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.

Even though I was -9 years old in 1977, when Football was first released, and can't specifically remember ever playing it, the handheld itself, as well as those tiny red dots, is immediately recognizable to me. It's been featured in films like Bottle Rocket and Wet Hot American Summer, and chances are a lot of you readers have one or two of them in the bottom of a box somewhere in your basement. It was an incredibly, powerfully popular game, the first major handheld videogame smash, and judging by the Amazon reviews, people are still playing and loving it today. [Handheld Museum, Thanks Sean!]

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

Because the chair folds into such a small package, it can be easily stored and carried in the included messenger bag. It's seems to be fairly strong tooit weighs only 9 pounds, but it can support up to 250 pounds. This sort of thing would be great when golfing, camping or attending an outdoor eventbut be prepared to pay for the added convenience. This director's chair will set you back $130. [Hammacher Schlemmer via The Design Blog]

We last saw the Pandora as an inert prototype, which showed us what the console would look like but not how it would run. Here we see the whole package, albeit in naked, anemic white: the machine boots into its Angstrom Linux OS, opens Quake and plays a game, controlled with the device's keypad. It's good to see the little guy make it this far, but at the moment it's not doing anything that other Linux MIDs can't handle.

The really hard part for the project will be coaxing some games out of an as-of-yet nonexistent developer community. And for the record, TuxRacer doesn't count. [OpenPandoraThanks, Jack!]

Apparently, one hour of exposure to wind or sunlight will net you around 30 minutes on the phone. A full charge should be able to power up a typical cellphone five times over (LED lights indicate charge levels). There is even a handy clip to attach the charger to a bike or ATV to help generate wind. Obviously, this would be a seriously handy device for outdoorsy types or as an emergency backup. A release date had not been made available, but the Kinesis K2 is expected to retail for $100. [Kinesis and DVICE]

In addition to being a portable internet hotspot, the MiFi also allows for VPN support, custom landing pages, automatic email-syncing and remote management. The internal battery will supposedly last for four hours of use, or for 40 hours on standby with one charge. Novatel says the MiFi will be available the first quarter of 2009 through retail outlets and carrier services, for roughly $200 as reported by Engadget. [Boing Boing and Engagdet]

There are nearly endless ways to bring a USB stick out of retirement, and they're not just gimmicks: virtually all USB sticks, 32MB USB 1.1 dinosaurs included, can be repurposed into anything from a lifesaving troubleshooting tool to an entire portable OS. Here are your best options:

Turn it into a physical "key" for your computer
For security freaks or the extraordinarily literal-minded, Vista has built-in software to convert your USB key into an actual key, such that your PC won't boot without having it inserted. It might not be ideal if your key may be old enough that it is likely to fail on you, if you have a propensity to lose tiny things, or if your laptop only has one or two USB ports to begin with, but it definitely offers a special kind of peace of mind. For Macs, Rohos essentially does the same thing, but at $30, it's not particularly recession-friendly.

Install a portable OS
This is actually simpler and less esoteric than it soundsinstalling a wide array of Linux systems is pretty easy nowadays, and will more importantly net you a fully functional desktop that you can take with you wherever you go. Lifehacker recently assembled a useful comparison of popular USB-able Linux distributions, in which they recommend the fantastic UNetbootin or creating the bootable keys in the first place. It's worth noting that two of these distros will work on keys at less than 128MB capacity (DSL is just 50MB, total) and all carry a legitimately useful range of apps.

Use portable apps to create a pocketable user profile
Most free software now comes in a portable variety, meaning that at least under Windows, programs that normally extend their tentacles into your user profile and registry can be installed completelyuser data includedonto a USB stick. All you do is insert the stick and find the desired .exe, and you're good to go.

The most obvious advantage to this is profile portabilityin other words, your portable Firefox (or Opera or Chrome) isn't just the app, it's your favorites, history, user preferences and cookies too. The portable version of Pidgin, a multiprotocol IM program, can hold your account data, transcripts and settings. Most of these installations are quite smallFirefox is just 8MB, for exampleso you can build an extensive user profile on all but the oldest keys.

The very best one-stop shop for portable apps is the, well, aptly named PortableApps.com.

Create a powerful troubleshooting toolbelt
Portable antivirus and file recovery apps are convenient, but a USB key can be loaded up with much more powerful software. Ultimate Boot CD for Windows is a sort of software panacea which, in addition to including a selection of Windows maintenance apps, carries a veritable treasure trove of low-level troubleshooting programs, made accessible by booting into a sort of temporary "Windows Lite" desktop. It can manage disk deletion and partitioning, software and hardware diagnostics and a huge variety of lifesaving recovery functions. Despite the "CD" part of its name, Ultimate Boot CD for Windows can be loaded onto a USB key, though it requires a Windows installation disc from which to build the aforementioned "Windows Lite" environment. If you don't run Windows but still want a basic DOS-based suite of hardware diagnostics and disk tools, the vanilla Ultimate Boot CD has you covered.

Convert it into a tiny SNES, Genesis, MAME, etc.
Emulators are tiny, and most ROMs are even tinier; a USB key, no matter the size or speed, can probably hold more vintage console games than you can find the time to play. Many popular emulators come in a portable flavor, so your display settings, saved games and cheats will follow you everywhere. Without the need to install anything, this potentially opens up work, school or other public PCs to most pre-PlayStation gaming. Popular portable NES, SNES, Game Boy, Genesis, and arcade emulators. As for ROMs, that's on you. (Pro tip: GOOGLE).

Carry a portal to your home computer
Virtual Network Computing (VNC) sounds more complicated than it isit simply lets you see and control your computer screen remotely. Whatever OS you run (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux), VNC servers are simple to set up and, if configured correctly, plenty secure. While many provide web interfaces to be accessed through a browser, they're almost always clunky, Java-based monstrosities. A simple VNC client (download the binary archive version) will carry your settings, run responsively and offer more quality, speed and transfer options than its bastard HTTP brother, transporting a home computer's desktop to wherever you happen to be.

Donate it to charity
If you're some kind of ingrate who doesn't see the potential in any of the above options (or you're just a good, charitable person), InVineo, a non-profit tech outreach organization will find someone who does. They'll gladly take your 64MB Cruzers and send them to developing countries to be used in schools or local governments.

Hat tip to Lifehacker and Portable Apps.

Dealzmodo Hacks are intended to help you sustain your crippling gadget addiction through tighter times. If you come across any on your own that are particularly useful, send it to our tips line (Subject: Dealzmodo Hack). Check back every other Thursday for free DIY tricks to breathe new life into hardware that you already own.

The Price: $70 online, but should be available at Best Buy for $60

The Verdict: Convenient. The Fueltank does exactly what it says it does: charge two devices simultaneously on the road. It's made even better because the charging tips are the same ones used in the Chargepod, so you can support just about every mobile gadget you have.

In our test, a completely empty Windows Mobile phone and a completely drained Callpod Dragon charged up to full in about three hours. After this, the Fueltank still had enough juice left to power the phone for another two hours. One quirk though, is that the battery status display only works correctly when the Fueltank isn't plugged in to a power source, and displays somewhere between half to full power when you activate it while it's charging via a wall socket. It works correctly when disengaged and powering other devices.

It's kinda similar to the Powergorilla that we tested last week, but only for smaller portable devices and not laptops. In our view, it's definitely worth $60 as a backup or extended battery, especially if you've got a phone like the T-Mobile G1 that can barely last a day on moderate use. The Fueltank is the same thickness and about 1.5x as wide as the G1, so it's easily slipped into your laptop bag. A good device for anyone who travels regularly and needs supplemental power where there's no outlets to be found. [Callpod]

It's Atom-powered, of course, with 1GB memory and up to 32GB of SSD storage, and crazily jams in Korean wireless broadband WiBro, digital TV receivers, HSDPA, WiMAX, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Its touchscreen is a respectable 1024x600 pixels, and while the keyboard may challenge the fat-fingered, the machine can run XP, Vista or Linux. Skinny-fingered netbook fans will have to hold their horses though as there's no info on price or whether it'll make it over the Pacific. [Aving]

The Price: $350

The Verdict: I am in love with the concept, and this little LCOS-based 640x480 projector does some amazing things given its size and resolution. But even understanding its limitations, it still has some major build-quality issues that prevent it from true awesomeness.

As a portable projector for still presentations and videos alike, it has its strengths and weaknesses. It powers up easily, connects to composite and VGA sources (including component if you have the right cable adapters), and never gets so hot you can't touch it. It's got a tripod screw like most cameras, so you can easily position it where you want to. 3M doesn't disclose the lithium-ion battery life though it should given the LED's constant brightness. Still, plugging it into a wall isn't a big deal, so battery life may not matter. (I will continue to test that and update if there's anything significant.)

The MPro110 isn't going to be of help in a big boardroomyou can only get up to a 40-inch screen (by positioning it about 6 feet), but even then, fine details are blurred. Your best bet for readable viewing is a 20-inch screen at 4 feet. Update: It supports up to 1024x768 resolution input, but it doesn't display at a resolution greater than 640x480. Ironically, the fuzziness is more of a problem for the businesspeople for whom the product was intendedI didn't suffer much watching slightly blurred DVD rips or cable-box TV at the full 40 inches, though like most projectors, near-pitch darkness is required.

As you can see from the shots, there's some pinch distortion and not a lot you can do about it. There's no optical or digital compensation like on larger projectorsin fact the only control besides on/off is focus, and that only goes so far. Brightness-wise, it's okay, but it suffers noticeably the farther back you pull. Its colors are impressive, especially here, given the fact that I was projecting against a dark yellow wall.

Again, I was forgiving of limitations based on size and functionalitymy biggest problems were in construction. The focus dial felt flimsy and wouldn't hold its place if jostled. Worse, it was hard to keep my computer connected, because the projector's VGA cable wouldn't stay inside the projector's jack.

Yeah, $350 is a lot for a toy, but it's not the reason I wouldn't recommend this. If 3M could apply more quality control, this would be a novelty more of us might carry. I can see it being a fun way to watch movies in hotel rooms when traveling, and as the technology behind brightness, throw and resolution improves, these could become hot sellers indeed. [3M MPro110 Product Page]

It'll play every file you throw at it: on the audio front, we've got (take a deep breath) MP3, WMA, AAC, AC3, FLAC, OGG, Monkey Audio, and a bunch of others I've barely heard of. For video, which is the real draw of the O2, we've got AVI, WMV, MP4, MKV, H.264, DivX and XviD, and again, way more. It'll play videos up to 1,280x720 resolution at 30 FPS. What does that dictionary of acronyms mean? No more converting videos. Ever.

The GUI looks a little dated, awfully similar to my aging D2, but very functional all the same. The O2 has Cowon's vaunted stellar sound quality, but battery life isn't all that hot: 8 hours of video, which is great, but only 18 hours of audio, which is below average these days. Still, this looks to be right at the top of the heap of portable video players, if only because it'll actually play your videos without making you transcode first. The Cowon O2 goes on sale tomorrow (the 25th) in black or white, direct from the manufacturer. [CNET]

First of all, this isn't the first time a consortium like this has been established. For example: The Secure Digital Music Initiative was formed in 1998 only to die a horrible death a few years later. Second, I don't see any mention of Apple on the list of participantsbut I do see Comcast on there. You know, the same ISP enforcing 250GB data caps on its subscribers. So they are all for unlimited access to content...as long as you keep it within reason. It doesn't seem to be viable to me in its current form, but I will withhold judgment until the full details are revealed in January at CES.

Industry Leaders to Create Global Standard Enabling

"Buy Once, Play Anywhere" Consumer Experience for Digital Media

Major Hollywood studios, retailers, service providers, and consumer electronics and IT

companies to develop framework for bringing together digital products, content and services

for consumers

LOS ANGELES (September 12, 2008) – Today, an international and cross-industry group of more than 20 leading companies announced the formation of a consortium, Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) LLC ("DECE LLC"), that will define and build a new digital media framework using industry standards, and will enable consumers to acquire and play content across a wide range of services and devices. Anchored by Alcatel-Lucent, Best Buy, Cisco, Comcast, Fox Entertainment Group, HP, Intel, Lionsgate, Microsoft, NBC Universal, Paramount Pictures, Philips, Sony, Toshiba, VeriSign and Warner Bros. Entertainment, DECE LLC will address growing consumer confusion around buying, downloading and playing digital content offered by multiple services by working toward a simple, uniform digital media experience.

"This is great news for consumers hungry for access to a wider array of digital content they can enjoy on any device they own. We formed this consortium to give consumers that kind of power and choice," said Mitch Singer, president of DECE LLC, on behalf of its members. "To open up the market for digital distribution, we are developing a specification that connects a wide variety of services and devices. DECE LLC is taking the lessons learned from the successful "buy once, play anywhere" experience that we enjoy with CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray today, and using a similar approach in developing the next generation digital media experience."

Over time, DECE LLC will issue a licensable specification, along with a recognizable brand and logo for compliant products and services that will assure consumers that content they download will play on their devices. The specification, based on industry standards, will outline the hardware and software requirements for companies to follow as they define new consumer experiences.

The specification will also define how consumers can enjoy their purchased content on an assortment of devices, or even remotely, thereby creating the convenience of a virtual library, accessible in the home or on the road. By offering consumers the same level of confidence and comfort with digital content that they feel today with physical media, DECE LLC believes it can bring real value to digital content.

As DECE LLC moves ahead, it will continue to seek broader industry support across the content, software, hardware, retailer and service provider sectors, and will issue more information around its development and release plans.