The Price: $599 for 500GB, $399 for 100GB. Monthly service is $24.95, $249 for 1 year, $499 for 2 years, and $998 for 5 years.

The Verdict: It works. The network interface is only a 10/100, not Gigabit, so transferring stuff to the drive isn't all that fast. However, that's not the point of the Datto. You're not using this as an extra storage drive that you move stuff onto or off of every day, you're using this as a backup for your more important documents and files. Storing your home business docs, tax records, or whatever irreplaceable (vacation pics?) files you've got lying around so that you can get it back in case your kid sets fire to your house.

The only possible problem with this is that uploading 500GB of data takes a long time on a standard cable or DSL connection. It's not an issue when all your data's already on their servers and you're just updating a file or two here or there, but the first upload can take days, if not weeks, depending on your internet speed. You can have them do a roundtrip shipment of the device, manually doing a dump of your drive into their servers and sending your unit back.

If your device fails, Datto will ship your data back to you in under 24 hours. It may not be for everyone, but if you've got some important data or you're running a business at home, you should definitely consider it as an easy offsite backup solution. [Datto]

If your unit goes down, a backup can be delivered in under 24 hours. The units are $399 and $599 respectively, and come with a $99 and $249 annual fee. At this price, it's cheaper than rigging up your own backup solution on Amazon's S3 storage, but it might be a little steep if you just want to keep your vacation pics and music safe. Unless of course your name is Christina Aguilera and those vacation pics are of yourself nude, and that music is your next album. We have a server for you to put those onto. [Datto]

We like it for its law abiding backup qualities, of course. The 8MB internal buffer might mean you have a few error reads, but at $349.95, if you intend on copying media on the regular, give your PC's fans a rest and grab one of these to do the dirty work instead. [Product Page via Gadget DNA]

All it does is make Leopard show unsupported drives as a supported drive for Time Machine, but Apple most likely removed support for these drives for reasons such as data loss or data corruption, so be careful if you're going to try this. Just head on over to 9to5Mac and download their aptly named Flux Capacitor automator script and you'll be on your way to network backups in no time. Or, you can just wait for Apple's official release that's sure to come soon. [9to5Mac via MacRumors]

What kind of system is this that can completely fail when just one relatively tiny piece isn't quite working properly? It makes us wonder what other important pieces of infrastructure hang by such a delicate thread. Sure, the LAX computer system is destined to be updated by October, 2008, but that won't be a minute too soon.

Incidentally, on a personal note, I was just on board a flight on Monday whose hydraulic system completely failed at 37,000 feet. Fortunately, there were two backup hydraulic systems on board the Bombardier CRJ-200ER regional jet, allowing the plane to turn around and fly back to the airport whence we came, a one-hour round trip altogether .

Although that mechanical failure resulted in a total 12-hour trip home rather than the normal two-hour jaunt, thankfully it resulted in no loss of life. Good thing some systems are worthy of backup. Even so, how expensive could it be to enjoy a bit of redundancy on support equipment as well? [LA Times, via Boing Boing]

After you install the suite onto your phone, you can either manually back up your contacts all at once, only back up some, or just set up a schedule to do it all for you. They're stored on AT&T's servers, which means they're slightly more resistant than backing up stuff on your own machine. And if you get a new phone (that's supported), it's easy to download the contacts again. It's so painless you'll want to drop your phone in the toilet just to use it.

Complete list of supported phones after the jump.

• LG CU400
• LG CU500
• Moto KRZR
• Moto SLVR L7
• Moto RAZR V3
• Moto RAZR V3i
• Moto RAZR V3r
• Moto RAZR V3xx
• Moto V365
• Cingular SYNC
• Sony Ericsson W300i
• Sony Ericsson W810i

– Jason Chen

AT&T Mobile Backup

The storage is pricey on a data-to-dollars basis, but the included backup software claims to make the often tedious process of backing up and restoring data fairly effortless, and moreover, portable. But let's not kid ourselves here about what you're paying for: they look good and you get to say "Ferrari" whenever you tell your friends about them. Close-up after the jump.

– Matt Buchanan

Product Page [SimpleTech]

The folks at TechieDiva don't like the latter idea because the software will probably grab all photos including Windows photos, icons, and stuff in your internet cache. Which actually may be a pretty cool idea to take this into a buddy's machine and leech out all the porn he painstakingly downloaded and organized. Who knew Travis liked furries? – Jason Chen

Product Page [Clickfree via TechieDiva]

Of course, all of this unraveling of Blu-ray and HD DVD's bulletproof security is for backup purposes only. Certainly those who have bought these discs should be allowed to store away a backup for safekeeping, you know, in case the disc gets scratched? But we thought these encryption schemes were impossible to crack. Perhaps "impossible" is a relative term. – Charlie White

BackupBluray rip utility released [WesleyTech]

Besides having a flashlight that's always charged when you need it, it also has a 550VA battery load capacity with 20 minutes of backup time. And at $99, it's pretty comparable to other battery backups that don't come with a flashlight. – Jason Chen

Press Release [Belkin]

The portable Go drives, equipped with USB 2.0 ports, come in 80- and 120-GB paperback book-sized models (at $130 and $180), and shirt pocket-sized Go Small model ($150) that holds 12GB. The Go series drives all have the ability to store applications, allowing you to run them on any computer without having to install them to the local hard disk.

Finally, Seagate introduced the FreeAgent Desktop Data Movers — basic external hard drives ranging from 250 to 500 gigabytes ($130 to $260). – Sean Captain

Ya, that's because you'll be paying about a buck per gigabyte every month for the privilege of online data mirroring. It costs $50 for 30 GB, and plans scale to about $300 for 690GB. The boxes themselves run power PC processors, have 128 MB of RAM, and check for software updates every hour.

This is basically better than any backup drive you can find...as long as you can afford it.–Brian Lam

Zetabytes Zbox [via crunchgear]

The DigiMate has USB 2.0 support, a 6.6x5.0 cm touch screen, a 2 hour battery life, and Windows and Mac Support. It fits SD, MMC, Mini SD, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo, Compact Flash I/II, MicroDrive and xD Picture Cards. There's even an external battery pack that's powered by 4 AA batteries available for separate purchase. – Jason Chen

DigiMate III Touch Screen Version [USB Geek]

Battery Pack [USB Geek]

XPower PowerSource Mobile 100 [Xantrex]

Maybe these blanks would work for archiving, but let's think about this for a minute. Spending $20 on a single blank HD DVD disc is not all that compelling when you can spend $50 and get a 200GB hard disk. Do the math: $1.33/GB for the HD DVD vs. $.25/GB for a SATA drive? That relatively slow write speed and extra cost of HD DVD discs pales by comparison to the 150MB/sec data transfer rate of SATA. But yeah, yeah, apples and oranges.

Now for HD video, that's another story. You can record 75 minutes of HD goodness on one of these babies. But good luck finding someone who has an HD DVD player on which to watch it. – Charlie White

Memorex HD DVD Discs Deliver Crystal-Clear High-Definition Recording [Finanzen.net]

The Zyb service supports 200 types of phones, and once backed up, your contacts can be managed using a web interface and shared with other Zyb users. The service is based on the SyncML data interface, so most phones should be able to use it. Check the list to see if yours is supported. Best yet, the service is free. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Zyb via Pop Gadget]

This adapter lets you either backup from PC to a bare drive or copy from one drive to another. It also has a dual mode that lets you backup a SATA and IDE drive at the same time. Pretty neat trick for $40. – Charlie White

USB 2.0 To SATA/IDE Adapter With One Touch Backup [Brando]

How To Flash Your DS Lite - VIDEO [Digg]

Product Page [Via Textually]

What's the catch? We're thinking once you get hooked on ElephantDrive, the company might charge an arm and leg for this service, but for now, it might be worth looking into. This is apparently a popular idea—so much so that you may have trouble getting to the site due to extreme "Digg effect."

Product page [ElephantDrive, via digg]

It might be a bit awkward to actually have these on your bookshelf, since both require an AC adapter. They're set to ship by the end of this month, with pricing for the Premium Edition between $180 and $350 and for the Essential Edition between $150 and $330.

WD brings external hard drive biz to book [Reg Hardware]

This U3 take-it-with-you platform is available on a variety of drives from Verbatim, Sandisk, Memorex and others, and now is available in a 2GB size. The best part is, it leaves that host PC exactly as it found it. Seems like it's a lot easier to carry around a tiny drive with U3 on it than an entire laptop.

U3 Product Page [via Shiny Shiny]

Product Page [CMS Products]

Specs and pricing for CMS ABSmini Hard Drives [Shopping.com]

This week at Lifehacker: You know you're supposed to be backing up your data, but are you? Set it and forget it - automatically backup your hard drive. If you didn't get one of those shiny new video iPods for the holidays, tweak out your ancient 'pod and make it (almost) as good as new. Speaking of upgrades, have some tips on replacing your motherboard with a younger model. Finally, convert any web page to a stripped down version fit for any mobile phone or PDA.

You've been coding the software that's going to save the world, penning your breakout novel or simply storing photos from the last 10 years of your life on your computer. Don't let all that pirated music disappear with one zap of a fried hard drive. Get your automatic backup system up and running with free software, an external drive and an FTP server. Nightly, weekly, monthly on and offsite backups are just a download away.

Your second gen iPod's sagging a bit around the scroll wheel next to the shiny new video models, but that doesn't mean you can't still put it to good use. Sure the thing still plays music well, but there are scads of other cool uses for an old iPod.

Speaking of old and saggy, that ancient machine you've got sittin' around could really use a new motherboard. Here, have some tips for installing one.

Finally, when your favorite web site doesn't offer a mobile version, check out the Google Mobilizer. Strip down any web page with or without images and turn out a version fit for browsing on your phone or PDA on the go.

Lifehacker’s Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.

This week at Lifehacker: Drive Firefox with your keyboard. Carry around secure data backups on your iPod. Optimize your Mac's broadband connection. Learn all the right gym moves using exercise videos on your iPod.

You call yourself a geek and you didn't know that Control/Command-K will snap your cursor up to the Firefox search engine box? And that Control/Command-Down and Up will switch up engines? Click thee to our guide to mouse-less Firefox and shun that rodent while you surf faster and more efficiently.

Some people have redundant arrays of disks backing up their pirated movies, porn, and Word documents of college papers. Others just use their iPod. Stick an encrypted disk image of your personal data in your pocket along with the 10,000 MP3's you never listen to. This way when your house burns down along with the multiple replicating file servers, you'll still have off-site iPod backup.

Enlarge the data pipe that connects your Mac to the 'net. Apple's free Broadband Tuner increases buffer sizes to take full advantage of broadband connections on OS X. Remember, when it comes to buffers, size does matter.

Are you the uncoordinated fool at the gym flailing about pulling leg muscles while trying to master the art of the crunch? Download free exercise videos to your iPod to get those moves right and give you something to look at other than the gaggle of hotties pointing and giggling in the corner.

Lifehacker's Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.