But since you’re still reading, I’m offering a longer review. Never, ever, ever will I buy another Lacie product. I am now certain that Lacie’s hard drives are only purchased for their looks, because there is nothing to commend when it comes to longevity.

The two Lacie external hard drives I’ve owned have both crashed almost one year to the day after using them. They were both my external storage solutions for my photo library. They are both utter product failures. I curse you Lacie! May you go bankrupt in a spectacular fashion and may your designers produce the next Edsel.

I’m addicted to my iPhone. The most addictive quality of the iPhone is its extendability through the App Store. There’s so many good programs to add and at the same time so much junk (a little like Windows that way!) I thought I could help out some of my fellow tech nerds with my top 5 recommendations.

1) Truphone – this sweet little application lets you make cheap international or local VOIP calls from your iPhone. All you need is a WiFi connection. Free.

2) Stanza – a sweet e-book reader for the iPhone, based on open standards unlike the Kindle. Aside from full versions of public domain historical works, you can also download and read stories from a growing list of periodicals like The Atlantic, Wired and Tech News. So far I’ve read George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Free.

3) AirSharing – basically this allows you use your iPhone like a USB drive. You connect your iPhone over a WiFi connection to your computer and transfer away, then view HTML, PDF, Word docs and basic Excel spreadsheets on your iPhone. Sweet tool that’s a steal for $6.99

4) Wordpress – connect to your Wordpress blog, write a post, and post it. Finicky to type long posts on the iPhone, but if you need to post something short and sweet, this lets you do it anywhere. Free.

5) Twinkle – great app for the Twitter-ing classes. If you don’t know what Twitter is, find out. My take on Twitter is that it’s Facebook distilled down to your status line, a kind of streaming, personal blog on whatever you’re doing. Free.