Hasta La Gadget!

Iomega’s already begun its transition to SuperSpeed USB 3.0 hard drives, but it’s making a bit more news on that front today — it’s announced that it plans to keep all its USB 3.0 hard drives at USB 2.0 prices. As expected, that transition begins with its eGo line of portable hard drives, which are officially set to be available this October in 500GB and 1TB capacities, each of which will include Iomega’s Drop Guard Xtreme to guard against drops of up to seven feet. Those will be followed by Iomega’s Prestige line of portable hard drives, which will begin their transition to USB 3.0 sometime in the first quarter of 2011. We should note, however, that plenty of retailers are already selling USB 3.0 eGo drives now, but it seems that it’ll take until early October for the full line to make the jump and receive the aforementioned price-match. Head on past the break for the complete press release.

Continue reading Iomega pushes ahead with USB 3.0 transition, promises to keep drives at USB 2.0 prices

Iomega pushes ahead with USB 3.0 transition, promises to keep drives at USB 2.0 prices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yeah, you thought you were so clever waiting for the 4GB Xbox 360 to come out. A mere $199, while all your sucker friends had already sprung the $299 for the hard drive-equipped model. You thought you could live a happy, fulfilling life swapping thumb drives and carefully cropping your download collection. But you can’t, can you? Night sweats, day sweats, you’ve got it bad. You need a hard drive, and now Microsoft’s got a $130 250 gigger just for your wreck of a self. The drive has started popping up in GameStop stores and on GameStop.com, and while Microsoft still hasn’t actually officially announced the accessory, when has that stopped you before?

Update: Yep, it’s official — Major Nelson just posted up a video saying the drives are headed out to retailers this weekend. Check it after the break.

Continue reading Xbox 360 S 250GB hard drive sneaks into stores, Microsoft cackles as you fall into its trap (update: official)

Xbox 360 S 250GB hard drive sneaks into stores, Microsoft cackles as you fall into its trap (update: official) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seagate and Samsung — not exactly rivals in every facet, but certainly not buddy-buddy in the storage realm. These two have been attempting to one-up each other for as long as platters have been stacked within 3.5-inch HDD enclosures (and before, probably), but they’re putting their differences aside today and announcing a tag-team arrangement meant to jointly develop controller technology for enterprise SSDs. Under the newfangled agreement, the two mega-corps will work hand-in-hand and cross-license related controller technologies for solid state drive devices, with a goal to increase reliability and endurance for use in business environments. Curiously enough, the companies didn’t hand out any press imagery nor any specific details about what future devices would be emerging from the partnership; and yeah, we’re also wondering which logo is going to end up splashed across the packaging. While this may all seem distanced from you and your laptop at the moment, it’s surely just a matter of time before enterprise demands become consumer demands. Right, fellas?

Continue reading Samsung and Seagate to jointly improve SSDs, give each other noogies behind the barn

Samsung and Seagate to jointly improve SSDs, give each other noogies behind the barn originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Western Digital has quietly revealed the Elements Play on their site, which combines pared-down playback features of the WD TV series with up to 2TB of internal storage right out of the box. It’s about time, considering competitor LaCie has offered integrated drives in its LaCinema line for more than a year, though we wish WD would have included the Netflix streaming capabilities of the WD TV Live Plus here — or any streaming at all, for that matter. If an unconnected box with 1080p playback via HDMI and fabulous codec support (including Monkey’s Audio!) is appealing to you though, then this latest offering might be worth your while — especially if it’s priced in line with its “value conscious” featureset, a fact we haven’t been able to verify. To be competitive, it’ll have to cost below LaCie’s LaCinema Classic HD, which throws in UPnP / DLNA server support on top of similar features for as little as $229. If you’re curious, find the user’s manual (including a full codec list) at our more coverage link.

[Thanks, Steve]

WD’s Elements Play media streamers bring internal HDDs at a presumably good price originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 01:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The recently released PS3 firmware 3.41 seemed to just be a minor update that added a new “You May Like” section to the PlayStation Store, but it looks like it’s been causing nothing but headaches for anyone trying to upgrade the hard drive in their console. As a 30-page strong thread on the official PlayStation forums reveals, folks upgrading their hard drive have been getting a “no applicable data” error after trying to install the update, which has left them with a non-working PS3 and, in some cases, a corrupted original drive. According to CVG, the issue may have something to do with a newly discovered feature of the 3.41 update that allows for more incremental patches, which might also explain why the problem only seems to be affecting PS3s where the firmware is stored in on the hard drive instead of the system’s memory. As for Sony, it hasn’t offered an official explanation just yet, but all indications are that it’s a bug and not an intentional blocking of hard drive upgrades — at least we hope it is. Head on past the break for a video of the problem.

Continue reading PS3 firmware 3.41 said to be causing hard drive upgrade problems

PS3 firmware 3.41 said to be causing hard drive upgrade problems originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Jul 2010 05:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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