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Watch That Tiny $74 1.5GHz Android-Powered Thumb-Puter In Action First there was the strangely Nintendo cartridge-like USB HDD dock, then there was the USB hub version. Now the strange external drive dock has got two slots for either 3.5- or 2.5-inch SATA drives, and also connects to your PC via eSata. There’s one connection for each, mind you, so you’d better have a few slots free—though you can fall back on the USB option. Available soon for US$107.56. [GeekStuff4U via Akihabaranews]
Seagate is taking their first crack at external DVR storage with the Showcase line of HDDs. The Showcase drives range in size from 250GB to 1TB, work with both eSATA and USB connections, and can record a whopping 12 HD streams simultaneously. For now, Motorola cable boxes are the only ones compatible with the Showcase, so TiVo owners and others should hold off until we hear more. They’ll be on sale this fall, full release after the jump. [Seagate]
Western Digital’s been churning out these My Book external hard drives in all sorts of configurations, but this 1 and 2TB Studio Edition IIs seem to be the most feature rich yet. It’s got FireWire 400/800, eSATA, USB 2.0, RAID 0 or 1, and Mac support (you can also reformat it for PCs). Looking at Western Digital’s Editions page, these come equipped with all the features except for remote sharing and networking, because there’s no network port.
The Serial ATA Standards guys just approved a bus-powered eSATA spec that may see the light of day as early as late summer or early fall. This comes as a relief since eSATA is making its way into the mainstream via the home-theatre realm (as DVR add-ons), where demands for the power brick to just go the hell away are higher than ever. I’m thinking of all those home-theatre beauty shots that feature a thin, wall-mounted plasma and the single surround-sound bar, but always leave out the growing rat’s nest on the floor directly below. Thanks, eSATA, for doing your part! Now let’s see if TiVo and others buy in. [ExtremeTech]
The guys at Wired and BoingBoing stirred up a hornet’s nest this morning by alleging that Western Digital’s 1TB MyBook World Edition external hard drives “won’t share media files over network connections”. That got us worried, since we just acquired one of the 1TB three-way (eSATA, FireWire and USB) Home Edition drives to plug into our eSATA ports, looking forward to sharing some DivX, XviD and various audio files over our home network. But never fear. We plugged our drive into one of the PCs here via USB and found out what’s up, first-hand.
You probably don’t want to use something like this eSATA to USB adaptor to keep an external drive going for any extended period of time— it would be all too easy to trip up and unplug one of the many cables in such a complex setup. But for a quick data grab or dump onto a spare disk, I’d say this could come in pretty handy for anyone working on a bench with many disks, day in and day out. [Brando]
Norazza’s new PocketRAID drives may look tiny, but don’t say that to their faces, because they store anywhere from 120GB to a whopping 320GB in a measly 5″ x 3″ x 1.5″ frame. Support for eSATA and USB 2.0 ensures that the data is good to go wherever you are. Shipping now, these puppies will set you back $439 to $929, so start saving. [Norazza]
Earlier this year, a 500GB version of the DVR Xpander was released to the joy of those blessed with a common Scientific Atlanta 8300 series box. Using an eSATA connection, the DVR Xpander acts as an external hard drive that allows the user to dramatically expand the amount of space available for recording video on their DVR. The new 1TB version released today offers as much as 125 hours of extra recording time for HD video or 562 hours of standard-definition video. This represents a major development for those of us who are big into archiving or series recording, but are often too lazy or forgetful to occasionally prune saved shows. The 1TB version is available for US and Candadian customers at a price of $379 US before a $50 rebate. Previous 500GB and 750GB versions are available for $179 and $279 respectively. [Product Page via Electronista]
We wrote about this last week, but today it’s official. From today, TiVo Series 3 and TiVo HD customers will be able to enjoy a whole bunch of new services: Multi Room Viewing, which allows you to transfer programming between TiVo DVRs; eSATA, which gives you up to 600 hours’ external storage space with compatible external drives; TiVoToGo, allowing you to transfer programs from a TiVo box to your computer; and progressive downloads, which allows you to watch TiVoCast content while it is still downloading. Full press release is below.
Good news, media pirates/porn addicts: you can now get an external drive that can hold a whopping 1TB of your illegal/illicit materials. OWC is releasing its Mercury Elite-AL Pro “Quad Interface” 1.0TB External Drive Solution for $600, and it’s loaded up with connectivity options. You can plug it in via FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, or eSATA ports. It’s your choice! Just go wild!
Best of all, it’s styled to go great with your Mac Pro tower (not that it won’t work on Windows machines; you’ll just look like a poser). Finally, something to hold all your porn and look good while doing it! So long, ratty DVD-R binder! –Adam Frucci
Product Page [MacSales]
