TechWatch

Iomega Revs REV Drives

Fans of Iomega's REV drives will now get double the pleasure should they choose to upgrade to the company's latest offering. The new REV 70-GB Backup Drives provide a twofold increase in native capacity over the 35-GB drives. With compression, customers will get double the capacity--140 GB.

Iomega is releasing both client and server packages of the new drive, offering CA's ARCserve backup software for servers and EMC's Retrospect for PCs. The drives are available for internal installation on PCs or as external USB-based devices. Existing 35-GB cartridges will work in the newer drives, but the new 70-GB cartridges will not operate in the older REV drives.
Iomega REV 70-GB Backup Drive, Price: $600

Software Could Be a Lifesaver

Nothing can bring more relief to a user than having their PC restored from a data loss or a corrupted system. Startup company EAZ Solution has software that can perform granular rollbacks with minimal effort. EAZ-Fix can take a snapshot within a few seconds that contains all system information, including programs and settings, as well as data. The program can take up to 60,000 snapshots, while taking only one-tenth of 1 percent of disk space. Individuals can recover files from snapshots or restore an entire system by just rolling it back even if Windows is unable to load. The company says 90 percent of its sales go through channel partners.
EAZ Solution EAZ-Fix, Price: $50

Flash Card Makes Calls Too

Vonage has delivered the latest novelty in the VoIP world, but don't count on the device to lift the company's woeful stock price. The $40 V-Phone is a flash drive that can plug into any Windows-PC USB drive. The device automatically launches a softphone loaded with the user's phone number. It does provide a more secure way of using the Vonage service, especially on the road, but it's hard to see how this will be appealing. While the drive comes with 256 MB of flash storage, it would be nice to see one with at least 1 GB of capacity, perhaps making it potentially more suitable for some vertical applications.
Vonage V-Phone, Price: $40, plus $25 per month for unlimited calling service

IP Surveillance Cameras For Under a Grand

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IP surveillance cameras are now suitable for companies of all sizes. Toshiba's IK-WB15A Network Camera is a perfect example. It offers 1,280-x-960 resolution and up to 30 frames-per-second Motion-JPEG videostreaming. It comes with a 2.6x optical zoom, a Secure Digital card slot and two-way audio. The camera can be controlled remotely via any Web browser and can automatically switch from color to black-and-white for low-light environments. The camera has motion-detection capability, so it can pan and tilt on an object even if an observer in a remote area isn't actually there.
Toshiba IK-WB15A IP Surveillance Camera, Price: $600

Tape Autoloader Ups LTO Ante

Just as the cost of disk arrays continues to decline, so does that of tape autoloaders. Tandberg Data is the latest example of that. Its new LTO StorageLoader provides up to 800 GB natively or 1.6 TB compressed at a transfer speed of 32 Mbps. The autoloader is able to achieve that speed by utilizing the company's recently launched LTO-1 tape drive, and is designed to fit in a 1U rack. It also comes with a rackmount kit, SCSI cable, terminator and Ethernet cable. The configuration supports eight data cartridges in two removable magazines that hold four cartridges each.
Tandberg Data StorageLoader LTO-1, Price: $3,000

Make Way For ClearCube Blades

As PC blades continue to find their niche among certain customers, they also are becoming more robust. The latest crop from ClearCube Technology, the leading supplier of PC blades, is available with Intel's Pentium D dual-core processor, suitable for multitasking. The R1300 comes with dual Ethernet ports and a slot for an optional PCI-Express graphics card that can be used with up to four monitors when connected to the ClearCube Multi-Video eXpander, or MVX. ClearCube says the new blades will be compatible with Microsoft's Windows Vista, including the new graphical user interface, Aero.
ClearCube R1300, Price: Starts at $1,800