Newer Technology was busy this past week showing off a new  FireWire/USB hub for data storage. It is called the Newertech miniStack v2.5 and pricing, depending upon hard drive storage size, runs up to around $280 for 1TB.

The Newertech miniStack v2.5 is a FireWire 400/USB 2.0 powered hub storage solution, according to its maker. At its maximum storage offering of 1TB it can reportedly store upwards of 1 million JPEGs, 350,000 MP3s or 500 DVD quality movies.

Plain boring hard drives. We’ve all got one. But what if you could jazz up that hard drive and actually make a creative statement about your work area? The artists of Brazil’s Meninos design studio hate boring hard drives and they did something about it.

It all started when they made these custom pop art hard drive cases for friends. Now they are releasing them into the wild so everyone can enjoy them. Each external USB hard drive case is made by hand at their studio, using a custom acrylic case covered with a vinyl wrapper that features one of their designs. They’ll also make custom designs for you if you want to upload Adobe Illustrator art using their custom template. I like the Stormtrooper.

When the Wii game console could only play media on external discs the issue of storage was not a problem, but now that owners can download, store and play games online the issue of storage, as with competitor consoles such as the PS3 and Xbox 360, has suddenly become an issue.

Sure you can store some data onto SD cards and swap things in and out of 512MB of internal Wii storage, but that capacity is quickly becoming inadequate and is putting a damper on those wanting to download a lot of games not to mention the ability for Nintendo to sell more games online.

Most of us think that our 4,8 or 16GB SD card for our digital camera is large. How would you like to have 160GB of storage space for your camera? That’s huge! Well, today Digital Foci announced Photo Safe II, which is a portable photo storage device that takes some of the burden from your laptop, Mac or PC.

It’s basically a battery operated HD. It also has a built-in card reader and automated copy function which could really come in handy. The device supports all of the popular card formats, including CF (Extreme III, IV, UDMA), MMC, SD/HC Card, miniSD, Memory Stick, MS PRO, MS Duo, MS PRO Duo, and xD-Picture card. Just insert a card and hit the copy button, the entire card will be copied at a speed 3.5 minutes per GB. I comes in 80GB and 160GB versions, which cost $139 and $189.

Sheds are not gadgets, but sheds do house and hold many of our gadgets. Over at an interesting site called Readers Sheds they like to showcase all kinds of sheds.

One that comes up again and again is the Tardis. They have literally appeared everywhere throughout the UK. Apparently these sheds are also capable of being bigger on the inside and get frequently attacked by Daleks.

Solid State Drives may well be the future of data storage in the computer industry, but with the high price of flash memory at this time SSDs are not seeing much adaption in the consumer market. So poor is the uptake by consumers for SSDs that Seagate will not even target the consumer market with its SSD line launching in 2009.

Somehow OCZ has got around the cost issue normally associated with SSDs with its latest offering called the Core Series SATA II Solid State Drive. OCZ says that the Core series are the first truly affordable SSDs and that the retail price of 50% less than competing products on the market.

Maxtor is betting your home network is bursting at the seams with data needing back up support and is therefore unveiling a new home NAS solution. It is called the Maxtor Central Axis and you’ll find it pricing at around $330.

The Maxtor Central Axis offers you a generous 1TB of NAS storage to fill with your travel photos and MP3s. The drive allows for each computer in the home to be automatically backed up and files can be accessed and stored from both Mac OS X and Windows operated PCs.

Ahh, USB flash drives, how small can you go? Imation is jumping into the tiny is better USB drive category with its new Imation Atom Flash Drive, priced between around $18 to $100, depending upon storage capacity.

The Imation Atom Flash Drive is tiny, measuring less that 1.5-inches long and .5-inches wide. Weight is around less than an ounce. Storage options on this small drive include 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB.

We’ve seen the writing on the wall and it seems to indicate that Nintendo is working on some USB devices for the Wii, but Laurent Fischer of Nintendo Europe quashed that idea while another option now seems open. According to GamesIndustry.biz, he says that the company is “working on a solution” to the Wii storage problem, but he also says “definitely there’s no plan to issue hardware,” like a hard drive.

So the thinking now is that Nintendo is working on a firmware update that would allow downloaded games to be played directly from SD cards, but no one knows for sure. We may get more details as E3 approaches.

If Flash Gordon had a laptop, this would be his preferred USB memory. It’s the creation of a crazy modder over in Russia and it’s full of retro steampunk shininess, hand crafted from polished brass and copper, with a lot of attention to detail. He got all of it just right.

Which makes me wonder why no company has yet taken advantage of the whole steampunk thing and started mass producing usb memory like this. They could move a ton of items. Geeks like me would eat it up. I shouldn’t have to rely on a modder from Russia for my usb needs, that’s all I’m saying.

You can see right off the bat that this is an ideal way to save space in your bathroom. It uses very little floor space and so the Vertebrae vertical bathroom system is a perfect multi-purpose bathroom unit for luxury apartments with a space shortage. The name obviously comes from it’s design.

It houses everything you expect to find in a regular bathroom, it even has showerheads, a sink, a cistern, a potty and lots of storage units. This has got to be the ultimate space saving bathroom design.

Creative has doubled the gigabytes in their Shuffle-rival, the MuVo T200. The PMP had previously only been available in 2GB, but will now come in a 4GB version. The T200 has a compact 128 x 32 pixels 65k color display. With a non-replaceable rechargeable battery, Creative is promising up to 9hrs playback on a single charge.

Music is transferred via the built-in USB 2.0 plug, which also recharges it. MP3, WMA/WMA (DRM9) and Audible Format 2,3,4 files are supported, and Creative says that you can fit 133hrs of WMA-encoded music onto it. You also get an FM radio, with 32 preset slots and voice recording. No US price yet.

The Newman M8000 looks pretty nice. Even better when you find out it has 250GB of hard drive inside! That’s a TON of space to carry around all of your entertainment, and it will likely take you quite a while before you use it all up.

If budget is a consideration, you can choose from the 80GB, 120GB, and 160GB models. Some features include: 4″ TFT display at 320 x 240 resolution,TV out, Supports MP3, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 formats, 1.3 megapixel camera, SD memory card slot, Game emulation and PVR functionality

Iomega has released a new drive called the Camo eGo hard drive for those that may want to stand out from the crowd at the office but blend in with the forest. The new eGo portable hard drive is powered solely by USB 2.0 and has a very decent capacity of 250GB inside its camouflaged frame.

The drive is also surrounded with a black “Power Grip” to help keep a hand-hold on it, but if you do end up losing your grip you can hope that the DropGuard technology does all that is says for drops up to 5 feet. The eGo Camo Portable drive is compatible with Windows Vista/XP/2000 and Max OS X.

If you like recycling objects and have some extra time on your hands, then this Speaker Media Cabinet might be just the thing. You can store anything you like inside, though it won’t fit a body, you’ll have to continue using the old fashioned car trunk for that.

It would be a great place to store your entertainment media, like DVDs and console games. All you need is a pair of large junked speakers, several chopping tools, the usual array of nuts and bolts, and the will to succeed.