Life’s all about compromises. You may save a lot of space in your living room by upgrading that massive CRT television to an LCD or plasma, but you soon realize that at least you could use that relic of technology as another shelf. Thin might be in when it comes to TVs, but try putting anything larger than the Wii’s sensor bar on top of a flat-screen and you’ll soon realize you’ve bought more than you bargained for.
But the ScreenDeck from Able Bay promises to give you back what you’ve lost, and have your cake and eat it too. It’s nothing more than a shelf designed to mount to the existing VESA screw holes on the back of your flat-screen TV, assuming they’re not already being used to hold it to a wall, that’s perfect for holding accessories like media players, gaming sensors, antennas and probably the most common use, center channel speakers. At $39.99 available from Amazon at some point, it’s not terribly expensive either.
Back in September of 2010, we talked about the HyperDrive that would add 750GB of storage to your iPad and had an LCD that you used to navigate the drive contents. A new versions of that HyperDrive has surfaced that ditches that LCD and gets more storage space.
The new version packs in 1TB of storage and you can navigate the drive connects directly from the iPad. The 1TB version of the HyperDrive sells for $399.95 with the HDD inside already. That’s quite a bit cheaper than the older version that had the LCD, a 500GB version of that drive sold for $499.
The other big difference between the new 1TB version and the older versions with the LCD is that the 1TB lacks any memory card slots. The drive connects to the iPad via the Camera Connection Kit. I would assume if it’s nothing but a USB drive you could use it on other devices too.
Sometimes in an enterprise setting a server or other computer only needs a small amount of storage and that storage needs to be fast and compact to fit into a small enclosure. Active Media Products has just announced that it has new Disk-on-Modules specifically for the enterprise market.
The modules are very small and plug into the SATA port on any mainboard. AMP says that it is the first company to offer the 64GB modules for sale and that they are shipping to OEMs for about $259 right now. The modules use 7-pin SATA header that will work with almost any mainboard and they come in Type-1 and Type-2 styles.
The only difference in the two styles is that the Type-1 has a left side connector and the Type-2 has a right side connector. The sequential read speed is up to 100MB/s and the sequential write is up to 42MB/s. The DOMs measure 2.2″ x 1.3″ and use MLC flash, ECC, wear leveling, and bad block management.
Active Media Products has announced a new SSD that is a replacement for notebooks and netbooks that use 1.8-inch storage drives inside. The new drive is called the SaberTooth ZF Turbo ZIF SSD. The storage drive connects to machines using parallel ATA (PATA/IDE) ZIF interface.
The drive is very thin at 5mm thick and comes in 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB capacities. AMP says that the new SSD is a good upgrade for MacBook Air, HP Inspiron Mini 12, and other notebooks including some from Sony. The new SSD uses MLC flash and has special power saving circuits to increase battery life for the notebooks it is used in.
Other features of the SSD include ECC error correction, bad bit management, and the drive ships with the screwdriver needed for installation and an installation guide. The drive will work in most computers that use 1.8-inch 40-pin ZIF cables. The 32GB SSD is $129.95, the 64GB version is $189.95, and the 128GB version is $349.95.
We’re not entirely sure why you’d want a hand-crafted, silver-plated 4GB memory key in the shape of a pebble, but perhaps Valentine’s 2011 is geek-themed and nobody bothered faxing to let us know. LaCie‘s latest design partnership is with Christofle, the end result being the Galet USB Key.
The French-finished memory disc comes in a “charming gift box” and LaCie reckons it’s ideal for wearing around the neck on a chain; we’d also suggest replacing your boring old pocket-watch with one, or perhaps wearing it as a less-useful monocle. The LaCie Galet is available now, priced at £94.99 ($152).
Press Release:
Christofle and LaCie Reveal Luxury for Every Day: Galet USB Key
• Imagined by Christofle
• Assembled and silvered in France
• 4GB of storage
London, UK (20th January 2011) – Today, two distinguished brands, Christofle and LaCie, introduce an elegant object for your digital belongings – Galet, design by Christofle. With its beautiful pebble shape and magnificent silver-plating, the Galet is a conversation piece that proves beauty and functionality can easily co-exist in our daily lives.
Changing the definition
The Galet is a new way of thinking about personal technology. Like a designer watch or a luxury pen, the Galet is an essential accessory.
Hand-crafted in France, each piece is individually plated with precious silver through Christofle’s 150 year-old silvering process. Then it is carefully inspected for a smooth finish and radiant polish, which guarantees its excellence. The Galet is assembled and hand-packed in a charming gift box at LaCie’s factory in Paris, ensuring each Galet represents the finest presentation and quality. Once the process is complete, the result is a timeless gift that will bring convenience and luxury to one’s daily life.
Mobility made chic
The Galet is a collector of photo and music memories. It is a beautifully simple USB solution to keep your cherished files close and accessible. The Galet’s pebble shape easily fits into your life – in your pocket, on your key chain, or even around your neck – so you can take it with you wherever you go.
“The spirit and philosophies of Christofle and its luxury brand, combined with the technical expertise of LaCie, have come together to transform a universal technology into an object that is as beautiful and simple a treasured piece of jewellery,” said Luc Pierart, Business Unit Manager, Consumer Peripherals, LaCie “Each time you open it, its mystery is revealed – an elegant USB key.”
Availability
The Galet comes in 4GB and includes LaCie’s Private-Public software with password protection. The Galet is available for £94.99 in Christofle boutiques worldwide, as well as the LaCie Online Store. For more product information, visit www.lacie.com.
The most practical use for a USB duplicator like this is to speed up the process of copying corporate info to a bunch of promotional USB flash drives you intend to give away at a trade show. If you’ve decided not to just let an outside company do it, whether for cost or security reasons. And thanks to the Nexcopy SSUSB160PC’s support of USB 3.0, that copying process will go even faster now. Assuming of course you’re using USB 3.0 flash drives.
But what company is already giving away USB 3.0 flash drives as promotional/informational items? And where do I find them? There were still companies at CES, arguably the most tech-friendly of trade shows, distributing their press kits on plastic discs! So I find it hard to believe that USB 3.0 flash drives have reached the point of being an affordable promotional item. The duplicator does become a little more useful if you’re looking to clone a pile of USB 3.0 external hard drives for your traveling sales team or something, but with a price tag of $1499 I’d say it’s probably smarter to just drag your feet for another year when these are more commonplace and a lot cheaper.
Western Digital has announced that it has added two new SAS HDDs to its line of enterprise storage solutions the new HDDs are both SAS devices and include the WD S25 and the WD RE SAS 3.5-inch HDD. The S25 is a compact 2.5-inch HDD that uses the SAS 6Gb/s interface and comes in 450GB and 600GB capacities. The drive spins at 10,000 rpm for faster data access.
The S25 was previously available in smaller 147GB and 300GB capacities only. WD is also shipping the RE SAS 3.5-inch HDD to OEMs right now. This storage device spins at 7200rpm and uses the SAS 6Gb/s interface for connectivity. The larger 3.5-inch HDD comes in 1TB and 2TB capacities and is aimed at NAS and other storage uses.
WD offers no pricing information on the new HDDs. “Meeting the demands of our customers and IT professionals in the enterprise market is the primary driver of our long-term commitment to SAS drives,” said Darwin Kauffman, WD’s vice president of enterprise storage solutions. “Our focused strategy in the enterprise continues to ensure that customers who have rewarded WD with their preference of WD drives in other application segments receive the same outstanding values of quality, reliability, performance and availability with WD’s SAS drives. It is with that commitment that we are now able to meet a wider set of customer requirements.”
CALIFORNIA, USA (AVING) — Western Digital®, a leader in the desktop, mobile, high-capacity enterprise and consumer markets for hard drives, today announced the availability of its second-generation WD S25 SAS drives and its latest WD RE SAS 3.5-inch drives for the traditional enterprise market. Shipping now, the 2.5-inch, 10,000 RPM, WD S25 with SAS 6 Gb/s interface hard drives offer IT professionals ultra-reliable and efficient, high-performance storage with new 450 GB and 600 GB capacities. The WD S25 line, including the previously released 147 GB and 300 GB capacities, is designed for mission-critical server and storage systems.
Also shipping now to OEMs, the new 3.5-inch, 7,200 RPM, WD RE SAS with 6 Gb/s interface hard drives offer 1 TB and 2 TB …
It may not have made headlines like 3D TVs or tablets did at CES this year, but SanDisk, who thankfully skipped a booth for a quiet back-hall private meeting room this year, introduced their new 128GB compact flash cards which for the time being claim the ‘king of the castle’ crown. Not only do their Extreme Pro CF cards feature gargantuan capacities, but they’re also now the fastest CF cards on the market with up to 100 megabytes per second write speeds thanks in part to their UDMA-7 interface. The kicker? (You knew this was coming.) Available in the latter part of Q1 2011 for $1,499.99.
LAS VEGAS, USA (AVING Special Report on ‘CES 2011′) — Toshiba(www.toshiba.com) introduced faster external hard drive ‘Cavino 3.0′ by upgrading with USB 3.0 at the International Consumer Electronics Show(CES) held at Las Vegas, USA, for 4 days from January 6. Capacity is 500GB / 750GB / 1TB.
