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ZDNet Black Friday 2009 Guide
Looking for all the Black Friday deals n' steals in one place? Check out our comprehensive guide.... Continued »
Category: Portable Media
November 11th, 2009
Blockbuster initiating rentals via SD cards at store kiosks
Blockbuster isn’t going down without a fight. Their newest attempt to get customers in their stores and away from Netflix.com is a new rental system in which film lovers can rent movies via SD cards at a kiosk machine. Sounds like we still have to leave the house for that one. Read the rest of this entry »
November 5th, 2009
Brinell's Purestorage external hard drives are elegant, but pricey
Brinell has tried its best to combine elegance and performance with their suave-looking new line of Purestorage portable hard drives.
October 15th, 2009
Star Trek limited edition flash drive stores new movie
Attention Trekkies: Whether or not you liked J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movie (who am I kidding, didn’t we all like it?), you’ll probably be buying it to add to your collection. You can be one of the lucky bunch to grab a limited edition version of the movie placed safely inside a 4GB Starfleet Insignia flash drive.
Each drive is individually numbered, so you know it’s one of a kind. Of course, you can’t go around lending the drive to all of your friends — the drive is loaded with DRM, but you can still share it with five different machines, and burn it to a DVD.
The movie itself only takes up about 1GB of space, so you have 3GB more to save all those Photoshop photos of your head on all of your favorite characters’ bodies.
The drive is available for pre-order at Play.com for $29 (US). [Via OhGizmo]
UPDATE: Apparently this only ships within the UK. Sorry to those of you in the U.S. who got really excited (I’m right there with you). We’ll keep an eye out for a U.S. version.
October 6th, 2009
Western Digital adds e-Ink display to My Book Elite, Studio portable HDDs
Western Digital on Tuesday announced the addition of an e-Ink display to its My Book Elite and My Book Studio portable hard drives.
That means you’ll know the drive label and usage stats with a glance at the drive itself.
Both offerings sport WD SmartWare and 256-bit hardware-based encryption. The drives are available in capacities from 500GB to 2TB.
The My Book Studio (formatted for Mac; includes FireWire 800) retails from $149.99 to $299.99.
The My Book Elite (NTFS; USB 2.0) retails from $169.99 to $279.99.
Western Digital also unveiled its new My Passport Elite, the smallest such drive the company’s ever produced. It features a USB dock, illuminated capacity gauge, secure “drive lock” indicator and 256-bit hardware-based encryption.
It’s available in capacities up to 640GB storage, and maxes out at a retail price of $169.99. It’s available in metallic red, metallic blue and metallic charcoal finishes.
September 30th, 2009
SanDisk announces new 16GB memory card in time for Sony PSP Go release
SanDisk announced a few new products today intended to increase the storage capacity of handheld gaming systems. For the first product I’ll talk about, SanDisk’s timing couldn’t be better. The Sony PSP Go will be available tomorrow, October 1, and SanDisk has just the thing for new PSP Go users. For those of you who own a previous PSP system, and don’t plan on buying the Go because we’re still in a recession, read on to see how you can have a “poor man’s” version.
The PSP Go comes with 16GB of built-in internal flash memory. As of today, SanDisk is selling the new 16GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) card, which is compatible with the new Go, making it possible to double the amount of space in your new gaming device. Having 32GB of memory on such a small and lightweight device means that you can literally have a library of material at your fingertips wherever you go, including games, music, and videos.
Tim Sutton, SanDisk’s worldwide product marketing manager, says that from SanDisk’s point of view, the memory side of the market, he sees an accelerated shift in terms of moving to digital content on the gaming side. We’ve already seen how popular smartphones have become, especially the iPhone, and people are using these devices more and more to download games, videos, etc., at the drop of a hat.
The PSP Go is the first all-wireless gaming device, so you need room to store all of your favorite files, like movies, music, TV, and of course, games. As Sutton mentioned, with the rise of portable devices, there is more material to be downloaded directly to those products, which means the need for more memory.
The M2 cards also comes in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB capacities. Since the PSP Go is so light and compact, the memory card has to reflect the small size, which the M2 does. The tiny card is the same size as the one that fits into Sony Ericsson phones, and fits right into the Go’s M2 slot.
The 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB M2 have an MSRP of $27.99, $44.99, $74.99, and $142.99, respectively, although some sellers may lower those prices.
But for those of you with PSP 3000 and PSP 2000 models, you can also use the new M2. It comes with an adapter which encases the tiny M2 card, and then fits into your older PSP system. You can transfer your own DRM-free files from your older model to the new PSP Go using the M2 adapter.
September 11th, 2009
Gadget Gal's daily deals: PlayStation 3 Slim, iRiver MP3 player, Gateway desktop
An 8GB iRiver MP3 player, a Playstation 3 Slim, and a Gateway desktop computer. Here are your daily deals for Friday, September 11, straight from the Gadget Gal:
1. Get the iRiver E100 8GB MP3 Player in pink for $69 at Walmart. Shipping is free when you select “Ship-to-Store,” otherwise you’ll have to pay $8.47 shipping. The player has a 2.4-inch color display, a built-in stereo speaker, an FM radio, a voice recorder, and MicroSD expansion.
[read the review] [find the deal]
2. Get the new PlayStation 3 Slim Edition 120GB for $30 less than the list price of $299.99. For a limited time, Dell is selling the console for only $270, including free two-day shipping. The PS3 Slim uses less power with its thin, light body.
July 31st, 2009
Gadget Gal's daily deals: Kingston DataTraveler 64GB flash drive, iRobot Roomba, Western Digital 320GB hard drive
A 64GB Kingston DataTraveler flash drive, an iRobot Roomba vacuum-cleaning robot, and a Western Digital My Passport Essential 320GB hard drive. Here are your daily deals for Friday, July 31, straight from the Gadget Gal:
1. Get the Kingston 64GB DataTraveler 150 USB 2.0 Flash Drive at Buy.com for $128.89, down from $213. With a 64GB capacity, you can store a hefty amount of files on this drive. It comes with Kingston’s five-year warranty, and 24/7 tech support.
2. Get the iRobot 500 Series Roomba Vacuum-Cleaning Robot with On-Board Scheduling for only $199.99 from Amazon. The Roomba has a list price of $399.99, but is Amazon’s deal of the day today. It works on both carpet and hard floors, has two high speeds, counter-rotating brushes, anti-tangle technology, side brushes, dirt sensors, built-in cliff sensors, and a self-charging home base, among other features.
July 21st, 2009
Kingston debuts world's first 256GB USB thumb drive
Memory maker Kingston has figured out a way to shoehorn 256GB of memory into a diminutive USB thumb drive.
The DataTraveler 300 offers transfer rates of up to 20 MB/sec. read and 10 MB/sec. write, and supports Windows ReadyBoost (Vista).
Unfortunately, the device is (for now) only available in Europe and the UK for a lot more than a haypenny: £565.67, or approx. $924.
July 13th, 2009
Hitachi SimpleTOUGH external HDD is water-resistant, shockproof to 9.8 ft.
Hitachi on Monday unveiled three new products: the water-resistant and shock-resistant SimpleTOUGH portable USB drive; a colorful palette of SimpleDRIVE Mini 2.5-in. external hard drives; and the SimpleNET NAS adapter for sharing existing USB drive content over a home or office network.
July 13th, 2009
IronKey unveils enterprise USB flash drive with crypto, self-destruct security
IronKey, maker of the “world’s most secure flash drive,” on Monday announced the launch of its S200 device for government and enterprise customers, featuring hardened physical security, the latest Cryptochip technology, active anti-malware and enhanced management capabilities.
It’s the “first and only USB storage device to achieve FIPS 140-2, Level 3 validation” and delivers advanced Cryptochip featuring AES-256, tamper-resistance and self-destruction circuitry.
Yup, you read that right: a self-destructing USB flash drive.
Specs, after the jump:
Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet.
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