Reviewing a drive isn’t very exciting. What can you say? “It contains a storage medium, is small, and surprisingly light.” Thankfully, the Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt can add one important point to that litany of mundanity – a Thunderbolt port and cable that jacks the read and write speed up to amazing levels – thereby turning a ho-hum review into a real barn-burner.
This $ 229 1TB drive is no slouch on design, either. It has two ports – one USB 3.0/2.0 jack and a Thunderbolt port – and it’s clad in aluminum and white plastic, giving it a definitive Mac feel. The drive gets hot over extended periods of time but it’s entirely bus powered. It weighs a mere 9 ounces.
In my tests, I saw this drive hit RW speeds of about 97 MB/s, considerably faster than a USB 3.0 drive I tested and on par with what you’d expect from a standard Thunderbolt drive. The best thing, obviously, is the fact that Buffalo includes a Thunderbolt cable, a $ 50 value, right in the box. They also include a USB 3.0 cable for the technologically benighted.
A 500GB version will cost you about $ 195, but it really doesn’t make sense to buy a smaller drive in this case.
So, in closing, I wish to amend the MiniStation Thunderbolt review with one important point: “It contains a storage medium, is small, and surprisingly light and, most important, you get a $ 50 Thunderbolt cable for free. It’s also really fast. And pretty.”
Thunderbolt has been extremely slow to gain traction, but Buffalo Technology is joining the fray with a new low-cost external hard drive that supports the high-speed port. The MiniStation Thunderbolt itself doesn’t look special — it’s a 2.5-inch hard drive wrapped in a white-and-silver plastic exterior — but when you look at the port selection you’ll see that there is indeed something different about this portable drive. In addition to a sole Thunderbolt port, there’s a USB 3.0 port. That means that this drive will work with both Macs and PCs (though you’ll need to swap file systems, of course), so you won’t be stuck with a drive that only works with new, Thunderbolt-enabled machines. Thankfully, the drive is bus powered, leaving it…
As intrigued as we were by the Netgear R6300′s high-bandwidth chops, it won’t be the one to claim the early 802.11ac WiFi crown with a shipping product. That distinction is instead going to a Buffalo AirStation router and a matching bridge, both of which should be on shelves now. Either can hit the eye-watering 1.3Gbps peak speed of the standard if you get cozy on the 5GHz band — and if you have a computer or mobile device that recognizes the spec, for that matter. The duo still has a more leisurely paced 2.4GHz, 450Mbps WiFi option as well as a quartet of Ethernet jacks if you prefer your gigabit speeds the old-fashioned way. Both the router and the bridge will set you back $ 180 each, so there’s not much of a penalty versus high-end alternatives to satisfy your need for network speed.
Continue reading Buffalo beats others to the 802.11ac WiFi punch, ships 1.3Gbps router and bridge
Buffalo beats others to the 802.11ac WiFi punch, ships 1.3Gbps router and bridge originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 May 2012 11:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Buffalo intros MiniStation Plus drives with USB 3.0 Buffalo has just shipped its latest portable storage product range, the MiniStation Plus. The drives sport a backwards-compatible USB 3.0 port for transfers up to 5Gbps. They are housed in a shockproof chassis, though they’re not rated as rugged drives…. Read more on MacNN
Mac mini goes on backorder with Amazon UK, Best Buy The Mac mini is once again in short supply, observers point out. At the Best Buy US website the device is now listed as backordered, with a shipping time of one to two weeks, although pick-up should be possible at some stores. Amazon UK is also listing the computer as backordered, though with a specific resupply date of July 5th…. Read more on MacNN
Robert J. Elisberg: The Writers Workbench: The Kindle The ebook reader universe has grown so big over only the last couple of years that it’s morphed into a separate industry. At the Consumer… Read more on The Huffington Post
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Yes, you’ve seen these guys before, and now the latest PogoPlug offspring are ready to ship. Both PogoPlug Video and its storage-sporting cousin, the Buffalo CloudStor, put their own unique twist on the firm’s remote access service. As you might recall, PogoPlug Video, which is now available exclusively from Best Buy for $ 200, allows you to hook up your external hard drives and share streaming video, music, and images to devices anywhere with internet access. Buffalo’s CloudStor, on the other hand, provides the same cloud-based access, with a little something extra. It’s the first PogoPlug branded gadget to sport integrated storage, and comes in three iterations, ringing in at $ 150 for 1TB, $ 210 for 2TB, and $ 250 for the 2TB Pro version. Now you can share all your favorite kitten clips, without ever uploading them to YouTube. Isn’t that precious?
PogoPlug Video and Buffalo CloudStor now shipping, streaming your stuff all over the place originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 02:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Buffalo just outed their new portable BDXL Blu-ray writer, the BRXL-PC6U2-BK. BDXL is the new Blu-ray spec that can store up to 100 GB on three layers and 128 GB on four. The burner can operate at speeds of up to 4x using dual USB 2.0 ports and 2x speed using only one.
The device is claimed to be the first portable BDXL Blu-ray burner on the market and will release later this month in Japan for about $ 286 — no word yet on a US release.
While this is certainly good news for the Blu-ray standard, 3-layer BDXL discs can cost about $ 57 apiece. I’m not so sure I’d want a portable drive writing on $ 60, write-once, discs.
In other news, Newegg is selling a 1 TB drive for $ 60.
USB 3.0 is slowly but surely making its way into the mainstream. Buffalo in Japan today announced [JP] a total of four memory sticks with USB 3.0, with 8, 16, 32 and 64GB on board. The new devices only support Windows XP/Vista/7 machines though (you’ll get just USB 2.0 speed for Macs).
Buffalo promises transfer speeds of up to 71MB/s for the sticks (when plugged into compatible computers), as opposed to the about 23MB/s you get with USB 2.0.
The sticks are not the first of their kind, but they will be relatively affordable, at least when they drop into Japanese stores on December 1 (prices: 8GB: $ 33, 16GB: $ 59, 32GB: $ 113, and 64GB: $ 213). Buffalo is also selling products in the US and elsewhere, so chances are these USB 3.0 drives will make their way outside Japan soon.
BDXL is now entering the computer market, too. Pioneer Japan today announced [JP] the BDR-206MBK, the world’s first Blu-ray burner for PCs supporting the new format. The internal device is compatible to BD-R XL discs with three (100GB) or four layers (128GB) and BD-RE XL discs with 3 layers (100GB).
To make things complete, the BDR-206MBK also supports 3D Blu-ray discs. The burner will hit Japanese stores next month with a $ 372 price tag.
Buffalo announced [JP] a very similar model, the BRXL-6FBS-BK, today, (pictured below). The Buffalo model supports exactly the same BDXL discs as the Pioneer burner and plays 3D Blu-rays, too. Buffalo plans to ship the device in Japan next month with an open price model, also claiming the bragging rights for the world’s first PC BDXL disc burner.
At the same time, the company will start selling an external version, the BRXL-6U2 (pictured below), which features the same specs as the internal model and connects to your PC via USB 2.0.
Neither Pioneer nor Buffalo have announced international sales plans for these devices yet.
Look, we’ve all been there — you cruise home to hang with mom and pops, and one of the two asks if they can see those vacation images you took of the grandkids last month. “They’re on my hard drive at home,” you reply. Weeping commences, and your mum in particular scolds you for not “getting with the program” and “investing in a NAS drive.” It’s about time you listened, don’tcha think? Buffalo does, as it has just revealed a trio of new LinkStation drives (Pro, Pro Duo, Pro Quad) in the V-series ranging from 1TB to 8TB in size. The whole family looks mighty stylish for a Buffalo, and they’re all eager and willing to stream to DLNA-certified devices (hello, PS3 and Xbox 360!). The company claims that all three members — which sport a 1.6GHz CPU — can hit transfer speeds up to 76MB/sec, and a gratis WebAccess app enables you to pull up those images for gramps with your iPhone or iPad. The whole lot is available now starting at $ 189.99 (topping out at a whopping $ 1,039.99), and given that we both know you’ve know been schooled… well, let’s just say a new level of expectations have been set. Don’t blow it.
Continue reading Buffalo gets snazzy with LinkStation V-Series NAS drives
Buffalo gets snazzy with LinkStation V-Series NAS drives originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Oct 2010 14:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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