Gizmodo: Storage

Super Talent Releases Mini PCIe SSDs Specifically For ASUS Eee PCs

Adrian Covert — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:45:00 EDT

Super Talent launched a special series of mini PCIe SSDs for the ASUS Eee PC in 16, 32 and 64 GB sizes, meant to complement the 20 GB HDD found in some of the higher end models. The drives read at 40 mbps, write at 10 mbps and come in NAND MLC or NAND SLC configurations. The drives are expected to ship in November and will cost around $55, $80 and $150 for the 16, 32 and 64 GB drives, respectively. [Super Talent via Electronista]

Beer-Filled USB Drive Raises Disturbing Questions

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:00:00 EDT

Gadgets like this Beer-Filled USB Flash Drive really make me question the basics. More than my first-year university philosophy class did, anyway. Existential angst, the downfall of western civilization, and "customizable floaties" after the jump.

Is capitalism really that great, if it leads to beer-filled USB flash drives with "optional customizable floating objects" inside? Should we Americans really be that pleased with our free speech, if it means I get emails from people who make flash drives with BEER in them? And am I really secure with myself as a gadget dork, getting all excited over the latest and greatest shiny toys, if that same email brags about the floating objects being in 3D? How could they be anything but 3D, when they're actual, physical objects? I can't pretend like the world is the same after this. The sun doesn't shine as bright. The air doesn't taste as sweet. Congratulations, Beer-Filled USB Drive Manufacturer. You've broken me. [CNK]

Western Digital ShareSpace 4TB Gigabit NAS Lightning Review

matt buchanan — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:00:00 EDT

The Gadget: Western Digital's ShareSpace Storage is a steely, cubular vault of NAS with fast Gigabit ethernet that brings enterprise-level centralized storage down to the small business and deathcore nerd space, with 2TB or 4TB capacities in multiple RAID configurations out of the box.

The Price: $699 for 2TB, $999 for 4TB (tested)

Verdict It's a cubular vault of 4TB of basically enterprise-class networked storage that sits on your desk and feels like it could stop a round from the world's deadliest carbine—what's not to like?

It's basically impossible to test actual drive reliability in the short span of review time (though everyone has their own opinion about which companies they love or loathe), so really what it comes down to here is ease of installation—which WD is touting heavily, so you won't need an IT geek—and features.

Western Digital's software walks you through most of the setup, though I still had to manually map the network drives in Vista, and Bonjour didn't automatically pick it up on my roommate's Mac. More frustrating is that despite having a gigabit router and using gigabit cables, I did not see gigabit speeds out of the box—or at all, with transfer speeds hovering around 10.5MB/s writing and 12MB/s pulling data. The default RAID5 configuration in the 4TB model (which balances redundancy against eating whole hard drives, leaving you with 2.66TB actually free) is noted for its relatively poor write performance compared to RAID1, and you'd be better off performance-wise with the latter if you're planning on doing a lot of write-intensive stuff, but that still doesn't explain the gap here.

It also comes with their automatic backup and remote access programs, Anywhere Backup and Mionet, though they annoyingly only give you three licenses for the latter, so if you've got four computers you want to continuously back up, you'll have to get another license. But whatever, the best feature is the built-in iTunes music server, which worked flawlessly. Dump a whole bunch of music into the shared music folder and it automatically shows up as a networked source in iTunes and showed up like magic on my PC and roommate's Mac.

Another (small) aggravation is that it's not hot swappable, so if you want to pop out one of the drives and maybe drop in a 1.5TB drive, you have to power the whole thing down. But I can almost forgive that since three USB ports let you plug other external drives into the box to expand storage even further.

While it's definitely overkill for average home usage, if you're that serious about centralized storage (like if you're if prosumer photographer) or you know, actually running a small business, despite its handful of flaws, if you've got the cash, it's definitely worth looking at. [Western Digital]

TDK Crams 260GB into 1.8-inch HDD, Sets A New Density Benchmark

Adrian Covert — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:00:00 EDT

TDK has announced a new hard drive at CEATEC that manages to fit 260GB of data into a 1.8-inch form factor. Using their prototype TMR head, TDK is able to attain a surface recording density of 803 gigabits per square inch, besting Toshiba's previous 378 gigabits per square inch. The leap was made possible by combining the TMR head with recent perpendicular magnetic recording techniques, and TDK personnel still think it's possible to reach 1 terabit per square inch. [Techon Nikkei via SlashGear]

Super Talent 128GB SSD Drops Solid State Price Like It's Hot

Elaine Chow — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:30:00 EDT

Sound the alarm for hard disks—it looks like solid state drive prices have plunged enough to finally jump out of early adopter territory. California-based flash memory maker Super Talent is now offering a 128GB SSD for $300 retail. That's $150 cheaper than a comparable offer from Dell and about $4.95 cheaper per GB than Intel's disks (though, granted, Intel's runs faster).

The 2.5-inch FTM28GO25H claims a 100MB read rate and a 40MB write rate, faster than the “cheap” SSD modules of yesterday. If 128GB seems like too much space for you to handle, the company's offering a similarly spec'ed 64-GB model as well for $179. [Super Talent via JKontherun]

Samsung SSD Falls Three Stories, Still Boots Windows

Adrian Covert — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:30:00 EDT

Samsung released a video in which members of their staff threw an SSD off a three story building and then plugged it into a laptop, where it was operational. Though the computer screen at the end of the video gets washed out, you can barely make out the Windows XP desktop. Naysayers and skeptics should also note that once the SSD was thrown off the building, the video was never cut. Not too shabby. [Samsung SSD]

SimpleTech Duo Pro: 4 Interfaces, 3 Terabytes, 2 Drives, 1 Happy Nerd

Wilson Rothman — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:00:00 EDT

There are plenty of dual-hard-drive outboard storage systems on the market, but SimpleTech's Duo Pro struck me as particularly brimming with awesomeness. It's not a NAS—it's totally local—but you have a choice of USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and 800, and eSATA, which clocks a max transfer speed of 3Gb per second. (That's gigabits, not gigabytes.) You can naturally do RAID 0 or 1, and though the current options are a 1TB total for $280, a 1.5TB total for $420 and a 2TB version for $550, you will be able to choose a 3TB config when the winter winds start to blow. Have a look at the back of this in the photo below the jump. [SimpleTech]

Pretec's Stumps Up 64GB Compact Flash Card, and 100GB: World's Largest

Kit Eaton — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 03:58:00 EDT

100GB CF cards.... holy moly that's huge. Pretec's saying it's the world's largest capacity CF, and I'm not going to argue. It's a 233x speed card, capable of access rates at 35MB/s and it, along with its smaller 64GB sibling, is being shown at Photokina this week. Not satisfied with that though, Pretec's also extending its range of ultra-fast cards (apparently the world's fastest) with 333x speed and 50MB/s data rates in 32GB and 50GB capacities. The 333x 32GB and 233x 64GB are due to ship now, for $630 and $400, and the 233x 100GB and 333x 50GB by the end of the year. But Pretec's being shy about pricing those, or indeed even showing a product pic, but it notes the metal housings make these cards rugged. Press release below.

COLOGNE, Germany & TAIPEI, Taiwan —(Business Wire)— Sep 22, 2008 Pretec, creator of the highest capacity and fastest CompactFlash card in the world, will demonstrate even higher capacities including a 64GB CF card, in the Leaf booth (West Hall 4.2, B009) and CFA (Hall 5.1, G-019) at Photokina 2008.

Pretec today releases 64GB and 100GB, 233X CF cards with access speed of up to 35MB/s, overtaking the Pretec 48GB CF card, the previous world's record holder; and super high speed 333X 32GB and 50GB CF cards capable of running up to 50 MB per second of Read/Write speed, the highest speed CF card in the world.

Pretec CF 233X and 333X CF cards use metal housing and ruggedized construction to provide extensive ruggedness. Pretec 64GB CF cards can be configured or reused to make a 256GB SATA, the highest capacity 2.5" SSD, by using Pretec Q-SATA, a patent-pending technology of flexible, scalable and modular SATA/PATA design based on up to 4 CF cards.

Pretec CF cards will be demonstrated together with high performance digital cameras from Leaf, a business unit of Eastman Kodak. Their new Leaf AFi-II system delivers the fastest shooting speeds of any camera in its class. These speeds are enabled by advanced communication and CF technologies and Leaf Capture software. "We are pleased to have chosen Pretec as our exclusive storage partner at Photokina 2008 and to witness the excitement as Pretec breaks the CF card speed and capacity world records," said Seth Greenberg, Leaf Marketing Director.

Pretec 233X 64GB and 333X 32GB CF cards with suggested retail price of $399 and $630 are slated to start delivery by Photokina 2008.

[Pretec]

Sandisk Replaces CDs With SlotMusic MicroSDs With Big-Name MP3 Albums Aboard

Kit Eaton — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 03:56:00 EDT

Sandisk's slotMusic cards are not much more than tweaked 1GB microSD cards with a logo and a special USB-compatible sled: but the fact that they'll carry albums from big names like BMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group makes them interesting. They'll also be DRM free too, which is a pleasant surprise. It's an attempt to change the way some people buy MP3s—you'll get a card you can slot into your cellphone or PC with high-quality MP3s (up to 320kbps), artwork, videos and such, which you can also reuse as a 1GB memory card later, and that's kinda handy.

It's impossible to say how these'll work in the market where instant and convenient downloads are a click away, since you'll have to either buy one in a physical store, or purchase them online and wait for them to come in the mail.

But you can guess that downloading market is why the music biz is trying to grab back control of at least some of their music sales. There's no official data on pricing, but word is it'll compare to existing CD albums, and a list of titles will hit in time for the holiday season. [SlotMusic]

SentrySafe Hard Drive Endures Trial by Fire (and Water)

Wilson Rothman — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 10:15:00 EDT

Whenever our journalistic brethren get to set something on fire and douse it with water, we like to commemorate the moment. Wired's Gadget Lab just performed such a battery of tests on the SentrySafe fire-and-flood proof hard drives, ones we first saw almost a year ago. On one hand, the test went as predicted, but on the other hand, data doesn't seem as protected as you might think.

The tester got a hold of SentrySafe's QA0005, essentially an armor-plated 250GB Maxtor drive. Once it was loaded with a ton of movies, the fun part involved popping the damn thing in the oven to bake away. Not enough heat? It was tossed into the fireplace too, surviving both with ease. (It's supposed to withstand 30 min. at up to 1550ºF.) The dunk test was far more impressive than the faucet shot above suggests: The thing went underwater, and stayed there for 12 full hours. Apparently it could have gone another 12.

Fire and water were no big whup, but the tester did have a problem with another potential act of God: The casing definitely wasn't built to be shake-, make that quake-proof. Might want to save the $400 and buy a backup drive instead, to keep somewhere far far away. [Wired]

SDHC Driver for the Palm OS Released

Sean Fallon — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:50:00 EDT

Palm gets lost in the midst of all the iPhone and Android hype, but if you still love your good old Palm OS, Dmitry Grinberg has finally released an SDHC driver that allows for card support. The program is available for devices like the Tungsten T|C, Tungsten E|2, Tungsten T|5, LifeDrive, Palm TX, Zire 31 and Zire 72, with other machines like the T|T3 and the Zodiac on their way. At $21, its really not a bad deal for all that extra storage. [TamsPalm]

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]

Buffalo Shinobi HD Uses MacBook Air HD to Slip Inside Your Pants

matt buchanan — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:19:04 EDT

Like the Buffalo hard drive I bought in Japan to replace one that died, Buffalo's Shinobi Portable HD is actually Samsung inside, but in this case, the same kind used in the MacBook Air, so it's incredibly slim and totally pocketable—the "world's thinnest external hard drive"—about the size of a biz card holder. The convenience makes for a low bytes to dollars ratio, though, at $120 for 30GB and $170 for 60GB. Still, I love the design.

BUFFALO TECHNOLOGY UNVEILS THE WORLD’S THINNEST EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE

The Super-Flat MiniStation Shinobi is Designed for High Performance Data Storage while Fitting into Your Shirt Pocket

AUSTIN, TX – September 22, 2008 – Buffalo Technology, a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of wired and wireless networking, storage and memory solutions today unveiled the super-slim MiniStation Shinobi. At a mere 5mm (.2 inches) thick and weighing in at just 2oz, the robust MiniStation Shinobi is a lightweight in size but a heavyweight when it comes to features. Designed for the active professional, Buffalo’s new ultra-portable drive includes easy-to-use backup and sync software, mobile applications such as Firefox and Thunderbird for on-the-go email and web browsing as well as Buffalo’s SecureLockMobile software to prevent unauthorized access in the event the drive is lost or stolen.

Featuring a unique, self-contained cable management system, the sleek, new MiniStation Shinobi offers users the ability to backup and take their favorite music, videos, photos or mission critical files in an ultra-slim drive that can withstand the trials and tribulations of the road.

“Innovative, easy-to-use products with quality features is what Buffalo is known for,” said Ken Higgins, vice president of sales at Buffalo Technology. “With the new MiniStation Shinobi, we are continuing to push the envelope with more compact, design conscious storage solutions that will not only meet, but exceed the ever evolving needs of our customers.”

The MiniStation Shinobi is Mac and PC compatible and is the perfect grab-and-go storage solution, whether it’s for doing a presentation overseas or a casual lunch meeting down the street. Buffalo’s unique TurboUSB technology enhances data transfer rates of up to 20% faster than other standard drives and ships with Memeo’s AutoBackup and Auto Sync software allowing consumers to securely and automatically manage and backup their digital assets in real-time.

Pricing and Availability

The MiniStation Shinobi is backed by a limited one-year warranty that includes toll-free 24/7 technical support and will be available in October at estimated street prices of $119.99 for the 30GB (HD-PT30U2) and $169.99 for the 60GB (HD-PT60U2).

[Buffalo

StairCASE's Bottom Shelves Keep Highest Books in Reach

Elaine Chow — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:30:00 EDT

It's no surprise that a dude who lives in a city of 18 million people would appreciate the need to conserve space. Shanghai-based artist Danny Kuo created the StairCASE, a bookcase where the shelves slide out to become a stairwell. We've seen the amalgamation of shelves and stairs before in London, but StairCASE can be put just about anywhere. The design lets you have a much taller bookshelf (most top out at roughly six feet to accommodate human height), or functions as a way to reach a lofted area for sleeping or storage. I could've used something like this in New York. [Danny Kuo via Craziest Gadgets]

Samsung Tries to Swallow SanDisk In Flash-Memory Power Play

Wilson Rothman — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 19:45:00 EDT

If you dream of a day that spinny, crashy hard drives are fully replaced by cool, quiet flash memory, then you probably know Samsung makes a lot of the chips, and that SanDisk sells a lot of them in stores. According to the WSJ, Samsung wants a piece of the retail action, because it announced it had offered to buy SanDisk for $5.8 billion.

The offer could potentially mean Samsung wants to absorb and/or eliminating SanDisk's brand and distinct products altogether. Even though this was a seriously nice offer given SanDisk's crappy stock performance of late, the company told Samsung to eff off, calling it an "opportunistic attempt" to pick up SanDisk while it's down. Samsung says that SanDisk "continues to cling to unrealistic expectations." Tell me, why does this intended corporate marriage sound so much like my parents' divorce? [WSJ]

Gemalto Converges Two Things You Shouldn't: Adds DVD Track to SIM Card

Kit Eaton — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:15:00 EDT

Now the credit-card sized plastic thing that cellphone SIM units are shipped in can carry the cellphone's associated data files, thanks to Gemalto's DVD-SIM "Smart Video Card." In the name of convergence (and possibly environmental friendliness) the company is making the cards for the Italian operator Wind, where the DVD segment has drivers for PCs to allow wireless internet access. The data segment will fit up to 50MB, and it's clearly better than having a blank bit of plastic (which you normally bin anyway) and an additional CD. But I can see two problems: snapping off the SIM portion of the device is bound to leave you with little plasticky bits that unbalance the DVD part when you put it in a drive, and it's only going to work on tray-loading drives. Convergence gone mad. [Intomobile]

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]

Lightning Review: Olinari Dog Tags Hold, Secure Your Flash Memory

Jason Chen — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 18:00:00 EDT

The Gadget: Olinari USB Dog Tags, which hold various USB drives inside the magnetic-clasp locking necklace charm. These are the follow up of the undoubtedly overpriced original version, which somehow managed to both look better, feel better and have a lower price.

The Price: $175

The Verdict: This is super useful if you're looking to carry a backup SD card with you to parties, hikes and anywhere where memory sticks could possibly fall out of your pocket from being jostled too much. The magnetic clasp is solid and won't flip open unless directly yanked on, and the new options of chain (leather choker, especially) are more comfortable than the original. It's perfect for an SD card or something around that size, but larger ones (CompactFlash for example) won't be able to fit.

At a price of $175 it's still slightly extravagant (about half as extravagant as the original version), but definitely makes a nice gift for that amateur photographer who's always running out of storage or losing his cards. [Olinari]

Toshiba's 1.8-Inch 120GB and 240GB Drives Appear (Uh, Where's the 240GB iPod?)

Wilson Rothman — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:04:51 EDT

Today, right after Steve J. rolled out a "thin" 120GB iPod classic, Toshiba announced its 120GB 4200rpm 1.8" drive, a new high for that slimmer single-platter config. Everybody knows that's the drive for classic iPods. But Toshiba also showed off a fatter 240GB that would fit snugly in the spot where that 160GB drive fits in today's classics. So, tell us, Toshiba or Apple, where's the damn 240GB classic? What good is the classic line if it isn't the most storage you can get? [Press Release]

USB Drive Loaded with British Military Troop Movements Found on Floor of a Nightclub

Sean Fallon — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:40:00 EDT

It looks as though the UK's Ministry of Defense is about to come down hard on the person responsible for leaving a USB drive loaded with troop movements on the floor of "The Beach" nightclub in Newquay, Cornwall. The drive was picked up by a random clubgoer who promptly turned it over to the most responsible party he could think of—a national newspaper. The MoD is currently investigating the incident, but the fact is that more than 120 sensitive USB drives have been lost by the MoD since 2004—so it seems to me that the most appropriate course of action here is to stop putting classified data on USB drives and handing it to idiots. [BBC]

Reggie and Miyamoto: Wii Storage Solution Coming, More Betterer Than a Hard Drive

matt buchanan — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:20:00 EDT

The storage situation on the Wii is sorta abysmal, especially if you're an avid Virtual Console or WiiWare fan and have lots of games. Don't worry, Nintendo knows it. According to a translated interview with Latin American pub Club Nintendo, Reggie and Miyamoto say that you can expect an announcement about storage goodness in the future, since they're working on a number of technologies, but it won't be a hard drive.

Nope, Reggie says it's even better than a hard drive. Could it be online storage? (That's the only thing we can think of besides a hard drive, since online storage is actually super cheap nowadays.) Whatever it is, if it involves hardware, expect it to be one of the few Wii peripherals Nintendo makes, since Miyamoto says they have enough already. Amen to that. [Go Nintendo via CVG via Kotaku]

Buffalo's New NAS RAID-5 Box is iPhone Compatible Too

Kit Eaton — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:27:00 EDT

Buffalo has come up a new network accessible storage system which not only hangs onto up to 4TB of your files but is also Time Machine and iPhone compatible. OK, so this last bit is over a dedicated web access system and the phone can't save the files, but it can view the contents of music, photo and video files. The LS-QL/R5's 5.1 x 7.1 x 8.7-inch box can fit in up to four 3.5-inch drives, has a RAID-5 option, Gigabit Ethernet, a DLNA server and is due in late September for $560 for a 1TB version, around $710 for 2TB and $1,300 for 4TB. [PCWatch]

Samsung's Black Edition Credit-Card Sized 1.8-inch HDs Are Tiny, Shiny

John Mahoney — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:40:00 EDT

Samsung's taking its large-capacity 1.8-inch HDs (found inside the Macbook Air, iPod, etc) and throwing them into this sleek bus-powered credit-card-sized casing, which looks to be about as small a form factor we're going to see for a 1.8-inch drive. They're only available in Asia at the moment, and on the high end (120GB) they're pricey (almost $300, but available on Chinese sites for considerably less). On the low end, a 20GB version that can basically fit in your wallet is around $45—not bad, if you're not feeling the flash route. And the form factor is pretty hot; "The Storage World In Hand," indeed. [Everything USB via Gadget Lab]

Sandisk Exreme III SDHC Cards Blaze Along at 30MBps, 50% Faster than Before

Kit Eaton — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:00:00 EDT

Sandisk previously popped new Extreme III versions of its Memory Stick lineup, and now it's extended the tech to SDHC. The new family of cards can cope with 30MBps read/write data rates, a 50% speed boost over previous versions and a "new speed record" according to Sandisk. They're designed for digital cameras that have a high-speed burst mode, like the Nikon D90, and can safely capture "39 images in continuous shooting mode at 4.5 frames per second with a file size of 6.0 MB JPEG L Fine per image." You'll have to wait 'til October, and expect to spend $64.99 for the 4GB card, $109.99 for 8GB and a sizable $179.99 for 16GB. Press release below.

TOKYO, JAPAN, August 27, 2008 – SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) today set a new speed record of 30 megabytes per second1 for SD™ flash memory cards with the introduction of the SanDisk Extreme® III 30MB/s Edition line of SDHC™ Cards. The new cards, expected to be available worldwide in September in 4-gigabyte (GB)2, 8GB and 16GB capacities, are designed to deliver peak performance when used with the new digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera, Nikon D90.

The Nikon D90 is the industry’s first DSLR camera to support SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition SDHC cards at increased performance. Featuring a 50-percent speed boost from previous 20MB/s cards, the new SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition SDHC card makes it possible to record 39 images in continuous shooting mode at 4.5 frames per second with a file size of 6.0 MB JPEG L Fine per image.3 The Nikon D90 camera captures high-resolution, 12.3 megapixel still images, and it is Nikon’s first DSLR to offer movie recording capability.

With ever-increasing technology advancements in DSLR cameras, higher megapixel growth and new video capturing capabilities, SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s SDHC cards make it easy for consumers to capture and store more high-resolution images and video content. When placed in SanDisk’s new ImageMate® Multi-Card USB 2.0 Reader/Writer, still images and video can be transferred from the new SDHC card to a computer up to 30MB/s, greatly reducing the waiting time to offload large files from the card to the computer.

“The high capacities and performance of the SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition SDHC cards give users the freedom to shoot lots of high-resolution photos and video clips,” said Susan Park, director of consumer product marketing for SanDisk’s performance cards. “The combination of our new SanDisk Extreme III 30 MB/s Edition SDHC card technology and the Nikon D90 camera maximizes performance.”

According to research firm IDC, demand for DSLR cameras is growing as users replace older models with more sophisticated options. Global sales of DSLR cameras grew by 41 percent last year, which was nearly twice the growth rate of the overall digital camera market worldwide.4

“Increasingly we’re seeing more second- or third-time digital camera buyers upgrading to more technologically-advanced prosumer DSLRs because they offer richer feature sets at more affordable prices than ever before,” said Chris Chute, research manager of IDC's Worldwide Digital Imaging Solutions Group. “The new SanDisk Extreme III cards provide optimal performance levels and high-capacity points to match that latest technology innovation.”

“Whether capturing a special moment in sports, a wilderness hike, or just your toddler running across the room, life doesn’t always stop when you want to take a picture. The combination of the new Nikon D90 camera and SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition SDHC cards helps ensure that photographers capture winning action shots and experience quicker transfer of files from the camera’s memory card to a computer,” said Mr. Koichiro Kawamura, General Manager, 1st Designing Department, Imaging Company Nikon Corporation

Beyond their high capacities and performance levels, all SanDisk Extreme III cards are capable of functioning in extreme temperatures, from -13 to 185 degrees Fahrenheit or -25 to 85 degrees Celsius. The cards also carry a lifetime limited warranty.5 SanDisk Extreme III SDHC 30MB/s Edition cards, which have a Class 6 performance rating, are fully backwards-compatible; working in any camera, card reader or other device that supports SDHC cards.6

Pricing and Availability
SanDisk Extreme III SDHC 30MB/s Edition cards are expected to be available worldwide in September. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price is U.S. $64.99 for the 4GB card, US $109.99 for the 8GB card, and U.S. $179.99 for the 16GB card.

Headless Teddy Bear USB Drive Combines Kiddy Nightmares, Storage in One

Kit Eaton — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 06:12:00 EDT

Ages ago we showed you a DIY version, but now the removable-head Teddy Bear USB drive is a real product, ready to trigger-off those childhood nightmares all over again. The little guy is around 3 x 3.75 inches, is USB 2.0, stores 1GB inside its teddy guts, and costs $17. Not much else to say. [Geekalerts]

Samsung Tweaks SSD Design for Low-Cost, Low Density Drives for Netbooks

Kit Eaton — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:45:00 EDT

Samsung came up with news that it was going to make 128GB SSDs cheaper last month, and now its saying that it's adjusted its production to also give low-cost, low-density 32GB drives. The SATA II drives will be just 30% of the size of 2.5-inch SSDs, based on the same muti-level cell technology as the earlier 128GB devices, and will come in 8, 16 and 32GB versions. The 32GB version will even have pretty good access speeds: 90MBps to read data (sequentially) and 70MBps to write. Since the devices are "highly cost-efficient to manufacture" you should expect the pricing to be attractive—just the thing for your cheap netbook, perhaps—when they go in to mass production next month. Press release below.

Samsung Introduces High-Performance, Low-Density SATA II SSDs for Low-Priced PC Market
SEOUL, South Korea —(Business Wire)— Aug. 26, 2008 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, announced today that it has begun sampling low-density, higher-performance solid state drives (SSDs) that are only 30 percent of the size of 2.5-inch SSDs and highly cost-efficient to manufacture. With the introduction of these smaller, low-capacity SSDs, Samsung now offers an attractive replacement for existing hard drives used in low-cost PCs. Available in densities of 8GB, 16GB and 32GB, the new multi-level-cell SSDs will be mass produced beginning next month.

"We've refined our manufacturing techniques and redesigned our low-density SSDs to get what the low-priced PC market is looking for in the way of improved cost, performance and availability," said Jim Elliott, Vice President, Memory Marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.

The low-density Samsung SSDs use the same high-performance SATA II controller technology as that being used on Samsung's just-introduced MLC-based 128GB SSD.

Samsung's new MLC-based SSD at 32GB capacity will read data (sequentially) at 90MB/s and write it (sequentially) at 70MB/s - performance levels much greater than low-density SSDs on the market today. The 16GB reads at 90MB/s and writes at 45MB/s, while the 8GB reads at 90MB/s and writes at 25MB/s.

Samsung incorporates four individual 16 gigabit (Gb) MLC NAND chips in its 8GB SSD, as well as four dual-die packages and four quad-die packages of 16Gb NAND for its 16GB and 32GB SSDs respectively. Furthermore, by including a 32MB DRAM as the buffer and four-channel system for the new low-density SSDs, these solutions are better suited for high-speed reading environments.

Samsung has expanded its SSD market offerings since it introduced its first SSD in 2006 in 16GB and 32GB capacities targeted at the Ultra Mobile PC market. This was followed by the announcement of the 64GB SSD in 2007, a 128GB SSD in 2008, and sampling of a 256GB SSD in the second half of 2008.

With increased sales of low-cost PCs and recent efforts by most major PC manufacturers to develop their own low-cost PC offerings, the market for lower density SSDs has been experiencing explosive growth. By unit sales, the low-density SSD market is expected to increase annually by 57% until 2011, with SSDs for low-priced PCs being the main driver of market demand.

[Samsung]

Aexea KeyXpress Data Key Flashdrive Could Hide on Your Key Ring

Kit Eaton — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:02:00 EDT

Brando's Aexea KeyXpress flash drives are designed to really make key-ring data portability true: they're shaped like keys, and are about as thin as your average door or car key (about 0.12-inches thin.) They're in three colors, have 4GB of flash storage aboard, come with a similarly tiny lanyard and that's about all you need to know. Oh: they cost $27. [Brando]

LG's N4B1 Network NAS Auto-Backs-Up Your Files to Blu-ray Disc

Kit Eaton — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:10:00 EDT

Though it sounds more like a droid-designation than a useful product, the N4B1 from LG is a combined network HDD bay and Blu-ray disc recorder: Much better than pairing a BDR-recorder with a VHS drive. It's got space for up to four HDDs inside (supporting up to 4TB total capacity) and three USB ports and an extra e-SATA connection so you can presumably bolt on even more storage. The BDR recorder can burn data to disc on request, or automatically back up your files for extra security against data loss. There's no info on when it's out or how much it'll cost, as yet. [Akihabaranews]

Art Lebedev's Folderix Finger Folder Flash Drive On Sale

Sean Fallon — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:50:00 EDT

We got our first look at the Folderix folder-shaped USB drive from Art Lebedev when it was in the concept phase. It took over a year to bring to market (that's Lebedev for you), but it appears that they took that time to subtly streamline the quirky little drive. You can pick up a 4GB now in yellow, blue or purple for $55. [Art Lebedev via Electronista]

Windows Storage 1.0 Feature Pack Adds Blu-ray Burning, Smart Card Drivers

Jason Chen — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:30:00 EDT

Microsoft's prepping a "Storage 1.0" feature pack for Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003 and Server 2008 that adds a few useful storage options for people who really love storing things. None of these are groundbreaking, but they are fundamental to those of you who would like to master Blu-ray discs natively, or read/write ICCD/CCID smart cards. It's one of Microsoft's "feature packs", which are more than just updates in that it pushes new features out inbetween major Service Packs or even Windows iterations. [ZDNet]

Dell Offering 128GB SSD Upgrade on Laptops for $450

Adrian Covert — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:33:31 EDT

Dell's offering up a 128GB SSD for their XPS M1330 and M1530 laptops and even with the dwindling prices of SSDs, $450 doesn't sound like a half-bad deal. [Dell via Engadget]

Adapter Uses Six SDHC Cards For Voltron-Like DIY SSD Drive

John Mahoney — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:00:00 EDT

We've seen them for CF cards—now, there's an SSD enclosure that will take up to six of the SDHC cards you have lying around and tie them into a single 2.5-inch SATA SSD. While it won't match speeds of dedicated SSDs (especially if the cards you're using aren't near the high end), the boys at Impress managed 111.4 MB/s read and 55.2 MB/s write times using six 8GB cards—not too shabby for a DIY solution that will save you some money (the adapter is $90 in Japan), especially if you're already swimming in big SDHC cards. [Impress]

Lenovo's Olympics-Themed Flash Drives Go From Cheesy To Luxurious

Kit Eaton — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:25:00 EDT

Lenovo got to design the Olympic torch for this year's Games, and to celebrate they released a bunch of different USB flash drives, each one with an Olympic theme. Over at EverythingUSB they've detailed all of them: perhaps the sleekest being the one that looks like the torch itself, and is made from the same material, which is why it costs $142 for 4GB. The cheesiest have to be the Mascot and Medallion series: they're printed with a Fuwa image, and though the Medallions have sold out, the Mascots cost $29. Top of the range are the swiveling titanium drives. They come in a set of five 1GB drives, and though the price is unclear it's likely to be big: the set comes in a mahogany box. [EverythingUSB]

Solid Alliance Silver Cross USB Drive is Holy Data Bank, for Goth Jewelry Geeks

Kit Eaton — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:39:00 EDT

Solid Alliance's newest USB thumbdrive will either appeal to geeky clergy-types, or vampire-goth-geek types, since it's an ornate metallic silver-colored drive that comes in a cross-shaped caddy. And it's specifically designed to hang on a necklace. Bizarre: both markets for this product can't be all that big, can they? Still, this gizmo might even contain real silver, since the 2GB drive costs $180. If that's too rich for your blood, there's a brass-colored one, also 2GB, for $145. [Akihabaranews]

Toshiba Flash Chips Doubled to 32GB, Good for PMPs, Cellphones

Kit Eaton — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:05:00 EDT

Toshiba has announced it's beefing-up its line of NAND flash storage chips to 32GB sizes. The new package combines eight 4GB 43-nanometer chips into one—double the previous generation's capacity—and is specifically aimed at the portable device market. Since it can be dropped into existing slots, manufacturers have to make no specific changes to accommodate the new chips. Toshiba, of course, doesn't name its clients, but suffice it to say Apple is on the list. The new chips will be available as samples in September, with bulk production starting soon after. [Electronista]

Micron Starts Production of Super-Fast RealSSD Solid-State Drives

Kit Eaton — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 04:23:00 EDT

The inexorable march of solid-state drive technology continues forward with news from Micron Technology (one of the worlds leading semiconductor suppliers) that they're going to produce SSD's with a read speed of 250MBps. That's more than twice the speed of the drives Samsung announced last month (90MBps.)

Micron's P200 RealSSD drives will use single-level cell technology for the Enterprise market, and the C200 versions use multi-level cell tech for the home PC market. The P200 will be available in 16GB to 128GB sizes in a 2.5-inch form factor, while the C200 will come in a 2.5-inch format up to 256GB. Clearly aiming at the UMPC market, the C200 will also come in a 1.8-inch drive with up to 128GB capacity. The drives peak read speed is that impressive-sounding 250MBps, with a write speed of 100MBps. They'll operate at around 0.3 to 2.5 W, and be SATA compatible.

Micron claims the usual power consumption benefits, and that the drives are "10 times faster at accessing transactional data" compared to HDDs. The drives will ship in the fourth quarter of this year, price to be decided. [PC Watch]

If Warhol Made Hard Drives...

Mark Wilson — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:15:00 EDT

...they might not have been so different from these external drives from Meninos Design Studio. Acrylic cases coated in customizable vinyl, 250-500GB, 7200RPM drives are hidden behind your favorite take on glossy commercialism (from mock Red Bull containers to giant Marlboro packs...or even your own custom skin.) Our favorite is this little Pulp Fiction reference, but all of their designs beat yet another silver box:

The USB-compatible cases alone go for $250. Bundled with hard drives they begin at $400 for 250GB. [meninos via technabob]

"Nailed" Flash Drive For People Who Secretly Hate Their Computer

Sean Fallon — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:00:00 EDT

There are plenty of odd USB drives out there—especially ones shaped like food. But those drives are meant for happy-go-lucky types that may or may not have an eating disorder. But what about hotheads that have a love/hate relationship with their computer? Plankon's 1GB "Nailed" USB drive fills that void with a design that almost begs short-tempered nerds to smash an unruly laptop with a hammer. Available for the steep price of $45.

[Plankton via Likecool]

Buffalo's 32GB and 64GB SSDs For Eee PC Get Launch Date, Price

Kit Eaton — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:13:00 EDT

Asus's EeePC 901 has already proved itself very hackable but Buffalo's newest product won't require much modding: 32GB or 64GB replacement SSD's. Not much more to say, apart from the obvious: more storage, more impact resilient, longer battery life. The best bit? The 32GB SHD-EP9M32G is a mere $156, and the 64GB SHD-EP9M64G an equally neat $316. Available in Japan at first, mid-September.

[PC Watch]

Datto's ZR Series Drive Improves Internet Backup Solution With Gigabit Ethernet, RAID and ZFS

Jason Chen — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:11:19 EDT

We liked Datto's previous Network Storage device with offsite mirroring, but we had some issues with their slow 10/100 Ethernet and loud fan. Good news for us, since Datto's latest Z Series solves these two problems with standard dual Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, a fan that only spools up when needed, 1TB local and offsite storage, RAID 1, Active Directory support, free customer support and a five-year warranty.

It also looks nicer, with that new white finish. The downside is that it's quite costly (it is a home office/small business solution), with a price starting at $499 for the 250GB model up to $1149 for the 1TB model with RAID. That's not including the monthly fee. But if your data's important enough that you'd actually go and pay for a data-recovery specialist to get it back, you should get one of these and save yourself the hassle. [Datto]