Seagate has announced its Autumn 2008 lineup of the award-winning FreeAgent™ external hard drives. This new generation of the Seagate® FreeAgent™ family includes attractive desktop and mobile options, for both Mac® and Windows® operated PCs that make it a breeze to back up, share and protect valuable digital content like photos, videos and music. I especially like the Go version for the Mac, which has this snazzy little desktop dock. The Mac Desktop version also looks the business... reviews will appear on the Geekanoids website in due course.
The remainder of the official press release from Seagate reads as follows;
Seagate’s flagship offering, the FreeAgent Go portable storage solution, is the slimmest external drive available today. At a height of only 12.5mm, the new FreeAgent Go easily fits in a pocket while still including all the advanced shock and vibration protection people have come to expect from Seagate. Another industry first, the new FreeAgent Go is the first external hard drive to offer a docking option, providing a practical way to move from the desk to the road, while leaving the hassle of fumbling with cables and locating USB ports to the history books. With up to 500GB of capacity, the FreeAgent Go bridges the gap between standard portable solutions and desktop solutions with enough storage to carry entire libraries of movies, pictures and music. No longer does one need to sacrifice capacity for portability, Seagate FreeAgent Go provides the benefits and convenience of both in a truly seamless on-the-go package.
“With the amount of content being created and consumed today, the average broadband household will soon need close to a terabyte of storage to account for their personal media collections on PCs, portable devices, and DVRs," said Jane Shields, research analyst, Parks Associates. “With Seagate’s coupling of high-capacity, reliable and easy-to-use solutions with attractive designs, the company is helping more people enjoy the benefits that come with backup and sharing of their digital media collections.”
“The growth of the 2.5–inch form factor external hard disk drive market has been very strong – almost doubling in 2Q08 compared with 2Q07,” said Wolfgang Schlichting, research director, Removable Storage at IDC. “This growth is much higher than the overall market and driven by
the products’ convenient size and connectivity, as well as their large storage capacity and affordability.”
The FreeAgent Go desktop docking station is sold separately and comes paired with a black leatherette carrying case to add style while protecting the drive from the bumps and scratches encountered while traveling in hand bags and during other on-the-road adventures. The FreeAgent Go is now available in a variety of popular colours, including silver, black, red, and blue. The drive also ships with a flexible, thin USB 2.0 travel cable.
The FreeAgent Desk drive and FreeAgent XTreme™ drive are the family’s two 3.5-inch high-capacity desktop offerings, and provide up to 1.5 Terabytes of storage. The sleek and modern design of these drives provides the flexibility to sit horizontally or stand vertically to maximise your workspace. The FreeAgent Desk drive is a brushed aluminum high-capacity solution with a USB 2.0 interface. The FreeAgent XTreme drive is a midnight black, brushed aluminum high-capacity storage solution with a triple interface of eSATA, USB 2.0 and FireWire 400.
“The first FreeAgent storage solution offering introduced in 2007 unquestionably made a mark for Seagate in the consumer space, demonstrating that hard drives can be designed to provide a stylish complement to a computing environment,” said Pat King, senior vice president and general manager of Seagate’s Consumer Solution Division. This second-generation of FreeAgent storage solutions takes the extra step of providing easy-to-use technology in a consumer-friendly package.”
Seagate FreeAgent drives are compatible with Windows® Vista® and Windows® XP® Operating Systems and come equipped with Seagate Manager™ software, an enhanced application that provides scheduled automated back ups and multi-computer synchronisation. The FreeAgent drives for Windows also offer security in the form of software-based AES-256bit encryption and Seagate DrivePass™ password protection for drive access to help keep your information safe and private. The environmentally smart utilities help save energy by putting the drive in sleep mode once it has been idle for 15 minutes. Seagate FreeAgent hard drives include Energy Star 5 rated AC adapters and are now packaged in 100% recyclable materials. And with Seagate’s industry-leading five-year limited warranty, the FreeAgent storage solutions provide the confidence that your digitally-captured memories and life’s work is on a hard drive you can trust.
As part of this product introduction, Seagate will also unveil external storage solutions designed specifically for the Mac community. The Mac community has spoken and Seagate is listening. The FreeAgent Go for Mac and FreeAgent Desk™ for Mac are both formatted for use with Mac OS X out of the box and are Time Machine ready with FireWire800/400 or USB 2.0 connectivity. Seagate understands that Mac customers have specific needs and performance requirements and these demands are being met with the FreeAgent external hard drive for Mac offering.
FreeAgent™ | Go Drive for Mac
With a FireWire 800/400 interface and USB 2, docking station and carrying case the Seagate FreeAgent Go drive for Mac is equipped to move seamlessly between the desktop and road. Formatted for use with Mac OS X and Time Machine ready, the FreeAgent Go for Mac is the perfect back up companion for any Apple® computer. Seagate FreeAgent Go for Mac is available this month for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of £94.99 for 250GB and £110.99 for 320GB.
FreeAgent™ | Desk Drive for Mac
The high-capacity FreeAgent Desk drive for Mac features a brushed aluminum arctic silver finish that is a perfect match for the current iMac Desktop. With both a USB 2 and a FireWire 800/400 connection and tuned to be Time Machine ready, the FreeAgent Desk for Mac is available this month for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of £102.99 for 500GB and £142.99 for 1TB.
FreeAgent™ | Go Drive
A pocket-sized storage drive that packs a punch, the Seagate FreeAgent Go drive is slim, compact and shipping in four colour options available as of this month in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of £62.99 for 250GB, £79.99 for 320GB and £150.99 for 500GB.
FreeAgent™ | Dock and Case
Protection for those on the go and a dock station for convenient and quick access to your files, these accessories for the FreeAgent Go drive are sold separately. The dock and case will be available in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific for a manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP) of £19.90.
FreeAgent™ | Desk Drive
This convenient desktop storage solution, Seagate FreeAgent Desk drive, is the perfect desktop companion for basic back up and security for all your digital files. This high-capacity USB 2.0 interfaced drive provides enough room to hold libraries of images, music and video. The FreeAgent Desk drive is available as of this month in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific, for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of £67.99 for 500GB, £75.99 for 640GB and £107.99 for 1TB.
FreeAgent™ | XTreme™ Drive
Designed for performance, especially for those who work with high-definition video and graphic files, the Seagate FreeAgent XTreme drive is the perfect fit. The FreeAgent XTreme delivers a 3GB per second transfer rate with the eSATA connection. This drive also includes FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 connection options. The FreeAgent XTreme is available worldwide for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of £94.99 for 500GB, £102.99 for 640GB and £134.99 for 1TB.
