Imation has increased the storage capacity of its Micro Hard Drive to 4GB. The $189 drive works Mac OS X, Windows and Linux operating systems and looks like a padlock, making it possible to clip to a belt loop, keychain or briefcase.
The loop portion of the padlock design integrates a flexible USB connector. Inside is a Toshiba-built 0.85-inch hard disk drive mechanism. It requires no additional power supply to work.
Software on the drive provides 128-bit file encryption, can create a backup copy of the data on the drive and automatically synchronizes the copies. Imation notes an updated version with a streamlined user interface and Mac OS X v10.4 “Tiger” compatibility is due in January, and will be available for download from their Web site.