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CES 2012 Rewound, Recapped, and Reviewed

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 | Author: OWC Grant

Our second year at CES was a big success and while you may have read other sources’ accounts of the show, I thought you might (since you likely are a regular reader and interested in all things OWC) like a summary from our perspective.

Now, if you’ve never been to a show of this magnitude before, I’ll let you in on a little secret. It’s not the party some lead you to think it is! We’re up early and reviewing info on all our new product introductions. Then we’re on the floor for eight hours straight (we don’t take lunch break – we’ve got an adoring public to serve!). Then, after dinner, it’s back to our “regular” work until we get the necessary three hours of sleep. ;-)

So, while some perhaps party every night until dawn, you can rest assured that Team OWC doesn’t lose its focus.

CES itself experienced a record year… the 2012 show was the largest in the event’s 44 year history with a record number of more than 3,100 exhibitors across the largest show floor the convention has ever had — 1.861 million net square feet of exhibit space. It’s a good thing that the show floor was bigger, as CES drew record attendance with 153,000 seekers of gadgets and gizmos. Article Continues…

The Other World – Episode 41

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 | Author: OWC Chris S.

Category: The Other World

Back Up Your Data & Save A Squirrel

Friday, January 13th, 2012 | Author: OWC Chris S.

A couple of months ago, OWC Stephen wrote an article that dealt with RAID units not being a “true” backup for your data. This caused confusion for some people; after all, RAID has built-in redundancy (it’s the first letter, for goodness’ sake!), so data should be completely safe, right?

Well… not really.

RAID will protect you against drive failure; that’s exactly what it’s designed to do. However, there are a lot of other things that can cause data loss. For example, if you knock the average RAID enclosure off your desk, there’s a good chance both drives are going to be damaged. If both drives are damaged, then anything on that unit is gone.

What it comes down to is that an actual “backup” consists of at least two copies of the files you want to keep.

  1. the original file (usually on your main hard drive)
  2. a copy of the file (preferably on some sort of external device that can be moved off-site)

Ideally, you’d want three copies – your original and two copies – one on-site and one off-site in case of things like fires, tornadoes or theft. That, however, is an article unto itself, full of “exciting” topics like “backup drive rotation scheduling” and “methodology comparison.” Yeah… about as exciting as that Economics class we all had to take in high school, in that stuffy classroom which, despite being windowless, somehow still admitted the slightly disturbing smells emanating from the cafeteria kitchens just down the hall.

Instead, we’re going to talk about something much more exciting: a cross-country auto race. No, I haven’t watched Cannonball Run one too many times; I’ve got a viable (if somewhat bizarre) analogy going here; just follow along. Article Continues…

Category: New @ OWC, Tech Tips

Ship Your Computer Safely

Thursday, January 12th, 2012 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

You know it’s happened to you. Your laptop starts acting up and you need to send it in, but you got rid of the original box years ago. Perhaps you got it as a hand-me-down or off of Craigslist and never had the box in the first place. So what are you going to do?

Sure, you could go and get a box from the post office and fill it with styrofoam peanuts or bubble wrap, but when it comes down to it, the protection you get with that is “okay” at best.

Well, we have a solution for you: the OWC Universal Laptop Carton. With all the upgrade services, refurb units, and general repair of laptops over the years, we’ve learned a few things about the best way to pack a laptop for shipping. We’ve taken that info and put together a shipping carton specifically designed for the transport of laptops.

A durable singlewall corrugated box (capable of withstanding the Edge Crush Test up to 44lbs/in) to protects against the rigors of transit. Next, three layers of foam cushion your laptop during transit, and can be custom sized to fit both the computer and any accessories you may have. Finally, a heavy duty plastic sleeve is there to protect against any remaining environmental hazards that may have made their way through.

Nobody likes having to ship their laptop somewhere, but with the OWC Universal Laptop Carton, at least you can be sure it’s protected while it travels.

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OWC Gives a Sneak Peek at new PCIe SSD Card

Thursday, January 12th, 2012 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

While we are not in the habit of announcing products before they’re ready to launch, we decided to let the lid off of this one a little early, as it is quite exciting. We’d like to introduce you to our new PCIe-based SSD.

This card has a “stackable” design, allowing you configure the drive in sizes between 60GB and 2.oTB. This is done using individual miniPCIe daughter cards that attach to the main card. There’s no requirement for all the daughter card slots to be filled at once, which means you can easily expand capacity over time as you need it.

The main card is based around the Marvell 88SE9445 SATA RAID Controller and the individual daughter cards will feature a SandForce 2200 Series controller. It’s compatible with both Mac and PC, and as such, will be the first Mac supported PCIe SSD solution of its kind.

We’ve got more details and performance numbers in the works; stay tuned to the OWC Blog for more information on pricing, performance, and a projected release date in the very near future.

 

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Category: New @ OWC

OWC Announces Mercury Elite Pro mini as Industry’s First eSATA 6G and Bus-Powered USB 3.0 Portable Storage Solution

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

Other World Computing announced today it has expanded its OWC Mercury Elite Pro mini line to include the industry’s first eSATA 6G and bus-powered USB 3.0 portable external drive. Available in 13 different hard drive or OWC Mercury SSD-equipped capacity configurations up to 1.5TB, the new USB 3.0/2.0 and eSATA 6G “triple interface” model delivers up to 600MB/s data rate storage/backup performance to Mac and PC users in a Plug and Play, mobile footprint. The new Mercury Elite Pro mini and other OWC storage solutions will be shown in Other World Computing’s booth #5231, LVCC North Hall, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which begins today in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Portable and Bus-Powered for Mobile Lifestyles

Measuring a compact 5.5″ L x 3.8″ W x 1.1″ H, the Mercury Elite Pro mini offers portable storage capacity up to 1.5TB – enough space for up to 1.5 million JPEG photos, 750 DVD movies, 115 hours of digital video, or 526,000 MP3 songs – in its fanless, aircraft grade brushed aluminum enclosure. Because it’s bus-powered, the Mercury Elite Pro mini doesn’t require an AC adapter, so it’s ideal for in-the-field business professionals, creative/entertainment professionals, students, and anyone else needing to back up data, transport large files between computers, gain additional storage capacity, and even perform video editing and live music recording.  Article Continues…

Newer Technology Announces miniStack Max As Industry’s First Four-in-One Storage, Access, And Connectivity Solution

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

Newer Technology, Inc. today announced the miniStack Max, the latest version of its award-winning quad-interface powered hub storage solution. Offering Plug and Play ease of use with Macs or PCs thanks to five interfaces—USB 3.0, USB 2.0, FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and eSATA—the miniStack Max is the only four-in-one storage, data access, connectivity solution on the market.  In addition to adding an optical drive and an integrated SD card reader to its time-proven design, the latest miniStack is now available with an expanded storage capacity of up to 4TB. The new miniStack storage line and other unique Newer Technology products will be shown in Other World Computing’s booth #5231, LVCC North Hall, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which begins today in Las Vegas, Nevada. Article Continues…

First Garage Sale of the Year!

Monday, January 9th, 2012 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

Well, it’s a busy, busy, busy time of year for us. We’re winding down from the holidays, we’ve got a lot of products being released/announced at CES, and we’re looking forward to Macworld, too. However, we’ve always got time for a great deal, and our Garage Sale Page is chock full of them.

So without any further ado, let’s take a look at what you can find this month:

Act quickly – items are “first come, first served” and of varying limited quantities. Quantities are limited to that which is on hand and items automatically count down and ‘disappear’ as sold out. Sorry… no rain checks.