LAPTOP Magazine: The Pulse of Mobile Technology » Storage

Dane-Elec To Deliver USB 3.0 External HDDs and SSDs on December 11

Jeffrey L. Wilson — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:28:32 +0000

When we were in Las Vegas for CES 2009, we had a chance to sit-in on a demo of the long-awaited USB 3.0. The demo didn’t showcase any products that were soon to enter retail, but it demonstrated what the new high-speed data transfer interface was capable of delivering. Nearly a year later, talk of USB 3.0 has once again surfaced, but in this instance there are real products that are set to blow away what we’ve come to expect in data transfer speeds.

On December 11, Dane-Elec, will deliver its So SuperSpeed line of external USB 3.0 drives to store shelves, which may very well make the company the first to provide users with the next-generation USB interface in a storage device. The line, consisting of both standard platter-based HDDs and SSDs, are capable of true data transfer speeds of 250MBps. The 2.5-inch HDDs will be available in 500GB ($179) and 640GB ($199) capacities, while the SSDs (rebranded Intel M-25 drives) will be available in 80GB ($399) and 160GB ($799) capacities.

“But”, you say, “there aren’t any USB 3.0 notebooks on the market.” Not at the moment, but they’re coming very, very soon. A source told us that we can expect at least one USB 3.0 notebook on the market in December, with more to come in early 2010. Plus, Dane-Elec will also offer USB 3.0 adapters for notebooks with ExpressCard slots, which will allow users with USB 2.0 systems to see a speed boost when using USB 3.0 drives.

The USB 3.0 revolution is almost upon us, folks. Are you excited yet?

Corsair Ups The Storage On Its Rugged Flash Survivor To 64GB

Jeffrey L. Wilson — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:46:37 +0000

When we reviewed Corsair’s 16GB Flash Survivor USB drive, we loved the stick’s ultra-rugged metal build that elevated it to one of the few flash drives that felt as though it could take a battering while jostling about in your notebook bag, or survive a fall from, say, a hotel window without shattering like so many childhood dreams. Well, Corsair has just announced a new version of the tough-as-nails drive, which is designed to withstand drops, shock, and water, but with a much bigger capacity.

Like the other Flash Survivors before it, new model is made of an aircraft-grade aluminum casing that’s fitted with a shock-dampening collar and EPDM seal (which provides water-resistance to a depth of up to 200 meters). But the big news here is capacity; the new Flash Survivor sports a whopping 64GB of storage. That’s enough room to store many folks’ entire music and photo collections.

Each drive also comes bundled with dog tags (hardcore!) , a USB extension cable, and a lengthy 10-year limited warranty. Amazon is currently selling the Flash Survivor for $169 (slashed from $249), which isn’t too shabby for a pocketable drive that can take whatever you toss its way.

1 Terabyte of Storage in the Palm of Your Hand

K. T. Bradford — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:03:45 +0000

Yesterday at the GDGT NY launch event we stopped by the SanDisk table to check out some of their new products. The new Sansa Clip+ player caught our eye but the star of the table was this little box of the SanDisk Micro M2 memory cards. There are 64 in all, which adds up to 1TB worth of memory, all in the palm of our hand.

Almost 60 years ago the first commercial computer (UNIVAC) was delivered to the United States Census Bureau. It weighed 13 metric tons, used 5,200 vacuum tubes, and measured 25 x 50 feet. The storage capacity was 1,000 words or 12,000 characters.

Today a terabyte of storage weighs just a few grams and fits in a box with the same internal volume as my lipstick holder. In another 60 years, my grandchildren will wear 100-petabyte flash drives as noserings, just you watch.

NAS Made Simple: Seagate Partners With Cloud Engines To Create Pogoplug-Powered FreeAgent DockStar

Jeffrey L. Wilson — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:00:37 +0000

We’re digging Cloud Engines’ Pogoplug. When we reviewed it earlier this year, we deemed it worthy of a LAPTOP’s Editors’ Choice Award due to how it brought simplicity to the idea of network attached storage. Apparently, we weren’t the only company impressed by the device. Today, Seagate announced a partnership with Cloud Engines that will see the slick Pogoplug technology power the new FreeAgent DockStar network adapter.

The FreeAgent Dockstar allows users to attach their FreeAgent portable hard drives, so that they can access files from any Web-connected computer or the free Pogoplug iPhone app. Users will be able to post linked photos and video to Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, and even create custom RSS feeds for sharing content. Three USB ports are available for attaching even more drives.

The Seagate FreeAgent DockStar is available now for $99.99. It comes with a year of Pogoplug service, and the option to continue using the service afterward for $29.99 per year.

SanDisk Breaks Out The Speed With New 90/MBps Extreme Pro CompactFlash Cards

Jeffrey L. Wilson — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 06:45:29 +0000

Are you a professional-level photographer in need of a swift and highly durable memory card? This morning’s SanDisk announcement may be just the item for you. The storage giant has released a new line of SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash cards designed to deliver breakthrough performance and worry-free reliability.

Featuring a new SanDisk Power Core Controller, the new Extreme Pro cards (in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB capacities) are rated to deliver killer read and write speeds of up to 90 MBps, doubling the performance of previous SanDisk CompactFlash cards. Although the cards are designed to work with any camera or reader that supports CompactFlash, SanDisk has launched the $49.99 Extreme Pro Expresscard Adapter to take advantage of the new speed. In addition, the cards are guaranteed to operate in extreme temperatures ranging from -13 degrees Fahrenheit to 185 degrees Fahrenheit, and survive falls up to 9 feet.

The SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash cards are available now, with prices ranging from $300 to $800. Exact pricing wil be set by retailers.

WD Scorpio Blue: 640GB of Capacity In A 2.5-Inch Drive

Jeffrey L. Wilson — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:08:58 +0000

Is 160GB of notebook storage too small for all of your photos, music, and HD video? How about 320GB? Still too small? If big capacity is a requirement, today’s Western Digital news of a 640GB hard drive may be just what’s needed to cure the small storage blues.

The WD Scorpio Blue 640GB hard drive is a 2.5-inch long, 9.5mm high notebook HDD (using twin 320GB platters) that Western Digital claims is the biggest capacity in that form factor. It features three technologies designed to improve the notebook experience: IntelliSeek (which calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise, and vibration), ShockGuard (shock resistance), and WhisperDrive (state of the art algorithms that produce a quiet drive). The HDD also consumes 30 percent less power than previous Scorpio Blue drives.

Storage-starved tech heads will be happy to know that the WD Scorption Blue 640GB HDD is now shipping, and carries a $149 MSRP.

Samsung Showcases Two High-Capacity External Hard Drives at IFA 2009

Jeffrey L. Wilson — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:31:47 +0000

This morning at the IFA trade show in Berlin, Samsung announced two new editions to its S Series of external hard drives: The 3.5-inch, 2TB S3 Station, and the 2.5-inch, 640GB S2.

The S3 Station comes with a glossy piano-black finish and a space-saving footprint to conserve desk space. With the S2, Samsung eliminated the additional circuit board on the hard drive when implementing the USB interface, thus giving it a footprint that’s 17 percent smaller than your typical 2.5-inch external drive.

Smaller drives with bigger capacity? Sounds like a pair of winners to me. If you’re interested in picking up one of these HDDs, the S2 will be available in September for $199, while the S3 Station will arrive next year at an undetermined price.

Vertabim InSight Portable Hard Drive Gives You Information At A Glance

Jeffrey L. Wilson — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:59:04 +0000

Portable hard drives aren’t the most sexy category of mobile technology, despite being one of the most essential. Typical news involves larger capacities and a new selection of colors, but Verbatim looks to add some fresh flair to with the InSight Portable Hard Drive.

Featuring a 128 x 32-pixel “Always On” display, the palm-sized Insight Portable Hard Drive automatically calculates and continuously showcases the name of the drive (which you can customize), the amount of available space, and when the drive is disconnected from a Mac or PC. Nero BackItUp Essentials is bundled with the drive for automatically backing up precious data, and the drive spins at 5,400-rpm.

The Insight Portable Hard Drive also features a piano black finish designed to bring a premium aesthetic to the process of backing up. If this gets you all tingly, you’ll be happy to know that the drive is shipping now in 320GB ($119) and 500GB ($149) capacities.

Western Digital Announces Pocket-Sized 1TB Drives

Jeffrey L. Wilson — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:11:19 +0000

Frustrated that your notebook’s storage capacity is dwindling away as you add more photos, music, and video to the disk? You may not know that feeling for a long, long time, thanks to Western Digital’s announcement of the world’s first 2.5-inch 1 Terabyte hard drive.

Designed for notebooks and portable external drives such as the Western Digital My Passport Essential SE (pictured right), the 1TB WD Scorpio Blue can store lots of content. LOTS. The approximate breakdown for Western Digital’s site:

200,000 photos
250,ooo MP3s
25,000 uncompressed CD-quality tracks
380 hours of DVD-quality video
120 hours of HD video

Western Digital’s given the 1TB WD Scorpion Blue more than huge capacity; it features the company’s own WhisperDrive technology that uses advanced seek algorithms to let the drive run quietly, ShockGuard shock tolerance, and SecurePark, which reduces wear by parking the drive’s recording heads off of the surface of the disk when the disk spins up, spins down, or is turned off.

So how much will this cost if you choose to buy it as an external drive? The Western Digital My Passport Essential SE retails for $299. A 750GB version of the drive is available for $189.

Intel Ups the Ante with new 34nm SSDs

Avram Piltch — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:45:49 +0000

Today, Intel announced an update to its popular line of X25-M and X18-M (the 1.8-inch version) SSDs. The new versions of the drives will feature 34-nanometer chips that allow the company to significantly lower prices while promising significant performance improvements such as a 25-percent reduction in latency and a “two-fold” increase in random write performance.

The new drives will priced at $225 for quantities of up to 1,000 units for the 80GB version and $440 for the 160GB version. How these lower wholesale prices will translate into the cost of getting a notebook with the X25-M preinstalled or purchasing one on the aftermarket is still open to interpretation. Right now, you can get a first-generation Intel X25-M for $314 at Newegg.

Last fall, Intel broke into the SSD market in a huge way, releasing its groundbreaking X25-M SSD, the first mainstream drive to get blazing fast speeds from MLC NAND flash memory. Before that time, there were two types of SSD: extremely expensive drives that used pricey SLC NAND flash and ran as high as $1,000 for 64GB and cheap drives like the original OCZ Core Series that used less expensive MLC memory, but had weak performance. The X25-M upped the ante, proving that with the right controller and firmware, an MLC-based drive could offer blazing fast reads and writes.

Since the original X25-M hit the market, other companies have stepped up their game and MLC-based drives have become the standard for notebooks and desktops. In fact, in many respects, the original X25-M had fallen behind the competion, both in terms of performance and price. Drives from the likes of Samsung and OCZ offered similar read speeds, greater capacities, and much faster writes than the X25-M. We can’t wait to get our hands on the new X25-M to see how it fares against the competition.