One of the things I like to do when attending shows like CES is collect flash memory press kit thumbdrives to use again once I get home. In years past, it was considered a huge score if I was given a drive larger than 1GB, and this year I actually got several which were 2GB – along with a single 4GB drive, but alas … the thrill was almost gone, because at home I had a 16GB flash drive which was smaller and cuter than anything I was handed at CES.

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Gear Diary is no stranger to the ioSafe hard drive.  We tested the fire proof and water proof, original ioSafe drive by burning it up in the back of a car and then dousing it with several thousand gallons of water straight from a fire hose.

While at CES 2010 ioSafe took the Gear Diary team to a special, top secret location, deep in the desert (okay, it was really three miles south of the strip) where they demoed their newest release, the all new ioSafe SSD drive.

The new drive is not only water and fire proof like its little brother, but now it’s even crush proof.

Check out the video below to see how the drive stacked up against everything ioSafe threw at it and head to the ioSafe web site to learn more about it.

Remote access to servers is a well-known corporate must-have, with companies like Citrix running the show. But what about your home PC? Wouldn’t it be nice to not only access your personal files from any computer with a USB port?

Dane-Elec has announced a USB solution that does just that! Not only does it give you access, but you can set up as many as 30 people to access the home server, making it great not only for families but for small businesses too! Best of all, there’s enough storage to use it to store and stream media files and photos! No more clogging up your smartphone with pics of your last vacation, as this system also lets you access your server from an iPhone or Windows Mobile handset. This sounds like a really cool concept, and clearly the Consumer Electronics Show agrees; Dane-Elec has already won a “CES Innovations Award” for the product! Press release after the break!

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When my parents were trying to organize their digital photos of a vacation to Italy a few years ago, my dad somehow deleted everything off their SD card before it sync’d to the computer. We’re still not sure what he did, but thankfully after some major googling I found a program for almost $100 that could recover the files. While the price was steep, they were just grateful to have their photos back. Continue Reading

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to review the Seagate FreeAgent Go. It is a small, pocket-sized external hard drive that looks sleek and has a tremendous capacity. One of the nice features of the hard drive is that it has only one port- a Mini USB. You can, however, purchase an optional dock for the hard drive that lets you simply slip the hard drive into the cradle when you’re ready to use it. The company offers a similar looking cradle that does much more, however. By incorporating a PogoPlug into the cradle Seagate has created a simple way for even the most non-technical person to create a network drive that is, in fact, accessible from anywhere in the world so long as you have Internet access.

I’ve been using one of these amazing FreeAgent DockStars for over a month and a half and absolutely love it. It’s simple to use, works perfectly, let’s me let go of some of the “cloud” storage I’ve been paying for on a monthly basis and, perhaps festival for me, thanks to a free iPhone app anything that’s on this drive is immediately accessible right on my iPhone.

Let’s take a look…

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Like a lot of kids in the 80s, I had a boom box.  It was big, loud, heavy…but oh so cool!  I used it until it finally died, about 10 years later.  I miss it. But what if I could have it back?  What would I want it to do now?  Well, I’d like it small, easy to use, able to use my MP3 collection, but still sound great.

Enter the Rad Blaster!   Its a small USB device that has an OLED screen, supports MP3/WMA/WAV audio formats and have 2GB of memory built in.  It looks and behaves like our old school boom box, but with all the cool audio of now.  For $59.99, it may be a little steep for an average MP3 player, but with its cool looks and 80s feel…why not have a bit of your youth back for Christmas?

Click here to see some awesome old school break dancing, all with the Rad Blaster acting as DJ.

Back in August, I reviewed the HP MediaSmart Server LX195.  I, the resident Linux Geek here at Gear Diary, was pleasantly surprised by how useful the little server was.  Even so, I still thought there was a little something missing from that great device.  HP has addressed a lot of this with the HP MediaSmart Server EX495.

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Life is digital. Our movies, pictures and music live on our computer hard drives. The entertainment we love is streamed from YouTube, Flickr and Pandora. So much entertainments and, most of the time, it is held captive on our small computer screens. No longer, thanks to today’s GearDeal.

The Western Digital WD TV Live network HD Media Player lets you grab tall that entertainment and stream it over your network to your TV. Today’s GearSponsor deal lets you get it for $119. You even get free shipping.

Western Digital WD TV Live network HD Media Player WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN for $119.00 plus free shipping via LogicBUY.

More and more of our digital lives is left sitting on our computers. As a result we need a better way to access it. Seagate has that covered with a system that is not only simple to use but simple to set up as well. It consists of three parts. The first is Seagate’s FreeAgent Go portable hard drive. (You can use any USB hard drive but the system is designed for the FreeAgent Go). The second is the FreeAgent DockStar that incorporates a PogoPlug for anywhere access to your data. The third, if you are an iPhone or iPod touch user, is the PogoPlug iPhone app. The three work seamlessly to let you access all your content no matter where you are. So long as you have a data connection, that is.

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Larry tried to fry the ioSafe but was unsuccessful. It withstood the flaming car he and his fellow firefighters threw at it. (We love when there is truth in advertising.)

Well, Sellout.woot has a 1.5TB Version on sale for just $249.99. That’s a $100 savings on the drive that takes a licking and keeps on spinning…

To grab an ioSafe 1.5TB Fireproof/Waterproof USB 2.0 Hard Drive with 3 Year Data Recovery Service, jump on over to sellout.woot.

How small is too small? When you’re talking about USB drives, The Active Media Wink might just be there.

Small enough that you will most certainly want to keep its included key chain looped through the drive’s hole to keep from dropping it when inserting or removing from a USB port, the Wink is available in denominations up to 16GB.

Prices start at $7.95 for 2GB, and you can expect to pay $37.95 for the 16GB.

The Wink is available from Amazon.

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A-DATA recently announced the release of a waterproof and shock resistant hard drive.  The sh93 Incorporates rubber and plastic along with special cushion materials that allow it to withstand a 1M waterproof test for 30 minutes and military standard MIL-STD-810F drop test.

The SH93 comes in two colors : racing car yellow and chili pepper red. With capacity up to 640GB, it is designed for users to conveniently carry around massive documents without the fear of damaging files stored in the drive in the incident of accidental drop or water spills.

I’m quite familiar putting hard drives to the “test” and took the A-DATA with me to the firehouse to see if it really does stand up.

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Seagate was kind enough to send me both the FreeAgent Go and the FreeAgent DockStar to review and the continue using. I’m quite impressed with the combination which now allows me to access over 600GB of content from anywhere in the world.

Here is a quick unboxing video…

If you wear Zegna suits, have a home in the Hamptons, and if your other car is a Ferrari, then a plastic casing on your portable hard drive would be nothing short of gauche. It’s for you that the brinell purestorage line was created…

With the brinell purestorage product series, brinell, the Karlsruhe-based creative designer, has put portable hard drives on the market, setting new standards in the area of IT peripherals. Not only do these units rank among the most compact USB hard drives in cheque card and pocket format with a capacity of up to 500 GB, they also have an eye-catching housing, made completely of exclusive, high-quality materials such as stainless steel, exotic wood, nappa leather or carbon”

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Speck makes a number of products designed to protect your mobile valuables.  We here at Gear Diary have favorably reviewed several of their cases for iPods and smartphones, including one of my favorites, the CandyShell for iPhone.  Now, Speck introduces protection for your Western Digital Passport and other small portable hard drives.

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