Year: 2010

LaCie (http://www.lacie.com) has debuted new USSB 3.0 hard drives: the LaCie Minimus and LaCie Rikiki USB 3.0. The former offers transfer speeds at 5Gb/second in a small Rikiki form factor. The latter is for for users who need terabytes of storage.

The Rikiki and Minimus hard drives are encased in brushed aluminum. It offers resilience from blunders, improved heat dissipation, and is fully recyclable. The drives come with LaCie’s Software Suite for setting up and backing up support for Macs or PCs. Macs don’t yet support USB 3.0 so the drives will run at USB 2.0 speeds.

Apple has released iOS 4.1 for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, as well as every iPod touch after the first generation model. (However, note that not all the features are compatible with every device.)

The update adds support for Game Center, HDR photo capture, HD video uploads and TV show rentals. It also fixes some bugs and glitches including a faulty proximity sensor that could cause accidental hangups while on a call, poor audio quality when using Bluetooth accessories, slow iPhone 3G performance, and Nike + iPod fixes.

Kobo, a global eReading service, has announced the Kobo Desktop Application, a free, downloadable application now available from http://www.kobobooks.com that enables users to read, build a digital library, and shop for eBooks directly from their computer or laptop. It’s Mac OS X and Windows compatible.

Apple earns yet another Readers’ Choice Award from “PC Magazine” (http://www.pcmag.com) in ranking laptops and portables. Apple had an overall score of 9.2 (out of 10), 9.3 for reliability, 8.6 for tech support, 8.1 for repairs, and a 9.3 score for those who would recommend the company’s products for others.