It’s been a long and painful four months since Pogoplug introduced its second generation NAS-ifier, but those who’ve been holding out for additional functionality can finally buy in. In an effort to cater to these so-called “gamers,” the company has enabled its device to stream multimedia content directly to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game consoles; users will be able to access, share and stream media directly to their console from any local or remotely located Pogoplug, and if all goes well, your console should actually see the drives connected to the Pogoplug and the contents of other shared Pogoplugs automatically. In related news, the unit is also now capable of pushing out offsite backups through a new version of Active Copy (shown above), so all that’s left to do is hop online and suck down that tasty firmware update that should be waiting. Enjoy!

Continue reading Pogoplug now streaming to Xbox 360 and PS3, handling offsite backups

Pogoplug now streaming to Xbox 360 and PS3, handling offsite backups originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Solid state drives may be the fast-moving wave of the future in PC storage, but the technology for bigger and better magnetic media keeps on trucking. Only recently, that truck hit something of a pothole: the 4096-byte sector size that will allow advanced format drives to have more usable space (and surpass the current 2TB capacity limit) doesn’t play nice with the world’s most popular OS — Windows XP. While manufacturers like Western Digital have already introduced software that successfully combats the problem, the new drives perform poorly in Win XP without it, and rival manufacturer Seagate told the BBC that even with software tricks, XP users should expect the occasional 5ms delay, or 10% speed reduction, during write times. Is this the end of Windows XP? Hardly. Should you make sure to install the software that comes with your next hard drive? Absolutely.

Win XP needs some TLC to use next-gen hard drives originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Western Digital has played this card before with the strategically named My DVR Expander, but for those who don’t realize that an external hard drive is an external hard drive, there’s the My Passport AV. For all intents and purposes, this 320GB HDD is nothing more than a standard drive with a fancy marketing scheme following it closely. Oh, sure — it may work “seamlessly” with Sony’s Direct Copy feature on the outfit’s range of Handycam camcorders, but outside of that, we don’t see anything in particular that makes us long to pay more for something that doesn’t really do more than any other 320GB HDD on shelves today. If you’re in complete opposition (it’s cool… really), it’s available to order today for $109.99.

WD’s 320GB My Passport AV external HDD wants to have and hold your media originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Turning aged hard drives into clocks has been a common occurrence for years now, but there’s still something magical about this rendition. Designed and crafted by Svofski, the Strobeshnik relies on the stroboscopic effect to create the illusion of a persistent numeric display. The HDD platter itself has ten digits, colon and dash marks cut all the way through it, and by carefully timing the light strobes, the illusion is perfected. Check out a video of the startup just below the break — and be patient, the payoff is spectacularly sweet.

Continue reading Strobeshnik: probably the most awesome hard drive clock of all time

Strobeshnik: probably the most awesome hard drive clock of all time originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hot on the heels of its USB 3.0 thumb drive the kids at Super Talent have announced the SuperCrypt line of secure portable storage. These devices are available in capacities up to 256GB and offers up to 240 MB/s transfer rates, with your choice of either 128-bit ECB (SuperCrypt) or 256-bit XTS (SuperCrypt Pro) encryption. As for the rest of us, this bad boy is fully backward compatible with USB 2.0, so you’ll be able to access Grandma’s famous top secret chicken recipe (why else would you own one of these?) on damn near any computer you need to. No word on a price or release date, but we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled. In the meantime, feel free to check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading Super Talent debuts SuperCrypt thumbdrives with USB 3.0, 256-bit encryption

Super Talent debuts SuperCrypt thumbdrives with USB 3.0, 256-bit encryption originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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