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Switched On: Big kicks, not all for starters

Ross Rubin — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 17:30:00 EST

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

The end of last week's Switched On left doubt for the future of dedicated devices that tread on the turf of smartphones. After all, funding is key to every major new product initiative and, despite the vast fortunes of many Silicon Valley engineers that have been accumulated via IPOs and acquisitions, few wish to take on the risk of fronting a new consumer device themselves.(In 2007, the handheld FlipStart PC was hatched from FlipStart Labs, funded by Vulcan Ventures, the investment arm of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.)

Most venture capitalists abhor the device business; it is a rare device that makes it to the spotlight of startup debutante balls such as DEMO, TechCrunch Disrupt, or Launch. Even most of the 94 companies at CES' Eureka Park were not developing end-user devices Where, then, can a device entrepreneur go for funding and pick up some publicity in the process?

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Switched On: Big kicks, not all for starters originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 Apr 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PhotoFast iFlashDrive now available to pre-order in US and UK

Daniel Cooper — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 04:32:00 EST

We previewed the PhotoFast iFlashDrive back in June and it's a neat concept: a USB flash drive that also packs Apple's 30-pin dock connector, so you can increase the storage on your iDevice. If that piqued your interest, you'll be glad to know it's available to pre-order in the US and UK. The 8GB flavor will cost you $99.95 (£65), 16GB $149.95 (£95) and for users with a serious need for mobile storage, a 32GB stick is $199.95 (£130). iCloud? Who needs it.

Continue reading PhotoFast iFlashDrive now available to pre-order in US and UK

PhotoFast iFlashDrive now available to pre-order in US and UK originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Oct 2011 04:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sanho announces new HyperDrive line-up, still enough storage for your Frank Zappa discography

Sam Sheffer — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 06:06:00 EST

Surely you remember Sanho's HyperDrive lineup -- ya know, the only portable HDD that plays nicely with the iPad? Well, if you don't dig the $249 entry level price, you're in luck. The company just announced a bunch of new HDDs for you to take with you and your iPad on that road trip you've had planned for years. As we saw at CES, the new drives no longer sport the QVGA color display or the CF and SD card slots -- instead, the black case has two mini USB ports and a power socket. The HyperDrive doesn't come with the traditional AC adapter but instead a USB-to-DC cable and the user-replaceable battery will allow up to 40GB of transfers on a single charge. And if you're wondering why there's two USB ports, we really couldn't tell you. Perhaps if you choose the right port while connected to your PC and enter the Konami code, unicorns and fairy dust will pop out of your screen -- wishful thinking, we know. The HyperDrives ship in March (pre-ordering is available now) with prices starting at $99 for a bring-your-own-drive housing, 1TB for $349 and various sizes in-between. So, if your photo/video library is worth accessing at all times, well, props to you. Press release is after the break.

Continue reading Sanho announces new HyperDrive line-up, still enough storage for your Frank Zappa discography

Sanho announces new HyperDrive line-up, still enough storage for your Frank Zappa discography originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Jan 2011 06:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HyperMac's external hard drive enclosure for iPad hands-on

Jacob Schulman — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:43:00 EST

HyperMac is known more for its power-extending solutions than its other peripherals, but this still-unannounced iPad external hard drive enclosure we spotted at the company's booth is certainly interesting. Capable of accepting a standard 2.5-inch hard drive, the brushed metal box has two miniUSB ports around back -- one to connect to your computer, and another to connect to your iPad. Unfortunately, unlike other iPad storage solutions like the AirStash, because it interfaces through Apple's USB camera adapter, you're limited to photos and video content only. On top of that, it only works with the iPad because the iPhone and iPod touch don't support that particular accessory. The target price point is around $100 without any physical drive -- yes, it's a BYOHD affair -- which is definitely steeper than we'd like, especially given the limited functionality. Still, if you've got more content than space to spare, you might want to look into picking one of these up when it drops in sometime later this month.

Gallery: HyperMac's external hard drive enclosure for iPad

HyperMac's external hard drive enclosure for iPad hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sanho's 750GB HyperDrive photo backup HDD plays nice with your iPad

Darren Murph — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:38:00 EST

Here's a little nugget you may not have already been aware of -- Apple's iPad is only capable of registering USB hard drives (via the Camera Connection Kit, of course) that are 32GB or smaller, which may or may not bum a vast majority of you out. Thankfully, Sanho's latest and greatest HyperDrive was tailor made to circumvent that limitation, and it just so happens to be the company's most capacious. Checking in with 750GB of open space, this unit boasts a "patent pending ability to turn individual file folders into virtual 32GB drives on the fly that are readable by the iPad," and as you'd expect, there's also a CompactFlash and Secure Digital slot for offloading images directly from your camera's memory card (at up to 40MB/sec). There's even a 3.2-inch QVGA color display, support for JPEG and RAW files and the ability to act as a vanilla USB hard drive; it's available now for $599, though smaller versions are available for those with less pocket change.

Gallery: Sanho HyperDrive for iPad

Continue reading Sanho's 750GB HyperDrive photo backup HDD plays nice with your iPad

Sanho's 750GB HyperDrive photo backup HDD plays nice with your iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sanho crams 640GB of memories into your pocket with HyperDrive Album photo viewer

Darren Murph — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:22:00 EST

Photo viewers have been around for centuries (give or take a few score), but few have offered the capacity and speed found on the HyperDrive Album. Produced by none other than Sanho -- the same dudes and dudettes responsible for those spectacular HyperMac batteries -- this here device is essentially a 640GB pocket hard drive meant to suck down photos from your SD or CF card (it plays nice with both formats) as you shoot; it can either lighten the load on your memory card or act as on-site backup, and it's reportedly capable of downloading 2GB per minute with full data verification. Better still, it's capable of decoding and displaying RAW images on the 4.8-inch display (800 x 480 resolution), and the internal battery will last through 200GB worth of transfers. It's available now for $599.99 (or less if you opt for a smaller / empty model), but don't even bother if you're looking for SDXC compatibility.

Continue reading Sanho crams 640GB of memories into your pocket with HyperDrive Album photo viewer

Sanho crams 640GB of memories into your pocket with HyperDrive Album photo viewer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Physicist wants to test Hyperdrive Propulsion in Large Hadron Collider

Joseph L. Flatley — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:14:00 EST

How come news can never come out of the Large Hadron Collider that doesn't remind us of our planet's impending SciFi Techno-Apocalypse(tm)? When not busy being called a doomsday machine, being bedeviled by hackers and Chuck Norris (yuck!), or just plain failing, the facility could be used to test "hyperdrive" spacecraft propulsion. Seriously! And you know what that means -- someone is planning on escaping the planet, and fast. A physicist named Franklin Felber has been musing over a little known German paper from the 1920s ("The Foundations of Physics" by David Hilbert) which states, in part, that under certain conditions a stationary mass should repel a relativistic particle. If this is true, Felber, concludes, then shouldn't a relativistic particle repel a stationary mass? According to MIT's Technology Review, the LHC would be the perfect place to test this idea: Felber could "set up a test mass next to the beam line and measure the forces on it as the particles whiz past." The experiment could be run in tandem with the collider's other work -- and who knows? Mankind may soon be on its way to the stars at near-light speeds. Let's just hope we figure this out before the robots take over.

[Via Technology Review]

Filed under: Science

Physicist wants to test Hyperdrive Propulsion in Large Hadron Collider originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sanho introduces HyperDrive COLORSPACE UDMA photo backup drive

Darren Murph — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:51:00 EST

It has been some time since we've seen a new competitor in the photo backup realm, so it's with a great sigh of relief that we pass along word of Sanho's HyperDrive COLORSPACE UDMA photo backup device. The unit is capable of sucking down 2GB of data per minute and claims to be "the only storage device in the market that can decode and display true RAW images from any camera on its 3.2-inch (QVGA) color LCD screen." Furthermore, it orientates images automatically depending on how it's held, and the included data synchronization functionality enables the drive to sync information with another external HDD or your main rig. Oh, and it can understand 14 different types of memory card, so you're probably fine on that front. Check it out next month for between $339 (80GB) and $599 (500GB), depending on capacity.

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Storage

Sanho introduces HyperDrive COLORSPACE UDMA photo backup drive originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Team Xecuter's Hard Drive Xtender replaces PS3 HDD with your own

Darren Murph — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 12:18:00 EST

Rest assured, those looking for a clean solution to add hard drive space to their PlayStation 3 had mixed emotions when pondering the Hyperdrive. Thankfully, Team Xecuter has unveiled a much sleeker (and flexible) alternative with the Hard Drive Xtender; the device actually replaces the internal PS3 hard drive and provides a plug to run externally, where you can then attach your favorite SATA or IDE drive (with optional adapter). Obviously, the biggest boon in this setup is the money you'll save from not having to spend a small fortune on a dense 2.5-inch SATA drive, and considering that the Hyperdrive can reportedly be used in conjunction, the limits of PS3 capacity are now slightly closer to endless. Hackers rejoice, it's yours for a meager £12.99 ($26).

[Thanks, Jaimesh]

Filed under: Gaming, Storage

Team Xecuter's Hard Drive Xtender replaces PS3 HDD with your own originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 Jul 2007 12:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SavitMicro HyperDrive SPACE 2.5-inch HDD enclosure backs up flash cards

Darren Murph — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 22:37:00 EST

If you're the type who'd rather lug around a 2.5-inch HDD enclosure instead of dozens of easily mixed up flash cards, well, you're probably not alone, and SavitMicro has just released a device to make prolific shooters all the merrier. The company's USB 2.0 HyperDrive SPACE may look like your average Korean-bound DAP at first glance, but actually houses your choice of 2.5-inch hard drive, and can automatically transfer pictures or media from a smorgasbord of flash memory directly onto the HDD to keep your card ready for more. Aside from touting a blisteringly fast 1Gbps transfer rate (maximum), the rechargeable Li-ion purportedly lasts long enough to fill up a 100GB internal HDD, and it even sports a 1.8-inch LCD to control the action. This bad boy plays nice with CF, MicroDrive, SD, SDHC, MMC, xD, MSDuo, MSPro, and nearly every other proprietary format that Sony has kicked out. Although pricing details weren't readily available, the HyperDrive SPACE should hit webstores within the month.

[Via AkihabaraNews]

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Storage

SavitMicro HyperDrive SPACE 2.5-inch HDD enclosure backs up flash cards originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Jan 2007 22:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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