Because every portable device we carry around with you says something about who you are — you know you judge every iPhone user — Iomega believes that your portable hard drive should as well, and from what we see, they seem to have delivered. The Iomega eGo portable hard drives are sleek devices, covered in anodized aluminum in multiple colors along with little shiny bits to further raise the eye-catching factor.

The eGo series comes in a range of sizes expected for a portable hard drive, between 250GB and 500GB. Iomega promises that the devices can survive falls of over four feet, which is quite decent, though I wouldn’t decide to test these limits on purpose. The devices are USB 2.0 powered, meaning you don’t have to carry around another power brick.

Iomega also included some nifty extras; the device comes with download instructions for McAfee VirusScan Plus to guard against viruses and malware (obviously useless to OS X users), a few backup utilities (slightly redundant for OS X users who know what Time Machine is), and a 2BG cloud storage with MozyHome. An extra all users can appreciate is a Y-shaped USB splitter that frees up the USB port that the hard drive is plugged into.

These are certainly great dad and grad gift ideas; they’re neat looking tools in a neat package.

Iomega, a company under the wing of local tech and storage giant EMC Corporation, announced Wednesday that they have released a New England Patriots-themed portable hard drive.

The Iomega eGo Patriots edition is decked out with the team logo above a 2.5″ 250 GB hard drive.

The tiny drive is a USB 2.0 product and retails for $129.99 at local retailers including Staples, the Patriots ProShop, and online at Patriots.com.

The eGo also comes with EMC’s Retrospect Express HD backup software, which allows automatic and on-demand backups of your files and drives. It works with Windows and Mac computers.

Iomega’s new 160GB Media Xporter Drive is essentially a standard USB hard drive that comes with software to “console-ize” your media files.

It’s designed for you to plug it into an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, and rock out with your movies, TV shows, photos and music. There’s a hundred of these types of products out now, aiming to port computer files to the home theater environment.

What’s good about this product is that, if you have an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, you can drag and drop your files onto the Xporter and turn your console into an even more robust home theater PC.

What’s bad about this product is that you can snag a USB hard drive for less than the Xporter’s $120 tag.

Back to the good. Drag your files to the Xporter; plug it in; use it. There’s a degree of idiot proof-ness that goes into products like these that makes them attractive in a moderate price range.

It will be interesting to see what kinds of gaming, casual and Gen-Y products Iomega starts to release as opposed to commercial backup/data solutions now that they are owned by EMC. Maybe Iomega will be the younger consumer branch?