30 Days of Innovation

LAS VEGAS--I reviewed the Lacie FastKey a month ago and thought it was as compact as a portable drive could be. I was proven wrong today.

Verbatim announced at CES 2011 its own version of a portable drive that's based on a solid-state drive. It's called the Verbatim USB 3.0 External SSD. It is even smaller than the FastKey and offers up to 128GB of storage (as opposed to 120GB that the  FastKey has).

Verbatim says this new ultra-slim portable drive supports transfer rates of up to 190MB/sec when used with the USB 3.0 … Read more

LAS VEGAS--A year ago, Facevision introduced the first Skype-certified HD Webcam, the FV TouchCam N1, that was capable of streaming high-definition video over the Internet, turning video chat into a much better experience. It was one of a few HD Webcams at the time.

For this reason, the FV TouchCam N1 was rather expensive, costing around $120 when first released (it now has a street price of about $100).

Today, the company announced and demonstrated at CES 2011 a new version of the Webcam that offers the same capability but at a significantly lower cost, the TouchCam V1 720p HD … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Eight months after releasing its first USB 3.0 external hard drive, the MiniStation Cobalt, which was also one of the first on the market, Buffalo showed off today at CES 2011 a comprehensive family of external storage solutions based on the high-speed USB 3.0 connectivity.

USB 3.0 is the next generation of USB connectivity that's slated to replace, and is backward-compatible, with USB 2.0. USB 3.0 has a ceiling speed of 5Gbps, which is about 10 times the speed of of USB 2.0, which caps at 480Mbps. It's likely that most … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Ever wonder where your data is actually stored when you use a "cloud" storage service? Well, you now have a chance to learn about that in a close-up and personal way by hosting your own cloud at home with Buffalo's new NAS server.

The company announced today its brand-new CloudStor personal storage solution. In a nutshell, this is a network attached storage (NAS) server that's powered by Pogoplug.

Pogoplug itself is a successful implementation of Marvell's Plug Computing initiative that transforms a personal computer into a tiny form factor best suited for specific applications … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Soon you'll be able to make your BlackArmor NAS server even tougher.

Seagate today showed off at CES 2011 a new storage package that the company says offers the ultimate in data security. It combines the flagship BlackArmor 440 NAS server, which offers RAID 5 and up to 12GB of storage space, with an IoSafe SoloPro disaster-proof external hard drive, which is used as a backup drive for the BlackArmor server.

The external hard drive is branded with the Seagate logo and called a fireproof/waterproof BlackArmor external hard drive. This is similar to how the company has … Read more

LAS VEGAS--How often does a journalist fire a real gun in the line of duty? Let me tell you, not often. But that's just what I did today. And no, I wasn't taking an anger management class.

It was just another demo by IoSafe, maker of disaster-proof storage solutions like the IoSafe SoloPro. These are extreme types of devices and, it seems, their maker believes they deserve some over-the-top demonstrations.

For that reason, it's now somewhat of a tradition that IoSafe stages grandiose product demos during CES. The company did a crazy fire and water demo during CES 2009 for the IoSafe Solo and an even crazier one during CES 2010, which included a 35,000-pound excavator, for the Solo SSD.

This year, the demo of the IoSafe Rugged Portable, while smaller in scale, was much louder, literally. It involved firing live rounds to prove just how rugged the Rugged Portable is.

According to Robb Moore, CEO of IoSafe, the Rugged Portable isn't designed to be bulletproof but just to withstand a significant amount of impact. "There are types of bullets that can go through any electronic devices we make," he says. "I believe, however, the Rugged Portable can survive multiple rounds of shotgun. Still, I keep my fingers crossed."… Read more

LAS VEGAS--Owners of Seagate's GoFlex TV: I have some exciting news.

Seagate announced today new firmware for the popular network media player to add support for Pandora and a remote control app for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

While the addition of Pandora is great news for music fans, I personally loved the remote control app after briefly playing with it .

Once loaded, the app turns the iPhone's screen into buttons similar to those of the GoFlex TV's original remote control and you can use the phone to control the player via Wi-Fi.

However, unlike the original remote, … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Exactly a year ago, Netgear debuted its first Intel Wireless Display-based display device, the Push2TV, which enables consumers to stream whatever is being viewed on a laptop to the TV without the need for cables or wires, via a click of a mouse.

Today the company announced the second generation of the product, the Push2TV HD TV adapter (model PTV2000), which now offers full-HD 1080p video resolution and other improvements, including:

30fps video: Image quality is now improved with full motion video.

Dual-band wireless connectivity: Supports multiple wireless bands to minimize wireless interference.

Extend mode: Users now can browse … Read more

LAS VEGAS -- Advanced users need not apply but Clickfree's backup solutions, such as the Clickfree C2N could be lifesavers for many home/novice users, when it comes to backing up important data. By far, Clickfree has been offering the most easy-to-use backup solutions on the market.

And yet, it gets even easier as the company announced at CES 2011 a new solution called Clickfree Wireless. This new backup drive shares the same principle as the Clickfree C2N: once setup it works autonomously without requiring users' interaction. The difference is, it now works wirelessly, without even being connected to … Read more