Universal drive adapters are becoming a must have accessories for not just the IT guy at your work but also for anyone with a PC or Mac. With hard drives becoming larger in capacity and cheaper in price, swapping them out and upgrading to a new drive is easier than ever before. Keeping the old drive around for archive purposes is great but it’s when you need it that becomes a drag. Hooking up all the cables (or the pain of just sliding it into the slot on the Mac Pros…yes, pain ) can be a hassle for just a quick copy to the new drive. With universal drive adapters, all you have to do is plug the adapter into the old drives IDE or SATA connector, hook up the power and bingo, up comes your drive in My Computer or on your Mac Desktop. Just like that.

NewerTech will be showing off its newest connector with convenient and easy to read status lights at Macworld 2008. This is a nice addition to the other adapters I have used that leave you wondering if you have even a valid USB connection let alone know if your data is streaming though the cables. Working with any 2.5˝, 3.5˝, or 5.25˝ hard drive or optical drive (standard IDE/ATA/ATAPI 40 pin or Serial-ATA), the NewerTech adapter connects to a USB port of any computer working with USB 2.0, 1.1, and 1.0 ports. NewerTech told SvenOnTech that the, “USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter has been tested to work with all hard drive brands, including Maxtor, Seagate, IBM, Hitachi, Samsung, Western Digital, and Fujitsu; optical drive brands, including LG, Lite-On, Panasonic, Pioneer, Plextor, Sony, Teac, and Toshiba; and removable media drives, such as Iomega Zip. The adapter provides a USB 2.0 transfer speed of up to 480Mbps and is also backwards compatible with USB 1.1.”

The adapter will be available for $29.95 and more information can be found at NewerTech’s Universal Drive Adapter site.

SvenOnTech will be stopping by the booth and talking to NewerTech’s CEO Grant Dahlke at Macworld. Stay tuned for more from that interview.

Corsair , a worldwide leader in high performance computer and flash memory products, announced today that it is expanding its Flash Voyager and Flash Survivor USB family lines with new 32GB capacity offerings. The new Corsair 32GB Flash Voyager and Flash Survivor USB drives will be debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show 2008 (CES) next week in Las Vegas in the Corsair Suite at the Wynn Hotel and at Showstoppers CES 2008.

Users now have the ultimate solution for storing, transporting and backing up large amounts of personal and professional data. Whether using the Corsair proprietary all-rubber Flash Voyager or the aluminum-encased water-proof Flash Survivor, the large amounts of data on the drive will be safeguarded for users with an active lifestyle. Corsair USB drives provide the added ruggedness and performance not found in other storage drives utilizing rotating media.

Corsair 32GB drives provide the storage capacity necessary to hold over 16 full-length, high-definition movies or even an entire season of your favorite TV series. These large density drives can also be used as portable back-up devices for critical or sensitive information. In addition, Corsair 32GB USB 2.0 drives are bootable, which means users can actually store full versions of operating systems and applications in order to quickly “re-create” the necessary software environments to troubleshoot system problems.

Corsair 32GB USB drives are immediately available:
Flash Voyager 32GB ~ $229.99 USD MSRP
Flash Survivor 32GB ~ $249.99 USD MSRP

“Whether with innovative designs, like the Flash Voyager and Flash Survivor, or industry leading large-density drives in convenient portable form-factors, Corsair is always pushing the limit of what USB portable storage has to offer,” said Jack Peterson, VP of Marketing at Corsair. “Our newest USB additions will allow a whole new set of users – multimedia, technical and data conscious – to take advantage of rugged, high-performance solid-state storage,” added Peterson.

Corsair 32GB USB drives are available through Corsair’s authorized distributors and resellers world-wide. Each drive is bundled with a lanyard, security software/driver preloaded, and USB extension cable. Corsair flash products are backed by a 10-year Limited Warranty. Complete customer support via telephone, email, forum and TS Xpress is also available. For more information on Corsair USB drives, please visit http://www.corsair.com.

No matter how many times you warn computer users to back up their data, more instances than not, you find a boat load of people that don’t and end up losing important data. DriveSavers has made its riches from these people and now it plans to make an industry first announcement in a few weeks at Macworld Expo 2008. SvenOnTech was told in an email that it will be making a “big announcement for Apple users”. The email went on to tease, “DriveSavers is the first data recovery company to offer this service, and will be rolling out the service at MacWorld.”

Possibly offering an insurance-like policy to Mac users, it is conceivable that DriveSavers will offer a program where customers can make monthly payments on their Macs fitted with hard drives that could become faulty. When the drive does become unusable, the user would then simply send in the drive for recovery.

What ever the announcement, we’ll be on the floor to report the news when it hits in January 15th.

Ya, ya, ya. We like SanDisk stuff. We’re not going to hide it. Hey, when you make killer stuff, you make killer stuff. When you make crappy stuff, then you make crappy stuff. Either way, we tell you which way it is.

SanDisk is always making the kill and we think you’ll like its newest and Ferrari-like sleek Contour. But you may be surprised by our recommendation. UFD needing folks, read on…

Other World Computing (OWC) announced today that it has lowered the price of its new award-winning OWC Mercury Blu-ray Internal and External Drive Solutions, priced now starting at $499.99 for internal and $599.99 for external drives. Winner of the American Photo 2007 Editor’s Choice Award for Best Storage Products, the OWC Mercury Blu-ray Drive is a FireWire/USB2 Plug & Play Blu-Ray Burner + DVDRW/CDRW that is 100% compatible with any Windows or Mac system with an available IDE/ATAPI bay port (for internal drives), or any FireWire or USB 2.0 system port (for external drives).

The OWC Blu-ray Drive Solutions feature:

• Burn up to 50GB of data or high-definition video per Blu-ray disc or up to 8.5GB using standard DVDs.
• True Plug & Play, it’s never been easier to get started creating your own DVDs.
• Supports FireWire and USB 2.0 (USB 1.1 backwards compatible) ports!
• Includes two 25GB Blu-ray media discs.
• Available bundled with full retail version of Toast 8 DVD/CD Authoring software.

Priced at $499.99 for OWC Mercury Blu-ray Internal Drives (with standard IDE/ATAPI interface) and $599.99 for External Drives, these solutions are available with the full retail version of Toast 8 DVD/CD Authoring software (with Blu-Ray Support), two 25GB Blu-ray media discs, and are covered under a 1 year warranty. All External drive solutions also include all required connecting cables. The OWC Blu-ray drive solutions are available immediately from OWC.

Corsair today launched the “Flash Padlock” family of affordable USB 2.0 drives, the safest way to secure your data while on the go. Priced starting at only $29.99 USD MSRP, the Flash Padlock line of affordable USB 2.0 flash drives address the need for secure data storage through hardware technology, rather than software. Flash Padlock features “Auto-Locking,” so the user doesn’t need to remember to enable the protective feature — It will automatically lock and protect itself after removal from the computer.

With its simple touch-pad security PIN entry system, Flash Padlock can be unlocked quickly and confidentially for use as a standard USB flash data drive. Flash Padlock is impervious to “brute force” hacks or keystroke loggers that would defeat a software secured USB flash drive.

Flash Padlock is immediately available in two capacities:

• Flash Padlock 1GB ~ $29.99 USD MSRP
• Flash Padlock 2GB ~ $39.99 USD MSRP

Flash Padlock Security Features Include: Read the rest of this entry »

Newer TechnologyNewertech Announces New Ministack V3
‘Quad Interface’ 1.0Tb Storage Solution, Inc. (NewerTech) , a leading developer of PC, Macintosh® and iPod® performance upgrades and accessories, today announced the newest addition to its award-winning storage solution line, the miniStack® v3 ‘Quad Interface’ powered hub storage solution with up to 1.0TB of storage capacity, for Plug n’ Play ease of use with any Mac or PC with an available FireWire 800/400, USB 2.0, or eSATA port.

‘Quad Interface’ Benefits
With an ergonomically unique rear and side port configuration of one eSATA, two FireWire 800, one FireWire 400, and three USB 2.0 ports, miniStack v3 lets users connect multiple desktop digital accessories like scanners, printers, memory card readers, digital cameras, and iPods simultaneously and clutter-free. Its port flexibility and compact design also makes miniStack v3 an ideal portable external hard drive storage solution to move among multiple systems for future system compatibility.

Fast & Vast For The Modern Digital Lifestyle
miniStack v3 is ideal for data intensive uses like audio/video editing, digital photography, MP3 libraries and high-speed back up because it utilizes the latest generation Oxford 924 bridge chipset, the fastest drive mechanisms available, and an eSATA port to deliver the fastest single drive data transfer rates possible…up to 150 Megabytes per second. And with vast storage capacities up to 1.0TB, users can store up to 1 million JPEG photos or 350,000 MP3 songs on miniStack v3 depending upon file settings/preferences. Read the rest of this entry »

Western Digital Corp. today announced it is now shipping its 250 GB WD Scorpio™ 2.5-inch Serial ATA (SATA) hard drives. The drives employ perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology to achieve the highest capacity available in a small form factor drive and have WD proprietary features that make the drive quiet, use less power and run at cool operating temperatures.

“The 2.5-inch market continues to be a major focus for WD, and this 250 GB WD Scorpio drive represents our second-generation PMR platform,” said Jim Morris, WD’s vice president and general manager of notebook storage. “The WD Scorpio 250 GB hard drive is a direct result of the significant investments WD has made in proprietary head technologies as well as significant system level feature innovation. With the introduction of our latest-generation WD Scorpio drives, WD continues to offer mobile computing and portable storage customers the same outstanding quality, reliability and performance that have earned the company a leadership position in the desktop PC market.”

According to market research firm, IDC, adoption of PMR technology in mobile 2.5-inch hard drives will sustain an increase in the average capacity shipped close to the average growth rate of 32 percent for the past five years. The firm states that by 2011, shipments of mobile 2.5-inch hard drives will more than double 2006 shipment volumes.*

Demand for 2.5-inch hard drives continues to increase at a rapid pace, driven by notebook computers, portable storage devices and consumer electronics products. Users of these applications need high capacity drives to manage storage-hungry content. WD Scorpio drives deliver the performance and features to meet demands that are specific to notebook PCs and portable storage devices, such as WD Passport® portable drives: quiet operation, high shock tolerance and low power consumption.

The new WD Scorpio drive further expands the company’s breadth of 2.5-inch mobile hard drive offerings to capacity points ranging from 40 GB up to 250 GB.

WD Scorpio Exclusive Features Read the rest of this entry »

Hey, if you’ve been looking for a rightful companion to your Panasonic Toughbook, then are you in luck today! Corsair has today unveiled its, “extremely rugged,” line of USB thumb drives called the Flash Survivor. Stop with the “Eye of the Tiger” singing! This Survivor will let you bring either the 8 GB or 4 GB flash drive into 200 meters (650 feet) of water on your next deep sea dive. No need to yank it off your key ring (though your cars key fob may no longer function after your dip.) The Flash Survivor is encased in CNC (Computer Numerical Control) milled aluminum which keeps this puppy safe from massive shocks. The drive also has geek protection with 256bit AES encryption for all files stored on the UFD. The GT models are, “5 Times faster than other drives,” to top it all off.

The Flash Survivor GT 8GB sales at $129.99 USD MSRP while the Flash Survivor 4GB will front a $59.99 USD MSRP price tag. More info at the jump.

Other World Computing (OWC) http://www.macsales.com, a leading Mac and PC technology company, announced today the new OWC Mercury On-The-Go USB2+eSATA Portable Drive Solution. Universally accessible on any computer with a USB Port, the new OWC 2.5” portable hard drive provides exceptional performance via USB and USB 2.0 bus interfaces. Even greater levels of performance are available via the solution’s external SATA (eSATA) port connection, providing transfer rates well beyond what USB and USB 2.0 Bus interfaces are able to support.

Stylishly designed in a sleek, impact-resistant acrylic enclosure, the OWC Mercury On-The-Go USB2+eSATA Portable Drive Solution incorporates shock-isolation technology to give maximum protection for your precious data. Weighing less than 11 ounces, the portable drive is a must-have for users requiring reliable high-performance compact storage small enough to fit in a shirt pocket.

OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable Drives can be used between any computer with an available USB or eSATA port. The solutions are portable and low-cost, utilizing the latest SATA 2.5” hard drives for maximum performance and reliability. Via USB, the drives power via the bus through the USB interface cable, so no A/C adapter is needed. However, since eSATA does not provide bus power, the included A/C Adapter must be used for powering the drive when connecting to eSATA.

The OWC Mercury On-The-Go USB2+eSATA Portable Drive Solution includes the cables for USB2 and eSATA and full retail licensed versions of the award-winning data backup software utilities, Prosoft DataBackup III for Apple OSX and NovaStor NovaBackup for Windows (a $59 and $49.95 retail value). The OWC Mercury On-The-Go USB2+eSATA Portable Drive Solutions are available immediately priced starting at $117.99, with capacities of 80GB to 200GB. A USB 2.0-only version is also available, priced starting at $99.97. It uses the same drives as the OWC Mercury On-The-Go USB2+eSATA Portable Drive Solutions and is fully USB bus-powered, but does not offer eSATA port support. For more information, see http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go.