Hasta La Gadget!

One of the few highlights of the refreshed 27-inch iMac is the new SSD option for its second drive bay. This sure is good news for performance addicts carrying some spare cash, but with the 256GB SSD addition costing from $750, some may prefer the DIY route to save a few pennies for that gold iPad. Sadly, it won’t be as straight forward as sliding in a new drive — e-tailer OWC noticed in its teardown that you’ll be needing a mounting bracket and a couple of cables that are only supplied with Apple’s own SSD. That said, if you can find a way to secure the drive in the bay, all you’ll need are a SATA male-to-two-female splitter plus a left-angled SATA connector cable, and then a way to partially remove the logic board to access the free port. Yup, it’s as easy as really complicated pie.

iMac’s latest 27-inch iteration requires special parts for your own SSD in second drive bay originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We suspect SanDisk would have run into some friction by proclaiming that its Cruzer Blade is the world’s smallest USB flash drive, but it smartly chose to word things as its smallest in order to not draw attention from those other guys. No matter how you slice it, though, this little doohickey is awfully minuscule, being “about the size of a standard size paper clip and weighing approximately the same as a penny.” It’s tailor made to hang off of your existing keyring, and it’s available in capacities ranging from 2GB to 16GB. As for prices? $14.99 to $77.99, and (just about) everywhere in between.

Continue reading SanDisk ships its smallest USB thumb drive, the diminutive Cruzer Blade

SanDisk ships its smallest USB thumb drive, the diminutive Cruzer Blade originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Previously available in 16GB and 32GB versions, Lexar‘s Echo SE line just got gigantic. And a lot more useful, if we should say so ourselves. With many SSDs topping out at 128GB, and quite a few netbooks shipping with 160GB HDDs, having this USB drive plugged essentially allows your entire laptop to be continuously backed up. The built-in, “no touch software” automatically backs up files in use, requiring absolutely no activation on your end. We’re told that the little bugger will work with Windows and OS X platforms, but the assurance of having your mobile life backed up at all times will cost ya. And by that, we mean “make you $349.99 poorer.” It’s available now at various e-tailers (Amazon, Newegg, etc.) if you’re willing to pay the premium.

Continue reading Lexar’s 128GB Echo SE USB thumb drive continuously backs up your netbook, mobile life

Lexar’s 128GB Echo SE USB thumb drive continuously backs up your netbook, mobile life originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Jul 2010 03:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So, we’ve good news and bad news. Given that we aren’t accepting votes for which you’ll be fed first, we’ll go ahead and extol the virtues of cramming a full terabyte of space into a 2.5-inch form factor. Not that this feat hasn’t been accomplished before, but the 2.5-inch 1TB HDD realm could certainly use the competition. Now, the rough part — Samsung‘s Spinpoint MT2 boasts a 12.5mm height, which is 3mm too high for your existing laptop. Unless, of course, you’re rocking one of those otherworldly Clevo machines with enough space for a Karmann Ghia in there. There’s also the fact that it’s humming along at just 5,400RPM and rocks just 8MB of buffer memory, meaning that this one’s entirely more likely to find a home within a portable HDD case than inside of Apple’s next MacBook Air. Oh, and there’s no price being made public, but honestly, we’re sort of glad Sammy didn’t bother teasing us.

Update: We’re hearing that 12.5mm drives fit just find in Apple’s newer unibody MacBook Pro machines.

Continue reading Samsung ships 1TB Spinpoint MT2 2.5-inch hard drive, but it won’t fit in your laptop

Samsung ships 1TB Spinpoint MT2 2.5-inch hard drive, but it won’t fit in your laptop originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Crash! Bang! Whack! Bubbbbble! These words, when used anywhere near your precious data, should terrify even the most casual of computer users. Data storage devices are weak and pathetic, and even the solid-state storage found in a USB-key or MP3 player is susceptible to drops, heat, water and roaring flame.

LaCie’s XtremKey laughs at these dangers, all as it keeps your bits safe inside a tough, screw-shut metal tube. The blurb:

XtremKey is constructed with zamac, a metal alloy composed of zinc, aluminum, magnesium and copper that’s so strong, it can withstand the pressure of a 10-ton truck.

Impressive, right? The USB2 pen-drive is waterproof to 100 meters (330-feet), can be dropped from 5-meters (16-feet) and can suffer temperatures as low as -50ºC (-58ºF) and as high as 200ºC (392ºF). Better, when sat on your desktop it wobbles cockily on its round edge, daring you to knock it over.

The drives run from 8GB up to 64GB and start at $50.

LaCie XtremKey: The World’s Most Adventurous USB Flash Drive [Lacie via Uncrate]

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