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Sonnet Echo 15 Thunderbolt dock piles on 15 ports, optical drive, disk bay for $400
There are Thunderbolt docks, real and ethereal, and then there's this beast from Sonnet: the Echo 15. As implied by the name, it's lavished with 15 ports front and back, including four USB 3.0, two eSATA, two audio in and out, an extra Thunderbolt, GigE and FireWire800 ports. If you're thinking that'll finally let you hook up a Blu-ray or hard disk to your laptop, back up a second -- Sonnet's dock has those items built in as well, giving you SATA III-level disk throughput and freeing up your ports for more interesting peripherals. You'll be able to grab one this summer with a built-in DVD for $399, or configure it to the max with a Blu-ray drive and 2TB HDD for $549 -- assuming it avoids any untoward delays.
Mercury On-The-Go-Pro enclosure keeps your old internal drives useful
People often think there are only two options for old Mac laptops: sell them or throw them away. But there's a third option that can keep parts of your old MacBooks useful for a long time -- a hard drive enclosure. An enclosure allows you to turn any internal hard drive into an external one. I recently used the Mercury On-The-Go-Pro from OWC. It has allowed me to turn an internal 500 GB hard drive from a MacBook into an external USB 3.0 / Dual Firewire 800 drive that's useful on the lastest MacBook Pro with Retina display. I literally got the Mercury On-The-Go-Pro in the post this morning and 20 minutes later I was using my old internal drive as an external one. Keep in mind, I had already removed my hard drive my old laptop. But once that was done, converting it into an external drive with the Mercury On-The-Go-Pro was a snap. I simply inserted the hard drive into the enclosure's motherboard, then screwed it in place to the Mercury On-The-Go-Pro's clear acrylic enclosure. I then plugged my new external drive into a USB 3.0 port on my Mac and it transferred data at full USB 3.0 speeds. Besides the USB 3.0 port, the enclosure offers two FireWire 800 ports, which allows you to have quick transfer speeds on older Macs that lack USB 3.0, but still have the faster-than-USB 2.0 FireWire 800 ports. The best thing about the Mercury On-The-Go-Pro too is that it's bus-powered, so there's no need for an external power supply. The Mercury On-The-Go-Pro FireWire 800/USB 3.0 enclosure is Mac and PC compatible and costs US$64.99. A USB 3.0-only model is $37.99.
LaCie 2big, 4big Quadra drives hop the USB 3.0 bandwagon, give Macs 12TB of speedy storage
LaCie has been sprucing up its smaller drives to handle a new crop of Macs that support USB 3.0. It's now turn for the big boys to play. Updated versions of the 2big Quadra and 4big Quadra (not yet shown here) use the faster port to reach the potential of their high-capacity RAID arrays, peaking at either 210MB/s for the dual-drive 2big and 245MB/s for its quad-drive cousin. We're not seeing a fundamental shakeup of the design apart from the higher speeds, although that's not necessarily a problem given the FireWire 800 to catch legacy users and hot-swappable bays for future upgrades. Video editors and other storage mavens should just prepare themselves to pony up. The upgraded Quadra models will start at respective $499 (4TB) and $1,099 (8TB) prices when they ship in October, and they're only poised to get more expensive when LaCie sets the costs for the higher-end 6TB and 12TB models.
G-Technology kicks out USB 3.0 G-Drives for Macs, keeps your Retina MacBook Pro well-fed
If you've just picked up a MacBook Pro with Retina display or a 2012-era MacBook Air, you may be jonesing for a matching external hard drive to take advantage of that much-awaited USB 3.0 support. G-Technology has you covered -- and how. Updated versions of the laptop-oriented G-Drive Mini, Mobile and Slim (you're looking at the Mobile up top) all roll in the higher peak speeds and progressively trade raw speed as well as 1TB capacities for sleekness, while the twin-drive, 1.5TB G-RAID Mini will tax that 5Gbps bandwidth without becoming too ungainly. Not taking your external storage on the road? The single-disk G-Drive now climbs to 4TB in addition to jumping on the USB 3.0 bandwagon, and the dual-drive G-RAID will serve up as much as 8TB at the newly brisk speeds. All but the G-Drive Slim support FireWire to ease those jitters over transitioning from old to new, although they won't all arrive at the same time. Most of the G-Drive and G-RAID gear will be showing up in August at prices between $110 and $810, but the two Mini-labelled drives could be a bit late to the party with a less defined summer target. You can get the full scoop after the break.
G-Technology G-Drive mobile: Rugged, pocket-sized, and fast
The march of technology amazes me. Yeah, I'm an old guy, but it still surprises me when I realize that the amount of storage that used to fill a data center can now fit in my pocket. G-Technology's G-Drive mobile (made by Hitachi, US$199.99 MSRP for 1 TB) is the perfect example of mass storage in a small, silent box. Read on for a review of this mobile companion and a chance to win one! Design There's not much too say in terms of the design of the G-Drive mobile -- it's a slim metallic box 5 inches long, a little over 3 inches wide, and about 3/4 of an inch high. There's no power port; the G-Drive is bus-powered by either FireWire (400/800) or USB 2.0. The device comes with cables for each connection. A single white LED on the front of the drive indicates when it is powered up and in use. On the inside, there's a 5400 RPM 1 TB drive with an 8 MB cache. For speed, I'd much rather see a 7200 RPM drive, but that would most likely drive up both the cost and power requirements of the drive. However, as you'll see with the benchmarks, this is still a pretty fast drive despite the slower rotation speed of the disk. The G-Drive mobile also comes in 500 MB ($149.99 MSRP) and 750 MB ($159.99) versions, although I'm at a loss why someone wouldn't want to double their capacity for just fifty bucks more. I found the drive to run a bit hot -- I had placed my iPhone on top of the drive at one point, and when I answered a call I wondered why the phone was so hot... As with other drives of this ilk, the G-Drive mobile is almost completely silent. Benchmarks TUAW uses a standard industry benchmark to compare the I/O capabilities of disks and arrays. The benchmark uses the AJA System Test, which simulates reading and writing video. The specific test I used was the Disk Read/Write test, also known as the DiskWhackTest, set at a video frame size of 720 x 486 8-bit and a file size of 128 MB. The drive read speeds were surprisingly fast in our benchmarks, matching almost every FireWire drive that we've tested (only one is shown below for space considerations). When it came to USB 2.0 read speeds, the G-Drive mobile was slightly faster than the competition across the board. Write speeds were slower for the G-Drive when connected via FireWire 800, while almost identical to other drives with a USB 2.0 connection. Conclusion and Giveaway If you're the owner of a MacBook Pro and have an available FireWire 800 port, or have a FireWire-equipped desktop Mac you'd like to back up while keeping a lot of available desk space, then the G-Drive mobile will fill your requirements. Those who only have USB 2.0 ports on their Macs should spend their money on less expensive USB-only drives that offer read/write speeds in the same range as the G-Drive mobile. Thanks to G-Technology and TUAW, you now have a chance to win one of these sweet little drives. Just fill out the entry form below (only one entry per person, please) and we'll pick a random winner next week. Here are the rules for the giveaway: Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older. To enter, fill out the form below completely and click or tap the Submit button. The entry must be made before May 20, 2012 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time. You may enter only once. One winner will be selected and will receive a G-Technology G-Drive mobile valued at $199.99. Click Here for complete Official Rules. Loading...
Western Digital introduces My Passport Studio 2TB portable drive with FireWire 800 ports
Western Digital unveiled a new 2 TB external hard drive for Mac users this week. The My Passport Studio is formatted for the Mac and compatible with Time Machine so you can back up your data and go. The new drive also has an all-metal casing that'll complement the aluminum unibody design of the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. Besides its whopping 2TB capacity, the My Passport Studio includes a USB 2.0 port as well as two Firewire 800 ports which let you daisy chain Firewire devices to your Mac. Western Digital also included hardware-based encryption and password protection for those who carry around sensitive files. The My Passport Studio 2 TB portable hard drive is available with a MSRP of US$299.99. You can buy it online at the WD store and at select retailers. You can read more about the drive on Western Digital's website. Show full PR text WD® Gives Mac® Users the First 2 TB Portable Hard Drive for All Their Digital Content New My Passport® Studio™ Maintains Classic All-Metal Design and Dual FireWire 800 Ports For All-in-One Solution to Backup, Store, Protect, and Transport Files IRVINE, Calif., April 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Western Digital® (NYSE: WDC) today introduced the first 2 TB capacity portable drive dedicated for Mac® customers, My Passport® Studio™. This new standard in high storage capacity, along with Apple® Time Machine® compatibility for quick and easy automatic backup of Mac hard drives, allows Mac users to use one drive for the protection and transport of virtually all their digital content, everywhere they go. The new My Passport Studio portable drive maintains its elegant and protective all-metal casing to complement the MacBook® Pro or MacBook® Air®, providing the beautiful aesthetic that Mac users expect while increasing storage capacity to 2 TB, enough space for approximately 400,000 photos, 240 hours of video or 500,000 songs(1). In addition to the USB 2.0 interface, My Passport Studio's two high performance FireWire® 800 ports, makes it perfect for active and mobile creative professionals including photographers, videographers, graphic artists, and others who need the speed, capacity, and flexibility to access content anytime or anywhere. The dual FireWire ports provide blazing fast upload and transfer speeds while also allowing users to daisy chain additional drives or other peripherals such as HD camcorders. My Passport Studio also features hardware-based encryption and password protection software, and an all-metal design constructed for a sturdy feel in your hand and scratch resistance. "The My Passport Studio is a perfect companion for the MacBook Pro and for creative professionals on the go," explains Jody Bradshaw, senior director and general manager of WD's consumer storage products group. "For those who create large content files such as photographers and videographers, they will now be able to carry it with them wherever they go, as well as create a backup copy of everything they produce without fear of running out of additional storage while on location." Pricing and Availability WD's My Passport Studio 2 TB portable hard drive is available on the WD store at www.wdstore.com and at select retailers and distributors. The My Passport Studio 2 TB has an MSRP of $299.99. For more information on the My Passport Studio portable hard drive please visit the WD website at http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=420.
Western Digital intros My Passport Studio 2TB portable HDD, twin FireWire 800 ports included
Just days after WD revealed new 2TB My Passport drives for the USB 3.0-respecting world, along comes an option for those running OS X. Aside from the conventional USB 2.0 socket on the My Passport Studio, the Mac-friendly unit also packs a pair of FireWire 800 sockets. Not surprisingly, it ships with hardware-based encryption and password protection software, and while it'll probably come formatted for an Apple, there's nothing at all stopping other platforms from taking advantage. It'll ship in any capacity you want so long as you're happy with 2TB, and it'll be available at fine retailers around the globe this month for $299.99.
Rocstor outs Amphibious hard drive, keeps top-secret docs safe from wandering peepers
If you're a fan of keeping all of those precious work files locked down tight on your portable storage device, Rocstor has a rugged new option for you. The company has announced the launch of Amphibious at CES 2012, a portable hard drive that sports real time encryption and offers not one, but two-factor authentication via Smart Card and keypad -- keeping those top-secret merger plans shrouded in mystery. Incorporating a SATA HDD (up to 1TB) or SSD, the device connects via USB 2.0 or Firewire 800 and protects data behind AES-256 bit key strength and a FIPS 140-2 validated crypto module. In terms of durability, the pocket-sized Amphibious is housed in an aircraft grade aluminum alloy case. You can take a look at the full list of specs in the PR after the break and get ready to snag one for yourself during Q1 of 2012.
Belkin details Thunderbolt Express Dock at CES, shipping this Summer
We first caught a glimpse of Belkin's Thunderbolt Express Dock back at IDF. Here at CES, the company has offered more info on the high-speed peripheral -- including an expected Summer 2012 arrival window. The dock features all sorts of added connection potential: three USB 2.0, two Thunderbolt, one FireWire 800, one HDMI, an Ethernet and a 3.5mm audio jack. Lending a hand to your port-deprived MacBook Air or Ultrabook via Thunderbolt, the peripheral offers the expected bi-directional transfer rates up to 10Gbps while keeping with the Apple color scheme. Pricing details aren't expected until closer to the ship date, but for now, take a look at the design render and PR just past the break. Update: We've just been passed some official images for the Thunderbolt dock. Peep 'em in the gallery below.
ioSafe Rugged Portable external hard drive takes a bullet for your data
Last October I told you about the ioSafe SoloPRO fireproof external hard drive. It's one of the best options for protecting your data from physical harm. However, since the drive weighs 18 pounds, it's not ideal for those who need portability. That's where the ioSafe Rugged Portable comes in. Weighing little more than one pound, it's considerably lighter and smaller. And although it's not fireproof like the SoloPRO, it is almost everything-else-proof. The ioSafe Rugged Portable comes in two connection flavors, USB 3.0 or a USB 2.0/Dual Firewire 800 combo with options for a 500 GB or 1 TB 5400 RPM hard drive. As you can see from the image above, the drive looks pretty slick, made from a single billet-machined aluminum enclosure. However, what sets this drive apart from almost any other is that its bullet proof. You can literally take a shotgun to it without harming the drive and, more importantly, your data. I don't own a gun, so I didn't test out the bullet resistance, but The Wall Street Journal did in this entertaining video. However, I did test out some of its other protections (including water and drop protection) and the drive worked perfectly afterwords. Besides being bullet proof, the ioSafe Rugged Portable is also crush proof up to 5000 lbs; water proof for up to 3 days in 30 feet of water; UV ray, blowing sand, blowing dust, rain, salt fog, icing rain, and freezing rain proof for up to a continuous 24 hours; drop proof up to 10 feet; and chemical proof from diesel fuel, oils, hydraulic fluids and aircraft fuels for up to an hour at 12 feet. The drive also features a built-in Kensington security slot and "any reason" data recovery, even if the data loss was your fault. Thanks to its superior data protection capabilities, it's no wonder the ioSafe Rugged Portable is used by huge companies and the US Navy. But because of the specialty nature of the drive, you will pay a premium to own one. The 1 TB model I tested is US$299.99 with 12 months warranty/data recovery service, while a 500 GB model is $199.99. Currently the ioSafe Rugged Portable isn't sold in Apple retail stores, but you can pick it up at Apple's Online Store, on Amazon, or from ioSafe directly.
G-Technology demos dual-drive 8TB G-RAID HDD, with a dash of Thunderbolt
Not to be outdone by Seagate's 4TB GoFlex Desk, Hitachi's G-Technology unit has now unleashed a jumbo-sized external HDD of its own, with the 8TB, dual-drive G-RAID. Demoed at this week's IBC conference in Amsterdam, the company's new storage house consists of two 4TB drives nestled within an aluminum enclosure, each of which clocks in at 7,200 RPM. Configured for OS X, the G-RAID also sports a Thunderbolt port that offers transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps, though it can also support Windows with some simple reformatting. G-Technology will begin shipping its 4TB drives in October (with eSATA, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 ports), whereas its "4TB-based" Thunderbolt-equipped drive won't hit the market until Q4 -- though it's still unclear whether either model will ship as single drives, or as a two-headed, 8TB beast. Pricing remains a mystery for the moment, but you can find more details in the full PR, after the break.
Engadget's back to school guide 2011: accessories
Welcome to Engadget's Back to School guide! We know that this time of year can be pretty annoying and stressful for everyone, so we're here to help out with the heartbreaking process of gadget buying for the school-aged crowd. Today, we've got a slew of accessories -- and you can head to the Back to School hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back -- at the end of the month we'll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides -- and hit up the hub page right here! Fall's slowly, but surely creeping back in, and we bet you've already started to gather up the necessary gear for your return to the residence hall. Sure, you've got the basics covered, with a computer, smartphone, MP3 player and even a tablet at the ready. But wouldn't it be nice to start the school year off in style with some handy accoutrements to trick out those digital crutches? Let's face it, you're going to need a lapdesk buffer zone between you and your laptop's scorching heat for those countless hours spent churning out term papers. Or, an external hard drive, so you can store those full seasons of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and bring the late night funny to your stressed-out friends. However you manage to make it through the year and snag that 4.0 GPA, we've got a selection of accessorized aids to match your collegiate budget. Oh, and don't forget, we're giving away $3,000 worth of essential back to school gear to 15 readers, and you can be among the chosen few simply by dropping a comment below! Click on past the break to start browsing.
Iomega Mac Companion Hard Drive: Big storage, high-powered charging ports
Iomega has just introduced the new Mac Companion Hard Drive, a 2 or 3 TB external drive that not only offers a lot of storage in a nice-looking container, but also provides a high-powered USB port to charge up your iPad. The Mac Companion is priced a bit higher than high-capacity USB external drives, with the 2 TB model weighing in at US$195.00 and the 3 TB model at $295.00. However, the manufacturer's suggested retail price is right in line with many other FireWire 800 drives, and the Mac Companion can connect through FireWire 800 as well as USB 2.0. The Mac Companion also fills the job of a hub. It not only has a 2.1 Amp USB charging port for your iPad, but two more USB ports in a built-in hub and two FireWire 800 ports. Iomega provides cables to get your Mac and the Mac Companion working together off the bat -- one FireWire 800 cable, one conversion FireWire 400-800 cable, and one USB 2.0 cable. When placed near just about any modern Mac, the Mac Companion fits right in. The aluminum case has four LEDs on the front to let you know how much free space you have left on the drive. Iomega provides software to enable scheduled file-level backups, although most Mac users will want to use the Mac Companion with Time Machine. Iomega also provides a free 2 GB online backup through MozyHome for extra assurance. TUAW is hoping to get one of the Mac Companion Hard Drives for a full review, so stay tuned for more details.
Western Digital's 3 TB MyBook Studio perfect for pre-Lion backups
Are you about to upgrade your Mac to OS X Lion? One recommendation from the TUAW staff is that you do a complete backup of your Snow Leopard installation before you start. With many Mac internal drives nearing the 1 to 2 TB range in size, how do you back up the drive and still have a hard disk that's big enough for Time Machine to use? Easy -- take a look at Western Digital's new 3 TB MyBook Studio (US$249.99 MSRP). I had a chance to put one of these drives through the paces here at the crowded TUAW lab (which also doubles as the TUAW TV Live studio) and found it to be an attractive, quiet, and relatively fast high-capacity disk drive. Design As with many of Western Digital's recent mass storage solutions, the MyBook Studio drive uses an aluminum case that matches nicely with Apple's current design meme. The drive has two FireWire 800 and one USB 2.0 connector on the back, and comes with FireWire 800, USB 2.0, and FireWire 400 to 800 cables. It's pre-formatted for use with Mac systems, so the drive is truly plug-and-play. The enclosure is 6.5" high, 5.3" deep, and 1.9" wide, featuring a pair of clear silicone feet on the bottom to make sure that drive vibration isn't transferred to a desk. There's no power switch on the drive -- once you've plugged it into power and a live I/O port on your Mac, it starts up quietly. A single tiny white LED on the front is all that tells you that the disk is up and running, which is a welcome change from the busy front panels on previous WD drives. Drive operation is rather quiet, except when the drive spins up after sitting for a bit with nothing to do. At that point, it makes a light "clunk" that is barely noticeable. That had a slight effect on write speeds, but that's quite common with the WD Caviar Green SATA drive used inside the MyBook Studio. To reduce energy use, the drive goes to an idle mode when not actively reading or writing data. During the spin-up, throughput is reduced (see graphs below). If the drive isn't in use, it powers down after a while and goes into a "sleep" mode. The LED blinks while in this mode, as an indication that it is saving power. It takes approximately 10 seconds for the drive to wake up from sleep mode, which could be an annoyance if you're in a hurry to grab a file that's stored on it. One thing I didn't like about the MyBook Studio is that the company is using a fat, generic AC adapter that ended up covering two sockets on my multiple outlet power cord. I'm used to Apple's slender adapters and cords that only take one spot on the cord, and wish accessory manufacturers would take the hint. As usual, the company fills up about 500 MB of space with home-grown utilities that you'll probably just want to delete. For Mac users who want to make a bootable clone of their machine prior to a Lion upgrade, we recommend either SuperDuper! (US$27.95) or the shareware Carbon Copy Cloner. To make those daily backups? Just use Time Machine. Benchmark Beginning with this review, TUAW is using a standard industry benchmark to compare the I/O capabilities of disks and arrays. The benchmark uses the AJA System Test, which simulates reading and writing video. We used was the Disk Read/Write test, also known as the DiskWhackTest, set at a video frame size of 720 x 486 8-bit and a file size of 128 MB. The test results are compared to the internal SATA drive of the test iMac and a DroboPro connected to the iMac via FireWire 800. Compared to the DroboPro, the MyBook Studio looks like a complete speedster. Of course, the DroboPro is an 8-drive RAID array and not a single massive drive, but this does show that for high-throughput requirements the MyBook Studio Drive might be a contender. With a USB 2.0 connection the average write speed was 30.4 MB/Sec and read speed was 35.2 MB/sec. If you have a FireWire 800 port on your Mac, use it. For speed, though at a price, you'll probably want to start looking at Thunderbolt-equipped Macs and external drives. Those drives will be available later this summer from a handful of vendors. Conclusion For Mac users looking for a relatively inexpensive external backup drive with FireWire 800 connectivity plenty of space, the Western Digital MyBook Studio 3 TB is just the ticket. If you only have USB 2.0 or just need a slow and steady backup drive, there are many other less expensive external drives. For example, Western Digital's WD Elements 3 TB USB-only drive can be purchased through Amazon for about $150; a tremendous bargain. I like Western Digital's attention to the Mac market, and this drive is a perfect example of the meld of form and function that Mac users love.
Atomos Ninja and Samurai HD video recorder / monitors bring compression jutsu to pro filmmaking
We all drool over the hi-res video shot by cameras like the RED EPIC, but for indie-film types, processing the massive files produced takes a lot of time (and therefore money) and not everyone has an ARRI ALEXA to do native recording compression. Enter the Atomos Ninja and Samurai HD recorder / monitor / playback devices that take your 10-bit video and compress it in Apple's 1080p ProRes QuickTime format to make your post-production life a little easier. The Ninja pulls video through HDMI and deposits it on your choice of 2.5-inch HDD or SDD storage, does playback via a 4.3-inch 480 x 270 touchscreen, and has continuous power thanks to dual hot-swappable batteries (available in 2600, 5200, and 7800 mAh varieties). Meanwhile, the Samurai matches the Ninja's specs, but swaps out the HDMI connection for HD-SDI ports and adds SDI Loop-Through to connect an external monitor, a larger 5-inch 800 x 400 display, and 3D support (if you get two Samurais genlocked together). Both units have FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 and 3.0 connections for offloading your vids. Those with Spielbergian aspirations can pony up $995 for the Ninja right now, or pay $1,495 for the Samurai upon its release this summer.
Phase One straps 80 megapixels to your camera, USB 3.0 for ginormous image transfers
We're still trying to wrap our brains around the idea that a 80 megapixel camera sensor exists at all, but there's already a second light-devouring digital back on the way -- the Phase One IQ180, which technically hails from the very same company as the Leaf Aptus-II 12. That doesn't mean the company simply rebranded its subsidiary's giant CCD, as this unit's got an extra half-stop of dynamic range, captures a tenth of a second quicker at full resolution, and supplements the standard FireWire 800 connector with USB 3.0. There's also a 3.2-inch, 1.15 megapixel touchscreen with a pseudo-Live View for easy framing and 1GB of RAM to buffer the gigantic images you'll be pumping out. Improvements don't come cheap, though, as you'll drop $43,990 in April at launch. If you can settle for a slightly lower resolution, though, there's no need to sell your Lexus quite yet -- the summer months will bring lesser models with 60.5 megapixels and 40 megapixels respectively. [Thanks, Ryan D.]
USB 3.0 for Mac review and benchmarks (with a LaCie 2big USB 3.0)
It took LaCie nearly a full year to ship the 2big USB 3.0 RAID drive -- a device that was announced in the fall of 2009 -- but now that it's here, it's being accompanied by a concept that actually far outshines the unit itself: USB 3.0 on a Mac. For whatever reason, Apple has refused to offer SuperSpeed USB on any of its machines, even a fully specced-out Mac Pro costing well north of $10,000. We've seen purported emails from Steve Jobs noting that USB 3.0 just isn't mainstream enough to sweat just yet, but coming from the guy who's still bearish on Blu-ray, we get the feeling that it'll be quite some time far too long before Apple finally caves and upgrades from USB 2.0. We're obviously no fans of the holdout -- after all, even a few sub-$500 netbooks are enjoying the SuperSpeed spoils already -- so we couldn't have possibly been more excited to hear that a longstanding storage vendor was about to fill the void that Cupertino continues to ignore. We were able to pick up a LaCie USB 3.0 PCIe expansion card as well as a 4TB (2 x 2TB) 2big USB 3.0 drive and put the whole setup through its paces on our in-house Mac Pro. Care to see how it stacked up against USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and FireWire 800? Head on past the break for the grisly details. %Gallery-111542%
Data Robotics's Drobo S storage robot goes USB 3.0, starts at $800
Talk about maintaining a pace. Nearly a year to the day after the introduction of the original Drobo S comes this: the Drobo S. Er, the second generation Drobo S. As you could probably surmise from the title above, the only notable difference in Data Robotics' newest storage robot is the addition of USB 3.0, but the triple interface ensures that eSATA and FireWire 800 users are also taken care of. Of course, USB 2.0 backwards compatibility is inbuilt, and while no theoretical speed figures are given, we're sure it's far quicker than the (now) prior version. It'll be sold starting today directly from the company, but beginning on November 18th, it'll also be featured on HP Small Business Direct. The (empty) base model will go for $799, while $1,299 buys you a five pack of 1TB HDDs, $1,549 gets you five 1.5TB HDDs and $1,799 lands you with five 2TB HDDs. In related news, Drobo Sync is now shipping in order to provide offsite backup to DroboPro FS units, and Billy Corgan still enjoys playing with Bluetooth speaker balls while on vacation. Crazy, right?
Seagate busts out 3TB external hard drive for $250
Yeah, you heard that right. As of today, those among us who value quantity over speed in our storage can buy a whole trifecta of terabytes in one solitary package. Seagate has just unveiled the FreeAgent GoFlex Desk (did they have the teenage intern name this thing?), which is the first 3.5-inch drive to store quite so much data. It also comes with a USB 2.0 adapter that can be upgraded to USB 3.0 or Firewire 800, depending on your preference (and cash reserves). Priced at $250, this record-busting storage hub is available to buy today direct from Seagate. Full PR after the break.
Seagate introduces new GoFlex range: multi-port HDDs, media players, etc.
We all knew Seagate's FreeAgent line couldn't hang around forever, and tonight the storage mainstay has revealed the next logical step for the line. The GoFlex family is one of the more varied ranges out there from any hard drive maker, with the primary intent on the HDD side being to create drives (ranging from 320GB to 2TB) that are friendly with both Macs and PCs (simultaneously) while also giving users the ability to upgrade their connection or switch it out depending on what workstation they interface with. The new crew supports USB 2.0 out of the box, though upgrading to USB 3.0, FireWire 800 or eSATA can be accomplished via the new GoFlex cable system. Also launched today is the GoFlex TV HD media player, which essentially acts as a liaison between your tele and your media, regardless of whether it's stored locally, on the LAN or on the internet. Moving on, there's the GoFlex Net media sharing device, which transforms any USB mass storage device into one that's happy to pump out content via the 'net -- think Pogoplug, and you've pretty much got the idea. It looks as if the whole crew will be available for purchase starting this week, with the full list of details and prices just beyond the break. %Gallery-92290%
