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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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LaCie has upgraded its most popular product - the all-terrain Rugged Hard Disk with some 500GB of storage goodness. If you will recall, this external hard drive was recently upgraded to 320GB, but it seems LaCie will not stop upgrading its capacity until they hopefully pack in one terabyte or more.

But for now, you will have to be satisfied with 500GB of storage. If you’re not so much into photography and music, 500GB is already a lot, and possibly more than you would need. With 500GB you can store around 710 movies, 135,000 songs or 550,000 photos. And with the hard disk’s scratch-resistant aluminum shell as well as its shock resistant rubber bumper, you are assured that your data files are secured from everyday bumps, bruises and hard knocks. This ruggedized data storage package is available with USB 2.0, Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 versions and was designed to interface smoothly with any computer.

The 500GB LaCie Rugged Hard Disk is now available and retails for $299.

Read [LaCie]

This new terabyte hard disk from LaCie will connect to your PC or Mac using USB 2.0, sorry no Firewire, and works as a “1-click” backup solution for all you back-up obsessed computer users out there. From the outside, you can see that it has a very minimalist design, and the only prominent parts are the USB port and the power button. I think it’s the sexiest thing to happen to external drives since their Porsche lineup or the WD Passports. There are other variants of this model hard disk as well, offering lower storage capacities, and the complete list can be found on LaCie’s web site. Currently there is not any expected ship date or pricing information.

Product [LaCie] Via [Gizmodo]

LaCie has announced their line-up of products to debut at MacWorld 2007 including a few hard-drives, one set of FireWire speakers and a Blu-ray drive.

The new products - and their major features - include:

• LaCie d2 Blu-ray Drive: an external Blu-ray drive equipped with USB/FireWire interfaces. Pre-order price is $1149.


• LaCie Quadra Hard Drive: includes quadruple interfaces (USB/FW400/FW800/eSATA) and a shortcut button to launch applications or backup at one touch. The 500GB is available for $299.


• LaCie d2 SAFE Hard Drive: a biometric access hard drive with triple interface (FW800/400/USB2) and triple security levels including a biometric sensor, 128-bit AES data encryption and chain lock port. The 500GB is available for $299.


• LaCie Ethernet Disk mini & Ethernet Big Disk: network storage drives allowing simple home network setup and access through FTP, HTTP, wired or wireless connections. These are available for $199 (250GB), $249 (320GB), $299 (500GB), $349 (640GB) and $499 (1TB).


• LaCie Ethernet Disk RAID: RAID 5 network storage, equipped with four hot-swappable SATA drives, 2 Gigabit LAN ports and 2 USB 2.0 ports.


• LaCie FireWire Speakers: a set of FireWire bus-powered speakers. These are available for $79.

The hard-drives are priced similarly for their 500GB models, you just have to choose which features you want and select a drive accordingly. I think the Blu-ray drive will be a bit too expensive for most people and won’t be a difference maker for LaCie this year. The regular hard-drives, however, will be great additions.

Read [BusinessWire] Read [MacNN] Site [LaCie]

LightScribe has decided to brighten their and your day by adding some color. Verbatim’s LightScribe CDs are now available in red, orange, yellow, blue and green.

The development of LightScribe’s color-background CDs was possible through LightScribe’s Media Version 1.2 coating technology. With this next-generation LightScribe coating technology, the same precise, silkscreen-quality black text and graphics labels available on gold-background discs can be burned onto the label-side of LightScribe-enabled CDs in stunning, jewel-toned background colors.

The color-background CDs are offered by many brands, including LaCie, Philips, PRIMEON and Verbatim and are now available in stores.

Read [LightScribe] Via [ Chip Chick]