$170-300 • www.wdc.com

When it comes to external hard drives for computers in 2009, you've got to have a gimmick.

Storage is, after all, a commodity product, so drives are sold on style or ease of use. Perhaps the most novel add-on to the spate of recent products in this category is one that is actually novel.

Western Digital's readout on the cover of its new My Book Elite and Studio drives looks like ink on paper -- fitting for a drive meant to look like a thick book. The display -- which doesn't disappear even if you cut the power to the drive -- gives the remaining data capacity of the unit, both as a pictogram gauge and in the number of free gigabytes. A little padlock symbol is displayed if the drive is security-encrypted.

Give the drive a name -- Otto, Pirated Beatles Music, whatever you like -- and it is displayed on the readout as well. Both versions are bundled with backup software and are available in various capacities, starting with one terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) for $170, up to two terabytes for $300.

A REALLY SMALL AIR GUITAR

$ Unknown • www.t-mobile.com

Guitar Hero fanatics, your phone is here. T-Mobile is offering a special limited edition myTouch Fender edition phone for the holidays.

The phone has a simulated sunburst finish, like that popularized on guitars like Fender's Stratocaster and Telecaster and Gibson's Les Paul. But the phone has a few improvements that go beyond the aesthetic. One is a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack to accommodate high-end headphones. Internal storage is 16 gigabytes, more suitable to an aficionado's music library than the standard myTouch's four gigabytes. The phone will also come preloaded with video and audio clips "by iconic musicians," usually classic-rock geezers. The phone runs on the Android operating system, and is otherwise just like the standard myTouch, which includes a touch-screen keyboard, a rollerball control, Wi-Fi, GPS function and a 3.2-megapixel still and video camera.

T-Mobile did not announce a price and said only that the phone would be available in time for the holidays.

NEW YORK TIMES