Storage

In a recent issue of the journal Nature, researchers from the University of Twente, Netherlands, explain how they succeeded in transferring magnetically coded information directly into a semiconductor, for the first time at room temperatures. Meanwhile, Toshiba announced at the International Electronics Devices Meeting (IEDM) it has developed a MOSFET transistor harnessing spintronics, demonstrating stable, fast and low-power performance. Read More

Micron claims its recently-created RealSSD C300 is the industry’s fastest for notebook and desktop PCs, delivering faster operating system boot and hibernate times, speedier application loads, and quicker data transfer and file copying. Micron says benchmark tests have shown that the C300 SSD is the fastest PC SSD leveraging the industry standard SATA 3Gbps interface, while the Solid State Drive (SSD) performance is further boosted by natively supporting the next generation high-speed interface – SATA 6Gbps. Read More

Olive, renowned maker of audiophile products including the Opus 4, has served up another addition to its impressive line of music servers with the Olive 4 HD, which the company says can play back your music at 250 times the resolution of CDs! Read More

After a lengthy wait, Taiwan’s OCZ Technology has finally released its new Solid State Drive that is Colossus in name and certainly colossal in nature, being the first SSD to offer up to one terabyte of storage. Aimed primarily at the desktop user, the Colossus SSD promises extremely fast read and write speeds of 260MB/s – but it comes at a cost. Read More

The biggest advantage of laptop computers over their desktop cousins is their portability, but the flipside is that they are significantly harder than desktop PCs to upgrade. Bumping up the hard drive capacity, upping the screen size, or adding better speakers can be achieved with the addition of multiple peripherals, but continuously plugging in and unplugging these extra devices can get to be a real hassle. Zemno’s DeskBook Pro portable docking station eases the pain considerably, and its ModBay Technology enables the DeskBook Pro to support internal connection of hard drives, batteries and peripherals. Read More

LaCie has revamped its LaCinema Classic multimedia hard drive to be a media player with up 2TB internal storage, optional 802.11n Wi-Fi and a built-in DLNA server that lets users browse, play and share HD 1080p media collections from anywhere in the home, directly on an HDTV. Read More

The humble USB Flash drive has been hit by the miniaturization ray again with Active Media Products introducing what it claims is the world’s smallest 16GB USB drive. The Wink measures just 1.2 x 0.5 x 0.1 inches and weighs in at only 1/20th of an ounce. It’s so small that looking at the pictures you’d be forgiven for thinking the drive may disappear inside a USB port never to be seen again. Read More

A music teacher from Riverside Illinois has come up with a Flash drive design that's more novel than novelty. Possibly one of the most portable instrument around - the harmonica - and the most portable digital storage solution have been merged into one to produce the FlashHarp. Read More

Reports of new developments in the area of solar power are an almost daily event here at Gizmag. The main focus of research seems to be on improving the efficiency of solar cells, but others are working at developing an inexpensive method of locally storing the energy generated by solar systems. Because society relies on a continuous energy supply and solar energy is diurnal, storage systems are integral to what some see as an inevitable move towards the era of “personalized solar energy”, in which the focus of electricity production shifts from huge central generating stations to individuals in their own homes and communities. Read More