USB Drive

Not everyone wants a silver, black or (insert any other boring color) portable hard drive! Show your personality and spunk with one of the two new color options of Verbatim's Store 'n' Go USB 3.0 portable hard drive. Now available in Caribbean Blue or Hot Pink, the compact 500 GB hard drive allows you to back-up and transfer files anytime, anywhere at super-fast transfer speeds – up to 10x faster than USB 2.0!

It comes with Nero BackItUp & Burn Essentials software which provides full system backup and restore functions, the ability to schedule automatic backup by date/time and an encrypted backup option with password control. Optional software choices include Green Button software with three sleep/suspend settings to save energy when the drive is not in use and Formatter Software which will easily change the format of the drive from FAT32 to NTFS or HFS+.

Verbatim's 500GB Store 'n' Go USB 3.0 portable hard drives are available at Verbatim.com for just $99.99.

Have you ever misplaced a USB thumb drive? Verbatim puts an end to that worry with the launch of its new Store 'n' Stay USB Drive. Available in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB storage capacities, the Store 'n' Stay USB drive is a must-have accessory for any notebook (or netbook) user. Why? This tiny USB drive is designed to be left in the USB port, sticking out just 5 mm from your computer. And let's face it - if it stays in your laptop at all times, chances are much better that it won't get lost.

Compatible with most Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Windows 7 as well as Mac OS 9 or higher systems, the ultra compact Store 'n' Stay USB Drive features a USB 2.0 interface and is backed by Verbatim's Limited Lifetime Warranty.

Verbatim's Store 'n' Stay USB Drive is available now at VerbatimStore.com for $19.99 (4GB), $29.99 (8GB) and $59.99 (16GB). Read more

SanDisk has a new USB flash drive that is super-tiny. In fact, it is the company's smallest to date. About the size of a standard size paper clip, the Cruzer Blade fits easily on your keychain or mobile phone dongle. It won't weigh it down either. The Cruzer Blade weighs about the same as a penny.

The SanDisk Cruzer Blade is available in capacities ranging from 2GB to 16GB, with a 4GB drive storing approximately 1,000 songs, 1,200 high-resolution photos, or 8 hours of 768kb/s video.

"At half the size of some other USB drives, our compact Cruzer Blade provides consumers with highly portable storage at a great value," said Kent Perry, director, retail product marketing, SanDisk. "The drive lets users transfer their digital data quickly between computers, and delivers a storage boost to devices such as netbooks that often need additional memory but are difficult to upgrade easily."

The SanDisk Cruzer Blade USB flash drive is available now at sandisk.com, with prices ranging from $14.99 to $77.99.

LaCie's new XtremKey USB flash drive was designed for the adventurous crowd. This rugged flash drive works 333 feet underwater, can withstand temperatures ranging from -58°F to 392°F, and can be dropped from 5 meters. It can even handle being run over by a 10-ton truck!

Measuring less than three inches, the XtremKey fits right on your key ring and will be available in capacities up to 64GB. It delivers writing speeds up to 30 Mb/s, reading speeds up to 40 Mb/s and is compatible with both PC and Mac computers.

"The XtremKey offers extreme durability and capacity in a convenient, well-protected and fun form factor," said Alexis Kobassian, Product Manager, LaCie. "Despite the robust, industrial-strength protection we've added, it's still a LaCie key that brings ease-of-use and reliability to customers looking to keep their data secure while on the go." Read more

Belkin has a new 802.11 wireless router line that lets you do more with your photos, music and video than ever before. The new Surf, Share, Play, and Play Max Wireless Routers let you play music, games, videos, share photos and print wirelessly from anywhere in your home, thanks to the handy applications.

The new routers come packed with the following apps:

• Self Healing: Automatically detects and resolves network problems and runs routine maintenance scans to give you the clearest wireless channel. (Available on Surf, Share, Play, and Play Max)
• Memory Safe: Automatically backs up photos and important files to your external hard drive. (Available on Share, Play, and Play Max)
• Print Genie: Print wirelessly from any computer on the network from anywhere in your home. (Available on Share, Play, and Play Max)
• Music Mover: Play MP3s from your music library on your home stereo wirelessly. Connect your external hard drive on which you store your music to the router—and move music from your computer to your stereo through devices like Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. (Available on Play and Play Max)
• Music Labeler: Automatically identifies and labels your track with the correct title, artist, and genre. (Available on Play and Play Max)
• Daily DJ: Get daily personalized playlists from your music library based on your mood. (Available on Play and Play Max)
• Torrent Genie: Downloads large media files like movies, music, and games, even when your computer isn’t on. (Available on Play Max)
• Bit Boost: Prioritizes traffic on your network for video, gaming, and VoIP, letting you easily select your most important data streams for seamless network traffic. (Available on Play Max)

Kingston Technology just announced it is increasing read and write speeds on its DataTraveler 410 USB Flash drive to 20MB/sec. read and write. The faster read and write speeds make the DataTraveler 410 perfect for music, videos, high-definition photos and more. It also includes SecureTraveler software which lets you create a password-protected area of the drive called the "Privacy Zone."

The DataTraveler 410 USB drive features a swivel design and is available in capacities up to 32GB. DataTraveler 410 drives have a five-year warranty with 24/7 tech support. Prices start at $26 (4GB).

Verbatim today announced their new InSight Portable USB Hard Drives. The two drives, in 320GB and 500GB capacities, feature an Always On display that calculates and displays available free space – even when disconnected from the computer.

Verbatim's new InSight Portable Hard Drives weigh less than 6 ounces, and measure just 6 in. x 3.4 in. x 0.63 in. The 2.5" drives have a 5400rpm spindle speed and also feature 8MB of cache memory. Equipped with a USB 2.0 port, the bus-powered drives have high-speed transfer rates of up to 480MB/sec. Read more

Corsair just announced a new USB Flash Drive…what they say is the world's fastest high capacity flash drive, the 128GB Flash Voyager GT. It is able to achieve read speeds of up to 32MB/sec and write speeds of up to 25.6MB/sec - the limiting factor being the speed of the USB 2.0 bus and operating system overhead.

The 128GB Flash Voyager GT features a durable, water-resistant rubber housing to protect it against damage, and sports Corsair's racing-red 'GT' styling.

"The 128GB Flash Voyager GT is ideal for those who need access to a huge volume of data in a format that's convenient, durable and extremely fast," said Jim Carlton, VP of Marketing for Corsair. "The 128GB Flash Voyager GT can store massive video, photo and music libraries, yet it's less than half the size of a solid-state drive, effectively obsoleting less-reliable, portable mechanical hard disk drives."

The 128GB Flash Voyager GT is available now and is backed by a 10-Year Limited Warranty. Although pricing information wasn't available on their website, I found it online at several retailers priced at a hefty $399.99.