Seagate Savvio 10K.4 Drive Puts 600GB Into 2.5-Inch Form [HDD]

The Seagate Savvio 10K.4 is an enterprise storage HDD, which means you're likely not going to just go out and buy one. But it's notable for just how much information it can fit into one tiny disk drive.

Its 600GB capacity is twice what's currently available on the market, and Seagate's asserting that it's 25% more reliable than any other drive, with an annualized failure rate of just 0.44%. And while it'd be nice to have one of my very own, at least I know that it's about to make some IT manager out there very happy.
[Gizmodo]

JVC Steals Smallest and Lightest Crown With its GZ-HD620 Camcorder [JVC]

It was only last week that JVC dropped three new Everio camcorders on us, after nearly six months of quiet times. Today's Everio GZ-HD620, which was announced in Japan first, is the world's smallest HD HDD camcorder.
Weighing only 270g, it's also the lightest. The HDD has 120GB of storage for you to fill up with 1080p videos of your dog, and the sensor is a 1/4.1' 3.32 MP CMOS job. 30x optical zoom and 200x digital zoom, you can playback footage on the 2.7-inch LCD screen or upload easily to YouTube thanks to the quick upload function. A microSD/SDHC slot, USB and HDMI ports round the camcorder, which measures 53 x 63 x 115mm, off nicely.
Available in Japan from tomorrow in black, red and silver colorways, we should see more of the GZ-HD620 come January at CES.
[Gizmodo via Akihabara News]

Toshiba announces world’s first 1.8-inch HDD with 320GB Capacity

Just in September this year, Toshiba proudly announced a 1.8-inch HDD with 160GB capacity, which was pretty impressive already (their new SSDs aren’t too shabby either). But today, not even two months later, Toshiba unveiled another 1.8-inch HDD with 320GB capacity [press release in English].

The MK3233GSG features a 3Gbps SATA interface and 16MB buffer, produses just 19dB of seek noise and spins at 5,400 rpm. Needless to say it’s the only 1.8-inch HDD with 320GB capacity out there.

Toshiba says mass production will start in December this year. In the past few months, the company has announced one high-capacity HDD after the other.
[CrunchGear]

Mercury ups its 2.5″ external HDDs to 1TB

If you feel like riding the wave (and are made of money), look no further than the newest configuration of Mercury On-The-Go Pro, which is the first that I know of to put a 2.5″ 1TB HDD in a bus-powered enclosure. Sure, there are 1TB units already available (for under a hundy, even), but they use 3.5″ drives, making them bulky and rarely bus-powered. These Mercury ones are the only truly portable terabyte drives out there.
Problem is, they’re not exactly speedsters: 5200RPM means they’re sluggish even for HDDs, and if you want a fast interface you’ll be paying extra. In fact, even just USB will set you back $300, and if you want FireWire 800, you’re looking at an extra $60 on top of that.
It’s the early adopter tax, and I don’t know if it’s worth it when surely WD and Seagate and everyone else have theirs coming down the pipe. Still, I’ve always liked the clear enclosures, and it’s available now. That’s got to be worth something.
[CrunchGear]