LaCie is shooting for aesthetic appeal with its new pair of Philippe Starck hard drives, one of which responds to the touch.
The renowned French product designer's name is on both Starck HDDs, engraved into the casings that surround free-flowing chrome. His red "plus" insignia is projected through LED lighting. There's a rectangular desktop model and a smaller drive that's curved like a wallet.
If you're more into features than looks, you might like the desktop hard drive's capacitive button, which can be programmed to form two different functions. For instance, you can tap the surface of the drive to launch an application or hold a finger on the surface to mount or dismount the drive.
Starck's lofty description of the drives admires the ever-expanding genius of portable storage, "never abating, symbolically characterized by the sculptural magma that one attempts to cleave, to master within this geometrically perfect strongbox."
"A symbol of strength mastered," he continues, "of freedom guided, of incandescent magma heeding to the form of its cast. The interpretation is free. But the mystery remains."
I don't know, external hard drives always seemed fairly straightforward to me, but it's nice that someone's putting some thought into the visual appeal of these useful gadgets.
Best of all, these drives are reasonably priced considering their premium construction. The desktop costs $130 for 1 TB and $250 for 2 TB, and the pocket model costs $100 for 320 GB and $140 for 500 GB. Both drives have USB 2.0 connections and include software for creating backups.
Just one caveat, offered by Engadget: The drive's sharp edges, particularly on the mobile version, could put a scratch in your laptop when stored together. The "incandescent magma," however, is not a threat.
