LaCie’s hard disk MAX, Design by Neil Poulton, is a 2TB external USB unit that comes with a couple of neat bonuses: the two drives within can be configured as a RAID array, and it has a useful pass-through USB port.

It’s a severe black box with a glowing blue light underneath, subtly lighting the table. Though its minimalist design is a delight, there are two flaws: the biggie is that the corporate logo is stamped crudely on one side. Less annoying is the plastic, which is glossy enough to pick up fingerprints, but is imperfectly cast: odd wobbly reflections at sharp viewing angles interfere with the Syd Mead vibe.

Syd Mead isn’t the first name that springs to mind, of course, but I’m avoiding the obvious reference. Let’s just say that Poulton is open about being inspired by a certain 1960s science fiction classic, and leave it at that.

At the back is the on switch, the power socket, an LED light for each of the two 1TB drives within, and the USB port. There’s also a RAID switch that lets you select “SAFE” mode or “BIG” mode. The latter is RAID 0, which makes both drives appear to the computer as a single giant drive. The former is RAID 1, which halves the 2TB of available storage, but copies your data to both disks in case one fails.

On the front is a USB expansion slot. Ostensibly there to allow for more storage, it seems perfectly functional as a general USB port for your computer.

The LaCie initially appears as a tiny 4GB Fat32 partition on Windows, with software that formats it to your specifications: if you’re on Windows, it recommends a giant NTFS partition, on which it places installers for a 30 day trial of MacDrive, adobe reader, and Genie Backup Assistant. On Mac, it recommends HFS+; in either case, it’ll let you add FAT32 partitions for cross-platform compatibility. The drive also comes with free online backup for one year; you get unlimited capacity.

Throughput was good, but limited by USB; LaCie hasn’t announced an eSata edition yet. Apart from that, there’s not much to dislike about this drive, assuming you like the looks. At $269, it’s cheaper than equivalently-sized NAS boxes, but still pricey. You can buy a nearly identical product from the same company, sans Poulton’s case, for $70 less. Full review here.

The PepsiCo Americas Beverages division of PepsiCo is bowing to public demand and scrapping the changes made to a flagship product, Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice. Redesigned packaging that was introduced in early January is being discontinued, executives plan to announce on Monday, and the previous version will be brought back in the next month.

Also returning will be the longtime Tropicana brand symbol, an orange from which a straw protrudes. The symbol, meant to evoke fresh taste, had been supplanted on the new packages by a glass of orange juice.

That’s right! During the month of February 2009 we are giving away free ipods to new clients or any referral that results in a new client.This is a great opportunity to get your feet wet with Right Brain and experience how great having a hard working staffing agency can be for your business.What to know more? Give us a call and we’ll give you the details.
503-232-8418

Mat’s got a gallery of mobile phones from the last two decades up at Wired.

The good folks at Laika did a very smart thing. Before the movie opened they mailed of 50 special handmade boxes as gifts to some very different (and prominent) bloggers they follow. Each box was unique and contained different things relating to the movie and (more importantly) to each blogger. A Knitting site got knitted Coraline cloths a Halloween site got a skeletal hand from the movie ect.

Now sending a blogger some swag is nothing new and most bloggers will write “I got some nice swag from these nice people”  but the genius was in giving them something to actually blog about. Tracking all 50 boxes, detailing their contents created a much bigger buzz that your typical t-shirt or doll merch.

Check out some of the boxes here.

Remember the movie, Me and You and Everyone We Know (back in 2005)? Miranda July (a former Portlander) made this great (all be it small) movie and then POOF! She was gone form the scene (or is she?). What gives? If you look on here website it says that she “lives in Los Angeles and is currently working on her second feature film.” but the site has not been updated since 10/16/08.  IMDB lists her new movie Satisfaction as “in production” but no actors have been listed. So if you know Miranda or you know what is up LET ME KNOW.

I think the farther this guy gets away for Microsoft the more respect I think he is earning (i think?). I love the part where Pierre Omidyar (the founder of eBay) says ‘That’s it. I am not sitting up front anymore,’. Classic!

Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of Microsoft and a renowned philanthropist, let loose a swarm of mosquitoes at a technology conference in California to highlight the dangers of malaria.

‘Malaria is spread by mosquitoes,’ the Microsoft founder yelled at a well-heeled crowd at a technology conference in California.

’I brought some,’ he added. ‘Here, I’ll let them roam around – there is no reason only poor people should be infected.’ LINK

Just as expected, Amazon announced the second-generation Kindle ebook reader with the exclusive Stephen King novel UR today — the page actually went live during the press event. The new version will still cost $359, but it’s much thinner than the angular original — in fact, it’s thinner than an iPhone at just .36 inches. Arguably the biggest new feature is Read to Me, which can read any content on the device back to you in a decent-sounding computerized voice, but there’s also seven times more storage, a sharper 16-level e-ink display that turns pages 20 percent faster, 25 percent longer battery life, and a new five-way joystick that improves navigation. Amazon’s Whispernet service is also getting a feature bump, adding in Whispersync bookmarking — if you start reading a book on one Kindle, you can pick up again on any other Kindle automatically. Sadly, it’s still only available in white

A few more information:

• Amazon is still working on international release, but has nothing to announce at this time, and wouldn’t even confirm a launch this year.
• Battery is non-removable.
• There will be no Kindle 2-exclusive content, and some of the software improvements will be pushed to the original Kindle — Whispersync is a shoe-in, text-to-speech is a no.

TIME magazine threw together their “50 Best Websites” list. Some are typical (Google, Wikipedia) and some are a little left of center (iliketotallyloveit.com). One site that I liked was COLOURlovers

“What color is your palette? Take a break from the wordy Web and peruse COLOURlovers to find out. Although the site caters to design professionals who want to show off or share ideas about color and pattern, it’s fun for lay people too. Browse through the various swatches, palettes and patterns to help inspire your next creative project — or your next clothes-shopping trip. The site’s excellent blog doles out tips, like how to dye yarn with Kool-Aid, and will teach you something new about color every day.”

Some are as useful as a GPS device, others aren’t that useful but give you something to do when you had nothing planned for the day. Put them all together and they become TIME.com’s picks for the best the Web has to offer.