Hasta La Gadget!

During CES earlier this month, we got our hands on LaCie’s Blade Runner storage device, which features a unique design by Philippe Starck. The device is now available for $299.99, includes 10GB of cloud storage, and is only being offered in a limited run of 9,999, at which point you’ll be out of luck. Check out the specs and more pictures after the jump.

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]

LaCie launches Blade Runner by Philippe Starck, offers 4TB of storage is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Seagate certainly isn’t new to the wireless external hard drive business — they released the Satellite drive a couple months ago, and they’re back here at CES 2013 to show off the successor to the Satellite, the Wireless Plus. We ended up getting our hands on the new storage solution to see what this new edition offers.

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.

Seagate Wireless Plus WiFi hard drive hands-on is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Like many of you out there, I can’t wait until Star Trek: Into Darkness hits theaters next Summer. In the mean time, I have to be satisfied with other forms of Trekkism to keep my mind occupied – like this clever Starship Enterprise model, made from a defunct hard drive.

Actually, it was made from an old hard drive, bits of a dead mother board, and a laptop keyboard by geeky crafter Daniel Shankalonian. The drive platters make the perfect primary hull and bridge of the trusty old NCC-1701, while I don’t quite recognize what parts make up the warp nacelles and engineering section of the ship. The model also comes with a matching stand, made from a hard drive case and some busted headphone parts. Fascinating, Jim.

This isn’t the only U.S.S. Enterprise model that Daniel has built. This one is actually “version 2.1,” and he’s also got recycled part models of the U.S.S. Kelvin and Klingon Bird of Prey up for sale at the moment. There’s also an awesome X-Wing Fighter if you’re more into Wars than Trek. You can check out all of his nifty models over on Daniel’s Etsy shop.

It’s time for the LaCie d2 external hard drive to be re-released, this time with a boost that should, by all means, make it into a brand new device altogether. What we’re looking at here is what’s now called the LaCie d2 USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series and it’s ready for universal connectivity like no other. This machine works with the fabulous speeds of USB 3.0 for a large cross-section of brand new machines and hits speeds to the max with no less than Thunderbolt connectivity for speeds up to two times that of FireWire 800.

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.

LaCie d2 external HD rebooted with USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Western Digital has given its Black line of internal hard drives an upwards bump with the introduction of a 4TB drive. This gives WD customers access to a performance-based 4TB drive, whereas previous offerings have been aimed at enterprise customers. The drive is available now, and is priced at $339, which includes a 5-year warranty.

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]

Western Digital Black line gets 4TB drive is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.