storage

Not every day offers $99 iPhones and $25 TV tuners. Sometimes, the deals are small and unexciting, the items utilitarian.

So it is today: Newegg has a 4GB Kingston SDHC memory card for $6.99. No rebates, no shipping charges.

That's the lowest price I've seen yet on a 4GB card (though only by $1). If you found a new digital camera under the tree last month, you definitely need high-capacity storage to go with it. A 4GB card can store about 800 10-megapixel snapshots or 60 minutes of video.

And, hey, there's nothing wrong with packing … Read more

I just ran across this video from Sun Microsystems that demonstrates a source of disk latency that we usually don't think about. It's short and quite amusing. Take a look.

But being the analyst that I am, I also wanted to highlight some of the pieces that make the demonstration possible.

The technology that's under the covers, measuring the disk latency and so forth, is DTrace, a component of Solaris, originally developed by Bryan Cantrill. By way of background, here's what I wrote upon its introduction in Solaris 10:

DTrace stands for "Dynamic Tracing" … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Iomega, which, with its Zip drive, once practically had the monopoly on portable storage, now has plenty of competition. But it's not sitting still.

At the Consumer Electronics Show here, Iomega showed off a network-attached hard drive that sells for $159 for a 500GB version, or $229 for a one terabyte version. Once attached to a home router, the network drive can be accessed by PCs, Macs, PlayStation 3s, and Xbox 360s. In addition to regular data, it can, of course, store media files that can be played by any of those devices.

Iomega's Bill Hansen talks … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Network-attached storage for the home has been around for a while. It typically consists of an external disk drive surrounded by technology to connect it to a router so it can be accessed anywhere on your network or, via the Internet, from anywhere in the world. At the Consumer Electronics Show here, Daniel Putterman of Cloud Engines showed off a new device that allows you to inexpensively turn any external drive into a network-attached drive.

The $79 Pogoplug is a small plastic box with an Ethernet plug for your router and a USB plug for an external drive. With … Read more

At this year's CES, Victorinox announced the newest member of its team, the Presentation Pro. This convenient business tool is small enough to slip into your pocket or onto your keychain, but don't be fooled by its mini size--this thing has every gadget you'll need to give a business slide show presentation.

Along with the typical array of scissors and knives that have made Victorinox a household name, the Presentation Pro also builds in a USB thumbdrive with up to 32GB capacity, a precision laser pointer, and even a biometric fingerprint scanner with compartmentalized data storage for … Read more

This year's CES saw the release of Iomega's Home Media Network Drive, a new addition to their line of external storage devices, joining the ranks of similar devices like the Iomega StorCenter and the Iomega StorCenter ix2, but with a few simple changes. First, the drives now come with an easy setup that lets users get up and running sharing media across a network in three easy steps: plug in the drive, power on, and install the included EMC LifeLine Home software that runs on the Linux operating system to contributes to the snag-free process.

Other features of … Read more

Storage giant EMC on Wednesday announced plans to cut 2,400 positions from its workforce, despite expectations of posting record fourth-quarter revenues.

The job cuts will represent 7 percent of the company's workforce, as part of a restructuring program that will also include consolidation of facilities and back office functions, and a rebalancing of products and markets.

EMC expects to cut $350 million in costs this year and as much as $500 million next year.

The cost cuts come as the company issued its preliminary fourth quarter forecast, in which it noted it expects to generate approximately $4 billion … Read more

We're noticing more and more solid-state drives enter the mainstream market; the Intel X-25M drive's blazing fast transfer speed and completely unaffordable price tag felt bittersweet, but the prices aren't quite as bad for lesser quality drives like the Patriot Warp V.2. SSDs are popping up more often in the world of Netbooks, but we rarely see standalone external SSD.

Luckily, G-Technology made good use of this year's Macworld Expo by introducing a new family of external solid-state hard drives. Both the G-Drive mini SSD and the RAID 0/1 G-RAID mini SSD use 2.… Read more

The widespread proliferation of sensitive data via USB thumbdrives demands a need for data encryption, and SanDisk is stepping up to bat. Their newest Ultra Backup USB flash drive uses both password protection and 256-bit AES hardware encryption to reduce holes in vulnerability across the board.

Sandisk's entire line of USB flash drives, including their Cruzer series, is also getting a much-deserved makeover. The new designs use a capless design and have a convenient LED that glows amber while the drive is in use. In addition, all the drives will continue to use U3 Smart technology that lets users … Read more