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Western Digital Launches My Book Duo 2-bay USB 3.0 DAS
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Western Digital Launches My Book Duo 2-bay USB 3.0 DAS

Even as the consumer NAS market continues to experience rapid growth, it is impossible for consumers to have really fast access to data when the storage is bottlenecked by the speed of their network link. Single hard disks, by themselves, can hardly saturate today’s high-speed direct-attached storage (DAS) interfaces such as eSATA, USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt. Users needing fast transfer rates (while maintaining the higher cost-effective capacities that hard disks provide) need to go in for RAID solutions. These tend to perform well for certain common workloads (multimedia handling).

Today, Western Digital is launching a new member in the My Book lineup of DAS devices, the My Book Duo. The company is no stranger to dual-disk RAID-0/-1 capable solutions, having released a USB 2.0 / Firewire 800 capable unit back in 2011 and a first-generation Thunderbolt device in 2012 along with a high-performance variant using VelociRaptor drives later in the same year. All these used software RAID, and that is where things are changing now.

The My Book Duo comes with hardware RAID (and hardware encryption, if opted for). It has a USB 3.0 interface. There are two additional USB 3.0 ports in a hub configuration at the rear of the unit, claimed by WD to be a handy add-on when users want to charge their mobile devices without desk clutter. WD Red drives are used internally (pre-configured in RAID-0). WD includes a complete software suite (WD SmartWare Pro, Acronis True Image Software, Dropbox cloud integration etc.) with the device.

The design of the chassis seems to be the same as what was used in previous two-bay solutions that supported replacement of disks by users (such as the My Cloud EX2). The unit is available today in 4, 6 and 8 TB capacities with suggested prices of $280, $350 and $450 respectively.

Microsoft Revamps OneDrive Storage Tiers
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Microsoft Revamps OneDrive Storage Tiers

Today Microsoft announced some very substantial changes to OneDrive storage. OneDrive is of course Microsoft’s consumer cloud storage product, formerly named SkyDrive. When the service first launched in 2007, early users received 5 GB of onli…

Sprint and Samsung Unveil the Galaxy S5 Sport
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Sprint and Samsung Unveil the Galaxy S5 Sport

Today Sprint and Samsung announced a new addition to the Galaxy S5 family. The new device is similar to the Galaxy S5 Active in its purpose, sporting a more rugged design better suited for being used during workouts and exercise than the standard Galaxy S5. However, the appearance of the Galaxy S5 Sport is closer to the design of the original Galaxy S5 than the Galaxy S5 Active is.

In terms of specifications the new Galaxy S5 Sport is essentially identical to the Galaxy S5. It sports the same 5.1″ 1920×1080 Super AMOLED display and a 2.5GHz quad core Krait 400 based Snapdragon 801 CPU paired with an Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB of LPDDR3 RAM. On the back there’s Samsung’s 16MP sensor with ISOCELL technology to reduce crosstalk between pixels, along with the LED flash and the heart rate monitor. The front of the device has the same 2MP camera, but you’ll notice that Samsung has replaced the capacitive navigation buttons with physical keys which will function more reliably with fingers that are wet or sweaty from exercise. At 144mm x 74mm x 8.9mm in size with a mass of 158g it is also slightly larger and heavier than the normal Galaxy S5. Like all Galaxy S5 variants, the Galaxy S5 Sport has IP67 certification for dust and water resistance.

Connectivity is similar to the Galaxy S5 with support for 2×2 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0, USB3.0, GPS/GNSS, MHL, DLNA, and NFC. Being a Sprint device, the Galaxy S5 Sport has support for Sprint’s EV-DO network as well as LTE with Sprint advertising the device as supporting their Sprint Spark tri-band LTE network on bands 25, 26, and 41.

The big difference from the original Galaxy S5 is in the software. The Galaxy S5 Sport still comes with Android 4.4.2 and Samsung’s Touchwiz UI but Sprint is including some preloaded software to appeal to those who are interested in keeping fit. The device is acting as the launch vehicle for a new service Sprint is creating called Sprint Fit Live which they are billing as a complete mobile health and fitness package. Below are some of the features included in this service for those purchasing the Galaxy S5 Sport.

  • Track, monitor, and share workout activity with 12 months of free MapMyFitness MVP, which includes premium content such as customized audio coaching, training plans, live tracking and more. MapMyFitness is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Under Armour, a leading performance and innovation brand.
  • Access Spotify Workout playlists with free Spotify premium for six months for customers who are on Sprint Framily plans or three months for other Sprint customers.
  • Live the Healthy Lifestyle by receiving updated smart, contextual health and fitness content.
  • Customize the look and feel of fitness tracking, education, music and healthy living content displayed on the wallpaper or full screen experience.

In addition to the Sprint exclusive fitness focused features, the Galaxy S5 Sport has all of Samsung’s health related software such as S Health. Sprint is also offering buyers $50 off the Samsung Gear Fit for a limited time.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 Sport will be available on Sprint in Electric Blue and Cherry Red on July 25. The phone will be available for $0 with 24 monthly payments of $27.09.

Source: Sprint, Sprint

AMD Announces FirePro W8100
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AMD Announces FirePro W8100

Following up a little less than 3 months after the launch of their new flagship professional graphics card, the FirePro W9100, AMD is back once again this week to further flesh out the FirePro Wx100 series. This time around AMD is announcing a lowe…