A few months ago, we tested the SimpleDrive from SimpleTech, this time we had the opportunity to lay our hands on the new SimpleTech series, the Signature Mini Drive. Our test unit is a Signature Mini Black Cherry 320GB. The packaging could be confused with a chocolate box. Just like the previous version, we are still in awe with the slick design of the enclosure. It is very portable, weighs less than half a pound, measures around 3 in. by 5 in. and does not require any bulky external power supply, just a two-headed UBS connection cable. Windows XP and Vista detected the device within seconds and it was ready to go. Mac users would want to reformat to MacOS Extended before they can write onto the disk. As we pointed out in our review of the SimpleDrive, if the unit needs to be compatible with both Windows and Mac, format the drive in FAT.

If you're a heavy torrent user and love storing anything and everything you can get your hands on, then the Planex DigiJuke NAS device ought to be right up your alley. A 1TB system with Gigabit Ethernet connectivity will cost you around $525, with its main selling points being pre-loaded with a tiny browser for searching and tagging favorite YouTube videos as well as torrents for direct downloads onto the DigiJuke. Hopefully MPAA lawyers won't lobby for an agreement to sneak tracking codes into this device, as we all know just how many clean, honest, anti-piracy torrent users there are out there.

InPhase Technologies has announced its Tapestry hologram storage product which will roll out this may, consisting of 120mm (5.25") diameter clear plastic disks in a cartridge case. A blue laser will be used to store holographic images in the depth of the recording medium on the disk's surface. Initial disks have a life span of 50 years, featuring read and write speeds of up to 20MB/s. Unfortunately, these won't be cheap since as each Tapestry drive will cost up to $18,000 and individual disks cost $180 each, storing a total of 300GB. Maybe the seventh-generation Xbox or PlayStation will see this medium being used, and hopefully we won't have another format war coming up.

Kingston has a new uber-secure flash drive that also happen to cost big bucks: $424 for 8GB. In fact, this high price is probably driven in part by a federal requirement that some sensitive data has to be stored on a device that has received the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 certification. And the last time I looked, there was not a whole lot of 8GB flash drives in that category… Of course, the cost of the encryption hardware might be important too, but a chip of that size can’t cost a whole lot to make…

It’s not a surprise to see that Intel will put all its weight behind a fast growing semi-conductor based storage system: solid state drives will kill small hard-drives - that’s a fact. At the Intel Developer Conference, Intel has demonstrated that its drives were faster than traditional drives, by comparing the load-time of a video application. I’m always cautious when I see a company-controlled benchmark, but this is an interesting demo. In case you missed it, the Macbook Air’s SSD did not bring significant improvement in performance or battery life – two critical promises of SSDs.

If you're a collector of Mimobots, heads up! There is a new range of USB flash drives by designer Simone Legno, and these will be released this April 18th at the New York Comic Con event. Currently available for pre-orders (shipping commences on the above-mentioned date), these new Mimobots consist of Meletta, Pastaio, and Pirate Nero versions. You will be able to choose from 1GB, 2GB and 4GB models, and all of these are Windows and Mac compatible, supporting Windows Vista's ReadyBoost technology as well. Each purchase will come with preloaded bonus digital content that includes icons, screen savers and rich media among others.

The Wizplat NAS-20 networked attached storage device might be pretty ordinary in its function and does just about the same as other NAS devices in the market, but it stands out among the crowd thanks to the unorthodox design. It might look too 'plasticky' for some folks, especially those who have decided to deck out their abode with a metallic techno look. Still, I like the shade of green that comes with it. No idea on how much it costs though.

How many of you still remember the good old days where 5.25" floppy disk drives used to rule the roost? Well, how about taking one of those antique pieces of technology and converting it into a CD-ROM drive? All you need to do is fit a micro ATX motherboard right inside it and modify the floppy drive to accept CDs and you're good to go. Makes those old XT casings much more useful instead of collecting dust in the attic. Here's what the creator had to say about his project :-

I gutted this vintage IBM 5160 XT computer. and welded in the supports for a micro ATX motherboard, as well as a ton of other case mods to make it work. and converting the old 5.25" floppy drive to a slot-loading DVD burner was the finishing touch to my XT project. I used a slot-loading Panasonic UJ-845 DVD-RAM drive with a "JAE to IDE adapter". to make it work on a home computer. i also had to reroute the LED and eject button from the DVD to the faceplate of the old floppy drive. Lots of work, but I’m very happy with the results.

The Memory Mouse doesn't look too comfortable to hold, coming in your typical hockey puck style. What it does carry though, is 4GB or 8GB of built-in memory and a touch scroll wheel. Well, at least it frees up an additional USB port for other devices, and unfortunately for us, it isn't wireless. A touch scroll wheel might sound great for some, but I still think having those notches that a standard scroll wheel provides is important especially in gaming to know whether you've selected the right weapon or not. Anyone wants to see this concept make its way to production lines?

While many Solid State Drives (SSD) come in 2.5” to replace the internal hard drive, some use the ExpresCard format. Team is not the first company to release an ExpressCard SSD, but I think that they are the first, or among the first to have a 64GB one.

It is said to read at 25 Mbps and write at 18 Mbps. There is also a 32GB version, and obviously, the 128GB is in the works – no surprise here.

You might have seen the claim by Buffalo that it’s “Turbo USB” could provide a performance boost that could be as high as 37%, we tested one of their unit and the verdict is: Turbo USB is faster.

In our case, Turbo USB was about 20% faster than (normal) USB. Although Buffalo doesn’t provide the details on how it works, there is a driver to install, so we think that the driver sends the data to the drive in “Burst Mode”, a more optimum way of packing the data before sending is across the bus.

You’ve heard it for years: “one-click backup”. Clickfree points out that many competing offering ask users to do complex setups and software installation. That is somewhat true, although I would argue that the complex setup is mainly aimed at saving storage space.

Clickfree doesn’t require any software installation, and will start saving files as soon as it is connected. It on Windows at the moment and the only obvious downside that I can see is its storage capacity: 120GB. That sounds certainly low for a backup device. If you want to “save everything”, take a look at Acronis Trueimage.

Remember Seagate’s DAVE? It stands for Digital Audio Video Experience and it’s a platform that connects a hard drive to other devices, wirelessly (via Bluetooth or WiFi). It was announced and demoed last year, but not, it seems that third party partners are building applications around it. Just to name a few: HarmanBecker is working automotive storage based on DAVE. Sanyo is going to use the platform to transfer data from its Xacti Digital Movie Camera.

[CES 2008] Maxtor, the enterprise side of Seagate, is releasing the Maxtor Black Armor, an external 2.5” drive that supports security features like full-disk encryption, which is quite reassuring if the drive is lost. It can take years, decades or even more to crack a strongly encrypted drive (my advice: don’t forget the password).

The maximum capacity of the Maxtor Black Armor is 160GB. It costs $150 and comes with a bundle of backup-related Maxtor software. Seagate home page