Memorex announced at CES on January 7 that they will be adding to their line of portable storage devices, releasing three larger-capacity (80 GB, 120 GB and 160 GB) USB hard drives meant to serve as backup drives that are easy to carry around. These new Ultra TravelDrives will have USB 2.0 and 1.1 compatibility and retail for between about $130 and $200 when they hit the market sometime before the end of March. Four cool things about this entry to the large portable market:

• They're decently sized - the 2.5" drive technology makes for a smaller unit that weighs only half a pound and, if the picture is to scale, the Ultra TravelDrive is about the length of a pair of Sunglasses, making it a lot easier to carry around than some of the other backup options out there.


• It looks pretty well protected. The press release mentions a "double-injected black rubberized grip area" and "rugged construction." I don't think you'll be able to drop these drives off a building or anything like that, but they should be good for going on the road.


• No external power supply required. 'nough said.


• Each unit comes with two extra face plates, so you can customize your look or, if you're a real geek, quickly distinguish between drives. To be honest, I think we're still dealing with this color coding business because of a computer Apple made eight years ago, but I guess people still like it. Anyway, if color customization is your thing, you can have it with this drive.

Via Computer Technology Review