Hasta La Gadget!

Ready for some churchin’ up? Then step on in to the house of Starck. Philippe Starck that is, the prolific designer who’s left his mark on hotel interiors, motorbikes, and toilets across the globe. His latest contribution to the economy of stuff also heralds a return to LaCie (remember his “toaster” series?) with a pair of new hard disk drives: the LaCie Starck Mobile Hard Drive and Desktop Hard Drive. Both drives are conspicuously inscribed with Starck’s name and flare for melding organic shapes within the rigid rules of geometry. Drives that must be pressed to flesh to be fully appreciated for their aesthetic and mass. And while the models we received feature off-the-shelf disks from Samsung and Hitachi, LaCie adds a few functional tricks to enhance that high-design form. Read on to see if the two struck the appropriate balance.

Continue reading LaCie hard drives stand in Starck contrast to the competition (hands-on)

Filed under: Storage

LaCie hard drives stand in Starck contrast to the competition (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know what you’re thinking, why would you ever turn two decent hard disk drives into tinny speakers when it’s much more logical to use them as storage and buying cheap speakers instead… but if you’re the kind of mad scientist who likes to see doohickeys function outside their intended use, or have friends who’d be really impressed or amused, you might want to consider recreating this classy speaker set complete with transparent glass case and the requisite blue lights. All the instructions lie beyond the read link, and if you’re not quite convinced, we think the video after the break is likely to change your opinion for the better.

[Via Hack a Day]

Continue reading Hard drives quit their day job to pursue new life as a speaker system

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Hard drives quit their day job to pursue new life as a speaker system originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Monkey see, monkey do — ain’t that right? Whatever the case, we’re stoked to see one more player in the 2.5-inch 640GB game, with Seagate, Samsung and Toshiba recently introducing versions of their own. Western Digital’s iteration — the Scorpio Blue 640 — sports a luscious standard 9.5mm-height package, which should fit just fine within pretty much any laptop out there. WD also claims that this HDD consumes some 30 percent less power than the previous generation Scorpio Blue, though the 5400RPM spindle speed certainly won’t impress the performance junkies in the crowd. Look for it to slide into your next portable for $149.

[Via HotHardware]

Filed under: Storage

WD ships 2.5-inch 640GB standard 9.5mm-height laptop drive originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Whatever Toshiba can do, Samsung can do… um, equally well? Evidently that’s the game being played over at IFA, as the latter company has issued a 640GB portable hard drive of its own nary 24 hours after Tosh did likewise. The unspeakably cute S2 portable is getting a much-needed capacity bump, making the largest drive in the line 640GB. In related news, the company’s 3.5-inch S3 Station external HDD has seen its maximum storage level creep north to 2TB, though storage freaks will have to wait patiently until “early next year” in order to take one home. Prices for both remain a mystery, but if we had to guess, we’d put the MSRPs about a penny under whatever Toshiba settles on. Call it a hunch.

[Via HotHardware]

Filed under: Storage

Samsung doles out 640GB S2 portable, 2TB S3 Station HDDs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Surely you recall Western Digital’s earlier 2TB effort, the Caviar Green — right? While said drive was just perfect for the casual storage junkie, performance gurus know that it left something to be desired on the speed front. Thankfully, WD is looking out for that crowd too with a new pair of 7200RPM 2TB drives: the Caviar Black (shown left) and RE4 (shown right). Both four-platter drives boast 64MB of cache, a dual stage actuator, 3Gbps SATA interface and an integrated dual processor. The latter also promises 1.2 million hours MTBF, Active Power Save, a multi-axis shock sensor and a few other high-end advancements designed for enterprise users seeking long-term reliability. The pain? Try $299 for the now-available 2TB Caviar Black, while the RE4 awaits an MSRP as it’s “being qualified by OEMs.” Check the full release just past the break.

Continue reading WD ships 7200RPM 2TB desktop hard drives: Caviar Black and RE4

Filed under: Storage

WD ships 7200RPM 2TB desktop hard drives: Caviar Black and RE4 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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