Use your laptop much? Does it get hot to a point you can’t stand it on your lap? If you don’t want to move to a desk then simply check out Brando’s way of dealing with the problem. The USB Notebook Cooling Pad is more than just a laptop cooler.

The cooler has a 2.5 SATA HDD slot available which will let you connect an up toa 250GB drive. The Cooling Pad has three extra USB hubs and it costs just $33.
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I don’t know how much time you spend downloading stuff but if you’re a hardcore downloader you should be interested in Princeton Japan’s 5TB NAS. Loof for the DN-503AH-PDC. It supports RAID 0/1/5/6, 10/1000 Ethernet and hot-swappable HDDs. As you can see, the standard NAS features are present. Will you be able to download the Internet? Not likely but those 5TB should get you a nice chunk of it. Keep an eye out for this NAS this December. It will arrive in Japan and hopefully other markets will follow.

via CrunchGear

Apparently size does matter, and seeing how this aspect wins ground nowadays, it is suitable to present the cheapest external HDD in the world.

It is brought to our greedy consumers hands by Logitec, a Japanese hardware maker. I know you are thinking I just misspelled the Logitech brand. Well, I didn’t. Logitec is something completely different! They designed a nice external HDD, which is compatible with both Windows and Mac OS X, costing only $250. The model is LHD-ED1000U2L but I’m afraid though, it’s going to be available only on the Japanese market! What do you think?

Need protection when using your hard drives? Well than we have something new to play with from Hitachi. It’s the third generation 2.5 inch Travelstar hard drive, the Travelstar 5K500.B. It’s a SATA II drive that only spins at 5400rpm and it comes in capacities from 120GB to 500GB. Want it? There’s more!

The HDD designed for notebooks will consume less juice than usual while the enterprise version will get you the Enhanced Availability which will give 24 hours a day high-speed activity. The new drives will be eco-friendlier than the previous versions and it will come in halogen-free design.

And the Bulk Data Encryption is the encryption was talking about. With it on board your information will be scrambled with help of a key and it’s written to the disk. Unscrambling is simple as the same key is being used. Should the data encryption key be deleted the data will become useless. Make sure you order the BDE since it’s an optional feature.

We don’t have any prices and we still need availability dates. The general idea is that Hitachi is going to launch the new HDD some time next month.

via Crave

The new entry-level MacBook Air is not available for shipping just yet. The thin Apple laptop is going to arrive in your home some time after Thanksgiving, and that’s official:

Due to an unexpected delay, we are unable to ship your MacBook Air by the date originally quoted to you. We now anticipate shipping the item by 11/24/08 and delivering by 11/29/08.

In case you ordered one already, you may change the order or cancel it, if you don’t want to wait it out. It looks like the problem is the HDD. All 1.6GHz models equipped with a SATA hard drive are pushed back 2-3 weeks. A 1.6GHz or 1.86GHz Air with a SSD drive will ship as expected within 3-5 days.

via AppleInsider

Hammer has just announced its new morespace Portable HDD. It weighs 5 ounces and it has a 2.5 inch HDD inside. You can choose capacities from 160GB to 750GB. If you are interested in prices give them a holler but be informed that the 750GB version won’t arrive until January or so.

We left the best/worst part for the finish. This external HDD drive can be customized with your chosen protective skin. Like that’s something I needed out of my external hard drive! I don’t care much for looks, especially not for the looks of my HDD. I care about capacity, speed, security! Need I say more? And you’ll probably be charged more for this simple, yet annoying, feature!

I need some portable hard drive like that. The Hang it On hard drive encloser will hang on to your laptop’s LCD screen just in the picture above. Working on the go just became easier and funnier with this design from Sangh Jin. No more worries about dropping your 2.5 inch HDD or not having space enough for all your gadgets.

If you see one of these babies around, let me know details about pricing and availability. We do know that the Hang it On encloser comes in three colored colors: black, red and blue, but I’d have one in any color.

via YankoDesign

Seagate has just announced its new lineup of FreeAgent drives. They are external drives for desktops and laptops and they come pre-formatted either for PC or Mac.

The FreeAgent Go are made for laptops and they will come in 4 colors for PC: silver, black, red and blue. The PC version comes with USB 2.0. The Mac version comes in silver only but it has both USB 2.0 and FireWire connectivity. A docking station is available for connecting it to a computer. The drives will get you up to 500GB of extra storage space. (more…)

We have seen yesterday the Western Digital Mirror Edition, a great external hard drive which secure data backup or lots of storage space when needed. Today we are looking at Maxtor Black Armor, an external drive that is said to bring both security and storage space.
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Are you paranoid about backing up your work? So you should. I can count the times I’ve lost access to important data not properly backed up on one hand’s fingers. With My Book Mirror Edition from Western Digital, more data storage and proper back up, the things you were looking for, are properly delivered.

The Mirror Edition comes in two versions, 1TB priced at $289.99 and 2TB priced at $549.99. And you have two versions of using them. Either a RAID 1 setup which will actively use half of the total storage space for data while mirroring it on the other half, either a RAID 0 setup which gives you access to all that space for data writing with no mirroring.

What else for that price you ask? First of all you should be able to find online discounts for most products. But since you asked, the Mirror Edition comes with special software which will help you setup backing up rituals, there’s USB 2.0 connectivity involved and there’s a cute unnecessary capacity gauge to show you how much storage space is left. And for your convenience, you can easily replace drives at any time. Just open the box up, place the HDD under the pillow and reverse the process once you are awake.

Toshiba have released their smallest hard drive so far to pack such a punch, proving that it’s not the size of the HDD that actually matters.

The new 1.8 inch HDD from Toshiba, called the MK617GSG, will be available in their line of laptops starting this August. Curios about specs? This Toshiba packs 80 or 160GB and spins at 5400rpm. This is basically a step forward since similar sized hard drives in the past wouldn’t go past the 4200rpm barrier.
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First question I had was if I could connect this 500GB Drive from Iomega to a PC. I know you are thinking about it too. Well, no, you can’t do it. At least not officially anyway. Piracy will not be supported by Iomega and that’s crystal clear.
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You got to give it to Iomega. Here’s what they have for us, a 1TB external hard drive, very much ready and very much ready to be purchased. For $269.95 this baby is yours to have. You get the Super eGo which is a single 1TB HDD, with USB 2.0 port and a one year warranty. It comes in three colors, ruby red, midnight blue and jet black or, the way I like to call them, red, blue and black.

Add a MacBook Air to it and a high speed internet connection and download everything you want. Legal downloads only of course!

Samsung will be selling this brand new 256GB SSD starting September. SSD drives slowly make their way into our lives and hopefully they’ll get cheaper and cheaper. While we don’t yet have a price on this piece we can tell you this MLC-flash DATA II drive will have speeds of up to 200Mbps read and 160Mbps write.
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I like how this Western Digital My Passport Studio looks near those keys. It’s so tiny but it will pack and backup all your information. Take your music, videos and games wherever you are going. The only problems seems to be not loosing it.

Although slightly bigger than your USB stick, the Studio packs up to 320GB storage space and has both USB and Firewire integrated slots. You only need a processor and some RAM and you’re going to have a small PC there.

Depending on size and seller, you’ll find this external HDD for purchase from $200 to $400.

Fujitsu announced the unveiling of the world’s first 2.5-inch 320GB HDD with 7200rpm rotational speed. The new Fujitsu MHZ2 series of 2.5-inch HDDs use only 2.3 watts of power, a record among small-sized HDDs. This small form HDD is developed for slim laptops and other devices. The first and largest capacity model — the 320GB — will be available starting June 2008

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The Storage Device Division of Toshiba introduced the new high-performance 5,400 RPM SATA HDD models. Their edge? These new HDDs are only 1.8-inches in size, designed specifically for mobile PCs. These new HDDs will be available in 80GB (model MK8016GSG) and 120GB (model MK1216GSG) variants. Toshiba’s 1.8-inch HDDs use the architecture of the company’s 2.5-inchers which debuted during CES 2008. These are the the first of Toshiba’s 1.8-inch HDDs which used the SATA interface.

“The portable computing market is looking for an uncompromised computing experience in small and light-weight storage solutions,” said Maciek Brzeski, vice president of marketing at Toshiba Storage Device Division. “With enhanced features for the mobile environment, these new 1.8-inch HDDs enable mobile system manufacturers to reap the benefits of high-capacity magnetic storage, along with better power efficiency and ruggedness.”

Toshiba’s new 1.8-inch SATA HDDs will be presented this February 26-29, 2008 in the Intel Mobility Summit in Shanghai, China.

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Fujitsu has announced the prep for the release of the new Fujitsu MHZ2 BT — its new 2.5-inch 500GB 4200 RPM SATA HDD. The new product was created in response to the market’s demand for smaller form factor yet high storage capacity HDDs. Fujitsu is the second company to have come up with a 500GB capacity on a 2.5-inch hard drive. The Fujitsu MHZ2 BT uses only 1.8W of power and supports Serial ATA 3.0 Gb/s interface. Aside from the fact that it’s so small there’s a chance you can fit two in one notebook, you can also use it for tape replacement systems, DVRs and yes, even use a USB enclosure on it to turn it into an external drive.

Fujitsu MHZ2 BT 2.5″ Half-Terabyte HDD will be available in May 2008 with the following specs:

* Capacity: 400GB/500GB
* Rotational Speed: 4200RPM
* Interface: SATA 3.0 Gb/sec and 1.5Gb/sec
* Buffer to Host Transfer Rate: 300MB/sec max.
* Read/Write Seek Time: 12/14 msec typ.
* Track to Track Seek Time: 1.5msec typ.
* R/W Power Consumption: 1.8W typ. (Best-in-Class)
* Idle Power Consumption: 0.5W typ. (Best-in-Class)
* Standby/Sleep Power Consumption: 0.13W typ. (Best-in-Class)
* Acoustic (Idle): 2.1 bels typ. (Best in Class)
* Operating Shock: 325G (2ms)

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Western Digital extended its My Book family of external drives with the introduction of the new My Passport Essential Portable USB drive. Designed in a new form factor that fits in a pocket or purse, the drive comes in WD’s trademark glossy black finish. At less than 5 oz, it is easy to carry around. No external power supply is needed as it runs off the USB connection. Google tools such as the Desktop Search, Picasa and Toolbar are bundled with the drive.

The drive is compatible with Windows 2000/XP/Vista and Mac OS X 10.4.8 onwards. It comes bundled with WD Sync synchronization/encryption software. It measures just 15mm x 126.15mm x 79.5mm.

For data security, it is comforting to know that the drive uses 128-bit encryption. The WD My Passport Essential Portable USB drive is now available. A 320GB model - that can hold up to 80,000 songs or 38 hours of HD video - costs US $199.99. All it needs is a USB port.

Available from the WD Store.

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Transcend today unveiled a new external hard drive in StoreJet line up with 160GB storage capacity. The device comes in a polished aluminum case and is based on SATA interface that offers transfer rates up to 480Mbits per second.

This 2.5-inch external hard drive also sports transfer rates of up to 1.5Gb/s via “point to point” data connections and saves power with its low operating voltage. In addition, Transcend’s 160GB StoreJet 2.5 SATA External HDD comes bundled with an OneTouch Auto-Backup function.

Features:

Hi-Speed USB 2.0 compliant (USB 1.1 backward compatible)
Easy Plug and Play installation
High transfer rate up to 480 Mbits per second
OneTouch Auto-Backup function
Powered via the USB port. No external power or battery needed
LED indicates power on and data access

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