Tech Watch: Notebook Drive Cloning; Skype; Projectors

The Drive For Simplification

The Travelstar Notebook PC Upgrade Kit from Hitachi makes upgrading storage on a portable PC so simple it's being targeted at consumers. Yet VARs will also appreciate its simplicity, given that many SMB customers have better things to do than upgrade their notebook drives. The kit has software that elegantly and simply lets a user clone an original drive onto a new one via an enclosure that connects to the system by way of USB, but it still requires playing with a system's BIOS and disassembling a notebook, which many are loath to do. By installing the old drive in the USB-based enclosure, the customer can use it as a backup device. The 2.5-inch, 5,400-rpm drives are available in 40-, 60-, 80- and 100-GB configurations, available through both enterprise and OEM distributors.

Hitachi Travelstar Notebook PC Upgrade Kit, www.hitachigst.com Price: $139 to $219, depending on capacity

Could Skype Change Everything?

Skype has the potential to be the next AOL Instant Messenger client. Like AIM, Skype is free, offering telephony capability at no cost to other users of the service and for a fee to any phone number in the world. A look at the first major upgrade to the software shows Skype 2.0 to be very compelling. It allows for additional personalization and supports a Microsoft Outlook toolbar interface for one-click calling and video support. Among Skype's partners are Logitech, BenQ, Motorola, Plantronics and Siemens. An API is available to others that want to develop for the Skype platform. While the company is now owned by eBay, the online auctioneer is running it as a subsidiary and has said it intends to keep the founders' business model intact.

Skype 2.0, www.skype.com Price: Free

Projectors To Go

When it comes to projectors, nothing is more important to customers than brightness and portability. The Presentation Products division of Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America focuses on both with its latest 5.3-pound projectors. The XD205U and SD205U are intended for business users and classrooms, respectively. Based on Texas Instruments' Digital Light Processing technology, the projectors shine at 2,000 lumens and are as portable as any notebook computer. The XD205U provides XGA resolution, while the SD205U uses SVGA resolution. Both have contrast ratios of 2,000-to-1.

Mitsubishi XD205U and SD205U Projectors, www.mitsubishipresentations.com/projectors.asp Price: $1,995 and $1,295, respectively