At first glance, the BlackDog Mobile Personal Server looks like yet another USB flash drive dolled up with a Linux
distro. Turns out, however, that this really is a computer-on-a-stick, unlike
Finger Gear and
Pertec's recent offerings. Yes, it's flash-based like the
others. But BlackDog is an actual working computer, with a 400 MHz Power PC processor, 64MB of RAM, biometric security
and either 256MB or 512MB onboard storage. Like the other flash-based systems out there, BlackDog still requires a host
PC to operate, but it doesn't rely on that PC's processor or RAM to function; all the work is done on the palm-sized
box. At $199 for 256MB and $239 for 512MB, BlackDog could be a good solution if you need a secure, ultra-portable Linux
system that you can set up anywhere — though, of course, if you don't need the security features and just need a
bootable distro, the other flash solutions may do the trick at a lower price.
[Via Digg]
