TEAC has introduced a new multifunction portable hard drive, although if by "multifunction" you're expecting TEAC to provide
many functions, you may be somewhat disappointed. The primary function here is, of course, storage, with 40GB, 80GB, and 120GB options available to suit daily data diet. The multitude of other functions begins and ends with how you get all that data onto the drive, with not only a regular USB 2.0 interface at your disposal, but a built-in memory card reader to accommodate all your standard memory card formats as well. The idea being to reduce the number of memory cards you need to carry around with you to one, which you can offload directly onto the TEAC drive whenever it gets stuffed. What it won't let you do is view the photos or listen to the music you've got stored on it directly from the drive, a la other
multi multifunction devices, but you can view the drive's status on its "large" LCD screen. It's not clear how much it'll cost yet, but TEAC says the the 40GB model will be available December 1st, with the 80GB and 120GB drives to follow at a later, unspecified date.
It's not the first time we've seen a generic product repackaged and re-targeted specifically for use with game consoles, and it certainly won't be the last, but Iomega is apparently hoping that won't stop you from giving its new Media Xporter USB hard drive some consideration, which is says goes along just perfectly with your Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. That, of course, means it's a standard 2.5-inch USB hard drive, which amazingly "natively supports PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 compatible formats such as MP3, MPEG-4 and JPEG." Somewhat helpfully, you'll also get some software with the drive to convert video into console-compatible formats, and the drive thankfully doesn't require an external power adapter so you can keep the clutter down a bit. If that's enough to put it above your run of the mill USB drive, you can snag one now in a 160GB model only for $120.
