Western Digital has released a new range of external Hard Disks that come with small 12-character E Ink displays. The My Passport Studio offer FireWire 800 interface and 256-bit H/W based encryption and come preformatted for Mac computers. They come in 320GB, 500GB and 640GB sizes, and are ready to pre-order now for $119.99, $139.99 and $159.99.

This is actually WD's second HD series to use such displays.

Freescale announced today a new processor called i.MX508 targeted for e-readers. The processor is based on an ARM A8 core and includes an E Ink controller. Freescale says that the chip is fast (800Mhz), efficient and cheap (less than $10 in large volumes). In fact they say that this chip can enable $150 e-readers.

The new chip is faster than Freescale's previous e-reader chips (used in the Amazon Kindle and Sony's Readers, for example) which can result in faster page refresh and can enable new features. As the chip includes an E Ink controller, USB and NAND memory it can help reduce the price of the final product.