external storage
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Iomega Mac Companion Hard Drive offers 3TB of storage and a filling station for your iPad
How to get a hefty new hard drive for your Mac without making your other gadgets jealous? Iomega is offering up a solution with the fairly elegant Mac Companion Hard Drive, a two or three terabyte external drive designed with Apple computers in mind that adds a high-powered charging port for your peripherals. The drive also packs additional USB and FireWire ports (no Thunderbolt, guys?), plus a set of four LEDs, which let you know how full it is with a glance. The drives are available via Apple at $195 and $295, for 2TB and 3TB, respectively.
LaCie's Thunderbolt-equipped Little Big Disk sees apparent shipping delay (update: false)
Update: As it turns out, the site linked was for Australia and listed the region's Winter season 2011, which is summer in the US. LaCie has informed us that the drives are still set to ship on-time and has updated the Australian page -- which consequently looks identical to the US page -- to reflect "Australian Winter" rather than "Winter" as previously seen. Apologies for any confusion. Remember way back in February when Thunderbolt was unveiled? Shocking as it may be, a 10Gbps interconnect is useless without peripherals, and thankfully Promise and LaCie also announced compatible drives touting Q2 / summer availability. As promised, Promise's wares released as expected alongside Apple's T-bolt cable, but LaCie's Little Big Disk has been curiously absent. As it turns out, the company's website has been quietly updated and now reflects a winter 2011 release for these Intel 510 SSD-packable drives, which is just about enough to force a FOF onto even the happiest of faces. Still antsy to pick one up? Better plan to avoid Santa's naughty list -- at this point, waitin' and wishin' is about all you can do [Thanks, Mikhail]
PhotoFast i-FlashDrive does USB on one end, 30-pin dock connector on the other
Apple's iOS devices may lack native memory expansion, but PhotoFast has now come up with solution that just about bests the official camera connection kit. What you're looking at here is the i-FlashDrive, a memory dongle that sports both a USB plug and an Apple 30-pin dock connector, and it comes in three flavors starting from 8GB at $95 up to 32GB at $180. What's more, the drive also works with a free Cupertino-approved app that provides both external and internal file management (for music, photos, movies, and more), contact backup, and native MP3 playback. Want one? Then head over to Taiwan for a mid or late June launch, or watch out for its US debut shortly afterwards. Demo video after the break. %Gallery-125290%
FCC reveals Seagate GoFlex Satellite, a WiFi-capable battery-powered external hard drive
For a purportedly doomed manufacturer of magnetic storage, Seagate sure is spinning some interesting ideas these days -- last year, we got modular, upgradable cables, and now the company's testing external hard drives that don't need pesky wires to function. According to filings, the Seagate GoFlex Satellite not only plays the network-attached-storage card with built-in 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, it's also got a 3.7V battery inside its case... making the product's name somewhat apt, don't you think? According to a leaked description, Seagate's also planning a companion iOS app called "GoFlex Media" to let your iDevices stream content directly from the device. Mind you, none of that means you won't be able to dock with your Satellite the old-fashioned way -- FCC docs also mention a USB 3.0 cable that delivers data and power simultaneously.
Toshiba updates STOR.E external HDDs to USB 3.0, sees no lightning and hears no thunder
Allegiances are being drawn and battle plans laid out as the USB 3.0 vs. Thunderbolt war truly begins. Toshiba is, for the moment at least, staying friendly with the USB side, announcing updated versions of its STOR.E external HDDs, both packing Superspeed tech. On the smaller side is the ALU 2S, packing a 2.5-inch HDD internally that has up to 1TB on platters. If you need a little more you can step up to the Steel S, another external unit containing a 3.5-inch HDD with up to 2TB of storage. That one, unfortunately, will require an external power supply, while the littler ALU 2S will get by with only a USB cable. Both feature metal exteriors, increasing their usability as impromptu bludgeons, and both are slated to start shipping before this first quarter is through -- which should mean any time now.
Western Digital's new My Book Studio Edition II has 6TB on offer, but no Thunderbolt or USB 3.0
If you want a lot of the GBs in not a lot of space, 3TB per disk is about as good as you're going to get. Western Digital has slapped two of its triple-terabyte monsters into a dual-disk enclosure and paired it with eSATA and FireWire 800 interfaces to create the My Book Studio Edition II. There's a good 'ol USB 2.0 hole in there as well, but no USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt for those getting hip with the new connections. Time Machine support is baked in as well as your choice of RAID configurations, all at a cost of $549.99. That's a good bit more than you'd spend if you bought a pair of disks and an empty enclosure, but such is the price of convenience. %Gallery-119224%
Samsung spices up the USB 3.0 hard drive party with three new models
It's not the first time that Samsung's pimped up their hard drives with some USB 3.0 goodness, but come April, the Korean giant will be delivering three new product lines that are yet to be named. The first one is a basic portable model that goes up to 1TB, and comes encased in a smudge-resistant matte housing with a choice of four colors. The next one up is simply a premium version of the portable drive that not only looks prettier (as pictured above), but also beefed up with auto backup software and 256-bit Full Disk Encryption. A USB dock will be available for both portable lines. Last but not least, those looking for more storage space (and presumably faster spinning speeds) can turn to the desktop version, which will be available in three flavors: 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB. Press release after the break. %Gallery-112514%
Synology DS1511+ does the 3TB-per-drive dance, backs up most of your neighborhood
Once one network attached storage manufacturer upgraded to 3TB hard drives, it was only a matter of time before the rest followed suit, and this time it's Synology's turn with the DiskStation DS1511+. In case you haven't done the math already, this particular unit can store up to 15 terabytes of your juiciest secrets across five 3TB hot-swappable drives, and its 1.8GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of memory handles a RAID 5 array capable of speeding that data across a local area network at up to 197 MB / sec read speeds and 165 MB / sec writes. If that capacity isn't enough to house your plan for world domination and monitor all the IP cameras in your underground volcano lair, the unit can scale up to 45TB with a couple of secondary expansion units, each with five more 3TB drives of their own. Yours for roughly $900 -- sans storage -- wherever NAS are sold. PR after the break.
Kingston unveils HyperX Max 3.0, a SuperSpeed SSD for your pocket, we tear it down (video)
USB 3.0 and SSDs, they were just made for each other, don't you think? Kingston certainly seems to agree, as it's now rolled out its first SuperSpeed portable solid state drive, giving it the catchy title of HyperX Max 3.0. It fits within the dimensions of a conventional 2.5-inch hard drive, but differs in being able to pump 195MB of data per second when reading or 160MBps when writing. Although pricing and availability details aren't yet available, we can expect 64GB, 128GB and 256GB varieties to crop up some time soonish. Until then, can we interest you in some unboxing and teardown action, courtesy of our brethren over at Engadget Spanish? You'll find it on video just past the break.
Buffalo launches assault on your USB ports with MiniStation Stealth and DriveStation Axis LED
We love the smell of storage in the morning, and these two from Buffalo are smelling fine with their decidedly militaristic names. First is the MiniStation Stealth, a little black box that is not covered in absorbent paint but does at least rely on only a single USB cable for power and data, decreasing its radar signature considerably. That's available nowish starting at $74 for 320GB and moving up to $104 for 640GB. Then there's the DriveStation Axis LED, launching its assault in January, a larger external drive which extends its evil might with an array of lights on the front, letting you tell at a glance how your battle against disk capacity is going. To help your efforts this one starts at 1TB for $99, with the 2TB model going for $159. Just don't forget to pick up a few war bonds while you're at it. %Gallery-107608%
Windows Phone 7's microSD mess: the full story (and how Nokia can help you out of it)
There are many reasons to be excited about Windows Phone 7, but a bleak spot has been Microsoft's message -- or lack thereof -- on user-expandable storage, and the situation finally came to a head last week when AT&T told Samsung Focus owners to hold off on buying microSD cards altogether until Microsoft had a chance to certify some for use with the platform. How did it get to this point? Why wasn't it communicated to users that this was such a problem before the phones ever went on sale? And if it really is such a problem, why did Samsung dare to make the microSD slot user-accessible in the Focus the first place? All good questions -- and in talking with a number of sources the past few days, we've pieced together some of the answers. Read on.
NewerTech's Guardian MAXimus mini RAIDs your data in real time, armed to the teeth with tiny drives
To think it's been three years since the NewerTech Guardian MAXimus debuted. How time flies. But also too the pace of technology, which is why it's time to upgrade. The new Guardian MAXimus mini claims to do everything its ancestor did but with a pair of far smaller drives, making for a 1.5 pound package of RAID storage little bigger than a single 3.5-inch hard disk standing all by its lonesome. The brushed aluminum fanless unit connects via eSATA, USB 2.0 and both FireWire 800 and 400 in sizes up to 1.5TB, starting at $250 for a pair of 500GB, 5400RPM drives, but if you're the go-big-or-go-home type you'll also find a wallet-obliterating $3,300 package with two 400GB SSDs to make your files fly by. Strangely though, there's no USB 3.0 to be had even for that price. Perhaps next time? PR after the break.
Verizon FiOS set-top boxes getting a new HD guide, external storage and more in Q4
Streaming and downloading TV content to mobiles is nice, but we enjoy watching TV... on the TV, and Verizon had plenty of that to talk about today as well. Due in Q4 along with its FlexView app for mobile VOD access, version 1.9 of its FiOS TV guide software will finally add a 16x9 HDTV-filling guide to those Motorola boxes and it looks like many of our suggestions (and yours, according to Director of Product Management Joe Ambeault) made it in. Beyond a fresh coat of paint (although, with animated transitions, highly customizable viewing and browsing options and 3D-ish elements it's shaping up to be a very nice fresh coat of paint), the real meat is in the enhanced DVR features. New updates include support for external storage (up to 1TB eSATA per DVR), automatic DVD-style chaptering on recordings, and an undelete button to bring back mistakenly removed recordings. Also freshened is its MoCA-powered multiroom setup that now shows all recordings from any box or external storage all in one list. About the only thing we can find missing from the new software is any sort of support for conflict resolution across DVRs or using all tuners as a pool, but it's otherwise robust, with each box handling up to 4 streams (2 in, 2 out) at once, and 7 connected devices (6 boxes plus one router) per home. Check out a couple more screens after the break, though skipping directly to house shopping in FiOS-connected neighborhoods may make for more efficient use of your time.
Apricorn's DVR Expanders get bigger, prettier, quieter with new 2TB option and fanless designs
Say hello to the latest iteration of Apricorn's DVR Expander series, now offering sizes up to 2TB. The drives are wrapped in a passively cooled design that not only upgrades the looks from its external storage units of years gone by but are also "ultra-quiet" after dropping the fans. The 1.5TB and 2TB ($169 and $249, respectively) models are only for compatible DirecTV boxes, while Dish Network and Scientific Atlanta (8300 and 8240 series) DVR users can plug in units of either 500GB or 1TB ($99 and ($129, respectively) in size. With up to 234 hours of HDTV recording on the eSATA/USB connected units, mentioning the possibility of connecting multiple drives to the satellite boxes seems like overkill, but if you want to record every episode of The Daily Show and Colbert Report left this year, we won't judge.%Gallery-99002%
OWC will cut a hole in your new 27-inch iMac, put an eSATA port behind it
Say what you like about Apple, as a company it's not exactly on the forefront when it comes to offering standard connectors for peripherals. Case in point: the latest iMac revisions lack eSATA, something of a bother for companies that make external storage devices. Companies like OWC. So, that particular organization is introducing a service to add that to 27-inch iMacs, cutting a small hole into the bottom-right of the display and sticking an eSATA port behind it. It's a nice idea, the results look flush enough, and 48-hour turn-around time is great -- but $169 is hardly small change. You can, however, take that time to get a 480GB Mercury Extreme Pro SSD stuffed in there as well for a mere $1,649 more.
Hitachi unveils LifeStudio content-aware external hard drives, we go hands-on
If we said Hitachi's got a new line of external hard drives, you'd probably walk away -- but what if they were the smartest bricks of magnetic memory you'd ever seen? That's how Hitachi is billing the new LifeStudio array of drives, which feature not only the standard rotating disks, but also dockable USB keys, software that auto-organizes your media, and several gigabytes of cloud storage. At $80 for a basic 250GB 2.5-inch disk and $220 for the premium 2TB desktop unit, they're not the cheapest external storage on the block, but they claim to do so much more than store that we just had to give them a try. Read our full impressions after the break. %Gallery-97047%
iPad Spirit jailbreak + Camera Connection Kit = external HDD support
Looks like that iPad Camera Connection Kit isn't as overpriced as we thought; not only does it have USB headset and keyboard support, but one enterprising user has hooked up an external hard drive using the dongle as well. Max Shay has an exhaustive walkthrough at his personal website, but the gist of the matter is that you'll need a jailbroken iPad, a split-USB cable to give that drive some extra juice, and a terminal of some sort (Max used his MacBook) to trick the iPad into mounting your external storage, after you use SSH to tunnel through. The result is an unwieldy wired assembly we wouldn't be caught dead with in public, but perhaps useful in a pinch -- or as the latest proof of what the iPad could do if only Apple would let it. Video after the break.
Toshiba REGZA R1 and H1 series promises USB storage, HDD, adventure
If you were contemplating a move to Japan (you know, because you're sick of waiting for all those feature-packed REGZA HDTVs to make it stateside) the idea just got a little more compelling. The new REGZA R1 series (up to 42-inches) and REGZA H1 series (32 and 37-inch displays) sport USB ports for recording and external storage. All but the 32-inch models feature 1080p (the little guys make due with 720p) and the R1 line also feature IPS panels and an enhanced gaming mode. All of the above support DLNA streaming, four HDMI ports, analog inputs, and two 10W speakers. But that's not all! In addition to USB, the H1 line throws in the 500GB hard drives that are becoming commonplace on other REGZA models lately. Look for new H1 displays to drop in early June, starting at ¥150,000 (about $1,600), while the new R1 line is due any time now starting at ¥130,000 (about $1,400). Hit the source link for all the details -- and for an insane trip into the world of machine-mangled Japanese press releases. If you dare.
Drobo FS: finally, Data Robotics releases a Drobo NAS drive
Say it with us now: "finally!" We've been yearning for a true Drobo NAS drive ever since Data Robotics first introduced its "intelligent" storage robot back in the heyday that was 2007, and after coming darn close with the DroboShare, the company has finally produced a bona fide networked storage solution. The Drobo FS (for 'File Server') utilizes the same chassis as the Drobo S, and in terms of features, it can do everything that box can, too. What differentiates it, however, is that astoundingly gorgeous gigabit Ethernet jack on the rear, not to mention a new dual-core CPU, increased RAM, a revised Linux kernel and enough overall tweaks to make it perform 4x faster than the DroboShare. We spoke with Mark Fuccio, Senior Director of Products and Markets, who obliged when we dug for even more details. For starters, this device will boast five bays, and users can mix, match, upgrade and swap drives at will, just like any other Drobo. It'll also support network backups of Macs and PCs, and while you won't find a Time Machine stamp, the Time Tamer app available in the DroboApps portal will enable support for Mac loyalists who insist on using that over Data Robotic's (likely superior) solution. It also ships with a BitTorrent client that keeps your transfers humming even when your PC is off, and it'll handle iTunes, UPnP and DLNA streaming to boot. Firmware upgrades will be handled over the network, and users can poke around for even more applications by visiting the company's website. One app that stood out to us, however, was one that'll be thrown in by the recently renamed Oxygen Cloud; in essence, this will allow users to turn their Drobo FS into "the cloud," enabling colleagues or kids to remotely access the Drobo as if it were some faraway, magical data drive connected to a mythical T3. Yeah, this definitely feels more like a corporate thing than anything else, but it's certainly something that you won't find on those "other" NAS drives. It should be noted, however, that the app will only support a single user for free -- if you're buying for a corporation or small business, you'll need to hit up Oxygen Cloud to procure a multi-user license. Aside from nabbing SMB and AFP support, Mark told us that users could reasonably expect to see file transfers between 30MB/sec and 40MB/sec, but that's obviously subject to vary based on strain. As for pricing? Data Robotics told us that the new Drobo FS will be on sale globally today through the typical channels (Amazon, CDW, B&H Photo, Dell and NewEgg), with the empty unit selling for $699. A 4.5TB model (1.5TB x 3) will go for $999, while a 7.5TB version (5 x 1.5TB) lists for $1,149 and a 10TB edition (2TB x 5) for $1,449. Or you could just enter to win one here. Oh, and as for that DroboShare we mentioned earlier? It's being phased out with the introduction of the Drobo FS, so if you're jonesing for one, you might want to get that order placed. %Gallery-89838%
Sony licenses 'official' PS3 external HDDs, doesn't fully comprehend concept of interoperability
Hey there, why so glum? You've overfilled your PS3's internal storage with mission-critical data and don't have anywhere else to stash your incoming Best of Miley Cyrus compilation? Fear not, Sony's got you covered with a pair of officially licensed external HDDs built by Buffalo. They look remarkably similar to standard issue USB portable drives -- so much so in fact that one of them is a rebadged unit that Buffalo already retails in the US -- but let's not nitpick here. The two drives on offer come with a generous 500GB of storage and their prices aren't too bad with the rebadge setting you back around $130 while the more stylish HD-AV500U2 above will cost around $168. You could of course ignore Sony, buy any drive you like and jack it into your PS3; it's just that these aren't too terrible as far as unnecessarily licensed peripherals go. Both drives will be hitting Japan in March to coincide with the Torne DVR adapter release.
