Crave

(Credit: Cobalt Flux)

Priced at $19.95, it features an ergonomic pistol grip, plus a lock and load capability for easy loading and unloading of the Wii controller just like a gun magazine. More importantly, international shipping is available though it's limited to FedEx.

(Via Crave Asia)

Anyway, check out the latest episode of The Inside CNET Labs podcast and remember kids, unsolicited attachments rule!

OK, I just realized (thanks to one of our staff writers) that this post may seem to be coming out of left field. So for all of you that are sitting here asking "Well WTF is Inside CNET Labs and why should I give a F---!!" The answer is that it's a weekly podcast with myself, Eric Franklin and a recently escaped asylum patient, Dong Ngo. We talk about electronics products from a performance testing POV and pretty much everything else. Why should you care? Well, punch and pie is provided to everyone that listens, but you wouldn't be interested in that now would you?

EPISODE_6

The DS207+ is the same as the DS107+ except for being about 40 percent wider to support another hard drive and RAID capability.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)

I reviewed the Synology DS107+, a single hard-drive NAS device, a while ago and gave it an Editors' Choice award for its incredible amount of features, a well-thought-out Web interface, and its great performance. Still, I came way wishing it could take another hard drive and support RAID.

Apparently, I don't have to wish at all. Synology also offers the DS207+, a dual-bay NAS device that is the same as the DS107+ with the exception of the second hard-drive bay and RAID capability.

The DS207+ has the same number of ports (two USBs and one eSATA), LED status lights, and it looks similar to the DS107+, but it is about 40 percent thicker to make room for the second hard drive. It can take two SATA hard drives of any capacity. It also comes with robust firmware, called Disk Station Manager 2.0 NAS Management, that was unveiled in April, and a slew of features also found in the DS107+ such as Surveillance Station, Photo Station, Media Server, and so on.

Like the DS107+, the DS207+ is also a NAS enclosure. That means it doesn't come with any hard drives and you will have to buy and install the hard drives. It's very easy to do so as long as you can handle a Phillips-head screwdriver.

You can get the DS207+ now for about $350--that's about $50 more than the DS107+. In my opinion, the addition of another hard drive and the RAID configurations is totally worth it.

Still, now I wish it were cheaper.

No, I am not talking about something that's for or from an airplane. It's simply a network attached storage device from VOX. The full name--don't hold your breath, you've already read the creative part--is BlackBox Dual Bay Gigabit RAID Shared Network Storage. As if the naming it BlackBox were not sensational enough, VOX decided to paint the device silver.

The Vox BlackBox can accommodate two 3.5-inch SATA hard drives of any capacity.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)

Other than the confusing, yet very telling name, the device is actually straightforward. It's a dual bay NAS device that supports RAID 0 and RAID 1. It's always nice to have the option of using either a high-performance or a data redundancy RAID setup. The BlackBox can also work without RAID and show the hard drives as separate volumes. The BlackBox ships with two 500GB hard drives, making it the best deal in the NAS community with the price tag of only $310. That's about $0.31 per gigabyte. For now, you probably can't find another NAS device that offers better value.

The BlackBox boasts an interesting design. It's made entirely of aluminum and is very rugged and heavier than it looks, though it is still compact. On the front, its drive bays are locked and you can't open them with the provided keys. However, looking at the keys, you will soon realize that they are not necessary. You can open the case with a paper clip. You just need a pointed object to poke the little hole on the front of the drive bay and the latch will swing open.

The BlackBox also is the first dual bay, compact NAS device I've seen that doesn't have a power adapter but comes with just a regular power cable (found in most desktop computers). This means one less thing to clutter your work space. However, you might not want to leave the BlackBox on your desk since it's very noisy. The BlackBox requires a decent amount of ventilation since the power supply is in the box. It has two fans on the back and--when the device is turned on--these fans are noisy enough to be heard from across the room.

Overall, this seems to be a simple and interesting NAS device with a very appealing price tag. It's available for purchase now unless, but you might want to wait and check CNET.com for our review, which is coming soon.

(Credit: Mezzi)

Ever since we saw From Russia With Love and, more specifically, James Bond's super-tricked-out attache case, we've always wanted one of our own. Even without the AR-7 and pop-out blade, it seemed the like ultimate accessory for that age when men were men and neckties were skinny.

That was the first thing that came to mind upon seeing Mezzi's superslim aluminum briefcase on Gear Patrol, which is meant to stow smart phones and GPS receivers instead of tear gas canisters. And with gadgets getting slimmer all the time, you'd be surprised how much you can fit into its slight 3-pound frame. But the capper is its secret compartment, where you can store 50 gold sovereigns just like the real 007.

The 1TB StorCenter includes 2 drives.

(Credit: Iomega Corp.)

Iomega announced today three new members of its StorCenter Network hard drive family. All three offer a built-in media server, an on-board print server, Active Directory support, a journaling file system, and EMC Retrospect backup and recovery software, as well as two external USB ports for hard drives or printers.

The 1TB product comprises two 500GB drives and supports RAID 1, RAID 0, and JBOD. The 500GB and 750GB versions each contain just one drive. All three use 7,200rpm SATA-II drives with 8MB of cache. They also offer a gigabit Ethernet connection.

Both Macs and PCs are supported, as well as Linux-based PCs. Supported operating systems include Windows 2000 Pro; Windows XP Home/Pro/Pro x64; Windows Vista Home Basic/Home Premium/Business/Ultimate; Mac OS X 10.2.7 and higher; and several flavors of Linux, including Redhat 9, Mandrake 10, Debian 3.0, Gentoo, and FedoraCore 3.

All three products are available immediately. The 1TB version sells for $389, the 750GB version for $359, and the 500GB version for $269.

(Credit: Shiny Shiny)

We understand people's attachments to their cell phones--functionally and even emotionally--but literally?

The somewhat-distubingly named "Rivet Attachment System" aims to do everything in its power to keep you and your beloved handset from parting ways, short of surgery. Just as important, as Shiny Shiny points out, it does so in style.

But if you're truly serious about securing your digital loved one, we suggest the old-school method: handcuffs.

(Credit: Linksys)

At the CES 2007 Pepcom event tonight, Linksys announced its entry-level NAS (network-attached storage) unit, the descriptively yet boringly named Network Storage System with 2 Bays (NAS200). The SOHO-oriented device offers up two empty drive bays in which you can install one or two 3.5-inch SATA drives of your choice. You can treat the two drives as one large drive, as two individual drives, or set them up for mirroring or striping. Additionally, it sports two USB ports to connect additional drives for increased capacity or for backup. Once you've installed the drive(s), you can connect the device to a LAN port on your router and access it from any PC on your network. You can also setup the drive for remote access over the Internet via Web browser or FTP.

The NAS200 comes with a built-in download manager that lets you initiate FTP or HTTP downloads. Once the download is initiated, you can even power down your PC and the drive will continue the download until complete. For backup tasks, you can schedule automatic backups or use the onboard one-touch backup button to initiate a backup task. Unfortunately, the device supports only Windows PCs.

Linksys expects it to ship in the first quarter for $180.