On Sunday Toshiba revealed its solution to ease consumer burdens of losing "digital memories" by offering its new line of Canvio pocket-sized external drives. Toshiba said the Canvio drives are an easy-to-use backup solution that offers storage capacities of up to 1 TB. Surprisingly, the company spent more time coughing up data loss statistics than promoting hardware details surrounding the new Canvio line.
"Women, in particular, are concerned about the security of family memories-- 78 percent of women respondents indicated they are primarily responsible for maintaining family records and memories to pass down to future generations," the company said. "These "chief memory officers" say that family videos and photos, as well as ancestor photos, are the most precious memories they have."
On a hardware level, Toshiba touts the 6-ounce Canvio as smaller than a postcard. The new line will also come in five colors: Liquid Blue, Komodo Green, Rocket Red, Raven Black, and Satin Silver. All five will be preloaded with Windows-based NTI Backup Now EZ software that features "extensive backup options, advanced restore functionalities, and an ability to overwrite specific original files." The drives are Windows 7, Vista, and XP compatible, and connect via a USB 2.0 port.
As for storage capacities, Toshiba is offering four variants: 500 GB ($119.99), 640 GB ($139.99), 750 GB ($159.99), and 1 TB ($199.99). The company also added that it reduced the physical size of the Canvio line by 25-percent while delivering a 35-percent reduction in total volume by using 100-percent recyclable materials.
