Photo: Seagate

True to their word that they would keep investing heavily and rapidly in ever-expanding drive capacity, Seagate this week unveiled the world’s first ever external 3TB external drive.

GoFlex that capacity muscle

Called the FreeAgent GoFlex Desk, this world’s first external 3TB external drive is priced at an extremely cheap $250.

Seagate believes increasing demand for HD film downloads will make the FreeAgent GoFlex Desk an interesting proposition for potential customers. At this capacity, Seagate is claiming it can store 120 HD Movies, using 25GB per film as its reference file size.

Why you may not want this

All is not well, though. From an engineering perspective, having not had hands-on time with the 3TB FreeAgent GoFlex Desk, we cannot rule in favour of or against the Seagate drive. The one very serious problem, however, comes in if you, as a potential buyer, consider this as a replacement for all your storage problems, by storing all your data in one place. Not only is there a serious security risk of having that much data in one place, but if your drive goes belly-up, that’s a lot of data to lose. And, even if you can recover that data, you will likely burn a hole in your pocket to do so. Be weary.

It’s good for consumer storage, in general

The big payoff, however, is for storage in general, with this increased capacity likely to depress the price of external storage solutions in general. External hard drive prices are likely to fall across the board. Good on you Seagate, and here’s to hoping the pricing disruption takes place soon.

If a 3TB external drive is too much storage for you, there are a host of 1TB external storage solutions and 2TB external storage solutions available on the market, too.

Equipped with the fast and powerful Core 2 Duo T9600 processor, which is Centrino 2 with vPro technology and runs at a speed of 2.8 GHz, HP EliteBook 8730w is a wise buy. With 4GB RAM and 320GB of hard disk drive, it offers a generous amount of space to store all your files, photos, documents, music and media. The Hewlett Packard notebook has a DVD±RW (+R double layer) optical drive and Quadro FX 2700M, which makes this gadget extremely self-sufficient. Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet and WLAN are other useful features of this notebook. Designed to perform, the notebook has a sleek design and smart looks. Weighing 3.4kg, it is a perfect replacement for a desktop computer. Microsoft Windows Vista Business with XP Professional downgrade is the machine’s operating system which offers a familiar and intuitive environment for the user.

The notebook has a 17 inch TFT active matrix display screen which offers sharp and true-to-life images. The Dreamcolor RGB LED screen is this gadget’s unique selling point. A high-end screen that can compete with high-end desktop monitors, the matte screen is almost perfectly accurate. A well-balanced combination of price and performance, the laptop has a maximum battery life of 7.25 hours. Though not very light, the notebook is easily portable. A functional notebook in every sense, the laptop has a simple and elegant design. The Hewlett-Packard HP EliteBook 8730w (FU471ET-#ABU) has a good keyboard, track pad and a touch-based control strip between the screen and the keyboard. The long battery life is a plus point while its eSATA port allows high-performance external storage.

ATEN Technology, the company known for its sophisticated KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse) devices and remote connectivity products, has come up with a new and innovative device called the Laptop USB KVM Switch. This gadget not only lets users control their PC, but also facilitates file transfer in a much better and faster way. This breakthrough gadget is a cable like device that offers direct control over two PCs simultaneously, in addition to quick and efficient file transfer.

This is specially designed for laptop users who need to connect two machines and transfer data. As soon as the Laptop USB KVM Switch is plugged in, it gives users control of the second PC. After that, users can enjoy its noticeable benefits, such as seamless file transfer and plug-and-play functionality. Moreover, and unlike the Aten Mini KVM 2 port, this switch is designed for laptop use. It also gives access to USB 2.0 peripherals like external storage drives, and adjusts the resolution of the second computer window with the display of your machine.

John G. Owen, director of sales, ATEN Technology, Inc said, “This Laptop USB KVM brings ATEN’s enterprise power to small office/home office workers who typically require access to both a personal and business PC. From the field force salesperson to the work-at-home parent to the IT administrator, the Laptop USB KVM can be utilized for a multitude of uses built on its file transfer capabilities — without the overhead and expense of a network. Unlike pure software solutions, the Laptop USB KVM allows the transfer of large files directly between two computers without the need for manual software installation. It is essentially plug-and-play.”