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Information security, or lack of, may have been actor Edison Chen's downfall when his bedroom antics hit the Internet circuit. But for companies dealing in data security tools, it's been one satisfying ride (pun intended) since it's exposed a vulnerable issue that strikes fear into the hearts of PC users, not to mention Edison's lower extremities.

In the worst-case scenario, failure to secure your personal or critical information on your computer can result in serious fallout not only for yourself, but involved parties, as we've witnessed in a very public way. While companies know it'… Read more

One problem almost all laptop users have experienced is not having the "latest version." I'm not talking about a particular piece of software, a driver update, or even the laptop itself. I'm talking about that moment when you're on the road or at a conference and you smack yourself in the head because you forgot to get the "latest version" of that important file off your desktop PC. From there, it's a scramble to call your co-worker, roommate, or significant other to find a way to get the latest version to you.… Read more

CES is all about what's cool right now, up to the latest nanosecond. One of the Sandbox Summit panelists summed up the pace of development when she said that her wired kids thought that the Amazon Kindle was old news.

I have to say that one of the CES displays that impressed me the most was from a classic American company that had to be one of the oldest manufacturers at the show: Kodak. Think about the transition they've had to pull off, from film to digital photography, upending their previous innovations and business. A few years ago the outlook for the company's future was incredibly pessimistic.

Kodak had a massive booth at CES and after all was said and done, I realized that they had presented some of the best home-office photo printers, digital photo frames, and scrapbooking software that I'd seen at the show. (Keep in mind that seeing everything at CES is like trying to eat at every restaurant in Manhattan in two days; no one person can possibly scour more than a fraction of the total offerings.) Hewlett-Packard demonstrated a wide variety of equipment that would definitely do a good job, but Kodak seemed to have developed the whole package deal, understanding their target audience as photographers and memory makers rather than just people who print photos.… Read more

Kodak just announced a slew of new digital imaging products at CES, including several cameras and an all-in-one photo printer scheduled to ship in the first half of this year.

The company caps off its CES announcements with the ESP 3 All-in-One Printer. This latest multipurpose consumer photo printer functions as a document printer, a photo printer, and a flatbed scanner. Kodak claims the ESP 3 can print 29 color documents in a minute, or produce a 4 x 6 borderless photo in as little as 30 seconds. A memory card slot lets the ESP 3 print photos directly from … Read more

Recently Power Downloader was sifting through his daily e-mails when he came across a message from Francois Foto, his photographer friend from France. In the e-mail, Francois asked about Thanksgiving and what else Power had planned for the holidays, but at the end of his message he had a special request for PD. Francois was attempting to build a Web site of his photos so people could see his work, but wondered if there was a way to convert all of his larger images into uniform thumbnails. His initial searches for thumbnail products turned up so many results that Francois … Read more

If people are wondering whether the UMPC concept will catch on, the growing list of manufacturers pumping out ultra-mobile devices should silence the critics. Packard Bell is the latest to produce a 7-inch portable--christened the EasyNote XS20.

Available at the upcoming SITEX show in Singapore, it will have to contend with the ASUS Eee PC, which will be making a maiden appearance at the same time. At S$1,298 (US$853.95) it is twice as costly as its ASUS rival, so the EasyNote XS20 will have to rely on its impressive hardware to make a good showing.

The … Read more

Back in July we brought you news of some Packard Bell laptops, the star of which was the 15.4-inch EasyNote MB. Four months later, we got one of our own to play with.

It's one of the most contentious laptops we've ever seen. Some of us like it; some of us would rather scratch our own eyes out with a rake than go anywhere near it.

The problem is it's white, and only Macs are allowed to be white. Anything else is labeled as a copycat at best. We don't agree, but the fact that … Read more

We never expected to see the day when Kodak branched out into beads and handbags, especially for a target market of females 14 and up. But yesterday, during its launch for its new M-series EasyShare cameras, was that day.

Like Nokia, which began offering beaded wrist straps for its 6085 fashion phone, Kodak will soon begin selling fashion wrist and neckstraps for its cameras (though we suspect they'll fit any point-and-shoot). There are a variety of bead shapes and colors for the straps, including red, pink, silver and black, all priced around $18.

The bags range in size from … Read more

Toshiba has announced new ranges of hard drives that it believes are larger or cleverer than anything that came before them.

First up is EasyGuard, which is all about hoarding and protecting your data. The first product in the range is an external 2.5-inch laptop hard drive with a massive 320GB capacity and a 'freefall' sensor that protects the read/write heads in the event of shocks or drops.

The second EasyGuard product is a "ruggedized" (but not freefall-enabled) external hard drive with a fingerprint reader (pictured). The idea is that this'll keep your data secure, … Read more