LaCie introduces spherical hard drive

Wanting to produce unique-looking hard drives, LaCie partnered with silversmithing firm Christofle in 2011. This year’s limited edition hard drive comes in the form of a silver sphere aptly called the LaCie Sphere. The 1TB drive looks like a high-end Google Nexus Q with a single USB 3.0 port and a blue status light located at the base. Unveiled at CES, the Sphere is expected to launch during the first quarter of this year at around $490.

Source: The Verge

Hitachi releases 8 and 4 Terabyte Hard Drives with Thunderbolt ports

We're finally seeing the first of the long awaited Thunderbolt-capable external drives. Hitachi's 8 and 4 Terabyte G Drives are designed with the vaunted Thunderbolt ports that allow  bidirectional data transfer rates of 10 Gbps, which is roughly twice the speed of USB 3.0 and 12 times faster than FireWire 800. With the MacBook Air and Mac Minis now rocking Thunderbolt ports, even consumer-level users can take advantage of the high speed througput now available. No news on price or availability yet but these should be coming soon. Video editors rejoice!