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SanDisk outs the 'world's first' 1TB SD card
If you handle a lot of 4K video, you'll know that most available SD cards will struggle to handle all of your high-quality footage. The two-year old SanDisk 512GB SD card might take the edge off somewhat, but that isn't all that Western Digital, owner of the SanDisk brand, has got to offer. Today, the storage giant unveiled what it calls the "world's first" 1TB SD card. It's only a prototype, but already the company is touting the card's ability to adequately handle 4K, 8K, VR and 360-degree video when it officially becomes available.
Sony and Panasonic announce the Archival Disc, a new optical disc standard for long-term storage
Aiming to offer a long-term storage option in disc form, Sony and Panasonic have announced the new Archival Disc format that will store between 300GB and 1TB per disc. The companies are bigging up the non-HDD form factor for its hardiness to temperature and humidity. They're also promising "inter-generational compatibility" between different formats as the standard matures -- but we'll believe it when we see it. While the initial team-up was signed back in July last year, the current roadmap suggests we'll see the first 300GB discs from Summer 2015. Storage upgrades will follow, in line with signal processing improvements, with high linear density processing (which all sounds good) supposedly set to offer up to a magical one terabyte of space per disc. We'll just go ahead and throw away all these Blu-rays.
Bitcasa's infinite cloud storage balloons to $999 a year
If you thought Bitcasa's infinite cloud storage was too sweet of a deal to exist on this mortal plane for $99 a year, that's because it was -- or at least partly because the bulk of subscribers filled up far less of their digital lockers than expected. According to the outfit, 98 percent of its customers use less than five terabytes of data, and 92 percent "do not store anywhere close to a terabyte." In addition, the firm says a survey of its customers revealed they valued more features over additional space. As result, the unlimited service will now cost $999 a year, or $99 per month, and the company will focus on making the platform more useful, starting with a freshly-released API. Free accounts have been tweaked to start at 5GB (as opposed to 10GB), and the $99 per year (or $10 a month) tier now nets 1TB of space. For those with even more bits to squirrel away, 5TB can be had by contributing $499 a year (or $49 each month) to Bitcasa's coffers. Existing subscribers will get to keep their current plan's rates and storage, but won't get access to some new offerings -- such as the future Linux client -- unless they switch to the new pricing scheme. Tencent's free 10TB of online storage might sound even more tempting now, but it's worth taking this instance as an example of what could happen to your cloud paradise.
Hard drive recall emails going out to owners of 1TB iMacs
Apple's extension of the iMac 1TB Seagate hard drive replacement program was mentioned last Sunday, and late this week customers began receiving email reminders to schedule a drive replacement. If you're an iMac owner but not certain your machine is covered, you can easily check your serial number via the online validation tool. While the Apple service program covers replacing your potentially problematic drive, it does not include backup or restoration of your OS, applications or data: that is on you. Please take our advice and spare yourself much pain and misery -- back up your drive now. Time Machine is great, but when it comes to backup our firm recommendation is to have a bootable clone of your drive as well. This is particularly useful when you're pulling your digital life back together post-HD replacement. Steve's Mac 101 review of backup options will get you on the right track. (Note that one of our favorite cloning options, Carbon Copy Cloner, was previously free but is now a paid option alongside SuperDuper! and others.) "But I back up to the cloud," you say, "isn't that good enough?" In this case, not so much. Recovering your entire set of files and apps from your remote service could be expensive and take quite a while. Fortunately, several of the Mac-savvy cloud backup services (CrashPlan and Dolly Drive in particular) have options to do a local backup as a supplement to the cloud safety net. If you've already had your drive replaced under Apple's program, let us know how it went.
TDK breaks the Hard Drive density limit, could go on to develop super-sized storage
While the old-fashioned hard drive isn't as fast or slender as an SSD, it can still lord its greater capacities and cheaper price over its upstart rival. TDK thinks it's extended the mediums lead in that area by tweaking the magnetic heads and recording medium of the hardware -- increasing the areal density of a unit to 1.5 TB per square inch. It means that we could see 1TB platters arriving in 2.5-inch laptop drives and 2TB platters in desktop modules, meaning even your commuting machine can store all of your heftiest data with ease.
Sub-$1500 Kingmax 1TB SSD spotted in Japan
Terabytes. We all want them -- especially if they're served solid-state. But if you're not quite ready to pony up for OCZ's Octane SSD 1TB model, you might want to take a trip to Japan. KingMax's SMU25 Client Pro 1TB SSD has been spotted for 119,000 yen (roughly $1,490), shaving a good chunk off the price of its OCZ rival, although there is a trade-off. The Kingmax drive doesn't quite catch up to the Octane performance-wise, with 250MB/s read speeds bested by 460MB/s on the pricier drive and 200 MB/s write speeds trumped by 330MB/s on OCZ's model. According to Bit-tech, there's no plans for the drive to leave the Land of the Rising Sun for US just yet, although the Taiwanese manufacturer is already doing business in other parts of Asia so you might just get lucky if you shop around. Its full spec list is housed at source below.
Dell jams a terabyte of SATA3 SSD storage into Precision M6600 laptop
Dell is tweaking some of the options offered on its Precision M6600 and M4600 mobile workstations. You can now choose to add 512GB SATA3 SSD drives and (in the case of the M6600) a 4GB NVIDIA Quadro 5010M card. The interesting thing though, is that the 6600 has space for three drives: two full size and one mini-card slot. That means you could outfit this 17.3-inch beast with a pair of 512GB SSDs and one 128GB SSD, for a grand total of 1.1TB of solid state storage. Of course, with each half-terabyte drive adding a whopping $1,120 to the price of this professional lappy it's not exactly for those on a budget. But, we wouldn't be shocked to see this trickle down to high-end, portable gaming rigs (we're looking at you Alienware) relatively soon.
The Daily Grind: What will make you stay?
Wow, there are so many MMORPGs coming out in the near future. Whether it's because of full games like Final Fantasy XIV or expansions like Aion's Assault on Balaurea, September is shaping up to be a busy month. Further on in the fall you have DCUO, rumors of WoW's Cataclysm, and then on into 2011 you've got TERA, Rift: Planes of Telara, and of course SWTOR. With all the new blood coming soon, some hard choices will need to be made regarding our current games, some of them favorites and some of them mere diversions on the road to something new and shiny. Today's question is two-fold, Massively readers. One, does any of your current games tickle your fancy enough to remain faithful when the deluge of AAA titles hits in a few months? And two, what is it about your favorite game that's likely to make you stay?
ioSafe Solo hard drive places a 2TB bet on all kinds of disasters
It's Friday the 13th, and ioSafe couldn't have chosen a better time to update their Solo fireproof and waterproof hard drive line with a 2TB model. Sure, it'll cost you $399 for a USB 2.0 connection instead of eSATA, FireWire 800 or USB 3.0, but you'll never know when your yacht sinks or burns down, sending that precious Kenny G collection to oblivion. Don't go thinking you can just get the $149 500GB model and upgrade it yourself either -- you'll have to destroy the waterproof seal to get to the hard drive, as demonstrated before. Yeah, life's tough.
Imation Pro WX Wireless USB hard drive review
Imation was set to announce its first-ever Wireless USB hard drive a year ago, but it lost a dear friend shortly before it materialized and we'd heard nothing since then. Today Imation has returned -- holding hands with its new partner, Staccato -- to release the Pro WX 1.5 terabyte Wireless USB hard drive for both Windows and Mac. At $449.99, though, we thought to ourselves: does the Pro WX offer something extraordinary for the premium price? Or are you better off with a NAS device like Apple's infamous Time Capsule? We ran some quick tests to find out -- do read on for some juicy results.
Good news, bad news: WD ships first 1 TB mobile drive, doesn't fit in Mac laptops
Yes, it's a lot of storage -- but the drive's form factor won't fit into any currently available Mac laptop. (Note the update at the end of this post)I was pretty excited when the Western Digital news release hit my inbox. The new drives, the industry's first in that size for portables, have pretty good specs and capacious storage space. The problem really is the size. With Apple in the business of providing slim notebooks, the drive is just too tall (12.5mm) to make it into any Apple portable, which maxes out at a drive size of 9.5mm. The drive will be available in a USB enclosure, and WD is also offering a 750 GB version of the drive as well. The 1 TB drive lists for US$250, while the 750 GB drive is $189. Those prices are for the drive alone. Mounted in a USB enclosure the 1 TB drive sells for $300.Currently the largest 3rd party drives you can get in current Mac laptops max out at 500 GB.The Mac Mini may be able to house the new drive, but it would be a pretty tight fit, and according to our Steven Sande, may require the removal of the SuperDrive.Update: We've had a variety of responses to this post, with different ideas about which, if any laptops could take this new high capacity drive. I thought the quickest and best approach would be to try the experts at Other World Computing, who make a living selling replacement hard drives for Mac Desktops and portables. The tech there told me that the last generation 17" MacBook Pro can take the 12.5mm drive, but that the 15" model can't. He also said none of the unibody MacBook Pro models can take a drive of that size. I'm sure some won't accept this information either, but these were the most expert opinions we could find since Western Digital wasn't sure and Apple doesn't generally comment on such things. Since the drives are just shipping, we'll wait for some real world experience and report back. Thanks to all who commented.
Hitachi introduces second-gen 1TB Deskstar 7K1000.B hard drive
Remember the day you drooled all over your keyboard when Hitachi introduced a 1TB internal hard drive? Yeah, like a year and a half ago? The outfit's most recent HDD announcement isn't likely to have nearly the same effect, but those who skipped the first-gen version in order to get a more refined product the second go 'round will surely be delighted. Today marks the debut of the 1TB Deskstar 7K1000.B, which goes down as "the world's most energy-efficient 7,200RPM one-terabyte hard drive." Said drive features a new three-disk design which improves idle power consumption up to 43% over its 1TB predecessor, but unfortunately, there's no telling how long you'll have to wait to actually buy this currently unpriced overlord of storage.[Via PCLaunches]
Little Big Disk Quadra
Do you need a bus-powered 1 TB hard disk? You're in luck - LaCie announced the Little Big Disk Quadra today. Available in early July, the Little Big Disk Quadra uses a pair of drives in a RAID 0 configuration for speedy response. My personal concern is that if one of the two RAID drives goes out, you'd lose all of the data in the array. Although LaCie states that it's "Compatible with Time Machine", the Little Big Disk Quadra is probably better-suited as a scratch drive for video work on the go. This is a tiny drive considering the capacity - the outside dimensions are 1.6 x 3.3 x 5.5 in. (40 x 85 x 140 mm) and it tips the scales at 1.4 lbs (650 g). You don't need to use the included AC adapter when using the Little Big Disk Quadra with FireWire 400 or 800, but you will need it when using the drive with eSATA or USB 2.0.Some sites are stating immediate availability, but LaCie has confirmed that it will be several weeks before the Little Big Disk is available.
Iomega introduces 1TB Super eGo external hard drive
Iomega's getting quite fed up with listing those GBs, and thus, it's exceptionally thrilled to be offering up a brand new 1TB model for your consideration. Fittingly christened the Super eGo, the external hard drive you see above packs a single one-terabyte HDD, USB 2.0 port and a one-year warranty. Folks who don't care to wait for a 2TB edition can grab one now in ruby red, midnight blue or jet black for $269.95.
ASUS lets loose terabyte-packin' M70 laptop
We got our hands on ASUS's beefy M70 laptop way back at CES earlier this year, but it looks like the company has just now gotten around to letting the monster loose on the general populace. In case you missed it, this one packs up to one terabyte of storage (in the form of two 500GB drives), along with a 17-inch WUXGA display, your choice of Core 2 Duo processors up to a T9300, ATI Mobile Radeon HD3650 or HD3470 graphics, and an optional Blu-ray drive, among other expectedly top-end features. To make sure no one else but you gets to toy around with all that, ASUS has also seen fit to include not one but two security measures, including the usual fingerprint scanner and ASUS's trademark SmartLogon face-scanning technology. No word on a price, but we're guessing that's a detail best kept on a need to know basis.[Via PC Launches]
Hands-on with the ASUS M50 and M70 terabyte laptops
After we heard ASUS stepped into Crazytown with two new terabyte-capacity laptops, we knew we had to swing by the booth and bust out our cameras. It seems like the company has really been stepping up its game both on the design and spec front, with a solid build from the sleek black top and touchpad-integrated media controller, straight on down to the Core 2 Duo CPUs and -- of course -- the ultra-gigantic storage space. Peep the gallery below for a full on tour of the two systems.%Gallery-13313%
TrekStor intros 1TB external hard drive
Looks like TrekStor is the latest to join the increasingly less-exclusive terabyte club, with it recently introducing its 1TB DataStation duo w.u external USB hard drive. As you might be able to tell from its size, this one actually boasts two 500GB hard drives stacked on top of each other, although they'll apparently show up as a single 1TB drive on your computer. Otherwise, this one looks to be a pretty standard deal, boasting backup capabilities courtesy of the included Nero BackItUp2 Essentials software, and an aluminum housing that supposedly dissipates heat without the need for a fan. If that'll do, you can grab one of these now for a list price of $430.
Hitachi gets its one terabyte Deskstar 7K1000 drives out the door
We already crunched the numbers: 1TB is a lot. And if you've got $399 to blow, it can be all yours, with Hitachi saying Deskstar 7K1000 shipments have reached "critical mass" this month, after starting out scarce in March. We're guessing if you need one terabyte of data, in a 3.5-inch enclosure, spinning at 7,200 RPM and hooked up to your computer / RAID / iPod, you know who you are, so we won't spend any more time extolling the 7K1000's virtues -- quit your drooling and buy, buy, buy!
Hitachi's 1TB 7K1000 hard drive gets reviewed
You've seen it announced and in the wild, and you've probably been wondering if the $400 or so required to procure the 1TB beast was indeed worth it. Thankfully, TomsHardware has the guidance you've been yearning for, as it opened up its test bench and welcomed Hitachi's 7K1000 with open arms. The 935.5GB of usable space brought smiles to all involved, provided the highest transfer rate of all 7,200RPM drives that it was benchmarked against, and it was even said to "outperform the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10." Truthfully, it was difficult to find any negatives on the behemoth in terms of sheer performance aside from its (forgivable) inability to keep up with the 10,000RPM WD Raptor and its toasty nature, but the reality set in when the review crew began to evaluate the value presented in such a dense, albeit expensive, HDD. Frankly, reviewers claimed that picking this drive up over a pair of cheaper 500GB drives "wouldn't make a lot of sense," but if you're in dire need of cramming 1TB of, um, PowerPoint presentations onto a single unit, it's far from a bad option.[Via DigitalMediaThoughts]
HP StorageWorks Media Vault Pro eyes small biz
Late last year, HP hit us up with its first venture into the world of NAS, and just as Q1 winds down and Q2 impatiently begins, the outfit is hoping to attract the attention of up and coming small business owners. The StorageWorks Media Vault Pro is one of the dozen or so products briefly (and we do mean briefly) introduced in its latest small biz lineup, and aside from the elegant image we left to stare at, we really don't know much else. Reportedly, the drive ratchets up to 1TB in size, will ring up just under a grand, and provides the obligatory "expandable network storage and enhanced protection services" that all the competitors do, but alas, we've no idea when HP plans on launching these things into hectic startup offices.[Via TGDaily]