The LaCie cables are more than just looks however. The flat design makes them easier to coil and less likely to get tangled (although it seems like it would be more difficult to twist them on a meandering path from one gadget to another). The only thing missing is a clasp that would allow it to double as a bracelet for tweens. Available in several USB configurations, Firewire and eSATA. [LaCie via Unplggd]

The new ExpressCard 2.0 will work with all existing ExpressCard technology, which can be found in most laptops. The new standard will be especially helpful for the transfer of large chunks of data, such as video. In any case, expect to see some new ExpressCard accessories soon, although new Mac owners need not apply. [ExpressCard via SlashGear via Wired]

The only downside I can see some of you noting is that the bus-powered 2.5" drive is 5400rpm, so not as ideal as a 7200rpm drive for serious amounts of randomly accessed video content, but it's amazing when you're moving files around.

I tested it against other drives using a 1.04GB file (an MPEG-4 rip of my Burn After Reading DVD). When I copied that file to a nice SanDisk Extreme III SDHC card, via an ExpressCard SanDisk SDHC reader, it took 1 minute 48 seconds. When I moved it to an old USB 2.0 IDE drive, the same file took 38 seconds. On a PC, I moved that file to a newer USB 2.0 drive, and it took longer, 52 seconds. When I moved that file from the Mac to the eGo via FireWire 800, it took just 15 seconds.

As you might have guessed, it took about twice as long via USB 2.0, and since Apple has pretty much given up on the FireWire 400 format, I didn't test that, but it would have probably been even slower still. I have to say, there was one drive that was even faster: A 7200rpm 3.5" 2TB Seagate Free Agent XTreme that you have to plug into the wall, connected to an HP notebook via eSATA. At first, it took 23 seconds to move that file from PC to drive. But I reformatted the drive so that it didn't have its own software in the way, and boom, the thing scooted from PC to drive in 11 seconds.

But I digress. The point is, for people who have a FireWire 800 jack, but might need to connect elsewhere using USB 2.0, grabbing this totally bus-powered drive is smart. I plan to offload all of my movies to it, and just plug them in when I am on the road, or at home and in possession of Apple Remote and Mini-DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapter.

It's super light (7 oz) and has "Drop Guard" protection for falls of up to 51 inches. My only gripe is the ridiculously shiny blue LED that indicates when the drive is being read or written to. It's so bright, I decided to tape over it, so that the neighbors wouldn't think I was busy laser-welding my homemade Iron Man suit (again).

The 500GB version is $150, and comes in the red you see. There's a 320GB that comes in blue for $110, and a white one that holds 250GB for just under $100. (It doesn't take a lot of math skills to see why the red is the best bet.) [Iomega]

We already knew the Adamo was slated to run significantly cheaper than the expensive Air, and a leak this Thursday suggested a base price of around $1500. The Google cache suggests the Adamo will be packing DisplayPort for video out and eSATA for storage, and that Dell plans to release a host of peripherals alongside the sleek machine. The peripherals visible in the cache are a 2x Blu-Ray combo drive and a selection of external 2.5" hard drives, ranging up to 500GB capacity. This kind of peripheral use would allow for a very slim body, but at the expense of easy portability. We'll have to see how Dell plans to reconcile the issue.

The Adamo is still expected to be officially unveiled at this year's CES, but no shipping date (or really any confirmed information) has been released. Regardless, it's a fair bet that these few morsels of info are correct. [Electronista]

Challenged with a potential userbase made up of two effectively different standards—powered and unpowered eSATA—OCZ found a way to cater to everyone by tacking on an extra USB connector to power the stick when connected to older hardware, or to connect to computers without eSATA ports.

Aside from the nifty design, the OCZ will come in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB capacities and claims 90MB/s read speeds and 30MB/s write speeds, putting the Throttle head and shoulders above most USB 2.0 drives on the market. Now word yet on price or release date, but "not too high" and "soon" are reasonable expectations. [OCZ via HotHardware]

Unfortunately, the Datamore Porté is a Korea-only product that's priceless at the moment. But it's best our hard drive enclosures don't have such interesting moving parts because we'd compulsively yank the drive at the wrong time and kill all of our data within a week. [akihabara news]

THE CABLE SHOW '08, New Orleans — May 19, 2008 — At NCTA's Cable Show, Seagate Technology (NYSE:STX) announced it will introduce its Seagate® Showcase™ storage solution, a new series of products that extends the storage capacity of your Digital Video Recorder (DVR), so you never have to say goodbye to your favorite movies and television shows. Seagate also announced that the Showcase family of products will be designed to be compatible with Motorola's market leading e-SATA capable high-definition (HD) digital video recorder (DVR) set-top portfolio.

The new Showcase™ products will provide television and movie fans with the ability to store even more shows, movies and sporting events. With initial capacities up to 1TB, consumers will be able to keep up to 200 hours of additional HD movies or 1,000 hours of additional standard definition television. You'll never have to choose between your kids' favorite shows or the big game. Plug-and-play capability, via standard USB 2.0 or eSATA connection, makes setup easy while the stylish design fits seamlessly into entertainment centers and complements the look of existing A/V equipment.

"Today's consumers are constantly demanding more storage for high-definition video and high-fidelity audio - and they want it as part of their home entertainment system," said Patrick King, senior vice president of Seagate's Consumer Solutions Division. "We believe that the Seagate Showcase product line will take its place alongside the receiver, speaker system and television as a must-have component for the entertainment center. We are pleased to be working with Motorola to enable an enjoyable consumer experience."

"As consumer video consumption continues to increase at exponential rates, Motorola strives to provide flexible and cost-effective solutions" commented Larry Robinson, vice president, Set Top Product Management at Motorola. "By demonstrating interoperability with the Seagate Showcase storage solution we are offering consumers additional compelling storage options for their entertainment content."

The new Showcase family will feature Seagate's recently announced Pipeline HD™ Series of hard drives purpose-built for DVRs. Seagate Pipeline HD™ Series hard drives are the gold standard in high definition performance and capacity with bedroom-quiet acoustics, low power operation and the ability to support up to 12 simultaneous HD streams. The drives are Windows Vista Certified, making them an ideal solution for Home Media Centers.

Seagate is working with Motorola, the leader in digital set-tops with over 73 million shipped, to deliver external storage solutions for DVRs. By connecting a Seagate Showcase product with its included eSATA cable, the capacity of these DVRs can instantly be increased - eliminating the need to delete your favorite movies or shows. The 1TB Seagate Showcase drive can be seen exclusively in the Motorola booth # 1405 during The Cable Show '08 at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.

Availability

Seagate Showcase™ products are scheduled to be available for purchase on the Seagate website beginning in the third calendar quarter of 2008.

[Product Page]

On the other hand, the $399 and $599 price tag for the 1 and 2TB versions seem way higher than the $200-300 you're normally paying for drives of that size—but those usually don't have all these connectivity options. To round out the features, there's an external capacity-indicating LED and Western Digital's GreenPower technology. It's also silver to match your MacBook Pros. Wee! [Western Digital]

The problem was Western Digital's DRM-infested Anywhere Access software, which lets you access your files over the Internet as long as they're not dealing with any of 30 different forbidden file types, most of which have to do with music and video. But we didn't really want to share files over the Internet, anyway; we just wanted to use this huge drive on our internal network.

As Wired's Rob Beschizza noted, if you don't install that Anywhere Access software, which is really not required, you're good to go. We noticed that without installing that software, which was included on our drive, our files transfered back and forth normally across our internal network.

While the whole idea of accessing a drive anywhere in the world sounds great, apparently there is a convoluted process of reaching your files and sharing them with someone else when you're using Access Anywhere software, and then there's this DRM aspect of the software, which makes it a completely unacceptable alternative.

Shame shame, Western Digital, for including such a crippled piece of software in the package, which on some drives is said to be "required." To Western Digital's credit, we didn't see any such notation of requirement on ours. So far, we're finding the drive to be a pretty good deal at $316.66 from Buy.com. [Boing Boing, via Wired]

This represents a major development for those of us who are big into archiving or series recording, but are often too lazy or forgetful to occasionally prune saved shows. The 1TB version is available for US and Canadian customers at a price of $379 US before a $50 rebate. Previous 500GB and 750GB versions are available for $179 and $279 respectively. [Product Page via Electronista]