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LaCie Starck: External hard drives get trendy

If you're into high-class fashion, LaCie has something for you. The company has come out with two new external hard drives by famed French designer Philippe Starck, who makes everything from furniture to clothes to luggage.

Other than the fact that they offer extra storage, the LaCie Starck Desktop Hard Drive and the LaCie Starck Mobile Hard Drive come with a bit of fashion flair. Both are housed in a distinctive-looking, sturdy aluminum case that protects the internal drives from shocks.

While the LaCie Starck Mobile Hard Drive seems to be just a plain yet good-looking compact USB external … Read more

Add more USB ports to your laptop with style

With every new USB device I acquire, my desire for my Dell XPS M1330 laptop to have more than just two USB ports grows stronger. Perhaps now I can finally get my wish.

Tuesday, LaCie introduced two stylish USB 2.0 hubs, the Core4 and Core7, which seem like they will work well with laptops. Designed by Sam Hecht--an award-winning, U.K.-based, industrial designer--these two hubs offer functionality, portability, and style. Both come in a compact form factor, with cables tucked away when not in use.

The Core4 supports up to four USB devices, while the Core7 can … Read more

LaCie's 'Big'-brand network storage gets bigger

LaCie has been busy. Just a little while ago, it joined the cloud storage market by acquiring Wuala, and now it's expanding its network storage products.

The company announced Monday a significant upgrade to its "Big"-branded line of products with the LaCie 2Big and LaCie 5Big network-attached storage devices. These two products come with advanced features, comprehensive backup support, and flexible storage expansion.

The LaCie 5Big comes with five hard drive bays and offers storage up to 10TB. Its hard drive can be set up in seven different RAID configurations. It also supports Apple's Time … Read more

LaCie's rugged external hard drive gets bigger

If you own a compact Rugged All-Terrain external hard drive from LaCie, you know how tough the device is. It has a rubber bumper, and the scratch-protected aluminum case can take a serious beating.

Now the same drive has evolved to a bigger physical size with larger storage capacity.

LaCie announced Tuesday the new Rugged LX external hard drive that shares the same distinctive design by Neil Poulton.

The new drive is now based on a 3.5-inch internal hard drive and is therefore much bigger than the Rugged All-Terrain, measuring 8.46 inches by 5.11 inches by 1.… Read more

LaCie merges with online-storage start-up Wuala

LaCie, known in the United States for its external-storage products such as the LaCie Biggest, announced on Thursday its merger with Caleido, the Swiss creator of an online storage service called Wuala.

The move is a sign that LaCie intends to enter the cloud storage service market.

Unlike the established LaCie, which was founded in France in 1989, Wuala is still a relatively new start-up. Before the merger, the company's personnel included just 11 people, including two part-timers. Nonetheless, Wuala has gained substantial traction with tens of thousands of users, mostly Europeans.

Wuala's service include innovative online storage … Read more

LaCie's key-shaped USB drives: Tough, stylish

LaCie recently introduced three key-shaped USB-storage devices, including two USB drives--the itsKey and the iamaKey--and one USB microSD card reader, the PassKey.

I got my hands on the iamaKey today and loved it. The drive is about the same shape and size as a small house key and is literally as tough as a nail, but it looks much better than a nail.

Designed by 5.5 Designers, the award-winning studio that focuses on research and consulting, the iamaKey and the two others look stylish and can fit conveniently in a pocket or on a key ring.

All three key-shaped … Read more

Finding the right open-source price

I'm currently working on pricing models for several new open-source companies, and I keep running into a similar set of challenges. The primary issue is that when you shrink a market, as open source does, you must to find a pricing model that solves the equation, meaning that your costs must substantially lower in order for you to make money.

Customers assume that open source is free and that commercial open source is cheaper, but most companies aren't prepared to deal with the implications of having a lower-cost product. Even when you can clearly demonstrate value, you run … Read more