When it comes to ultraportable notebooks, the 13-inch segment is where many shoppers search for their perfect machines. The 13-inch ultraportable is a good compromise between power and usability for many consumers.

Toshiba is said to be working on a new notebook that is the lightest 13-inchnotebook in the world. Rumors peg the machine at under 1kg with a SSD for storage. The machine will also reportedly have a USB 3.0 dock and more.

Many of the new high-end motherboards are now coming with USB 3.0 port son them so the USB 3.0 gear on the market is becoming more usable. OCZ has announced a new USB 3.0 SSD called the Enyo.

Solid state drives (SSD) are becoming more common everyday with prices coming down, so Buffalo has introduced this latest USB 3.0 external SSD for your consideration.

The SHD-PEHU3 portable drives will be available in capacities from 64GB to 256GB and will cost from 26,400 Yen (or $280) to 100,900 Yen (or $1,073) starting May 10. We all want faster file transfers, and with USB 3.0 devices showing up everywhere, we are getting them.

Samsung’s Story hard drive has just made the leap to SuperSpeed. It was introduced today as the fastest Story of all time and aside from USB 3.0, not much else has changed.

The enclosure remains the same, the capacity choices (1TB or 2TB) are also unchanged. The removal of eSATA may disappoint some, but the USB 2.0 + eSATA version should still be around in some places.

Here’s the latest USB 3.0 portable hard drive on the market. A-DATA has announced that it has started to ship the NH01. Nice to see more USB 3.0 devices surfacing finally. Thanks to the USB 3.0 interface, it will give you data transfer speeds up to 88MB/s on USB 3.0 and 28MB/s on USB 2.0.

The NH01 will cost you 70 Euro (or $95) for the 320GB version, 88 Euro (or $119) for the 500GB version and 110 Euro ($149) for the 640GB model.

It’s sad, but all of those neat uSb toys that you bought are now obsolete. That’s because the USB-IF has announced the completion of SuperSpeed USB (3.0) compliance on 50 devices. That’s nothing compared to the amount of USB 2.0-compliant devices available, but it’s a start.

The new products range from PCIe adapters to ExpressCard adapters. The list includes things like HP’s Envy 15 laptop and WD’s My Book 3.0 external hard drive, but most are adapters right now. 45 of them are listed on the site and five are unidentified.

Super Talent has announced the SuperCrypt line of secure portable storage, which are available in capacities up to 256GB and offer up to 240 MB/s transfer rates, with either 128-bit ECB (SuperCrypt) or 256-bit XTS (SuperCrypt Pro) encryption.

No USB 3.0 port? Not to worry. It’s fully backward compatible with USB 2.0, so you’ll be able to use it on just about any computer you need to. Nothing on price or release date yet, but we’ll let you know soon when we find out.

Asus makes lots of notebooks and netbooks, and we have talked about some of the newest today. However, even before Asus introduced the netbook category with its Eee netbooks the company was huge in the computer hardware market with mainboards and other gear.

Asus has unveiled its latest mainboard based on the new AMD 890GX chipset called the M4A89GTD PRO. The new board has numerous overclocking features for AMD Phenom processors and video cards that get more performance out of your hardware at the press of a button.

I just mentioned that Asus was showing off the new N series notebooks this week. Asus is still best known for its line of Eee netbooks and the computer maker is showing off some cool new models.

The most interesting is the Eee PC Prime 1018P netbook. The little machine has a 10.1-inch screen that is LED backlit. The keyboard is almost full-size and has large isolated keys. The machine is also said to be the thinnest Eee yet.

Apogee’s Astro Drive A101 is a record holder. It’s the smallest USB 3.0 device on the market at the moment, though that is sure to change very soon. This smallest ever drive is also fast and can achieve read and write speeds of up to 180MB/s and 130MB/s.

It will come in 128GB, 64GB and 32GB capacities, but there’s no word on pricing yet. It has a stylish look for those who like to make a statement with their accessories.

ASUS has added a third model to their O!Play mediaplayer range, the ASUS O!Play HD2. Sadly we don’t have any information. Just the name, with no specs. However the photo reveals USB, eSATA and various forms of memory card reader.

Assuming that the O!Play HD2 is similar to the two models that have gone before it, we would guess 1080p HD video output via HDMI with networking support, either ethernet or 802.11n like the O!Play Air HDP-R3. Hopefully we will have full specs soon.

There are all kinds of computer geeks out there. Some of them like computers that are pre-built with fruity logos on them and others like hardware that is more open and the ability to roll their own machine to meet their needs. MSI has a new mainboard for the AMD fan looking for the latest features.

The board is called the 890GXM-G65 and offers USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s interfaces. The board is aimed at HTPC use and supports DirectX 10.1 and UVD 2.0. The machine also has OC Genie Lite software for overclocking and uses solid-state capacitors.

MSI has unveiled a new gaming notebook in the form of the GT660. The GT660 is one of the first notebooks from MSI to come with a USB 3.0 port. Under the hood you’ll find up to 12GB of RAM, Intel Core i7 CPU options, Nvidia GeForce GTX 285M graphics, and Windows 7.

That’s about all the detail we have. We don’t even know the price or release date, but all should be revealed at CeBIT next week.

It’s nice to finally see a steady flow of USB 3.0 devices hitting the market. The latest is from Sharkoon Technologies. The SATA QuickPort Duo USB 3.0 docking station. It will hold a few SATA hard drives/SSDs, and is backwards compatible with USB 2.0. It holds 2.5” and 3.5” SATA hard drives and SSDs.

While not much to look at, it sure will come in handy for backing up data. The device includes two USB 3.0 ports and retails for 59.90 Euros if you’re want to pick one up.

This USB hub may not look like much, but it’s got it where it counts kid. In speed. The first actual USB 3.0 hardware is finally starting to trickle out. Now we have some USB 3.0 hard drives, flash drives and before long a USB 3.0 compliant humping dog.

So that stuff all requires a hub to bring it all together. Like the Buffalo BSH4A03U3, with data transfer speeds approaching 5Gbps. It will move your virtual bits about ten times faster than the old USB 2.0.