WD's My Passport Studio series might be the most compact 2.5" external hard drive to date.
(Credit: WD)I recently reviewed the OWC Mercury and SimpleTech's Signature Mini external hard drives. I liked the OWC Mercury for its versatility in connections and its top-of-the-market storage space. I also loved the Signature Mini because of its light weight and compact, chocolaty design. On Wednesday, Western Digital (WD) joined this race of external hard drives that are so small in physical size, yet so large in storage space, with its My Passport Studio series. I now am a little confused and don't know yet how to feel about this one.
Weighing only 5 ounces, the My Passport Studio series might be the lightest 2.5-inch-based external hard drives to date. The series comes in two sizes--250GB and 320GB--that cost $160 and $220, respectively. The best thing about these My Passport Studio drives is that they support both USB and FireWire (like the OWC) and are completely bus-powered. Also, they will ship with WD's generous five-year warranty.
The new drives boast a very elegant design with a sleek casing. They feature a clever capacity gauge that gives you visual of how much storage is available. They are preformatted to work with Mac, supporting Apple's Leopard's Time Machine backup software utility. Once reformatted, they will also work fine with PCs.
The new My Passport Studio drives are available now for purchase at WD's online store, but if you can wait, check back at CNET.com to read our in-depth review to find out how their performance stacks up against other contenders.
(Credit:
Crave Asia)
You may be able to get free Wi-Fi almost anywhere in Singapore with the Wireless@SG initiative that aims to wire the whole island state, but that's still insufficient for the true Internet junkie. While commuting each day, a Net addict has to go cold turkey as his notebook becomes nothing more than a slab of plastic and silicon without wireless access. Well, a fix has been found.
Nokia has brought Wi-Fi onto 12 buses in Singapore so that commuters can surf for free when riding them, using the existing cellular HSDPA service. The best thing is that users don't need a HSDPA-enabled phone or modem as the equipment dishes out the access using regular Wi-Fi within the bus.
Unlike Wireless@SG, you don't have to sign up for an account to use Nokia's Wi-Fi Zone service. The unsecured network just requires you to agree to some terms of service and, after that, you're good to go. Nokia says this is a trial for now and will review the service in a few months. It's a first from the company, so you won't find it outside of Singapore just yet.
There are only 12 buses plying 12 routes at this point, so chances of hopping on one even if you use the particular bus service is not guaranteed. If you are truly and hopelessly hooked to the Internet, we suggest getting your own HSDPA modem and an unlimited plan--that will work on any bus.
(Source: Crave Asia)
(Credit:
Spluch)
Fancy gadgets aren't the only products deserving of their own trade shows, you know. There are plenty of other innovations celebrated within their respective industries--even buses. That's right, like the kind you pay tokens to ride.
As every schoolboy knows, the Busworld Asia 2007 convention was held in Shanghai this year, though you may not have been aware of its main attraction: a bus that measures a full 82 feet long. This serpentine form of public surface transportation, which can hold 300 passengers, will be used mostly for the commute between Beijing and Hangzhou, according to Spluch. It had better be a well-traveled line to recoup the cost of this monster, which is estimated at up to $258,000--three or four times more than the standard bus in China.
(Credit:
Red Ferret)
It's apparently not enough for Swarovski to ruin good taste. According to Red Ferret, it wants to play a part in trashing vinyl records as well.
Swarovski has taken its crystal-making juggernaut to this self-running record player, aptly named the "Vinyl Killer," complete with its own needle, speaker and amplifier. But even though its VW bus design would seem perfect for playing your old LPs, we wouldn't recommend using it on your Stones collection. (Get it? Stones?)
Besides, if you're willing to shell out $487 for this thing, you might want to keep it on display somewhere. Or, in our opinion, hidden away in the closet.
(Credit:
Corky Coker )
We assumed this was a Photoshop job when we first saw it on Spluch, but now we're not so sure. This "Bus Ball," credited to an artist and musician named Billy Gibbons, apparently morphs the remains of classic VW bus into a spherical objet d'art. We assume it's non-functional, though we suppose it can roll around on its own somehow. But then you'd probably have to repaint it after every outing.
If you've ever ridden regularly on San Francisco's Muni system, you'd probably be willing to take your chances on a driverless bus. Safety is a relative thing.
(Credit:
BornRich)
A prototype of one such vehicle will soon be on display at the Science Museum in London, where it could be tested in the next few years. The bus, designed jointly by Capoco Design and the Royal College of Art, is an electric drive and bio-fuel hybrid that would be guided by satellite navigation, intelligent cruise control and magnets embedded in city streets, according to BornRich.
Best of all, passengers can use their cell phones to call for a ride from their location. Perhaps the "Taxi Hailer" was an idea whose time will never come.
(Credit:
Pink Tentacle)
The Japanese are giving an entirely new meaning to the term "hybrid vehicle" with a combination train-bus.
Interestingly, the Hokkaido Railway Company has dubbed it the "DMV" for "dual-mode vehicle." (We hope that the abbreviation won't be as despised as the other DMV that we know all too well.)
The 28-passenger train-bus "looks like a minibus and runs both on conventional railway tracks and paved roads was tested on the Gakunan railway in Fuji city (Shizuoka prefecture) on the night of November 24," according to Tokyo-based Pink Tentacle. "The vehicle stopped at a railroad crossing, retracted the railroad wheels and switched to street mode in a mere 10 seconds."
If Hollywood ever wants to portray an aging 007, this could replace the Aston Martin--perhaps with a seniors' pass replacing the license to kill.
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