Sony currently sells the PS5 in Slim and Pro tiers, with the Slim offering both digital-only and disc-drive versions while the Pro comes only in digital form with an optional $80 disc drive add-on. The digital Slim now costs $600 for 825GB, down from its original 1TB capacity, while the $650 disc version still ships with a full 1TB and can play physical games through 2027. The $900 Pro is largely sold out, likely due to demand tied to the GTA VI trailer reveal.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-21
Cassette tapes, the dominant music format before CDs and streaming, are generally expected to last around 30 years even under ideal conditions, since their magnetic coating gradually loses lubrication and can detach over time. However, actual longevity depends heavily on how tapes were stored, with many well-kept cassettes from the 1970s and 80s still playable today.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-20
A hands-on reviewer tested the AOOSTAR WTR Pro Ryzen NAS as a compact host for FreeBSD, checking build quality, storage layout and BIOS settings. The metal chassis fits a 10-inch rack, offers numbered NVMe and SATA slots for four SATA drives plus internal NVMe storage, and ships with SecureBoot disabled, easing installation of a non-proprietary OS. The reviewer noted a noisy fan and some fiddliness mounting 2.5-inch SATA drives, but otherwise found the unit well suited to running FreeBSD rather than a vendor-locked NAS OS.
tumfatig.net
· 2026-09-19
As enterprise SaaS platforms scale, the volume of transactional data, historical case records, attachments, and audit trails is outstripping what traditional relational database models can efficiently handle. This buildup is straining system performance and driving up operational costs for providers and customers alike, pushing archival strategies from a technical afterthought to a core architectural priority.
wpcms.computer.org
· 2026-09-18
Seagate Technology's 2026 Data Infrastructure Readiness Report, based on a survey of 2,712 enterprise IT decision-makers across seven countries, found that 99% expect AI to increase storage needs over the next three years, with nearly a third anticipating growth exceeding 50%. Yet only 38% of organizations feel their infrastructure can actually keep pace with that demand.
zdnet.com
· 2026-09-18
Apple's iOS 27 update brings a major Apple Intelligence overhaul, including a much-improved Siri, but some newer iPhones now need up to 14GB of free storage for full AI functionality, compared to 8GB previously. This higher requirement applies specifically to iPhone 17 Pro, Pro Max, Air, Duo, and 18 Pro models, while other iPhones still only need 8GB.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-18
A cross-country road trip prompted an examination of self-storage facilities as a defining fixture of American life, alongside churches. The industry, which began mostly as small mom-and-pop operations in the 1970s, has grown into a major institutional asset class, with the U.S. holding roughly 90 percent of global self-storage capacity. Texas leads all states in facility count, while Hawaii has the fewest, and New York City ranks third among metro areas.
newyorker.com
· 2026-09-17
Recent storm-driven waves fueled by Hurricane Marie eroded parts of the Southern California coastline near the decommissioned San Onofre nuclear plant, reigniting concerns about the safety of nearby spent fuel storage. The 3.6 million pounds of radioactive waste sit in concrete canisters about 100 feet from a seawall that protects the site, and Southern California Edison has pledged to relocate the waste to higher ground if erosion modeling warrants it. Experts say near-term risk is low, but note the waste will remain on-site indefinitely as no permanent disposal solution exists.
hardware.slashdot.org
· 2026-09-16
iOS 27.2 beta 1 contains references to a new erase feature that overwrites an iPhone's entire storage, including unused space, with blank data rather than just destroying encryption keys. 9to5Mac found the option is currently restricted to devices sold in China, and Apple warns it takes longer and may affect device lifespan. Code references suggest the same capability is being built for iPad, HomePod, and Apple Vision Pro as well.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-16
A developer building an open-source Git server on top of object storage (Tigris) found that standard Git packfiles, designed for local disk and memory-mapped access, performed poorly when objects had to be fetched via byte-range guesses from cloud buckets. After an initial filesystem-shim approach failed at production scale, they created a new columnar packfile format built specifically for object storage, which required no changes to Git clients and performed well on real-world repositories.
tigrisdata.com
· 2026-09-16
Amazon has discounted UGREEN's DXP480T Plus network-attached storage unit by $150, bringing its price down to $849.99. The device uses all-flash storage rather than spinning hard drives, positioning it for faster data transfers and quieter operation.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-16
An engineering explainer examines why the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve does not rely on the commercial standard of external floating roof tanks to hold its 714 million barrels of crude. It shows that scaling up conventional tank farms would require roughly 1,130 tanks spread across about 45,000 acres, an area comparable to Washington, D.C., while leaving the oil highly exposed to fire and attack.
johnjwang.com
· 2026-09-15
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