Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

Everyone knows they should be backing up their PC or laptop on a regular basis, but it usually requires a devastating loss of data before most users get serious about it. However, even if you have a giant RAID sitting on your desk, backing up your files on an hourly basis with ridiculous levels of redundancy, is your data still safe? Viruses and failed hardware are only a couple of problems a backup drive can protect against, but what about more serious situations like a flood, fire or other natural disasters? Should the worst case scenario occur, the data sitting on a backup drive next to your computer is just as much at risk as the data sitting on the computer itself.

Unless of course your data happens to be backed up on a drive that’s built like a tank. And that’s where the ioSafe Solo disaster proof external hard drive enters the picture. If you’re looking for a drive you can throw in your laptop bag the ioSafe Solo isn’t for you, but if you want a relatively affordable backup solution for your home or business that can withstand most of what mother nature can throw at it, you’ll want to check out my review of the Solo after the jump.

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By Andrew Liszewski

I’m not so sure if I like the weird wavy design of Verbatim’s new InSight external USB hard drives (though the glossy piano black finish is eye-catching) but I can definitely get behind the always on display which shows the drive’s name and available free space even when it’s disconnected from your PC. As far as I can tell the drives are available now in a 320GB capacity for $119.99 and 500GB for $149.99.

[ PR - Verbatim Launches InSight Portable USB Hard Drives with an Always On Display ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]

By David Ponce

It’s not even close to Sony’s 2TB Memory Stick but at least it’s not a proprietary card. Toshiba’s just announced a 64GB card that employs the new SDXC (XC for extended capacity) memory standard. Problem is it won’t be available until spring 2010 and price is unknown yet as it’ll depend on market prices for flash memory at the time of launch. Toshiba claims write speeds of 35 megabytes per second and a read speed of 60 megabytes per second.

[ Press Release ] VIA [ BoingBoing Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

They might not be the first kid on the block with a 128GB flash drive, I believe Kingston took that honor a few months ago, but Corsair is claiming their new 128GB Voyager GT is the world’s fastest. Thanks to a “unique dual-controller architecture” the flash drive has a read speed of up to 32MB/sec and a write speed of up to 25.6MB/sec. The drive also features a durable and water-resistant rubber housing, so while it probably won’t survive a plunge under water, getting caught in the occasional spill shouldn’t be a problem. Available now, though pricing info wasn’t included in the PR.

[ Corsair Flash Voyager GT 128GB ]

By Andrew Liszewski

While flash cards with larger and larger capacities are inevitable, at one point I would have scoffed at a 64GB SD card as being completely unnecessary. But with more and more DSLRs using SD cards, getting bigger sensors and gaining the ability to capture hi-def video, a 64GB card not only makes sense, but is almost necessary. So congratulations to Toshiba who are the first to launch a 64GB SDXC card with 35MB per second write speeds and 60MB per second read speeds. The new card will also be available in 32GB and 16GB capacities (yawn!) and are set to go into production early next year.

[ PR - Toshiba to Launch World's First 64GB SDXC Card ] VIA [ Akihabara News ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Despite being a Mac user (I swing both digital ways) I’ve never been all that excited about Apple’s Time Capsule. I use Mozy for backing up local files and a FreeNAS box to store everything crucial. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that I’m cheap. However, if the Time Capsule is exactly what you’re looking for, then you’ll be happy to know that Apple has given the line a nice little refresh.

Starting today you’ll be able to pick up a 1TB model for $300 and a new 2TB one for $500. For all of you playing along at home, you read that right. They’ve doubled the storage on both models and kept the price the same.

[ Apple ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Over the next few weeks if you happen to be having a conversation at the water cooler and the question of who makes the smallest 32GB USB flash drive comes up, you can confidently drop Super Talent’s name. Today the company announced six new models of their Pico drives that each feature 32GB of NAND flash storage as well as transfer speeds up to 200X, or 30MB/sec. Three of the new models are water resistant and feature gold or nickel finishes ($85) while the other three include AES-256 hardware encryption for extra security ($99).

[ PR - Super Talent Unveils World’s Smallest 32GB USB Drive ] VIA [ I4U News ]

By Andrew Liszewski

This morning Corsair launched a new ‘extreme’ series of solid-state drives that use the Indilinx Barefoot controller, Samsung MLC NAND flash memory and 64MB of on-board cache to achieve read speeds of up to 240MB/sec and and write speeds of up to 170MB/sec. The drives will come in 3 capacities including 32GB, 64GB and 128GB and should be available worldwide immediately. While they’re obviously not the biggest SSDs on the market, if speed is your priority I’m sure these will work quite nicely.

[ Corsair SSDs ]

By Andrew Liszewski

On Monday Hitachi Global Storage Technologies announced a bunch of new storage devices and accessories like the SimpleNet box Evan brought you yesterday, and these slick looking SimpleTOUGH portable drives. But they’re not only about looks. The drive is billed as “one of the world’s most rugged drives for protecting data in harsh environments” and it’s not only water-resistant, but it can also survive a drop of almost 10 feet. I particularly like the integrated foldaway USB cable which means you never end up in the situation where you desperately need a file off the drive, but have neglected to pack the appropriate cabling.

The SimpleTOUGH drives will be available in 3 sizes, 250GB for $99.99, 320GB for $119.99 and 500GB for $149.99.

[ Hitachi SimpleTOUGH ] VIA [ DVICE ]