Hasta La Gadget!

ASK Inc. Japan will also launch the mSATA variant of Crucial’s M500 SSDs. Available in three different storage capacities: 120GB, 240GB and 480GB, these ultra-compact SSDs are equipped with 20nm MLC NAND Flash memory chips, a SATA 6.0 Gbps interface, a Marvell 88SS9187 controller, a MTBF of 1.2 million hours and provide read/write speeds of up to 500/130 MB/s (120GB Model), 500/250 MB/s (240GB Model) and 500/400 MB/s (480GB Model), respectively. Prices unannounced yet. [Product Page]

ASK Inc. Japan has just added a new line of SSDs from Crucial to its product page, the M500. Coming in 120GB, 240GB, 480GB and 960GB sizes, these slim 2.5-inch SSDs (7mm thick) are equipped with 20nm MLC NAND Flash memory chips, a SATA 6.0 Gbps interface, a Marvell 88SS9187 controller, a MTBF of 1.2 million hours and can deliver read/write speeds of up to 500/130 MB/s (120GB Model), 500/250 MB/s (240GB Model) and 500/400 MB/s (480GB & 960GB Models), respectively. Prices unannounced yet. [Product Page]

It’s better to be safe than be sorry when it comes to choosing a password. The problem isn’t whether you can come up with a challenging enough password, though. Rather, it’s whether or not you’ll be able to remember it, given you probably already have a number of other accounts and passwords to remember, and the more complex the password becomes, the more difficult it becomes to recall. But now you don’t have to do it alone, because myIDkey can help you.

myIDkey is a handy device that stores all your passwords and other sensitive account information, so you can access it whenever you need to. The cool thing is that it’s fitted with a biometric scanner, so the info can only be accessed after you press your thumb (or any other finger of your choice, actually) onto the scanner, preventing others from accessing your sensitive information – unless they manage to get their hands on your hands, that is. All of your data is encrypted with military grade AES256 encryption, and offers fail-safe automatic deletion after multiple failed attempts to access the data. Accessing your passwords is as easy as placing your finger on the sensor and speaking the password you need access to. It’s really quite brilliant.

The pocket-sized gadget doubles as a flash drive so you can use it to store and secure your files as well. myIDkey is currently up for funding on Kickstarter, where a minimum pledge of $99(USD) will get you a myIDkey of your very own. As it stands, the device will ship with 8GB of storage, but if the Kickstarter project exceeds its next stretch goal of $400,000, all of them will ship with 16GB.

Earlier this week we mentioned that Seagate had announced it would be discontinuing its entire 7200 RPM laptop hard drive family. At the time, it may have seemed that Seagate was getting out of the high-end market when it comes to notebooks and other mobile devices. However, Seagate has now announced that it is ready to launch its third-generation laptop SSHDs.

A SSHD is a solid-state hybrid drive that combines the speed of an SSD with the storage capacity of a hard drive. Seagate says that these SSHDs are up to five times faster than a standard 5400 RPM notebook hard drives. The drives are able to boot a laptop in under 10 seconds.

Seagate offers laptop versions of the SSHD with up to 1 TB of storage capacity and a 500 GB version that is only 7 mm high called the Laptop Thin SSHD. That drive is appropriate for the most ultra thin and sleek laptops available. Seagate is also rolling out a Desktop SSHD with up to 2 TB of storage combined with 8 GB of NAND Flash.

The Desktop SSHD allows a desktop computer to boot up in seconds and run the user’s favorite applications much faster than a traditional hard drive. Seagate claims that the Desktop SSHD will perform up to four times faster than a typical hard drive based storage device. These drives overcome the problem of high cost for a pure SSD and low capacity compared to a traditional hard drive. Seagate offers no indication of when products using these new SSHDs will hit the market.

[via Seagate]

Seagate to begin shipping third-generation SSHD storage products is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Transcend hits back with a new line of mSATA SSDs, the MSA740. Coming in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB sizes, these ultra-compact SSDs are equipped with MLC NAND Flash memory chips, a SATA 6.0 Gbps interface, Intel Smart Response Technology (ISRT) support, TRIM & NCQ support and can deliver read and write speeds of up to 520MB/s and 270MB/s, respectively. The 32GB, 64GB and 128GB models will be available from late March for around $64, $107 and $169, respectively. [Transcend]