News

While the mobile market has grown, there are still places with spotty cell coverage and then you have to worry about your data plan while on vacation. Most hotels come with some sort of internet connectivity, but it is limited to a device or two. What happens when you travel with lots of devices and need to connect them all? D-Link has a solution for you in the DIR-510L portable router and charger with storage capabilities.Next Page »

We are fans of security products. We are even bigger fans of security products that don't require custom software solutions or have limited operating system support. The Kingston DataTraveler 2000 is a secure flash drive that requires no software on the host computer. All of the security is built into the drive and it works with anything that supports USB mass storage.Next Page »

We still accept that devices run out of storage. Our mobile phones and tablets can have lots of storage for cheap (flash prices are cheap), but the market still accepts devices with 16GB of storage as the norm. Without having expandable storage, that space runs out quickly. Kingston steps in with the Mobilelite Wireless G3 to solve that need.Next Page »

You're sitting with a slightly older laptop or other type of computer that lacks a SD card reader built in and you think to yourself... "I should get a card reader for this thing." Two things to make sure of are the portability and that it can read the most common sizes of cards along with the current formats. Thankfully, the Kingston Mobilelite G4 reads SDXC cards in both full and micro sizes and is $10 to boot.Next Page »

There's a trend in mobile devices. More and more of them are removing the external storage option. What was once a big feature has now been pushed aside for unified internal storage. Sure, it makes it more streamlined in the user experience, but you lose the ability to expand your storage. Worse, you lose the ability to backup data directly. Enter Kingston with the Mobilelite Wireless to fix this problem.Next Page »

Nothing beats a vacation. Well, except when you bring your mobile device with you and can't decide on what videos or music you should load since you don't have enough storage space. That part isn't so good, but why should you have to make that choice? Enter the Kingston Wi-Drive to mitigate your extra storage needs. It works with Android and iOS devices and is a portable NAS for your mobile devices.Next Page »

Technology marches forward. Remember SDHC topping out at 32GB? Yeah, we are over that now. Move over, Kingston has a new 128GB SDXC card to handle all your content creation projects with a single card. Don't want to juggle multiple, low capacity, cards? This review is for you.Next Page »

Small and medium business may look to the SOHO market to find inexpensive devices to fulfill a requirement without thinking down the road. Thinking ahead saves you time and money and that's where we find ourselves with the DS712+ from Synology. This NAS is targeting to the higher end crowd than the previously reviewed models and the horsepower proves that it is capable of delivering where it counts.Next Page »

While the DS210j was a nice simple server, there are people that require more horsepower from a dedicated storage and application server. Synology has just released the DS211 which doubles the speed and memory from the older, SOHO targeted, unit. The DiskStation Manager 3.0 software rounds out the product for a smash hit.Next Page »

There are occasions where you need to transport information of a sensitive nature while not worrying if it gets into the wrong hands. For that reason, many companies have created flash drives with a focus squarely being on security. We at ASE Labs have reviewed such products in the past, but the Imation Defender F200 Biometric Flash Drive is the first one we have seen that forgoes using traditional password encryption. Instead, it uses a fingerprint scanner to protect your data.Next Page »

Another flash drive? You're probably sick of seeing flash drive reviews that basically show a slow device with a moderate capacity. This is different. The Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate is a new USB3 version with write speeds of 60MB/s and reads of 80MB/s. This is more like a SSD than a flash drive.Next Page »

Portable hard drives have come a long way in the last few years. Increases in efficiency and design advancements have allowed them to be viable alternatives to USB flash drives. Verbatim has several portable hard drives on the market. Today, ASE Labs has the Verbatim Titan XS 320GB up for review.Next Page »

A few years ago, Thermaltake released the BlacX. It was one of the first (if not the first) hard drive docking stations for sale. Thermaltake was the company to really push the product to market. Now, Thermaltake is upping the ante by supporting two drives at once.Next Page »

Flash drives are fairly common in today. Lexar has been in the flash field for years. Today, we have the small and sleek Lexar FireFly on the bench at ASE Labs. While Lexar has geared this product towards the youth, anyone will enjoy it just the same.Next Page »

What flash drive design do you prefer? Some people prefer swivel designs with rotating covers, some people like ones where the connector slides out, and still others prefer the classic cap design. Today, ASE Labs has the JumpDrive TwistTurn up on the block. This is Lexar's entry-level submission in the first category.Next Page »

Compact but big on storage capacity, the InSight drive is available in a sleek piano-black finish with capacities of 320GB and 500GB and carries a 5-year limited warranty. With an Always On display, the Verbatim InSight hard drive is a plug-and-play external drive that keeps you in the know - even when it’s disconnected.Next Page »

Corsair has just announced a new line up of SSDs. They will be using the SandForce SF-1200 SSD controller at the heart to provide 280MB/s read and 260MB/s write speeds. They support TRIM and will be available in capacities of 100GB and 200GB. This means that there will be a large chunk of extra storage for block relocation and wear leveling.

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Features

• Maximum sequential read speed 285MB/second
• Maximum sequential write speed 275 MB/second
• Latest generation Sandforce controller and MLC NAND flash for fast performance
• Internal SATA II connectivity
• TRIM support (O/S support required)
• No moving parts for increased durability and reliability and quieter operations over standard hard disk drives
• Decreased power usage for increased notebook or netbook battery life
• 2.5" form factor for your portable computer needs
• Included 2.5" to 3.5" bracket for installation on your desktop computer
• Two year warranty

Press Release: »http://www.aselabs.com/news.php?id=6353

Product Page: http://www.corsair.com/products/ssd_force/

I've longed talked to Western Digital about their thoughts on the SSD market. The story has changed from something like "we are committed to magnetic storage" to "we're timing the market," after the purchase of SiliconSystems. SiliconSystems made SSDs in the form of Compact Flash for the industrial and business market. They didn't make true consumer SSD products, but they weren't traditional CF disks that you would find in a high end DSLR.

Today, Western Digital has announced the SiliconEdge Blue line of SSDs. They range in size from 64GB to 256GB and, based on reports, is using the newer JMicron controller. We like when companies break out of their niche when a newer (and better) technology comes around so we're glad to see WD step up to provide SSDs to the consumer market.

WD set some crazy pricing on these drives. The 128GB is suggested to be $529. We highly doubt that you will purchase this drive for that price. Expect it to be in-line with something like the V Series from Kingston, which uses similar parts.

Product Page: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=789

Panasonic is the latest company to bow to Microsoft's exFAT filesystem for use in its products. exFAT (or FAT64) does bring a few evolutionary things to the FAT filesystem. The partition limitation is now 64ZB (64x2^70 bytes) and file size has been increased to the same limit. Older FAT32 partitions are limited to 4GB per file which is really unacceptable in today's computing world.

The problem with exFAT is that it is patent encumbered so any use of it requires a license to Microsoft. This should stifle industry adoption of the filesystem, but Microsoft is keen on pushing its technology into the market to lock out competing standards (like the patent free EXT4 filesystem or others). Microsoft has long learned to get its technology at the heart of products to force the market to adopt only its technology. exFAT is available on Windows, of course. Mac and Linux, not so much.

The new SDXC format for SecureDigital cards will be standardized on the exFAT filesystem. We have no doubt that open source support will move out of the experimental area soon enough, but standards should be open and not be patent encumbered.

In addition to licensing the exFAT filesystem, Panasonic also received a license for long file name support for FAT32. The full press release is on the next page.Next Page »

Remember when Bluetooth came out? No one bothered to care for a long time until an explosion happened a few years ago. We believe that Wireless USB is in the same boat. The technology solves a problem that people need; the ability to connect peripherals to their computer without a wire. It is just that we are suffering on the implementation and faced without market saturation, the Wireless USB field seems to be stagnating. There are glimmers of hope and Imation brings the first Wireless USB enclosure to the table.Next Page »

Tax documents, company memos and even personal files are just some of the things that you might not want others to be able to see. With those security needs in mind, Kingston has created the DataTraveler Locker+, and ASE Labs has the 16GB model up for review.Next Page »

Take a router, a NAS, and a picture frame. Now smash it together. What is the end result? The D-Link DIR-685 Xtreme N Storage Router. This convergence device matches a router with a LCD picture frame and even manages to squeeze in a drive based NAS as well. Next Page »

SSDs are here to stay. What changes is the segment they can be used in. Kingston has a new approach to a new product in the SSDNow V Series line; The SSD is the boot drive while your spindle drive takes care of all the large amounts of data. You can get the best of both worlds.Next Page »

Kingston has waited a long time before entering the SSD market. Was it worth the wait? The SSDNow V Series shows what a low priced SSD can be given the proper time for the bugs to be worked out. Consumers should be thankful that Kingston waited until the SSD was mature enough to be brought to market with a low price controller. Kingston's brand name still stands strong unlike those of other companies that rushed out SSDs only to have problem after problem.Next Page »

A very long time ago, "experts" in the technology field shouted that the end of magnetic storage was soon to be. It was at the release of the pre-Gigabyte drives that those experts said that magnetic storage would hit a wall in terms of density and the entire storage solution would move to flash. Western Digital scoffs at those so-called "experts" to release a brand new Caviar Green 2TB drive. While those same experts were wrong about magnetic storage limits (for now), SSDs are the future of computer only due to the non-moving parts and high transfer speeds. That being said, magnetic storage brings the highest density possible in the same form factor. SSDs can't touch this yet.Next Page »

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In March 2009 SuperTalent introduced its UltraDrive series to market. This whitepaper outlines some of the performance testing done by SuperTalent showing the outstanding performance of the UltraDrive series. Both UltraDrive series achieved Sequential Read and Write speeds as high as 250MB/sec on the ATTO benchmark. With IOMETER the UltraDrive ME measured over 10,000 Sequential Read IOPS and nearly 16000 Sequential Write IOPS and 6500 Random Read IOPS and around 4000 Random Write IOPS. The UltraDrive LE series (SLC Flash) results were even better for Sequential Write, and Random Read and Write, yielding over 13,000 Sequential Read IOPS and nearly 7500 Random Read IOPS and 5000-6000 Random Write IOPS. Compared to a standard 7200RPM HDD from Seagate the 128GB UltraDrive ME lowered boot time by nearly 70 percent; booting the system in just over 9 seconds vs. nearly 30 seconds. Although the UltraDrives are available in densities ranging from 32GB to 256GB this whitepaper will focus on the performance of the 54-256GB Density Products.

Link: http://www.supertalent.com/products/ssd_detail.php?type=UltraDrive&eid=30295

There are a few trends in computing technology that are happening now. One of them seems to be the moving away from optical media in favor of some type of flash memory. While the death of optical media may be premature, the majority of boxed hardware comes specifically on this type of media. Optical drives are here to stay for a bit longer and LITEON's latest 22x iHAS422 is a good drive to own.Next Page »

ASE Labs has taken a close look at Honeywell's new SecuraDrive. These slim USB hard drives will be released as 250GB and 500GB units. A simple wave of the little RFID tag over the drive, activates and deactivates the AES 128 bit encryption, ensuring that private data is kept secure.Next Page »

WD's Eco-friendly, Cool and Quiet, WD Caviar Green Drive Marks the Largest Capacity Hard Drive in the Industry

LAKE FOREST, Calif. -- Jan. 27, 2009 -- WD (NYSE: WDC) today announced the first 2 terabyte (TB) hard drive - the world's highest capacity drive and the latest addition to WD's popular, environmentally friendly, cool and quiet, WD Caviar Green hard drive family. This new 3.5-inch platform is based on WD's industry-leading 500 GB/platter technology (with 400 Gb/in2 areal density) with 32 MB cache, producing drives with capacities of up to 2 TB.

"While some in the industry wondered if the end consumer would buy a 1 TB drive, already some 10 percent of 3.5-inch hard drive sales are at the 1 TB level or higher, serving demand from video applications and expanding consumer media libraries," said Mark Geenen, President of Trend Focus. "The 2 TB hard drives will continue to satisfy end user's insatiable desire to store more data on ever larger hard drives."

WD Caviar Green is one of the most successful product lines in the company's recent history with its third-generation GreenPower technology, now providing 2 TB of proven reliable storage for today's high-resolution files and graphics. WD Caviar Green drives are designed for use in USB/FireWire/eSATA external hard drives, desktop computers, workstations, and desktop RAID environments.

"Saving power without sacrificing storage capacity is what consumers want, and what many businesses are requiring today. With the launch of the new WD Caviar Green 2 TB hard drive, customers receive the additional capacities needed to operate today's highly advanced programs and high-resolution digital files while using less power than typical drives with similar performance and capacities," said Jim Morris, WD senior vice president and general manager of client systems.

http://www.wdc.com

Solid state disk technology is one of the best things to happen to computers and Intel hits a home run with the X25-M SSD. Next Page »