It's Not Sexy, but Everything Must Get Stored

Talk about innovation in the storage market and you're bound to render a few people comatose. But while storage isn't the stuff that scintillating conversations are made of, storage is the digital world's staff of life, and there's a surprising amount of innovation going on. I took a look at a variety of new storage products being launched at CES and in the running for The Last Gadget Standing, and I can tell you it's not your Grandpa's storage anymore.

Storage is making inroads on two fronts: mobile storage and home servers. And it's all about storing and protecting those vast media libraries (photos, music, movies) you've been accumulating.

First a look at mobile storage developments.

You can take it with you. Seagate, normally a straight-ahead maker of storage drives announced a new mobile storage platform it calls DAVE (Digital Audio Video Experience), with more than a nod to Stanley Kubrik. (Thanks to Gizmodo for the image.)

DAVE is a pocket-sized hard drive (up to 60GB) that's no bigger than a cell phone. It uses built-in Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to move content from your main PC for all your mobile travels, and it preserves the integrity of your original file. Grab a movie, photos, a bunch of music, and hit the road. You can view or listen on any of your mobile handheld devices: phone, digital or still camera, digital video camera, portable media player, or other gadget.

A different type of mobile storage device comes from SanDisk, a twist on the USB drive theme. The new micro SDHC card is one of those minuscule fingernail-size memory cards, but it holds a mega 8GB and is meant to be used with mobile phones. It stores 2,000+ songs, 5,000+ high-resolution pictures, or up to 5 hours of high-quality MPEG-4 video. Now available for $139.99.

The Buffalo DriveStation with Turbo USB puts the focus on speed as much as storage. The company claims that the Turbo USB feature increases performance speed up to 60 percent faster than other USB hard drives on the market. Street prices: $129.99 for the 320GB (HD-HS320U2), $169.99 for the 500GB (HD-HS500U2), $339.99 for the 750GB (HD-HS750U2), and $499.99 for the 1TB (HD-HS1.0TU2/F).

Notable omission from this lineup is Maxtor, so be sure to stay tuned.

Which of these storage alternatives appeals most to you?

Next up: Let's look at some of the innovation in home storage.