While it is still a significant amount of money to be made in the market, that represents an 11.8% decline from the $37.1 billion earned in the market last year. The research firm also predicts that revenue in the HDD field will remain flat throughout 2014 declining slightly to $32 billion. With a decline in overall revenue, a gross and operating margin decline is also predicted.

Analysts for the company do expect hard drives to remain the dominant form of storage in 2013 thanks to an expected increase in demand for ultrabooks and increased hard drive demand for business use. Hard drives are expected to remain the dominant form of storage based on their cost advantage compared to an SSD. Currently hard drives are significantly cheaper than comparably sized SSDs.

One of the big growth areas for hard drives is expected to be in the business sector including the enterprise space, cloud storage, big data, and the big-data analytics markets. iSuppli also mentioned that towards the end of Q4 2013 Western Digital is expected to launch a five-terabyte Helium drive specifically designed for data centers and enterprise storage applications that will be popular.

[via iSuppli]

The problem for the hard drive industry has been the fact that sales of computers have been on the decline. The hard drive industry is very closely tied to the fortunes of the PC industry so when the PC industry is down, typically the hard drive industry is down as well. One of the biggest hard drive makers in the industry is Western Digital and the company announced its Q2 financials this week.

Western Digital reported revenue of $3.8 billion on hard drive shipments totaling 59.2 million for the quarter. Net income for the quarter was $335 million, working out to $1.36 per share for fiscal Q2. Net income for the hard drive maker was $513 million working up to $2.09 per share. That is a significant improvement from the same quarter a year ago when the company reported revenues of $2 billion, with net income of $145 million working out to only $.61 per share. In the same quarter of last year, the company shipped only 28.5 million hard drives.

Western Digital notes that it generated $772 million in cash from operations during its December quarter and ended with total cash and cash equivalents $3.8 billion. The company also used $146 million to buy back 4.2 million shares of its common stock. It looks like things are turning around for Western Digital after a difficult 2012.

“We are pleased with our December quarter results, reflecting outstanding execution and value creation by our HGST and WD® teams,” said Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer. “In an environment marked by continued macroeconomic uncertainty, soft PC demand and inventory rebalancing by our customers, we continue to manage our business by focusing on those variables that we control, allowing us to generate better than expected revenue and profitability and strong cash generation.”

[via Western Digital]

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.

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.

Toshiba offers the drives with capacities of up to 1 TB, and the drives are 2.5-inch form factor with a 9.5 mm height. The new Hybrid Drives use SATA connectivity and have self-learning caching algorithms to learn the data access patterns of the user and optimize performance. These algorithms determine what data should be stored in the flash memory for quick access and what data should be stored on the traditional magnetic platters.

The hybrid drive is initially available in 1 TB and 750 GB capacities. Toshiba says the drives are sized for use in ultrathin and standard notebooks, gaming PCs, AIOs, and slim desktops. The hard drive portion of the Hybrid Drives spins at 5400 RPMs and has an average seek time of 12 ms.

On 1 TB and 750 GB capacity Hybrid Drives the amount of NAND Flash storage is 8 GB. Toshiba says that the design of the Hybrid Series storage devices will enable faster system boot times and faster data access. Pricing on the new drives is unannounced at this time.

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]

We’ve also seen SSD prices decreased significantly leading more and more consumers to opt for the better performance of SSDs rather than HDDs. The price gap between an SSD and HDD has closed with SSDs getting cheaper and the price of HDDs increasing due to shortage. Seagate announced that its Q4 2012 financial results would miss targets. Seagate expects to report revenue of about $4.5 billion with non-GAAP gross margin of 33.6%.

The company expected at least $5 billion in revenue in non-GAAP gross margin of at least 34.5%. Wall Street expectations were somewhere between Seagate’s reality and its own expectations. Seagate also notes that an issue with one of its enterprise line of storage devices resulted in reduced shipments and also impacted earnings performance.

“Seagate expects to report another record quarter of revenue in the June quarter, however we did not meet our expected revenue and margin plan,” said Steve Luczo, Seagate chairman and chief executive officer.

“The June quarter’s shortfall was due primarily to two factors. First, we did not achieve our planned market share growth as we reduced shipments in response to the industry’s faster than expected recovery from their supply chain disruption. Second, we experienced an isolated supplier quality issue that affected one of our enterprise product lines. This product issue impacted enterprise product unit shipments by approximately 1.5 million units and drove our non-GAAP gross margin below our targeted plan. While this disruption to our business was disappointing, we acted quickly and conservatively by suspending shipments of the affected products. We have resolved the issue and have resumed fulfilling our supply commitments to customers.”

Luczo continued, “Based on the macro-economic concerns indicated by a broad base of customers, we are approaching the September quarter conservatively and aligning our business for a relatively flat addressable market and modest improvements in our product mix. We are adjusting our production and inventory planning accordingly, and we expect average selling prices and margins to remain relatively stable in the September quarter. We also continue to expect to exit the calendar year with non-GAAP gross margins exceeding 30%.”

The new family of CinemaStar drives includes the Z7K500 aimed at high-performance A/V streaming. This drive has the thin 7 mm height and up to 500 GB capacity. The C5K1000 is a 2.5-inch drive family stay 5400 RPMs with up to 1 TB capacity. These drives consume as little as 1.5 W of power being read and write operations and promised to be quiet as well.

The final new model is the Z5K500, which is a 7 mm tall 5400 RPM drive aimed at consumer electronic use. The drive comes in up to 500 GB capacity and uses 1.4 W of power during read and write operations. This drive is aimed at power efficient DVR systems and can store up to 185 hours of HD programming.

Seagate is predicting the shortage of hard drives by the end of 2012 is likely to be about 150 million units. Computerworld reports that Seagate’s prediction is in line with estimates from research firms such as Gartner. Analysts have said all along that the biggest impact of the hard drive shortage wouldn’t be felt until this year.

The flooding in Thailand already had a significant impact on shipments for Seagate in 2011. When the company reported its quarterly earnings, shipments were down 4% from the same quarter of 2010, and the reason cited was component shortages due to the flood. With the shortage becoming more significant this year, we could see prices for computer systems increase as well as prices for retail packaged hard drives increase. I still wonder if we may see more transitioning to solid-state drives that are readily available, even though they’re more expensive and tend to offer less storage space than traditional hard drives.

[via Computerworld]

The OCZ Deneva 2 mSATA SSDs are touted as being faster, more efficient, smaller, and lighter as well as more reliable, longer-lasting, and secure. They are much lighter than traditional SSDs, weighing about 10 times less than a standard SSD and 15 times less than a conventional 2.5-inch hard drive. Their ultra thin profile allows them to fit into dimensions less than 21mm thick.

The Deneva 2 mSATA SSD series also includes SATA 3.0 and 120GB versions, but those have not been Intel certified for ultrabooks yet. The models certified are the D2CSTEMS1A10-0030 and D2CSTEMS1A10-0060. The series boasts max read speeds of up to 280MB/s, max write speeds of up to 260MB/s, and up to 32,000 4K random write iOPS.

[via TheVerge]

Inside the 1:18 scale replica of the SLS is a 2.5-inch 500GB HDD. Generally, the cars that Flash Rods use start out as toys like Hot Wheels cars or other brands. This particular SLS version has a hood that opens and the gull wing doors actually work.

The USB port for connecting the thing to your computer is set into the back of the car. You can order one of these up in Black, Red, or Silver for $250. That’s not such a bad price if you are a big fan of cool storage devices. This would certainly look better sitting on your desk than a normal external storage device.

[via EverythingUSB]

The warranties will vary in length depending on the drive families in use. The Constellation 2 and ES.2 drives will have a 3-year warranty. The Barracuda and Barracuda Green drives will have a 1-year warranty. The Barracuda XT and Momentus XT will have a 3-year warranty. The 2.5-inch Momentus HDDs will offer 1-year warranties.

The SV35 series for video surveillance will get a 20-year warranty as will the Pipeline HD Mini and Pipeline HD. Seagate notes that mission critical and retail HDDs will not be affected by the warranty change.

Seagate says it is standardizing warranty terms “to be more consistent with those commonly applied throughout the consumer electronics and technology industries. By aligning to current industry standards Seagate can continue to focus its investments on technology innovation and unique product features that drive value for our customers rather than holding long-term reserves for warranty returns.”

[via The Register]

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.

Starting immediately, you can pick up the second generation Seagate Momentus XT solid state hybrid drive at Memory Express, NCIX, Newegg, Canada Computers, CDW, and TigerDirect for $245 MSRP. Inside you’ll find that your Serial ATA 6Gb/second interface and 8 gigabytes of Single Level Cell NAND flash both double the NAND and interface read-write speeds of the previous generation Seagate drive, and a design which makes for a simple upgrade for any compatible laptop or desktop computer.

It’s Seagate’s Adaptive Memory and FAST Factory technologies that make this drive the real masterpiece in Seagate’s line of drives. FAST Factory technology take the strengths of hard disk drives and SSDs and combines them for quicker bootup, higher system speed, and faster access to all applications on your computer. Adaptive Memory works with you, the user, to learn your work patterns and move your most frequently retrieved information to solid state memory for fast access.

Have a look here at the Momentus XT 750GB SSHD working on a 13-inch MacBook Pro with a 2.7 GHz i7 processor and 4 GB of RAM running OS X Lion 10.7. You’ll see three different drives running here in a simple working test: a stock 5400 RPM HDD, a stock Apple SSD, and the new Momentus XT.

Next see a test of a Dell 15z complete with a 2.3GHz i5 processor, 6GB of RAM, and Windows 7 Professional. The test drives here are a stock Dell 7200 RPM HDD, an Intel 320 series SSD, and the new Momentus XT.

Finally see a Dell Optiplex 980 running a 2.6GHz Intel Pentium processor, 1GB or RAM, and Windows 7 Professional, with the two test drives being the new Momentus XT and a WD Velociraptor 10K HDD. Just like the other tests, you’ll find the Seagate contender to be most impressive.

Let us know what you think of this new drive, if you’ll pick one up, and if you think everyone else should (or shouldn’t) as well!

According to HP CEO Meg Whitman, the shortage is already hurting Facebook and Google since they are the DIY server sort. HP is also having a hard time laying hands on drives, but Whitman says that the firm has a “war room” set up and it will be getting its share of drives. Whitman also claims that for now since Google and Facebook cannot get drives, they are calling HP to meet server needs.

Despite the uptick in purchases from firms that typically build their own servers, Whitman still expects income for servers to drop thanks to the shortage. Computer prices are expected to increase with the shortage. The real brunt of the pinch from shortages will hit in Q1 and Q2 according to Whitman. HP released its Q4 financials this week.

[via ZDNet]

The eGo Mac Edition features secure 256-bit AES encryption and comes with Iomega’s Protection Suite to ensure your data stays safe. It has two FireWire 800 ports and one USB 2.0 port and even comes with three cables, one for each port, giving you fast and versatile connections. The device also doesn’t require an external power supply.

In addition to the eGo, Iomega will be offering the Helium Portable Hard Drive that will also come in 500GB and 1TB capacities, but features one USB 2.0 port and is housed in an aluminum case. A desktop hard drive alternative would be Iomega’s Mac Companion Hard Drive, which comes in 2TB and 3TB capacities and packs a fast 7200RPM 3.5-inch hard drive.

The Helium Portable Hard Drive and the Mac Companion Hard Drive are already available at Apple stores, but the eGo Mac Edition Portable Hard Drive will not be available until later this month. The 500GB model is priced at $179.99 and the 1TB model is $229.99.

[via Iomega]

An example is the price of a Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200 RPM 3.5-inch HDD sold on Newegg. The price back in August before the flooding for this HDD was only $50 to $60. As of November, the price on that HDD has soared to $139.99 thanks to the shortage. You can bet that the computers out there using that HDD are seeing a more significant price increase than that add-in drive has seen.

I wonder if the price increase on the HDDs will make more people look to SSDs as an alternative. Even at the 180% price increase for that Samsung 1TB drive it is still much cheaper than the alternative SSD. I don’t really see the shortage of HDDs driving more folks to similar capacity SSDs since the price gap is still very large.

[via Zorinaq]

Seagate has axed all 5400 rpm HDDs and is now going with nothing but 7200 rpm desktop offerings. Seagate points to reduced power consumption in the 7200 rpm drive market allowing it to leave the 5400 rpm units behind. I wonder if the flooding and HDD shortage we are facing had something to do with this too. The 7200 rpm HDD is the more popular choice so loosing the 7200 would free up more space for the popular choice.

New read/write tech that allows more data to be stored on a single platter is where the power savings comes from. The 5400 rpm drives will apparently still be offered in the mobile category. The new Seagate OptiCache tech also helps to improve performance in Seagate HDDs with a 45% boost in performance compared to older tech.

[via Computerworld]

The Extreme has a USB 3.0 connection for your computer and uses Buffalo TurboPC EX software to enable data transfer speeds of up to 5Gbps. That gives plenty of speed for transferring and sharing video and other large files and media. Inside the external enclosure, the HDD is placed inside a highly shock resistant body and has rubberized elements for additional protection.

The shock protection features meet MIL-STD-810F Procedure IV and have passed free-fall drop tests from up to 2.3m. The storage device will come in piano black, red, and silver colors and has an integrated USB cable that snaps to the chassis for easy portability. It will be offered in 500GB and 1TB capacities and has 256-bit AES FDE.

Seagate says that its plants are all functional and there are no logistical issues with its workers reaching plants. However, Seagate is warning that there are disruptions in the supply chain for the parts that it requires to make the HDDs it sells. With flooding in the region ongoing Seagate can’t predict the severity of the slow down at this time.

Due to this Seagate is expecting HDD supplies to be constrained through the quarter. All of Seagate workers in the region are reportedly safe. A shortage of HDDs will drive the price of the HDDs available up and likely lead to increased prices for devices that use HDDs for storage over the coming months. Seagate will talk more about the situation on October 20 during its quarterly conference call.

WD says that it is working with its suppliers to maximize its current throughput and parts availability to meet the demands of customers. WD notes that in the quarter that ended on July 1 2011 it shipped 54 million HDDs from facilities located in Thailand and Malaysia. The facilities in Thailand were responsible for 60% of that amount.

WD reports that the flooding is affecting the regions infrastructure including transportation and utilities and this has resulted in the inundation of some facilities and employee homes. The company does note that 37,000 of its workers in that area have been deemed safe. The facilities in Thailand are operational, but production has been suspended to protect workers and the facility from water. Updates will be offered on the investment call to be held October 19.

The storage device connects to your computer via USB 3.0 port and has a data rate of up to 5 Gbps making it perfect for lots of photos and video backups. The drive inside the unit uses 256-bit AES full disk encryption as well. That means the content you put on the storage device is automatically encrypted and protected from loss or theft.

The DriveStation Velocity will work with USB 2.0 ports as well. The TurboPC Ex software also helps to increase the speed the drive handles data. In June, Buffalo Technology unveiled a MiniStation Plus portable HDD for on the go data storage. Pricing and availability are unknown at this time.

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.

The outside of the enclosure has a capacitive touch keypad and a tiny OLED screen. That little OLED screen has a bar that shows you how much space is left on the HDD inside the enclosure. To access the data on the drive you have to type in the correct password using the keys on the front. The password can be 4-8 characters long. The data on the drive is protected with AES 256-bit security in addition to the security that encrypts the stored password.

Without entering the correct password, the data on the drive isn’t accessible even when connected to a computer. The enclosure will support any SATA 3.5-inch HDD up to 9.5mm in height. It ships with the cables needed for connectivity and a carry pouch along with the hardware for mounting your HDD inside. You can get the enclosure now for $99.99 and it supports Mac and PC.

Apparently, the Genius at the Apple Store gave the man back his repaired Time Capsule sporting a new drive and the old busted drive that was replaced. When the guy plugged the old drive in the thing worked and was full of confidential Apple documents going back to late 2009 up to May of this year. The files included all sorts of documents from store checklists to time schedules and vides that are only meant to be seen by store workers.

It would appear that the person that fixed the man’s Time Capsule simply handed him back the wrong old disk. Gizmodo reports that the man offered to sell the HDD to the website Cult of Mac for money, but was turned down. We all know Giz has no qualms paying for quasi legal hardware and Jesus Diaz is asking the owner to contact him.

[via Gizmodo]

Apple has said that the HDDs could fail under certain conditions and that the issue only affects a very limited number of machines. The iMac had to be purchased with the Seagate 1TB HDD between May 2011 and July 2011 and the issue affects both the 21.5-inch and the 27-inch iMac computers. Apple is contacting owners of affected machines that provided a valid email address when registering.

If you didn’t provide a valid email or think your machine might be covered, you can hit the replacement page on Apple’s website and enter your serial number to see if your machine is affected. The replacement offer for the HDD will last through July 23, 2012. The coverage for the HDD doesn’t extend the standard warranty on the iMac. Apple also won’t back up your current HDD for you.

[via MacWorld]

According to the WSJ, Seagate was potentially interested in the platter-drive side of Samsung’s business, but no deal has been finalized. Samsung will apparently accept under $1bn, the insider claims, though the company has declined to comment on the reports.

Meanwhile, what are believed to be Samsung’s mSATA “blade” SSDs have been spotted in recent MacBook Air models, differing from the original Toshiba Blade X-gale flash storage first found inside the aluminum ultraportable. According to Anandtech [via 9to5Mac], that could add up to a surprise boost of speed for the newer machines: Samsung’s SM128C 128GB SSDs manage 261.1 MB/s read and 209.6 MB/s write, while the original Toshiba TS128C 128GB SSDs manage just 209.8 MB/s read and 175.6 MB/s write.

It seems that Apple is mixing and matching its memory choices, with no way of identifying what’s inside your new OS X notebook until you load up the System Profiler.

The 88 amplifier has a sleek stainless steel body with black and orange accents that tastefully transfer a Fiskar vibe in a minimalist form. The 88 design features 2TB of HDD space along with a USB 3.0 port. It is meant for headphones, but can also be used as a preamp with its four speaker outputs on the back side.

It’s not clear if this was simply a fun exercise or something Fiskar may actually be contemplating as a way to diversify its portfolio. However, jumping into audio products for the company is a bit of a stretch. And although we all love our garden shears, I’m not sure if I really need my stereo system to match.

[via Yanko Design]

It also reduces the number of random writes subjected to flash and HDD alike. Interestingly, while when we tested Seagate’s Momentus XT we discovered performance fell in-between a traditional HDD and a proper SSD, Microsoft claims that FlashStore is quicker than both. Used in Xbox LIVE databases, a FlashStore setup was 60x faster than a standard RAM/HDD system and 5x faster than a top of the line commercial SSD.

[via HardMac and via CDRInfo]

The S25 was previously available in smaller 147GB and 300GB capacities only. WD is also shipping the RE SAS 3.5-inch HDD to OEMs right now. This storage device spins at 7200rpm and uses the SAS 6Gb/s interface for connectivity. The larger 3.5-inch HDD comes in 1TB and 2TB capacities and is aimed at NAS and other storage uses.

WD offers no pricing information on the new HDDs. “Meeting the demands of our customers and IT professionals in the enterprise market is the primary driver of our long-term commitment to SAS drives,” said Darwin Kauffman, WD’s vice president of enterprise storage solutions. “Our focused strategy in the enterprise continues to ensure that customers who have rewarded WD with their preference of WD drives in other application segments receive the same outstanding values of quality, reliability, performance and availability with WD’s SAS drives. It is with that commitment that we are now able to meet a wider set of customer requirements.”

The 3.5-inch HDDs include a 2TB and a 1.5TB offering. The 2.5-inch drives are in the C5K750 line and include capacities of 750GB, 640GB, and 500GB. The 2.5-inch line has 375GB of storage per platter and use 4096-byte sectors. The drives need 0.5W of power at idle and 1.5W during operation.

The 3.5-inch drives have 667GB per platter and use 4.2W of power or under at idle and produce 2.4bels of noise during operation. Hitachi says that the HDDs are shipping all around the world to customers right now.

Hardware

The OCZ Vertex 2 on our test bench is a 2.5-inch 120GB model weighing in at 77g and 9.5mm thick. In the retail box, OCZ bundles a 3.5-inch adapter bracket, for using the drive in a desktop rather than a notebook. Maximum speeds on the box are up to 285 MB/s read rate, 275 MB/s write rate and up to 250 MB/s sustained writes.

The Vertex 2 uses the well-esteemed SandForce SF-1200 controller, which has quickly moved to a strong position particularly among OS X users for whom the Mac OS lacks Windows’ TRIM support. TRIM – which the Vertex 2 does support – is used by some platforms to notify not only the OS file system that a file has been deleted but the SSD itself; that means slightly slower deletes but less degradation of performance over time. Apple is yet to add TRIM support to OS X, but the SandForce controller works around that absence with its own “garbage collection” routines at the drive level.

One unfortunate side effect of the SandForce firmware initially used on the Vertex 2 is the amount of NAND memory set aside for over-provisioning leaving a grand total of 119.69GB left of usable storage space. This is used to boost overall write performance and reliability, the latter by replacing bad memory blocks from the reserved memory. On the original Vertex 2, a huge 28-percent of the memory was set aside; newer firmware has slimmed this down to just 13-percent.

Performance

We installed the Vertex 2 into a MacBook Pro running OS 10.6.5 and tested it using Xbench 1.3. In sequential write testing, the SSD managed 191.00 MB/sec with 4K blocks and 153.53 MB/sec with 256K blocks. In random write testing, it achieved 148.42 MB/sec with 4K blocks and 165.07 MB/sec with 256K blocks.

As for read rates, in sequential read tests the SSD scored 29.09 MB/sec with 4K blocks and 179.13 MB/sec with 256K blocks. Finally, in random read tests it managed 22.53 MB/sec with 4K blocks and 172.99 MB/sec with 256K blocks.

Compared to the Samsung 470 Series SSD we tested last month, the OCZ is generally stronger at random reads and writes, but slower at sequential read and writes.

Wrap-Up

As ever, when you’re coming at an SSD from a HDD perspective, it’s tough to argue with the speed increase and the sudden disappearance of noise and vibration from a spinning drive. However, not all SSDs are created equal, as the OCZ’s benchmarks prove.

Samsung’s 470 Series bests it on sequential performance, but the OCZ fights back with random performance; it’s also cheaper, coming in at around $220 street price versus the 128GB Samsung’s roughly $260. Given daily use is more likely to throw up random I/O with various cache files and other temporary documents, and the benefit of the SandForce controller, we’d opt for the OCZ in preference.

The HDD is able to be so thin thanks to needing only a single platter. That single platter doesn’t mean a small amount of storage though; the new Travelstar Z5K500 HDD has 500GB of storage on that single platter. Hitachi GST claims that the new drive is the thinnest 500GB HDD in the world.

The thin drive has the best cost per gigabyte and gigabyte per cubic millimeter on the market when compared to SSDs and some other HDDs. The drive needs only 1.8W of power in read and write operations and has a 0.55W low power idle and it’s very quiet as well with 2.1 bels of sound output during seek operation. That means the drive is quieter than the ambient noise in most homes making it virtually silent. The drive will ship this month at undisclosed pricing.

Hitachi is also offering a new kit with the 3TB HDD and the other items like screws and instructions needed for installing a new high-capacity HDD inside an existing computer system. The 3TB HDD spins at 7200rpm and it comes with software to allow 32 and 64-bit OS’ to see and use the entire 3TB of storage.

The 3TB kit uses the 6Gb/s SATA port and is shipping this week for $249.99. Hitachi is also shipping a couple new external storage solutions with the Hitachi XL Desktop external drives at $249.99 for 3TB, $169.99 for 2TB, and $99.99 for 1TB.

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.

NewerTech has a new universal adapter the is perfect for me and anyone else with multiple HDDs or SSDs sitting around that they want to access the data on. The new adapter is called the USB 3.0 Universal Drive Adapter. It’s a small and easy to use little box that takes any SATA HDD or SSD and turns the thing into an external USB 3.0 storage drive.

The adapter will work with any size HDD with the standards adapter and will even work with SATA optical drives as well. The thing also has ATA/IDE ribbon cable connectors to let you use any of those old optical drives you might have sitting around. The adapter is available right now for $39.99.

The new dock is sized specifically for users with lots of 2.5″ HDDs and SSDs lying around since it will not fit the larger 3.5″ HDDs or SSDs. That little fact will limit the appeal for many users, but for those only needing to connect smaller storage devices this might be perfect.

The little dock measures in at 85 x 55 x 45mm and is small enough to fit into a backpack or laptop bag according to the maker. It gets all the power needed for operation from the USB port of the host computer. The USB 2.0 model will sell for 9.99 euro, the USB 3.0 model is 24.90 euro, and both come with the needed cables for connectivity.

The HDD delivers 15% better random and 18% faster sequential performance than other products on the market today. Hitachi also claims that the HDD needs 22% less power during operation compared to other products on the market. In addition to the 600GB version of the drive, Hitachi also offers 300GB and 450GB HDDs in the family.

The drive is also the only in its class to use a 64MB cache to optimize the drives read/write response time. The drive needs 5.6W of power during random read/write operations and 3.1w of power in idle mode. Bulk data encryption is also available on the series.