Very clever stuff here - bits on hard drives currently lay magnetic pole to magnetic pole. This silly but brilliant Flash sequence from Hitachi shows how they’re turning the bits so they stand up. The platters have to be thicker but they can fit a LOT more data.

The funny thing is, it turns out Toshiba and Seagate have similar technology in the works. Interesting how technology developments like this can occasionally turn up at the same time from different sources. Or maybe it’s just corporate spying.