Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

This is where we call out by names the actions and companies that seem odd, out of touch or just plain straight up smokin’ crack.  Technology is an odd realm where PR speak doesn’t hold a lot of water if the 1s and 0s don’t line up.  This week sees posturing, positioning and flat out insanity.  Here is what caught my eye this week:

Click “more” to see a rant on:

• The new Joost.
• No BlackBerry for you.
• Apple’s newest MacBooks.
• The entire European Union.

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Aside from giving us sleek-looking portable data storage devices, LaCie and tech gadget designer Neil Poulton have also given as the FireWire speakers during the early part of the year. The two are following this up with yet another speaker product which we would simply call as the LaCie USB Speakers.

This Poulton-designed USB speakers offers a frequency response rate of 90Hx-20kHz and supports 16-bit/48KHz signal. It derives power from its USB connection and can output a minimum of 1W per channel. The previous FireWire speakers are capable of giving out 4W per channel and supports a signal of up to 24-bit/96kHz. This explains why the new USB Speaker costs only $60, while the FireWire speakers will set you back $100.

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You remember Drobo, right? The “robot” that stores your data, from Data Robotics.  Well, its been over a year since its launch, and the makers of Drobo have decided to give their product a little update.  Today, the “Drobo 2” has been announced, featuring not one, but two Firewire 800 ports. The device also added a more powerful processor to support the Firewire ports and a quieter case fan. Data Robotics claims that the Firewire ports allow for two times the data transfer speeds, blowing other competitors out of the water. However, the Drobo still lacks any sort of Ethernet/Wi-Fi connectivity.

You can still get the Drobo for the same $500 price tag, and $900 gives you two 1TB drives; $1,300 gives you four 1TB drives.  If you don’t care for Firewire, the original Drobo is selling (until stock runs out) for $350 or $750, and $1,075 — empty or bundled with either two 1TB or four 1TB drives, respectively.

Via [CrunchGear]

• Apps concept catching on everywhere: Drobo latest to offer them
• DataTraveler 100 4GB Flash Drive on sale at Newegg for $7.99
• More storage for the Eee PC