56 year old German entrepreneur Klaus Richter is selling ready-for-use condom factories, meaning you can order a complete manufacturing facility from him, and he ships practically everywhere. What may sound as a joke at first is serious business: Richter has so far sold over 100 factories worldwide.

The factories are being put together and shipped from Penang, a port city in Malaysia. Richter says he already sold his product through his own firm, “Richter Rubber”, to places like India, Mexico and Thailand. Two containers with 26sqm. of space are enough. Once the containers are at the hands of the new owners, it takes another 10 days of work to get the factory ready to roll out the first condoms.

One factory costs about $500,000, but for that money, Richter Rubber staff will set up the factories themselves, grant various warranties and instruct the new owners on all standard operating procedures.

Richter says he produces the factories in Malaysia since labor costs are low, and high-quality natural rubber is virtually around the corner.

Via Technology Review – German Edition [GER]

The rough and tumble SimpleTough USB drive can sustain a 10-foot drop without skipping a beat. It’s also water- and shock-resistant and comes with a wraparound USB cable. The SimpleTough is available in the following sizes: 250GB ($100), 320GB ($120), 500GB ($150), and 640GB.

The SimpleDrive Mini is nothing special unless you like your portable drive to be red wine, blue dusk or carbon fiber aka black, which is basically all this line is known for. Drive sizes are the same as the Tough line and prices are $10 cheaper.

Rounding out today’s announcement is the SimpleNet USB network adapter. It retails for $80 and you can connect up to two USB drives to your home network at a time.

SimpleTough [SimpleTech]
SimpleDrive Mini [SimpleTech]
SimpleNet [SimpleTech]

Incidentally, a friend of mine tipped me off that the intro video for the festival was pretty awesome; you can check that out here.

[via LikeCool]

As a 20 year storage veteran, Mike Cordano, Fabrik CEO and co-founder, will join Hitachi GST as a key member of the executive management team. Mr. Cordano has an extensive background in the data storage industry, having previously served as executive vice president of Worldwide Sales and Marketing for Maxtor Corporation. While there, he was instrumental in building the Branded Products Group, which successfully launched the industry’s first “OneTouch” external storage and backup solution, which ultimately defined the category and broke the technology barrier for mass consumer adoption.

HITACHI GST STRATEGICALLY EXPANDS INTO EXTERNAL STORAGE;
TO ACQUIRE FABRIK, INC.

Leading Hard Drive Supplier Gains Immediate Access to Innovative Storage Solutions
for the Consumer, Small Business and Professional Mac and PC Markets

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Feb. 23, 2009 – Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced that it has agreed to acquire Fabrik, Inc., a privately-held supplier of personal and professional storage solutions. Fabrik, whose leading storage brands include G-Technology and SimpleTech, strategically positions Hitachi in the fast-growing external storage business.

Industry analyst firm IDC expects worldwide personal storage device shipments to grow from approximately 52 million in 2008 to 123 million in 20121. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. Closing of the acquisition, which is subject to customary conditions, is expected to occur early in the second quarter of 2009.

Fabrik’s business will continue intact and form the core of Hitachi GST’s newly-formed external storage business. Hitachi GST will fully support the G-Technology and SimpleTech product lines, building upon their success and differentiation in the market. The combined company will also leverage operational, technical and product development resources, distribution channels and global reach to accelerate delivery of a full portfolio of traditional hard drives, solid state drives and branded personal and professional storage products.

“The Fabrik acquisition becomes the cornerstone for the next phase of our business transformation. It strategically expands our market presence, strengthens our product portfolio, and increases our customer base,” said Steve Milligan, President of Hitachi GST. “Fabrik is a key component of our growth and profit strategy going forward and will enable us to deliver a differentiated set of products across a broad range of end-user market segments.”

As a 20 year storage veteran, Mike Cordano, Fabrik CEO and co-founder, will join Hitachi GST as a key member of the executive management team. Mr. Cordano has an extensive background in the data storage industry, having previously served as executive vice president of Worldwide Sales and Marketing for Maxtor Corporation. While there, he was instrumental in building the Branded Products Group, which successfully launched the industry’s first “OneTouch” external storage and backup solution, which ultimately defined the category and broke the technology barrier for mass consumer adoption.

“Hitachi GST provides Fabrik and its customers all the benefits of a vertically integrated company. We gain economies of scale, financial stability, association with a strong brand and a worldwide footprint to accelerate our business growth,” said Mike Cordano, Fabrik CEO and co-founder. “We are pleased that Hitachi is building upon our vision and enabling end-users everywhere to enjoy powerful storage solutions that are unequalled when it comes to performance, style, reliability and innovation.”

Fabrik’s leading storage brands include G-Technology, offering premium external storage solutions for the Mac, content creation and professional A/V markets; and SimpleTech, an innovative leader in PC-based external storage and backup solutions. Both brands have clearly differentiated product lines that complement and build upon the existing Hitachi GST hard drive portfolio.

The SimpleTech Mini drive from Fabrik is made with two things in mind: compactness and simplicity. As you can see, it’s almost featureless; the drive is powered through USB so no extra cords are needed. You’ll notice the cord has two terminations, which is necessary if one port doesn’t provide the power necessary (I didn’t encounter that on my desktop or laptop). It’s a bit weird, but a regular non-forked cable worked just fine. I’m guessing that on a netbook or something with a similarly low-wattage power source, you’d need the double-USB thing.

The styling is very understated and attractive; it has a smooth, velvety surface not unlike that of a Razer mouse, and its torpedo-like profile has no major logos or flourishes. There are two little indentations near the front, which beg to be grasped, although I don’t know who would want to carry it with a pincer grip like that. The bottom has little rubber ridges so it doesn’t slide — it was rock solid at a 45 degree angle.

The performance is good, which is not to say any better than you’d expect from an external USB drive, but it certainly didn’t have any problems. I tried a few little example transfers with different types of files, since I’ve had drives choke up on say a hundred JPEGs where they’d do fine with a single large file. No problems there:

500MB – 30sec
74mb (9 mp3s) – 4sec
75mb (200 pictures) – 5sec

The SimpleTech uses a 2.5″ HDD, and costs about $130-$150 right now. You can get more spacious drives for the same price, of course, and cheaper, but they use 3.5″ HDDs and are generally quite a bit more bulky (see my old WD external in the pic there). You’re paying for portability here, and the Simpletech succeeds on that front. Personally, I wouldn’t buy a 3.5″ external these days, since you really want to have a few internal 3.5″ ones for long-term storage and a good 2.5″ external for convenient travel storage. The Simpletech is a great option for the latter.

If there’s one very-important rule when it comes to schoolwork, it’s to save early and save often. I’d also add that you should save elsewhere, too. So here are five options for backing up your files.

First, some criteria.

1. Must cost under $100.

2. Storage space must be at least 500 gigabytes.

3. Must be relatively easy to set up and use.

And now, your options.

Western Digital 500GB My Book ($99.99)

Pros: It doesn’t look like an external hard drive, turns itself on and off with your computer to save electricity.

Cons: Included software is apparently slow, first generation of My Book drives had reliability issues (this is the second generation, though).

More info: You’ll likely see this drive in a fair amount of dorm rooms as it’s got a nice aesthetic and a relatively affordable price point. Setup should be easy and quick and the drive should work well on PCs or Macs.

The first generation of these drives had some issues with reliability. The case has no fan, so heat dissipation is important. Don’t set this up on top of a radiator or window sill, in other words.

Iomega 500GB Prestige ($94.99)

Pros: Runs cool and quiet, has an actual manual power switch for turning the drive on and off.

Cons: No software included (you’ll get a license to download EMC Retrospect, though).

More info: The Prestige’s aluminum case and Energy Star qualified power consumption will ensure that this drive runs cool and quiet. A dedicated on/off switch lets you shut off the device over holiday breaks and long weekends away.

Plus, Iomega has been doing the storage thing for a while so this drive has a good name behind it.

LaCie Ethernet Disk Mini Home Edition 500GB NAS Hard Drive ($99.99)

Pros: Network attached storage so you can hook this drive up to your network to read and write using multiple computers.

Cons: Somewhat troublesome with Macs, NAS setup not quite as simple as standard external hard drives.

More info: If your housing situation gives you control over your network and you want to be able to share files with your roommate(s) relatively easily, this is a great price for a 500GB network drive. First-timers or people looking for straightforward backup of one computer might be better off with a standard USB 2.0 drive, though.

 SimpleTech SimpleDrive 500GB ($89.99)

Pros: Pretty inexpensive for a good-looking 500GB drive, designed by Pininfarina of Ferrari fame, one-click backup and capacity meter on the top of the drive, includes 2GB of online storage through Fabrik.

Cons: Some customers reporting DOA drives or drives dying after a few months of use. Hopefully just a brief QA issue that’s been cleared up by now.

More info: Perhaps the best option when you factor in the one-click backup, online storage, thoughtful capacity meter, sleek design and lower price than competing models.

Mozy Online Backup ($60 or less per year)

Pros: Secure off-site storage, no need to purchase or maintain hardware or worry about drive crashes, relatively simple automatic backup, unlimited storage, can pay for it monthly at $4.95 per month.

Cons: Long-term costs end up being higher than buying traditional drive (storage is unlimited, though), can only be used with one computer – adding computers costs another $4.95 per month, much slower than having an actual drive connected to your computer, people concerned about keeping their files online should look elsewhere.

More info: This is actually the option I’d recommend to just about anyone. Mozy is easy to use, cheap to get into at $4.95 per month, and you don’t have to worry about setting up an actual, physical drive and hoping it doesn’t crash.

Storage is unlimited and you can set the software up (PC and Mac) to automatically back up certain important files and folders. Your files are backed up online, so they’ll copy much more slowly than if you had an actual external drive connected to your computer. Plus, as a backup service, it’s not great for actually keeping files for you to access as easily as you could with a conventional drive. So if you need MORE space, then you’ll want to check out an actual drive. But if you want to make copies of what’s on your computer’s hard drive, Mozy is a pretty good, simple, inexpensive option.

Enter the SimpleTech [re]Drive. I’d wager that this drive is probably one of the best external devices I’ve seen. It does what drives are supposed to do – it reads and writes data at USB 2.0 speeds – and is surprisingly cool and silent.

The drive is clad in aluminum and bamboo. The top and bottom look like they’re made of balsa wood while the side panels have an odd texture that suggests a clever heat-sink. Even though this is a 500 gigabyte hard drive, it spins up silently and makes nary a whisper during operation. A similar drive, also 500GB sitting next to it, sounds like a jet taking off.

The drive includes a power supply and standard USB cable. It also has backup software stored on the drive along with support for Fabrik, an online sharing system we’ve reviewed before. Fabrik support offers online storage of your images, documents, and media. A link to Joggle.com is also included, which is another service aimed at sharing pictures and video with friends and family.

The drive is formatted in NTFS out of the box and requires a reformat for OS X support. It includes a Turbo USB driver for faster disk access – about 20% over standard rates – offering 480-500 Mbps on a good day. Best of all, the drive turns off when the PC or Mac is turned off, ensuring that the drive’s green pedigree isn’t all just lip service.

Drives can’t really be revolutionary, but the $159.99 [re]Drive comes pretty close.

FABRIK LAUNCHES WORLD’S MOST ECO-FRIENDLY EXTERNAL DRIVE

New SimpleTech [re]drive with Turbo USB 2.0 Provides Consumers with an Energy-Efficient, Fast, Reliable and More Sustainable Alternative for Storing and Protecting Digital Files

San Mateo and Santa Ana, Calif, July 28, 2008 – Bump up your green meter with Fabrik’s (www.fabrik.com) new SimpleTech [re]drive™, the world’s most energy-efficient, resource-conscious, Turbo USB 2.0 external storage and backup drive. From its sustainable bamboo and recyclable aluminum enclosure, to its packaging and Energy Star® power adaptor, the SimpleTech [re]drive helps make the world a little greener while storing and protecting your data. With Turbo USB 2.0, which delivers up to 25 percent faster performance than USB 2.0, the [re]drive is speedy and reliable with plug n’ play simplicity for both Mac and PC users. To help you steer clear of life’s little digital disasters, the SimpleTech [re]drive’s automated backup software saves copies of your stuff on the drive, and on encrypted, secure servers using Fabrik Ultimate Backup (www.FabrikUltimateBackup.com) for ultimate online backup protection.

“Many consumers are concerned with helping solve the most important environmental issue of our time – protecting our planet from the threats of climate change,” said Matt McRae, vice president of marketing at Fabrik. “At Fabrik, we’re making an effort to support the environment, while adapting our products to better meet consumer needs and interests. We know we have a lot more work to do across the board as a company, but we’re committed to change and hope we’ll make a small dent in improving the environment – through our products, services, partner choices and company best practices.”

[re]think
Blazing a path of innovation in making the products more sustainable, the new SimpleTech [re]drive is the most eco-friendly alternative on the market when compared to standard external hard drives. Renewable and recyclable materials are used in every aspect of the product where plausible and economically possible. For instance, it’s designed using bamboo, which is incredibly strong (16 percent harder than maple) and is one the earth’s most sustainable, environmentally-friendly natural resources. The bamboo is naturally grown local to Fabrik’s manufacturing facility so the material is not transported over long distances.

A thick aluminum casing is used not only for durability, but because it’s the most recycled metal on the planet. It also acts as a heat sink, cooling the drive without the use of a fan, saving additional energy and noise. Add to that a low-power internal hard drive, an Energy Star power adapter, and a feature that automatically powers the drive on and off with your computer, and you’ve got a storage and backup solution that keeps your grid demands to a minimum. Total power savings could equal up to 90 percent when compared to traditional external drives* or the equivalent of reducing approximately 475 lbs of carbon dioxide emissions over the life of the drive**.

In addition, the [re]drive’s simplified, 100 percent recyclable package contains just the bare essentials to reduce waste – there’s no extra bags or inserts, and the backup software and user guide are saved digitally on the drive. For added convenience, the quick set up guide is printed on the inside of the box.

As standard industry practice, Fabrik ensures that all of its products adhere to stringent, regulatory compliance standards such as Grunpunkt, RoHS and WEEE.

[re]store
The SimpleTech [re]drive is a reliable alternative for protecting precious data on a Mac or PC. A simple-to-use wizard guides you through a one-time set up process, where you can easily select what day, time, or specific files or folders you want protected. For PC users, virus protection is included to help prevent the transfer of infected files before the backup occurs. Free updates are continually made available to provide ongoing protection from the latest viruses. The backup software also lets you create a disaster recovery CD that can be used to boot your system in case of system failure, which could save hours of reinstalling the OS and various applications.

While backing up your digital files to the [re]drive is important, Fabrik Ultimate Backup provides the ultimate online backup data protection, so no matter what sort of disaster strikes your external drive or computer – a spilled drink, theft, fire, or other natural disaster – your pics, flicks and tunes are safe. Each SimpleTech [re]drive comes with 2GB of free online backup space, or for less than $5 per month you get unlimited capacity to securely backup all of your important files and media collections offsite. All online backups are secure, encrypted and most importantly are unobtrusive; performing incremental backups, so only the smallest amount of content that has been changed or modified within your files will be updated. Fabrik Ultimate Backup is also available as a standalone online backup service.

Fabrik’s new SimpleTech [re]drives Turbo USB 2.0 external drives are available today at many U.S. retail store and online sites. Manufacturer’s suggested retail pricing (MSRP) is $159.99 for 500GB.

Along with the [re]drive, Fabrik also announced today the availability of the new SimpleTech SimpleDrive and a new 500GB Signature Mini Portable USB 2.0 Drive. For more information about Fabrik’s new products, please visit www.fabrik.com.

Besides the launch of their portable SimpleTech mini USB drives, Fabrik also launched Fabrik Ultimate Backup at CES. If you’re like me then backing up can be a tedious pain the arse. I avoid it as much as possible. I just don’t have the time or patience to do it. Well, Fabrik realizes many consumers feel the same way and FUB makes the whole process simple.

Makes no difference whether you have a Fabrik portable, either. The software is downloadable and as a trial you get 2GB of free backup space. Data is encrypted at 128-bits when uploading and then re-encrypted at 448-bit. You essentially have unlimited storage space for only $5 a month. Pretty sweet deal, right?

The portables come in seven flavors: espresso, blueberry, kiwi, cool mint, marshmallow, bubblegum and black cherry. Storage sizes range from 120GB to 320GB with pricing starting at $120 on up to $230.

Fabrik

Fabrik has announced that shipments of its 250GB SimpleTech SimpleDrive have begun. Ferarri’s own design firm, Pininfarina, has designed a stylish and rugged portable drive that needs no external power, utilizes USB 2.0, runs at 5,400rpm with 8MB cache AND comes with 2GB of free storage on myfabrik.com. SimpleTech SimpleDrive portable drives are available in colors and capacities that include sapphire (80GB), onyx (120GB), red (160GB) and the new charcoal gray (250GB) and they begin shipping this month. Prices range from $99 for the 80GB to $199 for the 250GB.

Pininfarina also designed a line of larger, external hard drives for SimpleTech with capacities from 160GB to 1TB.

Product Page

Good hard drives come in all shapes and sizes, from the practical, boxy models popular with IT folks to the fancy-pants portable units that artistes and poets use to store their highfalutin’ work. The SimpleTech 500GB is an amalgam of those two: small and unobtrusive enough to be ignored but with styling that screams “I take part in Critical Mass rides and might go to Burning Man next year.”

The drive uses wall current and connects via USB 2.0. There is a large button on the top to initiate backups and it also includes a 2GB MyFabrik account in the box for offloading some of your storage to myFabrik’s unique sharing system.

The drive is about seven inches long and SimpleTech, a worldwide manufacturer of flash and HD devices, tapped Pininfarina to design the drives, the same folks who designed the Ferrari. Pretty fancy, huh?

Contents may have shifted.

Amazingly, the drive comes with both Mac and PC backup software. The Mac version requires a little helper app for the button on top, but as far as I can tell the two applications, both from ArcSoft, are identical. It’s formatted in NTFS, which is kind of useless for Mac folks but definitely makes it ready to rock for Windows folks.

Hot FR33 WAR3Z!

Installation on my Mac Pro was simple — I just ran the TotalMedia backup installer and then the button helper. I had to restart, which was a pain, but I made it through without crying.

The drive is actually very quiet. I have three hard drives in my immediate vicinity, and the SimpleTech device is the quietest of the lot. The 500GB costs about $200 and the smaller models, which include 160 and 250GB, cost $99 and $120, respectively. Definitely not bad for such a hefty drive.

Drives, as they say, are all the same. However, some folks — SimpleTech included — try a little harder to make a nice-looking, solid product.

Product Page

Today’s secret Skype subject line is:

IPreferSkypeOverLunchmeat

Oh boy. I hope you guys are excited on this bitterly cold Tuesday because in Silicon Valley, things are getting HOT! A service called Myfabrik is being released today after beta testing. It’s going to change the way you use the web, I swear. You’ll be able to do things you’d never thought possible, such as share files online (up to 1GB), share videos, photos, and the ability to share your thoughts with other people publicly. Groundbreaking stuff here folks.

Don’t get me wrong, Fabrik has the ability to create a decent website by combining multiple services that we use every day. But for now, Myfabrik is looking like just another Web 2.0 startup capitalizing on the success of others through integration. We’ve used MyFabrik in early stages and run the Maxtor Fusion drive which has it built-in and so far it is a serviceable, platform. The UI is a bit peaked, but that can get ironed out in future builds.

Something to take a look at? Sure. Something to call grandma about? Naw. Let her sleep.

Myfabrik – The YouTube and Flickr of Online Storage? [Read/Write Web]
Product Page

I’ll be doing an in-depth review next week, but here are some first impressions:

MyFrabrik is OK – The MyFabrik interface used by the Fusion is highly AJAX-y and acceptable. It could be a little more intuitive, but we’ll talk more about that next week.
]]> http://www.crunchgear.com/2006/09/01/maxtor-fusion-drive-first-impressions/feed/ 2 http://www.crunchgear.com/2006/08/25/myfabrik-stores-and-shares-your-precious/ http://www.crunchgear.com/2006/08/25/myfabrik-stores-and-shares-your-precious/#comments Fri, 25 Aug 2006 16:17:30 +0000 Richard Ozerman http://crunchgear.com/2006/08/25/myfabrik-stores-and-shares-your-precious/ Maxtor Shared Storage II, which was both spacious and easy to set up.

They’re marketing this as YouTube, G Drive, .Mac and Flickr all in one place, which is somewhat accurate, if a bit less on features than each of those web-apps. Following the public launch of the final service in September, access to the new MyFabrik service is priced beginning at 99 cents/month, which includes 1GB of online storage space. Additional storage space may be purchased incrementally for 49 cents per GB.

We’ll have a hands-on update with the beta impressions soon.

Product Page [myfabrik]

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