Dell is one of the first out of the gates to offer Solid State Drives (SSD) in its product line. With no moving parts, these thin hard drives boot impressively quicker than the standard hard drives (HDD) found in todays laptops. The 1.8-inch 32GB SSD from SanDisk will first find themselves on both the Latitude D420 ultra-mobile and the D620 ATG semi-rugged notebooks. While 32GB doesn’t sound large, remember just a few years ago 20GB was the standard size for most laptops. With its power consumption savings and quicker access, those with a need for performance rather than for a large density depot, these new Latitudes may be the perfect thing for the next flight to Tokyo.

“This represents an important milestone in the evolution of personal computers with the arrival of solid state flash memory as a durable, efficient alternative to the hard drive,” said Eli Harari, SanDisk’s founder and CEO. “For those enterprise road warriors who rely on their notebook PCs, hard drive crashes with attendant loss of critical data will soon be a thing of the past. We’re delighted that Dell has chosen the SanDisk SSD to launch this technology into their line of mobile PCs.”

We’ve seen these very drives boot up Vista side-by-side a standard HDD and while not twice as fast in boot up, it was much quicker. Dell claims boot up is 34 percent quicker which seems about right.

If this all sounds wonderful and you’re ready to click “Customize” on your next Dell order, prepare for the $549 addition to your final product in that virtual cart. But hey, 34% is a lot of time when booting Vista and it just may be worth it.

Other World Computing (OWC) announced today the highest capacity, fastest portable storage drive solution on the market – the OWC 160GB Mercury On-The-Go portable hard drive. Equipped with FireWire 800/400 and USB2 interfaces, the OWC Mercury On-The-Go 160GB 7200RPM is a palm-sized, bus powered, high performance storage solution offering a full 60% greater capacity than the next available 7200RPM capacity in the market of only 100GB.

Priced at $279.99, the powerful OWC Mercury On-The-Go 160GB 7200RPM model is geared towards the demanding ‘on-the-go’ professional, who requires dependable, high-performance storage. The ‘fits in your shirt pocket’ portable drive is compatible with virtually all computers with an available FireWire or USB port, including all Macs and PCs. It also works with all FireWire or USB gadgets, including digital cameras and camcorders, for an instant on-the-go portable storage solution to quickly and safely store all your digital photos and video when traveling.

Back-up your desktop computer and bring it with you everywhere you go with the Mercury On-The-Go portable drive. For added convenience when backing up, the portable drive also includes the full retail versions of the latest award-winning Prosoft DataRescue III for OS X (just released last week) and NovaStor NovaBackup for Windows.

“OWC has been a leader in portable storage solutions for over half a decade,” said Larry O’Connor, CEO, OWC. “We understand the need for reliable, high-performance, high-capacity portable solutions, with our Mercury On-The-Go series filling that need quite nicely. Whether it’s taking work between the office and home, or needing that extra capacity when you’re traveling 30,000 feet up, these solutions truly let you get it done On-The-Go.”

The OWC 160GB Mercury On-The-Go Portable Drive is immediately available and shipping at $279.99 through OWC and other retailers. It has two FireWire 800/400 and one USB 2.0/1.1 ports and ships with carrying case, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800 cables, USB cable, Prosoft DataRescue III for OS X and NovaStor NovaBackup for Windows. It is covered by a one-year warranty and is compatible with Apple OS Versions 8.5 through 9.2.x; Apple OS X 10.0.3 and higher (including OS X 10.4.x); and Microsoft Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP.

For more information, see: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go.

The first shipments of Polaroid Media Backup – Photo Edition are now available in North America.

Polaroid Media Backup – Photo Edition enables consumers to back up photos from their personal computer by simply plugging the device into a USB port. It immediately searches the computer for all digital images and copies them over to the device without having to install or configure any software.

The ClickFree technology developed my Storage Appliance (www.goclickfree.com) assures the user of a simple and easy process, and eliminates the frustration of backup, making it ideal for consumers with little computer knowledge.

Research shows half of all consumers don’t back up their data at all because they are afraid of the technology. The balance of consumers who back up infrequently rely mostly on CDs to store copies of their files, including photos, which is an inconvenient and time-consuming.

Polaroid Media Backup – Photo Edition contains a 2.5” hard drive that will hold up to 40,000 photos and is available in two colors, Black model# CGA02540 and White CGA02541. In addition to backing up photos, the device has several other convenient features, including the ability to home print and burn a CD from the device. It can also create wallpaper from your photos with a touch of a button.

Flash drives with U3 smart technology let you bring some applications along with you where ever there is a USB port on a Windows machine; however, it won’t fully replicate your desktop. You need literally to just bring your hard drive with you to make that happen. Enter MojoPac. It in fact does just that in the form of any USB device such as your iPod. Since you can purchase an iPod with 80 GB of hard drive space, you could potentially bring your entire computer with you every where you go!

The folks at RingCube Technologies, Inc. have created an ingenious bit of software that installs on your iPod (or any other USB device) that then loads your desktop and your programs onto the host device. Not to worry, if you’re using this at work, as the hosts desktop can easily be brought up with a click of a button. Nothing changes on the host other than a new row of icons on the top of the screen. Clicking another button brings up your personal environment. Your programs, your desktop, your screen saver, your stuff. Anything that installs on Windows XP will install on MojoPac. Unlike U3, applications do not have to be specially brewed to work with MojoPac!

For $49.99 for a single license, this is really a great deal for the ability to bring your entire desktop with you. If you’re not fully convinced, then download the trial and see for yourself just how cool this really is.

Newer Technology, Inc. (NewerTech) , today announced new lower prices on its award-winning line of miniStack V2 FireWire/USB 2 external hard drive solutions. Available in capacities up to 750GB, prices start at just $114.99 for 80GB – $449 for 750GB. The best value is the 400GB drive, which is priced at only $199.99 from $239.99, a $40 price reduction (see full price list below).

Winner of “Top Product” Macworld Magazine, “Editor’s Choice” MacAddict, and “Accessory of the Year” 123Macmini.com, the NewerTech miniStack drives now include the award-winning Prosoft DataBackup™ II for OS X (a $59.95 value) and award-winning NovaStor NovaBACKUP® for Windows (a $49.95 value). Both software products include the same full technical and update support that comes with the stand-alone retail versions. “Add Your Own Hard Drive” utility/performance and backup software bundles are also available from $69 (a $200 value).

Perfect for audio/video, computer backup, music and photography storage, and more, the NewerTech miniStack drives are ultra-compact with dimensions of 6.5” x 6.5” x 1.5” and feature 3 USB2 and 2 FireWire ports that function as hubs to connect other devices to the computer. The drives also have a unique cooling system, including a Smart Fan.

(Pricing info after the jump.) Read the rest of this entry »

After SvenOnTech told all y’all the bad news that your $50 box of Norton, McAfee, or Trend Micro anti-virus was letting in about 80% of all new viruses onto your PC, we’ve got some good news in the form of a free beta. This beta slaps a pad lock on your hard drive. Nothing gets on it unless you give it the green light. In short, it’s a firewall for your hard drive.

DriveSentry is a, “patent pending application that can block the newest viruses, trojans and malicious code from writing to your drives.” Like ZoneAlarm, it pops up a window when something tries to write itself to your hard drive. Like ZoneAlarm, it learns what you want and don’t want on your computer and stops asking repetitive questions. It, “permits a set of sophisticated rules that determine what files types, directory or drive the application can or can’t write.”

So with this bad boy on your Windows spyware-slash-virus petri dish, you can now forget about worrying if McAfee or Norton is really keeping you safe or not. Heck, I’d just say yank the crap off your hard drive and go with this…and that other Russian software (just to be safe .)

Download the beta (for free) and give a try. We have.

If the 120 GB drive that comes with the MacBook Pro option isn’t enough storage for you, then you need to upgrade to MCE’s MobileStor. With 8MB cache, a seek time of 12 ms, rotation rate of 5400 rpm, and a transfer rate (sustained) is 44 MB/s, with bursts up to 100 MB/s, this is no sissy drive! Since it is MCE’s Mercedes drive, it comes with a five year warranty. Again, since it is the Mercedes of MCE’s drives, it’ll cost you $300 before shipping and tax. Ouch. But hey, if you have the need for much feed, then get that priceless credit card out and start charging!

[Via Macminute]