There's a reason why users are sometime hesitant to rely on the services of a new company: they might go under. And these days, the question probably pops more often than usual. Startup Pogoplug is well aware of this and has prepared an answer that many will like: if for some reason, Pogoplug was to go away, the source code of its back-end services would be uploaded on SourceForge, allowing others to keep it running. It's not 100% guaranteed that someone would, but that's about as close as you can get to certainty in this situation. Of course, this is just a worst case scenario. PogoPlug's objective is to create confidence in the longevity of its service, not plan its own demise.

We loved the look of the LaCie 5big (and the smaller 2big too), but we all know that real beauty is on the inside and in this latest incarnation, the storage got a bump to 10TB for the 5big (5 hard disks in a RAID array). If you're not familiar with these devices, they are accessible from a Gigabit Ethernet network and come with backup software. It is compatible with Apple's Time Machine and iTunes server. 2big starts at $320 (1TB) and 5big starts at $799 (2.5TB).

Related: HP Mediasmart server review

Corsair has just announced a 256GB SSD (Solid State Drive) that can reach speeds of 220MB/s and 200MB/s (read and write, respectively), which is very decent and close enough to the Intel X25M in terms of performance. The pricing is the juicy part: for about the price of an X25-M 160GB, you have 1.6x the storage capacity - at least in theory: we have not verified the performance numbers in a real test. Corsair uses Samsung flash memory in this SSD. Apparently, it's already available online for about $650.

RipNAS has just released the Statement SSD and Statement HDD for those who are looking for convenient and spacious storage solutions, with the former being the first SSD-based CD-ripping NAS device in the world. Encased in an all-silver box that is powered by the Windows Home Server operating system, it works like a ninja - that being, totally silent while being able to handle a whole host of tasks such as CD ripping, media streaming as well as networked file storage. Inside, you will find a dual core Atom processor, 2GB RAM and a quartet of USB 2.0 ports. As for the Statement HDD, it is able to hold a couple of 1.5TB drives while the SSD version can store much less with dual 250GB SSDs. No idea on pricing as at press time, but chances are they won't be cheap.

The HP MediaSmart Server EX-487 is the second generation MediaSmart Server. It runs on Windows Home Server, a flavor of Windows dedicated to network attached storage. The Ex-487 is in fact a small PC, however, HP made it quite easy to setup and manage and that's where the added value really is. Windows Home Server has a few basic functions that are very handy: its data store can recognize duplicate files (based on their binary signature, not their names) to save space, storage can be easily extended with a mix of any hard drive, data duplication over several drives is handled. On top of that HP has built some value by building a control center, easy setup for clients and router and web-based media sharing functionalities that are quite advanced. You can not only access your files and computers remotely, but the MediaSmart Server will act as a web server that can share media files or even stream them directly to another computer over the web. So, how does it perform?

Just like Corsair, Kingston Technology has also taken its first step into the world of solid-state drives (SSDs). Apparently, Kingston won't be going it alone as they will market their products in co-branding effort alongside Intel (who are planning to roll out 320GB SSDs sometime this fall, by the way). Kingston has gotten off the blocks with a bang by introducing two lines of SSDs - the SSDNow E and SSDNow M series. The former will target enterprise servers while the latter will see action in corporate notebook applications. There is no word on pricing as at press time, but we suspect it won't be too far off from what the market rate is at the moment. Nice to see more and more memory module manufacturers jump aboard the SSD bandwagon - hopefully the more competition there is, prices will be driven down faster than expected.

[CES 2009] Seagate is no stranger when it comes to storage solutions, and has released its new Seagate FreeAgent Theater HD media player at CES, offering users a complete home theater solution that was specially developed to work in tandem with their own FreeAgent Go portable hard drive. This set up allows users to enjoy stored digital media on their TVs directly instead of settling for less on a computer monitor. All you need to do is place the media player beside your TV, insert a FreeAgent Go hard drive, make your selection and you're good to go - enjoying HD quality video in a snap. The Seagate FreeAgent Theater HD Media Player will be available this coming March and has two purchase options - as a standalone unit to be used with other USB storage devices, or as a bundle that includes a FreeAgent Go portable drive, going for $129.99 onwards. Guess the living room is getting pretty crowded with all sorts of devices taking advantage of your HDTV, so it will soon be time to make a careful choice before parting with your hard earned money.

Samsung just announced that it has launched a 100GB SSD aimed at the IT/infrastructure market. It can read at 230MB/sec and write at 180MB/sec, which puts it high in terms of performance, but not at the top spot held by Intel's X25-E SSD (64GB). Random seek time are also extremely fast, due to the solid-state nature of SSDs. Besides performance, Samsung is also touting the low-power consumption of its new SSD: 0.6 Watts in idle mode and 1.9 Watts in power mode. A typical 15k rpm hard disk is said to consume 8-15 Watts at full load and 1 to 2 Watts in idle mode. Samsung says that the drive will be "standardized in height, width and thickness", although it's not clear whether or not the company was thinking of the 3.5" format usually used for server drives.

Many of us don't even pay attention anymore, but having 64GB in a USB key is actually really cool. Sandisk is taking advantage of this extra capacity to build a new product with the Sandisk Ultra Backup. The idea is that a dumb 64GB drive is much less useful than one with embedded software that can sweep a specific location in your computer and backup + encrypt all the files using an AES* encryption. The Ultra Backup comes in 8GB ($40) to 64GB ($200) capacity.

*AES is an algorithm widely used in the computing, the banking industry and even the military. Even with tremendous computing power, it should take decades or much more to decrypt something.

Seagate is investing as much as $100 million into the development a new type of solid-state drives (SSD), with the aim of resolving some of the issues of SSDs, such as the higher cost of production and the limited read/write cycles. According to reports, the solution would be to create a new technology that combines single-layer cell and multi-layer cell technology, benefitting from the former’s reliability and the latter’s low manufacturing cost. If Seagate is paying $100 million to get us cheaper and better SSDs for the future, we’ve certainly got no complaints, but we would point out that today's SSD lifespan should be largely enough for consumers. What we really need is higher performance (SSD controller changes) along with lower per-GB cost.

Intel has started shipping the "Extreme" flavor of the X25 SSD (version X25-M reviewed here). The write speed is superior to the other X25 versions: 170MB/s versus 70MB/sec, which is quite extraordinary, not only for a SSD, but for a drive in general. This flavor is aimed at enterprise applications and it is probably a dream device for system administrators frustrated by disk access performance. Here's the catch: the 32GB costs $700 (in bulk) and the 64GB, which will be available early next year will cost even more. I'm sure that a reviewer will put this in a Lenovo S10, just for the kick of it...

SSDs were all the hype last year, then the "bubble" popped when tests performed on the Macbook Air showed that the SSD drive did little more than add $1,500 to the computer's final price. No performance increase, no battery life increase - two of the promises (among others) that SSD buyers were expecting from this technology.

When they were announced, the Intel Solid State Drive (SSD) seemed fast enough to justify a field test, so we installed a 80GB Intel X25-M SSD into a 2 years old Sony Vaio SZ laptop to see what would happen. Why such an old laptop? Because we think that the perceived unresponsiveness observed by many users is caused by the lack of disk performance. Disk accesses are the main reason why many simple computer tasks (boot, shutdown, applications loading, thumbnails generation...) feel so slow. We hoped that adding this drive alone with give a "boost" to the aging laptop.

So what are the results? It worked! Thanks to the SSD awesome performance, the laptop responds quickly. The Intel X25 80GB makes SSDs cool again and proves that hard drive performance can be more important than processing power.

Our old laptop is now almost as responsive as a nearby new desktop PC equipped with a Western Digital Velociraptor 10k rpm drive (300GB). The Vaio SZ's PCMark 05 HDD score went from 2996 to 18817! As a reference, the desktop PC and its Raptor 10k rpm drive gets a score of 8298... Unfortunately, a benchmark is a benchmark and real-life performance is sometimes different from synthetic measurements, so we'll try to tell you how the user experience is affected by this Intel X25-M SSD.

Users who constantly use those currently popular hard drive docking stations will definitely worry about how they normally store their precious hard disk when it isn’t docked. It’s all fine and dandy when it’s sitting in the dock, but when you unplug it, you probably leave it lying around your desk, which makes it an easy target for knocks, which your hard disk definitely isn’t fond of. Brando has noticed this and is currently selling a 3.5-inch silicone case for your naked hard disk, giving it some (meager) form of protection. About a third of the casing is detachable for when you want to plug it into the docking station. If you’re fussy about the health of your hard disks, then $17 probably isn’t too much to pay.

If you want an very large capacity Memory Stick Pro Duo card for your PSP (or other Sony device), but don’t want to shell out for expensive Memory Sticks, you’ll want to consider getting Brando’s PhotoFast CR-3100 SD(HC) to MS Pro Duo adapter. It will allow you to use up to 2 SD cards to (in their own words) make super large capacity. Terms like “super large capacity” will certainly sound cute, but being able to combine up to 2 SD cards to be used as one Memory Stick should come in quite handy, especially if you want some major storage space on your PSP. The adapter is going for $39 at Brando.