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Some people complain that netbooks don’t have enough storage space, and in many cases, consumers that purchase netbooks also rely on external USB drives for extra storage. Here are two unique USB flash drives that are not only fun, but also help out a good cause – the WWF (World Wildlife Fund). Check them out!

Back in June, Active Media released the WWF Penguin USB drive, which it claims is free of lead and mercury. The bodies of these penguins are made of PVC-free non-toxic silicone. The USBs come in either 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB capacities and are priced between $12.95 and $42.95 each.

For every purchase, 5% of the sale goes to the WWF and no matter how many penguin USB drives Active Media sells, the company is still planning on donating at least $25,000 to the cause.

For more photos of these penguin USB flash drives, click here.

Currently, since there have been rumors that penguins may not be popular with all consumers, Active Media has come out with polar bear flash drives. In addition to the capacities that the penguin USBs are available in, the polar bear USBs will also be available in 1 GB. Pricing for the 1 GB flash drive will be $9.95.

Active Media has tried its best to create a replica of an actual polar bear. The flash drive itself is made of rubber, but it also has a hair-y texture, aiming to replicate the fur on an actual polar bear. The polar bear USB is supposedly a 40:1 model.

Per unit donations to the World Wildlife Fund for the polar bear USB drive will be the same as those for the penguin USB drive – 5%.

For more photos of Active Media’s polar bear USB flash drives, click here.

Netbooks are rising from their 2008 status as a niche product to a category of their own, and that means a new burst of netbook accessories has arrived for us to ogle. Most of these have been a long time in the making and are intended to eliminate some of the shortfalls of the netbook category, so hopefully netbook consumers can all find a balance between the cost of the accessories and the pain they save.

If you’re too late for the ASUS 1004DN netbook with an optical-drive, that doesn’t mean you’re doomed to DVDless netbooking for life. NUI Digital has released a $229 drive that can burn DVDs and play Blu-ray: the Slim BD Combo Drive EBC100. It connects with a USB, as is standard, and is compatiable with a separately sold power adapter.

Also available in the entertainment category is the PCTV HD Pro Stick by Pinnacle Systems – a USB stick that gets your netbook TV in both standard and hi-def varieties.

The stick comes with a remote control and will even let you use it as a DVR, provided you can sacrifice 20 GB of space to do so. Naturally, if you’re low on space to power your netbook TV, the logical conclusion is an external hard drive, so allow us to suggest the Aegis Mini by Apricorn.

The Aegis Mini external hard drive will complement most netbooks’ meager HD space by supplying a whole 240 GB of storage in a form factor the size of a deck of cards. According to Apricorn the drive preserves battery life with a short cable. The problem is that, however heavenly the Aegis Mini hard drive may sound, it will costly nearly as much as your netbook: $269. It’s also supposedly incompatiable with anything other than Windows (or Mac OS for laptops).

The Apricorn drive connects to your machine by USB port, which are always in short supply in netbooks. This leads us to our next netbook accessory: the Belkin 4-Port Ultra Mini USB Hub.

The Belkin USB hub gets you 4 USB ports for a mere $15 – definitely worth it if you like your netbook accessories. It’s available at Belkin’s site, so be sure to take a look.

We could go on for ages – Kensington has a new set of netbook accessories including a $49.99 Power Adapter for Netbooks, a netbook-specific Security Lock for $24.99 and a reversible neoprene 7- to 9-inch netbook sleeve for only $14.99.

If none of these options appeal to you, there are a few more exotic ones in our netbook accessories section. They’re just begging to be implemented in your machine, so give your netbook some attention and take a look around.

Via ComputerWorld.

ASUS hasn’t held back the new netbook models lately, bringing them to market faster than most other netbook manufacturers (even Dell). The latest we’re hearing about is the ASUS Eee PC 1002HA, set to beat out the 900, 901, 1000, and 1000HA models in a number of categories.

The 1002HA netbook uses the same old 1.6 GHz Atom CPU, but bumps up its hard drive to the 160 GB version a number of other netbooks have gotten into. It only manages 1 GB of RAM but is easily (though not cheaply) upgradeable.

The styling of the new ASUS Eee PC netbook has been redesigned as well. The newer black and brushed-metal design is a serious bonus, as the old-school pearl white can tend to look a bit toylike. It’s a solid and sturdy machine, has good hinges, and a quiet keyboard. Another big plus is the three USBs, audio ports, VG, Ethernet and SD slot.

This new netbook has in fact reverted to the 8.9-inch screen size we thought we’d overcome. Most netbook makers are going up to at least 10 inches for their devices. The 1002HA ASUS Eee PC has MultiTouch on its touchpad, which is awesome. Windows 7, anyone?

It will crank out an average battery life – around 3 hours. If this isn’t your cup of tea, MSI is always around the corner trying to beat out ASUS and will be doing so with the new MSI X320 and its 15-hour battery. Another option is the MSI U115, the netbook rocking a 9-cell battery.

The ASUS netbook is $500. Not great, but palatable. Stay tuned for more on the netbook, and be sure to check out our first update on the Eee PC 1002HA.

The new Toshiba NB100 netbook has hit the market, boasting a few enticing features to differentiate it from the competition.

The Toshiba features the same Atom processor used by the Eee PC, MSI Wind, and Mini-9. At a standard 1.6 GHz with Wi-Fi, bluetooth, Ethernet, USB ports and a memory card slot, the NB100 seems somewhat basic in most areas. There is one aspect to the netbook, however, that I think is something to be excited about.

The most fascinating thing is that the USB connectors on Toshiba’s first netbook are designated ’sleep-and-charge’. What this means is your USB-connected devices (cell phones, MP3 players, etc.) can be charged through the netbook without you needing to even turn on the machine. This step seems to be part of a new wave of efforts (that we noted in yesterday’s article) towards improving the efficiency of these devices. With business travelers and college kids not needing to carry around as many power adapters, this feature will definitely make the NB100 all the more attractive to the netbook market.

The flip side here is that the keyboard of the Toshiba NB100 is sadly somewhat imperfect. While it may not be an issue for the more enduring among us, typing for long periods may become uncomfortable and difficult. Instead of being appropriate for the 8.9-inch size of the thing, the keyboard seems as though it were built for a 7-inch netbook. While netbooks like the Dell Mini-12 (which we covered a few days ago) have shown a trend towards improved keyboard usability on smaller devices, the Toshiba NB100 is somewhat substandard in this respect.

Personally, the sleep-and-charge feature sounds interesting and intelligent, but not worth the small keyboard. However, with its first netbook certainly up to par in other areas, Toshiba looks to be willing to experiment with the netbook market. We should expect some promising things in the future.