The external hard disk drive market is incredibly hot right now, but it’s also ultra-competitive. The latest trend is dockable multi-function drives that are friendlier to use and offer advanced features like video playback. Most docks rely on USB 2.0, but Seagate just dropped a bomb on the industry with a simple twist: They moved the intelligence outside the case, repackaging the standard internal SATA connector as GoFlex, an external link to a variety of docks and adapters.
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One More Reason to Buy a Jawbone Icon Headset: A2DP Bluetooth Audio!
I’ve been pretty pleased with my Jawbone Icon headset. It has good battery life, clear audio, and is comfortable to wear for an extended period (once I found a loop that works for my ears). But Aliph’s claim that the Jawbone Icon could be upgraded with “apps” was underwhelming: None of the launch apps were compelling, and the app site itself remains in beta. But the company redeemed itself last week by releasing something I’d long hoped for: Bluetooth A2DP streaming audio support as an app.
Should Home Users Buy Enterprise Hard Disk Drives?
Are “enterprise” drives worth the extra cost in a RAID enclosure? The reason I ask is I’ve had 2 of 4 Seagate ‘consumer’ (7200.12) drives fail in my (Other World Qx2) enclosure. The two drives that failed were maybe a year old, well short of any ‘MBTF’ expectation. Enterprise drives cost nearly twice that of consumer drives.
Iomega Graduates and Goes to Work with the ix12-300r
EMC’s Iomega unit today released the rack-mount storage product we have all been waiting for. The new ix12-300r packs 12 drive bays, scaling from 4 TB all the way to 24 TB, and backs it with quad gigabit iSCSI, redundant power, and everything else the small data center needs.
Interop Show-Floor Gimmicks: What’s the Tie-In?
I was at Interop Las Vegas this week, and the Expo floor was alive with gimmicks. We had a talking robot, a boxing ring, a GT40, and two Mythbusters lookalikes. But what’s the point of a gimmick without a tie-in?
