The Gadget 411 – Gadget Reviews & Tech News

Apple has just announced a new, 2TB Time Capsule that’s available today for $500 (the former price of the 1TB). So the 1TB drops to $300 (the former price of the 500GB)

[Via Gizmodo]

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Thanks to Lance Whitney of Cnet.com for this one!

AT&T is expanding its cloud-computing efforts with its new Synaptic Storage as a Service offering for enterprise customers, announced Monday. The service will let business users save and access their data via laptops, smartphones, and other Web-enabled devices.

With cloud-based storage, businesses can tap into their data as a service without having to set up their own equipment. They pay a monthly fee for storage as they use it. AT&T plans to offer the service on a limited basis starting this month, with its eye on a larger rollout to its U.S. Internet data centers by the third quarter. Eventually the company plans to offer the service at its data centers in other parts of the globe.

“The demand for data storage continues to grow at a staggering rate, driven by companies’ need for 24×7 access to business critical data,” Roman Pacewicz, senior vice president of strategy and application services, AT&T Business Solutions, said in a statement. “AT&T Synaptic Storage helps enterprises get a handle on these increasingly complex storage environments, while controlling costs and improving service levels.”

Enterprise storage giant EMC will provide the technology for AT&T Synaptic Storage, though both companies have agreed to co-develop and market the service. EMC will employ its Atmos technology, which uses policy-based management to control the data. Offsite business users can connect to the cloud through virtual private networks for secure access.

The cloud service is part of AT&T’s effort to dive into new growth markets. The company recently announced lower earnings and sales for the first quarter of 2009, though results were higher than expected thanks to strong performance in its wireless segment with booming business from Apple iPhone subscribers.

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If you are looking for a way to share and store your files online then Dropbox could be your solution.  This easy to use interface allows you to sync files automatically to your computers and the web.After a short install to your Windows, Mac or Linux based computer, you have the ability to drag and drop files into your Dropbox folder. Any files or folders inside Dropbox will get synchronized to Dropbox’s servers and any other computer linked to your account. This data is also accessible by using the web interface at www.getdropbox.com. If you are concerned about security, rest easy. All data is transferred over SSL and encrypted with AES-256 before storage. If you currently utilize Apple’s MobileMe you will find that Dropbox is very similar. It has some added functionality for file sharing and includes access for Linux users which is a group that Apple failed to recognize. The cost is perfect for most users. It’s free with 2GB of space. Deleted files and revisions don’t currently count against your quota. If you are looking for more storage, you have the ability to upgrade to 50GB of space for $9.99 per month or $99 per year. Dropbox is also smart with how it tracks changes to files. When a change is made, Dropbox only transfers the piece of the file that changed, making it easy to work with big files like Photoshop or Powerpoint documents. In looking at this site and service it was hard to find any reason not to take advantage of something like this. For a link to download the software and more information, please go to www.getdropbox.com. Try this out and let me know what you think in the comment section below.

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Drobo!!! I am a huge fan of storage. I attribute that mostly to the fact that I don’t delete ANYTHING. Who does? Our digital lives are just a collection of files and folders. The Drobo finally gives us an easy to use solution for home users. How often do you see statements like “Hot-expandability” and “16 TB” in a consumer product? By my count… never.

The folks at Data Robotics Inc. have recognized that users need the same flexibility and usability in a product as the huge corporations out there. They have also done a very good job at wrapping it all up into a very nice little package.

This new unit can be expanded to 16 TB and has Firewire 400 and 800 on board. It also has USB 2.0 for those of you who purchased the new MacBook. The price seems to be around $500.00 everywhere. Since it is Windows and Mac compatible the price may be the only dissuading factor.

Go to http://tinyurl.com/5qmcvz for more details on this product and as always please leave some comments to let us know how we are doing.

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