A Backup Drive Worth Staring At Backup drives are usually characterless bricks, far more function than form. But the drive maker LaCie has teamed with the French silversmith Christofle to make a drive that is pleasing to the eyes and has plenty of function to boot. Called the Sphere, it is - you guessed it - a sphere in gleaming silver. It is covered in actual silver plate, manually plated and polished in Normandy, France. Roughly half the size of a softball, it looks as though it would weigh as much as a cannonball, but it is quite light at just over a pound. Inside the Sphere is a 2.5-inch hard drive with 1TB of storage. It requires no power cord, just a USB connection to a computer, so a mess of cables won't mar the Sphere's elegant looks. It goes on sale later this month, priced at $490. It has one drawback: If you touch it, which is hard to resist, fingerprints are apparent. A LaCie official said Christofle recommended a polish called Twinkle. Stock up, you'll need it.