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(Credit: OWC)

Having a second monitor doesn't just make your office space look more serious, it also helps you boost your productivity. Unfortunately, most computers don't come with a video card that can handle more than one display at a time. This is when you need to resort to one of the USB ports for the second display.

Other World Computing announced on Tuesday its USB 2.0 display adapter that helps you easily add additional monitors to your computer. The adapter is basically a bus-powered USB external video card. All you need to do is plug it into an available USB 2.0 port and then plug a monitor (not included) to it, just like you would to the regular built-in display output of the computer.

The adapter comes with software drivers for both Windows and Mac computers. You can add up to six additional monitors to a Windows machine and up to four to a Mac. Once done, you can use all these displays, plus the main one simultaneously.

The OWC USB 2.0 display adapter supports all HDMI-, DVI-, and VGA-equipped displays, be them LCDs, plasmas, projectors, or legacy CRTs. It can display full 32-bit color at the max resolution of 1,600x1,200. It's unclear but you probably won't be able to play 3D games with it.

The device comes with all you need out of the box, including: USB to DVI adapter, DVI to VGA adapter, DVI to HDMI swivel adapter, a 4-foot USB 2.0 cable, and a software CD.

It also comes with a one-year warranty and a reasonable price tag of $99. Unfortunately, it doesn't ship with any LCDs. If you want something like that, look for the Mimo 740, which is a lot more expensive and only works with Windows.

You might balk at the $130 price tag, but this time more actually means better. The Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave Pro combo puts two of our favorite products together in one package: the Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave Keyboard and the Logitech MX 1100 Cordless laser mouse.

Both products received very high marks from their respective editors, and the MX1100 mouse even managed to win an Editors' Choice award. This time around, we're sticking to our guns and rewarding this winning combo as well.

One of the most significant hardware changes in the bundle that we don't speak much of in the review is the mouse's rechargeable battery. In our separate review of the MX1100, we weren't very happy to see that it used alkaline batteries for juice. We cut it some slack since it meant one less power adapter to throw into our mountain of cords, but Logitech really came through this time and includes a rechargeable battery with the system.

Logitech advertises two months of power per charge, and although we don't have the time or the resources to perform a drain test, we used the device for a full week and kept it on 24 hours a day and barely saw the drain indicator move. In our opinion, that's worth the bimonthly mouse charging.

I got my hands on LaCie's new external hard drive, the 2big Dual, and it's not just big, but heavy too.

The 2big Dual features a tool-less hard-drive bay for easy access and maintenance.

(Credit: LaCie)

In fact, it's arguably the heaviest two-bay external hard drive I've run into. The drive is not ugly, however. Designed by Neil Poulton, the drive, though big and rugged, has an elegant industrial look with aluminum casing and a removable base for the vertical position.

The drive comes with eSATA and USB 2.0 connections and six RAID-based setups for hard drives that can be easily set with the switch on the back of the device.

The 2big Dual also features an easy-maintenance design, with the hard drives easily accessible and replaceable. It can support any internal SATA hard drive, but comes in three preconfigured versions, including 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB that cost $320, $400, and $530, respectively. All these versions ship with a three-year warranty and EMC Retrospect Express backup software for both PCs and Macs.

You can get one now or check back at CNET.com for an in-depth review to see how its performance stacks up to its big and bold design.

(Credit: Toshiba)

Despite the no-frills name--Toshiba USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive--the company's new line of pocket-size drives boast some unique and colorful designs and features.

The drives are housed in a sleek, glossy chassis embedded with contemporary graphics and available in four color schemes: Electric Blue & Black, Carbon Grey, Hot Rod Red, and Gecko Green. They offer storage capacity up to 400GB, larger than most existing products though still less than the 500GB OWC Mercury.

The new drives ship with NTI Shadow backup software, as well as internal shock sensor and ramp-loading technology that deliver extra protection against standard wear and tear and anti-slip footpads that help the drive stay in place. Though not the most compact, the drives weigh only 6 ounces and measure 0.7 inches by 3.2 inches by 5.0 inches, making them relatively small and easy to carry on the go.

Toshiba's new external hard drives feature only one USB 2.0 connection (no FireWire or eSATA) and cost around $200 for the 400GB version. They're also available in 320GB, 250GB, and 160GB versions that cost less accordingly. All versions are Mac- and PC-compatible and come with a three-year warranty.

The MiniStation Shinobi is merely .2 inches thick and weighs only 2 ounces.

With a name that recalls the famed Japanese ninja movie, the MiniStation Shinobi is arguably the thinnest and lightest external hard drive to date--merely .2 inches thick and weighing only 2 ounces.

Buffalo announced the drive on Monday. Unlike other pocket-size external hard drives that use the 2.5-inch drives found in most laptops, this one uses the 1.8-inch laptop hard drive that's more often associated with smaller devices such as portable media players. For this reason, the external hard drive is significantly more compact and lighter, but it also features limited capacity: up to only 60GB. This is because while regular 2.5-inch internal hard drives hit the 500GB mark a long time ago, the 1.8-inch version just very recently reached 240GB.

The USB 2.0-only MiniStation Shinobi comes with Buffalo's SecureLockMobile software that prevents unauthorized access in the event the drive is lost or stolen. Like the DriveStation FlexNet, the Shinobi also comes with Turbo USB technology to boost the throughput performance, plus Memeo's AutoBackup and Auto Sync software.

The MiniStation Shinobi will be available in October in 30GB and 60GB versions for an estimated street price of $120 and $170, respectively.

The DriveStation FlexNet

It can be a hard choice between a direct attached (DAS) and a network attached (NAS) external storage device. The former offers high-speed data throughput but requires a computer, while the latter can work by itself with a throughput speed that's limited by the network connection. How about not having to pick one over the other?

Buffalo Technology is offering that option on Monday with its new DriveStation FlexNet storage device. The device comes with both 10/100 Ethernet network storage functionality for it to be an NAS and a USB 2.0 connection for it to work as a regular external hard drive. However, it can only work as either at a time and has a button that quickly toggles between the two modes.

Other than that, the DriveStation FlexNet is a single hard-drive storage device (hence, no RAID configuration) with a compact and sleek design. It ships with Memeo AutoBackup, has a one-year warranty, and features the useful TurboUSB technology. TurboUSB can boost the USB 2.0 speed up to 20 percent faster than other standard USB drives. I personally witnessed this in SimpleTech's re-drive, the only device I've reviewed so far that features this technology.

The new DriveStation Flexnet will be available in late September with an estimated price of $250 for the 1TB version. There are also 640GB and 500GB versions that cost $170 and $150, respectively.

If you've always wanted to connect an external display to your laptop without having to physically hook a cable between the two, I have good news for you.

Iogear introduced on Tuesday its Wireless USB to VGA Kit for streaming PC content to an alternate display. This is going to be one of the first implementations of Wireless USB.

WUSB technology has been under development since 2004, and the first time I saw its demo was during Winhec 2006. As the name suggests, it's essentially the current USB 2.0 technology without USB cables. WUSB can operate at full USB 2.0 speed (480Mbps) within a 10-foot range--longer than the length of most standard USB cables--and up to 110Mbps within a 30-feet range.

The WUSB to VGA kit from Iogear includes two compact components.

(Credit: Iogear)

For now, most computers and legacy peripherals have to be upgraded to WUSB with add-in cards and hubs. Going forward, most computers and devices will hopefully have this technology built in, just like USB 2.0.

The WUSB VGA kit from Iogear will allow for quickly displaying your laptop's visual content to an external display such as an LCD, a HDTV, or a projector, just like you would currently do by hooking the two with a VGA cable.

The kit allows for displaying anything you see on the laptop's screen, including 720p HD video content on the alternate display up to 30 feet away. For non HD content, the kit supports resolutions up to UXGA (1600x1200) or WSXGA+ (1680x1050), which are higher than the native resolutions of most laptops. It can also take advantage of a television's picture-in-picture function so that you can view the laptop's content and watch TV at the same time.

The WUSB to VGA kit consists of a Wireless USB adapter that connects to a Windows PC and a wireless VGA adapter to plug in to a VGA display. You'll still need a VGA cable (not included) to connect the wireless VGA adapter to the display, however. Aside from the VGA cable, the setup is compact enough for you to easily carry on the go.

The kit is compatible with both Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems and will be available for the general market sometime in October for about $230.

The new UltraDock V4 has a lot more to offer than the DriveDock V4.

(Credit: WiebeTech)

A while ago, I got my hands on WiebeTech's USB DriveDock V4 and was very impressed by its versatility. The device allows for quickly docking any IDE or SATA hard drive, 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch, to a computer via a USB 2.0 connection.

Today, WiebeTech introduced the Forensic UltraDock V4. The Forensic UltraDock supports all hard drives and all existing connections for external storage devices including USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800, and eSATA. This guarantees not only the versatility but also the speed, making recovering data much faster, especially considering the ever increasing capacity of hard drives on the market.

The Forensic Ultradock V4 comes with a write-blocked technology that offers only read-only access to hard drives. This allows for downloading or imaging contents of a hard drive without the risk of data being written back to the drive. While this feature is generally not necessary for regular consumers, it is important for forensic field investigation to protect the "Chain of Evidence", hence the name Forensic UltraDock.

The Forensic UltraDock V4 supports all existing connection for external storage devices.

(Credit: WiebeTech)

The Forensic UltraDock V4 is also capable of detecting hidden information on a hard drive that is not visible to certain operation systems. The most popular ways to hide data on a hard drive are Host Protected Area and Device Configuration Overlay. The Frensic UltraDock V4 can detect these types of data concealment and prompt the user via an LED to use special software application to access.

Like the USB DriveDock V4, the Forensic UltraDock V4 also comes with two power solutions: either with the included power adapter or from a power connector of a desktop computer's power supply. The device is built with a rugged aluminum case that can take a beating.

There's a catch, though, the Forensic UltraDock V4 comes with a hefty price tag of $250. I guess it takes a serious price to be serious even when it comes to drive docking. However, if you don't need the Forensic notion, there's a regular version of the device called UltraDock V4 that costs $50 less. Still, it's significantly more expensive than the USB DriveDock V4

OK, I admit it. I want options, even though, most of the time I don't have much use for them. Take pocket-size external hard drives, for example. I want them to be compact, light, pretty, bus-powered, and especially I want them to support USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800. (I would take eSATA, too, though, that wouldn't make sense until it's bus-powered capable). However, the truth is, I've used mostly just the USB 2.0 connection for personal purposes. So today, I decided to find out if FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 are worth it, as far as the throughput is concerned.

In CNET Labs, like most devices, hard drives are tested in the "real world" approach. This means the test might not show the best of what the device can do, but how well it does in a real world situation. This is the reason why, if you have read the recent reviews of pocket-size external hard drives, you will see the margin in throughput between different hard drives or different connections of one hard drive are relatively small. Our 10GB test data consists of hundreds of folders and small files (resembling the content of a typical "My Documents" folder) that create a lot of overhead for the copying process.

I tweaked this test a bit for this experiment by using single 10GB file. We have only two pocket-size drives in CNET Labs that have all three types of connections: the OWC Mercury and the G-Tech G-Drive. I put them through the test and here are the scores (in Mbps):

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)

So from the charts, there are three interesting revelations:

First, it doesn't matter what connection you use, with the same amount of data, it's faster to transfer when the data is in the form of a (few) large single file(s) than of multiple small files. This is another reason why you should compress your data into one single file (in ZIP or RAR, or any other types of compression format) before copying it onto another storage device, besides the apparent fact that compressing shrinks the size of the data itself. Of course, this only makes sense if you don't factor in the time needed for the compressing process.

Second, USB 2.0 is much slower than Firewire 400. Judging by the score, FireFire 400 could be up to 40 percent faster than USB 2.0. This is very interesting because on the specs; USB 2.0 is slated to have the transfer rate of up to 480Mbps, while that of FireWire 400 is only 400Mbps.

And last but not least, FireWire 800 is faster than FireWire 400 but not by a big margin, just a few percentages points, in writing. In reading, however, it's actually slower by about the same margin. This is also very interesting as FireWire 800 is slated to potentially offer twice the speed of FireWire 400.

So the conclusion is: yes FireWire connections are definitely worth it when it comes to speed, however, there's not much difference between the two. This means if your computer has a FireWire port, by all means, go ahead and get a drive that can take advantage of that. However, it' s pretty easy to decide which one to pick between FireWire 400 and FireWire 800: either one is fine.

A little disclaimer: these findings are only applicable to external pocket-size bus-powered hard drives working with a Windows XP machine. Full-size external hard drives with separate power adapters might yield different performance patterns.

In the end, personally, I still want my drive to support all these three connections, though I might just continue to use just the USB 2.0. But that's just me.