Hasta La Gadget!

Do you have The Need? For Speed? Yeah, so do we, and it just so happens that LaCie does as well. Just weeks after the company properly introduced the “now shipping” status on its d2 USB 3.0 and 2big USB 3.0 drives, it has now expanded the options with a 6TB model. So far as we can tell, it looks as if the outfit placed a rather sizable order for those 3TB HDDs that were just unleashed by Western Digital, and it has tuned up the performance all the while. The 2big has reached 306MB/sec in the lab, representing a 20 percent speed boost over the prior models while making it “the fastest 2-bay RAID solution on the market.” As for the d2? It can hum along at 156MB/sec with the inclusion of a 3TB hard drive. Both units are slated to hit retail next month, but asking prices are being kept under wraps for now.

Continue reading LaCie slams 3TB drives into d2 USB 3.0 and LaCie 2big USB 3.0, ups performance numbers

LaCie slams 3TB drives into d2 USB 3.0 and LaCie 2big USB 3.0, ups performance numbers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 02:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It would seem Dell’s suffered another of its signature pre-release leaks, as the folks over at Logicbuy have a full trio of new laptops from Round Rock to tease us with. The three new Studio machines — imaginatively titled the XPS 14, XPS 15, and XPS 17 — are said to come with anodized aluminum shells and brushed aluminum palm rests, NVIDIA Optimus switchable graphics (up to the GeForce GTS 445M on the XPS 17) and options for Blu-ray drives, 16GB of RAM, and Core i7 CPUs. The accompanying pictures of each laptop are what leads us to believe Logicbuy has simply stumbled upon some prematurely published Dell pages, which in turn leads to the deduction that their proper launch can’t be too far away. Sherlock Holmes, eat your stony heart out.

Dell Studio XPS 14, 15 and 17 packing NVIDIA Optimus lunch for imminent launch? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Oct 2010 04:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re guessing from the photo up there that Verbatim is saying your data is safe even if you happen to drop a magnetic paperclip dispenser on it. That’s cool, because we happen to have one of those sitting right here on the desk, and for too long we’ve lived in fear of the thing toppling over and wiping the bits right off of our drives. But, the real talking point here is the interface: Verbatim‘s first USB 3.0 external storage. It’ll be available in your choice of three sizes, with 500 and 750GB models shipping later this month and a 1TB monster coming in November. Naturally they’re also backwards compatible with last-gen USB but will surely cost well more than those drives who are exclusively down with 2.0. How much more? That we just don’t know right now.

Continue reading Verbatim’s USB 3.0 Store ‘n’ Go external drives play nice with magnets, your data

Verbatim’s USB 3.0 Store ‘n’ Go external drives play nice with magnets, your data originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Oct 2010 18:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Think Apple’s MacBook Air is one overpriced ultraportable? Have a gander at the build sheet for Sony’s refreshed VAIO Z. The same machine that we took a peek at this February has seen a predictable fall update, right alongside legions of other Sony lappies. The 13.3-inch machine can now be ordered with a presumably lap-melting Core i5-460M (2.53GHz), Core i5-580M (2.66GHz) or Core i7-640M (2.8GHz), an optional carbon fiber colored casing, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, 256GB or 512GB SSD, optional Blu-ray Disc burner, an SDXC card reader and NVIDIA’s GeForce GT330M graphics card. Oh, and did we mention that there’s a 1920 x 1080 screen resolution on this thing? Maybe that explains the $2,249.99 starting price.

Sony’s 13-inch VAIO Z line gets updated, your wallet hurts just thinking about it originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 10:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s a lesson in actual vs. theoretical. Sony Optiarc America has announced the new BDX-S500U external USB 2.0 Blu-ray drive capable of burning single-layer BD-R discs at smoking speeds of 6x or dual-layer discs at up to 4x. If you do the math, those specs imply transfer speeds of 27Mbps for single-sided 25GB discs and total burn times of roughly 20 minutes. That’s great news for folks with PCs looking to use the high-storage medium or watch 3D Blu-rays — except for one tiny hitch. See, USB 2.0’s theoretical maximum transfer speed is 60MBps, but in the real world most are lucky to get even half that rate. According to tests by Techworld, those with certain USB 3.0 chipsets can even experience USB 2.0 rates as low as 11MBps. In that light, the BDX-S500U’s impressive speeds — just like Paul Walker — may be too fast and too furious for its computer counterparts to keep up, making it a different kind of bag of hurt for buyers. While no official pricing has been offered the drive will go on sale later this month and online retailers are already listing prices in the range of $214 to $240. For full specs and details, check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading Sony’s blazing fast BDX-S500U Blu-ray drive tests USB 2.0’s true transfer chops

Sony’s blazing fast BDX-S500U Blu-ray drive tests USB 2.0’s true transfer chops originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 15:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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