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Hitachi intros two new portable HDDs, SimpleNET NAS adapter
If you'll recall, Hitachi GST snapped up Fabrik in February, and with that acquisition came the latter company's highly-regarded SimpleTech line. Today, Hitachi is introducing its first consumer products since the pickup, and while you'll notice a hint of 'Simple' in the titles, the branding is all Hitachi. First up is the water-resistant and shock-proof SimpleTOUGH portable USB drive (250/320/500GB for $99.99/$119.99/$149.99), which can survive a 3-meter fall and boasts a twistable USB cable that's permanently affixed to the enclosure. Next, there's the SimpleDRIVE Mini, which is a stylish, colorful portable HDD that is now shipping in red wine (250GB; $89.99), blue dusk (320GB; $109.99) and carbon fiber black (500GB; $139.99). Finally, there's Hitachi's alternative to the Pogoplug: the SimpleNET USB/NAS adapter. Put simply, this $79 device enables up to two USB HDDs to be placed on a network, though Hitachi makes clear that this is a convenience device, not a performance device. The 10/100 Ethernet jack is evidence of that, but hey, if you need a quick-and-dirty way to get your hard drive (regardless of format, by the way) on the web, this will certainly do it. Full release is after the break.
Hitachi acquires Fabrik, looks to expand market presence
We keep hearing that it's a buyer's market out there, and for anyone with any amount of cash (that'd be Hitachi, in this scenario), the getting is pretty great. Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (GST) has just announced that it has snapped up Fabrik, Inc., a privately-held supplier of personal and professional storage solutions. You may be more familiar with the said company's brands, as G-Technology and SimpleTech tend to ring bells much better than a name easily mistaken for clothing. According to Steve Milligan, President of Hitachi GST, the acquisition will soon become "the cornerstone for the next phase of Hitachi's business transformation," though he certainly didn't bother to elaborate. Who knows -- maybe one day soon we really will see Hitachi taking on the likes of Western Digital and LaCie in the external sector.
G-Technology's external G-DRIVE mini / G-RAID mini appear with SSDs within
Across the way at Macworld, G-Technology has dropped in to launch what it (mistakenly) calls the industry's first family of external SSDs. Who knows, maybe it's playing up that "family" angle, but these certainly aren't the first SSDs to link up with machines from the outside. Minutiae aside, we're still pretty pumped about the G-DRIVE mini and G-RAID mini, both of which house 2.5-inch SSDs that promise to operate in a cooler, quieter fashion. The former unit is set to ship in 120GB and 250GB flavors, while the latter will arrive with 250GB or 500GB within. Also of note is the port assortment: USB 2.0, FireWire 800 and -- wait for it -- FireWire 400 (eSATA is included as well on the G-RAID mini). G-Technology asserts that the G-DRIVE minis will hit read rates of 75MB/sec and write speeds of 60MB/sec (the RAIDed siblings will top out at 195MB/sec), and nary a power supply is needed when using powered USB / FireWire sockets. Look for 'em to come pre-formatted for OS X later this month starting at $599.
SimpleTech trots out 3TB Duo Pro / 1.5TB Pro external HDDs
Fabrik's SimpleTech brand initially pushed out its Pro external drives and online backup service around this time last year, but thankfully it finally figured out what we consumers want: that it keep up with the capacity curve. The firm's Duo Pro drive, which boasts four interfaces (eSATA, FireWire 400 / 800 and USB 2.0), will be available in Q4 with 3TB of room. As for its smaller sibling, you can expect the single-drive 1.5TB Pro model to land around the same time for a definitively different unknown price. %Gallery-32840%
SimpleTech hops on eco-friendly bandwagon with [re]drive HDD
Not that we haven't seen bamboo-based gizmos before, but there's something about SimpleTech's [re]drive that just screams upscale. This elegant, smooth looking external HDD was crafted to be easy on the eyes and Mother Earth alike, with the outfit utilizing "renewable, naturally grown bamboo and recyclable aluminum" along with an Energy Star power adapter and eco-friendly packaging. You'll also find a USB 2.0 jack, automatic power up / down and 500GB of internal storage space. Not too shabby for an estimated $150.[Via Wired]
Fabrik intros colorful new SimpleTech Signature Mini USB drives
Those looking for something that'll stand out a little more than your run-of-the-mill external hard drive now have a slew of new options to consider from Fabrik, which has once again teamed with Italian design firm Pininfarina on some of its SimpleTech-branded drives. Dubbed the Signature Mini, the drives are available in your choice of seven different colors and 120GB, 160GB, 250GB or 320GB capacities, although each color is not available in each size. Taking things one step further, each drive comes with 2GB of free online backup space, and optional unlimited online backup for $5 a month, each options of which employ 448-bit Blowfish encrypted servers to keep your data safe. Look for the whole lot to be available sometime next month for between $110 and $230, although Mac users will have to wait until later in Q1 in order to take advantage of the online backup options.
Fabrik launches SimpleTech Pro drives, online backup service
Fabrik hit us up with a double dose of news today, so we'll get right to it. First up is the firm's new line of SimpleTech Pro / Duo Pro Drives ($229.99 to $799.99), which are aimed at digital media enthusiasts, prosumers and business users and come equipped with up to 2TB of storage space, eSATA and USB 2.0 connections. Next we're looking at the outfit's Ultimate Backup, which is hailed as "a simple, affordable and secure way to protect your most coveted content both offsite and online." For under five bucks a month, the service provides users with "unlimited capacity to securely store important files and media collections remotely and automatically," and moreover, all files are "encrypted with 128-bit SSL encryption while in transit, with an option for a private encryption key, to the company's remote 448-bit Blowfish encrypted servers (in other words, it's secure)." For more details, be sure and give the read links below a gander.Read - SimpleTech drivesRead - Ultimate Backup service
SimpleTech SimpleDrive: up to 1TB, Pininfarina design
We don't often wind-tunnel test our external drive enclosures, but SimpleTech's re-released Pininfarina-designed SimpleDrive still kind of makes us want to break down to try. Now in capacities up to 1TB, the 7200rpm USB 2.0 drives come bundled with backup software, a 2GB Fabrik account (which might have had something to do with Fabrik acquiring SimpleTech's peripheral business), that inline light-up capacity meter, and your choice of colors based on capacity: red (160GB), white (250GB), sapphire (320GB), onyx (500GB) and gray (750GB and 1TB). Prices start at a hundred bones for the 160GB unit; combo FireWire 400 and USB versions will ship in May.%Gallery-2489%
Maxtor shows new storage products
We're still trying to cut through the jargon in Maxtor's latest press release (which may be the first we've seen that actually manages to fit "Web 2.0" and "tipping point" into a single sentence), but once you manage to pare it down, it turns out the company is announcing one new product, teasing about another, and providing some more info about a deal we checked out earlier. The new product is the Maxtor Shared Storage II, a NAS for home and office users, offering RAID storage, gigabit Ethernet and up to 1TB of space. The teased product is the One Touch III Mini Edition (pictured), a one-inch thick drive that can hold up to 100GB of data and which will, according to Maxtor, include "an industry first." Details, including that "first," will be available later this month. Oh, and the deal? As we previously noted, Maxtor's working with Fabrik on something called "Project Fusion," which sounds like an online backup service that will take advantage of Maxtor's One Touch interface to make it easier to store and share files on a hosted server. Pricing is expected to range from a free service to one costing about $50 a year, depending on storage and feature needs. We're looking forward to it; we need something that will, in Maxtor's words, help us "truly harness [our] content."
