Hasta La Gadget!

What’s this? A QNAP NAS that doesn’t stick to the company’s traditional dark industrial look? Amazing but true, and yet another sign that the company is increasingly looking to bring the NAS out of the office and into the home — a move that could only be further bolstered by a certain celebrity endorsement. Effectively replacing the company’s previous TS-209 model, this one sticks to the same two-bay setup (for up to 4TB of storage), but steps things up to an 800MHz Marvell processor, along with 256MB of DDR2 memory, 3 USB ports, and all the usual UPnP / DLNA support you’d expect. No word on a price just yet, but we’d presume it’ll be less than the $449 QNAP is asking for its four-bay TS-410 model.

[Via Electronista]

Filed under: Storage, Networking

QNAP brightens up its NAS offerings with new TS-210 model originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you were lusting after those 43nm drives that Toshiba recently started shipping to OEMs, we found a source for you. If you’re in Japan (or comfortable ordering from Japan) ioPLAZA has the 256GB (2.5-inch) SSDs listed for ¥85,800 (about $970). Intrigued? We bet you are. Orders placed now ship later this month. Hit the read link to see for yourself.

Filed under: Storage

Toshiba 43nm MLC NAND-based SSDs spotted in retail originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember when “design” meant the actual creation of something new, a careful process of refining an object until its function was as clean and perfect as the designer could make it? No, neither do we: It’s been so long since “design” was used as a synonym for “decoration” that all we expect of a “designer” object now is a few bright stripes painted on (Paul Smith), a silver-gray, sharp-edged case (Porsche) or blobby irreverence (Philippe Starck).

So we were far from surprised to find that the new collaboration between Starck and Lacie, a mobile and a desktop hard drive, were little more than decorated boxes. Coming in 1TB and 2TB (desktop) and 320GB and 500GB (portable) sizes, the drives feature absolutely nothing that cannot be found in another hard drive other than a swirly, polished front panel. Actually, there is one thing: On the desktop drive, you get a touch sensitive surface which can be configured top open an application of your choice. You know, like you could do by touching your mouse button instead.

In fact, it seems like the main reason for hiring Starck to work on a project is to get some excellent, babbling waffle for the publicity. Here’s what he came up with for Lacie:

Technological genius explodes exponentially, each time with incredible power whose limits are yet to be known. The power remains, never abating, symbolically characterized by the sculptural magma that one attempts to cleave, to master within this geometrically perfect strongbox. A symbol of strength mastered, of freedom guided, of incandescent magma heeding to the form of its cast. The interpretation is free. But the mystery remains.

Such wonderful nonsense! But if these drives are no different from other drives, neither are their prices. The portable starts at $100 and the desktop at $130.

Product page [Lacie. Thanks, Kim!]

QNAP’s various NAS devices may not do much to distinguish themselves from one another based on appearances, but the company’s apparently hoping that’s its new TS-410 model will attract a bit more interest nonetheless, and its aiming it squarely at home and home office users. Helping it in that respect is its relatively low-cost price tag, “just” $449 (sans hard drives), which still gets you plenty of NAS-ness, even if it may be just slightly behind the latest and greatest. That includes a less powerful 800MHz Marvell processor instead of the increasingly common Atom, and a mere 256MB of DDR2 RAM, which is a good deal short of the 1GB or 2GB offered in some of QNAP’s higher-end options. Of course, you will still get support for up to four 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch hard drives, a full range of RAID options, and four USB ports and 2 e-SATA ports for further expansion. Sound good enough? Then you can pick this one up right now.

Filed under: Storage, Networking

QNAP debuts ‘low cost’ TS-410 Turbo NAS for home use originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re confused as to how technology that was supposed to be available in 2006 can still be featured at an Emerging Tech conference in 2009, but so it is for General Electric’s attempt at holographic storage. Predicting drives for archival purposes in two or three years with consumer products around two years after that, manager Peter Lorraine claims Blu-ray has “two to four years of life to go” and expects licensees to clean up with speedy 3ms access time, 1TB+ storing (up from a mere 200GB), backwards compatible hardware. The latter portion, plus other breakthroughs in cost and reliability are listed as reasons to believe the market will catch HVD anytime soon, but right now it’s about as likely returning to a matching 2006-era MySpace page or believing Wolf was staring at anything other than a mark on the floor on Election Night.

[Via Physorg]

Filed under: HDTV, Storage

GE shows off 1TB holographic discs but Wolf Blitzer remains skeptical originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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