Jan 11 2008You Didn't Go Under?: Iomega Back With REV
I thought Iomega went under after my 100MB Zip drive broke and I called them to complain for a few hours about the much needed documents (read: porno) that I now didn't have access to. Well it turns out I was wrong, the company still exists. They were flashing around their new product -- the REV, at the recent CES. "Instead of 100MB, the removable cartridges now hold 70GB and are apparently pretty durable since the read and write heads are housed in the drive itself, with the cartridges containing the data platter." Sound good? Yeah, I'm not getting that excited either. Especially seeing how the unit costs $600 and disks are $70 a pop. I'll just stick to my conventional method of data storage, my own brain. Who needs disks when you have an incredible mind that can remember anything? I can recreate virtually any document or picture at another computer using my incredible memory. Okay, now where's that ENTER key? I know it's here somewhere. Ah yes, there she blows. See -- brainpower baby.
Oh No! Iomega's Zip Drive Is Back! [ohgizmo]
Reader Comments
1. aztech - January 11, 2008 11:51 AM
first!
2. Violet - January 11, 2008 11:58 AM
I would never again put 100 MB of my data in the trust of Iomega, never mind 70 GB.
Also, I can get a 500 GB external drive for just over $100. Why would I want these disks?
FAIL.
3. Kevin - January 11, 2008 12:20 PM
We've been using Iomega REV at work for 3 years now, hardly new. Bang for the buck, it's way better than what most businesses use now for backups: backup tapes. We have close to 300 REV disks in use and have never had one fail.
Weird to see an enterprise backup product on Geekologie.
4. reynwrap582 - January 11, 2008 12:23 PM
Iomega really is addicted to these weird removable disc drives that few people would want to use. Not only can you get a 500GB external for a bit over $100, you can put together a USB-powered 2.5" external up to 250GB for around $150. You don't need a separate disc and drive anymore, all you need is a USB port.
5. The Moat - January 11, 2008 2:02 PM
Just adding to the series of "WTFs" from the other posters...
From the looks of it, the drive itself is physically larger than most of the USB external HDDs out there, so this loses in size, in addition to cost.
Portability? If you're moving with just the disks, you need to buy multiple drives which bumps the cost of tihs storage from "Seriously?" to "Can we just steal your wallet now and save you the trouble?". And if you're just buying the one drive and taking it with you, you now have to carry the adapter as well as the drive, and find a place to plug it in, as well. (i.e.; good luck using this on the plane.)
Long story short, it's too bulky/inconvenient to be a viable portable data solution, and it's too expensive to be a viable data backup solution for businesses.
Which reminds me; @3, Kevin, buddy... hire me on as a technology consultant, and I'll save you buckets of cash on your backup. I won't tell you my plan yet, though. You have to pay me first.
6. guate6 - January 12, 2008 1:02 AM
Funny, I just saw my old zip drive and those crazy zip disks (100MB, and the 250MB, which cost way too much)...I wanted to sell them when I first got a burner (read: a long time ago), but no one would buy...I figured that would be the case, since no one uses zip drives anymore...shoot, there are jump drives that hold a lot more than zips.
Now as far as this goes, I'm agreeing with #5. Oh and businesses who use tape drives, are better off buying new computers and having a single storage/backup unit networked. Iomega is still trying to make things with technology that's different, claiming to be new, cool, and exciting, but is still too expensive. The zip drives, eh, at least they came out at a decent time versus cd burners, but this...nah, there's too much new technology that trumps this.
7. thebobman - January 16, 2008 9:00 AM
The Rev drive has been around for ages; iomega even made an MP3 player than used the cartridges as media (this predated flash memory). I fail to see the benefit of a Rev drive over a CF card reader & CF cards. For starters the CF cards are solid state, then there's a price difference plus CF cards are already an industry standard and have dozens of other applications beyond whatever you'd want a Rev drive for.
8. thebobman - January 16, 2008 10:50 AM
oops... The Rev discs are now 70GB... Previous comment retracted on the basis that 70GB discs that size are hawt.