Storage -- Engadget

D-Link's Xtreme N DIR-685 storage router hands-on and impressions

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 2nd 2009 at 2:00PM

Somehow or another, D-Link managed to combine a NAS, digital photo frame, secondary display and 802.11n router into a single device, and when the Xtreme N DIR-685 Storage Router was announced way back at CES this year, we were certainly interested to see how such a conglomerate would go over. At long last, the do-it-all wireless router is finally making its way out to the public at large, and with an MSRP of $299.99 (sans any internal HDD space), it's definitely one of the pricier routers out there. We've taken this strikingly unique device into our lairs for a few days of testing, and if you're interested in seeing if this bad boy is worth the price of admission, you'll need to follow us past the break.

Gallery: D-Link's Xtreme N DIR-685 storage router hands-on

Continue reading D-Link's Xtreme N DIR-685 storage router hands-on and impressions

Crapgadget: 'Gee... thanks?' edition

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Jul 2nd 2009 at 1:33PM

If you need a flash drive or USB hub there are many useful and, more to the point, tasteful options out there. But if you want to saddle a hapless co-worker or relative with a silly, embarrassing, or just plain crapulant gag gift suitable for the current technological moment? Look no further than the following assortment of crapgadgets. Your illustrious Engadget eds have hand-picked a wonderful assortment of devices tailor-made to evoke awkward responses at office birthday parties and the like. So, without further ado...

Read - No Green Thumb Required: USB Fever 4-Port Flower Pot Hub
Read - USB Airplane Hub with built-in fan
Read - Robot USB Drives would make a cute gift
Read - USB Artillery Hub
Read - USB Octopus Hub

Solid Alliance's $10,000 Mnemosyne USB drive is built for style, not convenience

by Vladislav Savov, posted Jul 2nd 2009 at 5:47AM

The Greek goddess of memory, Mnemosyne, would surely be proud of this product bearing her name. For starters, it comes at a price few mere mortals can afford and is couched within an extravagant all-aluminum body. The puzzle cube certainly provides a ceremonial feel to accessing the data within, and makers Solid Alliance are pitching it as a luxurious receptacle for your most treasured memories. Yes, under all the sheen, you are still looking at 16GB of standard issue flash memory, but can we really put a price on mythology-infused style?

Star Wars flash drives' giant heads seep into our teensy hearts

by Laura June, posted Jul 1st 2009 at 11:52AM

We see so many flash drives around these parts, it is truly, truly hard for any to distinguish themselves in our eyes. These ones? Well, we'll admit it: we have a giant soft spot for their massive noggins. Not the first Star Wars flash drives we've seen -- this newest set store up to 2GB per drive -- which isn't anything to throw a party over, but they're really cute, right? The set, which includes Darth Vader, Yoda (look at his toes!), a Stormtrooper and Boba Fett, will be available starting in October for $25 each.

[Via Technabob]

Micron's smaller NAND chips mean more, faster flash memory in the same old enclosures

by Tim Stevens, posted Jun 30th 2009 at 7:45AM

Need a little more proof that Intel's got some fly SSDs about ready to roll? We have confirmation from Micron that it's working on new and improved 34nm chips in capacities of 8, 16, and 32Gb. These lovelies are 17 percent smaller than the previous rainbow colored flash delights, and are faster too, offering 200Mb/s transfer speeds and when combined into an SSD, able to keep up with SATA 6Gb/s transfers. This press release confirms the chips will show up in flash memory from Lexar, but we're guessing that official Intel announcement can't be far off now.

Intel launching cheaper SSDs with up to 320GB capacity in two weeks?

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jun 29th 2009 at 5:38AM

Rumor has it that Intel is prepped to launch its new SSDs in the next two weeks. According to sources speaking to the The Inquirer, the new solid state disks will feature that smaller 34nm NAND Flash developed by Intel and Micron. As usual, the smaller manufacturing processes should allow for higher density SSDs (as high as 320GB) at a reduced cost to manufacture. In fact, INQ says, "there will be drives big enough to replace the HDDs in most, if not all laptops." With Intel already cutting SSD prices we remain optimistic that this rumor is true.

[Via TrustedReviews]

PhotoFast CR-7100 MicroSDHC adapter helps obsolete CF cards

by Vladislav Savov, posted Jun 26th 2009 at 10:16AM

That noise you hear is the sobering death rattle of the CompactFlash memory format. Allegiance to the now decidedly less than compact memory sticks seems to keep crumbling away bit by bit. The latest assault comes in the form of this here converter, capable of utilizing a MicroSDHC card in the high-end camera of your choice. The CR-7100 is available in Japan now for ¥2,980, or about 31 greenbacks. Here's hoping this agent of memory interoperability nirvana shows up in US and European markets sooner rather than later.

[Via Akihabara News]

Buffalo adds Ministation Metro to its external HDD lineup

by Vladislav Savov, posted Jun 26th 2009 at 4:04AM

The Ministation Metro, coming in a variety of tastefully named colors, such as Black Crystal, represents a continuation of Buffalo's recent efforts to beautify its portable hard drive offerings. The drive's design is highlighted by a handily integrated USB cable that sits flush with the Metro's externals when not in use. It's also noteworthy that this latest entry in Buffalo's Ministation series looks remarkably similar (i.e. identical) to the recently announced HD-PXU2 in Japan. We can only surmise that the company believes the term Metro carries more positive connotations with Western consumers than the otherwise catchy jumble of letters and digits. Capacity choices range all the way up to 500GB, and the new drives are expected to reach American and British shores in August, with a US price somewhere in the vicinity of $200 for the most capacious models.

[Via Pocket-lint]

SanDisk's 32GB class 10 SDHC card competes for world's fastest

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jun 25th 2009 at 4:01AM

When it comes to claims of being the world's first or fastest, there's a big difference between announcing product and actually delivering it for retail. So let's be clear, SanDisk might be announcing the world's fastest 32GB SDHC card today, but it won't be shipping until August. It's not even the first 32GB class 10 SDHC card announced since Panasonic did its unveiling more than a month ago -- and this is where SanDisk's speed claims get confusing. That "class 10" logo is supposed to be a standard means of identify the card's speed as rated by the SD Association. Yet SanDisk claims a max read/write speed of 30MBps whereas Panasonic claims a max of just 22MBps. Guess we'll have to see head-to-head benchmarks to know the truth. Regardless, it is fast and that makes it suitable for capturing 160 minutes of full HD (1920x1080 pixels) video recorded at 24Mbps.

Buffalo's 16GB 5mm USB Thumbkey: It's really small

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Jun 24th 2009 at 6:58PM

This isn't the first time Buffalo's blown our minds with its lilliputian tech. The WiFi dongle, you have to admit, was pretty sweet. What can we say about the 5mm Thumbkey drive? For starters, it's really small. And it has a 16GB capacity. And it''ll cost you about $136 when it goes on sale (any day now). Sure, that's a tad pricey for a device that lacks gears and rubies -- but did we mention how small this thing is?

[Via OhGizmo!]

Samsung goes miniscule with netbook-bound mini-card SSD

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 24th 2009 at 6:27PM

With the likes of SanDisk, OCZ Technology and RunCore (just to name a few) already grabbing a foothold in the mini SSD market, you just knew that Samsung couldn't sit around and watch an opportunity pass it by. Now, the company's is branching out from its vivaciously colored Mini S2 HDDs to introduce a new SATA-interface mini-card solid state drive. The diminutive drive is aimed squarely at the netbook crowd, but its size makes it a beautiful candidate for a UMPC, MID or smartbook upgrade. In fact, the drive checks in at some 80 percent smaller than the average 2.5-inch HDD, and it'll be made available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB densities. We're told to expect respectable transfer rates of 200MBps (down) and 100MBps (up), while power consumption sits at just 0.3 watts. Look for these to pop up in your next favorite mobile device late this year or in early 2010.

[Via HotHardware]

Seagate introduces FreeAgent Go Dock+ with powered USB hub

by Nilay Patel, posted Jun 24th 2009 at 4:58PM

We have no idea why Seagate buried this in a warmed-over press release touting rehashed FreeAgent for Mac drives, but there's a new $40 FreeAgent Go Dock+ that doubles as a powered three-port USB hub. Pretty convenient if you're into the whole FreeAgent Go lifestyle, we'd say, but we're sticking with our versatile bareback SATA docks.

Western Digital rolls out new dual-drive My Book World Edition II

by Donald Melanson, posted Jun 24th 2009 at 1:27PM

Western Digital has already dialed things up to 4TB with its My Book Studio Edition II hard drive, and it's now done the same with its new My Book World Edition II dual-drive storage system. One of the big advantages with this one is that the dual drives are shipped in a mirrored RAID 1 configuration for an extra level of protection, although you can of course reconfigure 'em yourself if you'd prefer twice the space instead. Otherwise, you can expect all the usual NAS-related features, a "cooler, quieter, eco-friendly design," a USB port to add on an extra USB drive, and a nifty capacity gauge to let you see how much space is available at a glance. Expectedly, the top-end 4TB demands a rather hefty $700, but you can also pick up a 2TB drive for a more reasonable $400 if you have less demanding needs.

Digital Rosetta Stone memory could last a thousand years

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Jun 23rd 2009 at 6:48PM

The race for bigger and better memory continues apace, it seems. It was only a week or two ago that we caught wind of the work that scientists in Berkeley were doing with nanotubes and thousand-year-plus memory lifespans, and now it looks like a group of researchers in Japan have made some headway using an electron-beam direct-writing technique that utilizes semiconductor devices that can keep data intact for a thousand years, so long as humidity is kept at 2% or less. The prototype Digital Rosetta Stone, developed by Keio University, Kyoto University, and Sharp, has a storage capacity of 2.5TB and a max transmission speed of 150Mbps. Of course, there's no telling if or when this will become a reality, so if you want to ensure that your adolescent poetry lasts for the next thousand years, you'd better print out your MySpace blog and have it carved in granite.

[Via TechShout]

QNAP's SS-839 Pro Tubo NAS keeps it real with 8 bays and 4TB RAID storage

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Jun 22nd 2009 at 4:23PM

It looks like QNAP's insane desire to present the market with bigger and better network storage continues unabated. The SS-839 Pro Turbo NAS is being billed as the world's smallest 8-bay Intel Atom NAS, featuring a 1.6GHz N270 processor, 2GB memory, up to eight 2.5-inch hard drives or solid state disks, up to 4TB storage capacity, 2 eSATA and 5 USB ports. Power consumption with eight hard drives installed is about 34W. Software features include the usual: thin provisioning, online RAID capacity expansion and level migration, AES 256-bit volume-based encryption, Wake on LAN, SMS and email alerts, network surveillance via IP cameras, and the like. So, what are you waiting for? Hit that read link for the full, unexpurgated story.