From The Show Floor - IOGEAR Announces Industry's Smallest External Hard Drive || The Mac Observer

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From The Show Floor - IOGEAR Announces Industry's Smallest External Hard Drive

by , 4:00 PM EDT, July 14th, 2004

To bring your stuff on the road, there are many solutions available. Of course there are external hard drives, which offer plenty of storage space, but are relatively bulky. On the other end of the spectrum are portable USB drives, which are certainly portable, but tend to have somewhat limited storage space and performance. Fortunately, our friends at IOGEAR are hoping to fill this gap with what they claim is the industry's smallest external drives.

Rear View of the New ION 1.8" Drive

The ION 1.8" will come in two versions, one that supports USB 2.0, and a Combo unit that will support both USB 2.0 (480 Mbps throughput) and FireWire (400 Mbps throughput). Both drives are also compatible with the USB 1.1 specification, for those that have older machines. What we found compelling is the innovative case design, which includes a belt clip for professionals on the move.

The drives will be available in both 20GB and 40GB capacities, and should be available in August 2004. Pricing has not yet been set.

The Mac Observer Spin:

Hopefully, the 1.8" drives that IOGEAR will be using will be available in sufficient quantities, so they don't run into the same fiasco that held up the iPod Mini.

IOGEAR

Observer Comments

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View Name:Guest
Wed Jul 14, 2004 4:25 pm Subject: FireWire or iLink?

Close Name:Small White Car Posts: 1950 Joined: 02 Jul 2004
Wed Jul 14, 2004 4:28 pm Subject: iLink

iLink is Firewire. It's just Sony's name for it. Although, yes, I too am always sad to see another product that refuses to draw power from firewire.

Last edited by Small White Car on Wed Jul 14, 2004 4:33 pm; edited 1 time in total
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View Name:Guest
Wed Jul 14, 2004 4:33 pm Subject: 1,8" FireWire & USB combo hard drive?

View Name:Guest
Wed Jul 14, 2004 5:12 pm Subject: A Trolling I Will Go

Close Name:John F. Braun - TMO Staff Posts: 227 Joined: 11 Jun 2001
Wed Jul 14, 2004 7:10 pm Subject: Size Matters

Quote
Guest wrote:
Is it just me, or is there no mention of the actual SIZE of this drive? That's kinda a pertinent factoid, seeing as the article is titled, "IOGEAR Announces Industry's Smallest External Hard Drive."

Maybe somebody could tell us the dimensions? Pretty please? I know it's a 1.8" drive, and I could maybe guess at the size based on that, but seeing as how "I'll Get my Mac News Here From Now On,' I'd prefer it if you just told me.

I mean, come ON!

You are right, Guest. Unfortunately, IOGEAR only made a very small amount of information available via their press release. I actually had to take a picture of a unit they happened to have on hand, since no art is yet available.

I'll be sure to stop by tomorrow and get some measurements. I'm assuming that the claim, which they made, is accurate. I actually have a LaCie Pocket Drive, and both that and the Data Bank mentioned earlier are definitely larger than the IOGEAR unit.

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View Name:Guest
Wed Jul 14, 2004 10:13 pm Subject: Really the smallest?

Close Name:Dave - TMO Staff Posts: 210 Joined: 11 Jun 2001
Thu Jul 15, 2004 3:07 am Subject: re: iLink

This is a HUGE issue for this type of product. Without computer-provided power, you're stuck with a power brick to operate it, which makes it a whole lot LESS useful for powerbook users, assuming these assumptions are correct.

-dave

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Close Name:samacgillivray Posts: 5 Joined: 19 Jul 2004
Mon Jul 19, 2004 9:12 am Subject: IOGEAR 1.8" Drive

Has anyone got the full specs of this drive yet? I have tired to look at it on IOGEAR's site but there is nothing as of 17/07/04. I noted that the staff said they would try ti get more on the actural size but I see no responce to this statment. What is going on?

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Close Name:John F. Braun - TMO Staff Posts: 227 Joined: 11 Jun 2001
Mon Jul 19, 2004 12:29 pm Subject: Re: IOGEAR 1.8" Drive

Quote
samacgillivray wrote:
Has anyone got the full specs of this drive yet? I have tired to look at it on IOGEAR's site but there is nothing as of 17/07/04. I noted that the staff said they would try ti get more on the actural size but I see no responce to this statment. What is going on?

Here's what the IOGEAR folks provided, thanks to someone in their main office pulling out a ruler and doing the work:

H 4.75" W 3.125" D 0.625"

A quick calculation based on other drives shows that the total volume of this drive is probably the smallest, with the largest dimension (5.75" on one of the LaCie units) being the most reduced.

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Close Name:samacgillivray Posts: 5 Joined: 19 Jul 2004
Tue Jul 20, 2004 2:25 pm Subject: IOGEAR 1.8"

Thanks for the info

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View Name:Guest
Mon Aug 02, 2004 10:51 pm Subject: Where are the GHD125C40 DRIVERS for OS 10.3?

View Name:Guest
Thu Sep 02, 2004 9:11 am Subject: hey big question

View Name:Guest
Thu Sep 02, 2004 9:12 am Subject:

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