Hasta La Gadget!

There are plenty of bargain-priced hard drives on the market, but they’re no bargain if you have to wait ages for large files to transfer.

If you’re looking for a top combination of storage and speed, check out the Western Digital My Book 3.0, one of the first devices certified with the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface.

The drive comes in both 1TB and 2TB capacities. Yes, you’ll need a USB 3.0 port to use it, but WD has you covered. You can get the My Book in a kit that includes a USB 3.0 HBA (gen2) adapter card.

What can you expect? The USB 3.0 interface on the My Book 3.0 offers transfer rates of up to 5 gigabits per second, allowing for file saves that are 4.7 times faster than with USB 2.0. The drive is compatible with USB 3.0 and 2.0 products, and it’s backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1 ports.

The 1TB drive lists for $179, or $199 with the adapter card kit. The 2TB drive is $279.99 with the adapter card kit.

Just as CES is wrapping up, we managed to get some hands-on time with the AirStash wireless SD card reader, which is targeted at iPhone OS devices (but does work with other WiFi-enabled devices). Like many of the mysterious products from Vegas we have no price, release date or battery life, but what we do know now is that it’s indeed very light (1.5 ounces), fits nicely in our hands and supports up to 32GB SDHC cards. As for wireless connection the AirStash acts as a WiFi 802.11b/g access point — a cunning way to dodge the Apple dock connector license fees or the lack of Bluetooth profiles. Sadly, the prototype wasn’t working properly due to “some RF interference,” but as you can see above, the AirStash is accessed via a browser (UI design not final). Sure, this would mean you’d lose Internet connection via WiFi, but if the AirStash is cheap enough, then we’ll live with it. Let’s hope they hurry up with the release, though.

AirStash wireless SD card reader hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 04:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RunCore’s had a thing for delivering high-speed, enthusiast-level SSDs, and if you managed to pass right over the Pro IV, you may find the urge linked to the Pro V a bit too much to resist. TweakTown was able to spend some quality time with the device, which includes a SandForce 1500 controller and low(er)-cost MLC flash. Without getting into the dirty-dirty (trust us, you’ll find plenty of charts in the source below), we’ll pass along the following note: “we feel comfortable saying that the Pro V will be the enthusiast SSD to which all others will be compared to for the first half of 2010.” Of course, with the speed worries behind us, the only question remaining is cost — which always seems to best the case with SSDs. We’re told that it’ll cost more than the Barefoot-powered Pro IV, but with competition in the market heating up, hopefully the MSRP won’t sting too badly.

RunCore’s 100GB Pro V solid state drive gets benchmarked, loved originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 10:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here we go, folks. Nearly a year to the day after the term “SDXC” cemented itself into our vernacular, Panasonic has announced the first two that’ll ever ship to end users. Unless a competitor jumps in and steals the thunder before then, of course. Announced here in the desert, the outfit has proclaimed that a 48GB and 64GB SDXC card will begin shipping to fat-walleted consumers in February, bringing with it a Class 10 speed rating and maximum data transfer rates of 22MB/sec. You know what else they’ll be bringing? Price tags that are guaranteed to make you simultaneously weep and hoot — the 48GB model will list for $449.95, while the 64 gigger will go for $599.95. Tissues, anyone?

Continue reading Panasonic shipping first SDXC cards next month for ungodly amounts of cash

Panasonic shipping first SDXC cards next month for ungodly amounts of cash originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last year was a relatively quiet one for Clickfree after it showed its cards at CES 2009, but it’s clear the company is looking to start 2010 off with a bang here in the desert. The recently updated C2 backup drive is seeing a significant overhaul at CES, with the C2N acting as a portable backup drive for any computer on your home network. The C2N drive is the company’s first to boast its BackupLink technology, which enables all of your networked machines (Macs and PCs) to be backed up automatically; of course, you’ll only be backing up between 250GB and 640GB of information, but we’re told that larger models are expected later in the year. Next up is the Network Edition of the Transformer, which is apt to be entirely more useful for those of you with capacious USB hard drives already looking for work. Essentially, this touts the same functionality as the aforementioned C2N, but it connects to any USB hard drive rather than providing a drive of its own. Finally, the Traveler SD is a 32GB Secure Digital card with the Clickfree backup software baked in; as you might imagine, this enables computer backups to take place on a card reader, which just might be the perfect solution for travelers who haven’t any room for a spare HDD. You can expect to find all three on store shelves between March and April, with pricing set for $159.99 (250GB) $179.99 (320GB), $199.99 (500GB and $219.99 (640GB) for the C2N, $99.99 for the Transformer Networ Edition and $89.99 (16GB) / $149.99 (32GB) for the Traveler SD card.

Continue reading Clickfree busts out automatic backup solutions: C2N HDD, Transformer and Traveler SD

Clickfree busts out automatic backup solutions: C2N HDD, Transformer and Traveler SD originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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