1. Canon CanoScan LiDE 600F

After being frustrated with the amount of paper I have lying around that requires filing I’ve been trialing the new version of Quicken Personal Plus 2008 which allows bills and statements to be scanned and attached to the relevant financial record.

Obviously to do this you need a scanner, which I didn’t have. After some consideration I chose this scanner based on one feature alone… It is powered off the USB port and doesn’t require any external power. As a notebook user this is invaluable, I can store the scanner away until I need it, then just pull it out, plug it into the USB and use it.

2. Western Digital My Book World Edition

I’ve always been a huge fan of Western Digital drives and I couldn’t live without my WD Passport Portable (Black) 120 GB USB 2.0 hard drive which is ultra-portable and powered off USB. Although I love USB devices when I’m at home I hate having to plug all of them into my notebook so I wanted some network attached storage at home where I could store files I don’t need to carry around with me (such as software installers and photos).

I bought the 500 GB edition because I felt that it was a better price-point than the 1 TB edition (although it does support mirroring which is handy). The drive does however have a USB port which you can attach any USB storage device to so that you can expand the capacity of the drive.

One cool feature (which I haven’t got working yet) is that the drive comes with software that allows you to access it remotely via the Internet.