If you have lots of photos, videos or music on your computer and want an easy storage solution to make those files portable, Seagate Technologies might have the ideal device. The hard disk drive maker has unveiled its Pocket Hard Drive series. Each Pocket Hard Drive is made up of a hard disk drive inside a circular shell with a retractable USB cable that is used to connect to a computer. Once connected, it acts as another hard disk drive on your PC, allowing you to move files to and from your computer. The selling point is that the Pocket Hard Drives come in 5GB and 6GB models, allowing you to store more than 1,000 high-resolution images, close to 100 hours of music and five hours of digital video, all in a compact package that is 7.5cm in diameter and less than 2.5cm thick. Seagate has also incorporated features that make the Pocket Hard Drive movement-friendly, so to speak. You can password-protect your files if you are using Windows (no Mac support for this feature). There's also built-in shock absorption in the external shell to reduce the risk of data loss due minor drops and knocks. With so many storage options on the market, it can be hard to justify the need for a Pocket Hard Drive. After all, there are CompactFlash cards with storage of up to 4GB and high-capacity, Flash-based memory sticks. But with a price tag that starts at $860, the Pocket Hard Drive offers more storage for money than most other options. In addition, the circular design makes it more portable than similar external hard disk drives on the market, which are typically rectangular, with sharp edges. If you're looking for an easy-to-use, no-nonsense external storage device with lots of capacity, the Pocket Hard Drive is definitely worth a look. PROS: high memory capacity; built-in USB; password protection for Windows users; shock absorption CONS: stores data, but doesn't do anything else
