While SDD’s seem to be the new big thing in cutting-edge data storage, they still have yet to become a solid competitor to HDD’s (Hard Disk Drive) in the market in terms of price-to-storage space. While I usually favor the more cutting-edge technology, this 320GB Seagate Barracuda Hard Drive really restored my faith on them in several ways. Apart from an amazing price offered by Newegg.com as usual (only about 90 bucks!), the drive uses an interesting piece of technology that is revitalizing (if only briefly) the HDD market known as perpendicular recording. For those with an interest in computer hardware, click the link. Otherwise, its basically a newfound way to cram data ever-so-tighter onto the disk space and in an even more efficient manner.

As for my personal opinion about it, I have been using it for about 6 months, and I must say it has far surpassed my expectations. Quiet as a mouse, runs much cooler than I imagined, and with a reliability comparable to the old family dog (based on my past experiences with hard drives from the same series for about 10 years), it was one of the most amazing purchases I have made off that site.

NOTE: the exact deal I got on the drive is not availible anymore, but the same drive can be found here.

Wow, this has to be the cheapest digital photo frame I’ve ever seen for at about 165 dollars. With a 10.4 inch TFT LCD screen,
COBY Digital Photo Frame boasts a 800 x 600 resolution and a 400:1 aspect ratio.

It supports a plethora of various media types, such as SD, MMC, and most importantly to me, USB flash drive.

It supports JPEG images up to 12 megapixels. I don’t know anybody who would actually be able to use the full potential, but at least it can be used for bragging rights. It also supports movie files such as MPG.

What I find interesting about it is that it also doubles as an MP3 player. I’m not sure whether or not it comes with a remote control, but I’d hope it does. I do, however, know that it can be hooked up to a home theater.

Of course, I know that not all of us can afford to spend 165 dollars, so for 30 dollars cheaper, you can get the
Mustek 9.5″ Digital Photo Frame that’s LCD screen is just over 1 inch smaller. You also don’t get the buit-in MP3 player support.

Unfortunately, neither of these have any reviews on the site that they’re being sold yet. If you own either of these products, please contact me so that I can share your review with everybody else.

I am a fan of space. I have more hard drives and external storage systems than I am likely to ever use - but whoever said I shouldn’t get more?

The other day, I purchased yet another network based storage system, none other than the LaCie 500GB Ethernet Disk mini w/ USB 2.0, via thenerds.net. I have never been happier with any network storage drive than this one!

With support for 10/100/1000 MB/s (up to a Gigabit), it works excellent on any network and interfaces with all kinds of protocols - FTP, SMB (for Windows & Linux), AFP (Mac) - even it’s own built-in HTTP interface for anyone else who needs to access it.
LaCie also provides special backup software for certain OSes - you can schedule backups on your computer and they’ll automatically be transferred to the drive!

For those who can’t (or don’t want to) plug this baby directly into their network, there is always the USB 2.0 option - in which it will act the same as it does as if it were on the network directly.

Definitely a must buy for anyone who is in need of more storage space, or a place to stream and share your music with your friends and family.

256 gigabytes in the palm of your hand.

This Monday, Samsung Electronics stated that they have a plan to begin selling an incredibly small solid-state drive. The 256gb drive trounces typical hard drive speed by 2.4 times, and boasts the small size of 2.5 inches long and only 9.5 millimeters thick.

In a statement made Monday, the company stated:

“[It] represents a bold step in the shift to notebooks with significantly improved performance and larger storage capacities.”

They also mentioned that they believe that nearly 35% of all laptops will be using a SSD by the end of 2012.

You’ll be able to find them on Samsung’s website dedicated to their solid-state drives at www.SamsungSSD.com where it shows all the locations that they’re being sold.

I am a connoisseur of gadgets with multiple functionality, and I must say, this is one of the cooler ones (and not to mention aesthetically pleasing) I have seen. Available on ThinkGeek.com, the USB Memory Watch is precisely as the name implies. Apart from being a stylish modern looking analog watch, this gadget also sports internal flash memory to store your favorite mp3’s, pictures, videos, or other documents, so you can always have them on hand (or wrist). Available in 2GB and 4GB flavors ($34.99 and $54.99, respectively), it comes with a built-in USB connector (free cable included), and is compatible with most systems.

For more information on the watch or if you would like to purchase one, click here.

The Nokia N810 Internet Tablet (WiMAX Edition) outperforms its predecessor, the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet.

I’ve always been a huge fan of Nokia’s Internet Tablets. The ease, simplicity, and the fact that it has an enormous community of developers making custom software has always drawn me to them. I got my first internet tablet from them, the now incredibly outdated Nokia 770, a couple of years ago for the price of $300.00.

Then, they came out with the new and improved Nokia N800, but it still lacked certain features that most geeks wanted such as a QWERTY keyboard and built-in GPS without the need of the Nokia Navigation Kit for Nokia N800 Internet Tablet.

The Nokia N810 Internet Tablet added on both of these. Now, the internet tablet has a very stylish sliding-down keyboard and built-in GPS capabilities, and kept everything we loved about Nokia’s line of internet tablets; Mozilla web browser, rss reader, image viewer, along with a plethora of open-source projects for Debian that have been ported to the device.

And finally, Nokia has unveiled the WiMAX Edition of the new N810, thus providing you with high-speed data and telecommunications services within the palm of your hand. Right now, the price is a bit steep ($431.99), but we can expect that to drop in the coming months.

Until then, I’ll stick with my Nokia 770.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 37″ HDTV with a 1:1000 contrast ratio this cheap before. I swear that if I wasn’t a poor college student that I’d buy one of these in a second. The great people at Buy.com are offering it for $659.99 after a $50.00 rebate right now. I guess they expect people not to send in the rebate, because they’re also giving out free shipping. When I last checked, this product had 12 reviews with an average of 4.5/5 (A-). I think I’ll have to start putting some money aside so that I’ll someday be able to proudly hang this on my wall. Though, I know that within the first weeks that I have it, I’ll find a way to accidentally put a scratch in it like I did with my 22″ wide-screen monitor for my computer.

The Niko SV3706 - 37 LCD HDTV is a great buy for any geek that enjoys bragging rights.

One thing to note, however, is that one person reported having issues turning it on. If you’re serious about buying this product, you should probably do some research and see if it’s a common issue. If I ever purchase it, I’ll be sure to post whether or not this issue was present for me.

Can you believe that I found one of these at Goodwill yesterday for 7 dollars? That’s why Goodwill rocks.

The LED Binary Clock can be described in one word: amazing. Once you learn to read the display, it becomes a game. I have it sitting next to my monitor and I’m constantly looking over at it as the LEDs make cool shapes based on the time (a simple by-product of binary clocks). One thing that should be noted, however, is that the clock is a lot smaller than I had expected. Actually, it’s about 65% the size I had thought. But hey, it’s still worth the $20.00 that ThinkGeek.com is selling it for in ThinkGeek Home & Office section.

If you don’t know how to read binary clocks don’t worry, ThinkGeek was nice enough to give a very good chart on the product page. Click here to go there now.

XO-2 Gets a new look from its predecessor

The One Laptop Per Child Foundation has drawn quite a bit of attention from the media over the recent months. Their claim to fame, the OLPC XO-1, is a notebook designed to not only be affordable enough($100 per unit or less) to be distributed to schoolchildren in developing countries, many of which electricity is a big luxury, but its ease of use must appease to people who have never even heard of a computer. This bold undertaking has been underway since 2006, and has been gaining in momentum and support ever since, despite all the road bumps they’ve hit.

Recently, OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte unveiled the second iteration of the famed notebook, the XO-2. Two major external changes are noticeable from the get-go. First off, it breaks away from its green rubbery shell and cute bunny ear-like antennae for a more streamlined design similar to some modern notebook PC’s. The second of which is the lack of a traditional keyboard. Instead, it uses a touch-sensitive screen displaying a keyboard, giving it the versatility to act as a traditional laptop, or be used on its side, acting like a book. Aside from the more obvious changes, the expected price per unit has dramatically dropped down to $75, half the size of its predecessor, and thus more energy efficient and lighter to carry.

The expected release date of this new gadget is sometime in 2010.

For the full BBC article, click here.

This is the latest gadget I’ve purchased from the technophiles over at ThinkGeek.com, and I must say, it’s worth the high price. First, you need to know that this thing is tiny. The diameter is nearly equal to the width of a regular USB plugin. It’s 2GB memory size makes it practical for most uses, though I’ve never managed to fill up all of the way. It’s very stylish, which makes it easy to tote around on a keyring. That way, any time I need to use it, I can simply unscrew the memory key from its protective brushed metal casing. Believe me, this is one of those gadgets that is sure to impress your friends.

You can find it in the ThinkGeek Computing section.