SSDs are popular, but traditional hard drives still have a place in our devices. Toshiba has been demonstrating a prototype of a new storage technique called bit-pattern recording. This technique offers a storage density of 2.5Tb per square inch, or to put it another way, about five times more than the company’s current offerings.

They achieve this by placing individual bits onto lithographed “islands” of magnetic material that will protect the charge of the individual bit while allowing the sector to be smaller. We won’t be seeing this until about 2013 however.

Panasonic wants to improve your living room entertainment options with their RT2B series plasmas which can record TV broadcasts onto their hard drives or Blu-ray drives.

These are also the first all-in-one models that can handle Blu-ray 3D movie playback too. There are 42″ and 46″ versions. Sadly, the likelihood of seeing them on our shores is very small. But we may just see their new 3D glasses, which come in various sizes and can be recharged via USB.

The Toshiba Canvio portable HDDs sure do look purty. In addition to sleek good looks, the Canvio for Mac external HDD series ships with pre-loaded Mac-customized backup software.

They are available in 500GB, 750GB and 1TB capacities and the Toshiba Canvio for Mac features USB 2.0 connectivity and a shock sensor so you can keep it safe from bumps and bangs. The 500GB, 750GB and 1TB models are priced at $99.99, $119.99 and $139.99.

Hitachi has unveiled a new line of external storage solutions called the LifeStudio line. The line comes in several different modes with different features and capabilities. The line offers a slick 3D navigation interface and content aggregation capability.

The line can back up data locally and to cloud-based storage options. The LifeStudio Plus drive has a built-in flash drive for syncing content for on the go use. Content can be pulled together from local sources, the web, and social media.

External storage solutions are a big deal and USB 3.0 made them much more usable for those with lots of data they want to back up. The extra bandwidth makes a backup with multiple gigabytes of data much faster.

Iomega has announced a couple new external storage solutions that use the USB 3.0 port. The first of the new solution is the eGo Portable Hard Drive USB 3.0. The device has 10x the speed of a USB 2.0 HDD and is compatible with USB 2.0 ports as well. The device has 500GB of storage and sells for $129.99.

I guess with all things being equal I and many others would prefer to have a gadget that looked cool over one with a more mundane design. This is the crowd that will like the sound of the new Team TP1023 external HDD.

The drive is designed to look like a sports car, and it does a good job. It reminds me of a Ferrari. The drive has a suspension system to protect the HDD in the event of a drop. Other feature of the external HDD include an energy saving automatic suspend mode when the drive is idle to save power.

Current hard disk drives have hit their limit: a few hundred GB per inch. Or have they? A combination of two unique writing methods could lead to new HDDs that will yield ten times as much data in the same space.

The process combines TAR (thermally-assisted recording) and BPR (bit-patterned recording) to pack bits of data like sardines without the HDD’s write head accidentally messing with surrounding bits. Initially, researchers expect densities of up to 1TB per inch with the new method. Eventually they think they can get densities as high as 10TB per inch.

Toshiba Japan has updated their REGZA HDTV range with select models supporting USB hard-drives or coming with 500GB of storage built-in. The Toshiba REGZA R1 series comes in 32-, 37- and 42-inch sets, while the REGZA H1 series comes in 32- and 37-inch sets.

Each has a USB port and Full HD resolution (Aside from the 32-inch models, which get 720p support). There’s also the entry level Toshiba REGZA A1 series, with 19-, 22- and 26-inch models, which all offer 720p HD resolution.

Toshiba has a new automotive HDD with 200GB of storage. I guess it’s time to start figuring out which music and movies you want in your next car’s dashboard. Anything to quiet the kids. Toshiba’s 4,200 RPM SATA MK2060GSC HDD has a small form factor, durability, and a great storage size that everyone will want in their dashboard.

Try not to get into an accident while watching your favorite racing movie. It might be better to focus the the music. Better yet, focus on the road.

Western Digital shipped the industry’s first 2.5-inch 1TB hard drive last summer, but sadly it couldn’t be used as a drop-in solution for upgrading your laptop drive. This is because it relies on a 12.5mm height form factor, while the majority of laptops only support 9.5mm height drives.

Well, now they’ve outed the 750GB Scorpio Blue, a 2.5-inch drive that uses the standard height form factor. The unit includes Advanced Format and WhisperDrive for just $149.

Those lucky Japanese have had the 250GB Xbox 360 HDD for a couple of weeks. And now there’s news that the new HDD should be available here as of today for $130, according to this “Make More Room for Entertainment” advertisement and an official word from Microsoft.

Up until now it was only available as a console bundle. $130 is the same price the 120GB was going for previously. Pretty great deal.

Sony Japan has released their first LCD TV with a built-in hard disk drive. The piano black BRAVIA BX series of LCD TV’s is known in the USA as the BX300 and is available in 32″ and 22″ models. But, the BX series recently debuted in Japan as the BX30H, available in 22″, 26″, and 32″ sizes.

And just because Japan likes to get things that we Yankees don’t have, They also have a 500GB HDD and are also available in white. Some other features include a 100,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, CCFL backlighting, 720p HD resolution, 60hz, 24p True Cinema, BRAVIA Engine 2, BRAVIA Sync and other common video features.

We love unusual clocks around here and this one from Russian designer Viacheslav Slavinsky is certainly awesome. This must be the Rolls-Royce of hand-made gadget clocks.

By replacing the disc stack with a single disc that has the numbers punched into it, it shows the time by illuminating the numbers with LED panels from behind. The effect is just plain awesome. There are so many neat clocks like this, I can’t believe that anyone still has just a boring plain wall clock.

Sure this isn’t the most attractive or exciting device ever, but in terms of practicality, it’s pretty cool. Aleratec’s 1:1 HDD PortaCruiser Lightweight and Portable Hard Disk Drive Duplicator lets you easily clone 2.5″ and 3.5″ hard drives for backing up your data.

It also functions as a Dual Disk RAID Controller so you can attach two hard drives to it, connect it to a USB 2.0 port and use it as external storage. The 2-line LCD display makes things even easier. And it weighs only 8 ounces, so you can carry it with you.

The number of external hard drives on the market is staggering. The drives can be had in a huge range of capacities and styles to match the needs of the end user. Many external hard drives with higher capacities are used to back up data from computers on a network and to store movies and other content.

Samsung has announced a new special edition of its S2 Portable hard drive. The drive has 500GB of storage space and will launch alongside the DVD and Blu-ray version of the Michael Jackson THIS IS IT film on February 22. The drive will have a digital copy of the movie pre-loaded.