How U.S. sanctions hurt Iranian Internet activists

(Credit:CBS/iStockPhoto)

analysis President Bill Clinton's 1997 electronic embargo against Iran, which curbed its citizens' access to U.S.-based software and Web sites, continues to create legal hassles for American Web companies.

In August 1997, Clinton signed an executive order saying U.S. companies and individuals could not provide "goods, technology, or services to Iran" -- a decree that led to unintended consequences such as Utah-based Bluehost giving the boot to Iranian bloggers and opensource software site SourceForge.net denying access to Iranians.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's announcement yesterday, which was designed to complement President Obama's statement marking the Iranian New Year and comes as advocates of war against Iran are redoubling their efforts, may not be that much help.

Treasury says these forms of "services and software" can be made available to Iran:

Personal Communications (e.g., Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, Microsoft Live, Skype (non-fee based))Updates to Personal Communications SoftwarePersonal Data Storage (e.g., Dropbox)Browsers/Updates (e.g., Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer)Plug-ins (e.g., Flashplayer, Shockwave, Java)Document Readers (e.g., Acrobat Readers)Free Mobile Apps Related to Personal CommunicationsRSS Feed Readers and Aggregators (e.g., Google Feed Burner).

But Treasury spokesman John Sullivan downplayed the significance of yesterday's news. The "announcement was a clarification of existing guidance," Sullivan told CNET in e-mail. "It did not change the guidelines."

The problem is that the existing guidelines -- last liberalized in March 2010 -- are still pretty restrictive.

One example: even after that modest liberalization, Google restricts Iranians' access to the Android Market, now called Google Play. In response to a question at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt blamed Treasury regulations.

"I'm with you," Schmidt said. "But prison--there's no bandwidth."

After the 2010 liberalization, Google did announce that "we're making Google Earth, Picasa, and Chrome available for download in Iran." (A Google representative declined to elaborate when contacted by CNET.)

But Iranian Internet users remain, understandably, peeved that the other restrictions imposed by the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, continue to exist.

They've started a petition saying they're denied access to the Android Market, among other products. We "do not have the slightest interest in the governments' political stances," the petition says. "We just want to be able to use the software like any other person in the world."

The irony: Clinton's anti-Iran order in the 1990s presumably was never meant to restrict access to security software and Web sites that can aid Iranian activists agitating for a freer society. Yet it does. A 2010 article in Foreign Affairs called the current rules "grossly outdated." (A newer set of U.S. sanctions against Iran, restricting financial transactions, is also causing unintended consequences for everyone from drug maker Merck to a Redmond, Wa.-based diaper maker.)

Collin Anderson, an independent researcher in North Dakota who focuses on Internet filtering and censorship in the Middle East, has compiled a list of U.S.-based technology products that remain unavailable to Iranians. Among them: Apple's iOS app store, McAfee's antivirus software, Oracle's Java and MySQL, Adobe's Acrobat Reader, DropBox, Real Player, Google AdWords, and Google Android Market.

After yesterday's list from OFAC that mentions some of those products by name, the list of off-limits apps is likely to shrink. But Anderson notes that OFAC has not authorized some very useful products and services including antivirus applications, privacy-protective VPNs, the ability to buy domain names and SSL certificates, satellite connectivity, and phone or other mobile hardware. VPNs would be especially useful in a country like Iran, which has demonstrated an extraordinary willingness to conduct surveillance of its citizens.

"There are allowances on food and medical supplies that could be modeled for hardware or others, but the executive agencies have been quite evidently afraid of members of Congress like Mark Kirk," Anderson says. Sen. Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican who holds President Obama's old seat, has been leading the charge to cripple Iran's economy on suspicions it's developing nuclear weapons.

Another limitation is that other countries may not benefit; even though the Treasury Department's OFAC may be edging toward a more liberal approach, Commerce Department regulations still target democracy activists in Syria, where a near-civil war continues. Similarly, downloads of Google Earth are banned for Sudan.

"Restrictions from the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security still appear to prevent communications tools and services from being exported to Syrians without a license," Electronic Frontier Foundation attorneys Cindy Cohn and Jillian York write in an essay. "Because of these restrictions, Syrians still cannot access Google products Chrome and Earth, cannot download Java, among various other tools, and cannot use hosting services like Rackspace, SuperGreenHosting and others."

The unintended consequences of these electronic sanctions aren't exactly new. In 2003, OFAC sent Monster.com legal guidance that caused it to censor resumes from its users that mentioned Iran, Syria, Sudan, Myanmar, Cuba, and Libya. Back in 1996, citing the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act, a U.S. government official quietly pulled the plug on Iran's Internet connection.

In theory, neither Treasury's OFAC nor Commerce's BIS probably have the authority to interfere with Web communications. The so-called 1988 Berman Amendment to federal law stripped the president of his authority to "directly or indirectly" regulate the export of "information and informational materials."

But in reality, bureaucrats aren't known to relinquish power readily. And while President Obama has been willing to record YouTube videos on the free flow of information, he has yet to reverse his predecessor's decision. Which means that Clinton's 1997 embargo, which claimed Iran posed an "unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States," has forced Iranians and Syrians to remain second-class Internet citizens.

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Android Ice Cream Sandwich coming to Motorola Droid Razr and Razr Maxx, April 4

A leaked image from Best Buy shows the dates of ICS updates.

(Credit:Android Police)

Ice Cream Sandwich cravers, rejoice.

According to Android Police, a leaked image from Best Buy shows that the Motorola Droid Razr and Droid Razr Maxx from Verizon will get an OS update to Ice Cream Sandwich on April 4.

Two days later on April 6, the HTC Rezound will get the same scoop of Android ICS.

A few days prior, another carrier, AT&T, announced a number of its devices will be getting an upgrade as well. Some of these handsets include the LG Nitro, the Samsung Galaxy Note, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9.

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Facebook buys IBM patents

Facebook confirmed Friday that it has added a trove of IBM patents to its arsenal on an increasingly lawsuit-strewn technology battlefield.

Reports that Facebook bought 750 software and networking patents from IBM surfaced less than two weeks after struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! accused the thriving young firm of infringing on 10 of its patents.

"I can confirm that there was a purchase but I don't have any other details to share," Facebook spokesman Larry Yu said in response to an AFP inquiry.

IBM would not comment.

Acquisition of the patents came as California-based Facebook prepared for an initial public offering and as Internet titans increasingly battle in courts as well as in marketplaces.

Yahoo!, in a lawsuit filed in US District Court for the Northern District of California on March 12, accused Facebook of infringing on patents in several areas including advertising, privacy and messaging.

The Sunnyvale, California-based company asked the court to order Facebook to halt its alleged patent-infringing activities and to assess unspecified damages.

Facebook, which was founded in 2004, a decade after Yahoo!, expressed disappointment with the move.

"We're disappointed that Yahoo!, a longtime business partner of Facebook and a company that has substantially benefited from its association with Facebook, has decided to resort to litigation," a Facebook spokeswoman said.

In the suit, Yahoo! said that Facebook's growth to more than 850 million users "has been based in large part on Facebook's use of Yahoo!'s patented technology."

"For much of the technology upon which Facebook is based, Yahoo! got there first and was therefore granted patents by the United States Patent Office to protect those innovations," Yahoo! said.

"Yahoo!'s patents relate to cutting edge innovations in online products, including in messaging, news feed generation, social commenting, advertising display, preventing click fraud and privacy controls."

Once seen as the Internet's leading light, Yahoo! has struggled in recent years to build a strongly profitable, growing business out of its huge Web presence and global audience.

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SMS Audio SYNC by 50 wireless headphones review

Ah, celebrity-endorsed headphones -- whether it's Beats by Dre or Soul by Ludacris, you've always gotta wonder whether their actual sound-reproduction chops will match up with the steep price tags and fashion-focused designs.

Oftentimes, shocker of shockers, the answer is a resounding "no." One of the newest entrants into this game is SYNC by 50, stemming from a long collaboration between SMS Audio and none other than Curtis James Jackson III -- 50 Cent, of course. Unlike the partners' $250 Street offering, these headphones have the unique selling point of offering both wireless and wired operation, a convenience for which you'll pay a staggering $400.

Although they don't offer active noise-cancellation like competing models, these headphones are banking on Kleer's tried-and-true wireless audio technology, which touts 16-bit CD-quality resolution. We spent several weeks testing these spendy sound-blasters, so continue on to our full review to learn whether they live up to the hype or could us to a second trip back to the studio for remastering.

As far as headphones go, the SYNCs arrive in a particularly massive package. During our unboxing, we were greeted by a semi-hardshell black zippered case with blue trim. Interestingly, it can stand upright thanks to four plastic feet, and the top section is conveniently molded into the shape of a handle. Unzipping the case gave us access to the real star of the show, the headphones and their unpleasantly odorous materials. Thankfully, a few days of use quelled the odd stench. Nestled in between the 'phones, you'll find a wireless 2.4GHz Kleer 3.5mm audio dongle, along with a USB wall adapter for charging. On the opposite side of the case there's a mesh pocket, which holds a micro-fiber cloth, a blue 3.5mm audio cable with a one-button inline remote / mic, USB-to-mini-USB cable, an airliner adapter and some product booklets.

The basic design elements of the SYNCs unsurprisingly nod to other established brands on the market. Remove the buttons and chromed plastic trim, and you have a near replica of the Beats Studios. Then there's the blue-backlit "S" on each earcup that's similar to Signeo's Soul by Ludacris cans. That said, the folks over at SMS Audio have crafted a robust offering with some notably differentiating design choices. While the plastic doesn't look or feel very high-end, it's ridiculously flexible, which bodes well for their durability over time. Absent are any folding hinges, a design choice that SMS claims to offer more rigidity (albeit at the expense of portability). We bent and twisted the headphones many ways and were left with nary a sign of any stress. The headrail adjusters also click smoothly along their tracks and stayed locked in position while we were out and about. Overall, the build quality is much like what we've come to expect from Samsung's mobile phones: cheap-feeling plastic that's actually rather durable.

Speaking of the trim and finish, you'll have a choice between the white seen here or black, both featuring light blue and chrome trimmings. Although we normally love gizmos that get the unicorn color treatment, our review sample's ear cushions had blue stains from the carry case and quickly began collecting grime after only a few weeks of use. If you're the type who obsesses over keeping your gadgets pristine, we'd advise picking it up in black to save yourself the headache.

Let's move on to specifics. On the left earcup's side, you'll find a power button and another for bass boost / SYNCing (more on that later), while its underside houses a 3.5mm cable input and micro-USB port for charging. Along the right, there's a cluster of playback controls: advance, rewind and volume. Each button is crowned with raised markings that match up with these symbols (say, volume up), making them easy to find just by feeling around. The buttons make a satisfying click, too, though there's no audio feedback confirming you've just adjusted a setting. We should also point out that all of the controls won't work out of the box (details later).

The included cable plugs snugly into the headphones and its right-angle jack on the opposite end works well if you plan on keeping your PMP in your pocket. We're happy to report that cable noise is pretty minimal, and that the single control-button / mic work across a range of Android and iOS devices. Aside from the blue color, though, it's essentially standard fare and we would have liked for another cable or two to be included at this price -- just as you'll find with almost any pair of headphones like this. By the way, if you're hoping for a remote with volume controls, like Control-Talk for iOS devices, nothing of the sort is currently available.

Of course, the headphones are wireless, so let's discuss the dongle for a moment. Starting with build quality, the consistency of the materials is more of the same; however, it ends up seeming flimsier once you notice the wiggly connection at the audio jack. Other than this minor niggle, we didn't run into any actual problems with its materials. On its top is a power slider, along a with a micro-USB port for charging. Using its 2.4GHz wireless signal, the dongle can work up to 50 feet from the headphones, but in practice we rarely made it past 20 or so before our audio would begin to cut out.

Oddly enough, the dongle only enables independent volume control with the headphones, meaning those forward and rewind buttons will remain useless. You will have some options to enable these with add-ons, which we'll detail further below. On a more positive note, you can connect up to four of the headphones to one wireless dongle. We're not exactly sure of the appeal for this beyond speakers, but if your buddies happen to own their own pair you could have an odd sort of listening party, we guess.

Notably, pairing the headphones and transmitter is very simple, as their very name would suggest. After holding down the SYNC button on the dongle for three seconds, you'll do the same for the headphones. While in progress, the LEDs blink in rapidly, eventually matching up at slower pace to let you know that everything got... synced. SMS notes the process takes about 20 seconds, which sounds about right, by our clock. If you're worried about disturbing others with those flashing lights, the blinkers turn off if you hold the rewind button down for three seconds. Take note, though: as far as we've surmised, the dongle's blinker will remain on unless powered down. Sigh.

The headphones will work passively with the included cable, but as a fail-safe to keep the batteries from draining by accident, they'll power off if no sound gets transferred for about a minute. Sadly, there's no way to bypass this feature, which turned out to be a nuisance since we constantly needed to re-pair the devices while using the headphones out and about throughout the day. Speaking of battery life, we were able to get about 16 and a half hours of continuous use (SMS rates them for 17) but annoyingly, the dongle only lasts a bit more than half of that.

Frustratingly enough, although SMS had the foresight to include a USB wall charger, it has just a single input. This means you'll have to charge one unit at a time unless you want to hook one into, say, your computer. So, you might wonder, why not just opt for Bluetooth, sparing the need for a dongle? One of the major selling points on these cans is Kleer -- this wireless technology offers 16-bit CD-quality lossless audio. Despite the claimed high-resolution, these are not aimed at audiophiles, per se, as the headphones expectedly feature a pre-tuned EQ. (We'll save the details for the sound section later on.)

When it comes to fit, the SYNCs perform good in the comfort department. The earcups do have an ample amount of padding, but we would've appreciated a secondary set of cloth pads to avoid swampy ears on hotter days. Sadly, the drivers aren't set very deep, which causes the headphones to fit a bit like supra-aurals despite the over-ear design. Similar to the Klipsch Mode M40s, this means a hard driver plate may rest against your ears, negating the affects the memory-foam padding -- we certainly experienced some mild cartilage cramping.

Still, the headphones are very lightweight, with a loose fit that's just snug enough for them to stay on your head without any serious clamping. Although the cans will remain on your head, that doesn't mean they'll stay in place. The headband is slippery, causing the headphones to slide forward whenever you're walking about. These stand as small quibbles on their own, but we'd be remiss if we didn't point out that many headphones costing far less come out ahead in many of these real-world tests.

Alright, let's get to the key part of any headphone review: audio quality. To begin, it's worth noting that while the headphones are loosely marketed as noise-cancelling, they are actually of the passive noise-isolating variety -- if that. The headphones do an abysmal job of blocking out external sound, and in some cases the world felt louder with them on, as if we were in a tunnel. It's disappointing given how large the headphones are, but we imagine the comfortably care-free fit isn't exactly conducive to a pristine listening experience.

As long as we were in a quiet environment, we generally liked the headphones' voicing, albeit with some caveats. As you'd expect, they're bass-pushers first and foremost, but they're fairly big sounding closed-back cans compared to other high-end options we've tested. We found ourselves engulfed by the spacious soundstage and clarity that the 50mm drivers provided. It's not all good, though. We wouldn't say the mids and highs are tinny, but without EQ guitars always ended up lacking thickness. It becomes especially noticeable once a full band kicks in, as very often the guitars end up fighting with the cymbals for sonic real estate. The lower end is exceptionally smooth, but we did perceive a lack of presence.

For example, with Jimmy Eat World, the bass guitar loses some of its usual top-end bite, and the initial whack of a bass drum winds up buried under its thump. On a related note, you'll be able use a bass booster, dubbed Thumpp, whenever you use the cans wirelessly. The processing gets done using Kleer's tech, which is a partial shame since cord-lovers are left out of the fun. Sadly, bass heads' might want to sit down for this next note -- the bass boost consistently did more harm than good, usually causing some mild, but audible, distortion.

Despite the headphones' inherent bass kick, that lacking presence meant that, with genre's like dubstep and hip hop, the low-end was more audible, albeit compressed. When it comes running these wireless, nothing sounded drastically different our ears, which is a good thing considering its supposed to supply lossless quality. Overall, the headphones sound pretty good, but they'll likely seem a bit airy sounding.

That said, when you then realize you paid $400 for the headphones, they're considerably less impressive -- especially up against the thickly voiced M40s. On a positive note, the cable's inline microphone faithfully carried our voice during phone calls without any complaints from those on the other line.

As we mentioned earlier, all of the controls on the SYNCs don't work out of the box with any device. While there isn't a magic accessory to quell this curious design choice, SMS would be happy to offer you one of two more dongles for an extra fee. Computer users will benefit from SMS' Kleer USB dongle, which, unlike the audio jack-purposed one included, allows all of the headphones' controls to work. While we're glad the option is there, the dongle is huge compared to the average flash drive and it costs a whopping $80 dollars.

According to the included manual, a 30-pin iDevice version of the headphone jack dongle is also on the way. There's no specific word on a price or release date, but it'll likely set you back another 50 dollars or so. Of course, this dongle would enable the playback controls, which remain functionless otherwise.

When it comes down to it, SMS Audio's SYNC by 50 wireless headphones are simply too expensive for what you get. Sure, they're stylish with a decent fit and good sound, but the experience is just messy. The 16-bit lossless audio via Kleer wireless is an intriguing prospect, but fussing with dongles is always a hard pill to swallow. Furthermore, the whole implementation feels half-baked once you factor in the mixed compatibility between features.

Thumpp bass boost will only work with the dongles due to the sound processing. You only have the option for a microphone when using a cable. The one dongle that does makes all of the headphones' on-board features work isn't included in this already exceptionally expensive package.

The list goes on, but you've likely gotten the gist by now. All that said, we're always suckers for gadgets stuffed with bells and whistles, so here's to a more seamless experience -- and some more reasonable pricing -- in version 2.0. That is, if there ever is a second generation.

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Best gaming desktops big and small

Gaming desktops have become impressively diverse over the past few months. The best part is that even the lower-end systems are remarkably capable. It's now possible to spend less than $1,000 on a ready-made gaming desktop from a specialized vendor that will play pretty much any current title you can throw at it.

Whether that accessibility has come from better-designed hardware components, or game graphics stagnating because of the longer life cycle for consoles, it's a great time to be in the market for a new gaming desktop. Below you'll find four of the best systems in the category.

(Credit:Sarah Tew/CNET)

Alienware x51Alienware started off 2012 with one of the more innovative gaming desktops to hit the market. Slim tower desktops can typically only accommodate half-height expansion cards, restricting those systems to slower budget-priced 3D cards at best. Thanks to some clever motherboard design, the Alienware x51 can accept a full-size graphics card, allowing it to run most current PC games at decent image quality and at 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution. You will also appreciate its price, which starts at $999. Read the full review of the Alienware x51.

(Credit:Sarah Tew/CNET)

Falcon Northwest Mach VOn the other end of the price spectrum, the most recent Mach V from boutique PC granddaddy Falcon Northwest comes with three graphics cards and an overclocked, six-core Core i7 3930K CPU from Intel. The CPU will be overkill for most current games and consumer applications, but if you're a committed gamer and have the need for massive multithreaded processing capability (perhaps you analyze seismic data for your weekend oil and gas scouting club), this Mach V will deliver uncompromising, high-resolution game performance, even across multiple monitors. And all for only $4,995. Read the full review of the Falcon Northwest Mach V.

(Credit:Sarah Tew/CNET)

Origin ChronosOrigin's Chronos is a direct response to the Alienware x51. This system took home an Editors' Choice Award. Alienware's came close, but just missed. The small form factor Chronos only costs $1,199, $200 more than the tiny Alienware system, but with an overclocked Core i7 2550K CPU, a faster graphics card, and a much larger power supply, the Chronos is faster and more upgradeable than Alienware's entry. Read the full review of the Origin Chronos.

(Credit:Sarah Tew/CNET)

Velocity Micro Edge Z55The $2,299 Velocity Micro Edge Z55 lands in the middle of the gaming desktop pricing landscape, but especially if you play on a single monitor, it's hard to argue that you really need to spend more. Its Core i7 2700K CPU comes overclocked to 4.9GHz, and its pair of GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 graphics cards will play any PC game you can find at smooth frame rates. Read the full review of the Velocity Micro Edge Z55.

Compare these systems head to head.

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Top 5 external drives: Backing up is a personal matter

The last Saturday of March is World Backup Day, and you'll see a lot of storage vendors taking this occasion to pitch their products for backup purposes. I am about to do a similar thing, but from a very different point of view: yours.

None of the vendors goes as far as guaranteeing the integrity of storage on their products. At most, a vendor would give you a new product to replace the broken one, or in the currently unique case of IoSafe, offer to pay up to a certain amount toward data recovery. I, on the other hand, promise, if not guarantee, that if you follow my advice, your data will be safe.

The truth is that backing up is a personal matter that needs to be taken care of on a regular basis -- even daily, if possible. The key thing is to store copies of data in multiple places and never rely on just one medium for your important, irreplaceable data.

Note that commercial movies, music, and other purchasable digital content are replaceable. It's great that you can back everything up, but most of the time, the personal information that you really need to safeguard takes up very little storage space.

Up-to-date backups of your data are like insurance; you need it and at the same time hope to never have to resort to it.

The second thing to note is that even a brand-new hard drive can die at any time, without any warning. You can always lose your portable drive, and your online storage service can go out of business all of sudden. You need to act when everything is in working order -- which can give you a false sense of safety -- because otherwise, most of the time, it's just too late. And let me say this once more time: never use just one medium to keep your important, irreplaceable data.

Up-to-date backups of your data are like insurance; you need it and at the same time hope to never have to resort to it. There are many ways to keep your data safe and you can find out about different types of backups here.

To make it easier, in this roundup, however, I'll focus on external hard drives, which are the most popular, affordable, and easiest way to back up (and restore) data. Even better: you only have to pay for them once. Here are my choices for the top five external hard drives that are great ways to keep your data safe. They are formatted for Windows but can be easily reformatted to work with Macs. They are listed in order of seriousness, with the most casual -- and affordable -- drives on top.

(Credit:Dong Ngo/CNET)

WD 2TB My PassportWestern Digital's 2TB My Passport is the world's first portable drive that offers 2TB of storage space. This is about as large as you can get from a 2.5-inch-based external hard drive given the current perpendicular recording technology. Despite this top capacity, the drive is very compact and is bus-powered. All you need is the included standard Micro-USB 3.0 cable for it to work. (The drive works with both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0.)

The new My Passport offered great performance in my testing and doesn't cost too much, either, at just around $200 at online retail stores. It also comes in 1TB, 750GB, and 500GB versions that cost less accordingly. As an alternative to the new My Passport, you can also check out Seagate's GoFlex Portable series.

For backup purposes, the drive is preloaded with WD Backup software that makes backing up data a very easy job. Read the full review of the WD 2TB My Passport.

Clickfree C6No portable drive can beat the C6 in terms of ease of use. On a Windows machine, the drive's backup software runs by itself and makes a daily backup if it's kept plugged in. You can recover files using its software when Windows is running, and you can also use it as a boot drive to restore the entire system in case of a drive crash or virus infection.

Apart from the C6, there are other drives that offer similar features, such as the HP Portable Hard Drive, and the Clickfree C2N. Read the full review of the Clickfree C6.

(Credit:Dong Ngo/CNET)

Silicon Power Armor A80The Silicon Power Armor A80 takes storage security up a notch with its rugged chassis, which is waterproof down to a depth of 3 feet and can handle shocks and drops from around 4 feet while moving. It survived some serious beating in my tests and also gave great performance.

The 2.5-inch-based portable drive offers up to 1TB of storage and its body has a groove for storing a short USB 3.0 cable. The Silicon Power Armor A80 comes in four capacities: 500GB, 640GB, 750GB, and 1TB, and will make a great backup drive for people who travel a lot or work in rough environments. Read the full review of the Silicon Power Armor A80.

(Credit:Dong Ngo/CNET)

IoSafe Rugged Portable hard drive

Speaking of rugged, this drive literally has that as its middle name. The IoSafe Rugged Portable has a full-metal casing (there are versions that are made of titanium) and can withstand basically anything you throw at it.

I personally shot the drive with a shotgun a few times during a demo and it survived that just fine. The drive can also handle serious water submersion and other abuse. The only thing it can't withstand is extreme heat.

As I referred to above, IoSafe bundles the Rugged Portable with a year of Data Recovery Service that pays up to $5,000 (depending on which model you buy) to recover data if the drive is damaged for whatever reason. This service can be extended to three or five years. It also comes with a full version of the Genie9 Timeline Pro backup software. Read the full review of the IoSafe Rugged Portable hard drive.

(Credit:Dong Ngo/CNET)

IoSafe SoloPro Disaster-Proof Hard DriveThe IoSafe SoloPro is the ultimate backup drive that can satisfy even people who are worried about their data safety to the point of paranoia. The drive is huge and weighs about 15 pounds. This is because of the multiple layers of protective material that keep the internal hard drive safe from extreme heat (up to 1,550 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes). The drive is also able to survive submersion in up to 10 feet of water for three days. The reason it should only be used as a backup drive is that it's a single-volume storage device, therefore, susceptible to hard-drive failure.

Like the Rugged Portable, the SoloPro comes with one year of a data recovery plan that covers up to $5,000 worth of damage. Recently, IoSafe introduced the Solo G3, which will soon be reviewed. Read the full review of the IoSafe SoloPro drive.

Want to find out how these five drives stack up against one another? Compare them head-to-head.

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iPad smugglers face fresh pressures

Shipping Apple's tablets to the Far East can make big profits – but is threatened by tougher customs, mail costs and global rollout

Early on the morning of 16 March, Wong Tat joined a line of about 100 people waiting for the launch of the new iPad in a chilly rain outside an Apple store on the outskirts of San Francisco. When the doors opened, he was among the first to buy his quota of two iPads – the maximum Apple allows per person. Then, sporting a bright red cap for easy identification, Wong began to direct a stream of people toting their new tablets to a silver Mercedes 4x4 in the parking lot.

After about two dozen of the neatly boxed iPads had been put in the trunk, the 4x4 sped to a nearby run-down hair salon and massage parlour. There, the haul of tablets, costing about $12,000, was transferred to red, white and blue wholesale bags, which Wong then spirited out the back door into another car. "They're headed for China," said Amy, a thirtysomething hair stylist at the salon who had joined in the pre-dawn operation outside the Apple store. She would not divulge her last name.

The iPads had embarked on the first leg of a journey that would ironically return them to the country where they were assembled in the first place. They may have been stuffed into suitcases and taken by passengers on a flight to China, or possibly flown by courier to the duty-free territory of Hong Kong and smuggled in students' backpacks across the border onto the mainland.

Demand for Apple products, coupled with severe constraints on local supply, has created a thriving black market. A 16Gb iPad bought in San Francisco for $499 – about $540 including tax – can be sold for more than $1,000 in Shanghai the next day. Apple says it sold more than 3m of the devices – which now come 4G-ready with a sharper "retina" display – in its first weekend.

"You can pretty much determine when the first iPad arrives in China by monitoring the first flight out from the US on launch day," said an Apple employee who was not authorised to speak on behalf of the company.

The same process happens in other cities: on the same day that Wong was at work in San Francisco, the London Evening Standard reported that "black market gangs" had hijacked the launch, with buyers leaving the Apple Store in Westfield with the standard two iPads and then handing them, still in their shrinkwrapped boxes, over to eastern European men. It quoted Martin, 33, one of the people who queued to go into the Apple Store in Covent Garden again and again, and who explained: "I hope to get around 70 iPads today. I will be sending them on to India. The guys who are queuing get paid £10 or £20 for a day's work. I know them from my community centre, word gets round that this job has to be done."

Companies that make iPad accessories, such as cases and speakers, also hire people to wait in line on launch day, a source involved in that business said. Because accessory makers do not get an early peek at Apple products, they have to scramble as soon as new iPads and iPhones hit the streets to reconfigure assembly lines and craft accessories that fit any tweaks in the design, he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Nursing the husk of a new machine

People like Wong, dubbed huangniu, or "yellow-bull black-market operator" in Chinese, have operated richly lucrative businesses. They pay people like Amy – codenamed "nurses" because the word "hush" sounds like "helpers" in Chinese – $20 to $30 to queue to buy an iPad or iPhone for resale on the black market. Factor in as little as $12 to ship each device via a Chinese shipping agent, and small wonder Wong and his ilk found it worth their while.

But it is getting tougher and costlier to smuggle the devices into China as the Chinese customs authority has told some US-based shipping agents not to accept orders of iPads, and warned travellers to declare their gadgets at the border and pay a 10% import duty on electronics.

Two small shipping companies that ship to China, BLZ Express and Global Courier Services, said they now refuse iPad shipments. BLZ, based in Fremont, California, posted a notice on its website this month saying: "Our clearing warehouses have stopped receiving iPad in accordance with a recent customs authority notification." UPS and FedEx, the largest US package delivery companies, did not return requests for comment.

In Shenzhen, across the border from Hong Kong, an online report from the state-owned Guangzhou Daily – a mouthpiece of the local government – said the newest iPad was among 20 taxable goods that should be declared by travellers.

"I stopped carrying iPad a few months ago because now the customs at Shenzhen can be pretty strict," said a Chinese student in Hong Kong, who declined to reveal his payoff for smuggling.

Meanwhile, Apple now simultaneously launches devices in multiple countries, boosting availability and depressing black market prices, although the new iPad with its higher-quality display was available in fewer countries initially than its predecessor. A key launch venue is Hong Kong, however, which was among the 10 countries for the initial launch – unlike last year, when the territory, a key channel to China, was not included in the launch day.

"It's getting really hard to do this compared to previous years," said Amy, who wore a dyed red streak in her hair, as she trimmed a young man's "faux-hawk" hair style in the San Francisco area salon. An electronics dealer in Oakland, California, said he struggled to break even this year, a far cry from previous iPad releases when he shipped upwards of 1,000 tablets and pocketed profits of $50 to $100 per device sent to his buyer in Hong Kong.

This year, he had no choice but to send 250 iPads via FedEx – which quotes $110 to ship a tablet weighing about 1kg to China – hours after they hit US stores. The same-day launch of the tablet in 10 territories, notably including Hong Kong, curtailed demand. "This whole game is over," the dealer complained. "There's an overabundance of supply. The market's flooded." He said he visited only a couple of stores in the San Francisco bay area for tablets, with the Chinese black-market selling-price falling every day that passes.

Proudly worn

Despite that expansion in inventory, demand in China still outstrips supply. Online retail site Taobao.com carried iPad listings last week for as much as $1,100, though $600 to $700 price tags were more common. While iPads and iPhones have become badges of western chic and status to upwardly mobile Chinese, they are usually the last to be able to buy them directly from Apple stores.

Industry sources say smugglers operate out of multiple countries, but mainly in the US because that is where stores carry the most products.

Last Friday in Hong Kong, stores ran out of the newest iPad within hours. They are now sold via a daily lottery there, while they are still readily available in many US stores.

The Chinese "nurses" are easy to spot: they stroll in, hand over a note describing the model they want and leave as soon as they get it, whereas an ordinary buyer will often take their gadget out for a test drive before leaving the store and ask sales staff numerous questions. "Apple has gotten so big that they can flood the market. Before they released it, they probably had been making them for six months and had them sitting in a warehouse. Now they are selling it in Asia and Australia, and it's out 16 hours before us," said the Oakland dealer.

• iPad
• Apple
• Computing
• Tablet computers
• China
• Asia Pacific

Charles Arthur

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