Hasta La Gadget!

You won’t find USB 3.0 on consumer desktops and laptops just yet, but that’s not keeping a number of portable hard drive manufacturers from releasing portable drives that make use of the new high-speed spec. Samsung is the latest company to join the crowd, and recently announced the new Samsung S2 Portable 3.0, their first portable hard drive to support USB 3.0. The drive also features a 7,200 RPM hard drive inside the enclosure, which means that short of enterprise-level hard drives, the S2 Portable 3.0 is probably one of the fastest external hard drives on the market, not just internally, but in terms of data transfer.

The Samsung S2 Portable 3.0 will be available in both 320GB and 640GB versions, and while Samsung doesn’t explicitly mention that it will be backwards compatible with USB 2.0 devices, it’s difficult to imagine that it won’t be. Samsung is making the drive available in the European Union this month, with North American customers following soon after. 

We’re still waiting on leaked (or official, we’re not partial) images to confirm, but based on a presentation slide and a bit of insider information passed on to Notebook Italia, ASUS is gearing up to replace its aging EeeBox EB1501 with the EB1501P. Reportedly, the box will be based around Intel’s dual-core Atom D525 processor and will feature NVIDIA’s Ion GPU, a 250GB hard drive, 2GB of DDR3 memory, 802.11n WiFi, an HDMI output, six USB sockets and Bluetooth. That aligns quite nicely with the EB1501U (shown above) that we spotted back at CeBIT, which has yet to launch in any capacity since. A proper introduction at IFA, perhaps? We’ll be watching, ASUS.

ASUS’ EeeBox EB1501P leaks out with Atom D525, Ion GPU originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 23:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pandas, East Asia, wood. Nope, “laptop” hasn’t ever been on the list of words we typically associate with “bamboo,” but ASUS sure has us willing to tack it on with the introduction of its U Bamboo Series. The company’s newest 13-inch U33Jc is covered in one of the most durable and recyclable materials on earth, and its internals are made of equally strong parts. Sure, the laptop looks incredibly traditional, but the $999 machine actually packs an incredible amount of new technology, including a fresh Core i3 processor, NVIDIA Optimus enabled graphics, USB 3.0 and Intel’s wireless display technology. It’s truly one of the most impressive laptops we’ve heard about in the last few months, but a few gripes hold it back from being the killer laptop it could be. Intrigued? Bamboozled? Hit the break for our full review.

Continue reading ASUS U33Jc-A1 Bamboo series review

ASUS U33Jc-A1 Bamboo series review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seagate’s new FreeAgent GoFlex external hard drive is notable for two things other than the excessive use of CamelCase in its name. The first is that it will hold up to 3TB of data, with Seagate claiming a World’s First for this feat of packing bits into an external drive.

The second is that, while the disk comes ready to hook up via USB 2.0, it can easily be changed to fit a combined FireWire 800/USB 2.0 connector ($50) or a USB 3.0 ($40) connector. For those still lacking the faster bus on their machines (that is to say, almost all of us) there is an $80 kit which includes the USB 3.0 connector, a PCI-X card and a cable. These connectors just swap in for the one already fitted.

Better, the price is actually rather reasonable. $250 will buy you the 3TB drive, which compares pretty well to the basic $130 1TB model. Available now, for all of you who like to keep their eggs in one giant basket.

FreeAgent GoFlex Desk External Drive [Seagate]

For better or worse, these ain’t your grandmother’s hard drives. Iomega has teamed up with Skin Industries in order to debut some of the wildest, zaniest looking 2.5-inch portable HDDs this planet has ever seen, with a trio of designs shipping today. When speaking with the company, we were told that these three were sort of a trial run to see if consumers were actually into such exotic pieces, but we got the impression that we may end up seeing more if this does indeed spark a new craze. The Iomega Skin drives — outside of the exterior — aren’t that radical within; you’ll find USB 2.0 connectivity and a single 500GB option to choose from. For now, $119.99 gets you a Knock Out, Red Hot or Radical (shown above and throughout) skinned hard drive, and while we didn’t exactly expect these to be crafted with precision, we were thrilled to find that our own unit had the logos baked into the plastic — no stickers or decals here. If you’re into the graphics, the drive itself looks pretty sharp, but we can’t help but wish there was an option to slap our own Photoshop creations onto this thing. In related news, SIIG managed to push out the world’s first 4- and 7-port USB 3.0 hubs, which handled a multi-drive transfer with poise and precision during our brief testing; of course, we couldn’t push the new Iomega drive to SuperSpeed or anything, but if you’re in need of a product to help you simultaneously connect all seven of the USB 3.0 devices in existence today, they’re available in the US for $59.99 a pop.

Continue reading Iomega’s 500GB ‘Skin’ external HDDs boast designs your mom wouldn’t approve of

Iomega’s 500GB ‘Skin’ external HDDs boast designs your mom wouldn’t approve of originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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