Tag Archives: FlashDrive

Flash-based drives may soon be as cheap as the spinning kind

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If you've noticed that solid-state drives (and the PCs that include them) no longer cost an arm and a leg, you're not alone. Researchers at DRAMeXchange understand that the price per gigabyte of an SSD has fallen off a cliff in the past three years,...

12GB flash-based PlayStation 3 on sale in North America, despite Sony’s prior claims

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12GB flashbased PlayStation 3 on sale in North America, despite Sony's prior claims

In September of last year, Sony threw in an interesting nugget when it shipped the third-generation PS3: there'd be a unique, more affordable 12GB flash-based unit exclusively for Europe and Hong Kong. Sure, it doesn't do much good for those who boast huge game libraries or prefer to store odds and ends locally, but Sony clearly determined that there'd be a real market for such a product. Sony Computer Entertainment America VP of marketing, handhelds and home consoles John Koller sat down with us following the launches, and made a point to tell us the following:

"The smaller Flash drive isn't coming to North America, and a lot of that reason is the digital consumer. We really want to make sure, out of the box, that there is an option for them to be able to download that content. That is really critical for us, very very important."

180s happen quite frequently in the technology world, and it seems that we're peering at another here. Canada's own Future Shop has the 12GB PS3 listed right now as "In Stock" for $199.99, and a number of stock trackers are confirming that units are trickling into brick and mortar locations across various provinces. This all jibes nicely with a recent PlayStation Lifestyle rumor that suggests the system is coming to both Canada and the United States on August 18th, leaving us to assume that this particular store simply managed to get a jump on the competition. All that said, you can get a new 500GB PS3 with Grand Theft Auto V for just $70 more (or another, more sizable unit for even less on the secondhand market) -- but hey, options!

Update: We've received an image (shown after the break) of the 12GB PlayStation 3 in a Kmart stockroom here in the United States. The "do not sell until" date is predictably labeled as August 18th, which means that Yanks should be able to get their hands on one of these without an impromptu road trip up north in just a few days.

[Thanks, Jean-Philippe]

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Source: Future Shop

SanDisk Connect is a new series of wireless storage and streaming devices starting at $50

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SanDisk Connect is a new series of wireless storage and streaming devices starting at $50

Flash drives these days, no matter how fast, are a dime a dozen. A jump drive that does double duty as a wireless streaming dongle? Not so common. SanDisk's new Connect lineup can pull off the streaming trick whether it's the flash drives with 16 or 32GB sizes for $50 and $60, respectively, or the Media Drives that pack 32 or 64GB of storage for either $80 or $100. Both sets of devices can stream movies, music or other data to PCs, Macs, iOS and Android devices or even Kindle Fires. All you need to do is grab the SanDisk Connect app for your device, and transferring files is a drag-and-drop affair.

Where the Flash and Media Drives differ, however, is that the latter can serve up to eight devices at a time with regular data, or send out five simultaneous streams of 720p video. Plus, it's got an SDHC/SDXC slot for further storage expansion, should 64 gigs be insufficient. Sound good? Folks in the US can pre-order either drive today from Amazon, and if you aren't a Bezos fan, Newegg and Micro Center are taking Flash Drive preorders, too. Save that, you can always go pick one up from Best Buy in August.

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Samsung makes first PCIe-based SSD for Ultrabooks, we see one likely customer

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Samsung starts making first PCIe SSD for Ultrabooks

Solid-state drives are so speedy these days that that even a SATA interface might not have the bandwidth to cope. It's a good thing that Samsung has started mass-producing the first PCI Express-based SSDs for Ultrabooks, then. The new XP941 series uses PCIe's wider data path to read at nearly 1.4GB/s -- that's 2.5 times faster than the quickest SATA SSDs, and nimble enough to move 500GB in six minutes. It also ships in a tinier M.2 format that makes past card-based SSDs look gargantuan, even when there's up to 512GB of storage. Samsung hasn't named laptop makers receiving the XP941, although it doesn't take strong deductive skills to spot one of the (probable) first customers. When Apple is shipping a new 13-inch MacBook Air that just happens to use a very similar PCIe SSD from Samsung, there's likely more than coincidence at work.

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Source: Samsung

PQI demos NFC-encrypted flash drive, offers different access modes via Android app

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PQI demos NFCencrypted flash drive, offers different access modes via Android app

Sure, there are already plenty of cool options when it comes to encrypted flash drives, but what about one that uses NFC on your Android or even Windows 8 device to unlock it? PQI showed us one such implementation at Computex. Essentially, this NFC flash drive requires an NFC-enabled device to toggle its access mode: full access, read-only, one-time access (and remains hidden afterwards) or hidden. All you have to do is choose the desired mode in the app, type in your preset password, and then tap the flash drive (even when unplugged) with your device to change the former's setting -- provided that the password matches, of course.

Since the encryption is done on the storage controller level, the computer's drive utility wouldn't be able to see the dongle at all if it's hidden, so you wouldn't even be able to format it unless you unlock it or, well, physically destroy it. And that could be anywhere from 8GB all the way up to 64GB of storage space, when the drive launches in Q4 this year.

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PQI unveils upcoming micro-USB OTG drives and accessories

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Taiwanese flash memory specialist PQI had quite a big presence at Computex, and luckily for us, it also brought along several new products to show off. The biggest bunch from the lot were the company's new Connect 200 and Connect 300 series micro-USB OTG dongles, most of which offer memory expansion that will come in handy for microSD-less devices. Do bear with us while we go through all six of these products.

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Tear And Share USB

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I love the fun and interactive element given to the GIGS.2.GO, which is a credit-card-sized pack of USB flash drives, with “Tear – and – Share” technology. You just need to tear off a tab and take the handy USB Drive on the go with you! Crafted essentially from 100% post-consumer molded paper pulp, this economical, credit-card-sized data pack is fantastic!

You can even write on the tab directly and label the drive!

Designers: Kurt Rampton and BOLTgroup

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(Tear And Share USB was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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Mimobot’s US Presidents flash drives give Americans patriotic storage

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Mimobot's Lincoln, Washington flash drives give Americans patriotic storage

We wouldn't have foreseen thumb drives figuring prominently into our President's Day observations, and yet... here we are. In sync with the holiday, Mimoco has kicked off a US Presidents collection of Mimobot storage that lets Americans carry their national pride on their USB 2.0 ports. Abraham Lincoln and George Washington are the only current options -- what, no William Henry Harrison model? -- but the 8GB to 64GB of capacity should keep either stick useful once the novelty wears off. As long as you're prepared to spend between $20 to $130 to pick one up, either of the Mimobots is a decent choice for a drive. Just hurry if you want a flash-based replica of the country's key founder -- there's only 1,000 Washington drives to go around.

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Source: Mimoco (1), (2)

Corsair’s Voyager GT Turbo USB 3.0 flash drives put super fast I/O speeds in your pocket

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Corsair's Voyager GT Turbo USB 30 flash drives put super fast IO speeds in your pocket

Corsair's best known for its SSD and HDD storage solutions and gaming peripherals, but at CES this year the company has unveiled a trio of new USB 3.0 jump drives. Called the Flash Voyager GT Turbo, it promises to deliver read speeds of up to 260MB/s and writes of up to 235 MB/s. Corsair claims those speeds make it the fastest USB 3.0 flash drive on the planet -- a claim we can neither confirm nor deny -- but we can tell you that pricing starts at $50 for the 32GB version, while the 64 and 128GB models cost $90 and $180, respectively, and can be yours now if you venture over to Corsair's website.

Continue reading Corsair's Voyager GT Turbo USB 3.0 flash drives put super fast I/O speeds in your pocket

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Source: Corsair

Kingston’s DataTraveler HyperX Predator: a 1TB USB 3.0 flash drive

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Kingston shows off the DataTraveler HyperX Predator, a 1TB USB 30 flash drive

A 1TB flash drive? Frankly, we're incredulous, but that's what Kingston is claiming it'll begin selling later in Q1. The DataTraveler HyperX predator 3.0 promises read/write speeds of up to 240MB/s and 160MB/s respectively and will sell you a 512GB version right now. At the same time, it's launching 32GB and 64GB versions in the same line that offer read/write speeds of 150MB/s and 70MB/s. If you're interested in snagging one of the top two units, be advised that the price of the 512GB edition is a staggering $1,750.00 -- so you'd better get working on impressing that MLB scout next time they're passing by.

Continue reading Kingston's DataTraveler HyperX Predator: a 1TB USB 3.0 flash drive

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