The Portable Camo Hard Drive – Don’t Put It Down In The Garden
May 8, 2008
It’s not often that a hard drive manufacturer has the cunning foresight to create camouflaged portable hard drives is it? And, if we’re being completely honest, there’s probably a damn good reason for that. But we’re not ones to shun the pointless because there will undoubtedly be somebody somewhere that has been keenly awaiting the introduction of a camo drive. Well, put your acrylic paint and brushes away, because Iomega has developed the hard drive that you can lose in your garden.
At £75 it isn’t that unreasonably priced and offers 250GB of storage and USB 2.0 connectivity. Clearly, it’s unlikely that you’re ever really going to have a need for a woodland camouflaged portable hard drive but if you just can’t get enough camo gear, or are sick of those boring, modern silver and black designs then the latest offering in the Iomega eGo line is definitely, possibly, for you.
Protected by an Iomega Power Grip, the drive is said to offer extra ruggedness and durability but it does lead you to question just what Iomega think you are actually going to do with a portable hard drive. There can’t really be any serious and legitimate uses for such covert periperals can there?
1TB USB Hard Drive For £115
May 5, 2008
External hard drives offer an excellent method of backing up essential data, and storing everyday data. Size restrictions are pretty much non existent and even the price of 1TB external drives are more than reasonable if you shop around. The Trekstor Datastation duo is the perfect example offering 1TB of secure storage for £115.
1TB offers you more than ample room to store pretty much everything you currently have without needing to upgrade any time soon. SUB 2.0 connectivity ensures good performance with 24.5MB/s and 16.0MB/s download and upload speed as well as a 16MB buffer size.
Power consumption is low, while it’s a happily quiet beast to run. For anybody that appreciates the importance of backing up data, making a copy of your hard drive, or simply needs more storage capabilities, this offering from Trekstor looks to be the perfect solution.
More and more mass storage external hard drives are becoming available, and the prices are happily affordable but this looks to be one of the best deals available – pixmania is the site currently responsible for this offer, although it can be purchased via Amazon as well (still from pixmania) if you’d prefer.
Samsung K5 MP3 Player With Slide Out Speaker
May 5, 2008
Samsung MP3 players may not be as widely purchased as iPod, but they tend to offer excellent design and superb features for a not entirely unreasonable price tag. The Samsung K5 is an excellent example – modern and stylish in design, it also offers an excellent slide out speaker for when you don’t want your personal MP3 player to be that personal.
Available on Amazon for less than £100, the 2GB model is a snip compared to some of the more over priced alternatives on the market. Its ultra slim design make it practical for carrying around and the slide out speaker is an excellent addition feature for those that believe music is meant to be shared.
The supplied headphones are reasonable as far as MP3 included headphones go. The speaker itself isn’t designed to supply music to a large auditorium with reasonable sound quality at low to medium levels. If you turn it up a little too much you will begin to notice traces of distortion.
As well as being an MP3 player, the K5 also has a built in FM tuner and can be used as a portable photo viewer. All in all, it looks a great product at a reasonable price and offers a superb alternative to the iPod bandwagon.
Is Blu-Ray Really The Future?
May 5, 2008
With HD-DVD being the Betamax of the 21st century, Blu-Ray players are, apparently, the future. Of course, the PS3 offers one of the most affordable all-round solutions to owning a Blu-Ray player, but we don’t all want to use a games console that bears a striking resemblance to a George Foreman grill to watch films.
Unfortunately, try though I might, it’s a real struggle to find any Blu-Ray players or recorders that stand out. News that Blu-Ray sales tumbled (from an already unimpressive figure) last month does little to make us believe that things are likely to improve in the near future.
Sony, presumably not wanting to compete with the PS3, are equally responsible (if not more so) than any other company. Their own efforts appear over-priced and under-featured compared to the PS3.
It is possible to get a Blu-Ray player for marginally less than the price of a PS3 but the hardware definitely seems to suffer as a result. Sharp have released a couple of decent efforts, in terms of price, but the sensible money still rests with the PS3 – for now, at least.
For those of us that are always on the look out for a new avenue of gadget dreams, the future does not look Blu. We are on the look out for Blu-Ray equipment to review, but if you see anything first, let us know.
Microsoft Openness Argument Wages On
April 25, 2008
Microsoft and their policies on openness are always a hot topic. A recent announcement declared that the software behemoth would be releasing a web platform known as Live Mesh.
Live Mesh aims to connect a user’s online and offline activities enabling them to work on any project regardless of where they are or what PC they are at.
Live Mesh is a genuinely bold bid that not only aims to bring together all of our computing activities, but also integrate every web enabled device in the same manner. Currently, many consumers complain that buying and using a new web enabled device as part of their daily lives makes things more difficult, at least in the short term.
As is often the case with any new product announcement, many are questioning the openness of the new Mesh system. While Microsoft has stated that it will run on open standards, some remain skeptical – based on a lifetime of Microsoft attempting to tie users down to using Microsoft products for virtually everything they do.
One thing that the new release does show is that Microsoft is taking the Internet much more seriously and intends to develop more products for what they now see as being their most important avenue of development.
Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 2.0 - 3.5″ External Hard Drive - 1TB
March 18, 2008
Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 2.0 - 3.5″ External Hard Drive - 1TB
Web Exclusive Price - £135.99
In-store Price - £179.99
The Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 2.0 is small, elegant and very easy to use. Just plug it in, and you’ve got plenty of room to back up and save your valuable data, music, photos & movies.
Maxtor One Touch 4 3.5 External Hard Drive 500GB
March 14, 2008
Maxtor One Touch 4 3.5″ External Hard Drive 500GB
Web Exclusive Price - £64.99
In-store Price - £79.99
This external hard drive will protect your stored files. From music to photos with 500GB space for storage. Also has USB 2.0 Interface. Easy to use function.
Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 2.0 1TB 3.5″ External Hard Drive
February 21, 2008
Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 2.0 1TB 3.5″ External Hard Drive
Web Exclusive Price - £138.31
In-store Price - £149.99
The Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 2.0 is small, elegant and very easy to use. Just plug it in, and you’ve got plenty of room to back up and save your valuable data, music, photos & movies.
SentrySafe USB Firesafe | Fire And Water Resistant Hard Drive Safe
January 9, 2008
Sentrysafe have launched the first waterproof and fire resistant hard drive. The safe will protect up to 120 CDs or DVDs for 2 hours from intense heat, up to 1850 c degrees to be exact and eight inches of water for up to 24 hours.
The USB cable allows users to backup their valuable data on an internal hard disk located within the safe, this piece of equipment could prove to be priceless should the worst happen in your office. We think it a great idea and for $599 it is definetly money well spent.
