Sandisk Ultra Backup USB Flash Drive From $54 for 8GB. For list of stores, go to www.vector-magnetics.com/dealers.html
LIKE filing taxes or paying bills on time, backing up digital files is something people know they should do, yet always put off doing.
Sandisk's solution: a USB flash drive that does the job for you. The Sandisk Ultra Backup USB Flash Drive comes with back-up software installed, so all you need to do is plug it into your computer, press a button, select the folders and files you want to backup and wait for the drive to do the job.
The drive also protects your data with a user password and hardware-based encryption.
It comes in sizes of 8GB, 16GB and 32GB.
Software Get creative
Photo: Adobe
Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design
Premium Student Edition $165, from Sapura Synergy Singapore (tel: 6413-6223)
ADOBE is giving higher-education students here a great offer on its Creative Suite 4 Design Premium Student Edition.
The suite contains full versions of many of Adobe's design software, including Photoshop CS4 Extended, Illustrator CS4, Dreamweaver CS4 and Acrobat 9 Pro, which can be used for creating print, Web, mobile and interactive content.
A valid student ID is required for purchase and activation of the software.
Graphics Card Power-efficient yet powerful
ATI Radeon HD 4770 From US$99 (S$146), go to game.amd.com for more information
THROUGH a state-of-the-art 40nm (nanometre) manufacturing process, this graphics card offers high performance and energy efficiency at the same time.
The 4770 is the latest addition to the ATI Radeon HD 4000 series which offers support for DirectX 10.1 games - meaning better visual quality than DirectX 10.0. It also makes use of the faster GDDR5 memory for better performance and supports ATI CrossFireX technology so gamers can add a second card in the same machine for insane gaming frame rates.
Notebooks Noted for entertainment
Photo: HP
HP Pavilion dv Series
Entertainment Notebook PCs From $1,299. For more information, go to www.hp.com/apac/homenotebooks
ENTERTAINMENT for those on the go seems to be the focus of computer makers these days and HP has launched the Pavilion dv Series for that purpose.
All notebooks in the series play Blu-ray videos from the hard drive or an external optical drive. The batteries can run for six to eight hours.
The mammoth dv7, the giant of the line with a 17.3-inch screen, also comes with a hybrid HDTV tuner and 1TB of hard disk space for all the media files you have.
The slim dv2, at just under 1 inch thick, comes with the AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 processor and ATI Mobility Radeon HD3410 graphics card, while the dv3 and dv7 come with Intel Dual Core or Core 2 Duo processors.
Netbook
Photo: Fujitsu
Fujitsu M2010 (above) Price unavailable, in stores in the middle of the month
FUJITSU has added another baby to the netbook family.
The Fujitsu M2010 weighs in at slightly over 1kg and measures 25.8cm by 18.9cm.
The laptop has a 10.1-inch WSVGA screen which comes with anti-glare technology so you can see what is on the screen even in broad daylight.
Rounding out the specifications are an Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor, 160GB hard disk, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 1.3-megapixel Web camera and Bluetooth connectivity.
Digital Media Player Bridging PC and TV
Photo: Netgear
Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite EVA9150 Price not available. For list of stores, call Kaira Technologies (tel: 6746-1669) or Ingram Micro Asia (tel: 6488-5111)
THE EVA9150 is a digital media player that acts as a streaming and storage device and plays librarian too.
It streams digital content - anything from Blu-ray videos to digital photos, MP3s and Internet videos from sites such as YouTube - from your computer to your high-definition TV and sound system. There are also two USB ports, which mean you can also stream the content in your USB flash drives, digital cameras and music players.
Once hooked up, the device automatically finds and catalogues all the relevant files in your computers, so you need to search through only one library.
In case your computers run out of storage space, it also comes with its own 500GB hard drive.
For those with many computers at home, the player also works simultaneously with different operating systems, so you can stream content from Windows, Mac and Linux systems all at once.
Security Service Security for networks
HP ProCurve ProActive
Defense security portfolio For more information, go to www.procurve.com.sg
SECURE your network without additional appliances with the HP ProCurve Threat Management Services Module.
The new addition to the HP ProCurve ProActive Defense security portfolio provides firewall, virtual private network and intrusion prevention functions.
The best part is that you do not need a separate appliance as it can be physically integrated into the HP ProCurve 8212 and 5400 series switches.
Another new product, the HP ProCurve Manager Plus, helps improve network security by letting companies manage user access for both wired and wireless networks from a central location.
HDTVs
Adding LED to LCD
Photo: Samsung
Samsung B8000 (above), B7000 and B6000 LED TVs Prices from $4,999, from major electronics stores
BLACK images will be blacker and bright images brighter. That is the promise of Samsung's new range of LED back-lit full HDTVs.
This is possible because each LED, or light-emitting diode, can be controlled individually so each section of the TV can be brightened or darkened more accurately to produce better contrast.
Those in the B8000 range boast a frame rate of 200Hz, which means action images will be sharper.
By using LED technology, Samsung has also managed to make the TVs 40 per cent more energy-efficient and about 70 per cent slimmer than regular LCD screens. In fact, the TVs in the B6000 range measure just 29.9mm thick.
This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life.
