storage

To accommodate all those high-resolution photos you've shot with your new (or old) dSLR, Epson has doubled the hard disk size of its Multimedia Photo Viewers. This year's models, the P-6000 and P-7000, offer 80GB and 160GB, respectively over the P-3000 and P-5000's 40GB and 80GB.

Though screen size and resolution hasn't changed from the previous models--4 inches at 640x480--they incorporate Epson's latest display technology, dubbed Photo Fine Premia. Though the technology remains basically the same--it combines red, blue and two green filters in a single pixel rather than spreading them across pixels--the company claims … Read more

OK, we know you're probably iPhone-apped out by now, but a seemingly promising program called DataCase is worth a mention. It turns your iPhone (or iPod Touch) into a handheld wireless drive, meaning you should be able to peek at your PowerPoint document, reread your Word Document, review a PDF, or check your Excel spreadsheet when and where you want, with no upload program or server configuration necessary.

The program works directly with Finder and Bonjour to let you save all manner of files by dragging and dropping. PCs and Linux are also supported.

The application is currently in … Read more

The key to plentiful solar power is water, says Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Daniel Nocera.

Nocera and his MIT colleague, Matthew Kanan, on Thursday will publish a technical paper that describes what they claim is a breakthrough in solar energy storage.

The idea is to use the energy from solar photovoltaic panels (or another electricity source) to crack water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen gas. Those gases would be stored and used later in a fuel cell to make electricity when the sun is not shining.

The concept is a closed-loop system: running the hydrogen and water through the … Read more

The Nintendo press conference at E3 2008 just ended and we're left scratching our heads. While we were glad to see the announcement of titles like Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party, hardcore gamers loyal to the Nintendo brand were completely left in the dust. There was no talk of any first-party Nintendo games beyond the Wii-branded Wii Sports Resort and Wii Music. There was absolutely no mention of new franchises like Kid Icarus or even anything from the Zelda or Mario camp. This has everyone in the office wondering, "Where are the … Read more

In a world where mad cow disease infects beef and E. coli infests tomatoes, a conscious eater can never be too safe. Freak disease outbreaks aside, perhaps the most preventable method of preventing unsafe food is to store and cook food at the right temperature.

Although there are plenty of thermometers out there that can do the trick, it seems counterintuitive to use the same thermometer to check the temperature in the refrigerator the inside of a rump roast, and the surface temperature of a griddle. The spread of food cooties would undermine the thought of trying to make cooking … Read more

The Register's Ashley Vance started stirring the pot with the suggestion that Fujitsu should buy Sun, given that its market capitalization is down to $7 billion. IBM's Savio Rodrigues steered clear of suggesting that IBM would be a fit (too much overlap), but veers toward an HP acquisition.

Me? I think if someone were to acquire Sun, EMC would make a lot of sense, even despite Sun's StorageTek overlap. That could be spun out and sold. I think the combination of EMC storage hardware and Sun's Solaris hardware could prove a tempting combination for financial services, … Read more

I reviewed the Synology DS107+, a single hard-drive NAS device, a while ago and gave it an Editors' Choice award for its incredible amount of features, a well-thought-out Web interface, and its great performance. Still, I came way wishing it could take another hard drive and support RAID.

Apparently, I don't have to wish at all. Synology also offers the DS207+, a dual-bay NAS device that is the same as the DS107+ with the exception of the second hard-drive bay and RAID capability.

The DS207+ has the same number of ports (two USBs and one eSATA), LED status lights, … Read more

Giant cousins of your laptop batteries are going to provide storage to the electricity grid.

Altairnano on Tuesday said that Indianapolis Power & Light, a division of utility AES, completed tests for using two megawatts worth of its batteries to maintain grid frequency.

The two one-megawatt units--each housed in a semi-trailer--can store up to 15 minutes worth of electricity, or 250 kilowatt-hours each. (The average U.S. home consumes 920 kilowatt-hours per month.)

The tests are important because they demonstrated that lithium-ion batteries can be used for utility-grade energy storage. Right now, most short-term energy storage is done by lead … Read more

One year after the first release of the first Drobo that won our Editors' Choice award, and a few days after the release of the beta SDK, Drobo Robotics today announced its second revision of the product.

For those of you who don't know, Drobo is the world's first, and for now still the only, solution for external storage that automatically and intelligently takes care of your data with minimal input from you. All you have to do is install the hard drives, which is as easy as inserting a CD into the CD-ROM drive. The Drobo protects … Read more