ioSafe, a technology producer of disaster proof storage hardware, launched the ioSafe Solo in January and this week we took the opportunity to test one out to see how well it would hold up. The ioSafe Solo is a rugged external drive designed to keep your stuff safe in the event of a disaster such as a fire, flood or the building literally falling around it.

The ioSafe is not shockproof however and is not designed to be dropped from great distances or thrown around. It is however built to withstand intense heat (up to 1550 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes), complete submersion (up to 10 feet for 3 days!) and is encased in a rugged enclosure making it like the Sherman tank of external drives.

We got a chance to get our hands on Griffin’s new Simplifi desktop device recently and we feel they really got the name right on this one. The Simplifi is a small Swiss Army Knife of accessories packed into a smooth silver box that adds some convenience and maybe even a touch of sophistication to your desk.

For starters, the device is a dock and charger for your Apple iPhone and/or iPod. It has the docking port right on top and comes with little plastic adapters to custom …

LaCie has been busying showing off new external hard drives at CES. Another one of its announcements is the new LaCie d2 Quadra, available in various storage configurations and starting at around $200.

The LaCie d2 Quadra is designed for professional use primarily. It’s available in multiple interface options – eSATA, FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB – and sports an aluminum heat sink system to keep things cool. The d2 Quadra has been designed with RAID use in mind – one can connect two more more drives o the host in either RAID 1 for data redundancy and protection, or striped together in RAID 0 for faster data transfers.