Iomega puts a skin spin on mobile data storage

Storage manufacturer Iomega has launched a series of personal and portable hard drives that provide up to 500GB bytes of storage and sport a variety of unique and colorful "skin" designs that add an eye-catching twist to external storage for still and video images.

The Iomega's Skin Hard Drives are USB 2.0-powered 500GB portable devices, but available in three models, each with a distinct graphic theme created for Iomega by Skin Industries, one of the leading alternative "Sports Fashion" brands in the U.S. These include: A "Radical" Skin Hard Drive model has a retro Skin-branded printed logo design on a black top with a vibrant yellow base; a "Red Hot" Skin Hard Drive model, featuring a "Skin" Swipe logo printing on a red top with a black base; and a "Knock Out" Skin Hard Drive model with a dark gothic logo design on a silver top with a black base.

"The new Iomega Skin Drives exude an alternative personality with eye-catching Skin Industries graphics that demand the attention of anyone who doesn't accept the status quo," says Jonathan Huberman, President of Iomega and the Consumer and Small Business Products Division of EMC.

Beyond the ‘look and feel', however, the drives pack some serious capabilities, like enough capacity to hold up to 200,000 photos, over 125,000 songs or more than 190 hours of video, notes Iomega. All three can easily slip into a laptop bag or pocket, require no external power supply. Just connect the included USB 2.0 cable to your Skin Hard Drive and your laptop, netbook or desktop and you are ready to store and share photos, music, videos and more.

The Skin Hard Drives feature Iomega's standard Drop Guard protection, which helps guard the drive from accidental drops of up to 51 inches on to industrial carpet - or 40% better than the industry average, the company claims. Included free with each drive is Protection Suite, a one-stop portfolio of backup and anti-virus software that provides added protection for photos, videos, music and other files.

The Iomega Protection Suite includes: A complementary 12 month subscription to Trend Micro Internet Security for the PC, or Trend Micro Smart Surfing software for Mac; Iomega QuikProtect backup software for file-level backup of data to hard drives and network-attached storage devices; Retrospect Express software, which can be used to backup all data plus applications and settings (for Windows and Mac desktops and notebooks); and MozyHome, an Online Backup service that provides a complimentary 2GB of online backup storage and unlimited storage for $4.95/month.

The Iomega Skin Hard Drives are available from select U.S. retailers for $119.99 each, and will be available in select European markets next month. Each drive includes a three-year warranty with registration.

Look for a full review of Iomega's Skin Drive soon at NotebookReview.com.