Posted 11/19/09 at 08:16:31 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Imation has announced the release of the first external hard drive to use wireless USB. The Pro WX Wireless USB hard drive packs a standard 1.5TB 3.5” drive, with an SSD upgrade kit coming soon. The transfer speed are said to be a respectable, but not great, 15 MB/sec.

Per the wireless USB standard, the Pro WX supports one to one connection that should limit the possibility that someone else can connect to your hard drive. But being that this is the first wireless USB hard drive, there hasn’t yet been a real world test of security. Backups can be triggered whenever the drive is within 30 feet of the (very large) receiver.

The Pro WX Wireless USB hard drive is available for purchase now for 500 smackers. The price may be a bit steep, but think how cool you’ll look not having to plug your hard drive in to anything… wait, what? Power cord? Um, can we get on that wireless power thing? At least it eliminates one of two cables.

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Posted 10/19/09 at 09:42:00 AM by Paul Lilly

Now that the spec has been finalized and controllers in mass production, we expect to see a lot of USB 3.0 devices in the coming weeks and months, particularly as companies look to brand their products as the "world's first" in their respective categories. Enter Dane-Elec, who claims its new line of external hard drives is the first to take advantage of the new spec (Freecom would disagree).

Plenty of storage options abound in the So SuperSpeed line, ranging in capacity from 500GB to 2TB. The series will also include Intel-branded USB 3.0 solid state drives (SSDs) with data transfer speeds of up to 250MB/s, Dane-Elec says. At full-bore, that's almost 10 times faster than currently available USB 2.0 devices.

Pricing for the new drives will start at $45 on the lower end and work its way up to $800. Catch a glimpse of the full lineup (with prices) here.

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Posted 04/07/09 at 05:09:57 PM by Andy Salisbury

If you’ve heard of Brando (and you probably haven’t), you know that they often create wacky products that few would genuinely find useful (I’m looking at you, USB dock/thermometer). But, it looks like they’ve finally struck some gold with the SATA HDD Dock Station Combo Stereo Speaker + Hub.

The Dock Station is a (you guessed it) dock that features compatibility for 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SATA drives, as well as space for up to two USB 2.0 devices. It also has USB audio, three-watt speakers and volume control right on the surface. And, while the speakers may not blow away of the audiophiles in the audience, it is a nice multitasker that can help assist a laptop user’s music experience, as well as provide a healthy dose of external storage.

If you’re looking to snag one of these, you can get it off of Brando’s site for $59.

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Posted 11/13/08 at 12:05:12 PM by David Murphy

In some alternate world, Fabrik’s SimpleTech Redrive is winning a Kick Ass award from Green PC—Maximum PC’s eco-conscious sister publication. This is the most environmentally friendly external storage device we’ve ever tested. From its packaging, to its construction, to its guts, the Redrive is designed with a single purpose in mind: saving the planet. As a byproduct of this, the drive saves you energy and, consequently, money.

More of this eco-friendly review after the jump! 

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Posted 10/03/08 at 04:55:16 PM by Andy Salisbury

With a design so simple it falls under the “I-can’t-believe-no-one-else-thought-of-this-before” category, Sangho Jin of Yanko Design’s hanging hard drive concept is looking to clear up desk clutter, one tiny footprint at a time.

The hanging hard drive, which would mount to your laptop’s screen, provides a nice way to add additional storage to your machine without using valuable desk space. Granted, this simple shift in external HDD placement wouldn’t change any lives, there are definitely plenty of laptop users out there worried about aesthetics (looking at you, Mac users), and to them this will be a welcome change.

“Portable hard drives are not really THAT portable if you have to tote around another peripheral but maybe you should have bought a laptop with a bigger hard drive! OOO Zing! No I didn’t! Yes, yes I did just go there,” writes Yanko Design’s Long Tran on the concept’s page, “Kidding aside, the Hang it On hard drive encloser lets you hang you 2.5” companion off the back of your lappie’s LCD screen. Sure, now your MacBook Air looks like it has a tumor growing off it’s svelt lines but at least you’ll get more than a measily 80GB.”

Well said, Mr. Tran. Well said.

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Posted 11/09/07 at 03:06:13 PM by David Murphy

We’ll get the bad news out of the way first. You aren’t going to win any speed competitions with Toshiba’s Portable External Hard Drive; we tested a 200GB version (the device itself comes in capacities ranging from 100GB to 200GB), and the resulting benchmark numbers are nothing for Toshiba to be proud of.

Click Read More for more.

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