Gadgets

Last update: April 29, 2008 - 4:42 PM

THUMB DRIVE WITH SAFETY NETS Ø

$60 • www.sandisk.com

SanDisk's Cruzer Titanium Plus is a 4-gigabyte USB thumb drive that automatically copies its contents to an online backup location, ensuring that even if the drive is lost, you still have your precious data.

The drive includes six months of free backup service at BeInSync.com; after that, the service costs $30 a year. The drive backs up only when it is connected to PCs running Windows. You can get access to the backed-up files from any Web browser. Without the service, the Cruzer can still be used as a regular thumb drive.

NO EXTRA LENSES NEEDED

$400 • www.nikonusa.com

Nikon's Coolpix P80, due out next month, looks a lot like a digital single-lens reflex camera. But the lens actually is a lightweight zoom fixed to the compact body, which comes at a relatively lightweight price of $400, less than the low-end range for DSLRs.

Although the camera has a fixed lens, it is a versatile lens -- wide enough at 27mm to capture a group in a living room and long enough (an 18X zoom) at 486mm to read a baseball glove's brand out on the diamond.

NEW YORK TIMES

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