reviewsTESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED
Private Disk
We carry a ton of data on our USB thumb
drives that we wouldn’t want leaked on the
Internet. Whether your key carries your “piss
off” letter to your boss, a cache of all your
passwords and serial numbers, or those
incriminating videos that you took on your last
trip to Amsterdam, you need to protect its con-
tents. That’s where Private Disk comes in.
Using this tiny app—it’s less than
2MB—you can encrypt your files using
256-bit AES encryption. Without the appro-
priate password, your data just looks like
a junk-filled file on your drive. Unlike other
encryption utilities, which encrypt one file
at a time, Private Disk creates an encrypted
virtual volume, which is perfect for encrypt-
ing the contents of a USB key.
Here’s how it works: First, you create your
encrypted volume, specifying the size of vol-
ume you want. Then the app will save a single
file containing the info in the volume in a loca-
tion of your choice. Depending on the size of
the encrypted volume, and the speed of your
computer, this can be a fairly lengthy process.
Then, to access your encrypted volume, you’ll
double-click the file and enter your password.
After the data’s decrypted, the contents of the
volume will show up in My Computer, and you
can read and write files to it, just like any other
drive. It’s really that easy.
We like to dedicate about half of our 2GB
thumb drive to our encrypted volume, and put
a copy of Private Disk on the unencrypted por-
tion, along with other files we want access to
at quick notice. All in all, it’s a great little app,
albeit a bit pricey for a one-trick pony.
—WILL SMITHPOWERED SUBWOOFERAltec Lansing BB2001
8
ALTEC LANSING ""
$50, http://www.alteclansing.comENCRYPTION SOFTWAREA judicious application of bass can go a
long way toward making up for the sonic
shortcomings of a small speaker system.
And while no one will mistake Altec Lansing’s
diminutive BB2001 subwoofer for a Velodyne
DD-18, this $50 box positively transformed
the company’s iM5 portable speakers.
The BB2001 consists of a 5.25-inch
front-firing driver powered by a 16-watt amp.
Those aren’t very impressive specs for a
subwoofer, but Altec’s little speaker moved
plenty of air in our near-field listening tests.
And once the tiny iM5 was freed from the
hopeless task of producing anything mean-
ingful in the way of low frequencies, the por-
table speaker system sounded much more
respectable—at least at moderate volume.
When we reviewed the iM5 in January
2006, we noted that the speakers distorted
badly when overdriven. The BB2001 shares
that same characteristic—it doesn’t like to
be pushed. And although the speaker and
amp are housed in a sturdy MDF cabinet,
that construction didn’t stop our bass torture
test (the opening kick drum in Paul Thorn’s
“Fabio & Liberace”) from causing the driver
to rattle nervously when we cranked up the
volume. But considering that we had to lie on
the floor with our ear next to the cabinet to
detect the problem, we’ll overlook it.
The BB2001 can be paired with any audio
system equipped with a crossover and a sub-
woofer output, including Altec Lansing’s iMT1
(for Palm devices), XT2 (for laptops), iMX2 (for
XM2go satellite radios), and the aforemen-
tioned iM5 (for the iPod). Unlike those battery-
powered devices, however, the subwoofer is
housebound by its need for AC power.
—MIC HAEL BROWN0RIVATE DISK
$45, http://www.dekart.com9
MA XIMUMPC
KICKASS