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Polaroid PoGo

Gordon Mah Ung — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:00:00 -0500

If you still get warm and fuzzy thinking about those James Garner and Mariette Hartley Polaroid commercials, it’s time to let go of the past. Traditional film is barely hanging on, and Polaroid has completely ceased production of instant film.

But Polaroid hasn’t abandoned its interest in prints. The company is trying to rekindle the instant-print picture industry with its new Polaroid PoGo portable printer. This 4.75”x2.75”x1” device is the first to use Zink Imaging’s Zero Ink paper. Instead of shooting dots of ink onto a piece of paper, the PoGo uses a thermal head to heat up tiny crystals embedded in each sheet of paper.

Sounds rad, eh? Find out the skinny after the jump.

Addonics Enclosure Gives You RAID on the Go

Paul Lilly — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:02:25 -0500

Power users who have dreamed of outfitting their portable backup solution in a RAID 0 array can now do so thanks to Addonics' new Portable Dual Drive RAID enclosure (AE25RDESU). Nervous Nellies are covered too, with RAID 1 providing a backup for your backup. The handheld device accepts up to two 2.5-inch SATA drives inside its "heat resistant aluminum" chassis, or pick up the optional SATA-CF hard disk adapter and install up to four CompactFlash cards. Other notable features include:

Easy installation and removal of hard drive
USB 2.0/1.1 and eSATA support
RAID configuration with DIP switch or GUI configuration
Supports RAID 0, RAID 1, JBOD, BIG (Concatenation), SAFE50, SAFE33, or GUI mod using built-in hardware RAID
Can be powered by USB port

For backup duties Addonics throws in DriveClone software and the device itself includes a backup button the company claims "can be configured to provide the convenience of one button backup of any critical files or folders."

Pricing has been set to $100 and can be purchased now.

MSI Launches New GX620 and GX720 Gaming Notebooks

Paul Lilly — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:41:51 -0500

Laptops built around Intel's Centrino 2 platform are on the verge of marching into the market place en masse, and MSI appears ready to go with a pair of new gaming notebooks. The top-tier motherboard maker has launched the GX620 (15.4" WSXGA+) and GX720 (17" WSXGA+) Centrino 2 notebooks with each one sporting Nvidia's GeForce 9600M GT graphics with 512MB GDDR3. Other features include:

Intel PM45 Chipset
Up to 4GB DDR2
2.0M Webcam
802.11 b/g/n
320GB SATA Hard Drive
Blu-ray DVD Player
HDMI port
Windows Vista Home Premium

Quick launch sensors above the keyboard will give gamers the ability to activate MSI's Turbo Drive Engine Technology, which "overclock the GX620/GX720, increasing the speed of the Intel Core 2 Duo processor by as much as 15 percent." Users can also utilize MSI's ECO Engine and alternate between 5 different operating modes -- Gaming, Movie, Presentation, Office, or Turbo Battery -- to optimize battery life.

No word yet on pricing or availability, but don't be surprised to see more paper Centrino 2 notebook launches in the coming days/weeks.

US Agents Can Now Legally Seize Your Laptops

Paul Lilly — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:52:18 -0500

Homeland Security is once again drawing criticism, this time over a newly disclosed policy that has apparently existed for some time. According to the Washington Post, U.S. agents have (and have had) the authority to seize and retain laptops indefinitely, which as resulted in some travelers reporting not getting them back. And not just laptops, but all kinds of electronic devices, like cell phones, music players, portable hard drives, and more.

While the policy isn't new, it's only now being stated publicly and the contents of the DHS document has civil rights activists and lawmakers up in arms. Not only does it appear that government officials have the power to seize electronic devices, but according to U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, customs agents are allowed to analyze the contents of laptops without any suspicion of wrongdoing.

"The policies that have been disclosed are truly alarming," Feingold wrote in a statement.

Do you agree?

Voodoo Envy Comes Dressed to Impress

Paul Lilly — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:45:16 -0500

Buyers who can't wait to unbox their swank Envy 133 notebook might find themselves taking pause for the occasion. And to ensure they do, Voodoo's Raul Sood plans to give the high-end laptop the white-glove treatment. Inside the box (which Sood likens to one you'd get from shopping at a Tiffany & Co.) the Envy will come wrapped in a microfiber polish sleeve stamped with the company's logo. Underneath, an assortment of accessories includes:

Voodoo Aura power connect with an additional removable cable (should the original fray over time)
HDMI to VGA Presentation Adapter
ESata optical drive with hideaway cable

Sood also includes a few more close-up shots of the carbon fiber Envy in his package-pimping blog, which show a pre-production engineering sample. Shipping Envys will trade the red logo for one in silver and chrome. You can order one now, and if HP Live Chat operator iCrzyMonkey isn't flinging poo, expect it to ship in August, bodacious box and all.

Hands-On Lab Test! We Scrutinze Polaroid's New Pogo Portable Printer

Gordon Mah Ung — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:50:03 -0500

I still own a vintage Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera but feeding it was expensive then and now nigh impossible thanks to the end of instant film. Polaroid’s POGO portable printer brings back some of the fun I had with the SX-70. This pocket printer is the first to use Zero Imaging’s Zero Ink paper that does away with ink in favor of billions of embedded crystals in the 2x3 sheets of paper.

Hook your PictBridge-enabled digital camera up to the POGO via a Type A USB cable and let the fun begin. Once the camera has finished chewing on the image, it will take about 30 seconds to print out. The POGO will print full bleed to the tiny pieces of paper and the adhesive back lets you stick ‘em anywhere. Fun, right?

Hit the jump for more impressions and a gallery of sticky photos.

Western Digital My Passport Elite

David Murphy — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:29:22 -0500

Here we go again: Western Digital has launched yet another line of portable USB hard drives. The four drives in the My Passport Elite series don’t vary by size, just color. You’re free to select a capacity of 250GB or 320GB in gunmetal gray, old-shoe brown, a soft blue finish, or a sandy red. And as far as we can tell, that’s one of the few differences between this line of devices and Western Digital’s “normal” My Passport Essential drives—the latter having 11 different colors and four different capacity points to choose from.

Click Read More for more.

Cowon iAudio 7 Digital Media Player

Michael Brown — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:19:11 -0500

Cowon makes some of the most interesting digital media players we’ve laid hands on. The iAudio 7 is no exception, although it won’t earn a place in our pantheon of favorites.

Click Read More for more.