Here’s something a bit different. The Tornado is a USB file transfer device that contains software very remaniscent of laplink (if any of you go back that far…). You plug the USB cable into each machine and press the button on the device. That launches the software, which immediately goes full screen on each PC showing a tree view of the drives and files on “this machine” and “other machine” (obviously context sensitive based on which machine you’re looking at).

Then you just drag and drop files around as normal. Very easy, and much simpler than setting up network connections.

For small amounts of data a USB memory stick is still easier, but when it comes to backing up big chunks of data this looks like a winner.

(edit: As I was writing this up, news came in that this device has won yahoo’s Last Gadget Standing event here at the show. Winner indeed!)