WD Black 2 Dual laptop drive has a 128GB SSD and a 1TB HDD inside

The new WD Black 2 Dual Drive

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)

Finally you can set up your laptop's storage the way you do your desktop, thanks to the Black 2 Dual Drive that WD unveiled today.

On a desktop, the best way to have both great performance and large data storage capacity is to use a small solid-state drive (SSD) as the main drive that hosts the operating system, and a regular hard drive (HDD) as a secondary drive for data. You generally haven't been able to do this on a laptop due to space constraints.

The WD Black 2 Dual Drive is the first of its type to have two internal drives -- a 128 SSD and a 1TB HDD -- inside one single 2.5-inch, 9mm-thick standard laptop drive. This means on the outside it still looks just like a regular laptop hard drive and will fit anyplace a regular hard drive of its standard is used. For the first time, with just one physical drive, you can have two physical volumes for your computer.

This is the first internal 2.5-inch 9mm-thick laptop drive that's made of a 128GB SSD and 1TB HDD on the inside.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)

Not a hybrid drive, or is it?
The reason the WD Black 2 is not called a solid-state hybrid drive (SSHD) is that the two drives on the inside are never merged together. They remain two separate volumes, just as you use two drives in a system -- at least this is the way WD recommends that it be used.

In my quick trial, I was able to merge the two into one single partition of 1.2TB. However, according to WD, in this case the system doesn't know where the SSD part starts and ends, making it not optimized for performance. In other words, if you wanted to you could use the WD Black 2 Dual as a hybrid drive, but there's no benefit to this, at least for now.

The WD Black 2 installation software will unlock the HDD portion of the WD Black 2 Dual Drive and format it into a new partition for the user.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)

Software required for setup, no Mac support
Out of the box, when installed in a computer, the WD Black 2 will appear as a 128GB SSD, just like any standard SSD. You can use it to install the operating system (or clone an existing system to it as long as the old drive has significantly less than 128GB of data on it.) After that you need to install the WD Black 2 installation software. This software will unlock the HDD portion of the drive and format it into a new partition. After a restart, your computer will now have another volume that is the 1TB hard drive.

The software's only job is to unlock and format the HDD portion, and it doesn't run each time your computer starts. It works only with Windows computers; currently, WD says, the new drive doesn't support Macs.

As it seems, the biggest benefit of the new WD Black 2 Dual Drive is offering laptop users the option in a relatively affordable product to have both fast performance and large storage space. The new drive is slated to cost $299, which is much less than an SSD of half its capacity would cost. Compared with getting a separate 128GB SSD and a 1TB hard drive, however, it's still significantly higher.

Diana film gets world premiere as Watts defends role

LONDON: "Diana", a biopic of the late princess of Wales who died in a Paris car crash, was set for its world premiere on Thursday with its star Naomi Watts already defending her involvement in the controversial film.

The movie follows Diana's romance with London-based Pakistani surgeon Hasnat Khan, whom many friends of the princess say was her real love and the man she allegedly called "Mr Wonderful".

Based on Kate Snell's 2001 book "Diana: Her Last Love", the film suggests that Diana started dating Dodi Fayed to make Khan jealous -- a claim challenged by many close to the princess.

Diana died with Fayed when the Mercedes in which they were travelling slammed into a pillar in a Paris road tunnel in 1997 while being pursued by press photographers.

Ahead of the premiere in London's Leicester Square, Watts, a British-Australian actress who came to prominence in "Mulholland Drive" in 2001, admitted that she was taking a risk by accepting the role of the "People's Princess".

She was asked if she felt the film would offend Diana's sons, Princes William and Harry.

"Hopefully if they get to see the film, they will feel that we have done it in a respectful and sensitive way," she told BBC TV.

"We try to honour the depiction of her character in the best possible way."

But on Wednesday, Watts stormed out of a separate interview with BBC radio, apparently because a question offended her.

The surprised presenter, Simon Mayo, tweeted: "A first for me... as Naomi Watts walked out of an interview! She seemed a tad uncomfortable with the questions. Shame."

The film has been officially ignored by the royal family although its producer Robert Bernstein claims the royals gave some help in allowing filming in Kensington Gardens, where Diana would go jogging.

Some critics have noted that Watts bears little physical resemblance to Diana, and had to wear a prosthetic nose for the film.

She is the only established movie star in the film -- Khan is played by British-Indian actor Naveen Andrews, best known for his role in the TV series "Lost".

Watts claimed in an earlier interview that she "found herself constantly asking for (Diana's) permission to carry on" in the film, which is directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel.

"I felt like I was spending a lot of time with her. There was one particular moment when I felt her permission was granted," Watts told the Mail on Sunday, before adding: "That won't sound right in print, I know."

Khan, who still works in Britain, said he did not intend to see the film.

As if on cue ahead of its release, new conspiracy theories about Diana's death have begun circulating after police revealed they were investigating claims that a member of Britain's special forces was involved.

Scotland Yard said in August that detectives were checking the "relevance and credibility" of information they had received.

Reports said the claims came from the estranged parents-in-law of a member of the elite SAS. The soldier in question gave evidence at the trial of a former colleague who was found guilty of possessing weapons illegally.

Official investigations into Diana's death have concluded that the chauffeur of the Mercedes, Frenchman Henri Paul, was driving under the effects of alcohol at the time he ferried the couple from the Ritz Hotel across Paris.

Film depictions of the British royals have traditionally received a distinctly mixed critical reception.

"The King's Speech" starring Colin Firth and "The Queen" with Helen Mirren as the monarch were garlanded with awards.

But a 2011 made-for-TV movie about the romance between William and the-then Kate Middleton was described by the Daily Mail as "truly terrible" and "shoddily cast, poorly executed, badly edited".

‘Chennai Express’ smashes Indian box office records

MUMBAI: Bollywood movie "Chennai Express", starring Shah Rukh Khan, has smashed box office records in just 21 days since it opened to become the most profitable movie in India, data showed Friday.

The film, which has a typical Bollywood mix of action, romance and comedy, has overtaken previous record-holder "3 Idiots" which appeared in 2009 to collect at least 2.11 billion rupees ($30 million) domestically, according to trade weekly Box Office India.

The co-producers of "Chennai Express", Disney UTV, put the figure at a slightly higher 2.18 billion rupees.

In India, unlike Hollywood, there is no central data service for box office takings so there is often a discrepancy in the figures, but both estimates surpass the domestic collection of "3 Idiots", which made a net total of 2.02 billion rupees.

"'Chennai Express' has broken all records for domestic business and is still gong strong in its theatrical run. A good film, good timing and good luck have contributed to its success," Vajir Singh, editor of Box Office India, told AFP.

He said sales were buoyed by a number of public holidays in the first three weeks of release and a strong promotion effort by superstar Khan.

Also starring popular actress Deepika Padukone, the film tells the story of a 40-year-old man who gets embroiled in the dealings of a south Indian don when he rescues his runaway daughter from thugs aboard the Chennai Express train to southern India.

Directed by Rohit Shetty, the film was released in more than 3,500 cinemas in India -- more than double the number in which "3 Idiots" opened in 2009.

"We have pushed the film across language barriers into regions like Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala where Hindi is not the primary language. This film has been appreciated by families and has a repeat audience," said Gaurav Verma, director of Indian distributions at Disney UTV.

The film may also break international Bollywood records. It is reportedly the mostly widely released Bollywood film of all time, and has already made $16.8 million abroad in gross box office collections, according to the producers.

"3 Idiots", a coming-of-age comic-drama starring Aamir Khan, collected $23.90 million abroad, according to Box Office India, making it the Indian highest grosser abroad and overall.

In a recent interview with AFP, Shah Rukh Khan said he was not concerned with box office records.

"I cannot be going by that standard. I 

X-Men: Days of Future Past to focus on Charles Xavier

'X-Men: Days of Future Past' will centre on young Charles Xavier.
While the blockbuster movie features a huge ensemble cast, including the cast of the original 'X-Men' trilogy and the stars of 2011 prequel 'X-Men: First Class', producers felt the film very much belonged to James McAvoy's character as he evolves into his older, wiser self - played by Sir Patrick Stewart in the earlier films.
Screenwriter Simon Kinberg said: 'One of the things we talked about a lot was, 'Whose movie is it?' Because as much as any ensemble movie is about all the main characters, there is a primary point of view or primary arc that you're tracking over the span of the film.
'For us, very early on, we made the decision that it was young Charles' arc and that, really, the emotional story of the movie is watching him go from the guy who's lost his legs, lost his best friend, lost his sister, and in some ways lost his mind, to a guy who will become the all powerful, benevolent Professor Xavier.'
The character is expected to be in a very dark place at the start of the new movie following the events of the 2011 movie.
Kinberg added: 'When you start the movie, McAvoy is really about as far as one can be from the Patrick Stewart that we know from 'X-Men'. We're really watching him take the first big step towards owning that chair and becoming a leader.'
'X-Men: Days of Future Past' is due for release in May 2014.

Cameron to release three ‘Avatar’ sequels

LOS ANGELES: Canadian director James Cameron is making three sequels to his film "Avatar," which will be released between 2016 and 2018, Fox Studios announced Thursday.

The 2009 film is the highest-grossing movie on record, having netted $2.8 billion at the box office worldwide.

Cameron had originally planned for only two sequels. "In writing the new films, I've come to realize that 'Avatar's' world, story and characters have become even richer than I anticipated, and it became apparent that two films would not be enough to capture everything I wanted to put on screen," Cameron said in a statement.

The movie featured Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana and told the story of a paraplegic soldier sent to the fictitious planet of Pandora, which is coveted for its natural resources.

The three sequels will be filmed simultaneously beginning in 2014, Fox said in a statement. They will be released in December of 2016, 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Cameron, who wrote "Titanic" and "Avatar" by himself, has taken on four screenwriters for the project. Josh Friedman ("War of the World"), Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver ("Dawn of the Planet of the Apes") and Shane Salerno ("Armageddon" and "Savages") will work on the sequels.

"We at the studio have no higher priority, and can feel no greater joy, than enabling Jim to continue and expand his vision of the world of 'Avatar,'" said Fox Film chief Jim Gianopulos in a statement.

According to trade magazine Variety, the budget for the three films could reach $1 billion.

Bayer makes bid for Norway’s Algeta

Germany's Bayer had offered Algeta shareholders 336 kroner (40.7 euros) per share in a bid to acquire a majority of the company's 44 million shares, the Norwegian drug manufacturer said in a statement to the Oslo Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

Talks were still in an early phase, Algeta added, and it wasn't at all clear if they would lead to a takeover.

The announcement came after media reports about Bayer's interest in the profitable cancer drug maker, including a bid that would value the company at 1.8 billion euros ($2.4 billion).

Bayer also confirmed the offer on Tuesday, saying, however, that its bid was only preliminary for the time being.

Algeta specializes in radiotherapy treatments which use radium 223 and thorium 227 to destroy cancer cells. The company's blockbuster therapy is called Xofigo and treats prostate cancer. The product was approved by US authorities in May and is being distributed in cooperation with Bayer.

In the third quarter of 2013, Algeta made a loss of 98 million kroner on the back of sales to the tune of 60 million kroner. However, experts said the firm's new cancer therapy had the potential to boost annual sales to about 800 million euros in the next two years.

Following the announcement on Tuesday, shares in Algeta jumped about 30 percent at the Oslo Stock Exchange, reaching a high of about 344 kroner. Bayer's stock, however, slipped slightly to about 95 euros in trading in Frankfurt.

German media group mulls Turkish channel for ethno-marketing

With about three million Turkish-speaking residents living in Germany, tailor-made marketing for this large community should offer great business opportunities. At least that's what German private media company Pro7Sat1maintained in a Tuesday interview for the business daily 'Handelsblatt.'

The group's Katja Hofem confirmed her company was currently investigating the chances of starting a Turkish-language channel as a platform for what's come to be called ethno-marketing.

'The non-German-language market seems to be full of enormous opportunities,' Hofem commented.

Missed opportunities

Studies have shown that residents with Turkish roots living in Germany spend twice as much time in front of the TV than ethnic Germans. But in 80 percent of all cases they watch Turkish-language channels coming directly from Turkey via satellite.

What's also interesting for a media company hoping to make money by placing advertisement in between shows, films and serials is that people with a Turkish background have been found to be showing much more brand awareness than their ethnic German co-citizens.

The German media are rather late in trying to tap into the economic potential of making special offers to residents with a migrant background.

Others have been quicker to react to the steadily growing number of migrants now counting about 16 million people. Knowing that every fifth Turkish-speaking resident in Germany drives a Mercedes, Daimler recruited many Turkish migrants to work in its showrooms and boost sales that way.

The Targobank lender also employs many people with Turkish roots and has offered free transactions to Turkey to lure more clients.