Feb 03

The best of the Greener Gadgets Design Competition, so far

Posted in: HardDrive, Today's Chili
The Greener Gadgets Conference is coming up in a few weeks here, so we thought we’d bring you some highlights of the design competition it’s sponsoring. First up, Recompute is a fully sustainable design for a desktop computer — meaning that it makes use of low-impact manufacturing, uses fully recycled materials, and is easily dismantled at the end of its life for… you guessed it: more recycling. We don’t have full specs on this puppy right now, but we know it’s got 8 USB ports, and that we’re getting one if it ever makes it to production. Also in the running is the RITI eco-friendly printer, which uses coffee and / or tea dregs in place of costly, old, boring and non-eco-friendly ink. The printer is also manually operated, and does not use electricity — which may not make it the speediest device in the world — but we don’t print that much, anyway. Next up, there’s Harddrive — which is a simple USB flash drive encased in concrete to stave off harmful leaching into landfills once disposed of — though the concrete obviously makes the drive a bit nastier to haul around town. Finally, the Inlet Outlet is a whole-home concept that combines a standard outlet — which eats up the juice — with an inlet right next to it, which returns some electricity to the grid. The design is for adapter kits which could easily be used to green up your home. Votes are being tabulated online for the Greener Gadgets Competition, whose winners will be announced on February 27, 2009, at the Greener Gadgets Conference in New York. Check the gallery for more photos of the submissions.

[Via Inhabitat]

Gallery: Greener Gadgets Design

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The best of the Greener Gadgets Design Competition, so far originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 03

Seagate’s 2TB Constellation ES is rife with potential space puns

Posted in: hard drive, HardDrive, storage, Today's Chili

It’s been a long time coming, but Seagate’s finally unveiled its first 2TB hard drive, the 3.5-inch Constellation ES. The hefty spinner also comes in 500GB and 1TB varieties and runs at 7,200RPM, which should make it a bit faster than Western Digital’s behemoth, according to reviews for the latter. It’ll be out calendar Q3, which we take to be fancy schmancy business talk for “this Summer.” Meanwhile, the 2.5-inch ES-less Constellation line sports 3 Gbps SATA and SAS 2.0 interface. Look for this one in 160GB and 500GB sizes sometime this quarter, with Dell said to be one the first companies to offer the drives. Check out one more out-of-this-world promotional image after the break.

Continue reading Seagate’s 2TB Constellation ES is rife with potential space puns

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Seagate’s 2TB Constellation ES is rife with potential space puns originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jan 30

Western Digital 2TB Caviar Green review roundup

Posted in: hard drive, HardDrive, memory, review, roundup, storage, Today's Chili

Now that the proverbial cat is out of the bag on Western Digital’s 2TB Caviar Green HDD, hardware fanatics have had a chance to take the 3.5-inch drive for a spin. While its performance leaves something to be desired — transferring files took longer than the 1TB Caviar Black or 1.5TB Seagate Barracuda — instead we’ve got low heat and noise. Of course, the biggest boon is a ginormous storage capacity for just three Benjamins, the same price as some 128GB SSDs. Solid state be damned, rotating disks aren’t going away anytime soon.

Read – Register Hardware
Read – Trusted Reviews
Read – Extreme Tech

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Western Digital 2TB Caviar Green review roundup originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jan 27

Western Digital’s 2TB Caviar Green hard drive launches, gets previewed

Posted in: green, hard drive, HardDrive, official, on sale, OnSale, storage, Today's Chili

There’s no veil of secrecy covering this one, but Western Digital has finally come clean with the industry’s first 2TB internal hard drive. Launched today in the USA, the planet’s highest capacity single HDD — otherwise known as the 2TB Caviar Green ($299; available now) — sits on a 3.5-inch platform, includes 32MB of cache and is based around WD’s 500GB per platter technology (with 400Gb/in2 areal density). HotHardware was able to take a sneak peek at this here device (a pre-engineering sample, as it were), and was gracious enough to host up some juicy benchmark results for those eager to see how this capacious beast performed. Against the formidable Spinpoint F1 (Samsung) and Barracuda 7200.11 (Seagate), the WD managed to hold its own, which is saying a lot for a drive of this magnitude. Check the full release after the break.

Continue reading Western Digital’s 2TB Caviar Green hard drive launches, gets previewed

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Western Digital’s 2TB Caviar Green hard drive launches, gets previewed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jan 26

Western Digital’s 2TB Caviar Green HDD on sale in Australia

Posted in: green, hard drive, HardDrive, on sale, OnSale, storage, Today's Chili

Just as we’d heard, Western Digital is indeed producing (and shipping) a standalone 2TB internal hard drive. Available now for purchase from Mwave Australia, the 3.5-inch WD20EADS sports a 7,200RPM spin speed, 32MB of cache and a AU$377.80 price tag, which converts to just under $250 in greenbacks. We get the feeling that this drive is just hours away from launching here in the US of A (we’re guessing the time zones are to blame), so we’ll be keeping a close eye out for early reports on performance.

[Thanks, Danny]

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Western Digital’s 2TB Caviar Green HDD on sale in Australia originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jan 22

Apricorn introduces 1.5TB DVR Xpander, succeeds at making it ugly

Posted in: external hard drive, ExternalHardDrive, hard drive, HardDrive, Today's Chili

Apricorn’s DVR Xpanders have never been the prettiest bunch, but we would’ve thought a redesign was in order with the introduction of the 1.5TB model. Sadly, our hopes and dreams of a DVR attachment from the outfit that isn’t completely heinous have been decidedly crushed, as the latest edition is just as unsightly as prior models. Of course, it can hold up to 187.5 hours of HD content or 843 hours of SD material, not to mention its ability to connect via USB 2.0 or eSATA. So yeah, if all that matters to you is functionality (and not missing a single drama while out on that month-long vacation), we’d say the $239 asking price is totally reasonable.

[Via PCLaunches, thanks Vinit]

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Apricorn introduces 1.5TB DVR Xpander, succeeds at making it ugly originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jan 17

Dell adds 256GB SSD option to XPS M1330 and M1730 laptops

Posted in: hard drive, HardDrive, SSD, Today's Chili

Oh, how the times change! In August of last year we were talking up a 128GB SSD drive for Dell’s XPS laptops like it was some kind of hotness — and only $450! Now that same drive is a mere $200 upgrade, while a new 256GB SSD has been introduced to Dell’s XPS M1330 and M1730 laptops for “only” $400. Sure, six months from now we’re gonna be chatting up a slightly cheaper 512GB SSD and laughing at our January selves, but we just can’t help ourselves and this pesky linear of progression of time we’re so beholden to. Dell’s also now offering a 7200RPM 500GB HDD as well, and plans to introduce both of these upgrades to additional laptops in the next few weeks.

Read – Dell XPS M1330
Read – Dell XPS M1730

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Dell adds 256GB SSD option to XPS M1330 and M1730 laptops originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jan 15

Laser Hard Drive boasts 1Tbits/s access time, doesn’t exist yet

Posted in: hard drive, HardDrive, laser, Today's Chili

Whenever we uncover promising new research into lasers, we can generally be sure that it will sound really awesome, and that it will be a long time before it trickles down to the consumer electronics scene (if ever). That said, research into light powered computing has shown considerable promise — with some folks estimating that commercial laser-drive hybrids (with picosecond pulse lasers doing the work that magnetic read/write heads once did — something considered impossible until very recently) will be available in five years time. Although the first drives will only achieve a humble 1 TBits/s, in the future we might see femtosecond-based laser drives reaching speeds beyond 100TBits/s. And you know what they say… that’s a lot of terabits.

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Laser Hard Drive boasts 1Tbits/s access time, doesn’t exist yet originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jan 14

Toshiba said to be nearing deal to buy Fujitsu’s hard drive business

Posted in: hard drive, HardDrive, merger, Today's Chili, Toshiba

Hitachi may be out of the picture (if it was ever actually in the picture to begin with), but it looks like Toshiba is now very close to buying Fujitsu’s hard drive business in a deal that’s reported to be worth between 30 and 40 billion yen, or anywhere from $335 to $447 million. That would make Toshiba the world’s largest supplier of hard drives for laptops and, according to Reuters, it could be all but a done deal by the end of the month, if a supposed meeting between company execs planned for this week goes as expected. The deal wouldn’t include Fujitsu’s plant in Nagano Prefecture, however, or the hard drive operations of its Yamagata Fujitsu subsidiary — those would apparently be sold off separately for some extra cash if Fujitsu decides to exit the hard drive business altogether.

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Toshiba said to be nearing deal to buy Fujitsu’s hard drive business originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jan 13

Western Digital about to ship 2TB Caviar Green hard drive?

Posted in: hard drive, HardDrive, storage, Today's Chili

Western Digital has known that Seagate was toiling away in hopes of being the first to market with a standalone 2TB hard drive, and evidently it has chosen to work its engineers that much harder. In a presumed effort to beat Hitachi (and everyone else) to the 2TB barrier, WD is reportedly aiming to launch its Caviar Green 2000GB WD20EADS later this week, and with it will come 32MB of cache, an 8.9-millisecond seek time and an expected price tag of around €170 ($224). Best of all? It should be “available immediately” just as soon as it’s outed for real.

[Via Electronista]

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Western Digital about to ship 2TB Caviar Green hard drive? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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