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Adata DashDrive Elite 500GB HE720 Review

Posted 04/29/2013 at 7:04am | by Josh Norem

The Adata drive is one of the sexiest USB drives we have ever tested, and is certainly the thinnest USB drive too, at just 8.9mm thick. It might not sound like much in today’s world of super-thin everything, but this puppy is thin. In fact, our research indicates it is the thinnest USB drive currently available.

If this roundup were a beauty contest, the DashDrive would easily win.

If this roundup were a beauty contest, the DashDrive would easily win.

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Toshiba Canvio Plus 3.0 1.5TB Review

Posted 04/29/2013 at 6:54am | by Josh Norem

In this group, the Toshiba Canvio initially came across as the vanilla stepchild—nothing to get excited about, at least in this company, given its bland exterior and specs. We tested the 1.5TB version of the drive, which is the highest capacity offered by Toshiba. Surprisingly, it’s almost as thick as the 2TB WD drive despite its 500GB capacity deficit, so the lesson here is that if you’re going big on a USB drive, prepare to be toting around a Hot Pocket-size enclosure. The 1.5TB drive is only available in black, a decision we are just fine with since we don’t need nor want fancy colors on our USB storage. If you favor a splash of color attached to your USB port, you’ll have to get by with less capacity, as only the 500GB and 1TB models are available in red, blue, and gray (as well as black, natch). 

The Toshiba drive wins the contest of lamest names for devices and software, but is still the best drive here.

The Toshiba drive wins the contest of lamest names for devices and software, but is still the best drive here.

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Dropcam HD Review

Posted 10/03/2012 at 8:59am | by Gordon Mah Ung

It doesn’t get any easier than this

When we hear hype that something is the “easiest” thing in the world to set up, we usually put on our hip waders and prepare to slog through a waist-high pile of dung, because 19 times out of 20, it's usually a load of crap.

Well, believe us when we say that the Dropcam HD is the easiest Internet camera  we’ve ever set up. We mean it. To set up the Dropcam HD, you just plug the camera into your PC via USB. The setup files are stored in flash, which kicks up a configuration utility. This lets you create an account with Dropcam and connect the device to a Wi-Fi network. Once you’ve done that, you unplug the Dropcam HD, move it to the area you want to monitor, and plug it in via the included 2-amp wall wart. That’s it; you’re done and streaming 720p video to the Internet in about two minutes flat. The lens is a wide 107 degrees, which is enough to let you see most of a room. The video quality is good, and while certainly far better than QVGA surveillance cams, the compression is heavy enough that you won’t be picking out license plates with it.

The Dropcam can be removed from the unique mount, if needed.

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