OWC has added a 500 GB model to their Mercury On-The-Go series of portable hard drives. This new hard drive sports quite a number of features that any PC user on the go will definitely appreciate. To find out what this product has to offer you, head on over to the full article for more information.

Toshiba recently unveiled two new additions to the ever-growing Portage R500 sub-notebook family, the R500-12P and the R500-12Q. The latest laptops boast of packing 128 GB of solid-state storage. Find out more on these in the full article.

  

The Apple Summer Mac product conference is already rolling hot with Steve Jobs manning the show. As expected, his keynote address is filled with surprising unveiling of new Apple projects and the "everybody saw this coming" types. Tab this one under the second category - as predicted and whispered around various boards the past few weeks, Apple is giving us brand new iMacs.

Sporting a retroish look, the sleek new iMacs are made of aluminum and glass. It comes in 20- and 24-inched versions, each equipped with the usual but impressive specs such as up to  2.4GHz Core 2 Extreme processor, up to 4GB of memory, ATI Radeon HD graphics card, up to 1TB of hard drive storage. 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.0 built-in. There's also the usual compliment of ports like USB 2.0, Firewire 400/800, a slot loading SuperDrive, iSight camera etc.

What's also worth noting is that the oft-rumored new keyboard for the iMacs turns out to be true, with Steve Jobs himself confirming it. Boasting of large spacing and flat keys, Apple seems to be aiming to give the iMac users the laptop feel while typing. iMac purists seem to be a bit skeptic with the move, but let's all wait and see what happens. The 20-inch iMac goes for US$ 1,199 each (add three hundred bucks more for a processor and graphics enhancements), while the 24-inch monster demands US$ 1,799 per unit.

USB is everywhere. Those tried and tested cables connect anything from iPods and Keyboards, to Coffee Hotplates and Lava Lamps. Wires, wires, and wires everywhere. By the end of this year though, people could come up to help you rid that clutter of wires weaving around your desktop.

The WiMedia Alliance is planing to make the technology known as "ultrawideband," or UWB, work for a wide variety of consumer electronics devices from PCs and printers to external hard drives and MP3 players.

Basically, the USB Implementers Forum, the 1394 Trade Association and the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) have chosen the WiMedia Alliance's version of UWB technology as the foundation for their next networking technology.

UWB technology can deliver data rates at up to 480 megabits per second at around 3 meters, with speeds dropping off as the range grows to a limit of about 10 meters. Real-world speeds will probably be a little slower, but this is as fast as the wired version of USB 2.0 and much faster than current Wi-Fi networks are capable of transmitting data.

Okay, so back then there was a "paperless office" movement, now it's "wireless office." Yeah, we know, it's the march of the machines. One of the selling points of USB though is that it can "power" the many devices that it also serves as a data connection medium too. How will they do that wireless? When they figure that out, they better make that work with the PS3 controller's USB connector... or something.

Samsung updates once again its newly release X830 Music Phone. The updates, though minimal, open unit for inquiry. X830 comes in bight orange now. It will be remembered that the original unit has black body. Despite its funky design and features, X830 might be lacking in attitude that's why Samsung is giving it one now. The move can also be construed as an attempt to reach a more diverse market.

Also, the unit is 3.5 grams lighter now at 74gms. The Korean version boasts of 1GB internal memory, but the units the rest of the globe will be getting is reduced to just 82MB of internal memory.

Aside from the above mentioned, no more other features were removed or added. Existing ones include bluetooth, USB 2.0, 1.3 Megapixel camera and a built-in music player.

NEC seems to be willing to stick it out to the competition as they have just released their new set Turion 64 X2 laptop goodies, which will be part of their LaVie line of laptops. To go right down to the nitty-gritty of these machines, they are equipped with 15.4-inch 1,280 x 800 displays, ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 integrated graphics, and dual-layer DVD burning across the board.

Of course there's also the usual Firewire, four USB 2.0 ports, a PC card slot, multi-card reader, gigabit Ethernet and 802.11a/b/g WiFi in NEC's latest producrs. They will come in two choices, if you have some dough to spare, you could get the LaVie L line which will cost you ¥210,000 or roughly $1,819 USD. It will have 100GB HDD, 768MB of RAM (2GB max) and WMCE '05, powered by an AirTV external TV tuner.

Too expensive? Then maybe you oughta consider the entry level LaVie G type L option, a build-type order affair that will cost you ¥125,000 or $1,082. These babies will be available in Japan starting August 11, no word on availability and sale date elsewhere.

If you think these features sounds good and the price tag ain't that high, then prepare for the downside of these contraptions. If you're the type who travels with your laptop, you might get a little disappointed with the Lavie laptops because their battery life willl only cover you for roughly 2 hours -- and for an almost 7-pound laptop, that might be quite a turnoff for you. But then again, you will be the best judge of that.

Perhaps a 17-inch widescreen laptop is nothing special nowadays, but a 17-inch widescreen laptop that goes for less than $1,100 bucks is.

For just over $1,000 ($1,036 to be exact), you could be the proud and happy owner of the Sotec WinBook DN8000. This contraption brought by the said Japanese company, packs a heavy punch. Inside it is an Intel Celeron M 420 (1.60-GHz) or a 2.16-GHz Core Duo T2600 (optional) CPU, 512 MB of RAM, and 40 GB HDD.

This laptop also has four built-in speakers, a 17-inch WXGA+ display, and a DVD Super Multi Drive. Aside from that, you'll also find four USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, and a 3-in-1 memory card reader. This thingamajig measures 394 x 287 x 39mm and weighs 8.2-pounds which is not exactly lightweight. It will start to be available in Japan this coming July 14, whereas it's availability outside the Land of the Rising Sun is yet to be divulged.

Sony Ericsson has unveiled the V630 for Vodafone customers. Styled in black and orange, the V630 sports a 1.9-inch 262k color TFT  display with a resolution of 176x220 pixels.

The V630 features full 3G support for that fast data transfer, comes with a 2-megapixel camera (sans autofocus), a Memory Stick Micro (M2) card slot, Bluetooth, and USB 2.0 support. It also has a Walkman navigation D-pad, which turns into a music navigation combo during playback.

The Vodafone-branded version of Sony Ericsson's K610 handset is additionally designed to make use of all existing Vodafone 3G services, which include video calls with VGA camera and streaming Mobile TV, as well as the the Radio DJ Service. With the V630, users can also enjoy full HTML browsing and blog reading with its built-in RSS feeds reader.

The phone is expected to hit shops this June.

Tokyo-based electronics and engineering conglomerate, Toshiba, does not want to be left behind in the laptop department. The company recently came up with a new notebook - the Satellite K15 Notebook. The newest Toshiba baby on the block boasts of a fast Intel Core Duo T2500 CPU (2.5 GHZ) and 512 Mb of memory, which basically empowers the laptop to cope with your day-to-day demands.

The K15 is also blessed with a 1280 x 800 15.4-inch WXGA display, which makes it perfect for watching some movies or playing games while unwinding from a hard day's work or slacking off in the office (ha, ha)! It is also amped with a 40GB hard drive, CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive, three USB 2.0 ports, 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi, and Gigabit Ethernet. This contraption measures 368 x 268 x 29.8 - 36.9mm and weighs in at 6.6-pounds. As for its availability and price, Toshiba will release the K15 on June 22nd of this year, with a price tag of $2,168.