HDD

Imation is now shipping what they say is the world's first wireless USB external hard drive, the Imation Pro WX. It gives you 1.5TB of storage and has a wireless USB data transfer rate of up to 15MBs/second. That said, the product can back up a standard CD in about 50 seconds, and store up to 300,000 photos or 750 hours of video.

The Imation Pro WX Wireless USB hard drive has a built-in stand and can be placed either horizontally or vertically. It also has a built-in sleep mode to save energy, as well as one-touch, backup sync buttons. Data can be backed up whenever it is within 30 feet, similar to a direct attached storage device.

The Imation Pro WX Wireless USB hard drive is now available for $449.99 and is compatible with both PC and Mac computers.

JVC Professional Products just launched its new SR-HD1500 and SR-HD1250 Blu-ray disc and HDD recorders. These are the first standalone Blu-ray recorders available in the United States, and feature a built-in hard disk drive for easy duplication and disc authoring without a PC.

With the SR-HD1500 and SR-HD1250, users can record and author professional BDMV (with menu) or BDAV discs. Advanced MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 (H.264) encoding provides support for HD and SD sources, and a built-in format converter can downconvert HD content for recording to a standard DVD. The units support BD-R or BD-RE (erasable) Blu-ray discs. Read more

The first portable HDD is the water-resistant and shock-proof SimpleTOUGH portable USB drive. It will be available in 250, 320, 500GB at $99.99, $119.99, $149.99 respectively. The SimpleTOUGH can survive a 3-meter fall and it features a twistable USB cable that's permanently affixed to the enclosure.

The other HDD is the stylish and colorful SimpleDRIVE Mini that is now shipping in red wine (250GB-$89.99), blue dusk (320GB-$109.99) and carbon fiber black (500GB-$139.99).

The USB/NAS adapter, SimpleNET, will allow up to two USB HDDs to be placed on a network. This is purely a convenience product, not a performance one, as it is only equipped with a 10/100 Ethernet jack. You can pick up the SimpleNET NAS adapter for a MSRP of $79.99.Read more

The new SureFire line of portable combo FW800/USB2 HDDs is now available with capacities of 250GB, 320GB and 500GB. The rugged palm-sized drives combine power, convenience and the reliability of the Verbatim brand with a compact, sleek design.

The bus-powered drives are equipped with one USB 2.0 port, and one FireWire 800 port to deliver high-speed transfer rates of up to 800MB/sec. for FireWire 800 connections and 480MB/sec. when connected with USB 2.0 (without requiring an AC power adapter).

Encased in a durable black aluminum-extruded case with a fingerprint-resistant matte finish, the 2.5-inch drive features a 5400rpm spindle speed and 8MB of cache memory to optimize performance. The SureFire portable HDDs weigh in at 0.41 lbs. (186g), and measure 3.13- x 5.0- 0.66-inches (81mm x 128mm x 15mm), making them easy to transport from system to system and place to place. Also, these HDDs are compatible with both PC and Mac.

The suggested retail pricing is $109.99 for the 250GB version, $139.99 for the 320GB version and $179.99 for the 500GB drive.