Stories about: LaCie

When the first consumer hard disks were released in the early 80s they were 5.25 inches wide, weighed more than a house brick, had capacities of 5-10MB and were commonly called Winchester disk drives. The cost with an ST506 controller card was about $1000 - but then early PCs were worth about $3000 so I suppose it's all relative.

The iPod may be popular, but also poses such a major security risk for businesses, that enterprises should seriously consider banning the iPod and other portable storage devices, according to a study by research firm Gartner.

A few recently introduced products round out the modern Mac user's arsenal.

Several companies will be introducing and showing off their products at the upcoming MacExpo.

Do you have a need for speed? Macworld Lab evaluated seven new FireWire CD-RW drives that should keep even the greediest speed demon happy . . . for a while, anyway. You can use any of these drives for backup and storage, as you would a standard CD-R drive, but they can also rewrite to your media. And since all the drives we tested take advantage of the IEEE 1394 interface, better known as FireWire, they're easier to set up than SCSI drives and speedier than their USB counterparts.

Politics and technology shouldn't mix -- but in Silicon Valley, they often do. Take Intel Corp.'s quest to establish its own standard for plug-and-play peripheral connectivity. It created USB (Universal Serial Bus), a reliable if somewhat poky port for keyboards, mice, printers, and scanners. Then along came FireWire, an Apple Computer Inc.-developed standard for high-speed peripherals and media devices such as hard drives, printers, and digital video cameras.

When you're more often on the road than in the office, chances are you depend on your PowerBook -- if not for your life, then at least for your money. But Apple Computer Inc.'s laptops have their idiosyncrasies, and travel brings its own challenges. Most of us have been caught at least once without a way to print, connect to a monitor, or jack into a network. In these situations -- from the embarrassing to the deal breaking -- even seasoned users can use a little expert help. That's where we come in. Whether your portable pal has a fresh face or is somewhat long in the tooth, our insider tips will keep it running at its best and save you from "gotchas" that can wreak havoc on your workday.

Your Mac's hard drive may be a regular behemoth compared to what you had even a few years ago, but then again, your files have gotten bigger too. Your archive of Adobe Photoshop projects, video from your DV camcorder, and your collection of favorite MP3s can eat up gigabytes of space, creating hardships for even the most monstrous of drives.

Epson America Inc. (800/463-7766, http://www.epson.com) and Umax Technologies Inc. (800/562-0311, http://www.umax.com) have announced FireWire scanners. Epson's Expression 1600 is available in a Pro FireWire configuration. The scanner features 1,600-dpi true resolution and retails for $1,399. Umax's dedicated FireWire PowerLook 1100 has 1,200-by-2,400-dpi resolution and is available with various software bundles starting at $999.

Zap your Zip and can your CD-ROM:

Much of the attention at the Macworld Expo this week is centered around Apple Computer Inc.'s digital video and audio applications, and unsurprisingly, a host of companies are coming forward to support them.