TechWatch

Talk About Drive
External drives make a lot of sense: You can back up entire configurations, save entire databases that normally could be found on server-class machines, and carry your software with you to the job at hand. That's why both Maxtor and Seagate have come out with huge external hard drives in the past several months. An added plus is that both of these units work on either Macs or Windows PCs, and have both FireWire and USB 2.0 ports. They also come with backup software that can be activated with a button on their front panels--in the case of Maxtor, it is Dantz's Retrospect, while Seagate bundles CMS Peripherals' BounceBack Plus. The software is still somewhat touchy and quirky, but the disks are rock-solid and come with so much storage that it's hard to imagine maxing out these drives. I prefer the FireWire connection over USB for performance and simplicity. In my tests, the Mac OS versions and Windows XP machines were able to bring up the drives without the need to install any drivers. Older versions of Windows will require some fussing around, and you may have to reformat the drives to be recognizable. Maxtor has a wider product line, which is not surprising because it was first to market drives of this size and shape.

Maxtor One Touch FireWire and USB, www.maxtor.com\ Price: Comes in FireWire-only, USB-only and the combined interfaces with varying capacities of 40 GB to 300 GB. The largest combo drives carry a price tag of $400.

Seagate External Hard Drive, www.seagate.com Price: Comes in 160-GB and 200-GB models for $269 and $299

Cutting The Cord
The problem with USB and FireWire connectors is that you really need a total of eight to 10 different cables to handle all the various permutations of connector types that are available. The number of digital cameras, printers and PDAs that have differing connectors is nothing short of annoying. So you have two choices: You can carry around all that hardware and hope you have everything covered, or you can buy just two cables from GoldX, which has come up with a nice solution that is elegant, relatively inexpensive and compact all at once. The notion is detachable tips that can be swapped out so that you have the right kinds of cable when you assemble everything together. GoldX offers two different models, one for USB and one for FireWire. In keeping with the company's name, it also gold-plates its connectors and has shielding added as well. It is a great idea and something that I now carry around the lab in my bag of tricks for those times when I need to hook something up but don't have the exact configuration of connectors around. The cables come in lengths from 3 feet to 15 feet. I would recommend the six-footers to start.

QuickConnect cables, www.goldxproducts.com\ Price: $29.99 (USB 2.0 and FireWire, 6 ft.)

Acer revs up Notebook line
Acer has two new laptops out, the Aspire 2000 and the Ferrari 3000. Both are, perhaps, the most beautiful things to hit the world of Windows since Sony launched its Vaio line so long ago. The Aspire is huge and not something for carting through airports: At a bit under 7 pounds, it is a bear to lug around. But you can play music CDs on it without having to boot up (or even open its lid), which is good because the lid contains a huge 15.4-inch TFT screen that is large enough to watch your favorite movies on. The Ferrari has a cherry-red cover that mirrors the best paint job on the actual car and is built on top of the AMD chipset. Both units come with DVD-authoring software and other multimedia goodies, including built-in SD and SmartMedia card readers, and built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi adapters, fairly nice speakers and a FireWire port for connecting to digital cameras. The only real trouble with both units is they run Windows XP: I still think the collection of Mac software (iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto) is a better deal and much easier to use than the motley crew that comes with XP. And while Acer has done some nice things with its Arcade software to make it easier to view movies and photos, it still has a clunky feel to it that is years behind the polish and shine of the Mac apps. So unless you are buying your PC to match your outfits, automobiles or other accessories, neither of these units are very inspirational once you get under the hood.

Acer America, www.acer.com Price: Aspire 2000, $1,999; Ferrari 3000, $1,899

Mapping the world
If you have a predilection for "Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego?" or if your business requires you to locate places quickly on a map, then an investment in Microsoft's MapPoint 2004 is just the ticket. It isn't just a bunch of pretty pictures, but includes plenty of demographic data and analysis tools, as well as my favorite,the ability to plot a route %E0 la the Auto Club between two points and highlight it on the map. There are currently maps for North America and Europe. The software works with GPS devices in close to real-time, so you can check where you are as you move about the landscape. You can map all sorts of data by state and even by census tract.

Microsoft Map Point, www.microsoft.com/mappoint Price: $200

Remote Help Desk
When a client calls your help desk for support, it is nice to be able to connect to the person's machine remotely without having to put people on planes or otherwise disrupt their workdays. ExpertCity has taken its GoToMyPC solution a step further and made it more of an enterprise-class product. A support technician can connect quickly to a user in distress by having him launch a Web browser and quickly download a small client piece of software. The product, called GoToAssist, can synchronize screens and mouse movements across the Internet, transfer files and open text-chat windows,and moreover do it quickly and without a lot of software to download and configure. This certainly makes great sense, and the company has a great VAR program, too.

GoToAssist v 5.0, www.expertcity.com Price: Varies per seat