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Imation Pro WX Wireless USB hard drive review

by Richard Lai posted Nov 11th 2009 at 11:51AM

Imation was set to announce its first-ever Wireless USB hard drive a year ago, but it lost a dear friend shortly before it materialized and we'd heard nothing since then. Today Imation has returned -- holding hands with its new partner, Staccato -- to release the Pro WX 1.5 terabyte Wireless USB hard drive for both Windows and Mac. At $449.99, though, we thought to ourselves: does the Pro WX offer something extraordinary for the premium price? Or are you better off with a NAS device like Apple's infamous Time Capsule? We ran some quick tests to find out -- do read on for some juicy results.

Gallery: Imation Pro WX Wireless USB hard drive reviewed

Continue reading Imation Pro WX Wireless USB hard drive review

Laptop Battery Express' external battery works with 10,000 laptop models, just not yours

by Thomas Ricker posted Aug 28th 2009 at 4:02AM

If you're toting a new laptop with non-removable battery then you've got an obvious problem: it will run out of juice, likely at the moment you need it most. That's Murphy's law. Fortunately, a number of vendors have started to introduce these external battery packs designed exclusively for laptops. The practically named Universal External Laptop Battery from Laptop Battery Express ships with enough interchangeable tips to provide an extra 4 hours (rated at 66Wh) of power to thousands of laptops from just about any of the big-boy brands you can think of. There's even a USB port for topping-off your cellphone or portable media player. Unfortunately, the most notorious fixed-battery laptop, the MacBook Pro, is not supported. Ah well, that's just more business for Hypermac, eh? One more glamor-shot after the break.

[Via SlashGear]

Continue reading Laptop Battery Express' external battery works with 10,000 laptop models, just not yours

Pioneer's ultraslim DVR-XD09 burner is more jewel case than drive

by Vladislav Savov posted Jul 29th 2009 at 12:58PM

While ASUS is busy stuffing DVD burners into Eee PCs, Pioneer and others are working hard to make the integrated optical drive a thing of the past. The freshly announced XD09 measures in at 5.24 x 0.58 x 5.24-inches and 8 ounces, or slightly beefier than your average CD case. Pioneer claims that it's the most compact drive design yet. Essentially this means if you can carry your optical media around with you, then you can carry the player for it too. Power comes via the USB 2.0 connection, and all the usual DVD plus, minus, reading, writing, dual-layer mumbo jumbo is retained with top writing speeds of 8x on single-layer and 6x on double-layer media. This inspired minimalism can be yours for $79.99 in August.

[Via Hot Hardware]

Toshiba's inaugural 3.5-inch external HDD is exactly what you think it is

by Ross Miller posted Jul 28th 2009 at 10:14PM

Good old Tosh is putting a little more heft on its drives, unveiling what the company cites as its first ever 3.5-inch external hard drive. It spins at 5400RPM, features USB 2.0 and eSATA output, and an aesthetic that's easy on the eyes. Not much else to say about this space saver, but you can be sure it's just the first of many that are in the pipeline. The presser says it's available now, but we've been looking and have yet to find it on Toshiba's retail site or other online retailers like Amazon. When it does show its face, expect it to cost $130 for the 640GB model and $160 for a cool 1TB.

[Via Testfreaks; thanks, Nickolas R]

Seagate's FreeAgent Go series bumped to 640GB

by Ross Miller posted Jun 20th 2009 at 11:57AM

Seagate's giving its FreeAgent Go drives a fresh new 640GB capacity ceiling, and while it's not the first external to cross that 500GB threshold, it's certainly on the thinner end of the totem pole, physically. Nothing revolutionary here otherwise, it's still the standard USB-connected with up to 480Mbps transfer with multiple color options. Also distinctly the norm? Not a bit of info on pricing or availability, but if Seagate's posting promotional materials on its main site, we suspect it's not too far off.

[Via Slashgear]

Buffalo's LinkStation Mini external hard drive goes SSD

by Darren Murph posted Dec 10th 2008 at 9:23AM

Buffalo has already shown its willingness to cram a pricey SSD into an external enclosure for those who prefer quiet, quick operations over the pure vastness of traditional HDDs, and now it's doing so once more with the SSD-equipped LinkStation Mini. Easily titled LS-WSS240GL/R1, the 240GB device houses a pair of 120GB solid state drives and features DLNA / iTunes server capabilities, an Ethernet port, RAID 0 / 1 compatibility, a USB 2.0 socket and a nifty function to turn it off and on with the PC it's connected to (should you want it to). It's expected to hit Japanese peripheral shops late this month with a ¥111,300 ($1,200) sticker in tow, so you'd better be exceptionally wealthy or really, really through with HDDs before okaying the transaction on this one.

OWC introduces first external Blu-ray drive with quad interface

by Darren Murph posted Oct 22nd 2008 at 11:41AM

It's debatable whether or not Apple is losing its touch with FireWire, but you can rest assured that OWC hasn't. Said outfit has just announced the industry's first Blu-ray external drive with a quad interface, meaning you can link it up to your PC or Mac via FireWire 400, FireWire 800, USB 2.0 or eSATA. The Mercury Pro SW-5583 arrives with the capability to toast BD-Rs at a rate of 4x and includes a pair of 25GB BD-R discs for $499.99; the closely related Mercury Pro SW-5583T throws in a full retail version of Roxio Toast 9 Titanium (OS X) and sells for $579.99. Now, if only we could convince Steve that Blu-ray and Macs could indeed get along together, we'd really be satisfied. Full release after the break.

Continue reading OWC introduces first external Blu-ray drive with quad interface

Buffalo offers up external HD DVD / Blu-ray combo drive in Japan

by Darren Murph posted Aug 26th 2007 at 4:44AM

Nah, Buffalo isn't manufacturing the HD DVD / Blu-ray drive that sits comfortably within its new external enclosure, but those parked in Japan can reportedly get ahold of this peace maker for just ¥51,000 ($440). Apparently, Buffalo chose the GGC-H20N optical drive to read both high-definition formats in its BHC-6316U2, and CyberLink's PowerDVD7.3 Ultra will also be thrown in for good measure. Next month, Buffalo will be loosing the BRHC-6316U2, which will utilize the GGW-H20N Blu-ray burner / HD DVD reader and will run customers a respectable ¥74,800 ($644).

[Via EverythingUSB]

Buffalo shows off mini 300GB external drives

by Joshua Topolsky posted Jul 26th 2007 at 7:56AM

Not wanting to leave traditionalists in the cold after making its 56GB SSD offering, Buffalo has introduced a "shock-resistant" 300GB, external USB drive for neo-luddites. The skinny little number likely houses one of Fujitsu's new-ish 300GB 2.5-inchers, as the drive manufacturer is pretty much the only name in the game for that capacity. The portable drives come in black for your Cradle of Filth album collection, or white for your DC Talk FLACs. Available next month in Japan for ¥38,000, or around $315.

[Via Akihabara News]

Buffalo intros the 56GB SHD-UH external SSD

by Joshua Topolsky posted Jul 23rd 2007 at 7:22AM

Japanese peripheral manufacturer Buffalo has cooked up a storage option you might want to crack open your wallet for: a whopping 56GB SSD in a thin, external form factor that's just shy of credit card-size. Of course, it's not nearly the mind-blowing capacity of PQI's monster, but for an external SSD, they don't get much bigger. Sure, it's priced at ¥94,980 (around $783), which isn't exactly cheap, but if this trend continues these prices are bound to drop -- and just think of the possibilities of never having to hear a drive mechanism failing again. 8GB, 16GB, and 24GB models available late July, but the 56GB variation hasn't been given a release date yet.

[Via Akihabara News]

LaCie's Ethernet Big Disk NAS hits 2TB

by Darren Murph posted May 31st 2007 at 9:56PM

Now that just about everyone else has went and upped their NAS capacity to two whole terabytes, LaCie is strutting in fashionably late with its forthcoming 2TB Ethernet Big Disk. The 2- x 7- x 11-inch enclosure sports the typical metallic LaCie design scheme, plays nice with Windows, OS X, and Linux operating systems, and sports a web user interface that's apparently so easy a caveman (or your grandmother) could use it. The drive sports an Ethernet jack for connecting to a network, handles media streaming to UPnP-compatible devices, and packs a duo of USB ports that can be used to interface directly with a computer or for daisy-chaining another external HDD. Look for LaCie's 2TB NAS to land anytime for a stiff $1,099 here in the US.

[Via TGDaily]

OWC crams 2TB into Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual RAID HDD

by Darren Murph posted May 10th 2007 at 9:47AM

Nearly two years ago we all stood in awe of OWC's 1TB Mercury Elite Pro Aluminum Dual RAID, and just a few days after the company announced its multifaceted Quad Interface variety, now its upping the ante again. The 2TB edition of the external HDD presumably packs a pair of Hitachi's 7K1000 drives into an enclosure no bigger than any other twin-stuffed unit, and provides data transfer rates of over 80Mbps. The RAID 0 array is reportedly "designed to meet the performance demands of video and audio production," and while it's not exactly implied, to put a solid dent in your wallet as well. The drive connects up via USB 2.0 or FireWire 400 / 800, and can be snapped up now if you're willing to hand over $1,099.99.

[Via MacMinute]

WiebeTech's RT5, RT5e enclosures provide portable RAID solutions

by Darren Murph posted May 4th 2007 at 7:10AM

Nah, WiebeTech's latest RAID enclosures can't quite offer up the internal storage capacity seen on Novac's iterations, but the RT5 and RT5e still pack an awful lot of capacity with a handle on top. The RT5 packs a nice variety of connection options, as users will find twin FireWire 800 ports along with one eSATA and USB 2.0 connector to boot, and there should be enough room in there to cram "up to 2TB" of HDDs for on-the-go redundancy. The RT5e differs ever-so-slightly by giving us the means to stuff five 750GB IDE drives in the case, leaving you with up to 3.75TB of space to read / write on via the sole eSATA jack. The enclosures sport five reloadable, lockable drive trays, a rugged exterior that shouldn't suffer from minor bumps and bruises, and while an empty rendition will run you $1,699.95, WiebeTech will gladly sell 'em pre-populated for anywhere from $2,259.95 to a steep $4,149.95 depending on drive selections.

[Via Macworld]

External HDD for Wii?

by Conrad Quilty-Harper posted Mar 19th 2007 at 1:13AM

Here's a tricky one for ya: a French gaming site -- JeuxFrance -- is reporting that a Japanese gaming magazine -- Game Laboratory -- has reported that a reliable source within Nintendo told them that the company is looking at releasing an external hard drive accessory for the Wii. Did you manage to get that? Now, to us it seems logical that Nintendo would want to make such a device -- more storage equals more virtual console games sold, right? -- but as there are at least two foreign languages involved here, it would be an understatement to say that this is a stretched rumor. Maybe we should just listen to our Joystiq pals and note that it could simply be a case of an April Fools joke escaping a little earlier than it should have; oh, the limitations of print.

[Via digg]

Buffalo intros 1TB / 2TB DriveStation Quattro hard drives

by Darren Murph posted Mar 15th 2007 at 9:17PM

Nah, Buffalo's latest don't sport a gigabit Ethernet connection, but the 1TB HD-Q1.0TSU2/R5 and 2TB HD-Q2.0TSU2/R5 external hard drives do feature both USB 2.0 and eSATA options. The Quattro drives are the outfit's newest additions to the DriveStation lineup, and aside from offering up terabytes of stores in RAID scenarios, it also sports SecureLockWare for automatic encryption, Memeo AutoBackup, and near silent operation. Each unit touts four 7,200 RPM HDDs, RAID 0/1/5 and JBOD functionality, and just in case your PC doesn't play nice with eSATA just yet, it comes bundled with a "free" eSATA PCI card and back plate to get you going. Available right now, the 1TB flavor will run you $599, while you can double your capacity for an extra four Benjamins.

[Via TechDigest]