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PSA: Western Digital and Seagate commence bonfire of the warranties
Seagate and Western Digital really do have the spirit of the holidays running through their veins, as both companies are slashing the warranty periods on hard drives for the new year. Gone are the days of five-year safety periods, instead owners of Seagate's Barracuda XT, Constellation 2, ES.2 and Momentus XT drives will have three years protection. SV35 Series and Pipeline HD drives have two years while Barracuda, Barracuda Green and the 2.5-inch Momentus get a measly one year. Western Digital on the other hand, will be hacking a year off the Caviar Blue, Green and Scorpio Blue drives that ship after January 1st, each coming with just two years warranty. On the upside, you'll be given the chance to extend the package for a modest fee -- nothing like the odd nickel-and-dime to hasten the post-holiday slump, eh? [Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures]
Seagate introduces new BlackArmor secure hard drive, Pipeline DVR drives, new FreeAgents
Seagate busted out a slew of new storage gear today, including the new 160GB BlackArmor portable hard drive with built-in AES encryption pictured above. The tinfoil-hat-friendly drive, available in Q2 for $149, automatically encrypts all the data stored on it, keeping it away from prying eyes if lost or stolen. On the other end of the spectrum, Seagate is also introducing free software called Central Axis that allows you to access content stored on a Maxtor Shared Storage II device from any web browser without having to open firewall ports, and announcing partnerships with Sanyo, HarmanBecker and PortoMedia to incorporate Seagate's D.A.V.E "wireless mobile storage capacity" tech into their products. Seagate says future Harman car entertainment systems will be able to store music, movies and games using D.A.V.E., and that Sanyo's using the tech in its Xacti camcorders. On the more mundane side of things, the desktop FreeAgent line now tops out at 1TB, the FreeAgent Go will hit 250GB by the end of the quarter, and there's a new line of DVR-specific drives called Pipeline HD that are rated to work in case temps as high as 167 degrees Fahrenheit. Pipeline drives will come in sizes ranging from 320GB to 1TB, and they're targeted primarily at HTPC manufacturers -- but we'd bet a few Tivo-hackin' ears just perked up out there.
