Digital leather

Minds@Work LLC, an Irvine, Calif., data-storage company, recently introduced the Digital Wallet, a portable 6-gigabyte hard drive that enables executives to take their data with them.

Minds@Work has included software that encrypts all data stored in the Digital Wallet. Only a user with the

The Digital Wallet also would be useful to those who take digital photographs, says Steve Recek, executive vice president at Minds@Work, by allowing photographers to take more shots when the camera's flash media storage is full. The unit comes with a PCMCIA slot for transferring data from the camera's memory card to the Digital Wallet.

"The Digital Wallet has full functionality without being hooked up to a PC," Recek says. "It's a microcomputer with limited function." It is compatible with computers running operating systems from Apple Computer Inc. and Microsoft Corp., but the Digital Wallet is not designed for use with handheld computers.

"The unit is very durable and has been drop tested at 48 inches," Recek says. But if the wallet is damaged, Minds@Work offers data-recovery services for the unit.