Buffalo Americas, a leading provider of external storage, network attached storage (NAS) and networking solutions, today announced availability of its new MiniStation Extreme NFC portable hard drive. Buffalo's ruggedized drive features advanced hardware encryption and near field communication (NFC) technology to block unauthorized access. It also adheres to U.S. Military Standard shock protection and is safeguarded against water and dust damage.

"When examining the rugged portable drive market, many of our competitors focus on being the best at a single metric of device protection while sacrificing other data security capabilities," said Matt Dargis, COO, Buffalo Americas, Inc. "We designed the MiniStation Extreme NFC to be the most complete rugged portable drive on the market, including features that not only protect against the elements, but also support the latest hardware encryption technology and NFC secure access functionality. We packaged all of this functionality into a sleek, compact design that sets it apart from the competition."

Buffalo Technology, a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of storage and wireless networking solutions, today extends its portable hard drive offering with MiniStation Air 2 (HDW-PDU3 series). The device offers ease of use and flexibility, enabling users to expand their storage capacities without the hassle of wires, cables, or Internet connection.

The HDW-PDU3 offers 500 GB or 1 TB worth of storage and up to 12 hours of battery life. Using integrated Wi-Fi to create its own hotspot and stream data, the device also doubles as a portable battery charger for charging smartphones. Movies, pictures and music can now be shared with DLNA supported devices, and allows up three simultaneous HD streams.

Buffalo Americas, a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of wired and wireless networking and network and direct attached storage solutions, today announced the new MiniStation Air Wireless Portable Hard Drive, providing up to 1 TB of storage for tablets, smartphones, computers and more.

Buffalo's new compact portable storage solution includes up to 10 hours of battery life and support for up to eight devices, allowing travelers to easily transport their multimedia library with them while on the go, and stream content wirelessly to any computer, smartphone, tablet, smart TV or supported gaming console.

Buffalo has today announced that its newest, SSD-equipped MiniStation portable drive will become available early next month. Pictured below, Buffalo's drive measures 81 x 130 x 23 mm, it weights 260 grams, it has an aluminum body, both Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 connectivity, and is capable of transfer speeds of up to 382 MB/s (via Thunderbolt).

This dual interface offering is backed by a one-year warranty, it comes with Thunderbolt and USB cables, and will ship in 128 GB (~ $496) and 256 GB (~ $796).

Three months after launching the MiniStation Thunderbolt Buffalo Inc. is preparing to release another portable storage solution supporting both Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 connectivity. Known as the MiniStation HD-PATU3S Series, this new drive will feature a sleek aluminum body (like the MiniStation Thunderbolt) and will pack a solid state drive allowing for read speeds (over Thunderbolt) of up to 382 MB/s (compared to the 109 MB/s claimed to be delivered by a Thunderbolt-enabled portable HDD).

Buffalo says the HD-PATU3S Series includes 128 GB and 256 GB models. No word on pricing yet.

Buffalo launched a 2 TB variant of its MiniStation 3.0 portable hard drive (model: HD-PCT2. 0U3-GBJ). Slated for late-July, the drive will be priced at 29,925 JPY (US $380). The drive is built into the conventional MiniStation chassis, which is available in piano-black and pearl-white finishes. The drive is completely bus-powered, and connects to the host over USB 3.0 SuperSpeed interface (backwards-compatible with USB 2.0 HiSpeed).

The drive comes pre-formatted with FAT32+ file-system, with the volume storing Windows and MacOS X installers for Buffalo Tools (disk management software) and TurboCopy (speeds up file-transfers). The drive can later be re-formatted to the file-system of your choice, after backing up the installers. Measuring 144 x 77 x 20 mm, the drive weighs about 255 g.

Buffalo Japan unveiled the MiniStation Air 500 GB wireless portable hard drive (model: HDW-P500U3). The drive combines 802.11 b/g/n (up to 150 Mbps) wireless data connectivity with USB 3.0 SuperSpeed (5 GT/s) wired data+power connectivity. When in wireless mode, the drive powers itself using an in-built 2,860 mAh lithium-ion battery, which can keep it ticking for up to 4.5 hours before needing a recharge.

The drive comes with applications by Buffalo on App Store for iOS devices, and Google Play for Android devices, which lets you access its contents securely, and configure the device to treat the drive as a storage device. Photos taken by your smartphone, for example, can be instantly transferred to the drive; you have 500 GB of space to go around with, when video-recording with your phone. The drive supports the latest Wi-Fi security standards, including WPA2/PSK, with AES encryption for data transmitted wirelessly.

Buffalo Technology, a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of wired and wireless networking and network and direct attached storage solutions, today announced the availability of the MiniStation Thunderbolt / USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive. Demonstrated earlier this month at Computex in Taiwan, the MiniStation Thunderbolt is the world's first portable Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 dual-interface external drive solution. With the flexibility of either SuperSpeed USB 3.0 or a lighting fast Thunderbolt connection, the MiniStation Thunderbolt is ideal for PC and Mac users looking for the fastest interface speeds while preserving backward compatibility with existing devices that support USB 2.0.

"With the creation and transferring of digital content accelerating at ever increasing paces, protecting that data on the go continues to be a challenge for all types of users," said Brian Verenkoff, director of marketing at Buffalo Technology. "With the MiniStation Thunderbolt, consumers can now move or backup digital assets faster, simplify connections between devices, maintain compatibility with nearly any device and foster new and exciting ways to use portable storage."

Buffalo Japan rolled out a 2 terabyte variant of its MiniStation HDPNTU3 portable HDD series. Models in the series are characterized by fast USB 3.0 SuperSpeed interface, and a shock-absorbing internal drive frame that lends higher shock tolerance, although Buffalo stopped short of mentioning the exact shock tolerance figure. The new variant (model: HD-PNT2.0U3-GBJ) provides 2 TB of unformatted capacity, and supports USB 3.0, which eliminates interface bottlenecks. It relies on the same connection for power. Its feature-set includes Buffalo's Turbo PC software, which speeds up drive access by up to 2 times; and native 256-bit AES data-encryption. Measuring 82 x 118 x 22 mm, the MiniStation weighs about 260 g. It is expected to hit stores by late-June, priced at 31,080 JPY (US $392).

Buffalo Japan introduced a new line of portable HDDs, under the MiniStation HD-PCT1TU3-BWJ. This series is actually a re-launch of a previous MiniStation series, which was discontinued as supplies of hard disk drives began to dwindle at the wake of the devastating Thailand floods that affected HDD foundries. What's changed between the older drives and these is the higher price, and changed warranty policy. The drives take advantage of the USB 3.0 SuperSpeed interface, and use a single cable for both power and data transfers. Measuring 77 x 114 x 14 mm (WxDxH), these drives are available in piano-black and pearl-white color options. The drives come in two capacities, 500 GB (priced at 12,075 JPY / US$150), and 1 TB (priced 16,485 JPY / $206). Buffalo will start shipping these in early-March.

Buffalo has this week revealed the latest additions to its MiniStation line of portable drives, the HD-PZU3 Series models which feature USB 3.0 connectivity, 256-bit AES hardware encryption, and a rubber case and internal shock-absorption system offering high impact resistance (the HDDs meet the US military drop-test standards MIL-STD-810F 516.5).

Buffalo's rough and tough drives measure 89 x 18 x 128 mm, they weight 230 grams, have a built-in USB cable, and are backed by a one-year warranty. The HD-PZU3 Series will debut in mid-March with 500 GB (~ $198) and 1 TB (~ $252) HDDs colored in 'Deep Red', 'Indigo Black' and 'Dark Silver'.