail stores and WD’s online store. MSRP for the My Passport AV portable media drive with 320 GB is $109.99 USD.

My Passport AV Compatibility

My Passport AV portable media drives are formatted FAT32(1) and are compatible with Windows® XP, Windows Vista(TM), Windows 7, Mac® OS X® and Apple’s Tiger®, Leopard®, and Snow Leopard®. My Passport AV portable media drives utilize the same drive technology found in WD AV drives inside leading cable and satellite set-top boxes and DVRs (digital video recorders) around the world.

The My Passport AV portable media drives are compatible with the following devices:

– WD TV family of media players;
– 2010 and later Sony camcorders with Direct Copy functionality;
– Sony 2010 Blu-ray Disc Players including BDP-S370, BDP-S470, BDP-S570;
– Sony 2010 Blu-ray Disc Home Theater Systems including BDV-E370, BDV-E570;
– JVC LT-32P689 television;
– Samsung® LN32A550 television;
– Phillips® 42PFLA332D television;
– Microsoft Xbox 360® (compatible with the USB media playback feature); and,
– Sony PlayStation®3.

For large IT companies that have global operations, 2009 was a rough year. Fortunately for Latin America, the negative effects of the global economic crisis were more subtle when compared to other regions such as western Europe and the United States.

Undoubtedly, 2010 is dealt with great optimism amongst IT vendors, service providers, strategic partners, and end users. A high percentage of negotiations were delayed or completely halted in 2009, due to the unstable currency rates and overall unpredictable economic conditions. Hence, a positive first semester in 2010 is expected in terms of IT investments, particularly in the mid-market and enterprise segments.

Some of the major IT trends that are expected to be demanded in Latin America during 2010 are the following:

Cloud Computing

Now that companies have the possibility of benefiting from full virtualization and the power to process, store, and distribute high amounts of data through networks, IT service providers are working on on-demand and highly scalable services.

“The main tasks that can be successfully performed in the ‘cloud’ in the short-term include application development and testing, back-up capabilities, disaster recovery and business continuity, and virtual desktops,” explains Fernando Belfort, ICT research analyst. “Moreover, there is a clear growth opportunity for a range of companies, the most important ones being: SMB segment, enterprises as well as service providers.”

Verticalization of IT solutions

Over the past three years, IT companies’ efforts have customized solutions according to business. In Latin America, this is clear in software companies such as CRM, ERP, and BI solutions and services. The main verticals that already have packaged solutions are financial, telecommunications, and government. An increasing interest in retail, education, and healthcare is expected in the short term. “The new ‘core’ for IT companies is to fully understand end-users’ businesses in the Latin American IT software and services markets,” adds Belfort.

Full Virtualization

The three most active virtualization software participants, VMware, Citrix, and Microsoft, are all extremely optimistic about the levels of adoption in 2010. A trend to be observed in the short-term is likely to be a “full virtualization,” including servers, storage, networks, and desktops.

The virtual desktop or universal desktop trend is expected to be implemented in 2010. This refers to having access to a user’s desktop environment with all of its applications wherever a user is located (any desktop, laptop, or smartphone), in an extremely secure and agile manner, as applications can be delivered on-demand.

Managed Security Services

The managed security services (MSS) market has presented significant growth in 2009. This is mainly leveraged by the compliance to regulations such as PCI DSS and SOX and the perceived advantages of outsourcing network security needs as well as the rapid increase of attacks, frauds, and SPAM over the past years. Buying network security hardware and software licenses and constantly managing networks in-house has proven to be financially disadvantageous and this practice is currently only limited to the financial vertical.

Green IT

Technologies such as virtualization are likely to drive the Green IT market in Latin America. Besides, hardware vendors have been investing in R&D to design recycling initiatives and maximize the efficiency of their products and therefore decrease energy consumption and carbon emissions. IT services providers have focused on the concept of having more efficient datacenter operations, largely reducing the electrical usage. This is expected to occur more intensely throughout 2010.

Source: Frost & Sullivan