Hasta La Gadget!

If you’ll recall, Hitachi GST snapped up Fabrik in February, and with that acquisition came the latter company’s highly-regarded SimpleTech line. Today, Hitachi is introducing its first consumer products since the pickup, and while you’ll notice a hint of ‘Simple’ in the titles, the branding is all Hitachi. First up is the water-resistant and shock-proof SimpleTOUGH portable USB drive (250/320/500GB for $99.99/$119.99/$149.99), which can survive a 3-meter fall and boasts a twistable USB cable that’s permanently affixed to the enclosure.

Next, there’s the SimpleDRIVE Mini, which is a stylish, colorful portable HDD that is now shipping in red wine (250GB; $89.99), blue dusk (320GB; $109.99) and carbon fiber black (500GB; $139.99). Finally, there’s Hitachi’s alternative to the Pogoplug: the SimpleNET USB/NAS adapter. Put simply, this $79 device enables up to two USB HDDs to be placed on a network, though Hitachi makes clear that this is a convenience device, not a performance device. The 10/100 Ethernet jack is evidence of that, but hey, if you need a quick-and-dirty way to get your hard drive (regardless of format, by the way) on the web, this will certainly do it. Full release is after the break.

Continue reading Hitachi intros two new portable HDDs, SimpleNET NAS adapter

Filed under: Storage

Hitachi intros two new portable HDDs, SimpleNET NAS adapter originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Jul 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Somehow or another, D-Link managed to combine a NAS, digital photo frame, secondary display and 802.11n router into a single device, and when the Xtreme N DIR-685 Storage Router was announced way back at CES this year, we were certainly interested to see how such a conglomerate would go over. At long last, the do-it-all wireless router is finally making its way out to the public at large, and with an MSRP of $299.99 (sans any internal HDD space), it’s definitely one of the pricier routers out there. We’ve taken this strikingly unique device into our lairs for a few days of testing, and if you’re interested in seeing if this bad boy is worth the price of admission, you’ll need to follow us past the break.

Gallery: D-Link’s Xtreme N DIR-685 storage router hands-on

Continue reading D-Link’s Xtreme N DIR-685 storage router hands-on and impressions

Filed under: Displays, Storage, Networking

D-Link’s Xtreme N DIR-685 storage router hands-on and impressions originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Western Digital has already dialed things up to 4TB with its My Book Studio Edition II hard drive, and it’s now done the same with its new My Book World Edition II dual-drive storage system. One of the big advantages with this one is that the dual drives are shipped in a mirrored RAID 1 configuration for an extra level of protection, although you can of course reconfigure ’em yourself if you’d prefer twice the space instead. Otherwise, you can expect all the usual NAS-related features, a “cooler, quieter, eco-friendly design,” a USB port to add on an extra USB drive, and a nifty capacity gauge to let you see how much space is available at a glance. Expectedly, the top-end 4TB demands a rather hefty $700, but you can also pick up a 2TB drive for a more reasonable $400 if you have less demanding needs.

Filed under: Storage, Networking

Western Digital rolls out new dual-drive My Book World Edition II originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been ages (okay, months) since we first got our hands on the QNAP NMP1000 network media player, and it’s a good long while past its supposed shipping date. But, shipping it is (finally), now hitting Japanese stores according to Akihabara News. Initially we were only told that the thing would cost “somewhere under $10,000,” and we’re glad to say it’s way under: ¥45,000, or about $470. For that you get an HDMI 1.3-toting HD media streamer, which sports room for a 3.5-inch HDD, a gigabit Ethernet port, and the ability to not only stream media but also to act as a NAS, meaning this one didn’t fall far from the ‘ol family tree. Still no word on a US release, but hopefully that’ll be well under $10,000 as well. Soothing demonstration video to tide you over after the break.

Continue reading QNAP’s NMP1000 network media player starts streaming to Japan

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Storage

QNAP’s NMP1000 network media player starts streaming to Japan originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Gadget: HP’s LX195, their stripped-to-the-core (but Apple Time Machine capable) implementation of the Windows Home Server, which comes with a 640GB internal drive, but can only be expanded via the four USB ports in the back.

The Price: $390

The Verdict: Quite good. If you weren’t quite sure Windows Home Server was right for you, and you have a family with both Mac and PC machines, the LX195 is an easy way to experiment without paying the $600ish dowry to hitch yourself to a full-blown EX machine.

The Catch: Like the EX HP Home Servers, you can retrieve individual files off the Time Machine backup, but you can’t use it to restore your machine at boot time. Which means if you don’t have a spare Mac in the house to grab the files off the server and load it onto a USB drive from which you can do a restore, you’ll have a more roundabout recovery process than you’d like.

The Point: The LX195 works just fine as a Home Server and a Time Machine target backup drive (its Gigabit Ethernet makes file transfers rather speedy), but lacks the extras the company just introduced to the EX485 and EX487 that allow users to stream and convert video to iPhones and PSPs. If all you want is the base functionality, this is definitely a fine choice. But at the same time, you have to look at Acer’s $400 solution that does have four expandable drive bays. But Acer’s might not have the iTunes server and media capabilities that HP does. [HP]

Relatively cheap, but maintains most of HP’s Home Server functionality

Doesn’t have the newer EX updates

No internal-expandable storage, only USB