This SSD 520 series from Intel is set to bring faster graphic renderings, data transfers, compiling, and even system boot-ups. As you know, a solid state drive has no movable parts, relying instead on silicon, NAND flash memory specifically, to bring to you a lower power, faster and more reliable solution. This SSD uses an LSI SandForce Flash Storage Processor complete with an Intel co-defined and validated firmware release. The SSD 520 series from Intel will bring to you up to 80,000 maximum 4K random write Input-Output Operations Per Second (IOPS) and up to 50,000 4K random read IOPS to speed through every day operations.

You’ll also be grabbing up to 550 megabytes-per-second (MB/s) and up to 520MB/s sequential writes. The 520 series includes a 5 year warrantee and has been put through over 5,000 tests before it arrives on your doorstep. Michael Raam, vice president and general manager of LSI’s Flash Components Division, formed by LSI’s acquisition of SandForce notes the following:

“We worked closely with Intel to leverage their deep understanding of the NAND flash, ultimately providing a unique and optimized solution for client computing applications with the LSI SandForce Flash Storage Processor. Working through Intel’s extensive validation process ensures the Intel 520 SSD will raise the bar in delivering top-tier performance and superior quality and reliability over the life of the drive.” – Raam

The SSD 520 series will come in a variety of prices and sizes, these all based on a 1,000-unit quantity each: 60GB for $149, 120GB at $229, 180GB at $369, 240GB at $509 and 480GB at $999. You’ll be paying something just a bit different when you’re in the consumer market, note that!

This external hard drive will deliver your data to and from it as fast as 2 Gbps (250 MBps), this not quite as speedy as the Thunderbolt technology allows, but certainly as fast as WD’s hard drive technology allows. At that speed though, you’ll still be able to sent a full HD movie to your hard drive in 30 seconds or less. You can’t even get a Jimmy Johns sandwich that fast!

This drive will easily pull the wings off any USB 2.0 drive out there today, and will certainly sit well with video professionals whose job it is to move files back, and forth, and back, and forth all day long. You’ll be able to pick up this still slightly unrevealed beast up in 4TB and 6TB capacities relatively soon – price and release date have still not been released, nor has a press image of the device itself. Instead what you’re seeing is the My Book Live Duo, a device that will certainly look similar to this newest device when it eventually pops up.

What Blackburn is saying here is that forcing a defendant to decrypt a laptop so its contents can be inspected is essentially the same as producing any other bit of evidence. If a law enforcement agent has a warrant, they can force you to open up your trunk, your home, and of course your person – and now your hard drive as well. In this particular case, the defendant was also recorded speaking about how she owned the laptop and that it contained incriminating evidence, so that’s not doing her any favors either.

So know this, folks who do things so illegal they’ll certainly be caught eventually: your hard drive passwords will not save you. Should you get in trouble with the cops for digital crimes, you’ve got only one course of action available to you: trash it all. Smash your computer into little bits and destroy everything. But then there’s another factor in play: willful destruction of evidence. Instead just play it safe and don’t do anything illegal ever – sound good?

[via Cnet]

The 2big Thunderbolt Series features speeds up to three times faster than FireWire 800, RAID security, disks that can be hot-swapped, and the ability to daisy chain multiple units, which can even increase performance overall. With up to 8TB of storage capacity and a transfer rate of up to 311MB/s, the 2big series is perfect for videographers or other professionals having to backup frequently and stream multiple HD videos.

The eSATA Hub Thunderbolt Series allows two existing eSATA drives to connect to a new Mac via the Thunderbolt port. The hub itself also features a Thunderbolt port that allows users to connect other Thunderbolt peripherals even while two eSATA drives are hooked up. Users can also daisy chain up to 6 hubs, meaning up to 12 eSATA drives can be connected to a Mac via a single Thunderbolt port. Both series will be available in the first quarter of 2012.

“Samsung employees joining Seagate include a number of senior managers and design-engineering employees from Samsung’s Korea facility,” the two companies have confirmed, “who will focus on development of small form-factor products for the mobile compute market.” The exact nature of those SFF products is unclear at this stage.

Hard-drives currently found in Samsung’s line-up will, in some cases, continue to be available with the same branding for the next 12 months. Those with Samsung drives still under warranty will continue to be covered for that period, of course.

However, moving forward Seagate has slashed its warranty period on certain drives, a shift it describes as keeping the company’s offering in line with what the rest of the market promises. Some models have been trimmed down to a single year, while others have been curtailed to three years.

This next level HD is going to blow your socks off with 3GB GDDR5 memory and a memory interface of 384-bit and is sure to knock out some benchmarks with a base compute power of 3.5TFLOPS. You’ll be able to pick this piece of hardware up in a lovely black and red, and though the technology the device uses to attain its mystical combination of a rating of 300W with an idle board power of an undeniably low 3W, we’re sure to find it impressive come launch time.

This slide comes leaked from OBR-HARDWARE.com and though we cannot entirely confirm that it’s 100% legitimate, all the specifications do seem to line up well with what we’ve heard thus far. Now the question remains: will you buy one? We’ll be sure to let you know the full lowdown when the full release is dropped.

[via OBR]

Although Intel is best known for its processor line-up, with chips for everything from performance desktops through notebook sand ultraportables and into low-power netbooks and embedded devices, the company also has a solid-state drive division. Intel’s SSDs and NAND flash storage has received positive reviews in general, and found its way into several enterprise data centers, though relatively high prices still mean HDDs dominate the storage marketplace.

A shortage of HDDs, however, could help turn that around. “So far we have not seen a big uptake in demand for SSDs” Smith conceded this week, ZDNet reports, going on to suggest that “I do expect that to happen.”

“I think that it will be one of the ways that the industry helps offset some of the HDD shortage; and I also think if you go out towards the end of 2012, and you think about notebook computer at the end of 2012, which is very thin, very light, very power efficient, Ultrabook class machine, SSDs become really important in that.” Stacy Smith, CFO, Intel

Intel’s most obvious current strategy for driving SSD adoption is the ultrabook segment, a rebranding of the ultraportable notebook category that mandates such basic features as pairing one of the company’s own processors with solid-state storage, housed in a sub-0.8-inch thick chassis. Several manufacturers have risen to the challenge, including Toshiba, Acer and Lenovo, though so far pricing has kept them out of the mainstream.

Hitachi 4TB Deskstar 5K4000 Hard Drive Retail Kit with CoolSpin Technology

This first of two drives is a 3.5-inch hard drive housing a 32MB cache buffer and 33 percent more capacity than Hitachi’s last drive solution. Inside you’ll also find CoolSpin technology which allows your hard drive to run both cooler and with much less power. Hitachi notes that with CoolSpin and other power management techniques, this drive has up to 28 percent idle power savings over the Deskstar 7K3000 7,200 RPM drives in addition to an idle acoustic level or only a tiny 2.5 bels.

This drive comes complete with instructions, mounting screws, and software downloads that make sure your 32- and 64-bit Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, and Linux® systems are able to tap into the full capacity and power of the drive as “one big massive data drive” without having to install additional hardware. The Deskstar 5K4000 (bare drives and bulk pack) will be shipping to manufacturers, distributors, and channel partners around the world in the first quarter of 2012 — meanwhile the 4TB Hitachi Deskstar 5K4000 Hard Drive Retail Kit is currently shipping in limited quantities to online and retail stores with a suggested retail price of $399.99.

4TB Hitachi Touro Desk External Drive

Built to fit alongside the rest of the storage equipment you’ve got without a hitch, you’ve got a simple smooth black body on this drive with textured finish. Inside you’ve of course got the massive 4TB of space but you ALSO get a free 3GB of cloud storage from HitachiBackup.com with every purchase. You can access this cloud-stored data at any time from your computer or mobile device web browser. An upgraded account will yield 250GB of storage as well as iPhone and iPad companion apps.

You’ll be using the ultra-fast USB 3.0 interface on this monster, and the drive is compatible with both Mac and PC computers. You can get the Touro Desk External Drive in 4, 4, 2, and 1TB capacities. The 4GB version will be available in January for $419.99 MSRP. Think about getting one now!

“The worldwide PC supply chain is reducing inventories and microprocessor purchases as a result of hard disk drive supply shortages” Intel concludes, with a similar dearth of drives impacting Q1 2012 as well. In fact, any turnaround isn’t expected until later in the first half of next year.

Intel had previously been expecting fourth-quarter revenues to reach $14.7bn, give or take another half a billion. That predication has been scythed down to $13.7bn, plus or minus $300m, on both a GAAP and non-GAAP basis.

The processor company isn’t the only one hurting from the hard-drive shortages, mind. Both Google and Facebook are believed to be struggling to meet their own respective demand for storage, according to HP.

The silver colored enclosure is one single piece of billet-machined aluminum, and again, it’s fully bulletproof. You can also dunk it in a bucket of water or toss it down a flight of stairs without damaging it, and should you want to crush it with a truck, you can, just so long as its under 5000 lbs. You can hold it under water for a while, too just so long as you’re above 30 feet and inside 3 days. UV rays wont hurt this drive, blowing dust and sand, rain, salt fog, and both icing and freezing rain wont damage this drive so long as you bring it back to safety in under 24 hours.

You can drop hydraulic fluid, aircraft fuel, and diesel fuel, oils and a bunch of other chemicals on the drive, just so long as you stop dumping cups of the junk on it after an hour and dont put it in a vat of the stuff deeper than 12 feet. And if you plan on getting your data messed up through NORMAL means, you’ve got a built-in Kensington security slot and guaranteed “any reason” data recovery, this including if you accidentally deleted your hundreds of gigabytes of photos of cats without malicious intent, if you know what I mean.

This drive is being picked up by the US Navy because of its awesome protective capabilities, but they don’t come cheap. We’re talking about prices comparable to what this amount of space would have cost 5 years ago, namely US$299.99 with 12 months warranty/data recovery service for the 1 TB version, the 500 GB model ringing in at $199.99. You’ll be able to pick one or the other up at the online Apple Store or the ioSafe online store directly right this moment. Oh and it comes in black as well, if you like.

Hardware

Netgear’s chassis is sober but sturdy, with a blocky metal casing that’s larger than some rivals thanks to its use of regular 3.5-inch desktop hard-drives rather than smaller – generally more expensive and lower capacity – 2.5-inch mobile drives. Up front there’s a USB 2.0 port with a dedicated “backup” button that pulls the content of any removable storage plugged in off and to a preset folder, along with a power button, activity and drive lights.

As the Duo name suggests, this particular ReadyNAS supports a pair of HDDs which are hot-swappable. Storage can be set up as either RAID 0 “striped” for speed without redundancy, or RAID 1 “mirrored” for data redundancy but half the capacity. However, extra capacity can be added using the two USB 3.0 ports on the back of the ReadyNAS, a welcome update over the more typical USB 2.0 connections.

Inside, Netgear has updated the processor to a 1.6GHz Marvell chip paired with 256MB of RAM. The company reckons that makes the Duo v2 twice as fast as its predecessor, with file transfers and higher-bitrate media streaming each said to benefit from the extra performance.

Netgear will offer three versions of the ReadyNAS Duo v2. Cheapest is the empty, barebones shell, intended for those wanting to use their own hard-drives, and priced at $199. Then there are 1TB and 2TB versions – each with a single drive – at $269 and $299 respectively. Our review unit was supplied with two 1TB Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 7K1000.C SATA 3.0Gb/s drives, spinning at 7,200 rpm with 32MB of cache.

Software

Backup isn’t really sexy, and so a home NAS needs to be easy to use if owners are going to stick with it through not only setup but taking advantage of the various value-adds Netgear and others throw in. The ReadyNAS Duo v2 gets a double-whammy: Netgear has updated its RAIDiator 5 setup software to reduce complexity, and throws in a three year warranty too. For the first 90 days users get access to 24/7 customer service to help them set the NAS up; after that, three years of 24/7 support and hardware replacement is $99. If that seems too rich, three years of hardware replacement alone – within seven business days of a fault being diagnosed – is $29.

We didn’t need to call for help, however, and we doubt most reasonably confident home users would need to either. Once the ReadyNAS boots for the first time, a simple browser-based setup wizard walks you through formatting your drives in either RAID 0 or 1, and then drops you in a straightforward GUI.

As well as access to documentation and Netgear’s online support, RAIDiator 5 consists of various panes for setting up user accounts and shared folders, monitoring the “health” of the NAS including temperature and fan-speed, and checking which “Add-ons” have been installed. For most, the latter will consist of ReadyNAS Remote, which allows you to use Netgear’s iOS and Android apps to log in from your smartphone, browse through folders and download content, and ReadyNAS Photos II, for hosting your own Flickr alternative directly from the NAS.

The Remote app works well, though since you’re accessing your files from your own “personal” cloud – i.e. through your home broadband connection – the speed at which they filter through to your smartphone (or indeed the standalone OS X and Windows software) depends on your home upload speed. That’s less of an issue for photos and most documents, but may make accessing video and higher-bitrate music files a struggle. Still, being able to remotely grab a missing file while you’re at the office or in a meeting can be a very useful thing.

ReadyNAS Photos II bills itself as a free, more controllable alternative to Flickr: since the storage is all on your end there are no hosting fees, and it’s entirely private. Only those you share the link with can access them, and there are various options for limiting visibility to those with accounts or opening them to unregistered guests.

Finally there’s native UPnP/DLNA streaming support, meaning the ReadyNAS Duo v2 can send multimedia across your network to an Xbox 360 or PS3, your digital TV set-top box streamer, iTunes, SONOS kit or Logitech’s Squeezbox platform. Netgear has over 100 different Add-ons – some of its own creation, others from third-party developers – to download, allowing owners to enhance the capabilities of their NAS. Power users may prefer the more advanced “desktop” layout of Synology’s DSM software, which allows multiple add-ons and other windows to be seen simultaneously, but home users will likely find the simple panes of the Netgear interface easily navigable.

Performance

We started off testing the ReadyNAS Duo v2 with a single drive installed. Transferring a single 5GB file to and from the system saw 36.5 MB/s write rates and 100 MB/s read rates. Transferring 5GB worth of 20MB files saw write speeds stay the same, at 36.5 MB/s, but read rates dropped to 85.6 MB/s.

We then installed the second drive in a RAID 1 “mirroring” array, which basically provides drive redundancy. With the 5GB single file, write speed rose slightly to 39 MB/s, though read speed dipped to 94.4 MB/s. For the 5GB of 20MB files, writes took place at 36.2 MB/s and reads at 84.8 MB/s.

Finally, we used the two drives as a RAID 0 “striped” array, which bypasses data redundancy in the name of speed. In this setup, the 5GB single file wrote at 41.3 MB/s and read at 90 MB/s, while the 5GB of 20MB files wrote at 40 MB/s and read at 79.4 MB/s.

Given the relative price and capacity of 3.5-inch drives (compared to 2.5-inch drives) we’d recommend most home users opt for RAID 1 with as big a pair of drives as they can afford. That will provide the best balance of data security and speed.

Wrap-Up

Persuading home users to invest in backup can be difficult, and so the Netgear ReadyNAS Duo v2′s sub-$200 – albeit drive-free – sets the NAS off to a good start. The company’s home user focus extends to the straightforward setup and the reassurance of the helpdesk support, and those looking for more sophisticated functionality, such as remote access, can have that too thanks to the iOS and Android apps.

The only real potential pain-point is the speed, with the ReadyNAS Duo v2 falling behind what we saw from the Synology DiskStation DS211 (With Diskstation V3.x). Still, Synology’s barebones DS211 is around $100 more expensive than the Netgear, and for general backup and media access many home users won’t particularly notice the difference.

Compromises, then, but acceptable ones when you consider the overall package. Small business and more advanced home users may want to look elsewhere where more expensive NAS offer stronger performance, but for its balance of usability and accessibility the Netgear ReadyNAS Duo v2 hits the consumer spot.

So wait, you could get this Xbox branded harddrive with 320GB for $130 USD OR you could head to Target and get a lovely looking Seagate 320GB harddrive for less than half that price at $60. What’s the big deal here, Microsoft gaming devision, are you trying to pull the wool over our eyes? No way, man, of course not, there’s something in there that’ll blow your socks off, that’s why the HD costs so much!

What is it? Do tell!

It’s Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, of course!

A couple things to consider here: this game costs $20 USD on its own here in the USA, and the game is not available with the harddrive in Japan, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia and the UAE. So those countries are out the $20 USD value, and the rest of us get a great deal! Wait a second… math. Think this one through, ladies and gentlemen.

“By selectively storing the block of data in the flash memory, the hybrid storage device can address the sensitivity of the HDD to changes in the environmental state of the hybrid storage device. For example, if the change in the environmental state information results in an operating state of the HDD in which failure or shut down of the HDD is to occur during the write operation, or if there is an imminent risk of data loss during the write operation, the write operation can be completed using the flash memory. Therefore, this storage technique can increase the reliability of the hybrid storage device” Apple patent application

As Apple describes it, the hybrid drive could quickly save data to the flash section if it detected it needed to suddenly lock down the platters such as during a fall. Alternatively, if drive temperature exceeded a preset “safe” level, the platters could spin down and the flash storage be used as a temporary cache until they had cooled once more.

Hybrid hard-drive technology isn’t new, and several manufacturers already have products that pair spinning platters and solid-state memory. Perhaps best known is Seagate’s Momentus XT – which we reviewed all the way back in July 2010 - though the primary purpose of the combined storage is usually expressed as a matter of speed.

That would also be a benefit of Apple’s system, the company recognizes – “the external device may be able to improve performance by leveraging the relative performance capabilities of HDD and flash memory” – though it’s possible the focus is on longevity so as to suitably differentiate the patent application from prior art. Whether that will fly with the USPTO remains to be seen, but we wouldn’t be surprised if future MacBook Pro models incorporated a cost-effective balance of hybrid storage rather than the wholesale shift to expensive SSDs that some have predicted.

[via PatentlyApple; image via iFixit]

Hardware

The ToughTech Duo QR model that we got to test sports dual 750GB hard drives for a total capacity of 1.5TB if configured as RAID 0. The hard drives are speedy at 7200RPM and compact at 2.5-inches in size. They are also easily swappable from the front-loading trays without the need for screws, although the drives can be screwed down to the trays for environments where extra stability is required. To remove a tray, you simply slide the black latch to unlock, which will reveal a red circle, and then you press in on the lid of the tray to pop it out.

The compact aluminum chassis measures only 6.3-inches by 3.5-inches by 1.3-inches and weighs roughly 1.75lbs. It’s built tough to withstand vibration and shock and also uses a passive thermal design for optimal heat dissipation without an internal fan. The large LCD display on the side of the device offers temperature status, monitors drive health, and allows you to configure RAID mode. On one side of the LCD is a black rubberized circular navigation control with four buttons, while the other side has three LED indicators for Power, System, and RAID.

Ports are located on the back side of the ToughTech Duo QR and include two FireWire 800 ports with FireWire 400 backwards compatibility, one eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port, and a power jack just below the power on/off switch. There’s also a small slot designed to work with a Kensington security cable lock.

The device pretty much comes with all the cables and power adapters that you’ll need. Included in the box are two FireWire 800 cables, one USB 2.0 cable, one eSATA cable, and an AC adapter with swappable prongs for outlet compatibility all around the world, accepting 100-240VAC. There’s also an aluminum stand with rubberized grips that you can use to hold the ToughTech Duo in an upright orientation. The device can also just lie flat on its side, if you opt not to use the stand.

Performance

The ToughTech Duo performed well with fast read speeds thanks to the 7200RPM hard drives and a fast Oxford 936 chipset. We first tested the device with a USB 2.0 connection and a RAID 1 configuration, meaning that the device would be writing the same information to both drives in real-time. With this setup we were able to transfer a file that was 2.28GB in 1 minute and 10 seconds, which translates to about 32MBps. Transfetring the same file back to our computer took slightly less time.

Performance results were very similar in a RAID 0 configuration. With the FireWire 800 connection, speeds for the same 2.28GB file transferred in about 43 seconds, which translates to about 53MBps. The nice thing about the FireWire 800 is that the device can be bus-powered by this connection, but not so via USB 2.0 or eSATA connections. Hence, for either of those two setups, you will need to also hook up the AC power adapter.

Wrap-Up

The ToughTech Duo QR is a great high capacity portable external hard drive that’s rugged, compact, and offers a simple to use RAID 1 solution along with easy-to-swap hard drive trays. Its tough chassis and small size makes it very convenient for traveling, while its small footprint and sleek design make it a welcome and unobtrusive addition to the studio as well. It also comes with a slew of connector cables, power adapter heads, and optional small screws for clamping down the drives to the trays when extra stability is needed.

The only complaints might be its lack of a USB 3.0 port and USB bus-power support. The device is also a bit costly with prices starting at $499, although a look around shows that our model with the two 750GB drives lists for about $763. Although costly, the device can be a good choice for a media professional that demands portability, ruggedness, large capacity, and easy-to-use reliable data protection and redundancy.

The compact My Passport for Macs no non-sense portable hard drives are available in 500GB, 750GB, and 1TB capacities and priced from $100 to $130. Each model comes with USB 2.0 connector ports, password protection, hardware encryption and Time Machine backup.

The My Passport Studio drives come in 750GB and 1TB capacities priced at $160 and $180, respectively. These are more advanced, featuring a more durable metal enclosure and two FireWire 800 connector ports in addition to USB 2.0.

[via Cult of Mac]

The Little Big Disk with Thunderbolt will be available in both SSD and HDD versions. The SSD version will feature a 240GB SSD RAID option and has been demonstrated to peak at read speeds of 634MBps, reaching up to 870MBps when daisy chained to a second drive.

The HDD version will feature two 2.5-inch drives with RAID option in either 1TB or 2TB configurations. The 1TB version will feature 7200RPM drives whereas the 2TB version will have 5400RPM drives, which can get up to 190MBps read speeds and can reach up to 782MBps when four drives are connected.

For more images and a video of the LaCie Little Big Disk with Thunderbolt, make sure to check out our hands-on with the device. The HDD version is available now online at the Apple Store, with the 1TB version priced at $400 and the 2TB version at $500. The SSD version will arrive sometime in October, but pricing for it is not confirmed yet.

You can currently use this product with most Apple products, that being the iPod Touch generation 3 or 4, the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4G, and the iPad or the iPad 2. This means that, for example, if I were to have one sitting here in the living room, it would erase the need for me to transfer videos to the iPad where I’d normally be playing them from via HDMI to the HD television. Now all I’d have to do is zap the videos from my computer right over to the Wi-Drive, my iPad then instantly having the ability to see them then too. Simple! Have a look at the device here courtesy of Kingston:

This little beast is right around the size of your average smartphone at 121.5mm x 61.8mm x 9.8mm, and the folks at Kingston have let us know that compatibility with Android is right around the corner. You’ll be able to work currently with the iOS devices listed above as well as Windows 7, Vista, and XP, as well as Max OS X 10.5 and up, and Linux 2.6 and up. You get a one year warranty right out of the box, there’s an official iOS app in Apple’s App Store, and its rechargeable battery lasts up to four hours of continuous use.

Look like the drive for you? Find out about more ultra fabulous Kingston products by hitting our big [Kingston Portal], and you can see the rest of our hands-on videos from the event by heading to the portal for the [Pepcom Holiday Spectacular 2011]!

This lovely device was out for us to take a look at inside Pepcom’s end of summer 2011 Holiday Spectacular, a digital forest of many wonders. What you’ve got here is an external hard drive available in 2TB and 3TB configurations, both of them working with an ultra-fast 7200 RPM 3.5-inch hard drive formatted HFS+ made ready for Mac computers with no additional fixing up right out of the box. The device is also a 2.1 Amp hookup in addition to holding all your media and whatnot, this making it easy for you to plug in all your peripherals and extra mobile devices without a hassle.

As for what you can actually plug in to this mother, you’ll get two FireWire 800 ports, one USB 2.0 port, a two port integrated 2.0 hub that’ll connect you back up to your Mac device or connect to other external storage devices in a daisy-chain sort of situation. This drive also comes with one FireWire800 wire, one conversion FireWire 400-800, and one single USB 2.0 cable.

Check out what this simple and lovely looking drive is all about:

Notice the lovely LED lights up the center front of the device, four in a row. These lights let you know how much storage you’ve got left in general:

4 LEDs lit white: less than 20% capacity in use
3 LEDs white: 20-40% capacity in use
2 LEDs white: 40-60% capacity in use
1 LED white: 60-80% capacity in use
1 LED red: more than 80% capacity in use

Interesting, yes? Next you should note that this device comes with Iomega Protection Suite, Mac Edition, Iomega QuikProtect, MoxyHome Online Backup, and a free 12 month subscription to Trend Smart Surfing for Mac. The smaller of the two drives, the 2TB model, will run you $239.99, while the 3TB model will cost you $369.99. These prices are suggested US retail – you can find them immediately if not soon in your local Apple store or in various online sources.

ALSO have a crack at the rest of our hands-on videos from the event in our Pepcom Holiday Spectacular 2011 portal!

Two models are on offer, with either 500GB or 750GB of storage. Both GoFlex Turbo drives use 9mm 7,200rpm 2.5-inch HDDs, and Seagate bundles a copy of Memeo backup for PC and Mac so as to help you fill it up in the first place. As it’s a GoFlex drive, while it comes with a USB 3.0 adapter you can pop that off and replace it with a FireWire, eSATA or other connector, or indeed dock it into one of Seagate’s media docks.

You only get coverage of one incident under the bundled SafetyNet plan, but to be fair that’s more than most drives offer, and professional data recovery services can be expensive things to buy on their own. The new Seagate GoFlex Turbo HDDs are available now, priced at $119.99 for 500GB and $139.99 for 750GB.

You’ll find that these units retain their predecessors PCIe-based form factor and beyond power choices, will be shipped in two standard configurations: one half height version for space constrained 1U servers and multi-node rack-mount servers and a separate full-height version. OCZ notes that their lovely new Z-Drive R4 is a unique combination of hardware and software solutions tied to integrated VCA 2.0. This VCA 2.0 being a multifaceted virtualization layer works well with full DMA (direct memory access) cores as well as internal PCIe, SAS, and SATA physical interfaces.

VCA 2.0 furthermore enables user-selectable data recovery and non-stop modes with IntegRecover technology that’ll keep your mind at ease when working with exactly what this piece of hardware is meant for: enterprise solutions. OCZ VCA 2.0 supports the SCSI command set over a PCIe interface, this being the industry-standard, and other features include consoledted SMART support, TRIM/SCSI Unmap support, and increased NAND flash life due to OCZ’s lower write amplification and the TRIM/SCSI Unmap support again.

SO! Go out there and grab em up!

Users of the GoFlex Satellite hard drive have been able to easily access files on the drive via a web interface, but now with an Android app, the process is even easier. But even without the apps, the hard drive itself is really neat as users can access it by being within the WiFi range of the device without needing to connect to the internet or a cellular network.

Now with all the data throttling of “unlimited” data plans and the switch to pricier tiered data plans these days, the GoFlex Satellite could be a great solution. This is especially so for those that get dinged by data limits due to streaming large amounts of movies and other video content while on the go. Instead of streaming, simply download and store everything you need on the portable hard drive before your next trip.

The Seagate GoFlex Satellite WiFi hard drive retails for $200 for a 500GB storage capacity. The new app for the hard drive works with Android 2.2 and above.

[via Pocketnow]

The exact definition for what comprises “server grade” isn’t clear, though it’s generally acknowledged to include a MTBF (mean time between failures) in excess of 1m hours. Unfortunately, Western Digital doesn’t quote MTBF figures for its regular consumer desktop drives, into which category the WD20EARS HDD Apple has used falls, and the company’s press team couldn’t give us a figure. What they did say was that there are specific feature sets for the server market that enterprise-class drives are geared for, and that the requirements needed between desktop- and enterprise-class drivers are definitely different.

Where that leaves the Apple Time Capsule is uncertain. This isn’t a new issue: the original Time Capsule claimed “server grade” drives but used models from Hitachi’s Deskstar range. At the time, Apple said that the HDDs were the same 7,200rpm models as used in the Xserve servers, with a higher (but unspecified) MTBF.

Any single-drive solution is always going to be less safe than a RAID array with multi-drive redundancy, so a Time Capsule shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all of your backup strategy. Still, we’d like to see more accurate figures for how long the drive inside is expected to last; 3TB certainly implies that buyers will be using it for some time.

We got to spend some time with the Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive, Cloud Edition, and have to say the idea is compelling. If you have a large amount of data, you get to quickly store and back it up locally to the Iomega NAS without bandwidth limitations that could make uploading all your data to an actual cloud storage extremely time consuming. But what makes this Iomega “Cloud Edition” hard drive special is that it can be setup as your “personal cloud.” And by this, we mean that the drive can be shared and accessed from anywhere there’s an internet connection, much like you can with a typical cloud solution. So again, the idea is great, but the execution could use some improvement and the entire setup and operation could run smoother.

Hardware

The build of the Iomega Home Media Cloud Edition is fairly basic. The upright case is entirely black with metal all around and a vented front. The front face has the Iomega logo and four LED status lights, a “QuikTransfer” button, and one USB port. The back side offers a smaller vent with a power button, reset button, DC plug, a USB 2.0 port, and a LAN RJ45 ethernet port. The device measures 7.8 x 4.9 x 1.6 inches and weighs 2.5 pounds. Inside is a dual-core processor with one 3.5-inch SATA-II Hard Disk Drive. Overall, the black enclosure isn’t fussy and should blend in well with any home office.

Setup

Software setup is pretty straightforward. After we installed the Storage Manager software, it self-discovered the NAS and took roughly 40 seconds to locate and display folders on the Mac Pro we were using. Next, we were prompted to configure it into a cloud network drive, and that part wasn’t as straightforward. It required a small tweak to our router to establish connection by port forwarding the device’s IP address. Once configured, reapplying the setting again triggered the application to check if the NAS was ready. If you’re unfamiliar with networking, here’s the step-by-step instructions on setting up your router.

For advanced settings, users with an admin role will get access to a huge list of features including security, shares, backups, drive management, social media and many more settings you don’t normally expect from a consumer NAS drive. The “personal cloud” feature of the drive gives you remote access from the internet as well as from mobile apps for the iPad and iPhone. To enable a free one year TZO DNS service you’ll need to turn on Remote Access and enable UPnP on your router. We had a hard time establishing the connection as the Airport Extreme doesn’t support UPnP, so tough luck if you have one of those shiny Mac routers. A 5-year old Linksys came to the rescue eventually, and we were able to place TZO Dynamic DNS in service with UPnP feature turned on.

If you plan on sharing the personal cloud with a friend or just having it setup so that you can have access from your laptop, you will need to setup clients on each computer needing access to the drive. Invitations to join the personal cloud are sent via email with a unique and self-generated key code. The email will contain a link from where to download the client for installation. Upon signing in with the key code, shared drives appear instantly on the desktop or home portal view, which also provides an in-browser photo slide show if you have photos stored. Image content in the slideshow can be changed, removed, or turned off from the admin settings. Your shared folders will appear in a tree-view.

Software

The software interface is fairly intuitive and provides a couple of options when it comes to sharing folders. At the most basic level, sharing is set so that every invited user can access every shared folder. If you need to set different permissions per user, settings can be changed to account-based access where each user will have to enter a username and password.

As for backups, we setup a job to copy a folder from the device onto an attached external hard drive. With a press of the QuikTransfer button located on the front of the device, we were able to trigger the backup job immediately. You can also create more than one backup job and set different schedules for automatic backups.

iPhone/iPad App

We were given a beta version of the iPhone/iPad Universal app for preview called IomegaLink. Much like the Iomega Superhero iPhone app, it’s fairly basic in terms of features. You can back up and restore photos and contacts to and from the drive, but unlike Superhero, connectivity is via WiFi instead of USB. That means there’s no speed restriction by iAP (iPod Access Protocol) but the transfer speed will depend entirely on your WiFi speed. Furthermore, the app supports multitasking, meaning it will be able to run in the background should you need to take a call or access another app.

On first load, it searched for the NAS drive in auto discovery mode. If the server and mobile client are connected within the local WiFi network, auto discovery should pick up the server instantly. However, for remote access, the router must have UPnP feature enabled and you would need to set the server preference manually.

Uploading photos is fast. Unfortunately, there’s no cancel function to abort the long uploading progress. This can be trouble if you have a batch of large images on a slow network. You do have the option to select individual photos for upload, but if you accidentally select uploading an entire album, you won’t be able to abandon the process. Also, images that are transferred to the NAS show up in the Backups folder.

On the iPhone app, we encountered a couple of issues that were quite irritating. On batch upload, the task wouldn’t complete even though all images were successfully residing on the server. As mentioned above, since there’s no cancel button to terminate the progress, to get back to the app, you will be forced to reboot your phone to restart the app. Unfortunately, this is a common issue for iOS apps with a resume feature. It was fine on selective single images though. Also, video streaming on big or small files failed to load content, it will stay on loading and then crash after a long wait.

At the time of our testing, the app is still in beta. Iomega told us a much more stable version of the app would address most of the kinks when it’s available on iTunes sometime this month. For Android users, it’s on the roadmap, so be patient.

Performance

Within the local network, we did a test to hard measure file transfer speed. A 4GB chunk of test files were written at the rate of 8.32 MB/s to the NAS while read speed was recorded twice as slow at 3.87MB/s.

On Xbench, we are getting about 7MB/s uncached random and sequential write speed [256K blocks].

Issues

During our tests, we experienced some quirky issues with the device. After we left the device idle for a few days, it would become unresponsive, requiring a hard reset to bring it back to life. We were also unable to connect to the device on a number of occasions. Login failed to authenticate and a soft restart was required.

Most of the hiccups we experienced were easily solved with resetting the NAS, especially if it resulted from the device sitting idle for a few days. Although a system reboot is all that’s needed, it does take slightly over 6 minutes and 30 seconds to come back online. Also, TZO DNS service was hit and miss. The system would indicate router-connecting problem and then come back to life on a good day.

One incident that was truly frustrating was not being able to launch the Storage Manager software. It would shut off on boot, despite reinstating the software. A closer look revealed “IomegaStorageManager-[user]” user preference file was created on the root of the user folder and we were able to get things running again by dumping the file in the trash bin.

If the device malfunctions, such as shutting down improperly, it sends out an email notification accordingly. That part did work correctly; we have had to hard reset a number of times.

Again, Iomega informed us an updated version of the Storage Manager 3.1.2 for HMNHD-CE should be around July, and could bring some new improvements.

Wrap-Up

Overall, the Iomega Home Media Hard Drive, Cloud Edition is a promising NAS for personal use that is feature-rich, but still has several kinks to be worked out. The buggy issues we experienced with the device becoming unresponsive after a period of idle time should be resolved by a software update to version 3.1.2 scheduled for release in July. The iPhone and iPad apps will also be getting an update that should fix most of the issues we’ve raised. Otherwise, the device is very easy to use and can be simple to setup if you don’t run into similar router issues as we did, and the pricing is very affordable. The 1TB model is listed at $169.99 while the 3TB is at $349.99. However, a quick search around the web reveals that the 1TB model is being listed as low as $130.

The configuration involved linking together up to five LaCie Little Big Disks to a high-end display. Multiple full uncompressed HD 1080p content was able to be streamed at speeds up to 835MB/s, which according to LaCie is the fastest performance achieved by any mobile storage solution.

The company claims it is the perfect solution for video professionals and other video content demanding users. It allows you to handle projects that used to require professional server rooms, but now can be done in the palm of your hands. The LaCie Little Big Disks make high-end studio editing possible on the go.

If you’re not familiar with the Thunderbolt technology, make sure to check out our closer look.

Press Release:

LaCie Demonstrates the Ultimate Thunderbolt™ Configuration for Video Professionals

PARIS, FRANCE – Today LaCie announced the unveiling of a significant Thunderbolt technology demonstration at the Intel® booth (#M0410) during Computex 2011, from June 1-4, in Taipei, Taiwan. The demonstration will showcase multiple LaCie Little Big Disks Thunderbolt Series in a daisy chain, delivering speeds up to 835MB/s – the fastest performance achieved by any mobile storage solution.

A perfect configuration for video professionals and demanding users, the LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Series is the first peripheral to showcase daisy chain capability between a high-end display and multiple storage devices, with no compromise in performance. For example, a professional display such as LaCie’s 324i, together with up to five additional hard drives can deliver enough bandwidth to support several 1080p uncompressed streams of HD video in Final Cut Pro. Even better, professionals can connect to the entire configuration with a single Thunderbolt cable.

This kind of speed development is unheard of in mobile storage devices. Now, with the Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Series, professionals can handle projects that were previously tied to server rooms, in the palm of their hands. With the Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Series, high-end studio editing is now possible on the go.

“We are thrilled to meet this significant speed milestone, not just for mobile storage, but for the entire industry,” said Erwan Girard, Professional Business Unit Manager, LaCie. “The availability of LaCie’s Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Series will dramatically change the storage footprint of our professional customers that are using the latest MacBook® Pro or iMac®. And it’s not only achieved with solid-state drives. LaCie’s Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Series pushes the performance limitations of hard drive technology, resulting in a high-capacity, fast-performing solution that’s also extremely cost effective.”

LaCie showcased the remarkable performance of LaCie’s Little Big Disks Thunderbolt Series hard drive model, at the recent NAB conference, in Las Vegas, April 2010.

The Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Series will be available this summer. LaCie’s 324i high-end display is fully compatible with Thunderbolt Technology and can be purchased at www.lacie.com.

Once connected, you can browse movies, pictures, music and documents stored on the GoFlex Satellite from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android smartphone or laptop. Currently Seagate only has an iOS-specific app, GoFlex Media; Android phones and tablets, and any other devices, have to access shared media through a web interface. The company tells us an Android version is in the works, however, and should arrive later in the summer. Up to three devices can connect simultaneously, either viewing the same content – so three iPad users can watch a film together in the car – or accessing different media.

Seagate predicts GoFlex Satellite users will see five hours of active video streaming out of a full charge, or up to 25hrs standby. The iOS GoFlex Media app actually caches the video you’re watching on the device itself, so that the drive can go into standby. There’s some intelligent content management, too: dump all your videos, photos, music and documents onto the drive however you want, using the bundled Media Sync app for Windows or Mac, and it will automatically index them into categories for the app or web interfaces. The drive is visible to third-party apps, too, so if you have DivX video you want to watch on your iPad, you’ll be able to play it using VLC for iOS or an alternative app.

Right now, the biggest issue is that the drive demands a direct WiFi connection, which means that you can’t, say, hook your iPad up to it and simultaneously have the tablet connect to your WiFi router or mobile hotspot. However, Seagate is promising a firmware update in the near future that will allow the GoFlex Satellite to connect to a WiFi router itself and – since it actually has twin wireless radios inside – bridge that connection to whatever gadgets are accessing its storage.

The Seagate GoFlex Satellite will go on sale in the US in July 2011, priced at $199.99. Global availability should be later this summer.

Press Release:

SEAGATE DEBUTS FIRST MOBILE WIRELESS STORAGE FOR iOS AND OTHER MOBILE DEVICES

GoFlex Satellite™ Mobile Wireless Storage Expands the Media Capacity
Without Wires or the Web

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. — May 16, 2011 —Seagate (NASDAQ: STX), today announced GoFlex Satellite™ mobile wireless storage, the first battery-powered external hard drive to wirelessly extend the storage capacity of any Wi-Fi enabled mobile device. With 500GB and Wi-Fi access over 802.11 b/g/n and a rechargeable battery, this latest member of the GoFlex® family provides the ability to carry an entire library of video, music, pictures and documents with you. Devices are wirelessly connected directly to the GoFlex Satellite drive by use of the free GoFlex Media™ app—available now on iTunes and the Apple App Store—or a web browser. GoFlex Satellite is available immediately for preorder from Seagate.com, Amazon and BestBuy.com for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $199.99, and is scheduled to arrive in Best Buy stores in July 2011. Global availability is planned for later this summer.

“With the growth of the tablet and iPad markets and the larger volumes of high-quality media now being consumed, there is a clear need for access to content that is not plagued with the challenges of streamed video over the Internet,” said Patrick Connolly, vice president and general manager of Seagate’s retail group. “The unfortunate fact is that these popular new mobile devices are hampered by their limited storage capacity while one of their primary functions is that of media consumption.

“With the GoFlex Satellite mobile wireless storage, we wished to create an elegant solution that provides real value to the multitude of iPad users out there by delivering a seamless connection to local storage. No longer will a consumer feel as though it is a compromise to purchase a lower capacity tablet or iPad. With GoFlex Satellite, people will be able to carry their entire media library with them without the need for wires or the web at a fraction of the cost of adding 3G or purchasing or a higher capacity tablet.”

Streaming over the Internet has enabled video access for tablet owners, but the quality is at the mercy of the Internet connection, be it over Wi-Fi or 3G/4G. With more connected devices per hotspot, it’s often difficult to watch video without choppiness or pixilation. Rather than rely on a buffered stream from a distant provider, GoFlex Satellite mobile storage wirelessly serves up media content as a local attached storage for up to three devices at the same time. With a stand-by battery life of up to 25 hours, the powerful lithium polymer battery delivers up to 5 hours of continuously streaming video. To help with extending battery life, the free GoFlex Media™ app provides a progressive download feature, which temporarily loads the video on to the iOS device it is being streamed to, allowing the drive to go into stand-by mode.

GoFlex Media™ App

Initially available for Apple iOS devices, such as: iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; the GoFlex Media app provides a seamless way to connect the mobile wireless storage to your iPad or iPhone. The Android app is expected to be available by this summer. Those that currently use an Android smartphone or tablet can access content on a GoFlex Satellite device through its browser.

Media Sync software

The easy-to-use Media Sync software, also included free with purchase, makes grabbing media from a Windows® PC or Mac® OS X computer a breeze. Wherever the files are stored, whether that is a file structure of your own creation or in an iTunes library, the Media Sync software will load all of your desired music, videos, photos and documents on to the GoFlex Satellite drive. Media Sync is easily configured to only place files on the drive that are compatible with your iOS device. Even music and videos purchased through iTunes can be loaded to the GoFlex Satellite drive and will play on all authorized devices.

Loading Media

For rapid loading of media content, the wireless mobile storage comes equipped with the superfast USB 3.0 cable to get files from your computer to the GoFlex Satellite drive. The USB 3.0 cable will also continue to work with USB 2.0 ports and is easily removed for portability. In addition to the USB 3.0 cable, the GoFlex Satellite drive comes complete with a car charger and a compact wall charger.

Western Digital will remain the in-use brand, with Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer of Hitachi GST, joining at closing as president. He’ll report to WD CEO John Coyne. Neither company is talking specific plans for the future, but “enhanced R&D capabilities” and economy of scale both get a name-check in the press release.

Press Release:

Western Digital to Acquire Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

Combination of Hard Drive Companies Will Create Industry’s Broadest Product Portfolio and a Significant Pool of Resources for Innovation

IRVINE, Calif. and SAN JOSE, Calif., March 7, 2011 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) and Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT / TSE:6501) announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement whereby WD will acquire Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $4.3 billion. The proposed combination will result in a customer-focused storage company, with significant operating scale, strong global talent and the industry’s broadest product lineup backed by a rich technology portfolio.
Under the terms of the agreement, WD will acquire Hitachi GST for $3.5 billion in cash and 25 million WD common shares valued at $750 million, based on a WD closing stock price of $30.01 as of March 4, 2011. Hitachi, Ltd. will own approximately ten percent of Western Digital shares outstanding after issuance of the shares and two representatives of Hitachi will be added to the WD board of directors at closing. The transaction has been approved by the board of directors of each company and is expected to close during the third calendar quarter of 2011, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. WD plans to fund the transaction with a combination of existing cash and total debt of approximately $2.5 billion.
WD expects the transaction to be immediately accretive to its earnings per share on a non-GAAP basis, excluding acquisition-related expenses, restructuring charges and amortization of intangibles.
The resulting company will retain the Western Digital name and remain headquartered in Irvine, California. John Coyne will remain chief executive officer of WD, Tim Leyden chief operating officer and Wolfgang Nickl chief financial officer. Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer of Hitachi GST, will join WD at closing as president, reporting to John Coyne.
“The acquisition of Hitachi GST is a unique opportunity for WD to create further value for our customers, stockholders, employees, suppliers and the communities in which we operate,” said John Coyne, president and chief executive officer of WD. “We believe this step will result in several key benefits-enhanced R&D capabilities, innovation and expansion of a rich product portfolio, comprehensive market coverage and scale that will enhance our cost structure and ability to compete in a dynamic marketplace. The skills and contributions of both workforces were key considerations in assessing this compelling opportunity. We will be relying on the proven integration capabilities of both companies to assure the ongoing satisfaction of our customers and to bring this combination to successful fruition.”
“This brings together two industry leaders with consistent track records of strong execution and industry outperformance,” said Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. “Together we can provide customers worldwide with the industry’s most compelling and diverse set of products and services, from innovative personal storage to solid state drives for the enterprise.”
Hiroaki Nakanishi, president, Hitachi, Ltd. said, “As the former CEO of Hitachi GST, I always believed in the potential of Hitachi GST to become a larger and more agile company. This is a strategic combination of two industry leaders, both growing and profitable. It provides an opportunity for the new company to increase customer and shareholder value and expand into new markets. Additionally, it is important to us that WD shares common values with Hitachi GST to create a more global company that is well positioned to define a broader role in the evolving storage industry.”
WD’s exclusive financial adviser on the transaction is Bank of America Merrill Lynch; its lead legal adviser is O’Melveny & Myers LLP. Goldman, Sachs & Co serves as financial adviser to Hitachi, Ltd. and Hitachi GST. Legal advisers to Hitachi, Ltd. and Hitachi GST are Morrison Foerster LLP and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates, respectively.

Video demo after the cut

Inside there’s 34nm NAND flash memory, with either 120GB or 250GB capacities on offer. Intel expects the drives to be popular with gamers, media creators and performance-intensive workstation users.

They’ll need reasonably deep pockets, however, if they want that sort of performance. The Intel SSD 510 Series drives are available – in bulk, 1,000 drive quantities – now for system builders, priced at $584 for the 250GB and $284 for the 120GB version. The videos below show head-to-head comparisons between the new models and previous drives.

Press Release:

Intel Announces Next in Solid-State Drive Line Up: Intel® SSD 510 Series Featuring Super-Fast 6Gbps SATA Throughput

Ideal for Gamers, Media Creators and Workstation Users, Intel’s Newest SSD
Takes Full Advantage of 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ Processors

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
• Intel SSD 510, next in series of Intel SSD introductions for 2011, transfers more data in less time.
• Ideal for gamers, media creators, performance-intensive workstations, Intel SSD 510 offers fastest available sequential performance.
• Intel SSD 510 with 6Gbps SATA interface outperforms 10,000 RPM HDDs by 50 percent for fast performance and high visual fidelity game play.1

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 28, 2011 – Intel Corporation announced today the next in a line of new solid-state drives (SSD), the Intel® Solid-State Drive 510 Series. The new Intel SSD 510 features fast SATA 6 Gigabits per second (Gbps) performance to take full advantage of Intel’s transition to higher speed SATA bus interfaces on the recently introduced 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processor-based platforms. Supporting data transfers of up to 500 megabytes per second (MB/s), the Intel SSD 510 doubles the sequential read speeds, and at up to 315MB/s more than triples the sequential write speeds of Intel’s current 3Gbps SSDs, to transfer more data in less time. This makes it ideal for demanding gamers, media creators, performance-intensive workstation users and any technology enthusiast.
The Intel SSD 510 offers the fastest sequential read and write speeds of any consumer SATA SSD available today, providing industry leading performance that beats a traditional hard disk drive (HDD) by more than 50 percent.1 In addition to better overall system responsiveness when compared to a mechanical hard drive, SSDs have no moving parts so are more rugged, consume less power and run quieter and cooler than HDDs. SSDs reduce boot times, launch applications and files faster and recover from sleep mode quicker, resulting in noticeable improvement. Conventional HDDs are also unable to effectively take advantage of 6Gbps platform technology, since HDDs fail to maximize even the current 3Gbps SATA interface.
“The Intel SSD 510 Series helps round out our SSD product line and was specifically designed for applications that require high sequential media transfers,” said Pete Hazen, director of marketing for Intel’s NAND Solutions Group. “Whether it’s a gamer wanting impeccable visual performance and faster game loading, or a performance-intensive workstation user, the new 6Gbps SATA SSD from Intel is not only significantly faster than the top 10,000 RPM gaming HDD, it’s also faster than two RAIDed gaming HDDs.”2
“As a game developer the number one thing we try to optimize during development isn’t our game’s memory usage or frames per second, but our content creator’s iteration time,” said Dave Lang, CEO of Iron Galaxy, a Chicago-based game development studio. “By transitioning our team to Intel’s 6Gbps SSDs, we’ve seen a dramatic 15 to 20 percent improvement in the time it takes one of our developers to make a change in the editor, then get to try it out in-game. Faster iterations mean more iterations, which means a better game for the consumer.”
The Intel SSD 510 Series uses proven Intel 34-nanometer NAND flash memory to deliver best-in-class sequential performance of up to 500MB/s sequential read speeds and up to 315 MB/s writes for its high-capacity model. The product is available now and comes in a 250GB capacity priced at $584 and a 120GB at $284, for 1,000-unit quantities. Both products include a limited 3-year warranty. The 120GB version is an excellent choice for dual-drive desktops, a hybrid configuration gaining in popularity. In this type of set up, the operating system, favorite applications and games are accessed from the SSD for faster boot up and accelerated application performance, while the HDD is used to store data.
In addition to solid reliability, Intel SSD purchasers have the benefit of the Intel® SSD Toolbox with Intel SSD Optimizer, a free utility which provides Microsoft Windows* users with a powerful set of management, information and diagnostic tools to help maintain the health and out-of-box performance of the drive. To help ease the installation process, all Intel SSD users can download the free Intel® Data Migration Software to help clone the entire content of a previous storage drive (SSD or HDD) to any Intel SSD.
Intel SSDs can be purchased from a variety of resellers, retailers or Internet e-tailers such as Newegg.com or Amazon.com worldwide. More information on Intel SSDs can be found at www.intel.com/go/ssd or by accessing the multimedia press kit at www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/ssd. Follow Intel SSDs on Twitter: @intelssd, Facebook: Intel Solid State Drive (Official) or communities.intel.com.

About Intel

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. Additional information about Intel is available at newsroom.intel.com and blogs.intel.com.

The new drives are single platter and it allows them to fit into the iPod form factor, where older dual disk drives with higher capacities were not used because of their larger size. The MKxx39SGL series will use less power so you could expect the future iPod classic to last longer than the current version’s 36-hours.

The higher capacity would give you enough memory for 55,000 songs, 275 hours of video, or over 34,000 photos. Hardcore music fans or those that are particular about music quality and prefer lossless formats and enormous music libraries will probably celebrate the most should Apple implement this in their next rendition of the iPod classic.

[Via 9 to 5 Mac]

As for the Mac range, that consists of the GoFlex for Mac ultraportable drive in 1TB ($199.99) and 1.5TB ($249.99) capacities, the GoFlex for Mac Limited Edition 1TB portable drive ($199.95), and the GoFlex Pro for Mac ultraportable, offering 500GB for $149.99 or 750GB for $179.99. Finally there’s the desktop GoFlex Desk for Mac drive, a 3.5-inch unit available in 2TB ($219.99) or 3TB ($279.99) capacities.

Press Release:

SEAGATE SHOWCASING ITS SLIMMEST DRIVE YET AT CES 2011

The continued growth of personal digital media stores, our increasingly
mobile lifestyles and proliferation of mobile consumption devices are
driving the demand for slimmer, more portable storage solutions.
Netbooks and mini-computers are great at consumption, but limited when
it comes to creation or accessing and storing high-definition content.
The new thin GoFlex is a super-slim, 2.5-inch external hard drive
designed for portable, entry-level laptops and netbooks. At a
razor-thin 9mm-38 percent slimmer than the current GoFlex ultra-portable
drives-the new thin GoFlex fits easily in a pocket, purse, briefcase or
backpack, allowing consumers to carry, access and enjoy their favorite
digital content with them wherever they go. At official launch the
product will be available in 320GB capacity, and is equipped with a
USB3.0 interface to accelerate transfer speeds up to 10x faster over
USB2.0, this prototype drive delivers quick access to large, multi-media
files such as HD movies and video games. This thinner GoFlex also allows
consumers to save, access and share files with either Windows or Mac OS
X systems or devices, while maintaining cross-platform interoperability,
making it the perfect storage enhancement to every mobile lifestyle.
The thin GoFlex 9mm drive packages style, mobility and performance,
making it perfect for customers who desire cutting-edge technology with
a fresh, cool look.. Its ultra-slim, black, brushed aluminum enclosure
with tuxedo black lining make a swanky accoutrement to any home or
office environment, while still looking chic on the go. The product is
expected to be publicly available in spring 2011.

Press Release:

SEAGATE INTRODUCES GOFLEX FOR MAC EXTERNAL DRIVES DRAFT

-New Collection of FreeAgent(r) GoFlex(tm) for Mac External Drives Are Designed for Mac Enthusiasts While Maintaining Cross-Platform Compatibility

LAS VEGAS, NV – January 4, 2011 – Addressing the personal preferences of
the Mac community, Seagate (NASDAQ: STX) today introduced a new
collection of GoFlex(tm) for Mac external drives designed to make it
easy for those who use Mac OS X and Time Machine to backup, shuttle, or
share their digital content.

These new portable and desktop solutions are HFS+ formatted
out-of-the-box, making them fully compatible with Apple Time Machine(r)
backup software, while maintaining the ability to work across both
Microsoft(r) Windows(r) and Mac OS X computers. A truly unique feature,
GoFlex for Mac drives can also be used with computers running Windows by
simply downloading an HFS+ driver for Windows from Seagate.com
, which will provide full
read-write access to the drive from a Windows computer.

Each GoFlex for Mac product comes bundled with FireWire(r) 800 and USB
2.0 adapters and cables-the most popular interfaces for Apple
computers-but also delivers the flexibility to change the drive’s
interface to USB 3.0 or powered eSATA for use with Windows computers.
The GoFlex(tm) interface cables help deliver the speed, performance and
connectivity people need, as well as to help safe guard their
investments against changing technology. To deliver a fresh look that
fits seamlessly with today’s Apple product line, each 2.5-inch,
ultra-portable drive in the family features a durable, soft-touch,
metallic finish, which is also designed to withstand scratches,
fingerprints or other marks incurred from travel.

The new line-up of GoFlex(tm) for Mac external drives include:

o GoFlexTM for Mac ultra-portable drive- This 2.5-inch portable drive
is now designed specifically for use with Apple’s Time Machine right
out-of-the-box, easily go back in time to access changes or file updates
were before they were made. MSRP $199.99 for 1TB, and $249.99 for 1.5TB.

o GoFlexTM for Mac Limited Edition ultra-portable drive-The GoFlex(tm)
for Mac Limited Edition ultra-portable drive packs 1TB of storage into
the standardized 2.5-inch form factor, making it the slimmest high-cap
drive available on the market today. With a depth of 12.5mm and shorter
in length than an iPhone , the GoFlexTM
for Mac Limited Edition is perfect for use with GoFlex TV or GoFlex Net.
MSRP $199.95 for 1TB.

o GoFlexTM Pro for Mac ultra portable-This 7200RPM, 2.5-inch drive
delivers advanced performance for those professionals who place high
demands on their storage, such as graphic artists, musicians,
videographers or photographers. Using the included Firewire 800 cable to
achieve transfer speeds up to three times faster than USB 2.0. MSRP
$149.99 for 500GB; $179.99 for 750GB.

o GoFlexTM Desk for Mac drive-This 3.5-inch high-capacity external
drive includes a flexible design that can sit horizontally or vertically
to fit your workspace. Back up files using Apple’s Time Machine.
Optional software displays the drive’s real-time capacity with lights on
the dock and includes other useful tools. MSRP $219.99 for 2TB; $279.99
for 3TB.

In addition, each GoFlex for Mac drive can be used with other devices in
the GoFlex(tm) Storage System such as the GoFlex(tm) Net media sharing
device
and the GoFlex(tm) TV HD media player
[1]. These solutions provide the flexibility to enjoy content on
a TV or a mobile device, such as an iPad or smart phone. There is also
an option to download additional software for use with all GoFlex for
Mac drives that will provide helpful utilities such as a control to turn
the activity lights off and a tool to verify that the drive is
functioning properly. Each drive in the family also comes backed by a
Seagate three-year warranty, helping to protect your investment and
providing peace of mind.

“With over 10 billion songs downloaded from the iTunes(r) store and
Apple’s market share continuing to grow year-over-year, the growing
audience for Mac OS X will need external storage to backup all their
digital content,” said Darcy Clarkson, vice president of Global Retail
Sales and Marketing for Seagate. “Today’s product introduction addresses
these current market trends and underscores Seagate’s commitment to
delivering flexible, easy-to-use solutions that meet varying customer
needs.”

So far, Seagate has signed Antec, GIEC, Hi-Sense, Ionics and Thermaltake up to the Certified GoFlex Storage System, and the company will be showing off GoFlex docks in TVs, notebook and desktop PCs, a plug computer, DVD and a docking station. No word on when we could expect to see the first of these reach the market, however.

Press Release:

SEAGATE UNVEILS CERTIFIED GOFLEX STORAGE SYSTEM FOR THIRD-PARTY MANUFACTURERS DRAFT

Continuing the Vision of Interoperability and Removable Cartridge
Storage, Seagate and Partners

Showcase Concept Products at CES

LAS VEGAS, NV – January 4, 2011 – Driving a new era of how people
consume their digital content, Seagate (NASDAQ: STX) today announced, at
the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a new program to allow
third-party companies to incorporate slots on their products to support
removable GoFlex(tm) external hard drives. First introduced in May of
2010
, the GoFlex(tm) family is the
next evolution of consumer external hard drives providing the ability to
use an assortment of storage products and interfaces to correspond with
consumer’s needs. The Certified GoFlex(tm) Storage System concept
products on display range from media players and set-top boxes to
computers and televisions, and each will incorporate a slot to accept an
ultra-portable drive compatible with the Certified GoFlex Storage
System. This group of third-party prototype products underscores the
growth of digital media consumption on an increasing number of consumer
electronic products. The Certified GoFlex Storage System will provide a
seamless method by which people can copy, record, access, share and
enjoy more of the music, photos and videos they crave on a wider range
of devices.

The Certified GoFlex Storage System initiative is a certification
process whereby Seagate will qualify products from participating
companies to incorporate slots that meet the specifications of accepting
ultra-portable drives that meet the Certified GoFlex Storage System
standard. The Certified GoFlex Storage System will establish placement
of both slot-based consumer electronics devices as well as certification
of third-party external storage modules. Seagate’s certification also
endorses the soon to be established SATA – IO Universal Storage Module
(USM) specification.

“When Seagate first introduced the GoFlex(tm) storage family last year,
our objective was two pronged: first, address the three major hurdles of
storage adoption — interface flexibility, operating system freedom and
enjoyment of content beyond the compute environment. Secondly, Seagate
wishes to expand the use of storage beyond the typical use-case scenario
of back up and migration of files for the computer,” said Patrick
Connolly, vice president and general manager for Seagate Retail. “The
Certified GoFlex(tm) Storage System is the next step in realizing this
vision and establishing hard drives as the next generation of recordable
media.”

Since the GoFlex ultra-portable drives are also standardized on the new
SATA USM specification
, third-party manufacturers can build GoFlex certified products to
accept a 2.5-inch ultra-portable external hard drive. These third-party
products will help transform the GoFlex ultra-portable drives from an
external storage device to an easy-to-use, detachable storage module
that will enable consumers to access digital content from a variety of
consumer electronic devices. With this initiative, Seagate is actively
involved in leading the shift of digital media consumption from mobile
and computing environments to the living room using home entertainment
devices. These Certified for GoFlex Storage System third-party products
will, for the first time, allow consumers to make choices based on their
own storage needs.

The SATA USM specification is a standard specification to accept a
complete, powered external storage device into consumer electronic
devices. Modules designed according to the SATA USM specification will
enable consumers to instantly access their music, movies, photos and
other content from a variety of consumer electronics products, and to
seamlessly transfer content between devices.

“The growing number of consumer electronics product types with embedded
storage is allowing hard disk drive manufacturers to expand into new
markets. As they expand beyond their traditional home computer markets,
drive manufacturers are pursuing embedded storage solutions in products
other than personal computers,” said Kurt Scherf, vice president and
principal analyst with Parks Associates. “Seagate Technology’s emphasis
on targeting consumer electronics such as digital video recorders,
gaming devices, digital music players, and digital cameras has allowed
it to expand sales of hard drives and provide consumers with greater
flexibility when it comes to consuming, sharing, saving and enjoying
their content.”

Seagate will highlight a variety of applications enabled by USM devices
using the Certified GoFlex Storage System. Additionally, several
consumer electronics manufacturers will be showcasing their Certified
GoFlex Storage System concept products at the 2011 Consumer Electronics
Show in Las Vegas. The showcase will include a television, notebook
computer, desktop PC, plug computer, DVR and docking station. The
companies showcasing these new prospective product capabilities include:
Antec , GIEC ,
Hi-Sense , Ionics
and Thermaltake
.

Inside this monster you’ll find AES encryption capability extended to 256 bit keys, secure updates of firmware in the drive, and soon FIPS 140-2 certification (“FIPS 140-2 is a set of widely acknowledged cryptography requirements issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)”). They’ve even got a graph showing you how awesome this SSD is! Done by Trusted Strategies earlier this month (November 2010), this graph shows how much better a system performs with a self-encrypting SSD compared to software encryption. So much better! As in, 2.4 times better performance than SSD + software encryption and basically 3.7 times better than a crappy ol’ HDD + software encryption. Take a look at the whole press release below:

Samsung SSD Self-Encryption Provides Highest Level of Protection against Data Loss
 
Samsung has only SSD to feature Government-Grade AES 256-bit Encryption for Heightened Security
 
San Jose, CA — November 23, 2010 — Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today said its new solid-state drive (SSD) with built-in hardware encryption provides the highest level of protection against unauthorized access to sensitive information on a lost or stolen laptop. The new Samsung SSD is also light, rugged and reliable, adding to its usefulness for today’s traveling professionals and others using corporate PCs.  
 
“Faster and more secure than its predecessor, our new corporate-focused SSD is the only one with self-encryption built on TCG’s Opal standard that’s available on the market today,” said Jim Elliott, Vice President, Memory Marketing and Product Planning, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.
 
The loss of sensitive information as a result of a misplaced or stolen laptop is a growing concern. Beyond impacting a company’s reputation and credibility, such occurrences can result in steep financial penalties. The financial impact is up to $200 per lost record, including costs of customer notification and legal fees.
 
The Samsung SSD features advanced hardware-based self-encryption to protect confidential data from unauthorized access. This security capability is based on the industry’s leading Trusted Computing Group’s Opal standard and features stronger 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) keys. The hardware encryption is always on, and both the data encryption and user authentication are performed in the high security of the drive controller, rather than being stored in software. Software encryption performs encryption using the main CPU of the PC and stores protected data in the insecure memory of the system; in contrast, self-encrypting drives (SEDs) encrypt data at interface speed with no impact on performance within the protected hardware of the SSD.
 
In fact, a research report on Samsung’s self-encrypting SSD, “Full Drive Encryption with Samsung Solid State Drives,” was released by Trusted Strategies earlier this month showing superior performance for a system equipped with a self-encrypting SSD over others using software encryption. As noted in the white paper, test results showed that a notebook PC system equipped with a self-encrypting SSD attained a 2.4 times higher level of overall performance than an SSD with software encryption and 3.7 times higher performance level than an HDD with software encryption (see graph below).
 
Key drive attributes include:
· AES encryption capability extended to 256 bit keys
· Firmware in the drive can be securely updated
· In the process of attaining FIPS 140-2 certification. FIPS 140-2 is a set of widely acknowledged cryptography requirements issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
 
The Samsung SSD supports a variety of management software. SSD’s self-encryption and management software work together as essential parts of a fully managed hardware-based encryption solution. Among client software that Samsung SSD supports is EMBASSY® Trusted Drive Manager from Wave Systems (NASDAQ:WAVX). It provides backup and recovery for user passwords; manages advanced security settings; and enables pre-boot authentication and single sign-on to Windows®.
 
 “Samsung continues to pioneer the field of flash-based storage devices, and there’s no better evidence of this than its new self-encrypting SSDs,” said Brian Berger, Wave’s Executive Vice President of Marketing & Sales.
 
Besides its security advantages, the Samsung SSD for corporate PCs provides sequential read/write speeds of up to 250/220 MB/s, and weighs 25 percent less than most traditional HDDs, providing a powerful combination of security, performance and convenience for corporate users on the go.
 
For more information about Samsung SSDs, please refer to www.samsungSSD.com 
 
About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
 
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2009 consolidated sales of US$116.8 billion. Employing approximately 174,000 people in 193 offices across 66 countries, the company consists of eight independently operated business units: Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, Digital Imaging, Semiconductor and LCD. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.

Hardware

Unlike its more sober – and expensive – siblings from the Synology line-up, the DS211 comes with a crisp white chassis and a bright LED panel on the fascia. At 161 x 218 x 88 mm it’s not too large to sit in the corner on your desk, and Synology include the necessary AC adapter, installation kit and a 2m ethernet cable to get you wired up. You’ll also need at least one hard-drive: the DS211 will take either 2.5- or 3.5-inch drives, each up to 2TB, for a total of 4TB altogether.

Ports include a single gigabit ethernet, two USB 2.0 on the back and a single USB 2.0 on the front. There are indicator lights for overall status, network status, each drive and power. Like the DS411+ NAS we reviewed back in July, fitting the drives requires opening up the chassis rather than simply slotting in a couple of caddies at the back; a pair of screws hold the casing in place. A single 70mm fan keeps everything cool, including the 1.6GHz processor paired with 256MB of memory.

Software

The DS211 runs Synology’s DiskStation Manager 3.0 (DSM 3.0) OS, and it’s a comprehensive platform that covers more than just multi-PC backup. As with most network-attached devices, setup and control is managed via your browser; however, DSM 3.0 gets a new, multitasking UI with various independently draggable windows that can be viewed in a single browser tab. The whole thing looks like a blend of Windows 7 and OS X, complete with drop-down task menus and desktop icons, and it’s even possible to reskin it with different color themes.

While having a more aesthetically-pleasing NAS UI might not seem the best use of Synology’s resources, it does make using the DS211′s media functionality more pleasant. Load your multimedia, and the NAS has its own audio player that also supports internet radio; meanwhile there’s also DLNA/UPnP streaming to funnel that content around your home to compatible computers, HDTVs and STBs.

By default, with two drives the DS211 will set up a mirrored array that provides redundancy for your data: should one drive die, the other will still keep the data safe. Alternatively you can choose to bypass redundancy and set the two up as a single volume. With only two bays – unlike Synology’s larger NAS units – there’s no more complex arrays possible; however, you can add external drives via USB, or use the DS211 as a print server with a USB printer.

For backups, Synology provide their Data Replicator for PC users and Time Machine compatibility for Mac OS X. The front panel USB port has a Copy button which automatically pulls backs-up the contents of any camera, USB drive or memory stick you plug in. An app on the NAS itself makes for straightforward secondary backups, copying all the data on the array over to a local USB drive or a remote DiskStation or rsync station. Unlike with Data Robotics’ DroboProFS, you can remotely back-up to any server, not just an identical NAS.

There are many more apps on offer, including standalone BitTorrent downloads, photo and video slideshows – with companion apps for iPhone and Android – and SqueezeCenter compatibility for those using Logitech’s streaming audio system. Small office users, meanwhile, get the same security camera monitoring, virtual web host, PHP/MySQL, mail server and other business-friendly options as in Synology’s more expensive models. We were able to easily set up media streaming, simply by loading some audio files into a folder and ticking a few boxes, and even creating a web server was surprisingly straightforward.

Performance

Despite the relatively low amount of RAM Synology has outfitted the DiskStation DS211 with, we had no issues with performance. Set up as a RAID 1 array, the DS211 managed 101.37 MB/sec read rates and 56.12 MB/sec write rates, when tested with a 1.5GB file. That makes it roughly on a par with the DS411+ when it comes to read speeds, though around half as fast when writing data.

Wrap-Up

There’s a huge amount to like about the Synology DiskStation DS211. Not only is the NAS well made and compact, the DiskStation Manager 3.0 software stands head and shoulders above rivals for not only ease of initial setup but for ongoing use.

We’d like to have seen integrated wireless, too, though Synology do provide a list of compatible third-party USB WiFi adapters that can be used. Still, having it fitted as standard – even with the ensuing throughput limitations – would make for more flexible placement for home users willing to sacrifice some speed.

The data transfer speeds may not match Synology’s faster models, but then the DS211 is also half the price of the DS411+. Small businesses may want to look to models with more drive bays for greater future-proofing – and still get DSM 3.0 – but home users wanting not only data security but stable media access and more should definitely have the DiskStation DS211 on their shortlist.

There’s also streaming content support, with an ethernet port on the back which allows users to access YouTube videos.  The hook-up to your TV is via HDMI, plus there’s an SD card slot and you can access content directly from memory cards.

Recorded video is encoded in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format, and the hard-drive can hold around 290 hours in Full HD.  The DMR-BF200 will drop in Japan on November 15 priced at the equivalent of $860; no word on a release elsewhere as yet.

[via CrunchGear]

The new 3TB hard drive is the world’s largest capacity SATA hard drive to date. It is also the latest edition to WD’s Caviar Green lineage of SATA hard drives. As the title suggests, you can get the new hard drive at a maximum capacity of 3TB, which is equal to about 3,000GB. WD managed to wrangle up the ridiculous amount of space by placing 750GB of storage per-patter, along with Advanced Format (AF) technology.

The eco-friendly factor comes in the fact that WD’s Caviar Green line-up of drives feature WD GreenPower Technology, which use lower operating temperatures by reducing power consumption. And, while the press release (which you can read below) focuses mainly on the larger 3TB drive, WD is also throwing in a new 2.5TB hard drive as well. You can pick both of them up right now through authorized resellers in the United States. The 2.5TB drive will cost you $189.00, while the 3TB model will run you $239.00.

Press Release

WD® Now Shipping the World’s Largest Capacity SATA Hard Drives

WD Caviar® Green™ 3 TB Hard Drives Support the Continuing Demand for Increased Capacity in External Storage and Advanced PC Applications

LAKE FOREST, Calif., Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ — WD® (NYSE: WDC) today announced that the company is shipping the world’s largest capacity SATA hard drive. As the latest addition to its WD Caviar® Green™ family of SATA hard drives (photo), the new hard drives deliver up to a massive 3 terabytes (TB) of storage capacity on a single drive. WD is leading the industry in capacity for SATA hard drives by utilizing 750 GB-per-platter areal density and Advanced Format (AF) technology.

WD Caviar Green drives are an eco-friendly storage solution with WD GreenPower Technology™, which reduces power consumption by enabling lower operating temperatures for increased reliability and decreases acoustical noise for quiet operation. The WD Caviar Green 2.5 TB and 3 TB hard drives are designed for use as secondary external storage and next-generation PC storage in 64-bit-based systems.

Drives with capacities in excess of 2.19 TB currently present barriers for PC hardware, firmware and software. To satisfy the new set of requirements of which users must be aware to successfully integrate larger capacity drives, WD is bundling its WD Caviar Green 2.5 and 3 TB hard drives with an Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI)-compliant Host Bus Adapter (HBA), which will enable the operating system to use a known driver with correct support for large capacity drives. For more information on solving the 2.19 TB drive barrier, please see the WD information sheet at http://products.wdc.com/largecapacitydrives.

“WD remains a leader of hard drive capacity and low power innovation. With our WD Caviar Green drives, we enable energy-conscious customers to build systems with the highest capacities that deliver the optimal balance of system performance, ensured reliability and energy conservation,” said Jim Morris, executive vice president and general manager of WD’s client systems storage group. “Customers will be able to take advantage of this breakthrough capacity point now for secondary external storage in legacy 32-bit systems that run on Microsoft® Vista® or Windows® 7 platforms.”
Price and Availability

WD Caviar Green 2.5 TB hard drives (model number WD25EZRSDTL) and 3 TB hard drives (model number WD30EZRSDTL) are available now in the U.S. at select resellers and distributors. MSRP for the WD Caviar Green 2.5 TB hard drive is $189.00 USD and the 3 TB hard drive is $239.00 USD. WD Caviar Green hard drives are covered by a three-year limited warranty. More information about WD Caviar Green hard drives may be found on the company’s website at http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=866.

Meanwhile there are 500GB and 640GB versions of the same drive for those not quite so demanding.  Hitachi is also offering the Travelstar 5K750 family, with the same capacity options but the lower spin rate of 5,400rpm.  They get an 8MB buffer instead, and a lower read/write power consumption rate of 1.4W (versus the faster drives’ 1.8W).

The 7K750 drives also offer self-encryption using Hitachi’s Bulk Data Encryption, and by deleting the encryption key you can render all the data on the drive useless.  The Hitachi 5K750 is shipping now, while the Hitachi 7K750 will arrive in Q1 2011; price tba.

Press Release:

Hitachi GST Launches New Family of 750GB Mobile Hard Drives

Full Portfolio of 5,400 RPM and 7,200 RPM 2.5-Inch Travelstar Hard Drives Deliver the Perfect Balance of Capacity, Ruggedness and Low-Power to Meet the Needs of Mobile Computing Devices

October 05, 2010 03:04 AM Eastern Daylight Time
SAN JOSE, Calif.–Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced its new 375GB/platter, 5,400 RPM and 7,200 RPM, 2.5-inch hard drives – the Travelstar™ 5K750 and the Travelstar 7K750 hard drive families. Featuring the industry’s highest capacities in a standard 9.5mm two-disk design, the new drives come in capacities of 750GB, 640GB and 500GB. The drives are built on Hitachi’s proven platform for quality and reliability, and feature innovative technology that delivers high shock protection, low power and fast performance for a variety of notebook computers, external storage solutions, gaming consoles and other mobile devices.

“Couple this with our proven design platforms and broad 2.5-inch portfolio, and Hitachi GST continues to demonstrate its leadership in the 2.5-inch mobile hard drive market.”
The Travelstar 5K750 and 7K750 drive families are the first Hitachi GST hard drives that feature Advanced Format. Advanced Format increases the physical sector size on hard drives from 512 bytes to 4096 (4K) bytes. This helps utilize the storage surface area more efficiently, allowing for increased drive capacities and improved data integrity at higher storage densities. By integrating Hitachi drives with the new Advanced Format, IT managers, system integrators and OEMs can take advantage of the latest operating systems to deliver new high-capacity, power-efficient systems.

“From their recently announced slim, 7mm 2.5-inch drives to their broad new family of standard 9.5mm 2.5-inch hard drives, Hitachi offers a wide variety of capacities, speeds and form factors that support virtually all of our notebook computing needs,” said Wentao Yang, vice president, Global Procurement of Lenovo. “We are currently qualifying and integrating Hitachi’s new 750GB family in to our mainstream and performance systems, and look forward to continuing our relationship with them now and into the future.”

5,400 RPM Travelstar 5K750 Family

The Travelstar 5K750 family is the next generation of Hitachi’s mainstream mobile hard drive line engineered to achieve the best capacity, reliability and cost per gigabyte. It is a 5,400 RPM hard drive offered with an 8 MB buffer and a Serial ATA 3Gb/s interface for fast data transfer rates. The Travelstar 5K750 family has been designed with superior low power consumption for energy efficiency, offering 0.5 watts low power idle and 1.4 watts power during read/write operations, which contributes to longer battery life in notebooks and other unplugged applications. The new Travelstar 5K750 also offers the best non operating shock at 1000G/1ms to protect against bumps and rough handling in mobile environments.

7,200 RPM Travelstar 7K750 Family

The Travelstar 7K750 is the latest hard drive in Hitachi’s most popular 7,200 RPM family, that meets the growing demand for performance computing. With a 16MB buffer, 3Gb/s SATA interface, and excellent media transfer rates, Hitachi Travelstar 7K750 series allows quicker access to data and faster system performance, especially for multi-tasking, and other high performance office and home applications. With the lowest read/write power specification in its class at 1.8W, users don’t have to sacrifice battery life for fast 7,200 RPM performance.

Both Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 and 7K750 families feature exceptional operating shock, Thermal Fly-height Control (TFC) for better soft error rate and improved reliability, and Hitachi’s TrueTrack Technology™ for tracking accuracy in high shock or vibration environments. Fluid dynamic bearing motors also deliver a near silent operation. The drives use halogen-reduced components to support the “green” computing initiatives that are of increasing importance in today’s end users. Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 and 7K750 have also earned the Hitachi EcoTrac classification, used to describe products that minimize environmental impact in the areas of product design, manufacturing, operation and disposal.

Self-encryption Options

Travelstar 7K750 is a self-encrypting drive (SED) designed to meet the industry-standard Trusted Computer Group (TCG) Opal Storage Security specification. This drive is the fifth generation to feature Hitachi’s Bulk Data Encryption (BDE). These self-encrypting drives encrypt data using protected keys in real time, providing users with the highest level of data protection available. It also speeds and simplifies the drive re-deployment process. By deleting the encryption key, the data on the drive is rendered unreadable, thereby eliminating the need for time-consuming data-overwrite.

Enhanced Availably Options

Designed specifically for use in blade servers, network routers and video surveillance systems, the new Travelstar 5K750 and 7K750 EA models bring together a host of features such as high capacity, durability and low power for applications needing 24×7 access to data.1 Based on a proven platform for quality and reliability, the Travelstar drives help system designers, integrators and IT managers build and maintain their storage systems, achieving greater storage density in the same 2.5-inch footprint, while maximizing performance, and improving data integrity in “always-on” applications in lower-transaction environments.

Travelstar Retail Hard Drive Kits

Hitachi Retail Hard Drive Kits are designed for Mac® and PC users who want to replace or upgrade their internal hard drives in their notebooks or compact desktop systems. Providing solid warranty protection, service and support, Hitachi Retail Hard Drive Kits give users the additional capacity and/or performance needed for demanding multimedia applications such as games and video, or for those who want to upgrade to a new operating system such as Microsoft® Windows® 7 or Apple® Mac OS X. In capacities up to 750GB, Hitachi Retail Kits include simple step-by-step instructions – making it easy to upgrade.

“Our new Travelstar 5K750 and 7K750 offerings address the growing demand for high-capacity and low-power hard drives, which are at the heart of today’s notebooks, external storage devices, gaming consoles and other mobile computing applications,” said Brendan Collins, vice president of Product Marketing at Hitachi GST. “Couple this with our proven design platforms and broad 2.5-inch portfolio, and Hitachi GST continues to demonstrate its leadership in the 2.5-inch mobile hard drive market.”

Availability

The Travelstar 5K750 is currently shipping in volume. Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 Retail Hard Drive Kits will be available in November with a suggested retail price of $129.99. The Travelstar 5K750 EA version will be shipping to OEMs for qualification by the end of the year. The 7,200 RPM Travelstar 7K750 family, including EA versions and retail kits, will be available in Q1 2011.

Still, if you’re storing big chunks of data and your computer has a USB 3.0 port, you may as well shuffle those gigabytes at a faster rate.  Toshiba also preload NTI BackupNow EZ, which offers PC owners (though not those with Macs) various backup options, together with 256-bit encryption and various shock sensors and other monitoring tools.

So far, so speedy and capacious.  The Toshiba Canvio 3.0 range is available now, priced at $119.99 for the 500GB, $129.99 for the 750GB and $179.99 for the 1TB.  That’s pretty much in line with Iomega’s USB 3.0 HDD range.

Press Release:

TOSHIBA UNVEILS CANVIO™ 3.0 PORTABLE HARD DRIVES WITH SUPERSPEED USB 3.0 INTERFACE

Canvio™ 3.0 Delivers Up to 10x the Speed for the Same Price as USB 2.0 Drives

IRVINE, Calif., September 28, 2010 – With the ever-increasing demands of digital media, Toshiba introduces the Canvio™ 3.0 portable hard disk drive (HDD) featuring a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface. For the same price as competing USB 2.0 drives, Canvio 3.0 drives offer blazing fast file transfers at up to 10 times the speed of USB 2.0 drives. Available in storage capacities of 500 gigabytes (GB1), 750GB or one terabyte (TB1), Canvio 3.0 drives feature simple plug-and-play operation, pre-loaded backup software, and backward compatibility with personal computers and other devices equipped with USB 2.0 ports.

“Power digital consumers, and even typical PC users, are storing high definition video content, high resolution digital images, and multi-gigabyte music collections. When you consider that a single HD video can easily be three times the size of the same video in standard definition, it’s easy to see why file transfer speeds are just as important as storage capacity,” said Manuel Camarena, product manager for consumer storage at Toshiba Storage Device Division. “With the integration of the USB 3.0 interface, Canvio 3.0 drives significantly improve file transfer performance for large media files and dramatically minimize the wait time for backup and recovery processes.”

Building on the success of its current Canvio Portable Hard Drive product family, Canvio 3.0 drives feature the same easy-to-use features users have come to expect from Toshiba portable hard drives. Windows™-based NTI® BackupNow EZ™ software provides step-by-step and fully-customizable backup capabilities, including the option to backup specific folders, certain file types, and conduct a system backup. The software can also restore the entire system if Windows is unable to start. In addition, complete password-protection with up to 256-bit data encryption prevents unauthorized access to data and a special Drive Space Alert monitor sends an onscreen update when storage space is running low. On the inside, an Internal Shock Sensor and Ramp Loading Technology keep data safe during day-to-day movement from a desk, pocket, bag, or beyond.

The stylish Canvio 3.0 product line also continues Toshiba’s high quality industrial design, including its pocket-sized, rounded rectangular form factor with rubberized edges and high gloss black finish with red, green, blue, white, or silver graphical accents. The focus on design extends even to Toshiba’s environmental efforts. The Canvio 3.0 product maintains the same dimensions as previous Canvio products which are 25 percent smaller2, reduce the quantity of materials used in production, and feature product packaging using 100 percent recyclable materials.

Toshiba’s Canvio 3.0 Portable Hard Drives and the complete lineup of Canvio Portable Hard Drives may be found at major retailers within North America and online outlets. For a full list of retailers, please visit www.wheretobuy.toshibastorage.com.

Estimated Single Unit Prices (USD) by capacities are:

· $119.99 for the 500GB Canvio 3.0

· $129.99 for the 750GB Canvio 3.0

· $179.99 for the 1TB Canvio 3.0

Available only in glossy black, the new 1.5TB FreeAgent measures a reasonable thick 4.71 x 3.51 x 0.87 inches and weighs 0.62lbs. It comes pre-fitted with the GoFlex USB 3.0 adapter, a dongle that snaps onto the HDD’s SATA port and has a short USB 3.0 cable. Seagate preload a copy of their Memeo-based backup software together with an NTFS driver for Macs that allows OS X users to access content without needing to reformat first. Unfortunately you’ll still need to reformat as HFS+ if you want to use Mac backup software or Apple’s own Time Machine utility.

If you’re unfamiliar with GoFlex, it’s a straightforward concept. Rather than integrate the connectivity with the drive itself, Seagate use a regular SATA connector and then offer a range of different adapters. This 1.5TB model comes with the USB 3.0 adapter – backward compatible with USB 2.0 ports – but eSATA, FireWire and others are also available. Seagate also has a range of docking stations – for desktop use – and media players, which allow you to slot the hard-drive into an HDMI-equipped caddy and play media content directly on your HDTV.

It adds something to the upfront cost, of course, but it does give increased flexibility. Our argument against GoFlex in the past has been that, by the time most users would be worried about a newer, faster interface, they’d also likely be wanting a significantly larger drive too. With 1.5TB on offer, this new FreeAgent does at least promise greater longevity than the smaller models in the line-up. To get an idea of just how usable all that space is, we copied across a 5GB file and it took a mere 1 minute and 10 seconds to transfer.

At $229.99, the FreeAgent GoFlex 1.5TB is obviously more expensive than other drives of the same capacity, but it’s unique in not requiring a separate PSU. That makes it particularly useful to those wanting a hefty chunk of storage while on the move. Desk-bound users willing to put up with a power supply can get the same capacity for less than half the price, but you’re sacrificing mobility in the process. On a $-per-GB basis, it’s the cheapest of Seagate’s portable FreeAgent drives (based on the RRPs; you’ll likely find them cheaper from third-party vendors) which only come with the USB 2.0 connector as standard, too. If you’re transporting large quantities of data, such as HD video, the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1.5TB is a compact way of doing it, and being able to slot it straight into one of the company’s media players and play it back on your TV is a neat bonus; you’ll just need deep pockets upfront.

On the back there are three gigabit ethernet ports – which will work as a switch – and an upstream gigabit port, together with a pair of USB 2.0 ports for hooking up external drives or printers.  Another USB 2.0 port is on the opposite edge, while inside there’s 2.4GHz single-band WiFi b/g/n and either a 1TB or 2TB hard-drive.

Media – whether photos, audio or video – loaded onto the Wireless Space can be shared easily using UPnP or DLNA, and Mac users can set it up with Time Machine as if it actually were a Time Capsule; it’ll function as an iTunes library, too.  It’s available today, priced at £179.90 ($281) for the 1TB.

Update: US pricing is $229.99 for the 1TB and $349.99 for the 2TB.

Press Release:

LaCie Wireless Space: Versatile Wireless Storage

LONDON, UK (Thursday 16th September, 2010) – Today, LaCie introduces its first network-attached storage solution to feature Wi-Fi. The LaCie Wireless Space can operate as a file or media server for multiple Mac® and PC users, from anywhere in the home – making it the most compatible and multifunctional network hard drive on the market.

Leveraging Wi-Fi technology, the Wireless Space can connect to your existing Wi-Fi network, allowing you to access files wirelessly throughout the home, and can serve as a central storage solution for all your backups. If you wish to increase your Wi-Fi performance, the Wireless Space can also act as a b/g/n access point, and even serve as a full-featured router.

“There are a variety of network devices you need to buy to have a full solution to connect your computers, share media and back up your files,” remarked Julien Ott, Product Manager for Network Attached Storage, LaCie. “LaCie is thrilled to bring Wi-Fi connectivity to the Wireless Space and deliver a truly all-in-one solution for the varying different network needs of any home.”

For users with a large media library, the Wireless Space can also act as a media server. It’s compatible with UPnP/DLNA and iTunes, and you can stream music, movies and photos from a central location and play them on any device.

Additionally, the Wireless Space is Time Machine compatible, so Mac users can use it as a target for their automatic backups and be confident that all important files and media are safely protected. LaCie also delivers Genie Timeline Software for scheduled backups on the PC.

Designed exclusively for LaCie, Neil Poulton’s sleek, polished black design is engineered for natural heat dissipation and near-silent operation. The sophisticated design and Wi-Fi functionality of the Wireless Space makes it a perfect addition to any home network.

Availability
The LaCie Wireless Space is available as of today, in 1TB and 2TB capacity through the LaCie Online Store, LaCie Corner, and LaCie Reseller+ starting at £179.90. For more product information, visit www.lacie.com/uk.

The HyperDrive does a few work-arounds to make it so that the iPad can register the external memory unit. The problem comes in the fact that the iPad’s Camera Connection Kit has a limit of only 32GB available memory, so the HyperDrive gets around that by creating separate, iPad-readable 32GB drives, which allows you to store up to 750GB of stuff with (relative) ease. The HyperDrive features a 3.2-inch color touchscreen, so navigation should be pretty simple, too.

The HyperDrive can read up to 12 types of memory cards, so you should be okay if you feel like you have some off brand, or something similar. And, if you need a memory card back-up device, the HyperDrive will help you there, too. And, while 750GB may be too big for some, you’ll be happy to know that the full range starts at 120GB (for $299), all the way up to 750GB (for $599). So, if you’re wondering if you can use the iPad instead of your laptop, well, here’s one step closer to getting your answer.

[via Ubergizmo]

That basically means that, while the data is still present, the encryption can’t be unlocked for third-party access.  While leased office appliances seem to be Toshiba’s primary target, it’s not too big a stretch to see the company offering WIPE on enterprise hard-drives for notebooks.

Press Release:

TOSHIBA ANNOUNCES WIPE TECHNOLOGY FOR SELF-ENCRYPTING DISK DRIVES
New Technology Improves Data Security And Reduces The Risk Of Data Leakage Associated With Document Image Data Stored On Copier And Printer Systems
TOKYO, Japan, August 10, 2010 — Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) today announced Wipe for Toshiba Self-Encrypting Drive (SED) models, a technology that allows special security capabilities, such as the world’s first[1] ability for sensitive user data to be securely erased when a system is powered-down or when a SED HDD is removed from the system. The feature can also be used to securely erase user data prior to returning a leased system, system disposal or re-purposing. Wipe was created as an enhancement to Toshiba’s Self-Encrypting Drive (SED) hard disk drives.
Toshiba announced its latest 2.5” 7200rpm SED HDD model in July 2010, to address the increasing need for IT departments to comply with privacy laws and regulations governing data security. Designed to the Trusted Computing Group “Opal” Specification, Toshiba’s SED models provide advanced access security and on-board encryption for client systems such as notebook computers.
But lost or stolen notebooks are not the only security risk that IT departments must address. Today, most office copier and printing systems utilize HDD capacity and performance to deliver a highly productive document imaging environment. Many organizations are now realizing the critical importance of maintaining the security of document image data stored within copier and printer systems. Wipe is a technology that can automatically invalidate an HDD security key when its power supply is turned off, instantly making all data in the drive indecipherable. Toshiba’s innovative new Wipe Technology adds advanced storage security features to enable system makers to transparently and automatically secure private data.
Copier and Printer systems vendors can now use Toshiba’s Wipe Technology to securely invalidate sensitive document image data by automatically erasing the SED’s internal encryption key. This feature can easily be used prior to system disposal or re-purposing to ensure that private data never leaves the control of the responsible business unit or IT department.
Toshiba’s Wipe Technology may be used to set data invalidation attributes for multiple data ranges. This flexibility provides systems designers with a powerful set of data security capabilities that can be easily incorporated into existing system architecture. Attributes include … – Data encryption and secure invalidation on power cycle.
- Data encryption and preservation on power cycle.
In addition to sensitive data stored on client PCs and removable storage devices, many organizations realize that security of “data at rest” must also extend to document images stored on the hard disk drives within copier and printer systems. Toshiba’s innovative new Wipe Technology provides advanced storage security features to enable systems makers to transparently and automatically secure private data on office copiers, printers and other types of business imaging systems.
[1] As of August 10, 2010, source by Toshiba