I forgot to blog about it a few days ago. Though only speculated a few decades back, the memristor is only discovered now.
Called the enigmatic 4th dimension of the electric circuit (the others are the resistor, capacitor and inductor), it’s a layer of titanium dioxide sandwiched by 2 electrodes. The HP geeks discovered that its resistance relies on the previous charge in it. The keyword here is previous. This means it can store data even when the power is shut off.
Yawn, just like flash memory.
But wait. The difference is that it stores data faster and at greater density.
Verdict: The difference is speculative at best. Pure science. Not much technology yet.
OWC has just given those of us who hate to delete anything and want to carry around our entire library of movies, music, and pictures a reason to live.
OWC is now revealing their newest hard drive in their Mercury On-The-Go brand. It’s a massive half-terabyte, or 500GB, hard drive that you can easily connect to whatever computer you’re using at the time.
The Mercury On-The-Go 500GB pocket drive can be connected with Firewire 800, Firewire 400, or USB 2.0. You’ll also find a copy of Prosoft DataBackup III for OS X and NovaStor NovaBackup for Windows included to make your installation a breeze. The Mercury moves at 5,400RPM, and has 8MB of cache drive.
The only down side to this thing… the $360.00 price tag.
Are you in the market for a 4Gb flash drive? How about one that also doubles as a TV tuner?
Buffalo has come out with it’s DH-KONE4G/U2DS (why can’t they ever think of anything other than numbers and letters for names?), the latest 1Seg TV tuner USB dongle. So if you’re ever out and not only want to carry your files with you but want to catch your favorite show at the same time… you can!
The Buffalo DH-KONE4G/U2DS includes 4GB of internal memory which gives you the ability of recording up to 20h of TV programs directly on the USB key. It could possibly be low quality video but still… ya gotta admit… pretty cool.
There is a trend a brewing in the world of flash drives. Small is coming. And maybe in?
Imitation has just launched it’s tiny “Atom” flash drive and is it a coincidence that it came just one day after Super Talent’s announcement of their “world’s smallest” drive?
Super Talent’s moniker of “world’s smallest” flash drive is still safe with the “Atom” coming in at 30.5 x 13 x 5.6mm, but the Atom does come with an aluminum design.
The Atom is available in storage sizes ranging from 1Gb to 8Gb and can be carried around on a keychain. One of the great things about this drive is that it is password protected and has the ability to share data with other users. If you like your drives small then this sounds like a great one. The Atom is available now but no word on pricing yet.
Super Talent has put together what is the world’s smallest flash drive but that isn’t the best part. The Super Talent flash drive is packs a mammoth storage capacity of 8GB. That’s enough to carry pretty much anything you want to while you’re on the go.
Cost wise, the Super Talent 8GB flash drive is pretty reasonable. At only $35 (I paid that for my 1GB drive) I can see myself stocking up on a few of these little gems. I know I’ll lose a few along the way. I just hope I don’t leave any damaging pictures on it!
What do you think? How many are you going to pick up?
We live in a technical world. Gadgets make the world go round right now and if you’re disconnected for just a little while you might miss something. When I’m traveling out in the big wide world I have to stay connected for work purposes, but it also helps me stay close to home. Traveling is lonely sometimes and just knowing that I can email, IM, text, watch video, and Skype my family back home is a wonderful feeling. So, gadgets and tech devices play a huge part in my traveling.
While there are those cool things I do travel with (laptop, phone, ipod, and camera) there are those things I’d love to carry in my travel bag. Here’s nine of them.
In the world of mobile gadgets and super lightweight laptop computers it is looking like the MacBook Air is taking a pretty large lead. Of course, I could have gone with one of the micro computers under $500 and save myself $1000, but in the end I like a full size keyboard and 13 inch display. The real deal maker is, let’s face it, how thin it is.
If you haven’t gotten sick of hearing about how great the iPhone is yet, give it some time. The way things are going, with the new improvements that are being announced, iPhone is setting itself up to be the world’s first “must have” smartphone/mini computer. Besides the obvious reason of needing a cellphone (do you really need one?) I can play games, text family, watch streaming video, listen to music, and have access to internet for blogging, writing, and keeping in touch with clients. The iPhone also negates the need for any type of flash drive as it’s capacity is enough for anything I would travel with.
The Sony Xacti CG9 is a compact 9.1 megapixel camera that takes both video and still images. I love taking pictures while I’m out, again for work purposes, and also or showing my family where I’ve been, and this camera is super lightweight, compact and sleek. I realize the iPhone has video and picture taking ability also, but I like to have my camera separate.
While running around with a digital camera chances are you’re going to need a SSD card to house all that video and pictures. The Sanyo Xacti CG9 is HD so I’ll need the ScanDisk 4GB SDHC Memory Card W/SDHC Memory Card Reader in order to be able to upload my videos. Plus, this comes with a handy little USB card reader too. Personally, I take a lot of pictures and am awful at downloading them so I’ll probably need a few of these.
Traveling with a load of gadgets that need to be plugged in, or in need of recharging is a royal pain. I hate it when I forget my charger for something and see it die while on the road. Or, getting to the hotel only to find that they don’t have the right plug in. The Belkin STD11, which is going to be released soon, will take care of that for me. At only $25 it’s a pretty wise purchase for someone who is on the go a lot.
This is something I definitely need while on the go. I don’t usually use cash anymore but I always like to have a little bit of emergency funds available when traveling without putting it into my wallet. So, I picked up one of these Stashcards up for just $10 and stow it in my computer. It can hold cash, credit card, and ssd cards. It’s pretty handy and there have been times when I’ve lost my wallet, had it stolen, or just plain forgot it that I was glad I had this thing. It’s not exactly a safe, and if your laptop gets swiped you’ll lose your cash, but for what I keep in it it’s not that much of a loss.
The Tumi Ultra Slim Universal Power Adaptor Kit is the ultimate moblie gadget. It allows you to plug any of your electronic devices in where ever you are. Hotel, car, and plane this thing has been a major life saver for me on just about every trip. Especially when I’m traveling on the road. Not that I drive and surf at the same time, but when I’m a passenger, stopping to eat, or taking a break from the long drive, it’s nice to be able to plug in the laptop (while saving battery life) and stay in touch with email and/or clients. The Tumi adapter is a little bit pricey but is a pretty good investment if you travel a lot.
It never fails. I always need a knife, screwdriver, scissors, or piers. Since I don’t carry around a toolbox with me where ever I go, I do keep my leatherman in my bag. Of course, I don’t take it on plane trips, but for road trips it’s a necessity.
Now that you’ve seen all the junk that I would love to take with me, and in most cases do, what in the world do you put it all in. Besides a small travel bag for clothes and person affects, I like to keep my other stuff in a Clyde City Gusset bag. It’s waterproof. It’s got sidepockets for the iPhone. Plenty of space with an Air in it for all the other gadgets. And looks cool. Which is the most important part of it anyway.
Technology mogul, Asus, has launched something new - MS71, first seen at Cebit 2008. It looks like a tricked-out, custom USB flash drive, but there’s more…
The MS71 is a mix of two of the most different computer products in the world. The result is in the picture. MS71 is a wireless laser mouse with built-in flash memory. This beast consists of two parts: mouse transmitter and receiver (mouse itself); it has locking magnetic mechanism that allows to unite two parts in one device and use it as a flash drive. Another plus: When plugged in, the MS71 not only stores memory- it charges the wireless mouse. Oooohh! Aaahhh!Sure, who the hell wants a mouse/USB flash?! Well, we think that this may be a hit with all you laptop users because of how ocmpact it is and how much less it is to be worried about carrying. Some details are still unknown (like pricing) but Asus will be sure to release that in the near future… Until then, admire it:
Just how many flash drives can one person possibly need? A lot, apparently, and Ultra Products is well tuned to that need. Specially made for people out there who simply can’t get enough of flash drives, Ultra released a 6 in 1 flash drive aptly called Ultra SpaceStation.
The SpaceStation boasts of six small thumb drives that can pop out one by one and can easily be concealed also. You have the option of using only one of the thumb drives, of course, giving the illusion that you have a one big happy flash drive, physically. It will still show up as 6 individual drives once connected to your pc.
The downside is that chances of plugging in all thumb drives at the same time is close to zero as it’s design hardly caters to the usual usb hubs on our computers.
But if you can’t really resist having the SpaceStation you can choose from the 2 versions: the 12 GB or the 6 GB for $60-$90.
Do you remember 256 MB hard drives? What about 64 MB? Yes, we’re going way back in history when computers were for word processing and Pong. It seemed to us, those of us who were born before 1989, that we didn’t have to worry about using up all the storage space on our computers. It just wouldn’t happen.
Look how far we’ve traveled (fallen?) along the Great Technology Highway. Now we use up hard drive space as quickly as we can upgrade them. I mentioned in an earlier post how I had been filling up all my hard drives and, that as crazy as it seems, I just didn’t have enough storage. That post got me thinking about moving up from the GB range into the realm of the Terabyte.
Here’s five 1TB drives that I am dreaming about.
LaCie 1TB Desktop Hard Drive This sleek creation from LaCie is cased in aluminum and is pretty cool to look at. It’s an external drive that has 7200 rpm spindle speeds and connects via USB 2.0. However, we will have to wait and see for sure how great it is as there is no release date or price as of yet.
Although I like the looks of it, I am more interested in a mobile drive that I can take with me while traveling. That doesn’t mean I’m not intrigued by it. It’ll look cool next to my USB Bar-B-Q.
LaCie - LaCinema Premier While this doesn’t exactly fit the mobile criteria I’m looking for it is definitely something to drool over. The LaCinema Premier is a multi media hard drive that you can hook directly to your TV for viewing of movies, videos, and pictures. Now that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout! My hard drives are mostly packed with movies, music, and pictures. If I could clear those onto a dedicatedlarge capacity storage device I would have loads of room for other things… like games!
The LaCinema Premier is capable of handling MPEG1/2/4, ISO, IFO, VOB, MP3, WMA, AC3, OGG, JPEG, BMP, TIF and PNG file formats. It runs at 7200 rpm’s and outputs via composite / S-Video / component. And it has a remote! The only drawback is the pricetag ($600+) for the 1Tb version.
Hitachi Easy Hard Drive This one has been around since last summer but I couldn’t pass it up. I guess the only thing that makes this different from any other external hard drives is the look. It packs in a full Tb of data, movies, music, pictures, and books.
The only drawback that I can see is that it’s AC powered. I hope the fusebox can handle another plug!
Philips SPD5130It’s mobile. It’s shiny. It connects via USB 2.0. Could this be the one? Philips is no stranger to extrenal hard drives but the SPD5130 has a nice 32MB buffer for enhanced transfer stability.
The casing will protect it some while you’re out and about and it runs quiet, smooth, and cool. The price tag does hurt a little bit, around $499, but hoping it will come down soon.
Buffalo MiniStation TurboUSB I know. It’s only 500GB and this is suppose to be about 1TB hard drives. The only reason I’m including it is because it’s small. It doesn’t take up a lot of space in a bag and can still hold a tremendous amount of space. Buffalo says that it’s 30% faster than most USB hard drives and it is shock resistant. That is especially appealing to me as I tend to drop (read: throw) things a lot when they don’t work right.
And you can always get two to make up the 1TB storage. The cost might stop you though. At $329 a piece that’ll add up to a nice chunk of change. Maybe you could wear them around your neck as added bling?
Riding on the wave of the announcement that their 2.5 inch, 500Gb mobile hard drive is ready for shipment, Samsung is making things really interesting with their latest goody.
It seems that Samsung can now hold the title for the industry’s fastest DVD burner. The Super-WriteMaster SH-S223 drive is capable of writing in all DVD formats and boasts an astounding writing speed of 22x speed to DVD±R media, 12x to DVD-RAM, 16x to DVD+R dual layer, 12x DVD-R dual layer, 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW.
To produce a 4.7Gb disc only takes 4 minutes and 26 seconds which is a 6% increase over a 20x burner. The Super-WriteMaster SH-S223 is available for shipping now, with a whole host of software for burning videos, photos, and data, but there is no mention of cost right now.
