The 6 x 3.4 x 0.63-inch USB 2.0 InSight is a 2.5-inch drive running at 5400rpm, with an 8MB cache. Not the fastest things ever, but kind of nice for $120 (320GB) and $150 (500GB), gooey cheese not included.

Verbatim Launches InSight™ Portable USB Hard Drives with an Always On Display

InSight™ Hard Drive Displays Drive Name and Available Free Space, Even when Disconnected

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—With the announcement today of its new InSight(TM) Portable USB Hard Drives, Verbatim(R) Americas, LLC, the world's leader in storage media technology, takes hard drive design to a new dimension. The sleek, durable enclosure is enhanced with a premium piano black finish that will appeal to professional as well as home users. Additionally, the InSight Portable Hard Drive features an Always On display, which automatically calculates and continuously displays the customizable drive name and available free space, even when the drive is disconnected from the computer. Shipping now, the palm-sized external hard drive will enable Windows(R) and Mac(R) users to instantly add 320GB or 500GB of stylish, removable capacity to their notebook or desktop systems.

"The new enclosure design for InSight Portable Hard Drives adds a touch of elegance to the external hard drive product category," says Charles Klinker, Verbatim's Director of Marketing, HDD Products. "Users have the option to personalize their drive's name, e.g., TUNES&PICS, which, along with the free space, shows on the 32 x 128-pixel display even when the drive is unplugged from the user's computer. The ability to quickly glance at several drives and identify the one that has pictures of the kids, your music collection or video library, for example, adds a level of convenience not previously available in portable hard drives."

Both 320GB and 500GB-capacity drives include Nero BackItUp Essentials, a complete data protection solution, allowing full, automatic system backup and restore functions. Easy-to-use, the software guides the user to set up scheduled backups by date and/or time. Nero BackItUp Essentials also features data encryption with password control options, providing data security and peace of mind when traveling or storing the drive.

Designed to fit easily on a desktop or to be taken on-the-go, Verbatim's new InSight Portable Hard Drives weigh less than 6 ounces (164 g), and measure 6 in. X 3.4 in. X 0.63 in. (153 mm x 87 mm x 16 mm).

The 2.5" drives have a 5400rpm spindle speed and 8MB of cache memory to optimize performance. Equipped with a USB 2.0 port, the bus-powered drives achieve high-speed transfer rates of up to 480MB/sec.

Backed by a 5-year limited warranty, InSight Portable Hard Drives deliver unique functionality, safety, security, and reliability to all computer users.

Availability and Pricing

Designed for Windows Vista, XP or 2000 and Mac OS 9.x or higher systems, Verbatim InSight Portable Hard Drives are available through Verbatim retail partners such as Best Buy. Suggested retail prices are US$119.99 for the 320GB drive and US$149.99 for the 500GB drive. Backed by a 5-year limited warranty, the complete package includes the InSight Portable Hard Drive, a USB cable, Nero BackItUp Essentials Software for Windows, and a Quick Start Guide.

Yes, that would be a great reason to buy a Zune, but keep in mind that the question could refer to using the Zune simply as a means to upload pictures and audio tracks to the 360 (although that would be ridiculous because nobody would give a damn). And, of course, it may mean nothing at all. We shall have to wait and see if Microsoft does the smart thing here. [Zune Survey via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

Iomega Announces Must-Have for MacBook Air Owners:

New Ultra-Thin eGo Helium Portable Hard Drive

***

eGo Helium Delivers 320 Gigabytes of Stylish Storage for MacBook Air

SAN DIEGO, September 17, 2008 – Iomega, an EMC company (NYSE: EMC) and a global leader in data protection and security, today announced the exciting new Iomega® eGo™ Helium Portable Hard Drive USB 2.0 320GB*, a perfect match for the style and incremental storage needs of Apple’s revolutionary MacBook Air™ notebook.

On display this week at the Apple Expo tradeshow in Paris, the new eGo Helium portable drive brings the MacBook Air™ notebook’s aesthetic to Iomega’s wildly popular eGo portable hard drive. In addition to the drive’s portable storage, the eGo Helium also harnesses the benefits of cloud computing with Mozy™ online backup service, giving users incredible value and security for securely storing, protecting and accessing important files.

Cool Hardware

The tapered 320GB eGo Helium portable hard drive echoes the stylish lines of the streamlined MacBook Air™ laptop, enclosing a state-of-the-art 2.5-inch portable hard drive in an anodized aluminum shell to create a package that is a mere 0.63 inches thick (16 mm) and weighs only 7 ounces (200 grams). Formatted with Apple’s HFS+ file system, the 320GB hard drive sports Iomega’s Drop Guard™ design feature that protects the drive from drops of up to 51 inches (1.3 meters) onto industrial carpeting—40 percent above the industry average for portable hard drives. The eGo Helium receives power from the USB port so there’s no power supply to carry around. And with space for up to 1,280,000 photos, over 5,920 hours of music or 480 hours of video**, the 320GB eGo Helium drive gives new meaning to stylish portable storage.

“Iomega’s eGo portable hard drives have garnered tremendous attention in the beige world of external storage by offering consumers a choice of several different vibrant colors as well as a camouflage print and genuine leather,” said Peter Wharton, vice president of marketing, Iomega Corporation. “The eGo Helium extends that strong commitment to delivering style with substance. What makes eGo Helium such an effective piece of industrial design is the way it dresses up a highly functional 320GB hard drive device into a durable and sleek package with plenty of storage capability, making it an easy-to-use ‘eye-catcher’ that’s small enough to go anywhere.”

Key Software

Iomega offers two Mac OS® X backup software applications with the eGo Helium portable hard drive as free downloads for added data safety: EMC® Retrospect® Express for Macintosh 6.1 software, and MozyHome™ online backup software (2GB free; unlimited online storage for $4.95/month). Retrospect Express protects a single Macintosh desktop or notebook computer by backing up to internal and external hard drives, NAS devices, CD/DVDs and removable drives such as Iomega’s REV Backup Drive. MozyHome online backup service provides online storage for backing up selected folders or files to world-class EMC data centers.

Computer users running the Windows XP or Vista operating systems can reformat the eGo Helium drive to NTFS for use with Windows only, or the drive can be formatted as Fat 32 for use with both Macs and Windows PCs. Customers running Windows XP or Vista can also download Retrospect Express HD 2.5 for Windows with MozyHome integration, which gives users the convenience of shared setup information and the ability to send backups to either nearline storage (an external hard drive or network drive), online storage (the Internet), or both.

Compatibility

The Iomega® eGo™ Helium™ Portable Hard Drive USB 2.0 320GB is compatible with Mac OS X 10.1.5 or above and with Microsoft® Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP, and Windows Vista™. MozyHome software is available for Mac OS X 10.4 and above, along with Windows XP and Windows Vista. EMC Retrospect software is available for both Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.

Price and Availability

The Iomega® eGo™ Helium Portable Hard Drive USB 2.0 320GB will be available worldwide in October for $149.99 from online retailers, VARs, resellers and select retailers, as well as at www.iomega.com. (All pricing in this news release is U.S. suggested retail.)

About EMC

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.

About Mozy

Mozy is the leader in online data backup for consumers and businesses. With more than 850,000 users and 23,000 business customers, Mozy offers a simple, automatic and secure service for backing up data over the Internet. Mozy was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2007 and operates as part of the EMC Cloud Infrastructure and Services Division. Information can be found at www.mozy.com.

About Iomega

Iomega Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of EMC Corporation and headquartered in San Diego, is a worldwide leader in innovative storage and network security solutions for small and mid-sized businesses, consumers and others. The Company has sold more than 400 million digital storage drives and disks since its inception in 1980. Today, Iomega’s product portfolio includes industry leading network storage products, external hard drives, and our award-winning removable storage technology, the REV® Backup Drive. To learn about all of Iomega’s digital storage products and managed services solutions, please go to the Web at www.iomega.com. Resellers can visit Iomega at www.iomega.com/ipartner.

What'd we like? It's small, lightweight and quiet but feels surprisingly sturdy. It looks great and the yellow glow is nice, but if it's not for you, you can always turn it off. The read/write speed is average, so there's nothing to complain about there (you can scope out the benchmarks in the gallery). Apps run from the drive generally lag-free.

What we didn't like:

If you want to run a program from the drive not on Ceedo's list, it requires the Argo add-on, which is $20. This is made more frustrating by the fact that their site contains out-of-date applications—I want to run Thunderbird 2.0, not 1.5. Installing programs could be more elegant and intuitive. Also, virtualization doesn't work for Macs. Plus, we'd like (but admittedly don't need) a Firewire port.

Bottom line: If you're want a portable, external hard drive that'll turn heads and run reliably to cart stuff around and don't might paying a little bit extra, in terms of $ to GB, this isn't a bad a way to go. Running programs from the drive also works well for the most part, though it could (and should) be improved. – Matt Buchanan

Product Page [Seagate]

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]

We think it may be a little risky schlepping a bare drive around with you all the time without protection of any sort, but we've never been the kind to take chances with our data. Our precious, juicy data.

Brando SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Conversion Cable Review [Bona Fide Reviews]

Seagate launches new hard drives at IDF [MobileMag]