Today, LaCie announced the Culbuto, a quirky USB key brought to life by French designer Constance Guisset. When not connected to a computer, the LaCie Culbuto whimsically bobs side to side as it is poked – much like a roly–poly toy. In fact, the name Culbuto is French for a toy with a weighted base that keeps the object vertical even after it is knocked down.

"The search for movement and balance is essential in my work," said Constance Guisset, product designer. "Repeated and infinite oscillation fascinates me. For my first project with LaCie, I proposed a slightly roly–poly key that eventually became LaCie Xtremkey. When LaCie asked me to develop this idea, Culbuto was the result. It’s an irresistibly fun USB key."

The LaCie Culbuto is a storage device disguised as a decorative object. It has a spherical solid metal base topped with a silicone rubber stem that ends with a USB 3.0 connector. On its top, a cap that closes off the LaCie Culbuto features a slit to hold a photo or business card. Design–conscious consumers will appreciate both the speed benefits of USB 3.0 and the key's additional purpose as a whimsical picture holder when not in use.

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SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash storage solutions, today announced the 64GB SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive in advance of the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show. The drive extends SanDisk’s popular and award-winning line of wireless flash memory storage products, offering users even more wireless memory expansion for their mobile devices. In addition, recently released software updates enhance the performance and functionality of both the SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive and Wireless Media Drive.

The SanDisk Connect line of products is designed to alleviate storage capacity limitations that consumers experience with their mobile devices. Data from the SanDisk Memory Zone memory management app for Android devices, which recently surpassed 1.5 million downloads, indicates 44 percent of users have less than half of their mobile device’s internal storage capacity free, and nearly one quarter of users are at more than 80 percent utilization. The data also shows that when memory utilization reaches 80 to 90 percent, users proactively make space available by deleting or removing content.

“We are addressing a common problem of consumers running out of memory on mobile devices, and are extending our Connect product line with a 64GB Wireless Flash Drive for access to even more videos, photos, music, and documents on-the-go,” said Dinesh Bahal, vice president, product marketing, SanDisk. “With the SanDisk Connect products, consumers can expand the memory on their phones and tablets, stream movies, and share photos and documents with colleagues, friends and family with ease and style.”

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Samsung Electronics America, Inc. today announced a new advanced security solution for the 840 EVO SSD, Samsung’s SSD Self-Encrypting Drive (SED), compatible with professional security software.

The new data security enhancements are now shipping on the recently announced Samsung 840 EVO mSATA drive and can be enabled through a firmware update for the 840 EVO SSD SATA drive, launched last August. The new features are designed to meet security requirements for enterprise applications and are compliant with TCG Opal and IEEE 1667 standards.

The Samsung SSD SED solution is enabled via the newly released Samsung Magician 4.3 software, providing the enhanced security features required in enterprise user environments, such as government offices, finance institutions and other businesses.

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Mushkin, Inc., an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance and mission-critical computer products, today officially announced the worldwide launch of its new highly-anticipated enterprise-class ProSpec series solid-state drives.

"We have time after time demonstrated to PC enthusiasts how Mushkin's solid-state drive solutions can dramatically improve performance and reduce data transfer times, delivering levels of performance that have earned Mushkin its place as one of the top SSD manufacturers," said Brian Flood, Director, Product Management at Mushkin, Inc." With the ProSpec line of enterprise-class SSDs, we deliver a no compromise drive that provides high performance while enabling customers to reach new levels of data security and reliability. The result, a combination of performance and capacity that we believe represents a new paradigm shift for mission critical, enterprise storage."

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Today, two brands known for elegant design announce a silver-plated hard drive: LaCie Sphère, design by Christofle. Whether gracing the table of a 19th Century prince or the desk of a modern-day CEO, a piece by Christofle makes an impression. Building on LaCie’s initial partnership with Christofle that produced the Galet USB key, the Sphère integrates Christofle’s luxurious heritage with the industry’s latest technology.

The handcrafted hard drive is enclosed in a spherical case of silver-plated steel. Due to its round shape, the LaCie Sphère requires a careful manual plating process. It is stamped, silver-plated and finally polished for a perfect brightness in Christofle’s silversmith workshop in Yainville (Normandy), France. The highly reflective finish makes the hard drive a decorative piece to accompany any upscale home or office workstation.

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Seagate Technology plc today introduced Backup Plus FAST portable drive; the world’s first portable 4TB storage device, providing twice the capacity and speed of existing external portable drives. This new Seagate Backup Plus FAST drive features a superspeed USB 3.0 interface to deliver transfer speeds up to 220MB per second, making it the perfect companion for a field photographer or filmmaker looking to quickly move large files to backup.

“With Backup Plus FAST, Seagate has taken a very mature product category and has delivered innovative enhancements to address the real world challenges of our customers,” said Scott Horn, vice president of global marketing for Seagate. “The performance and capacity of this new portable drive is beyond that of any other external offering to date. We believe that the Backup Plus FAST drive will be widely adopted by creative professionals as the go-to back up device for the field.”

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Today, LaCie announced Fuel: a go-anywhere wireless hard drive for iPad, iPhone and Mac. Without requiring Internet access, the LaCie Fuel adds 1TB of external storage capacity to compatible mobile devices. Users can store up to 500 movies, 160,000 songs or 190,000 photos, and share them with up to five devices at a time. What’s more, AirPlay compatibility means users can easily stream movies onto the big screen via Apple TV or music to compatible speakers.

The LaCie Fuel lets users access enormous media libraries right from their iPad. With 1TB of storage at their fingertips, they don’t need to pick and choose what they load onto their mobile device. Not only does the LaCie Fuel let them access all their media files while they’re on the go, it also has plenty of extra space to accommodate future needs.

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