A heads-up on those quirky little gadgets and gizmos that can make life just that bit easier. We’ll feature products as they catch our attention so let us know if you come across anything that fits the bill.

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Gizmo to Get

Tuesday, 15 December 2009 11:43

Icy Box

That horrible sinking feeling which takes over when a hard disk fails to fire up as expected might well be cured with the help of a simple external enclosure which costs less than £30. There must be many companies and individuals who use external drives for backing up data or who have failed computers stuffed full of SATA disks. When such a disaster happens, most people will simply assume that it’s the drive itself which is at fault but, before binning these apparently dead hard disks, it’s easy to check them out using a powered independent case, such as the Icy Box.

Particularly with external units, the majority of times an external disk ceases to function is nothing to do with the hard drive itself. These days most are tough, 3.5 inch SATA units that should last for many years — the chances are that it’s the casing or power supply in which they are supplied which proves to be the Achilles heel.

An Icy Box external enclosure using ‘Easyswap’ technology can reunite you with those files you thought you’d lost forever. Simply remove your SATA drive from its existing case or housing (which shouldn’t involve more than a cross-head screwdriver and some nimble fingers), slide it into the new case so that it connects securely, close the enclosure’s door and power the unit up. Connect the Icy Box to a USB port or hub and the chances are that the drive will fire up with your data intact.

This principle won’t work if the drive is part of a RAID, of course, but it will at least confirm whether or not the drive is at fault. Icy boxes come in different flavours, including 2.5 inch IDE versions. Before binning those failed hard drives, these enclosures offer a low cost way of checking whether all is really lost. Check out the Icy Box at Maplin (www.maplin.co.uk) or find these units on Amazon.

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Gizmo to Get

Sunday, 20 September 2009 22:00

ColorChecker Passport

Some element of digital photography forms the basis for most of today’s end displays but photographers often fail to grasp and manage the right levels of control which are needed to give colour accuracy. X-Rite’s ColorChecker Passport is a neat and inexpensive gadget which lets users reference, control and enhance their images throughout their RAW workflow. It comes with its own set of photographic targets and includes stand-alone camera calibration software.

Gizmo to Get

Static can be annoying, as well as adversely affect the quality of your prints — but it needn’t be difficult to cure. Now there’s a cheap and simple anti-static device. Arcalian’s static discharging cord has tiny stainless steel microfibres running through it. It’s placed just one centimetre from the web (it doesn‘t need to touch) and earthed at one end. Any static charge will simply wick up the microfibres and be dissipated. It doesn’t need power, and comes in reels of 11m but stretches to twice that length. Also from Arcalian is a semi-flexible carbon rod, sleeved in a similar polyester/steel material to the cord. It works well on difficult substrates, and its rigidity means it can remain in place almost indefinitely.

Details from Craig Brawley at Arcalian on 0208 666 0417.