SSD

Relatively expensive flash memory keeps the cost of SSDs much higher than I'd prefer, but competition keeps everyone honest, so I'm glad to see Plextor announce its M3 Pro line of solid-state drives.

These 2.5-inch models, with a slim 7mm height suitable for thin notebooks, will ship in February in capacities of 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB, the Japanese component maker said at CES this week. It didn't disclose pricing.

The new models step up from the existing MS3 products in data-transfer speed, the prime reason most folks pay the price premium and sacrifice the capacity compared … Read more

Thunderbolt, the high-speed port technology from Intel that so far appears only on Apple computers, just got a shot in the arm from Elgato with new portable solid-state drives.

At the CES show today, Elgato announced two models of its new Thunderbolt SSD. The $429.95 120GB model and the $699.95 240GB model will ship in February, the company said.

The drives can transfer data at 270MBps and will work with both Macs and Windows machines. They draw power from a computer over the Thunderbolt cable itself, with no need or ability to get power on their own.

SSDs … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Mobile Mac users now can finally say goodbye to their USB or FireWire portable drives.

Elgato showed off today at CES 2012 the first bus-powered Thunderbolt drive, the Elgato Thunderbolt SSD.

While bus-powered--a feature that allows storage devices to draw power directly from the peripheral port, negating the need for a separate power adapter--has been widely popular with USB portable drives, it has been a challenge for the Thunderbolt connection. The Thunderbolt port is slated to offer up to 10 volts of power, but because parts and pieces of the Thunderbolt interface, such as the cable itself, require energy … Read more

LAS VEGAS--If you've won at the casinos here and wonder how to spend your jackpot, I have a suggestion.

It's the Swiss Army solid-state drive (SSD) that Victorinox, the maker of Swiss Army branded products, unveiled today at CES 2012.

This is a tiny portable storage device about the size of the small-size popular Swiss Army tool set. In fact, the storage part can be pulled out and collapsed into its case just like you can do with a Swiss Army knife.

Victorinox claims that the Swiss Army SSD has a few unique attributes, including being the word'… Read more

Though not a storage vendor, Apple had arguably the biggest influence on consumer-grade storage products during 2011.

And just like the way the company has always been trying to control its products, this influence didn't always turn out to be a good thing for consumers, including Apple fans. Let's take a look at a few major examples of how Apple changed the face of computer storage in 2011.

1. The lack of support for USB 3.0

USB 3.0 was first introduced in late 2008, and by late 2010, most new and high-end Windows computers were equipped … Read more

While our various gift guides and roundups have provided plenty of really great holiday ideas, there are always a few worthy products that get left out.

During the past few weeks, Scott and I have frequently found ourselves at each other's desks, eyeballing cool accessories for laptops and other mobile products that we never got around to reviewing, but nevertheless deserve a nod.

These include portable laptop desks, wireless video connections, and even a few bags and cases, and prices run from a few bucks to a few hundred.

Check out our odds-and-ends collection in the gallery below, and if you have a great gadget stocking-stuffer idea, let us know in the comments section. … Read more

OCZ's latest solid-state drive, the Octane, is a new breed among its peers.

The drive is the first to be powered by OCZ's new Indilinx Everest controller, designed to optimize boot time and application performance. And the Octane offered just that in my testing, helping the test machine take just 12 seconds to boot up.… Read more

HP's first ultrabook is now available--and for a limited time below the list price of $899.

The 3.3-pound, 0.7-inch thick Folio 13 was announced on November 15 and has just become available today.

It packs decent hardware for a model that retails for $899, sans coupon code (see graphic). The Folio has a Core i5-2467M processor (not a lower-performance Core i3 like other ultrabooks), 4GB of RAM, a 128GB solid-state drive, a backlit keyboard, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. … Read more

Ultrabooks have arrived. Yet, for many, 2012 will be the first year they seriously consider buying one. If they're the future of laptops, then they have a long way to go before they become what people want in the present.

From one perspective, ultrabooks and the MacBook Air are the most exciting laptops to come around the pike in a long while. From another perspective, they're the sort of laptops that provide the least amount of computing value for the dollar, and are precisely the sort of fancy gadgets that cash-strapped holiday buyers will skip for better deals. After all, computers are commodity devices, right?

Well, yes and no. The iPad and the Kindle Fire have quickly shown that stylish, fun devices can quickly trump beefy specs, although in both cases they're relatively affordable buys. A friend of mine who recently e-mailed me summarizes the ultrabook situation perfectly:

"From my Luddite perspective, it's completely invigorated the laptop market for consumers just when everyone was beginning to crank out the same old 5-pound, 15.6-inch, DVD/Webcam, dual-core whatever machine."

He argued that the size and weight of these laptops are far more important than performance, gaining a family acceptance factor that trumps an ability, for instance, to play PC games with higher-end graphics.

I've had a hard time recommending ultrabooks for everyone, though. While they're getting awfully close to being the "laptop for everybody" that Apple's MacBook Air is currently gunning to be, a few key improvements still need to happen in 2012. As we look ahead to the Consumer Electronics Show, where new laptop announcements are a common occurrence (stunningly enough, CES is less than six weeks away), this is what I hope happens to make ultrabooks more relevant. … Read more