Hasta La Gadget!

CES is just kicking off in earnest tonight in Vegas, and Seagate’s wasting no time in dishing out a smattering of new releases. Up first is the outfit’s slimmest external drive yet: the new, ultrathin GoFlex HDD, which holds a 2.5-inch drive within, but measures just 9mm thick — that’s 38 percent slimmer than the existing GoFlex drive. At least initially, it’ll only be offered in a 320GB model, and the USB 3.0 port ensures that it’ll run laps around your older USB 2.0 model. Mum’s the word on pricing, but you can expect it to ship out this spring. Moving on, there’s a new raft of GoFlex for Mac external drives, which arrive HFS+ formatted and ready to play nice with Time Machine. Each one ships with FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 adapters, but allow for USB 3.0 or eSATA to be used with Windows PCs. The GoFlex for Mac houses a 2.5-inch HDD and will sell for $199.99 (1TB) / $249.99 (1.5TB), while the limited edition of that very product will only be available in a 1TB ($199.99) version. There’s also a GoFlex Pro for Mac, housing a 7200RPM 2.5-inch HDD and costing $149.99 (500GB) or $179.99 (750GB). Wrapping up this collection, there’s a GoFlex for Mac drive that’ll go for $219.99 (2TB) or $279.99 (2TB).

Lastly, and potentially more importantly, Seagate is finally opening up the GoFlex standard that it has been pushing so vigorously of late. As of now, the only products that support the GoFlex platform — which allows various connectors to be attached to your existing HDDs — are Seagate-branded. But today, Seagate’s revealing a Certified GoFlex Storage System that’ll enable third-party vendors to make wares that are also welcome in the family. Here at CES, the company is planning to showcase a line of prototype concept devices, and while we’ve yet to see what exactly those are, we are told that the certification also endorses the soon to be established SATA-IO Universal Storage Module (USM) specification. Better still, a number of other companies (Antec, GIEC, Hi-Sense, Ionics and Thermaltake) are planning to showcase GoFlex-approved gear here at the show, including a TV, a laptop, desktop PC, “plug computer,” DVR and docking station. Needless to say, the possibilities here are near-endless, and we’re definitely looking forward to see just how many odd places a GoFlex adapter ends up.

Update: We just got a look at what the SATA-IO USM modules slots might look built into the likes of a ThermalTake case — spot them immediately below!

Continue reading Seagate reveals 9mm 2.5-inch GoFlex external HDD, third-party GoFlex certification process

Seagate reveals 9mm 2.5-inch GoFlex external HDD, third-party GoFlex certification process originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not the first time that Samsung’s pimped up their hard drives with some USB 3.0 goodness, but come April, the Korean giant will be delivering three new product lines that are yet to be named. The first one is a basic portable model that goes up to 1TB, and comes encased in a smudge-resistant matte housing with a choice of four colors. The next one up is simply a premium version of the portable drive that not only looks prettier (as pictured above), but also beefed up with auto backup software and 256-bit Full Disk Encryption. A USB dock will be available for both portable lines.

Last but not least, those looking for more storage space (and presumably faster spinning speeds) can turn to the desktop version, which will be available in three flavors: 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB. Press release after the break.

Continue reading Samsung spices up the USB 3.0 hard drive party with three new models

Samsung spices up the USB 3.0 hard drive party with three new models originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 18:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One-touch backup? Pssh. That’s so 2010. Lexar is revealing its second CES introduction this morning with the uncovering of its Echo MX and ZX high-speed backup devices. Both units provide ‘no-touch backup’ along with 128-bit AES encryption, with the MX offering an always-on capacity meter, built-in Echo backup software and speeds of up to 28MB/s (read) and 10MB/s (write). It’ll play nice with both Mac and PC platforms and will ship later this quarter in capacities of 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB (priced from $44.99 to $499.99). Taking things down a notch (from a volumetric perspective, anyway), the ZX USB nub is designed to remain plugged into your system at all times, continually backing things up in the event of an all-too-sudden disaster. This guy should ship prior to the summertime in capacities of 8GB, 16GB and 32GB, with prices ranging from $44.99 to $139.99. The full release is after the break.

Continue reading Lexar reveals Echo MX and ZX USB ‘no-touch’ backup drives

Lexar reveals Echo MX and ZX USB ‘no-touch’ backup drives originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 09:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Man, it feels like yesterday that we first heard of SDXC and its mythical promise of providing 2TB of storage along with 300MBps transfers. Truth be told, that was at CES two years ago, and here we are 24 months later oohing and ahhing over 128GB. Ah, the pains of (sluggish) progress. Griping aside, we’re fairly sure that professional video junkies will be more than elated to hear of Lexar Media’s two newest cards. The 64GB and 128GB Class 10 SDXC cards “offer minimum guaranteed speeds of 133x (20MB per second),” and ship with a limited lifetime warranty. If all goes well, they’ll be splashing down into retailers later this quarter, with price tags set for $399.99 (64GB) and $699.99 (128GB). Just to put that into perspective, SanDisk shipped a Class 4 (15MB/sec) 64GB SDXC card right around this time last year for $350, and it’s now going for half of that on the street. Yeah, ouch.

Continue reading Lexar Media reveals 64GB and 128GB Class 10 SDXC cards

Lexar Media reveals 64GB and 128GB Class 10 SDXC cards originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 10:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you can’t tell your DRAM from your STT-MRAM, you’ll need to bear with us for a sec: IBM’s figured out the math required to read and write data from the spaces between magnetic fields, racing across a nanowire, at hundreds of miles per hour. IBM’s been plugging away at the so-called racetrack memory since 2004, calling it the perfect hybrid of magnetic storage and flash, but until recently scientists didn’t know whether the magnetic domain walls (where data will live) had any mass to speak of. As it turns out, they do, and thus have to obey the tiresome laws of physics as they move along the nanowire “track,” but also accelerate and decelerate the exact same amount, more or less canceling out the effect. Long story short, IBM can use this knowledge to precisely position those 1s and 0s in their newfound data bank, and someday we’ll all reap the benefits of dense, speedy and reliable memory. You know, assuming PRAM, FeRAM, ReRAM and memristors don’t eat IBM’s lunch. PR after the break.

Continue reading IBM makes racetrack memory breakthrough, which could come in handy someday

IBM makes racetrack memory breakthrough, which could come in handy someday originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 11:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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