Engadget is reporting that Sony is preparing to ship it’s next eReader later this month sporting an all-new look, higher-speed USB interface, and a higher contrast-level/response-time display. The unit will retail for $300 dollars.
Author - Jerry Paxton
Packaging
A dignified black box with a very stable foam core keeps the IronKey from jostling about during shipping. The instructional booklet summarizes important information such as the self-destruct feature…yup, you heard me right but more on that later.
Manufacturing
The IronKey features a tamperproof and waterproof metal case. Besides exuding security in it’s Spartan design, it is also the sexiest USB drive we have ever seen.
Installation
Upon inserting the IronKey the first time, it asks you to initialize it by entering its name and the password that will be used to access the key. It offers you to backup your password online just in case of emergencies and then begins creating the AES encryption keys and formatting the secure volume of the drive. Then it asks you to activate the key drive. The online activation process is, of course, done over a secure site and asks you the standard registration questions in addition to some very customizable and personal secret questions you can choose from. Also, you chose a secret phrase that will help protect you from ending up on a site pretending to be the IronKey website.
Usage
Usage is like any other key drive, with the exception of entering your IronKey’s password upon insertion to unlock it for use. The IronKey Control Panel is very user-friendly and easy to use.
Features
One of the most interesting features of the IronKey is that upon entering an invalid password 10 times, the drive ‘self-destructs’, permanently erasing all data and rendering the drive useless. Literally useless, in that, it no longer works. If you backed your data up online you can restore the uploaded data to a new IronKey drive which is nice. There is also the ability to run mobile applications such as Firefox from the drive. In the case of Firefox, the drive uses ‘Secure Sessions’ to keep your internet traffic encrypted while browsing. IronKey’s ‘Secure Sessions Service’ sends your web traffic through multiple network routing servers before decrypting it on an IronKey server and sending it to the destination site. This makes it virtually impossible to track who is going where or correlate your surfing to your computer. The IronKey will also store usernames and passwords for frequently visited websites using its very strong AES encryption algorithms. According to the manufacturer’s site, the IronKey can detect being scanned by an electron microscope and will subsequently self-destruct. The IronKey will also self-destruct if it detects physical attacks as all chips are protected with a thin metal shield.
Benchmarks
We benchmarked the drive on our AMD X2 6000+ machine with 2GB of RAM in a Windows XP Pro environment using HD Tach Ver 3.0.4.0 and received a steady read speed of 25Mb/sec in a ‘real-world test’ with multiple programs running in the background – very impressive! We began copying a large, 600Mb file over to the drive and recorded speeds of roughly 14Mb/sec (again in our real-world test environment). While copying a number of smaller files, the write speed fluctuated slightly (as expected with multiple start-stops).
You can get an IronKey here.
IGN is reporting that Sierra has confirmed the pushing back of the Xbox 360 version of World in Conflict, the very popular World War III RTS currently on PCs, to sometime in 2008.
1up is reporting that Advance Wars 2 has been shown to Paris press folk recently, revealing some new details about the game. One of the biggest is the change to a more mature style of anime graphics instead of the more whimsical nature of the first game. Nintendo may show a demo at the E for All Expo coming up soon.
Joystiq is reporting that the sci-fi no holds barred battle for Earth RTS has been pushed back to January, 2008. The game will be available for the Xbox 360 as well as PC platforms.
The Register is reporting that Microsoft is preparing web-based versions of it’s popular Office software.
From the article: ‘Microsoft said features of its Office Live Workspace would include allowing users to upload more than 1,000 documents to free personal websites.
There will also be an option for documents to be shared in a password-protected environment.
For anyone who doesn’t have Office installed, features will be restricted via a read-only browser, although users will still have the ability to comment on the document.
The vendor sought to give the beta program a healthy lick of corporate spin, saying ”Online’ services are for organisations with more advanced IT needs where power and flexibility are critical.’ Other apps under the program include Exchange and Sharepoint.’
Joystiq has posted that Microsoft has announced the official release date for the Age of Empires III game will be October 23rd. It will feature a variety of new empires, units, and gameplay elements.
Joystiq has posted a ‘hands-on’ report of Cooking Mama 2 for the Nintendo DS. This time around you can look forward to more recipes, more ingredients, as well as a multiplayer mode.
1up has posted from an official press release that Rock Band will retail for $169.99 and will include the game, a drum kit, a guitar, and a microphone.
GameVideos has posted a video of the character creation system of Rock Band, the undisputed wannabe-rocker game coming to retail shelves November 20th.
It looks pretty interesting, at least more involved that the Guitar Hero system.