Iomega Launches “Smart” NAS

Iomega has launched the iConnect Wireless Data Station which it bills as a “powerful and yet inexpensive device” that provides a simple way to bring all of your USB storage into your network, allowing you to connect, share and access files anywhere, including over the Internet.

So far we only have a US price ($79) but it’s available worldwide from next month and for those sick of copious wires everywhere this should put a dent in that problem at the very least. The rub of the green is that once you pocket the pretty darn light (there’s no onboard storage so it’s a handy size) iConnect, you then hook it to your router in either a wired or wireless configuration, and it’s as easy as plugging external USB drives or USB Flash drives into any of the four USB ports on the device, making the drives automatically connected to and accessible from any computer on your network or remotely via the web.

Special Offers – Week of December 29th

Good afternoon all, hopefully Christmas was as kind to you as possible, but if it wasn’t there’s always some consolation to be had from the fact that it’s all over now. Anyway, before we get to the “happy new year” potion of the post (that’ll be at the end) we always do a post at the start of the week to detail some of our special offers.

This week, we have a solid notebook, a Wireless N router and a 1TB media player on sale. We’ll roll with the notebook first.

Acer Aspire 7730G-664G100MN:

Acer’s Aspire 7730G-664G100MN may have a model name that reads like a license plate, but aside from making its name a little hard to keep in your head that shouldn’t discourage you.

Click through to see our page for Acer's Aspire notebook

We’ll get down to brass tacks as quickly as possible. The Aspire boasts a 17” display with a resolution of 1440 x 900, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor clocked at 2.2GHz and 4GB of memory. Moreover, it boasts 1TB of internal storage, though not on one drive. Instead, it’s spread across two 500GB drives, which means you’re at lower risk of both failing. It might seem like a small thing, but it can be a godsend if you end up in a position to need it. It’s also got a GeForce 9600M-GT.

The machine does come with Windows Vista Home Premium, which means you’d be best off purchasing an upgrade copy of Windows 7 to set up on the machine when you get it, if Windows Vista is a deal-breaker.

The Acer Aspire weighs in at €695, which isn’t a bad old deal at all.

Eircom Wireless Crack Approved to App Store

Apple has been making some strange decisions when it comes to what it approves to the App Store this week, now having approved a wireless key generator that allows the device to break into Eircom wi-fi access points.

It’s strange to see that in the same week Apple has rejected an app from its App Store for containing the word “iPhone” (it was a book about the iPhone, for the curious) and approved an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch that allows users to engage in the entire dubious cracking of Eircom networks. It’s worth pointing out at this point that this has only been made possible because of the manner in which Eircom routers’ default security settings work.

Draft N Finally Standardised

Many of us have already been using “Draft N” routers to network our “Draft N” wireless devices for years, but it seems that this week we get to drop the “draft” and just use “Wireless N” as the whole thing gets approved officially.

While it’s been a long time coming, it’s nice to see that 802.11n is finally a real wireless standard, rather than the strange hovering-in-limbo act it’s been pulling for the last few years. According to RealTechNews, the whole business only took seven years, which makes us feel older than we really are, given that it’s easy to remember a time when 802.11n seemed like a bit of a pipe dream.