western

To date, my method for banishing the dreaded earworm is to sing a song I actually like in an attempt to "trump" whatever piece of pop fluff is driving me batty. Apparently scientists at Western Washington University, led by psychology professor Ira Hyman, have discovered a much better way.

The trick, it seems, is to solve puzzles -- sudoku, for example. But by far the most effective puzzle was five-letter anagrams. … Read more

Western Digital Capital, the investment arm of the hard-drive giant, has revealed that it is pouring approximately $51 million into enterprise startup Skyera.

Having previously funded Skyera as the initial outside investor, Western Digital Capital co-invested in the series B round as the two storage solutions makers enter into a joint agreement.

While it wasn't revealed as to exactly what technology the two businesses are going to develop together, it will likely build upon Skyera's enterprise solid-state storage systems.

For example, Western Digital pointed towards Skyera's SkyHawk solid-state storage, which is priced at "an industry breakthrough … Read more

A year ago, flooding in Thailand factories lead to some pretty insane prices on hard drives, but it seems things are starting to ease now. Cyber Monday is greeting us with some great deals on hard drives, including the wireless 500GB Satellite Flex. When CNET's Dong Ngo reviewed the drive last year he found that it was a flexible, well-performing drive and a "must-have for those who frequently travel with Apple's iPad."

Originally selling for $200, it's currently going for $99 at Newegg and Best Buy.

WD today made the good old portable hard drive concept something totally new again.

The storage vendor announced a new family of portable external hard drives for Macs and Windows PCs, called My Passport Edge, that's ultrasleek and ultraslim.

There are minor differences between the Mac version and the Windows version of the new drive.… Read more

WD has just upgraded its storage solutions for Macs on both USB and Thunderbolt fronts.

The storage vendor today announced its first USB 3.0-based portable drives for Macs, the My Passport for Mac, and a new Thunderbolt drive, the My Book VelociRaptor Duo.

Apart from USB 3.0, the My Passport for Mac also increases the capacity to 2TB while remaining compact and portable. The reason WD waited until now to release a Mac portable drive that supports USB 3.0 is because USB 3.0 has just been added to the new version of the MacBook Pro and … Read more

I have often held a nice glass of red wine up into the light and said, "What a pretty color!" I just didn't take my thinking as far as Bioalloy has. The result of its idea -- creating textiles from fermented grapes -- is a dress that is essentially made of wine.

The Bioalloy project from the University of Western Australia is described as "an ongoing research endeavor into artistic cyborgian systems." Cool.… Read more

Our new friends at Western Digital are hooking up the CNET audience for a limited time only! The Western Digital TV Live helps you get the most out of your couch time with a range of streaming services for hit shows, movies, and music. Set up your favorites like Netflix, Vudu, and Hulu Plus, and start watching!

WD TV Live sets itself apart for the competition of Wi-Fi-enabled streaming devices because it is also a media player that supports an array of file types. It allows users to stream virtually any file format like USB drives, network drives, computers, cameras, … Read more

Before solid-state drives (SSD), Western Digital's Raptor family of hard drives had always been the fastest internal drive for consumers. And spinning at 10,000 RPM, these drives are still very fast though offering less storage than other 7,200rpm hard drives.

That gap has just gotten narrower; the company announced today the latest VelociRaptor hard drive that caps at 1TB of storage space.

While 1TB seems small compared with other 3.5-inch hard drives that offer up to 4TB, the new VelociRaptor, like the previous two generations, actually comes in the 2.5-inch standard. However, it is extra thick and has an added metal frame to be as physically big as a regular 3.5-inch hard drive. … Read more

If price has been your biggest concern about a Thunderbolt storage device, and it should be, then the new My Book Thunderbolt Duo from Western Digital is worth the wait.

After teasing about it at CES 2012, WD finally released the drive, and it costs about $100 less than the 2big Thunderbolt from LaCie, which offers exactly the same storage capacities and RAID support.… Read more