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Thumbdrives offer arguably one of the most convenient ways to carry data around. However, because they are so small, they have been frequent culprits of data breaches. Enter the JumpDrive from Lexar.

The company announced Thursday its new JumpDrive Safe S3000 FIPS, which it claims is the world's first smart-card-based FITS 140-2 Level 3 validated flash drive.

Lengthy name aside, this is the most secure and easy-to-use thumbdrive I've ever gotten my hands on.

(FIPS 140-2, by the way, stands for Federal Information Processing Standard and is a U.S. government computer security standard used to accredit cryptographic modules. Level 3 of this standard is the second highest level of data security, which prevents the intruder from gaining access and requires a physical security mechanism to protect the data inside.)

Physically, the new JumpDrive looks very much like most standard thumbdrives on the market with a detachable lid that reveals the USB head. However, it is noticeably heavier due to its thick metal housing and a presumably sophisticated mix of high-security components inside. Its lid also has a thick layer of rubber insulation to keep the moisture out. According to Lexar, the drive exceeds military waterproof standards.

Lexar said the JumpDrive Safe S3000 FIPS is certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and features hardware encryption and is the first of its kind to have atemper-resistant smart card to manage all security critical computations. The drive uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256-bit technology and utilizes an onboard hardware cryptographic controller to encrypt and decrypt data.

From the user's perspective, however, the drive is almost as easy to use as any thumbdrive. I tried it with a few computers and it worked very well. … Read more

Editor's note: You snooze, you lose. Woot.com is no longer offering the TomTom XL 340S deal.

Remember the TomTom XL 340S? Neither do I, but none too long ago we took a look at this neat little portable navigation device and found it to be pretty good--3.5 stars good, in fact. And while its $149.99 price tag isn't too tough on the ol' pockets, who wouldn't like to save a few bucks?

Well, if you pop over to deal-a-day site Woot.com, then you can order a TomTom XL 340S for $109.99 (plus $… Read more

RealNetworks, a maker of media software, has said it will file an appeal and ask that a district court decision to ban sales of its DVD-copying software, RealDVD, be overturned.

In August, a federal district judge issued a preliminary injunction to halt sales of the $30 software, which enables users to create digital copies of DVDs and then store them on a hard drive. Real said in court documents that sometime before November 9, the Seattle-based company will file an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The film studios claimed in a 2008 lawsuit … Read more

Online music provider 7digital is bringing over-the-air music downloads to recent BlackBerry phones, such as the Storm, Bold, and Tour. The rumors have been circulating for several months now. On Tuesday the company is set to launch its application--developed by DevelopIQ--on the BlackBerry App World store, as well as on the 7digital Web site.

After installing the free app, BlackBerry users will be able to buy and download more than 6 million songs from all four major labels and all the big independents, all in unprotected MP3 format. The app adapts automatically to the speed of the user'… Read more

Free All Media, an Atlanta-based start-up, is the latest company to propose an ad-supported music downloading service. The company, which just announced its first seed round of funding Wednesday and expects to begin public beta testing by December, hopes to differentiate itself from flameouts like SpiralFrog with a unique advertising model that asks users to participate more directly in choosing the ads they'll see.

The company's CEO, Richard Nailling, explained how the company's Web site, Free All Music, will work. Users will select an MP3 they want to download and a sponsor they'd like to "… Read more

Fujifilm's FinePix Real 3D W1 camera and system is hitting the U.S., the company announced Wednesday. Introduced globally over the summer, the FinePix Real 3D system appears to be the world's first 3D digital imaging system that captures 3D still photographs and movies, providing images that users can enjoy without special 3D glasses.

You can read a hands-on review here by CNET's Leonard Goh.

Also Wednesday, Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive officer of Nvidia, declared the FinePix Real 3D camera "Nvidia 3D vision-ready" during the company's GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, Calif. Nvidia 3D Vision is a combination of high-tech wireless glasses and advanced software that lets users view 3D pictures and movies in full HD on a PC, as well as automatically transforms hundreds of PC games into full stereoscopic 3D.… Read more

Last Friday, we had a bit of Web video fun with some classic European sports cars in action. Out of all those supersweet automobiles, my favorite has to be the somewhat quirky looking Ferrari 250 GT SWB Drogo, perhaps better known as the "Breadvan" because of its unshapely and boxy exterior. Despite its hard-to-miss appearance, a reader noted that the car I focused on about the 5:10 mark in the video was in actuality not the 250 GT. I'll be the first to admit my mistakes and reiterate for the Nth time that I do not … Read more

The Yukyung Viliv lineup ultraportable of mini-computers is, in a way, a bit of a throwback to the days when UMPCs and MIDs ruled the pocket-gadget landscape and laptops were bulky and expensive and didn't have any great battery power to speak of. Back in the days of the OQO and the Samsung Q1, you didn't expect an ultraportable to have the same productivity power as a full-fledged computer...you were, in fact, happy when it just did one or two things right. Those days are over, though. For $300 you can now get a Netbook which, while … Read more

It was a sad day when I reviewed the second-gen Sony S-Series Walkman. We expected a worthy successor to this fantastic MP3 player and instead were met with a mere shadow of the device and its former glory. True, you still get top-notch sound quality, impressive battery life, and even the added bonus of external speakers, but what happened to my podcast support, upgraded headphones, expanded sound enhancement options, interface personalization, SensMe Channels, and Rhapsody DNA?

Well, most of those things got funneled into the "expanded" S-Series, the S640 and S740 lines, which--naturally--Sony has no intention of offering … Read more