Dell has acquired AppAssure, a backup and recovery software specialist, in a bid to beef up its software and storage portfolio.

The latest acquisition by the world’s third largest PC maker comes after the company formed a new software division under former CA head honcho John Swainson earlier this month. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. …

If Parallel’s founder Serguei Beloussov gets his way, the technology landscape in 2022 will be dominated by mobile and social technologies, big data and the cloud.

People would interact through social networks in new ways, with 80 percent of Internet transactions taking place on ubiquitous smartphones. Mobile operators such as China Mobile may also drop per minute billing for voice calls, in favour of mobile data plans. …

Of all the things that can happen during Chinese New Year this week, I accidentally made the data on my network attached storage (NAS) device unreadable – and could easily have wiped out all the years of reports, financial statements and holiday pictures I’ve stored on those two 1TB drives.

After days of pulling hair out, I eventually salvaged everything. But the entire episode prompted me to ask if I was really as prepared as I thought if I had accidentally deleted my data or, in this case, plugged my drives into a new NAS without backing things up.

The answer lies in a series of software tools you can use at home, before really going to the pros in data recovery for help. Here are a few that I tried out while panicking through my attempt at rescuing my data.
…

Singapore Expo is a long way away for most people, other than folks living in the east, so before you head down to Sitex, Singapore’s last quarterly IT bazaar for 2011, check out some of the standout deals that people have been putting up on brochure sites.

Yes, in the past, you had to squeeze your way through the halls for some small bargain, collecting loads of brochures on the way. Today, you can check out what’s on offer online before heading down for a more targeted trip.

Here are some great deals so far at this weekend’s show. We’ll update this page as we get more info.

…

The time of USB 3.0 is upon us, and Sony has made its entrance into the new realm of digital storage by offering its first USB 3.0 flash drives, the new Micro Vault Q Series.

Clad in an aluminum casing, the Micro Vault also features a retractable USB connector to protect it from dust or damage. It also has a LED indicator for convenient checks on data transfer status.

When plugged into a corresponding USB 3.0 port, transfer speeds are significantly faster than USB 2.0 speeds, with Sony claiming a read speed of up to 120 MB/s. Current USB 2.0 read speeds fall between 30 to 42 MB/s.

The initial offerings of the Micro Vault flash drives will come in 8GB, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. Prices will be available when they are launched in November 2011.

Researchers in Singapore have found a way to pack six times the data today into future hard disks by basically ordering the structures on the physical drive more neatly – like packing clothes in a suitcase, they say.

Using a materials process known as nano-patterning, they have been able to create arrays of magnetic bits that can potentially store up to 3.3 Terabit per square inch ( Terabit/in²) of data on a hard disk. That is six times the recording density of current devices. …

Media storage company SanDisk unveiled a whooping seven new products last Friday, including one which SanDisk hopes will innovate an entire line of products separate from its SD cards and USB flash drive lines. …

Another one of Singapore’s quarterly tech bazaars, Comex 2011, opens its doors today to thousands of bargain hunters eager to cash in on discounts – or perceived discounts – on laptops, headphones, printers, TVs, broadband plans and just about anything tech you can find on the island.

One of the most hotly-awaited deals – HP’s TouchPad – has already been sold out this morning. Only 100 units of each version of the tablet (16GB and 32GB) went on sale today and the queue numbers were snapped up in no time. A queue had formed as early as 4am, according to the good folks from The Straits Times Digital Life.

HP is still selling the tablet from S$118 in the coming days, but you’d have to love queues to get in line for one of these fire sale items.

Meanwhile, here are a few other deals we’d be interested with: …

If you must absolutely have the fastest storage device around for home use, you’d be happy to hear that the OCZ Revodrive 3 solid state drive (SSD) is coming to Singapore.

We just got word that the latest version of the PCI Express-based drive – yes, the chips are mounted on a card – is coming to Singapore via the local distributor Ban Leong Technologies. Limited numbers of the 240GB version are going for a hefty S$899, though you can expect discounts on the street. …

So you’ve just bought your laptop and want to swap out the hard disk for a speedy solid state drive (SSD) instead? This is usually a straightforward task thanks to the modular designs these days, like on the Apple MacBook Pro and fortunately, the HP Envy 14 I had just bought recently.

But some things still need to be taken care of to ensure everything runs smooth with your speedy new drive. Here’s a guide to install an SSD into your new HP Envy 14.

(Disclaimer: Techgoondu is not responsible for any damage or loss of warranty to your laptop!) …