These Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz Windows Home Servers can back up to 10 PCs and serve all the files you want. It has two 3.5-inch bays for up to 2 terabytes of storage space, with one Gigabit Ethernet port, and six USB 2.0 ports to add more storage or whatever you want. [Asus via Hot Hardware via Engadget]

If there is one thing I like it’s elegantly combining two related gadgets into one useful device. Griffin has managed to do that with their Powerblock and Powerjolt Reserves.

The Powerblock is an AC charger that can power-up any USB rechargeable device—including your iPhone or iPod Touch. But the interesting part is that it also features a removable battery pack that delivers backup power when you need it (the reserve pack only works with iPods and iPhones). There is also a car charger version, the PowerJolt Reserve, that functions in the same way.

Griffin’s PowerBlock Reserve and PowerJolt Reserve are $US39.99 each. They can also be purchased together as the PowerDuo Reserve for $US59.99.

New USB Car and AC Chargers Offer Removable Reserve Battery for iPod and iPhone

NASHVILLE, TN – May 12, 2009 -Griffin Technology Inc., creator of all things iPod and iPhone, today announced the availability of both the PowerBlock Reserve and PowerJolt Reserve. Also available is PowerDuo Reserve, a bundle packaging of both PowerBlock Reserve and PowerJolt Reserve. These products offer the reliability of Griffin’s popular power solutions with the added feature of a detachable battery pack.

PowerBlock Reserve and PowerJolt Reserve charge any USB-rechargeable device, including iPhone, iPod and most MP3 players. PowerBlock Reserve is an AC charger with a detachable, rechargeable battery pack; PowerJolt Reserve plugs directly into the car’s cigarette lighter or 12 V DC power outlet and also features a portable battery. Users with a need for both home and car solutions may purchase PowerDuo Reserve, a bundle packaging that contains both PowerBlock Reserve and PowerJolt Reserve at a price lower than purchasing both independently.

The detachable battery for each product, Griffin Reserve Battery Pack, is rechargeable and snaps easily into the dock connector of the iPod or iPhone. For added play time and convenience, the Reserve Battery Pack is interchangeable between PowerBlock Reserve and PowerJolt Reserve for easy recharging on the go. Individually packaged Reserve battery packs will soon be available for purchase directly from Griffin Technology.

“The new PowerBlock Reserve, PowerJolt Reserve, and PowerDuo Reserve offer users a charging solution for the home, in the car and on-the-go,” said Mark Rowan, Director of Product Development at Griffin Technology. “With the convenience of the removable battery pack, iPod and iPhone users will never have to find themselves without power again.”

Key Features:

* Charges iPhone, iPod, most MP3 players and other USB-chargeable devices
* Removable Reserve Battery Pack provides additional hours of use time for iPod and iPhone
* Removable Griffin Reserve Battery Pack is interchangeable between the PowerJolt Reserve and PowerBlock Reserve
* Additional Reserve Battery Packs, available late Spring, 2009, provide added freedom and flexibility
* Lighted meter on Reserve Battery Pack indicates remaining power

Pricing and Availability
Griffin’s PowerBlock Reserve and PowerJolt Reserve are each $39.99, and PowerDuo Reserve is $59.99. PowerJolt Reserve and PowerDuo Reserve are now shipping and available through Apple; all models in Griffin’s Reserve product line are coming soon to www.griffintechnology.com and other major retailers nationwide.

[Griffin]

Clickfree has also released the DVD Transformer ($US40), which plugs in like a standard USB drive, but automatically scans your computer for personal files and other important data then backs it up on CD or DVD. [Clickfree via CNET and Slashgear]

Yes, OK, we called the software lame and poked fun when it earned that inevitable injunction, but that was just too predictable to get all earnest about. Well, RealNetworks might’ve been playing a long game.

If you don’t recall, RealDVD was a late, unusual addition to the DVD copying field. By late, I mean the latter half of 2008, and by strange, I mean not free. Surprise! The MPAA is outraged, and the product is pulled from shelves literally days after launch. Now the controversy is making its way to a federal court, where Real attorneys will square off against whatever reptilian law-creatures the movie industry is employing these days, and the fate of RealDVD will be decided.

But the NYT thinks they’ve uncovered RealNetworks’, ehh, Real™ intentions: to build ripping capabilities into mainstream DVD players. It’s all part of a project called Facet that actually predate RealDVD, at least internally, by some time. Real wants to licence this software on the cheap to major DVD player manufacturers, who could then produce reasonably priced (sub-$US300) DVD-saving players.

Fun, right? Well, the underlying technology is pretty much RealDVD on Linux, so it—and pretty much any other integrated DVD player backup solutions—is depending on courtroom victory this week. If this is really their strategy, then RealDVD was might have never even a serious product—just a sad, legal, sacrificial lamb. [NYT]

Corsair’s Voyager Port a semi-automated backup system, just waiting for your USB 2.0 flash drives to dock into.

It’s designed as an easy way to use your current USB drives to store data, with a one-button backup that sucks your computer’s files through the disc and into your thumbstick. It’s quite useful if you have no real idea how to use traditional backup systems and have a lot of USB drives laying around. Otherwise, a standard USB hard drive and some backup software would achieve the same result. [Slashgear]

In an interview by David Pogue, Dag Spicer, curator of the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley, noted that there’s no great solution to saving your data other than resaving it again and again. His best advice:

…every five or ten years, you should move it onto a different format, like from VHS tape to DVD. And that’s fine, but then DVD is already obsolete, there’s Blu-ray, and so what’s going to happen in another 10 years?

Making lots of backups is good advice, and on different formats, different places; consider paper as an archival medium…Keeping it on the Web is also not a really great strategy. A very large photo site just went out of business, and they gave people, I think, a month’s notice to say, “We’ve run out of money, get your photos off the site and put them somewhere.” Web sites are fine for sharing, but in terms of preserving your data, I wouldn’t recommend it.

There’s a lot more to the interview, and whether you’re a data geek or just a guy who doesn’t want to lose his home movies, it’s definitely worth a read. [Pogue's Posts and Image by PJP]

AU: Doesn’t appear to have been any local price drop yet…

That discount is huge. The Apple refurb store is also selling them for the cheap, but the ones at Amazon are completely new. Does this mean we will have new Time Capsules soon, with more storage space and Mac OS X Server-derived Software Update caching, like 9to5mac speculates?

Who knows. For those of you who find this as exciting as me, here’s a video about how do to make perfect pancakes.

[Amazon ia 9to5mac—Pancakes from the Daily Telegraph]