external storage
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Toshiba's inaugural 3.5-inch external HDD is exactly what you think it is
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]
Sans Digital offers up AccuNAS AN2L 2-bay NAS enclosure
Sans Digital caught our eyes earlier this month with a simple, albeit remarkably nifty CF to SATA adapter, and now it's doing so again with a 2-bay NAS enclosure. The AccuNAS AN2L is a RAID 0/1 chassis that supports file sharing in Windows, OS X and Linux, and it also enables playback of files via a PS3 / Xbox 360 or any other UPnP / DLNA-certified device. You'll also find that this thing doubles triples as an iTunes music server and BitTorrent client, which makes it all the more tempting, does it not? No word on pricing at the moment, but if you're strangely uncomfortable with loading in your own HDDs, the outfit will be selling these with 500GB to 2TB pre-installed for an undisclosed premium.
Possibilities to reduce unemployment, increase USB usage
Unemployed loafers might do well to apply down at Nintendo, as they need a new lackey to take care of some business. That business might be very interesting, as the opening is for an experienced USB ... dude. This means the under-utilized USB capabilities on the Wii might be getting some decent stuff for future pluggage. External memory is the hot ticket, but that's still kinda boring. How about this thing for plenty of cool air during a hot, sweaty Wii Sports session?Hit the jump for full details of the position up for grabs.
Time Machine plays nice with USB HDDs on Time Capsule
Well, would you look at that. It seems as if Time Machine is all buddy-buddy with externally connected HDDs on Time Capsule after all. If you'll recall, many Apple users were miffed (to put it gently) by the disappearance of said feature from vanilla AirPort Extreme Base Stations just before Leopard hit the streets, but according to a hands-on report over at Macworld, "you can perform Time Machine backups to drives attached to the Time Capsule via USB." Granted, it wasn't exactly speedy or anything, but at least the functionality is tucked away in there -- hit up the read link if you're still spinning in disbelief.[Via TUAW]
Dish Network enables external storage, Ethernet port on DVRs
Dish Network subscribers with ViP622 HD DVRs can finally breathe easy and not worry about accidentally erasing any shows -- as rumored, the satellite company stealthily enabled the Ethernet port and support for external USB 2.0 hard drives last night. Using your own storage isn't as simple as just jacking in a random hard drive and recording away, however: Dish will charge you a $39.99 "activation fee," you can't daisy-chain drives, and content you archive on the external drive will have to be manually moved to back to the internal drive in order for you to watch it. You can use as many drives as you want, though, so you can have separate drives for movies and sports, but we'd have much rather had all this stuff managed automatically. Upgrades should be rolling out now, let us know when you get your in comments![Thanks, Art]
Apple TV Hacks calls for help to polish the USB drive hack
Two days after Apple TV Hacks published the much sought-after USB hard drive hack for the Apple TV, the site is making a call for help to polish the modification. For now, the hack isn't for the faint of heart - it requires some mucking around at the command line, not to mention an Intel Mac to apply the patch (i.e. - PowerPC Mac and Windows owners seem to be out of luck for now). It also appears that the hack is confirmed to not work on Apple TVs that have had their software updated to the 1.1 YouTube edition. Specifically, Apple TV Hacks is looking for help to simplify the hack's process and, ideally, bundle it in a GUI to make it a lot easier for all users to apply. Compatibility with the 1.1 Apple TV software is also on the todo list, since reverting one's Apple TV back to the original software and losing all the new features isn't the first thing most users want to do. If you have any skills with helping out on hacks or bundling them into a GUI, or if you know a developer who might, send them over to the Apple TV Hacks post to see if they can lend a hand.
I-O Data's RHD2-U: up to 1TB of RAID disk
Another day -- another overnighted, 10 gigabytes of torrented data -- another external storage solution. The RHD2-U series is a departure from I-O Data's LANDISK NAS line-up. First off, this is not NAS, it's USB 2.0 attached and capable of delivering up to 1TB of disk via 2x 7200rpm hard drives tucked away in the enclosure. That opens up the possibility for RAID 0/1 if you really think those DivX flicks deserve the special treatment. It also features something called RHD (Relational HD), allowing the unit to host additional disks loaded up on I-O Data's cartridges. Hitting mid-December in Japan for ¥64,680 or about $556 for the full 1,000GB.[Via Impress]
Western Digital's My Book getting a 1TB Pro II Edition?
You won't find this on Western Digital's site yet, but eagle-eyed tipster Scott, came across this unannounced 1TB My Book Pro II Edition external storage solution while shopping Provantage. This is a dual-drive system so we're looking at a couple of 500GB drives spinning at 7200RPM packed in a bulls-eye tome with Firewire 400 / 800 and USB 2.0 interfaces. Features include RAID 0/1, backup and recovery software, and 3 year warranty for $513.49, exactly. Sorry, no product image, but other than a color change, the Pro II isn't likely to differ from the existing My Book lineup pictured. No reason to doubt this is coming, it's gonna happen sooner or later.Update: Yup, it's the real deal, and reader Michael G. was kind enough to direct us the 1TB MyBook's Buy.com page. As we suspected, it looks pretty much the same as the less capacious versions, although this new "book" is so fat that it seems WD is really stretching the whole attempt at literary camoflauge it's got going on here.[Thanks, Scott]
