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Watch That Tiny $74 1.5GHz Android-Powered Thumb-Puter In Action Iomega’s new Screenplay HD Multimedia drive promises that you can “leave the PC behind” since it stores your movies, pics and tunes and connects directly to your HDTV. You simply save them via the USB2.0 connection, and it’s standalone from there on. It can upscale to to 720p and 1080i, plays a wide bunch of formats and connects via HDMI, SCART, composite audio and video or coaxial S/PDIF. With 500GB inside it should be able to store about 750 hours of MPEG2 at 780 x 480 pixels: that’s around 500 movies. It’s available now for US$218.45. [Iomega and TFTS]
This external hard drive concept entitled “IVY” adds an interesting new aesthetic to a plain old drive via an OLED screen that visualises the content of the hard disk. Inspired by Sequoiaview visualisation software, IVY starts out life as a rather plain looking disk. As you fill it up, the design changes in sync with the content. In essence, you can automatically decorate your drive with a cushion treemap design that continually evolves. Again, it is only a concept —but it is a particularly interesting looking one if I do say so myself. [Concept Page via Next Nature via about:blank]
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.
When you saw the news that WD launched a 320GB Scorpio laptop drive, you knew it was only a matter of time before a bus-powered Passport external version showed up. It’ll come with WD Sync software (featuring 128-bit encryption; Windows only of course), deliver 480Mbps transfer speeds, and you can pick from five colors: glossy black, glossy white, metallic red, vibrant(?) green and metallic pink. Here’s the best part: the 320GB Passport will only set you back $US230–or less. [WD]
In addition to being one of our favourite holidays, today is the last day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Besides squeezing a ripe pair of tittles, what better way to celebrate than picking up a pink Western Digital Passport drive with 250GB of storage on board? We’ve been testing one of these USB drives, and its performance is respectable, quietly cranking out a read speed of 17MB per second and write speed of 14MB per second. Plus, its minimalist design appeals to us, sporting an icy blue pilot light that sets off its odd, angular shape. Pink-thinking Western Digital’s not saying what percentage of the drive’s $200 price goes toward fighting breast cancer, but it’s the thought that counts. [Western Digital]
At a time when most portable 2.5-in. USB drives are maxing out in the 160GB to 200GB range, Fujitsu decided to set its own amazing 300GB platter to the task. Today it unveiled a 300GB bus-powered external drive that should be in stores by September. It’s got a 16-point omnidirectional shock mounting plus an integrated USB 2.0 cable for easy access. The software suite includes Apricorn Inc.’s EZ Gig II for Windows backup-ware, Second Copy 2000 for file management and Cryptainer for encryption. Total cost of ownership? US$229.
Two burners from Samsung today, one of which claims to be the world’s fastest burner at 20x. The SH-S203 is a Serial ATA burner that supports DVD+R/-R, DVD+R, and every other CD/DVD format (including DVD-RAM). The most notable feature, obviously, is its 20x DVD+R and DVD-R burning, but DVD-RAMs burn at 12x, DVD+R DL burn at 16Xx, and DVD-R DL burns at 12x.
You’ll have to find blank media that supports burning that fast, of course, but that shouldn’t be too bad. The drive itself is only $70.
