Product Reviews Net » external hard drive

LaCie Float: Trackpad on a Hard Drive – Why?

Daniel Chubb — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 18:14:28 +0000

We have reported previously about various items that you can expect to get from LaCie including a 500GB Media Server, a Quadra 3TB two-bay RAID solution and more recently an SSD USB 3.0 in varying sizes. Now we want to inform you of one of their latest inventions, the LaCie Float.

The LaCie Float is an external hard drive with a difference; it doubles up as a trackpad. The device was designed by André Duarte Silva. There are two versions of the device, one in SSD and the other in HDD and the entire top panel of the device is used as a trackpad that you can pinch, swipe, navigate and click.

Something that Chris Burns of Slashgear.com is suggesting, is angling towards this becoming some kind of all-in-one machine. To take it a step further, if you were to make a few modifications, add in wireless streaming, a screen, monitor or even a Pico projector with a retractable screen on it, then it could become a sensational invention.

You can read more about the device by heading over to Yanko Design where the device is featured. The LaCie Float isn’t appearing on their official site yet but keep an eye on it here and it should be available soon.

What do you think of this concept? Will you be picking one of these up? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Super Talent’s 3.0 USB External HDD – 500GB for $99

Daniel Chubb — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:22:15 +0000

Super Talent seems to be producing some really high quality goods, including the DDR3 RAM being optimized for Intel’s P55 platform. We also brought you some details about the UltraDrive ME / LE SSDs with their prices.

Now Super Talent brings us a USB 3.0 external hard drive but don’t be worried, it is backwards compatible to 2.0 making it future proof. This is great because whilst USB 2.0 is current you can use the new external HDD, but then when 3.0 take the driving seat you can carry on using it. The only difference you will see is that it just gets quicker with USB 3.0 as the analyst says in the video at the bottom of the article.

The analyst goes on to give a few details about the difference between USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. Apart from having different shaped connections, he says that USB 3.0 has 3 times the power of USB 2.0 and 10 times the bandwidth.

When the storage pod is being used with USB 3.0 it will go as fast as it would on the SATA bus which is astounding for an external device. There are no drivers to install and no power adapters. Can this now be considered as an expansion for your PC?

You can view the press release for the product by clicking here. According to Darren Murphy at Engadget you will be able to pick one of these up next month priced at $99.

Will you be treating yourself to a belated Christmas present? Let me know your thoughts on the product in the comments below.

Sharkoon USB 3.0 HDD enclosures: Specs and Price

Jamie Pert — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 11:51:10 +0000

Over the next few months or so it is thought that more and more motherboard manufacturers etc will begin giving products USB 3.0 support, therefore it is unsurprising to hear that Sharkoon has recently unveiled new USB 3.0 external hard drive enclosures.

From what we can see these new enclosures are called the Rapid Case 2.5″, you can put any 2.5 inch SATA hard drive inside and should offer transfer speeds of up to 5Gbit/s.

These cases are available in black, red or blue, they are pretty small and light, in fact they weigh just 70 grams (when empty) and measure in at 123 x 78 x 11mm.

These new USB 3.0 enclosures will set you back just €22.99, which is a fair price to pay in my opinion, for more details check out the source link below.

Source: SlashGear