Storage reviews, hard drives, backup, USB, FireWire, SATA, and more

Cloud Engines updates Pogoplug media sharing device

Jonathan Seff — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0800

On Friday, Cloud Engines introduced the second generation of its Pogoplug multimedia sharing device. The Pogoplug is designed to plug into your home or small office network and let you access and share content of USB hard drives over the Internet using a standard Web browser.

Review: Synology Disk Station DS409slim network-attached storage device

Chris Holt — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:30:00 -0800

Synology's Disk Station DS409slim is a good idea, but it is a long way from being a consumer-friendly network-attached storage unit.

Review: LaCie Starck Desktop Hard Drive

Chris Holt — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:30:00 -0800

The LaCie Starck Desktop Hard Drive is a creatively-designed USB drive that features an unconventional aluminum case design and some equally distinct features.

SimplyDisk simplifies custom disk-image creation

Dan Frakes — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:40:00 -0800

SimplyDisk is an easy-to-use utility for creating custom disk images and discs for distributing software and other content.

Intel to roll out new low-cost and high-end SSDs

Lucas Mearian — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:22:00 -0800

Intel will release a $120 solid-state disk drive positioned as a server "boot drive" with only 40GB of capacity, but the drive could also be used in low-end laptops PCs and netbooks.

Primera intros BravoPro Xi-Series disc publishers

Nick Spence — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:05:00 -0800

Primera Technology, a developer and manufacturer of CD/DVD/BD duplication and printing equipment, has announced the new BravoPro Xi-Series Disc Publishers.

Four ways to access files from afar

Glenn Fleishman — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0800

If you work in lots of locations, you may find yourself wishing you could access your files from everywhere. Here are four ways to do just that.

LaCie intros Network Space 2 media server and NAS

Nick Spence — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:30:00 -0800

LaCie on Tuesday revealed the Network Space 2, the follow-up to its Network Space network-attached storage (NAS) and media server.

Primera intros PTPublisher burning and printing software for Mac

Nick Spence — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:30:00 -0800

Primera Technology, a leading developer and manufacturer of CD/DVD/BD duplication and printing equipment, has announced PTPublisher for Mac.

Upgrade the Mac mini in six minutes

Dan Frakes — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:17:00 -0800

In this week's Macworld Video, Dan Frakes shows how easy it really is to upgrade the hard drive and RAM of Apple's Mac mini, completing the entire process, in a single take, in just under 6 minutes.

The Beatles releasing full catalog digitally... via USB

Lex Friedman — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:52:00 -0800

The Beatles' digitally remastered catalog will be released on a limited edition Apple-shaped USB stick.

New DiskTool Pro update includes CPU meter, improved Snow Leopard support

Roman Loyola — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:38:00 -0800

Macware on Tuesday announced an update to DiskTools Pro, the company’s software utility for hard drive management.

G-Technology announces support for Hitachi 2TB hard drives

Roman Loyola — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:10:00 -0800

Hitachi GST announced that the G-Technology line of storage devices that use 3.5-inch hard drive mechanisms will now have a 2TB option.

OWC unveils new quad-interface 12X Blu-ray burner

Roman Loyola — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:34:00 -0800

OWC expanded your external Blu-ray choices by releasing its new Mercury Pro 12x Blu-ray burner.

Hardware remotes for your media center Mac

Christopher Breen — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:33:00 -0700

Apple's hardware remote control may be handy, but it's limited. For greater control, check out these remotes.

Upgrading a MacBook Pro's hard drive

Christopher Breen — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:07:00 -0700

Laptop in one hand, replacement raw drive in the other. No, you needn't reinstall everything when you install the new hard drive.

Survey: Americans don’t trust cloud to store personal data

Tim Green — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:30:00 -0700

A majority of Americans worry that storing their confidential data on remote servers could lead to identity theft, according to a twice-yearly survey by network security consulting firm Unisys.

Apple clears up 'disc' and 'disk' confusion

Dan Moren — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:27:00 -0700

One's a removable volume you put in your computer—the other's magnetic media. But which one is which?

Review: MCE 8X Blu-ray Disc External Recordable Drive

James Galbraith — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:30:00 -0700

The MCE 8x Blu-ray Disc External Recordable Drive is a relatively speedy optical drive. If you intend to use the drive with USB, it’s worth a look.

Review: Buffalo MiniStation Metro portable hard drive

Chris Holt — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:48:00 -0700

The MiniStation Metro gains an innovative design, but loses at bit in terms of performance.

Western Digital launches WD TV Live

Chris Holt — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:00:00 -0700

Western Digital announced Tuesday its new WD TV Live HD Media Player.

A short history of cloud computing outages

Network World Staff — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:00:00 -0700

Can you really trust your data to distant servers? While you consider the answer to that question, here's a recap of recent outages and high-profile data misfortunes.

Minor MobileMe upgrades improve iDisk

Lex Friedman — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:03:00 -0700

Apple rolled out some small fixes and enhancements to the MobileMe service on Friday.

Iomega releases ‘green’ StorCenter ix2-200 NAS device

Chris Holt — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:15:00 -0700

Iomega today launched its latest network-attached storage unit, the StorCenter ix2-200

Review: FastMac External Slimline USB 2.0 BD-R 4X Optical Drive

James Galbraith — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:00:00 -0700

Though it won’t set any speed records, the FastMac External Slimline USB 2.0 BD-R 4X Optical Drive is a dependable performer. Bus-powered and compact, this portable burner should appeal to mobile users interested in burning Blu-ray and other discs.

First Look: LaCie Starck Hard Drives

Chris Holt — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:10:00 -0700

The Starck Desktop Hard Drive and the Starck Mobile Hard Drive are stylish, Mac-friendly aluminum USB drives that feature sturdy aluminum exteriors, unconventionally slick curves, and a wealth of enticing features that should excite hardware enthusiasts this fall.

WD announces new My Book Studio desktop hard drives.

James Galbraith — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:58:00 -0700

The latest WD hard drive features e-label display and new backup software.

Review: Verbatim SureFire FireWire 800/USB hard drive

Chris Holt — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 03:00:00 -0700

Verbatim’s SureFire FireWire 800/USB the company’s entry to the burgeoning portable hard drive market.

Review: Eye-Fi Geo

Derrick Story — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:00:00 -0700

SD memory card wirelessly transfers pics from your camera to your iPhoto library.

Review: La Cie d2 Blu-ray Professional BD-R, BD-RE Drive

James Galbraith — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:00:00 -0700

If you’re looking to add an external optical drive to your Mac, the LaCie d2 Blu-ray Professional BD-R, BD-RE Drive is worth considering, especially if you have other LaCie d2 drives on your desktop.

Review: CalDigit VR mini external RAID array

Chris Holt — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:00:00 -0700

The high-performance and high price tag of the VR mini RAID array make this a great fit for audio/visual professional

Storage site Dropbox releases iPhone app

Dan Moren — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:34:00 -0700

Online storage site Dropbox has released a free iPhone app that lets you access your files on the go.

Review: OWC Mercury Pro 8X Blu-ray External

James Galbraith — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:00:00 -0700

If you’re looking for a new optical drive, and one that can burn high definition Blu-ray movies as well, OWC’s Mercury Pro 8X Blu-ray Pioneer BDR-203 External drive is worth a look.

Torture tests with the ioSafe Solo hard drive

Chris Holt — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 05:30:00 -0700

Macworld's Chris Holt talks to PC World's Sarah Jacobsson about the ioSafe Solo hard drive and its waterproof and fireproof case.

Review: Buffalo Technology MediaStation 8X External Blu-ray Writer

James Galbraith — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:00:00 -0700

The MediaStation 8X External Blu-ray Writer may not be the prettiest, but it gets the job done the fastest.

Review: ioSafe Solo external hard drive

Chris Holt — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:44:00 -0700

Like an airplane’s black box, the ioSafe solo ensures your data will be kept safe even when confronted with disastrous conditions.

Seagate ships self-encrypting drives for enterprises

Lucas Mearian — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:47:00 -0700

Seagate is offering its self-encrypting drive feature with its entire line of enterprise-class hard disk drives.

Review: Eye-Fi Pro memory card for cameras

Derrick Story — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:00:00 -0700

The Eye-Fi Pro is an SD memory card that provides the option of transferring pictures without cables or card readers to your computer or to an online photo sharing Web site.

Review: Rocstor Rocpro 850 500GB hard drive

Chris Holt — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 02:57:00 -0700

The Rocpro 850 500GB is a solid performer in our benchmarking tests and is further recommended by a strong warranty and a competitive price.

SanDisk launches speedy Extreme Pro CompactFlash Card

Melissa J. Perenson — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:50:00 -0700

The new line of CompactFlash cards offers write speed up to 90MB per second, doubling the maximum throughput on the previous generation of Extreme IV cards.

Xsan update fixes serious screen sharing security problem

Peter Cohen — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:26:00 -0700

Apple's latest update to Xsan Admin fixes a serious security flaw in its screen sharing tool.

Mac News Briefs: Western Digital revamps Mac drives

Macworld Staff — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:22:00 -0700

Western Digital unveiled redesigns for its My Passport and My Book hard drives for the Mac. Also, a number of companies rolled out software updates that added compatibility with Snow Leopard on Thursday. iWebTemplate has seven new templates for use with iWeb. And EditShare's product line is now compatible with the recently updated Final Cut Studio suite.

QNAP offers two network storage devices for small business

Peter Cohen — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:06:00 -0700

QNAP now offers a new four-bay NAS designed to meet the needs of small businesses.

Backblaze gives away its 67TB ‘storage pod’ design

Peter Cohen — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:29:00 -0700

Cloud storage vendor Backblaze has revealed its design of the 67 terabyte "storage pods" it uses for its cloud storage system, enabling anyone with the gumption to create one themselves.

Sonnet offers new RAID 5 storage systems

Peter Cohen — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:08:00 -0700

Sonnet is offering new versions of its D400Q and R400Q four-bay RAID storage systems with integrated RAID 5 support.

Small USB flash drives

Roman Loyola — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:18:00 -0700

In this video, senior editor Roman Loyola takes a quick look at two USB flash drives that are very easy to carry with you all the time: LaCie’s iamaKey and Verbatim’s Tuff-’n’-Tiny.

Iomega intros four-bay NAS

Peter Cohen — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:27:00 -0700

Iomega's new four-bay StorCenter NAS system works with Time Machine and comes with a host of its own software.

Blu-ray tanks in PCs

Lucas Mearian — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:44:00 -0700

Research firm iSuppli released a report showing that Blu-ray Disc players have not seen significant growth in the PC market and will likely not be shipped in...