And Western Digital is now the proud owner of SanDisk Inc!

Official Announcement:

Western Digital Completes Acquisition Of SanDisk, Creating A Global Leader In Storage Technology

MANILA, Philippines, May 13, 2016 – Western Digital ®  Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Western Digital Technologies, Inc. has completed the acquisition of SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK). The addition of SanDisk makes Western Digital Corporation a comprehensive storage solutions provider with global reach, and an extensive product and technology platform that includes deep expertise in both rotating magnetic storage and non-volatile memory (NVM).

The Company also indicated that the debt financing associated with this transaction has been consummated and that the previously obtained funds from this financing have been released from escrow to Western Digital Technologies, Inc. “Today is a significant day in the history of Western Digital” said Steve Milligan, chief executive officer of Western Digital. “We are delighted to welcome SanDisk into the Western Digital family. This transformational combination creates a media-agnostic leader in storage technology with a robust portfolio of products and solutions that will address a wide range of applications in almost all of the world’s computing and mobile devices. We are excited to now begin focusing on the many opportunities before us, from leading innovation to bringing the best of what we can offer as a combined company to our customers. In addition, we will begin the work to fully realize the value of this combination through executing on our synergies, generating significant cash flow, as well as rapidly deleveraging our balance sheet, and creating significant long-term value for our shareholders.”

The integration process will begin immediately through the joint efforts of teams from both companies. As previously announced, Steve Milligan will continue to serve as chief executive officer of Western Digital, which will remain headquartered in Irvine, California. Sanjay Mehrotra, co-founder, president and chief executive officer of SanDisk, will serve as a member of the Western Digital Board of Directors, effective immediately.

“As a combined company, we will be best positioned to address the demands for data storage, which is growing exponentially every year,” said Sanjay Mehrotra. “Growth and change go hand in hand, and we couldn’t be happier to grow and change together with Western Digital. I look forward to contributing to realizing the potential of this combination as a member of the board.”

Under the terms of the transaction, each outstanding share of SanDisk common stock was converted into the right to receive $67.50 per share in cash and 0.2387 shares of Western Digital common stock.

SanDisk shareholders looking for information with regard to the payment of the merger consideration should review the Public FAQ available in the Investor Relations section of our website at investor.wdc.com.

MANILA, Philippines – Aug. 19, 2015 – WD^®, a Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) company and a world leader in hard drives, today announced the expansion of its award-winning WD Black™ line of performance hard drives up to 6 TB capacity. Shipping now, the 3.5-inch, 7200 RPM drive is the perfect solution for gamers and professionals in need of high-performance desktop systems and workstations.

WD Black hard drives combine 7200 RPM spin speed, 128 MB cache, dual stage actuator technology, SATA 6 gigabits per second (Gb/s) interface, and an integrated dual processor to deliver ultimate performance in a maximum-capacity drive. The WD Black 6 TB is up to 29% faster than the previous WD Black 4 TB version in maximum data rate throughput and 10% faster in PCMark Vantage.

“Combining maximum system performance with generous capacity, the expansion of WD Black to 6 TB allows gamers, enthusiasts and creatives to push the boundaries of personalization without compromise,” said Cindi Grace, senior vice president of WD storage technology group. “In choosing WD Black hard drives, WD desktop customers get the best possible mix of capacity, performance and reliability to handle intense desktop computing with ease.”

WD Black 6 TB hard drives feature the following:

Increased Reliability –StableTrac™ Technology (2 TB and larger models) secures the motor shaft inside of the hard drive to increase reliability and help reduce impact due to system-induced vibrations from other components. By stabilizing the platters inside, the WD Black drive results in more accurate tracking in a particular sector during read and write operations, optimizing performance and reliability.

Increased DRAM cache – The Dynamic Cache Technology improves caching algorithms in real time to allocate and optimize cache between reads and writes. This movement of cache for read data helps to reduce congestion and increase overall performance.

Efficient dual processing – A dual-core processor offers twice the processing capability as a single-core processor to maximize drive performance for faster read and write speeds.

Industry-leading 5-year limited warranty – Compared to standard hard drives, the WD Black drive endures more strenuous and aggressive internal testing over a longer period of time, resulting in it being backed by an industry leading 5-year limited warranty.

Price and Availability

Available now through  selected retailers and resellers and are distributed by Iontech, Inc. and Ubertech Technologies, Inc. in Philippines, WD Black drive is covered by a five-year limited warranty. Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for the WD Black 5 TB drive (model # WD5001FZWX) is Php 13, 900 and the WD Black 6 TB drive (model # WD6001FZWX) is Php 16, 000. More information about WD Black desktop hard drives, including terms of the limited warranty, may be found on the company website at http://www.wd.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=760.

I now have the game, but would need some more time to prepare (settings fixed, getting enough Z’s). BTW the version I have is the DVD version (non Steam). Apparently they made the keys for it exclusively to work only on the DVD (and not on Steam), which I find it strange since Max Payne 3’s key worked in Steam.

I also swapped drives. My 8 year old 320GB Seagate Drive’s gotten cramped and I got myself a new 1TB WD Black Drive to be used for installing games. The 450GB WD Raptor drive moved from games to OS drive, being I couldn’t yet afford to foot the cost of a new a 512GB SSD drive, much less getting a new quad core drive (and motherboard, and video card =_=’’ ).  The process of moving data to the new drives is straight forward. I just started moving the game data from the Raptor down to the Black drive, cleaning out the Raptor (removing any and all partitions it had) and cloning the 320GB drive’s contents in to the Raptor. The process took some time so I just slept through most and let the machine shut down once done. I used the Acronis True Image app (I used the much older version to transfer the C: drive to its new home, strange as the newer version had a ton of errors during transfer).

While doing that, I’d like to invite everyone in Manila this weekend to visit my LUG’s exhibit (Lego Users Group) at Resorts World Manila. We’ll be having our event titled Abrickadabra at the mall’s 2nd floor entertainment area. Alongside it would be our displays, which were featured here, here and here.

Dragon Age: Inquisition is Bioware’s latest release that manages to bring the excitement back in its RPG franchise. Find out more in this article.

While I heard good things about the first title, I only had the opportunity to start playing the game with the release of Dragon Age II. Unfortunately, I did not find it as engaging as, well, another Bioware RPG series: Mass Effect. Why? The world then was small, limiting options for exploration, and combat was strictly action oriented. The latest title manages to improve some more.

The game starts  some time right after the end of Dragon Age II, with the Chantry calling for a meeting with the Mages and Templar factions in order to end the war that was brought about by the events in the previous game. The player picks out his chosen race of: humans, elf, dwarf and qunari (each with backgrounds that tie into the story), and class. Something happens which leave the player character, the Inquisitor, as the sole survivor and having the ability to close Rifts that have opened after the event. The player is now tasked to stop the spread of the rift at the meeting place, determine who plotted the event and build alliances and army to thwart the oncoming threat.

Graphics: Fof DA:I, the dev team now use Dice’s Frostbite 3 game engine (similar to Battlefield 4) to give better environment and graphical quality. Water, Shadows and lighting improved greatly. Depending on the computer’s graphics card, expect lush vegetation and wide expanses teeming with scattered bits an pieces throughout the game world. While graphics has improved a lot more than the last, there’s some graphical glitch here and there at some point.

Gameplay: This is where most of the improvements were made. Crafting was updated in DA:I. Players can now collect other materials such as metal, leather and cloth to create custom weapons and armor. These weapons and armor can be equipped by anyone in the Inquisitor’s companions. A war table has been added, and from here the Inquisitor can respond to requests/missions, as well as open up new areas to explore, or move the story along. There are advisors (non companion characters), most would be familiar to the player that handles specific (military/espionage/diplomacy) response to any board mission. Players would now have a Castle/town called Skyhold, which will serve as their main base of operations. It will have shops, offices, and blacksmith that will aide in his/her quests. Skyhold will also let us interact with other characters and progress romance with some. 

Fighting monsters / enemies / Dragons have been improved with the introduction of the Tactical Map. Here, players can command individual units to perform specific tasks, unlike the usual AI driven actions made by the companions during a fight. This adds a little bit more tactical feel to the game. Aside from being able to craft custom equipment, players now have a better managed Skill Tree than before, letting us customize our play style.

Quests are plentiful. Some involves basic hacking and slashing while others may require thinking or utilizing the Inquisition manpower to solve. It lessens the repetition somewhat and keeps players attention. As a staple of the series, there are quests to develop your companion’s role in the story and some would lead to their redemption or death. While others would aid the Inquisitor in courting his/her romance partner.

An addition to the gameplay is the inclusion of a multiplayer coop. This plays similar to Mass Effect 3’s Cooperative mode, however it does not affect the single player game’s final performance, unlike ME3’s (higher readiness % nets a better ending). Unlike ME3’s wide array of characters to build, DA:I’s multiplayer roster for now is limited.

Dragons in DA:I are plenty, 10 of them to be exact. Hunting them is exciting, not knowing how long can the party will last as some dragons use different elements/tactics in fighting. The rewards of slaying a dragon is also worth it, being able to stock up on Dragon bones for crafting the best weapons and armor in the game.

Hands down, Dragon Age: Inquisition was RPG to beat in 2014.

Rating: 9/10