The 1 GB of RAM integrated into the drive allows it to outperform other USB 3.0 hard drives according to Buffalo. Data transfer speeds promise to be up to 408 MB/s, which is 2.3 times faster than typical USB 3.0 hard drives according to Buffalo. The storage device works for both PC and Mac computers.

The drive is available in 2 TB or 3 TB capacities. The drive measures 1.8 x 5.0 x 8-inches and weighs 2.2 pounds. It gets power from an included AC adapter. The drive supports Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP in 32 or 64-bit flavors.

The DriveStation DDR is formatted in NTFS by default and requires reformatting to work with Mac computers. The 2 TB version of the drive is available for $139.99 with the 3 TB version available for $179.99. Both versions of the drive can be picked up online and in some retail stores right now.

[via Buffalotech.com]

It has been a while since we’ve heard anything new out of Flash Rods, but the company is now back with a new mid-size range of storage devices crammed inside of cool model cars. This particular series is based on classic muscle cars includes drives housed inside of vehicles like a 1963 Lincoln Continental, a 67 Mustang, or a Shelby Cobra.

These mid-size flash drives are larger than the Hot Wheels size cars that Flash Rods originally created, yet smaller than the 250 GB Mercedes SLS replica I mentioned before. Another nice feature is that these will be the first Flash Rods that have USB 3.0 drives inside. All previous versions of the car-based storage devices used USB 2.0 drives.

In all, Flash Rods is offering seven new vintage car storage drives. These storage devices would have started off as larger toy cars you can pick up at a store like Walmart. However, if you like the idea of a flash drive inside of a car toy, you might be interested in plunking down $110 for the 32 GB version or $140 for the 64 GB version.

[via EverythingUSB]

The drive will be a part of Western Digital’s Blue series of hard drives, and the 5mm drive is able to be so thin because of a tiny edge connector that combines both power and the SATA transfer interface, which leaves more room for the hardware to do its thing. Although, with its 5mm form factor, everything is squeezed in there rather tightly.

This marks the return of Western Digital back into the full production process. After the 2011 tsunami and earthquake over in Asia, Western Digital and other component manufacturers suffered setbacks and were unable to produce hard drives temporarily. However, the company got back on track last year, and took over the top spot in the hard drive market with $4.8 billion in revenue and 71 million hard drives produced during Q4 2012.

While the UltraSlim is definitely something to admire, this isn’t the first 5mm drive we’ve seen. A*STAR unveiled their own 5mm hybrid drive last year, and it packs in a whole 1TB of storage. Then again, the company has yet to ship the new drive, so Western Digital is certainly the first out of the gate it seems.

This 4TB drive offers a data transfer rate of 145MB/s, and utilizes about 35-less electricity over other 4TB drives because of the reduced number of platters. This also results in an increase in drive performance. The drive is being offered both with and without an external case: without will run you approximately $190USD, while with the case will bump the price to $212 USD.

This isn’t Seagate’s only claim to fame this year, with the company announcing last month that it is the first (and thus far, only) to ship 2 billion hard drives globally. Of those 2 billion drives, the first billion took about 30 years to sell, while the second billion took approximately 4 years to sell, a massive swing that shows the vastly increasing demand for storage.

Demand for hard drives – particularly, larger ones – is expected to rise as the quantity of digital content, such as high-definition videos, created by consumers increases. As such, even those who have invested in an external hard drive will likely find themselves buying a new one in the coming year or two as capacity and needs both increase. For now, 1TB platters are a step towards meeting that demand.

[via Tech Crunch]

On the other hand, the SSD uses very fast flash storage allowing for incredibly quick access speeds, but the typical SSD has low storage capacity. SSDs also tend to be very expensive. Western Digital has announced that it has made a significant investment in a solid-state storage company called Skyera.

Western Digital has announced that it has participated in Skyera’s recently announced Series B round of financing. Western Digital Capital co-invested in the $51 million round of funding as an extension of the strategic relationship between the two companies. Western Digital had previously invested money with Skyera as an initial outside investor.

Skyera CEO Radoslav Danilak says that the new round of investment backed by Western Digital will help the company to expand its business across marketing, sales, and engineering. Skyera produces a line of enterprise solid-state storage systems in the skyHawk series. The company’s solid-state storage systems have what Western Digital calls an industry breakthrough price point of under three dollars per gigabyte. The low price of the systems allows the latest generation 19/20nm solid-state technology to be used as a direct replacement for traditional enterprise hard drive systems.

[via WDC]

That statistic alone proves that storage needs are increasing year-over-year, and the bigger that files get, the more storage space consumers will need to use. While a 1TB hard drive might have been considered overkill a few years ago, it’s now pretty much considered standard in most computers today, with some users creeping up into 2TB and 3TB territory.

Seagate claims that according to analysts, user-generated HD video, pictures, and other digital media needs are expected to quadruple in the next two years, mostly thanks to new formats coming out, including 4K video, which is four times the size of 1080p full HD content. So, if you think a 1TB drive suits you now, you’ll be begging for more come 2015.

Of course, this isn’t surprising at all. I’m sure you remember the days when a hard drive with 80GB was more than plenty to store all of your files and programs, but in today’s world, just your programs and all of your most-vital files can easily take up a couple hundred gigabytes, and that’s not even counting all the media you have lying around.

The new storage drive spins at an incredibly fast 10,000 RPMs and offers 1.2 TB of storage. The new drive is called the HGST Ultrastar C10K1200. The drive uses the SAS 6 Gb/s interface and has a 2.5-inch form factor. The drive also has a 64 MB cache buffer to optimize read/write response time.

The fast 10,000 RPM rotational speed reduces latency and allows the drive to access data faster in mission-critical applications. The drive is rated for 2 million hours mean time between failure and is intended for 24/7 operations in data centers and other high demand environments. The higher 1.2 TB capacity drive means that IT managers will be able to store 28.8 TB in a single 2U rack mount server featuring 24 bays.

The hard drive is also green producing less heat and requiring less power than previous versions allowing the data center to save money on electricity and HVAC requirements. The drive uses less than 5 W of power when idling. The new drives are available and shipping as of today at an undisclosed price.

[via HGST]

The Blade Runner’s most obvious feature is its design, which features aluminum fins with a blob-ish splay of metal in the middle. The chassis itself is gray with a matte finish, and can be oriented upright or flat, depending on the user’s preference. While the design is certainly part of its appeal, the device itself is a solid offering with nice specs all around.

The Blade Runner has a USB 3.0 interface, and runs cool because of how it is designed, with the blades serving as a type of radiating mechanism to dissipate heat. Power is indicated by an orange cross on the front illuminated by an LED that doubles as the power button. The button will glow green instead of orange when the unit switches into Eco Mode for power conservation.

Eco Mode is automatic, and reduces energy consumption by up to 75-percent when the drive isn’t being used. Backups are also automatic after being set up, and work with both Mac and PC. The integrated LaCie Private-Public software can be used to encrypt data at AES-256 and password protect the drive if desired. Overall, the Blade Runner is a combination of both form and function, the mark of any good device.

[via LaCie]

Essentially, Seagate booted up the storage to 1TB (from 500GB), doubled the battery life (now 10 hours), made it smaller, and kept the price the same as its predecessor ($199). The drive comes with the company’s adapter system, where you can plug in and swap out different interfaces (even Thunderbolt) and use it as a normal external hard drive.

As far as size and weight, the Wireless Plus is still a bit large, but it’s smaller than its predecessor and is only barely larger than Seagate’s regular hard drives. It can also connect up to eight mobile devices over its WiFi network, which by the way creates its own WiFi network to connect to tablets and smartphones, so there’s no need to be around a home WiFi network.

The Wireless Plus comes with a USB 3.0 adapter to use as a regular hard drive, and it’s priced at $199. Pre-orders start today, and the device is expected to ship in 1-2 weeks.

Quantum spin liquid may be called “liquid” but in fact it’s a crystalline form; it’s the magnetic state of the electronics which make it up which is changeable. The MIT team grew a sample of herbertsmithite, a theorized substance which had yet to be created in a lab, and then used neutron scattering to confirm that it is, in fact, a QSL substance.

Changing magnetic states commonly fall under the headings of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic; the former describes the simple magnetism used in a compass, while the latter has fields within the metal or alloy that cancel each other out. It’s antiferromagnetism that allows for platter-based hard-drives.

In the QSL, the magnetism state of the electronics is constantly changing, “but there is a strong interaction between them, and due to quantum effects, they don’t lock in place” Lee says of the research. However, it’s those quantum behaviors that could lead to the most groundbreaking development of all: long-range quantum entanglement.

In such a situation, the researchers say, “two widely separated particles can instantaneously influence each other’s states”; in short, you could have one particle on Earth and another many light years away, but changing the state of one would instantly trigger a comparable change in the other. Until now, it’s been the stuff of science-fiction – spanning the galaxy with a communication system that does not suffer from light-speed lag – but according to Lee and his team, it could be feasible.

As for the superconductors, which exhibit zero electrical resistance and are able to maintain a current with no applied voltage, Lee suggests the new magnetic form could remove one of the biggest hinderances: the requirement for extremely low temperatures. Currently, superconductors require cooling to around -200 degrees centigrade, but the QSL behaviors indicate new types with far more conservative temperature demands.

Still, there’s plenty of work to be done before we’re talking across vast distances or squeezing more data density onto tinier drives. The research is “very fundamental” at the moment, Lee points out, and lacks even a clear model to explain all of its elements. “There is no theory that describes everything that we’re seeing” he says.

[via ExtremeTech]

Like many NAS units on the market today, the hard drive dock is UPnP capable, making it a good choice for those who utilize media centers and media players. PCs and Macs can be used with the NexStar WiFi via SMB protocol, or via a USB cable for an easy wired connection. Mobile devices, such as Android smartphones and iOS devices, can also access and transfer files with the NexStar WiFi.

The NexStar WiFi’s mobile app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. According to the press release, the iOS version of the app has had some new features added, which includes support for Airplay that lets users stream data to any device that supports Airplay. Although the dock itself hasn’t been released yet, the apps are currently available for download.

The dock can be used with both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch hard drives with support for SATA I, II, and III. Multiple users can use the NexStar WiFi simultaneously, so it is adequate for office or dorm use, for example. The device support multiple varieties of wireless security including WEP and WPA/WPA2. The dock supports FAT32 and NTFS filesystems.

Those three key areas are high reliability, acoustics, and energy efficiency. Seagate says that the new hard drive has best in class reliability with an annual failure rate of approximately 0.55. The drive is also able to operate continuously in extended temperature ranges and promises near silent operation.

Near silent operation is particularly important when you put a hard drive inside a DVR or set-top box in the living room where people have to hear the device operate constantly. The Video 2.5 is available in one and two disc optimized solutions with capacities of up to 500 GB. The slim design of the hard drives allows the drives to be used in smaller consumer devices.

The hard drive also supports up to 12 simultaneous HD streams making it ideal for surveillance DVR applications according to Seagate. The quiet operation also promises to allow manufacturers to build some of the quietest home entertainment systems available. Seagate says the drive operates below the range of audible sound for the human ear producing only 22 dB. Pricing and availability on the drive is unannounced this time.

This machine now works with speeds up to 180MB/s and has the ability to transfer a 10GB project in less than a minute. This comes with a fan-free aluminum heat sink design with a sleek silvery aesthetic and a lovely blue eye. This industrial design creates 60 percent more surface area than flat designs, this allowing heat to efficiently divert and dissipate like a champ. You’ll be able to stack these drives up if you wish, or just keep one to the side of your computer upright on its own simple stand.

You’ve got 256-bit AES encryption for security and the knowledge that you’re working with a company that’s been in business making drives like these for almost a decade. With USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt interfaces you’ll be able to work with new Apple products such as the MacBook Pro and Ultrabooks of many kinds. You’ve got backwards compatibility with USB 2.0 as well and you get both a USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt cable in the box.

The LaCie d2 was designed by Neil Poulton and remains as iconic as it was the day it was originally revealed. This new edition will be available with a full backup software suite in two sizes, one of them with 3TB of space, the other with 4TB. You’ll be able to grab this lovely drive immediately if not soon from your favorite LaCie retailer or reseller.

The new Black 4TB HDD is a 3.5-inch drive, clocking in at 7200rpms, with 64MB of cache and 6GB/s, as well as dual-processors and dual actuator tech. Other Black drives in the series are available in 500GB, 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB capacities, as well as the new high-capacity drive. Each one offers a SATA interface,

While the WD Black is a nice hard drive depending on your needs, nothing about it particularly stands out as unique. It is, perhaps, overshadowed by the more popular HDDs in WD’s catalog, including the VelociRaptor, which reaches a highly-impressive 10,000 rpms. Also in the works is the recently-announced helium-filled drive, which is supposed to reduce friction while increasing capacity.

The Black line of hard drives are tested and recommended for PC computers, including high-performance systems; they are not recommended for RAID environments, however. The drives feature WD’s various features, including Stable Trac, which reduces vibration in the motor shaft to improve tracking and performance. In addition, all the drives are put “through extensive Functional Integrity Testing (F.I.T) prior to any product launch. This testing ensures our products consistently meet the highest quality and reliability standards of the WD brand.”

[via PC World]

The My Book Studio line is composed of four models: 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, and now 4TB. The drives are enclosed in a “premium aluminum enclosure,” and are a single-drive configuration. All four drives feature WD Security, allowing users to apply a password and 256-bit encryption to keep private data away from peeking eyes. The My Studio Line “works seamlessly” with Apple Time Machine.

WD’s Executive Vice President and General Manager Jim Welsh offered this statement. “WD’s My Book Studio with USB 3.0 delivers extreme transfer speeds while maintaining the standard USB and FireWire connections computer users prefer. Its large capacity, combined with a premium aluminum enclosure, hardware-based encryption, and compatibility with Apple Time Machine, provide Mac users with a fast, secure and complete system for preserving their valuable content.”

Each My Book Studio model includes a 3 year limited warranty. The first 1TB model is priced at $159.99, the 2TB model is priced at $189.99, the 3TB model is priced at $239.99, and the 4TB model is priced at $299.99. For those who need it, the line will also be available with USB 2.0 instead of the updated 3.0, as well as FireWire 800.

Called the “A-Drive”, this new 5mm-thick disk drive comes in a 2.5-inch form factor and is able to carry a whopping 1TB of storage with 32GB of solid state memory. The A-Drive relies on a new proprietary motor and 30 design patents to lower power consumption by 70% and achieve its razor-thin form factor.

The company aims to have the drive work in tablets, where it won’t only increase storage capacity, but it could stretch battery life by up to 30%. The company also sees the new hybrid drives being put to work in laptops, ultrabooks, and various enterprise-level storage solutions. A*STAR says its hybrid drive will be cheaper than SSDs currently used in Ultrabooks, and it’s reported that the new drive could cost only $73.

However, according to Executive Director Pantelis Alexopoulos, it might take 6 to 8 months to start production after they make a deal with a manufacturing partner, which hasn’t happened quite yet and is still in the process. It would surely be nice to see these bad boys in Ultrabooks, but we really want to see them in tablets.

The P’9223 has a smooth aluminum finish and a thin form factor that LaCie says is meant to match the exteriors of Apple’s MacBook Pro and MacBook Air line of laptops, and the drive is specifically “designed with Apple enthusiasts in mind.” The company says that it’s also their fastest external drive yet, combining USB 3.0 with an optional SSD option to “maximize performance.”

LaCie says the USB 3.0 on their new drive can deliver speeds of up to 400MB/s, and thanks to the USB Attached SCSI Protocol, LaCie claims that the drive gets “even better speeds” on the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, as long as you’re either running OS X Lion or Mountain Lion. Whether or not that’s true, we’ll have to wait for benchmark results.

The P’9223 Slim is the thinnest 2.5-inch storage device made by LaCie, and it’s 30% thinner than the previous Porsche edition. The drive comes in two storage capacities. The 500GB model will cost $99, while the 120GB SSD model will be priced at $149. Both models come with a two-year limited warranty.

What is a fusion drive? This is an all-in-one solution for old fashion hard drives, as well as SSD. This gives you from 1 to 3TB of space, and a 128GB solid state drive in one easy to use solution. This enables extremely fast performance, without hindering the users space options.

“Fusion Drive is an innovative new storage option that gives customers the performance of flash storage and the capacity of a hard drive. It combines 128GB of flash with a standard 1TB or 3TB hard drive to create a single storage volume that intelligently manages files to optimize read and write performance. Fusion Drive adapts to the way you use your iMac and automatically moves the files and apps you use most often to flash storage to enable faster performance and quicker access.”

As you can see above. Apple’s new Fusion Drives fuses together the best of both worlds for an easy all-in-one solution. What’s even better is all of this happens automatically. With Mac OSX it will automatically recognize the most used apps and move them to the Fusion Drives SSD for faster performance. The performance jump having the OS on a SSD is a massive improvement, and using a fusion drive to achieve the best of both worlds is an awesome and welcomed edition. More details following soon so stay tuned.

Essentially they are using an Ultrabook class leading 7mm portable HD, packed it into an ultra-sleek enclosure like most portable hard drives, added a few ports and are offering it for an excellent price. This new Canvio drive is extremely small and will fit in nearly all pants or shirt pockets — basically being the size of most smartphones these days.

As a comparison the new iPhone 5 is just 7.6mm thick, and the Galaxy S III is 8.6mm in size. Making this new 500GB portable storage option pretty sleek. Not only is Toshiba’s latest drive sleek and cheap, but it’s also quite fast being operated and powered by USB 3.0, with full compatibility with both PC and Mac. Here’s what Maciek Brzeski, VP of Product Marketing had to say:

As consumer electronics continue to get thinner, lighter and more portable, we recognized a huge demand to create a storage device that is in line with those trends,” and With the Canvio Slim, consumers can now easily stash their storage device right along with their Ultrabook, knowing that their data is always safe, even when they’re on the go.”

Other specs include 5400 RPM and an 8MB cache buffer, along with a 12 ms average seek time. It’s not the fastest around, but it sure is portable. You can get it from Toshiba direct today for $115 in Graphite Black or brushed Aluminum Grey, and it should hit retail stores starting in October.

[via MaximumPC]

This new MyBook from Western Digital uses two blazing fast 1TB 10,000 RPM VelociRaptor drives in a RAID configuration to bring you some top notch speeds, and tons of storage. I want one already! Toss in the new Thunderbolt standard to help you achieve top read/write and in/out speeds and you’ll be cruising along in no time.

The new WD storage device offers speeds topping 400MB/sec and both RAID 0 and RAID 1 configurations. That is near SSD performance only you’re getting 2TB of space instead of say 512GB. What is the price your wondering? This impressive new MyBook isn’t cheap with those speeds and performance. It will run you a pretty penny of about $900. All that precious HD video now has a fast, safe, and easy to access storage option.

WD details that the new VelociRapter Duo comes with dual Thunderbolt ports so you can daisy chain should you have a spare $1800 to pick up two. Then as you see above the device is user-serviceable and accessible should the unlikely event of a drive failure. You can easily pop her open and replace a drive. You can even boot your Mac right from this external storage drive. If you’ve got the cash to spend or the need for speed head to WD.com to get started today.

[via ZDNet]

Three capacities of the drive will be offered: 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB. The 64GB model will cost around £78 (~$122), the 128GB drive will be £126 (~$197), and the 256GB will command a £220 (~$345) price tag. Plextor will also be offering its PlexTools software for free, allowing customers to upgrade firmwares when there are updates, plus monitor the drives for any problems.

Plextor say that the drives should be available to buy towards the end of July from various retailers. If you’re in the market for a new solid state drive or you’re making the jump for the first time, maybe give these a look.

The company is also saying that the drives are secure and fast, with fast access times and “write endurances.” The company has failed to provide any kind of speeds for the drives, but previous models have hit around 540MB/s read speeds and 510MB/s write speeds. The old models also achieved random write 4KB IOPS of around 75,000.

SuperTalent will be offering two capacities for now, 128GB and 256GB. Just like the drive speeds, the company has neglected to say exactly how much the drives will cost. If you’re a mysterious individual and appreciate SuperTalent’s secrecy, the drives are shipping today with a three year warranty. Just don’t ask us where you can get them, because the company didn’t mention that either.

Just like the old drives, you won’t be able to stick these in your laptop thanks to the 15mm thickness. Toshiba is including a 3.5-inch bracket so you can mount the drives into your desktop computer, with the company saying the drives are ideal for server use. Average seek time for the drives is 3.7ms, and write is 4.1ms. The drive is equipped with a SAS 2.0 6Gbit/s interface and a 64MB buffer for the best transfer speeds possible.

Unfortunately, Toshiba hasn’t mentioned exactly what the drives will cost, or when eager customers can get their hands on them. Judging from the interface and capacity, we can’t imagine them being cheap, so maybe start saving now just in case. All the nitty gritty details can be found on Toshiba’s website in the meantime.

[via Engadget]

The SATA III 6Gbit/s drive has sequential read and write speeds of 550 and 530MB/s respectively. There will be three capacities offered: 128GB, 256GB,. and 512GB. Whichever option you spring for, you can rest assured knowing that the drive is covered by a five-year warranty. Putting it in a desktop rather than your aging laptop? The company is throwing in a 3.5-inch adapter too, so you can slide it straight into your tower without any troubles.

The 128GB model will set you back $189.99, the 256GB runs $379.99, and the 512GB commands a high $749.99. ADATA say the drives are available now at various retailers across the United States and Canada, so start searching.

Seagate’s $186 million deal will give it a 64.5 percent stake in LaCie controlled by the company’s CEO Philippe Spruch. The offer is a 30 percent premium and under the terms of the agreement, Spruch would join Seagate after the acquisition to head the company’s consumer storage products group. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.

The purchase comes after a tough year for Seagate, which saw its storage supply hit hard by the floods in Thailand. With the LaCie purchase, Seagate will have a new foothold in expanding into the Mac market, where it has traditionally struggled to penetrate.

[via Forbes]

While we still wait for quality performance to come at the $1 per GB level these are getting pretty close. The new SSD 330 will come in 60GB, 120GB, and 180GB choices starting at $89 and ending with the 180GB for $234. Basically $1.25 per GB here from Intel. If you’ve been wanting a great low capacity drive for the OS, or would like to set up some speedy SSD’s in a Raid array these would be a good place to start.

The new Intel SSD 330 come built on 25nm silicon to be more efficient and offer less power consumption, but Intel still claims some impressive performance. Offering 500MB/sec in read and write speeds, not to mention nearly 33k in input output speeds. Toss a few of these impressive price/performance SSD’s into that new Core i7 machine, add in the NVIDIA GTX 680 and you’ll be good to go. More details are available from Intel at the link below. These are expected to be available nationwide starting today at your favorite retailers.

[via Intel]

The hard drive can hit extremely high read and write rates thanks to the combination of RPM, the SATA 6Gbit/s interface, and a 64MB cache. Western Digital are targeting the drive at servers and enterprise users, as well as those more strenuous tasks such as video editing. Western Digital believe the VelociRaptor is a better alternative for those tasks due to write limitations with NAND memory.

The VelociRaptor will be available in three different sizes: 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB. While the drives are 2.5-inches, they’ll come in a 3.5-inch enclosure which Western Digital dub the IcePack. It features a built-in heatsink designed to keep the hard drive cool.  The 250GB model will cost $159.99, the 500GB model will come in at $209.99, while the 1TB model will set you back $319.99. All the drives come with a five-year limited warranty and should be shipping right now.

The company has managed to squeeze 500GB onto a single platter, helping to reduce thickness, but also reducing noise. The drive also has shock resistance up to 400Gs, but we recommend you don’t test that out yourself. The drive is primarily designed to be used in ultrabooks, although Western Digital has chosen to make the drive available as an aftermarket part as well.

While we imagine most customers will want a solid state drive in their ultrabooks, this new drive gives OEMs flexibility if they favor hard drive space over speed. It’s bound to be cheaper too. It wouldn’t just benefit ultrabooks, either: there are a few ultraportable laptops on the market that only take 7mm drives, such as the Lenovo X130e.

The Westen Digital Scorpio Blue will ship in 320GB and 500GB models, costing $80 and $100 respectively. Both should be shipping today.

[via Electronista]

You’ve seen these eSATA drives popping up all of last year, they’re the LaCie silver drives with the blue light that looks like HAL – Lacie’s also been using this look for all of their ThunderBolt-ready peripherals for some time now. What this hub is able to do is bring your eSATA drives in on one box, here “unleashing” their full potential with the 10GB/s speeds of Thunderbolt.

In the back of this device you’ll find dual 10Gb/s Thunderbolt ports for daisy chaining, dual eSATA 3GB/s ports, a Kensington Lockm, and a power port – all of this on an enclosure which sits on a removable stand. You can daisy-chain up to six Thunderbolt technology compatible devices at once – LaCie brand suggested, but not required. YOu can also connect up to two eSATA drives (per hub.)

The real value proposal here is getting the “full potential” out of your eSATA drives. They’ve got the potential to move at 3GB/s, but because the ExpressCard/34 maximum bus speed is 2.5GB/s, you’re still going slow. This device brings that extra .5 out to be free. This device will be available starting today for $199.00 at LaCie’s online store. Grab a few!

The My Passport Studio drive features a 15mm 5400 RPM hard drive inside and its 2TB storage capacity is enough for about 400,000 photos, 240 hours of video or 500,000 songs. The drive is bus-powered, freeing it from the need of an additional power cable, and its two FireWire 800 ports allow for daisy-chaining hard drives.

Its huge capacity and portability is perfect for photography and video professionals that need a convenient backup solution for both in studio and on location. The minimalist all-metal casing of the My Passport Studio also aesthetically complements any Mac setup. The drive is available now priced at $299.99.

[via MarketWatch]

There has been no official announcement from TiVo on capacity upgrade, but a model that has clearly been refreshed has been turning up at retail locations for pre-order. Listings at Amazon and JR.com are showing a new TiVo Premiere DVR model carrying part number TCD746500. That particular part number packs in a 500 GB hard drive and sells for $149. The original versions had 320 GB hard drive inside and sold for $80.

The listings imply shipments of the new 500 GB units will start in the next few weeks. If 500 GB isn’t enough capacity for you, you can still grab the 1 TB premiere XL or other models. The 500 GB version should be good for an extra 30 hours of HD programming, which for many would be worth an extra $70. The hard drive size appears to be the only difference between the new model and the old.

[via Engadget]

Today they’ve launched the new DS412+, a 4 bay NAS. As you’d expect, it offers various RAID options in order you keep your data safely backed up, but it’s fast too. Synology promise average read speeds of 202.36MB/s and write speeds of 179.15MB/s with a RAID 5 configuration and Link Aggregation mode. There’s also a USB 3.0 port located on the back of the unit if you need to shift your data to an external drive pronto.

The DS112, meanwhile, is similar to the single-bay DS112j that debuted last week, but aimed at small businesses and packing a little more power. It has a 1.6Ghz single-core processor and 256MB of RAM, up from 1Ghz and 128MB. It also has support for 4TB drives, as well USB 3.0 and eSATA ports located on the back. It promises power efficiency too: 13.2W under load, and 5.04W when idle.

Both products run the latest version of Synology’s software, DiskStation Manager 4.0. They’re shipping right now, with the DS412+ coming in at around $720, while the comes in at around $380.

The fun doesn’t stop there: you get to pick which color you’d like to house your backup of the complete Justin Bieber discography. You have a selection of white, black, silver, blue, and red. Additionally, Western Digital have improved the chassis to make it more resistant to scratches and fingerprints.

Raw capacity isn’t the only thing that Western Digital are hoping to entice you with. They also two additional features on board: WD SmartWare, an automatic backup software solution, and WD Security, which will password protect and encrypt the hard drive’s contents.

The updated My Passport line is available right now from the Western Digital store. Prices start from $129.99 for the 500GB version, although if you’re looking to spring for the 2TB version, you’ll have to throw down $249.99 for the privilege. All drives come with a two-year warranty.

Currently, the highest-capacity internal hard drives offer at most 3TB of storage capacity. These existing hard drives use a recording technology called perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) for storing digitized data, such as music, photos, and videos. Seagate was able to increase data storage density by using a next-gen recording technology called Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR).

With HAMR technology, Seagate was able to achieve 2 million bits per linear inch, which is just over 1Tb per square inch. This is 55 percent higher than today’s storage density ceiling of 620 gigabits per square inch, which only allows up to 3TB for 3.5-inch hard drives and 750GB for 2.5-inch drives.

First generation HAMR hard drives will likely boost these limits to 6TB for 3.5-inch drives and 2TB for 2.5-inch drives. However, the scalability of HAMR could theoretically increase capacities to 30TB to 60TB in 3.5-inch drives, and 10TB and 20TB in 2.5-inch drives.

[via TGDaily]

Whichever mode you decide to use, Western Digital say that full Thunderbolt speeds of 10Gbit/s are supported. You’ll be limited to the speed of the hard drives inside the casing, of course, although there will still be a speed boost over the standard USB 2.0 models, especially if you’re using the RAID 0 mode.

Western Digital have also included two Thunderbolt ports on the Duo so that you can daisy chain up to six products together, handy if you’re amassing a large amount of storage for archival purposes. Good news for Mac users too: the Thunderbolt Duo is Time Machine compatible.

The Thunderbolt Duo will come in two flavours, 4TB and 6TB, although all that storage and speed comes at a price. The 4TB version will set you back $599.99, while the 6TB model will cost $699.99. Still interested? Head on over to the Western Digital online store to order them.

The DS112j has designed to run quieter and cooler than existing DiskStation products thanks to the new design. It supports hard drives up to 4TB, has a 1Ghz processor, 128MB of RAM, a Gigabit LAN port, and two USB 2.0 ports for additional storage and network sharing. During operation, the DS112j consumes just 12.1W. When you’re not using the hard drive and it spins down, the enclosure enters a low power mode and uses only 4.4W.

Synology also include the latest version of their operating system that powers the NAS, DiskStation Manager 4.0. New features of the software includes support for cloud backup services, surveillance support, an enhanced management console, and several business backup features. If you already own a Synology DiskStation product, you can upgrade to Manager 4.0 for free from today.

The Synology DiskStation DS112j is available in the UK right now and costs around £114 (~$178). Pricing and availability for the United States have yet to be confirmed.

Western Digital purchased Hitachi for $4.5 billion last year, and in order for that acquisition to be finalized, the FTC are requiring that Western Digital sell off assets used to make its hard drives to Toshiba. Those assets will allow Toshiba to compete in the 3.5” desktop hard drive market, and prevent a duopoly with Western Digital and Seagate at the helm.

The FTC ruled that the original terms of the acquisition were anti-competitive. The steps it has taken against Western Digital will ensure that Toshiba can provide competition, allowing them access to research and development employees, as well as the resources necessary to take Hitachi’s place in the market.

Western Digital have 15 days to sell the necessary assets to Toshiba once the deal with Hitachi has closed. At the time they announced the move to purchase Hitachi, they had around 31% of the market, followed by Seagate with 29%, with Hitachi coming in at 18%.

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]