eK-gadgets info

Buffalo has figured out a way to speed up its USB hard drives with what it’s calling Turbo USB, making its MiniStation (pictured above left) and DriveStation USB drives 60% faster than any others on the market. The company says this exclusive Turbo USB tech works equally well on Macs and PCs, and accelerates data transfers by “up to 60% faster than competing products.”Buffalo is shipping its MiniStation with Turbo USB at the end of August, priced at $99.99 for an 80GB drive, $119.99 for 120GB, $149.99 for 160GB, and $219.99 for the 250GB. The DriveStation with Turbo USB will be available in early September, priced at $129.99 for the 320GB drive, $169.99 for 500GB, $339.99 for 750GB, and $499.99 for 1TB.

The company didn’t say how it’s done, but If these drives can actually deliver that 60% data transfer speedup, this would be a great deal, because these prices are comparable to other drives with the same capacities.

While the rest of the world makes do with the 2-inch, QVGA display on their NW-A800 Walkman, China just nabbed a pair of biggie Sony Walkman branded flash video players under the PMX-M70 (pictured) and PMX-U50 monikers. The M70 series brings a 4.3-inch, 480 x 272 pixel display for viewing MPEG-4 video stored in up to 8GB of flash memory or Memory Stick expansion. It also records audio or video when jacked-in appropriately or plays back MP3, WMA, and AAC audio over the unit’s integrated stereo speakers. The PMX-U50 then, is a throw-back to the ol’ GigaPocket PCVA-HVP20 design with a refreshed spec sheet touting a 2.4-inch TFT LCD, FM tuner, drag-n-drop support (no SonicStage!), voice recorder and more in capacities up to 4GB. Notable by its absence from the press release is ATRAC, again. While three ATRAC-less, SonicStage-less products released in the last 4 weeks certainly does not constitute a trend, it’s tantalizing nonetheless. See the U50 pictured after the break.

Sony Electronics today debuted its next-generation multi-function DVDirect™ DVD recorder which can quickly transfer high-definition home videos and digital photos to DVD discs without using a computer.

The new VRD-MC5 model can now transfer AVCHD™ quality videos to DVD discs in their native 1080i HD resolution when connected directly to a Sony hard drive or Memory Stick® Handycam® camcorder. The resulting DVD can be played back on compatible Blu-ray Disc™ devices, including players and computer drives as well as PlayStation® 3 (PS3™) computer entertainment systems.

The VRD-MC5 recorder can also transfer standard-definition home videos to DVD without the complexity of using a computer from virtually any camcorder, VCR or digital video recorder. The new model includes Digital Video (i.LINK®/FireWire®/IEEE-1394), S-Video, Composite Video inputs, and USB (for Sony hard drive, DVD, and Memory Stick Handycam camcorders). DVD video discs recorded in this manner are playable in most consumer DVD players.

In addition, the VRD-MC5 can directly record digital photos to a DVD as a slideshow or just for photo storage from any of the five popular digital camera memory cards. It sports slots for Memory Stick® Pro and Memory Stick Pro Duo™ media, Compact Flash®, Secure Digital (SD™/SDHC™), and xD-picture card™, or via USB from Sony hard drive, DVD and Memory Stick Handycam camcorders. Users can also import their own MP3 music files to serve as background music.

“With our newest DVDirect model, users can transfer their high-definition videos to convenient DVDs for enjoying and sharing with family and friends,” said Robert DeMoulin, marketing manager for branded storage products in Sony Electronics’ IT Products Division. “We enhanced personalization and connectivity to make capturing and saving digital memories simple and fun.”

The re-styled DVDirect recorder has a built-in 2.5-inch color LCD screen for easily previewing video or up to six digital photos at a time. With automatic DVD menu and title creation, the new model offers four preset menu backgrounds along with the ability to import JPEG images to serve as the DVD menu background: automatic DVD chaptering every 5, 10 or 15 minutes; and stop-timer recording.

Up to six hours of standard-definition video, up to 95 minutes of AVCHD video or up to 2,000 digital pictures can be recorded on a 4.7GB DVD+R/+RW disc. Up to 12 hours of standard definition video can be recorded on 8.5GB DVD+R double layer discs which are compatible when using the DV, S-Video, or Composite video inputs only. The new DVDirect model maintains Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, as well as 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios with compatible camcorders.

Canon has introduced a new storage media device called M80, as the name suggests it has 80GB of storage capacity which might not be enough to suit everyone’s needs. Maybe if they increased the storage by 100GB everybody would be happy.

Anyway, the Canon M80 has a 3.7-inch screen that displays a 648×480 resolution, and it can play Mpeg-2/4 and MP3 files, while the brightness of the display screen is a generous 280cd/m2.

As for the extra storage features, the M80 supports different cards that can be directly plugged into the device, such as SD/SDHC/MMC memory card, plus CF/MicroDrive.

Fujitsu unveiled unveiled its latest portable hard drive, a 2.5″ disk drive offering up to 300GB of storage. Ideal for travel, this new drive in a compact design, with its own integrated USB 2.0 cable. It drives power from your laptop or desktop’s USB port, so there’s no need for an additional adapter.

Thanks to its 16-point omnidirectional shock mount design, the device is protected from impacts (up to certain limits of course - so don’t go dropping it from the top of Eiffel or something, mmmmkay?).

Bundled software include Data Protection Suite and EZ Gig II, which allows you to backup Windows filesystems as an image or clone with password protection. Cryptainer, an encryption program, offers AES or Blowfish 448-bit encryption.