Quake 3 hits the iPod touch, makes for portable LAN party

Future generations will most likely divide the timeline of history at this point: when Quake 3 achieved motion-sensing, wireless network play on two iPod touches. Just think, less than a year ago we were salivating (or at least mildly enthused) at the prospect of rocking Doom on this thing, and now Quake 3 Arena is yours for the taking -- or at least will be once we get any sort of hard info on this app.

i-mate's US outpost implodes, most laid off

We've caught wind from a number of employees -- or ex-employees, as the case may be -- that i-mate's US division in Redmond, Washington has all but disintegrated after a Friday bloodbath that saw the entire engineering, QA, and tech writing departments laid off, among others. Several honchos who weren't cut left anyway, perhaps unwilling to work in a ghost town or as a show of solidarity to their fallen brethren; notably, the Chief Software Officer and VP of Sales and Marketing are both gone, leaving a sales director to be promoted to the lofty title of GM of what seems to be all US operations. Apparently, the Dubai-based firm is in the hurt locker after its inability to get the Ultimate line (also known as "the basket with all of i-mate's eggs in it") fully deployed to retail channels in the time frame it had hoped, and meeting massive resistance from US carriers to carry the devices, it's been left with no option but to leave behind just enough employees to set up and maintain a web-based portal for purchasing unlocked devices in the States. To those who've been handed your walking papers, we wish you the best of luck.

Transcend JetFlash V60 bulges to 32GB

Transcend Information recently introduced its latest high-capacity USB flash drive, the 32GB JetFlash V60.

About the size of an AA battery (61×18.6×9.8mm), the 32GB JetFlash V60 is equipped with software tools, including: Website AutoLogin, PC-Lock, Mobile Favorites, Secret-Zip encryption, Mobile E-mail, DataBackup and Online Update. The JetFlash V60 supports Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP/Vista, Mac and Linux.

The JetFlash 32GB V60 is available now for an untaxed recommended list price of US$194.

IBM's "green optical link" promises one second movie downloads

So IBM is apparently working like crazy on some next-gen communications technology that -- ready to have your mind blown? -- "uses light instead of wires to send information." We know, this is some crazy future crap up in here, but check it out. Apparently this so-called light-based communications system is supposed to be ten times more power efficient than others in its class, and can transfer data at speeds far greater than our current 4Mbps token-ring networks and even the next-gen 10BASE2 Ethernet (as if!); if optical data communications are actually real, well, it's just in time because we've been seriously maxing out our Tandy 1000 playing MUDs. Touting such other gibberish as "high definition content," and "ex-aflop supercomputing," IBM's Optocards (which feature integrated "Optochips") can apparently move data at up to 8Tbps / 1TBps per second, which isn't quite up to snuff to compete with Alcatel-Lucent's latest, but is still, like, way more than necessary for accessing the Engadget BBS.

SanDisk introduces FlashBack adapter as notebook HDD backup

SanDisk announced the availability of its FlashBack adapter as a backup storage media to protect against unexpected PC system failure or hard disk drive (HDD) crash.
The FlashBack adapter fits into the ExpressCard slot where it will automatically and continuously back up and encrypt critical data onto a SecureDigital (SD) or SD HighCapacity (SDHC) card. With the backup card nested completely inside the notebook, the system is literally out of sight.
Once the adapter is installed, users pre-select backup sources by individual files, folders and/or file types. The device will then back up and encrypt data automatically and continuously from the computer's HDD to the memory card. Backup occurs as soon as there is a change to a designated file, or when a file is added or deleted. There is no need for scheduling backups and no need for further user intervention. Also, the application has a screen indicator to show the amount of storage available, along with a taskbar icon that displays the ongoing backup status.
SanDisk highlighted the easy data restoration process. Once the application is open, users only have to log in to access, select the encrypted files on the memory card and indicate the restore destination. Users can also restore data from the memory card on any PC that uses Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista and has an SD memory card reader.
For protection against laptop theft and to easily share backed-up files, the SanDisk FlashBack adapter also offers users an option for backing up content online at BelnSync.
The SanDisk FlashBack adapter is being demonstrated this week at the CeBIT electronics trade show in Hannover, Germany.
SanDisk will start shipping the adapter