Category: Storage

References to GDrive Appear in Google Pack File

GDrive Reference

Some references to the long rumored Google service “GDrive” have appeared in a file used by Google Pack. The file categorizes GDrive as a Online file backup and Storage service and has the following description:

“GDrive provides reliable storage for all of your files, including photos, music and documents. GDrive allows you to access your files from anywhere, anytime, and from any device – be it from your desktop, web browser or cellular phone.”

This is some pretty hard evidence that GDrive is indeed a reality but truthfully other than the fact that it will be done in Google’s own style the service will really only be an online storage service.

Currently the online storage service is chock full of competitors and even though Google will come in a bully them around a bit there is no indication to me that Google will do it right. To have a great online storage service you need to have some sort of desktop app. I can’t think of a single desktop application from Google that I would actually install on my computer. The only app that is even worth looking at is Picasa, but that is only because in the Windows world there aren’t any good free photo management applications and Picasa is the best option.

I know that everyone wants to look at Google as this big friendly company that can do no wrong but from what I can see, the only services that they built themselves that are worth using is their search engine and Gmail, everything else that I use (and probably most of you use) are apps that Google acquired.

I hope that Google can get it right, I really do, but from my perspective there really are no indications that they can do it.

First Official Description of GDrive.

Western Digital Introduces 2.5″ 300GB 10,000 RPM VelociRaptor Hard Drive

Western Digital released a 320GB VelociRaptor a few months ago which was essentially a 10,000 RPM 2.5″ hard drive in an enclosure that was 3.5″ which left me wondering how long it would take for Western Digital to release a true 2.5″ version of it.

The day has finally come, Western Digital is soon beginning selling 10,000 RPM 2.5″ 300GB hard drives for low-power, high-performance blade server applications. The drives are specially designed to fit nicely within 1U and 2U rack servers.

Not only does this VelociRaptor consume 35% less power than previous Raptor drives but this one also has 16MB of cache and a 1.4 million mean time before failure rating.

The price is not yet announced but the drives will be available later this month.

PR News Wire

Seagate Announces 1.5TB Hard Drive

Yesterday Seagate announced the Barracuda 7200.11, a 1.5TB hard drive. The largest 3.5″ hard drive available, the drive is 7200RPM drive. It isn’t exactly the most power effecient drive but it sure does get the job done if you need to store that much data.

The drive has 4 platters and uses a Serial ATA 3Gb/second interface and is capable of sustaining 120MB/s. The drive will be release in August 2008.

There is no word on pricing yet but hopefully they won’t be charging too much for this drive. Hard drives keep getting bigger and bigger at a pretty rapid pace, I remember when a 250GB hard drive was considered big.

Seagate
Actual hard drive not pictured

Microdia Announces 64GB CompactFlash Card

Mircodia will be the first to bring a 64GB CompactFlash card to market. The high capacity card will be named the Microdia 64GB XTRA ELITE CF, the card is capable of 45MB/second read and write speeds and can hold up to 19,000 high resolution JPEGs from a 20MP camera.

There is no word on pricing but the card will hit store shelves in Australia this month.

Gizmodo

Published
Categorized as Storage

Samsung Announces 256GB SSD

Samsung recently announced a 256GB SSD, the MLC-flash SATA II drive has speeds of 200MBps read and 160MBps sequential write.

Samsung claims that this is the largest capacity SSD with a SATA II interface, they are also stating mean time before failures of 1 million hours. Power consumption is down to 0.9 watts in “active mode.”

The drives will be available in September with a 1.8″ version due in Q4.

No word on pricing yet but expect this to be quite an expensive little drive. I’m not sure who would really spring for one of these, unless there are some high end video professionals out there that need 160MBps write speeds.

ZDnet

Western Digital Releases VelociRaptor 10,000 RPM 300GB Hard Drive

The 10,000 RPM VelociRaptor hard drive is actually a 2.5″ hard drive enclosed in a 3.5″ form factor heat sink. The VelociRaptor 300 is a 300GB hard drive with a 3.0Gbps SATA interface, Western Digital says that the drive is capable of sustaining 120MB/s which is incredibly fast for a single hard drive.

AnandTech reports that the drive averages about 98.4MB/s. This difference in speed is mostly due to the fact that reading data from the outside of the platter won’t be as fast as reading data from the inside of the platter.

The drive will be priced at $300 which is a great deal considering how fast it is. The drive will surely make a dent in the enterprise market where fast drive speeds are a must and I would imagine that this drive would also do pretty well for media professionals capturing video to hard drives.

Western Digital

Fujitsu Announces a 320GB 7200RPM Laptop Hard Drive

Fujitsu has announced the world’s fastest 320GB laptop hard drive. The previously fastest 320GB laptop drive spun at 5400RPM but Fujitsu has just upped that to 7200RPMs.

The MHZ2 BJ series has a 3Gbps SATA interface and are standard size laptop drives which means they will fit in practically all notebooks out there. The drives feature 16MB of cache and 25dB idle noise. Average seek times are listed at 10.5ms for read times and 12.5ms for write times. The drives consume 2.3 watts of power and will be available in June.

It’s amazing how fast the hard drive market moves, I remember just a year or two ago when a 160GB notebook hard drive was a big deal, heck I remember when a 160GB desktop hard drive was a big deal.

Impress

Samsung Announces Industry’s Fastest DVD Burner and Smallest 500GB HDD

Samsung announced a brand new hard drive for laptops, the Spinpoint M6 is the world’s first 2.5″ 500GB hard drive. The drive is a pretty fast performer as well with its 5400RPM spindle speed, 8MB of cache, and its 3.0Gbps SATA interface it is as fast as any other notebook drive (all of the 5400RPM ones that is). The drive also has an optional free-fall sensor.

Samsung also announced the industry’s fastest DVD burner. The WriteMaster SH-S223 will allow you to burn at up to 22x even on media that is rated 16x and at up to 12x on media that is rated at 8x. The drive will be able to write at 22x DVD+/-R, 12x DVD-RAM, 16x DVD+R Dual Layer, 12x DVD-R Dual Layer, 8x DVD+RW, and 6x DVD-RW. This drive is quite the speed demon, writing 4.7GB of data to a DVD+/-R disc can be done in approximately 4 minutes and 26 seconds.

Samsung is doing pretty well in the drive department.

Gizmag

Fujitsu Announces 400GB and 500GB 2.5″ Hard Drives

This week Fujitsu announced two new 2.5 inch hard drives that push the capacity of notebook hard drives to 400GB and 500GB.

The two new models will begin shipping in May, and the companies says that it hopes to ship 20 million of them in this fiscal year.

The drives aren’t exactly the fastest drives around, they only have a 4,200RPM spindle speed while most other laptop hard drives spin at 5,400RPM and some as fast as 7,200. The hard drives do consume relatively low power, only 1.8 watts when reading or writing.

With notebook hard drive capacities moving so quickly it is going to be harder and harder for many consumers to justify purchasing a large desktop computer instead of a smaller notebook. I’ll still be a desktop guy though, I just need the money to have the luxury of two decently powered computers (a desktop and a notebook).

Crave

Western Digital Announces 320GB Laptop Drive

Western Digital has always been my favorite hard drive maker, mostly because of their 10,000RPM hard drives but also because I’ve always felt that they were smart about business. Well, Western Digital gave me another reason to love them when yesterday they announced a 320GB 2.5″ 5400RPM hard drive.

The 320GB hard drive will begin shipping immediately and should begin showing up in computers and stores in December.

“It’s looking like people are willing to trade performance for attributes that were important before, like power and acoustics,” a Western Digital rep said. “They want that small form factor in their home and the highest capacity available to store all their data.”

Western Digital shipped their first 160GB laptop drive in 2006 and their first 250GB laptop drives in May of this year, it looks like the hard drive companies are pushing capacities bigger and bigger with seemingly no end in sight (however, I do believe that for most people a 160GB hard drive is plenty for the next couple of years, just my opinion).

This is most likely going to be my next hard drive, currently I have a 160GB hard drive but I’m expecting that with my ever increasing media library I will be needing an upgrade soon (I’m not the average user, I buy a lot of TV shows through iTunes).

ComputerWorld