Hasta La Gadget!

Your next external hard drive and NAS device can be completely wireless – except for power, of course. The LaCie Wireless Space is designed to look good, back up your data, and even be the heart of your home network if you need it to be; it comes in 1TB and 2TB models and features an 802.11 b/g/n router built-in as well as three gigabit Ethernet ports for high-speed data transfer. The Wireless Space can also act as a NAS, media server, or network extender once it’s configured, and has a pair of USB 2.0 ports that can be connected to printers for wireless printing or additional external drives to create a pool of storage. The Wireless Space will be available in October if you’re interested, with the 1TB model shipping for $229 and the 2TB model for $399 retail price. 

Talk about taking your sweet time. LaCie actually announced that it would be shipping a USB 3.0 version of its 2big USB 3.0 RAID monster in December of last year, but as you well know, the adoption of SuperSpeed has been less than blisteringly fast. At long last, the storage mainstay has decided to start shipping the aforementioned device, available with a pair of 7200rpm HDDs (up to 4TB total) and a promised maximum transfer rate of 205MB/sec. In case that’s too heavy for your soul, the now-available d2 USB 3.0 might be the perfect alternative. The design won’t be unfamiliar to LaCie loyalists, but the single-drive unit is making its way out in 1TB ($149.99) and 2TB ($249.99) sizes with a maximum transfer rate of 130MB/sec. So, you in? Or do you still think eSATA may swoop in and destroy USB 3.0, Blu-ray style?

Continue reading LaCie ships 2big USB 3.0 RAID drive and d2 USB 3.0 external HDD

LaCie ships 2big USB 3.0 RAID drive and d2 USB 3.0 external HDD originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 09:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This ugly monster is either the most ridiculously niche iPad accessory yet, or it’s a photographer’s best friend. Actually, it could be both. The HyperDrive iPad Hard Drive is an external USB storage box for your tablet, holding up to 750GB of movies and photos and serving them up to the iPad via the Camera Connection Kit.

The iPad is a wonderful device for viewing photos and movies. I have the Camera Connection Kit and its a great way to check, edit and send photos when on a trip away. The problem is that even a 64GB iPad will fill up pretty quick, especially if you’re shooting a lot of RAW files.

The iPad can in fact read files from any USB drive that is formatted the right way. It needs to use the FAT 32 file system (the same as all camera memory cards use) and files need to be in a folder called DCIM. The problem is that there is a limit on the size of the drives that can be used: anything over 32GB won’t work.

The HyperDrive gets around this by only offering photos in 32GB virtual drives that the iPad can see. You load the images onto the dive itself via two card-reader slots (any card will fit) and can browse the file-structure on the built-in screen via an interface even uglier than the unit itself.

If you need something like this, then you’ll already have skipped to the link below and be ordering one. Otherwise you’ll likely be slightly bemused as to what possible point this could have. If you are in the latter group, let me give you another chuckle: the bare-box comes in at $250. Add in a 750GB hard-drive and you’re looking at $600. Ouch.

HyperMac iPad Hard Drive [HyperShop via Digital Story]

See Also:

• IPad Camera Connection Kit Supports External Hard Drives
• iPad USB Camera Connector Works With Keyboards, Audio In-Out …
• Chinese Knock-Off: Two-in-One iPad Connection Kit

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Here’s a little nugget you may not have already been aware of — Apple’s iPad is only capable of registering USB hard drives (via the Camera Connection Kit, of course) that are 32GB or smaller, which may or may not bum a vast majority of you out. Thankfully, Sanho’s latest and greatest HyperDrive was tailor made to circumvent that limitation, and it just so happens to be the company’s most capacious. Checking in with 750GB of open space, this unit boasts a “patent pending ability to turn individual file folders into virtual 32GB drives on the fly that are readable by the iPad,” and as you’d expect, there’s also a CompactFlash and Secure Digital slot for offloading images directly from your camera’s memory card (at up to 40MB/sec). There’s even a 3.2-inch QVGA color display, support for JPEG and RAW files and the ability to act as a vanilla USB hard drive; it’s available now for $599, though smaller versions are available for those with less pocket change.

Continue reading Sanho’s 750GB HyperDrive photo backup HDD plays nice with your iPad

Sanho’s 750GB HyperDrive photo backup HDD plays nice with your iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Silicon oxide has long played the sidekick, insulating electronics from damage, but scientists at Rice University have just discovered the dielectric material itself could become a fantastic form of storage. Replacing the 10-nanometer-thick strips of graphite used in previous experiments with a layer of SiOx, graduate student Jun Yao discovered the latter material worked just as well, creating 5nm silicon nanowires that can be easily joined or broken (to form the bits and bytes of computer storage) when a voltage is temporarily applied. Considering that conventional computer memory pathways are still struggling to get to 20nm wide, this could make for quite the advance in storage, though we’ll admit we’ve heard tell of one prototype 8nm NAND flash chip that uses nanowires already. Perhaps it’s time for silicon oxide to have a turn in the limelight.

Silicon oxide forms solid state memory pathways just five nanometers wide originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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