Samsung's 250GB SpinPoint N3U has on-board USB, personal bonus card

It may not be the first 1.8-inch hard disk we've seen pushing a 250GB capacity, but damn if Samsung doesn't know how to market its tech. See, these drives are small as Samsung skillfully demonstrates by photographing its new Spinpoint N3U disk in front of a credit card. And by including a native PATA to USB controller on the circuit board, Samsung has helped manufacturers eliminate a bit bulk from future portable USB disk offerings. The 3,600rpm drive itself features 125GB per platter, 8MB of cache, and should be capable of withstanding drops from about 20-inches. At least it will when these begin shipping in mid-July for about $200.

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LaCie ups the LaCinema Rugged ante with new HD version

At first glance, you'd be hard-pressed to notice the difference between LaCie's LaCinema Rugged HD and last year's model, but sure enough, the middle square of that device definitely has "HD" ingrained into its genetic code, and if you can't guess what that means, we'll tell ya: 1080p output. Other than that aesthetic modification and the new peak resolution, there's not a lot that's changed -- HDMI and composite output, USB 2.0 transfer, and a sizable number of supported codecs -- but that's not exactly a bad thing here. It's available as of this moment, and while previously we had a few variety of sizes, for now we're only seeing 500GB at a penny under $350 before shipping.

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Packard Bell debuts updated ixtreme desktop PC

Packard Bell already rolled out its updated line of imedia desktop PCs earlier this month, and it's now done the same with its higher-end "ixtreme" desktop, which gets some upgraded specs and a sleek new look. While that exterior is certainly a step up for Packard Bell, it's not quite as eye-catching as the specs, which include your choice of Core i7, Core 2 Quad, or AMD Phenom II X4 processors, up to 12GB of DDR3 memory, a max 3TB of storage space, your choice of a few NVIDIA graphics options (including the 1GB GeForce GTS 250), an optional Blu-ray combo drive, and ten USB ports for anything that won't fit inside. No word on a release 'round here, of course, but folks in the UK will be able to pick this one up this month with a starting price of £599 (or just under $1,000).

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