Seagate is one of the world’s most-successful hard disk drive companies, consistently ranked first in overall sales for a decade. The company is respected for their high-end products, but is aggressively moving into the world of smaller hard disks for laptops and portable storage as well. The company’s mainstream “Momentus” portable hard disk family has kept pace with the industry, but Seagate will soon break away with a major jump in areal density. Using public information, and the first product in this line, we will consider what Seagate’s eighth-generation Momentus family will look like.
Terabyte home
Apple’s Unconventional New MacBook Air SSD
Apple updated the ultra-slim don’t-call-it-a-netbook MacBook Air this week. Along with a wimpy out-of-date CPU, the new Air features all-SSD storage of an entirely new and apparently proprietary type. Let’s take a look and see what we can see.
Iomega Bundles Capacity and Performance in New External SSD Drive
Iomega, the anchor company in the Consumer and Small Business Products division of storage giant EMC, last week introduced an External SSD Flash Drive designed for business and “prosumer” users. Boasting USB 3.0, built-in encryption, and a suite of backup and security software, the drive is the vanguard of a new breed of rugged and compact external storage. Although expensive by consumer standards, business and pro users will welcome its combination of features and performance.
Unconventional SSDs: PCI Express Mini Card (Mini PCI-E)
With Apple almost certain to introduce a new MacBook Air, questions have turned to the specifics of the hardware to be used. A leaked pre-production photo features an odd memory configuration (not to mention four batteries), a device I immediately recognized as an SSD-on-a-stick. With this high-profile introduction of a new SSD stick form, I thought it was time to cover these unconventional new storage formats.
Will OS X 10.7 “Lion” Bring USB 3.0 To The Mac?
Apple is a funny company, happy to go their own way even as the rest of the industry piles on to the latest trend. Such is the case with storage, with Apple ditching floppy drives, optical drives, and even hard disks. On the expansion side, Apple was an early and aggressive proponent of USB but stubbornly ignored eSATA. Now that PC makers are turning to USB 3.0, many are wondering when Apple will follow suit. My sources tell me that “Super Speed” USB 3.0 is indeed coming to the Mac, and very soon!
