external

External hard drives are exceptionally popular peripheral devices, and it is exceptionally likely that you have one attached to your system given the recommendation to use Time Machine or some similar form of full-system backup. If you have a laptop, then it is additionally likely that these external drives you use will be the smaller 2.5-inch laptop drives that can be powered off the computer's USB or FireWire bus. While convenient, sometimes these drives can end up getting exceptionally hot with use, to the point where it may hurt or even burn if you hold the drive for … Read more

Western Digital announced today that it is now shipping the 3TB version of the popular My Book Studio for Mac. This is the single-volume drive, not to be confused with the company's dual-volume drive of a similar name, which already offers up to 6TB of storage.

Designed specifically for Macs, the new My Book Studio features FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0 connections. The lack of USB 3.0 is generally attributed to the fact that Macs don't support this higher-speed USB standard.

Western Digital says that the drive is powered by the new energy-efficient Caviar Green internal drive, … Read more

Apple's Thunderbolt technology supports both Displayport and PCI Express connectivity through two simultaneous and separate channels, which means it will connect both to displays and peripheral devices such as hard disks, all through the same port at the same time. Given that multiple devices are all connected through one port, people may wonder about the troubleshooting options and limits when making use of this technology for troubleshooting purposes.

Target Disk mode Apple recently released a knowledge base article discussing the options for Thunderbolt connectivity, which in part covers the options for Target Disk mode. Target Disk mode allows you … Read more

Yep, it's one of those days: too many good deals to focus on just one. Hope you've got some room on your credit card, because all three of these are, IMHO, too sweet to pass up.

First up, TigerDirect has the AOC F22 22-inch LCD monitor for $99.99, plus $10 for shipping. That's after applying coupon code GQP35095 at checkout.

This 1080p monitor is new, not refurbished. It sports DVI and VGA inputs and one of the cooler-looking bezels I've seen. More importantly, it has an average user rating of 4.6 stars out of … Read more

When an optical disc is mounted in OS X, it cannot be ejected by pressing the button on the optical drive, as is the case with Windows PCs. In fact, even though some of Apple's OEM drives contain the standard eject button, it is hidden by the system's chassis. When mounted, the disc is locked by the system so to eject it you will have to do one of three things:

Drag to the trash Dragging a removable disc to the trash has been in the Mac OS since early on. It is how floppy disks were ejected … Read more

From photos and music to home movies and recorded TV shows, it seems you'll never have enough space to store all the digital content you generate daily. You also want to access it fast and share it all easily, too. You want too much, but it's OK.

The good news is the development of storage devices has been rapid, and there are so many types of devices for you to choose from. If you want your laptop (or desktop for that matter) to boot fast and wake up instantly, there are solid state drives, such as the OCZ Vertex 3. … Read more

Hot on the heels of Seagate launching its GoFlex Satellite wireless external storage device for iOS devices, Kingston has trotted out its own flash-based external drive--the Wi-Drive--which offers very similar features.

With mobile devices like the iPad offering limited memory (and no expansion slot), the idea behind these accessories is that you'd store large video files, as well as other content (including photos, documents, and music) on the drive and then wirelessly access that content via a direct Wi-Fi connection (you don't need an actual Internet Wi-Fi connection to stream content; you stream directly to and from … Read more

Admit it! Sometimes you are so mad, you just want to slam something on the floor, step on it, and then kick it a few times. I know a friend who did just that with his portable drive only to later regret losing data and hurting his big toe. If only he had had the IoSafe Rugged Portable, his data would have been safe. His toe's another story, however.

First introduced at CES 2011 with a bang (quite a few bangs, actually), IoSafe's Rugged Portable is the first mobile external hard drive that can really withstand serious beatings and abuse. The drive can handle drops, water submersion, dust, chemicals, and being crushed by a vise. I have personally shot at it with a shotgun--at a demo, not out of anger--and it didn't break.

This means that if you happen to drop it in the street and the thing gets run over by cars, chances are it will survive quite easily. As a matter of fact, the only situation it seems the Rugged Portable won't survive is extreme heat, which its brother the IoSafe SoloPro can handle. To make up for this, the Rugged Portable is about 15 times more compact and lighter. The drive is slightly smaller than a 3.5-inch internal hard drive and weighs about 1 pound. It's designed to be carried around, while the SoloPro is meant to be used at home only. … Read more

Transcend today announced that it is now shipping the StoreJet 25H3P portable drive, which supports the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 connection. The drive is based on a 2.5-inch internal hard drive housed in a robust shockproof case.

The company claims that the new portable drive's antislip rubber enclosure and reinforced hard casing have passed the rigorous U.S. military drop tests, and that the StoreJet 25H3P is one of the most robust portable hard drives on the market.

The new StoreJet 25H3P comes with 1TB of storage space and is designed to offer transfer speeds of around 90MBps … Read more