The LockDown has a touchscreen keypad and LCD screen to facilitate password entry. It uses AES 256-bit hardware encryption, and you can use it with any OS or USB-based device. Here’s Satechi’s setup video for the LockDown:

Turn on private browsing and head to Satechi’s website to order the LockDown. It sells for $99 (USD), which isn’t too bad considering it comes with a USB 3.0 cable, USB-to-DC cable and screwdriver for assembly. Note that the encryption will still protect the hard drive even if you take it out of LockDown, so you can make and swap out multiple encrypted hard drives. Just make sure you don’t lose the enclosure, or you’ll never access your data again.

The iHdd slim hard drive enclosure is compatible with 2.5″ hard drives of up to 5ooGB capacity. It’s made of plastic with “metal style sides.” I take it the sides have long hair and studded belts and bracelets.

You can order the iHdd slim hard drive enclosure at – say it with me! – Crazy Sale Shop for $20 (USD).

[via Fancy via OhGizmo! via Wired]

The 4TB hard drives will be part of Hitachi’s G-RAID and G-DRIVE lineup of external drives. Their perforated, all-aluminum cases look pretty nice. Matching the look of the Mac Pro tower, these drives are clearly targeted at Apple users. All models will come with Thunderbolt support, while PC users will have to be content with eSATA and USB 2.0 (sorry, no USB 3.0).

The drives will start shipping in October. Other hard drive makers will certainly release their own 4TB drives in the near future as well.

There are three face covers – the turquoise and orange Mohawk, the white and maroon Red Baron and the white, sand blasted Snowite. Unfortunately the picture above shows the covers exactly as they are, i.e. the names of the covers are actually printed on the covers themselves, an unnecessary embellishment in my opinion. Other parts of the case that can be customized are the bottom cover, which can be made of cherry, walnut or iron, and the grills and threads.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The hard drive inside is a 3.5″ 7200 rpm 1TB drive, with SATA 300, eSATA and USB 2.0 interfaces, with an option to upgrade to USB 3.0. So how much will this unique drive cost you? You can order a ByteSpotter from CONVAR’s website for €348 (appx. $487 USD). Yikes, I know. You can already buy a laptop at that price. Maybe CONVAR should consider releasing a version with only the see-through feature and sell it for much less.

[via Akihabara News]

The iodd 2501 doesn’t need an OS to run, which means you can actually boot and install from an ISO. It’s perfect for people who repair computers, but I’m sure anyone who owns a lot of optical media or ISO files can see how useful this drive enclosure is. You can store OS installation disks, games or ripped Blu-ray discs, all in one small device.

Like most drive enclosures, the iodd 2501 does not come with a hard drive, but that’s not a real problem since you can use any 2.5″ hard drive or SSD with it. It connects via USB or eSATA, has a write-protect switch, and draws power via USB. The iodd 2501 Portable Virtual ROM is available at Amazon for $70 (USD). Time to rip those discs!

[via Everything USB]

So how does one back up their precious data? There are many ways, but I think this PopDrive might be one of my favorites. This device holds a pair of laptop hard drives that are mirrored, which means that they both contain the exact same data. If something happens to one of the drives, you can simply replace it, and all of your information will still be intact.

There are ways to setup such a backup solution on your computer, or even on a small file server. However, for those that aren’t so tech-savvy, this might be the perfect simple solution. No word yet on pricing, but we should find out later in the week, during CES.

[via ChipChick]

If you’re done thinking about naked ladies, there’s more to read down here. It seems that the people at Playboy realize that you might not want to have a garage full of old magazines, and decided to give you a way to clear it out. Or better yet, if you never started collecting, you can  still get them all.

I’m talking, of course, about the new 250GB Playboy Hard Drive. This drive comes packed full with every issue released up until the December 2009 issue. What’s amazing is that 56 years of magazines only takes around 50GB. You’ll still be left with that other 200GB to do with what you please. The $300 price tag is a bit salty, but I’m guessing it would be far more expensive to try and round up a copy of all 650 issues. It’s actually quite the bargain once you think about the cover price of all those back issues.

Just don’t try convince your wife or girlfriend to buy it for you for Christmas. That rarely ever goes over well.

[via LikeCool]

As you can see, the HyperDrive is actually a computer too. It contains file management software, and has support for viewing and basic editing of JPEG and RAW images on its  3.2″ 320 x 240  LCD screen. It also has two memory card slots and can read a variety of memory cards, from Compact Flash to Sony’s Magic Gate cards. You can also connect the HyperDrive to other computers as a USB drive, making it useful even if you don’t have an iPad.

You can order the HyperDrive at Sanho’s website. The case alone costs $249 (USD). You can also order one with a hard drive, from 120GB ($299) to 750GB ($599). Even if you order one that has a pre-installed hard drive, you can still swap out the drive and even its battery.

[via Gear Patrol]

In order to achieve the third-person effect, they attached a Canon 5D Mark II DSLR camera to a bar behind their test vehicle. The feed from the camera was routed to a 15″ monitor in front of the steering wheel. All of the pickup’s windows were blacked out to prevent cheating. Also, fake Yakuza were there to beat up the drivers en route to the pickup. Why? Why the hell not?

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

So that was quite the fail, but I think the main problem was that the view made the drivers incorrectly delay their steering, plus the fact that steering an actual car takes more time than steering a virtual vehicle. Maybe they should try the top-down view next time, a la the first GTA.

[via Kotaku]

If you’re planning on buying either an external HDD or an external optical drive, you should seriously consider getting the Aegis instead. It comes with a power adapter though, and Apricorn doesn’t say if the optical drive or the ports are still usable even if the  Aegis isn’t plugged in to an outlet. You can pre-order the Aegis NetDock at Apricorn’s website. The NetDock itself costs $89 (USD), but you can also buy one with a 5400 RPM 500 GB hard drive pre-installed for $189. Not bad. If only the NetDock also had a 17″ LCD. And an additional gig of RAM. And a numeric keypad. And a decent video card.

[via Everything USB]

There’s more: [re]Drive’s packaging is made of either recycled or recyclable material. And that “naturally grown” bit? Hitachi – or SimpleTech – really means that they grow their own bamboo. That’s one less thing that they have to transport, which means less fossil fuels consumed, which means less air pollution.

And there’s a bit more, but I’m tired. Go read the rest of it if you want. But if you’re already sold on the [re]Drive, head on to Amazon and get one for $84 (USD). Let’s hope bamboo doesn’t become scarce because of these environment-friendly electronics companies and their bamboo-encased gadgets.

The deal includes a 5-year limited warranty; shipping is also free. Again you can avail of the promo at LogicBuy. As is the case with deals, stocks are limited so act quickly. $0.10 per gigabyte! Buy it now! Hesitation is for pussies! Kidding.

[via gear diary]