Gizmodo: External

Dealzmodo: 500GB Vox V1 External HD for $55

John Mahoney — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:30:00 EDT

Over at Ecost you can grab a 500GB external Vox V1 USB/eSATA drive for $55 ($95 - $40 rebate). Yeah I know, rebates are the easiest thing to forget, but here's the PDF printout to help you remember. Not a bad deal at all. [Ecost via CNET]

1.5TB FreeAgent XTreme Anchors Onslaught of Stylish Seagate Hard Drives

Benny Goldman — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:01:00 EDT

That there is the grandpappy of those leaked Seagate hard drives, the 3.5-inch, 7200RPM, 1.5TB FreeAgent XTreme. It connects via USB 2.0, FireWire 400 or eSATA, the latter of which transfers files at a blazing 3GBit/second. Available in October, the $300 LED-filled drive comes in three more sizes starting at $160 for 500GB. Seagate launched a whole slew of other HDDs too, including 5400RPMers, 2.5" slim drives in four colors and two Mac-ready drives that'll save you the inconvenience of running Disk Utility for $40-$70 more than their PC-counterparts. Catch 'em in pics and press release down below.

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. — September 15, 2008 — Seagate (NYSE: STX), the world leader in storage solutions, today announced the Fall 2008 lineup of the company’s award-winning FreeAgent™ external hard drives. This new generation of the Seagate® FreeAgent™ family includes attractive desktop and mobile options, for both Mac® and Windows® operated PCs that make it a breeze to back up, share and protect valuable digital content like photos, videos and music.

Seagate’s flagship offering, the FreeAgent Go portable storage solution, is the slimmest external drive available today. At a height of only 12.5mm, the new FreeAgent Go easily fits in a pocket while still including all the advanced shock and vibration protection people have come to expect from Seagate. Another industry first, the new FreeAgent Go is the first external hard drive to offer a docking option, providing a practical way to move from the desk to the road, while leaving the hassle of fumbling with cables and locating USB ports to the history books. With up to 500GB of capacity, the FreeAgent Go bridges the gap between standard portable solutions and desktop solutions with enough storage to carry entire libraries of movies, pictures and music. No longer does one need to sacrifice capacity for portability, Seagate FreeAgent Go provides the benefits and convenience of both in a truly seamless on-the-go package.

“With the amount of content being created and consumed today, the average broadband household will soon need close to a terabyte of storage to account for their personal media collections on PCs, portable devices, and DVRs,” said Jane Shields, research analyst, Parks Associates. “With Seagate’s coupling of high-capacity, reliable and easy-to-use solutions with attractive designs, the company is helping more people enjoy the benefits that come with backup and sharing of their digital media collections.”

“The growth of the 2.5-inch form factor external hard disk drive market has been very strong – almost doubling in 2Q08 compared with 2Q07,” said Wolfgang Schlichting, research director, Removable Storage at IDC. “This growth is much higher than the overall market and driven by the products’ convenient size and connectivity, as well as their large storage capacity and affordability.”

The FreeAgent Go desktop docking station is sold separately and comes paired with a black leatherette carrying case to add style while protecting the drive from the bumps and scratches encountered while traveling in hand bags and during other on-the-road adventures. The FreeAgent Go is now available in a variety of popular colors, including silver, black, red, and blue. The drive also ships with a flexible, thin USB 2.0 travel cable.

The FreeAgent Desk drive and FreeAgent XTreme™ drive are the family’s two 3.5-inch high-capacity desktop offerings, and provide up to 1.5 Terabytes of storage. The sleek and modern design of these drives provides the flexibility to sit horizontally or stand vertically to maximize your workspace. The FreeAgent Desk drive is a brushed aluminum high-capacity solution with a USB 2.0 interface. The FreeAgent XTreme drive is a black, brushed aluminum high-capacity storage solution with a triple interface of eSATA, USB 2.0 and FireWire 400.

“The first FreeAgent storage solution offering introduced in 2007 unquestionably made a mark for Seagate in the consumer space, demonstrating that hard drives can be designed to provide a stylish complement to a computing environment,” said Pat King, senior vice president of Seagate’s Consumer Solutions Division. This second-generation of FreeAgent storage solutions takes the extra step of providing easy-to-use technology in a consumer-friendly package.”

Seagate FreeAgent drives are compatible with Windows® Vista® and Windows® XP® Operating Systems and come equipped with Seagate Manager™ software, an enhanced application that provides scheduled automated back-ups and multi-computer synchronization. The FreeAgent drives for Windows also offer security in the form of software-based AES-256bit encryption and Seagate DrivePass™ password protection for drive access to help keep your information safe and private. The environmentally smart utilities help save energy by putting the drive in sleep mode once it has been idle for 15 minutes. Seagate FreeAgent hard drives include Energy Star 5 rated AC adapters and are now packaged in 100% recyclable materials. And with Seagate’s industry-leading five-year limited warranty, the FreeAgent storage solutions provide the confidence that your digitally-captured memories and life’s work is on a hard drive you can trust.

As part of this product introduction, Seagate will also unveil external storage solutions designed specifically for the Mac community. The Mac community has spoken and Seagate is listening. The FreeAgent Go for Mac and FreeAgent Desk for Mac are both formatted for use with Mac OS X out of the box and are Time Machine ready with FireWire800/400 or USB 2.0 connectivity. Seagate understands that Mac customers have specific needs and performance requirements and these demands are being met with the FreeAgent external hard drive for Mac offering.

FreeAgent™ | Go Drive for Mac
With a FireWire 800/400 interface, docking station and carrying case the Seagate FreeAgent Go drive for Mac is equipped to move seamlessly between the desktop and road. Formatted for use with Mac OS X and Time Machine ready, the FreeAgent Go for Mac is the perfect back up companion for any Apple® computer. Seagate FreeAgent Go for Mac is available this month for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $159.99 USD for 250GB and $189.99 USD for 320GB.

FreeAgent™ | Desk Drive for Mac
The high-capacity FreeAgent Desk drive for Mac features a brushed aluminum arctic silver finish that is a perfect match for the current iMac Desktop. With a FireWire 800/400 connection and tuned to be Time Machine ready, the FreeAgent Desk for Mac is available this month for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $169.99 USD for 500GB, $269.99 USD for 1TB and $349.99 USD for 1.5TB (available in October).

FreeAgent™ | Go Drive
A pocket-sized storage drive that packs a punch, the Seagate FreeAgent Go drive is slim, compact and shipping in four color options available as of this month in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $119.99 USD for 250GB, $149.99 USD for 320GB and $239.99 for 500GB.

FreeAgent™ | Dock and Case
Protection for those on the go and a docking station for convenient and quick access to your files, these accessories for the FreeAgent Go drive are sold separately. The dock and case will be available in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $29.99 USD.

FreeAgent™ | Desk Drive
This convenient desktop storage solution, Seagate FreeAgent Desk drive, is the perfect desktop companion for basic back up and security for all your digital files. This high-capacity USB 2.0 interfaced drive provides enough room to hold libraries of images, music and video. The FreeAgent Desk drive is available as of this month in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific, for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $129.99 USD for 500GB, $149.99 USD for 640GB, $229.99 USD for 1TB and $279.99 USD for 1.5TB (available in October).

FreeAgent™ | XTreme™ Drive
Designed for performance, especially for those who work with high-definition video and graphic files, the Seagate FreeAgent XTreme drive is the perfect fit. The FreeAgent XTreme delivers a 3GB per second transfer rate with the eSATA connection. This drive also includes FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 connection options. The FreeAgent XTreme is available worldwide for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $159.99 USD for 500GB, $179.99 USD for 640GB, $259.99 USD for 1TB and $299.99 USD for 1.5TB (available in October).

[Seagate]

Brando's New Cartridge-Style HDD Dock Goes Full Multimedia Player

Kit Eaton — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:31:00 EDT

Clearly one to take a good idea and run with it, Brando has just come up with this new cartridge-style HDD dock that also acts as a media player. So via its s-video and composite sockets you can stream audio, pictures, and video (including divx, with subtitles) to TV and it even has a remote. It takes 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SATA HDDs (and SD cards too) and connects via USB 2.0. Hmm: a largish rectangular "cartridge" which you plug in to a socket to play movies on TV, why's that sound familiar? Available now for $84. [Brando]

Hardbox External Hard Drive Hides Your Illiteracy With a Book Called Hardbox

Jason Chen — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:10:00 EDT

This Hardbox enclosure from Korean company Sarotech looks even more book-like than the Western Digital MyBook drives that have been around for a few years. There are two status indicator lights on the front, behind which sits 3.5-inch SATA drives that connect to your PC via USB. It's great for hiding the fact that you don't have any books but have loads of external hard drives. That is, until someone looks closer and realizes you've read a book called Hardbox. Maybe Hardbox means something different in Korean. [Sarotech via AVING via Oh Gizmo]

External HD Concept Helps You Visualize Your Data Usage

Sean Fallon — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:40:45 EST

This external hard drive concept entitled "IVY" adds an interesting new aesthetic to a plain old drive via an OLED screen that visualizes the content of the hard disk. Inspired by Sequoiaview visualization software, IVY starts out life as a rather plain-looking disk. As you fill it up, the design changes in sync with the content. In essence, you can automatically decorate your drive with a cushion treemap design that continually evolves. Again, it is only a concept—but it is a particularly interesting looking one if I do say so myself. [Concept Page via Next Nature via about:blank]

iPod Pillow Speakers

msparkes — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:46:00 EDT

These pillows have integrated speakers, so you can connect up an iPod and annoy everyone on the flight with your music, not just the people sitting either side of you. Unfortunately, the graphics that look like they might be covering control buttons, aren't—you have to change tracks and adjust volume on the iPod itself. If Hammacher add some buttons, and a little pocket for your iPod, then the 2nd gen pillow could really be something cool. They retail for $59.95 and should be available in October. [Hammacher]

Thanko Goes Nuts, Releases Two Products That Aren't Insane

Jason Chen — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 12:40:21 EDT

What's going on here, Thanko? I thought we could count on you to make crazy USB Ear Microscopes, Ass Coolers, and Air Purifier Masks? What's this about making an LCD arm mount and a fingerprint-protected USB drive? These things have no style! No pizazz! No THANKO! Get it together, guys. For the sake of all humanity.[USB Drive via LCD Arm]

Seagate's High-Fashion External Hard Drives

www.gizmodo.com — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 20:15:15 EST

Ever-growing Seagate has become the emperor of the hard drive world, and now its external drives sport some fancy new clothes. The company that got rich building unglamorous SCSI drives for server farms has gone high-fashion with Its FreeAgent line of drives sporting "cocoa-black" casings and "molten-amber" lights. The series packs some serious capacity and a few very handy features. The Pro models range from 320 to 750 gigabytes ($230 to $450) and include the option of an external SATA connector that makes the drive as fast as an internal model. All the Pros also come with a six-month, 500-megabyte subscription to Seagate Internet Drive - an online storage service to provide a second backup for critical files.

The portable Go drives, equipped with USB 2.0 ports, come in 80- and 120-GB paperback book-sized models (at $130 and $180), and shirt pocket-sized Go Small model ($150) that holds 12GB. The Go series drives all have the ability to store applications, allowing you to run them on any computer without having to install them to the local hard disk.

Finally, Seagate introduced the FreeAgent Desktop Data Movers — basic external hard drives ranging from 250 to 500 gigabytes ($130 to $260). – Sean Captain

Dealzmodo: 300GB External Hard Drive, $130 Out-the-door

Travis Hudson — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 11:50:34 EDT

Okay, I know, I know. I've been filling up these Dealzmodos with mail-in-rebates lately, so I decided I would divert away from that and find a solid deal without any BS mail-in-rebates. I found one for an external hard drive, but unfortunately the hard drive is a Maxtor. Honestly, I've never had a problem with Maxtor hard drives and I have used quite a few, but I know there are a lot of you out there who share undying hatred for these drives

Staples has a Maxtor 300GB Personal Storage 3200 External Hard Drive for $130. It is regularly $180, and they have a $30 instant saving and $20 checkout coupon bringing it down to $130. Just enter the code 19624 at the checkout for the savings. – Travis Hudson

Product Page [Staples via Consumerist]

I-O Data HDC-UX750 eSATA Drive

Charlie White — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 10:30:15 EDT

I-O Data has rolled out the HDC-UX750, an even bigger eSATA (External Serial ATA) hard drive in its line of 150mbit/second spinners. This one is a 750GB behemoth whose minimalist design doesn't look half bad.

If you're not familiar with eSATA, its advantage is that it's over three times faster than USB 2.0, which moves its data around at a relatively pokey 45Mb per second. Too bad it's not eSATA II, twice as fast as its slower, first-generation comrade. No pricing was announced on the HDC-UX750 yet. – Charlie White

A new 750GB External eSATA HDD [Akihabara News]

LaCie d2 Hard Drive Extreme

johnb — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 16:26:29 EDT

This new LaCie external hard drive has three inputs—FireWire 800, FireWire, and USB 2.0—and supports up to 300GB of storage space for about $1 per GB. 800Mbps burst speeds and a fanless design make these stand out in the long line-up of external drives. Plus they're silver, which is nice.

Product Page [LaCie]