I have a few external optical drives in my office that I use when I am working on my netbook. The things are a few years old and are not at all thin. The big drives also require power adapters while newer drives can be totally powered by the USB port. Sony has announced a new slim CD/DVD burner today called the DRX-S70U-W that is very thin.

The thin drive can burn DVD+/- R media at up to 8X speeds. The drive can also record to dual layer optical media at up to 6X speeds. Plain ol’ CD-R/RW discs can be burned at a speedy 24x.

Dell has released details on their latest flagship business laptop. Dubbed the Dell Latitude Z 600, it features a 16 inch screen with a resolution of 1600 x 900 pixels and a backlit keyboard.

You have your choice of 2 processors; the Intel Core 2 Duo running at 1.4GHz or a 1.6GHz SU9600 processor. You can configure it with up to 4GB as well get dual SSD drives for storage. The Dell Z 600 also boasts an optional wireless charging stand for $200 as well as a wireless dock that houses a USB, DVI and other connections.

We love Lego. We love Star Wars. We also love USB gadgets. Combine all three and you have an instant classic with these Lego Star Wars USB Memory Sticks. These come from an Etsy user from Munich, who has created a whole line of Lego USB peripherals.

Yoda is available along with Darth Vader, and a classic Storm Tropper. They’ve also transformed other Lego bricks into USB keys as well. These cute little mini fig drives will cost you $59.95 and hold 2GB to 4GB of data.

Epson’s new Workforce 610 all-in-one printer is aimed at small businesses and home offices and the like as it’s capable of handling a wide variety of jobs all in one convenient device. You might remember that when we reviewed last year’s model, the Workforce 600, we really liked it. So how did the 610 stack up? Read on and find out.

Alpine’s latest iXA-W407 Digital Media Station supports iPod/iPhone playback (Sorry CD users, it won’t do CDs anymore) and sports a large 7″ QVGA touchscreen display along with integrated Bluetooth connectivity and other features.

The iXA-W407 is available as an all-in-one audio/video/navigation system package that includes the NVE-M300 GPS Navigation Drive. This all-in-one AVN package from Alpine will cost you a cool $1100. You can also connect USB devices and MTP-based MP3 players using the USB input.

Kingston announced today that it was increasing the speed that its DataTraveler 410 flash drive offers. The drive has been upgraded to include up to 32GB of storage and with faster read and write speeds. The drive has read and write speeds of up to 20MB/sec.

That is good performance for a flash drive, assuming it actually hits those speeds in the real world. The faster read and write speeds make the drive more suited to use as a backup device and for moving large files. The drive measures 2.58″ x 0.71″ x 0.41″.

Team has announced a new series of Flash Drives called the Color Turn that they hope will stand out. The drives are available in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB and 32GB capacities. They feature a cap-in-body design and a USB 2.0 interface, with maximum read and write speeds of 15MB/s and 8MB/s.

Each drive measures just 55mm x 16mm x 9.1mm and weighs in at 11 grams. These are compatible with most operating systems including Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux 2.4 and Mac. No word on price or availability just yet though.

The new LG FB44 iPod docking station was unveiled during IFA 2009 and it’s a sexy little unit. The iPod dock provides a total output of 40-watts. That should be plenty for listening to all of your music in an average sized room.

The device also supports DVD playback with 1080p upscaling and they’ve thrown in a HDMI port, so you can connect the LG FB44 to your HDTV. The LG FB44 also has a USB port for direct playback from USB Flash drives. …

A Kunai is an ancient weapon used by ninjas, so modern Ninjas will surely want their USB flash drive in the form of a Kunai. But times have changed. This version won’t kill, it just holds your precious Ninja data and ancient secrets.

The drive comes with 2GB of storage space and will cost you about $125, which seems just a bit excessive considering the capacity. Maybe Ninjas get a special discount, but I doubt it.

Sakar International has announced a bunch of new Kodak webcams. The list includes the S100, a driver-free webcam; the T130; an auto focus webcam and the the P310HD, a webcam with a three megapixel sensor which produces HD quality video.

There’s also the W100 and a two megapixel auto focus webcam called the L200. The cameras can automatically connect to IM and VoiP services like AOL, MSN Instant Messenger and SKYPE by automatically launching the app without the user having to do it themselves, which is neat.

This is something that many of us have been waiting for. A box that adds all kinds of connectivity options to any networked PC, instead of making consumers purchase separate devices to add NAS capabilities and wireless print sharing.

This is that box. Belkin’s Home Base handles everything. It includes four USB 2.0 sockets and an Ethernet jack. When connected to your home router, a printer and at least one external hard drive, any machine on the network instantly gets wireless printing abilities and network access to your USB HDDs. But that isn’t all. The Home Base can wirelessly backup your connected PCs by itself and it sports an automatic sharing feature so that you can send photos to Flickr without a care.

Seagate’s latest FreeAgent Theater+ HD network media player will spice up your living room increasing the maximum resolution for video to 1080p, with support for DTS and Dolby Digital audio. If you have some RJ45 cables, you can connect the FreeAgent Theater+ HD to your home network via Ethernet, where it will stream content from different computers over the local network.

The optional 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter makes it handy to go wireless, occupying one of the three available USB 2.0 ports. The remaining ports can be connected to portable hard drives if you want additional storage. A driveless kit will cost you $150, while one with the 500GB FreeeAgent Go will retail for $290.

A new startup company called iTwin has what they are touting as some simple hardware to connect remote computers together and share information. The iTwin device consists of two USB drives that start out hooked together, but then can be plugged into separate computers to allow instant sharing of files. The designers state they realized that many people understand how to use a USB drive, but small USB drives hold a limited amount of data and lack in security if you lose the drive.

A user of the iTwin drives can connect them to a single computer and drop some files into the drive, then disconnect the second USB drive. The second USB can then be taken to another computer somewhere else in the world and plugged in, giving instant and automatic access between the two computers. A number of hurdles immediately come to mind when thinking about how this could work with everything from individual computer firewalls and port security, to network firewalls, internet connections and authentication on both ends. But, according to the designers of iTwin it basically makes a connection between the two computers as if they have a “cable-less cable”. The file sharing is unlimited and encrypted, and by simply unplugging one end, the other end is left useless for any attempting hacking.

Mmmm chocolate. Whether you like a silky smooth chocolate bar mouse or a creamy chocolate DS case, nothing says sugar addiction like a chocolate case for your gadgets.

Here’s one for your SATA Hard drives. These silicon cases will hold your 2.5″ SATA hard drives and protect them from scratches and shocks. They come in Chocolate Brown, White Chocolate or Strawberry flavors. Each has a standard USB connector that lets you connect to a PC or Mac for delicious data transfer.

Looks like LG is jumping on the portable hard drive bandwagon with their new line of XD3 Slims. These trim hard drives measure just 13mm thin and sport rubber-padded sides for impact protection. They connect by your USB 2.0 port, but the XD3 Slim can also connect using SATA II.

Storage capacity maxes out at 500GB. The 320GB model should arrive in Europe and North America for about $90 later this year. They look pretty good. We really like the brushed aluminum finish.