Marshal, an electronics manufacturer in Japan, has released a new “smart” hard drive case with many interesting functionalities. The MAL2635S is a 3.5 inches SATA / SATA II external HDD case, with LED indicators to let the user know at a glance how much unused space remains on the drive: 90%, 70%, 50% or 30%. The case is geared towards energy savings: its aluminum body prevents it from overheating, and there’s a power saving mode that activates automatically after the drive has been idle for 10 minutes. It can be used as an external hard drive (USB 3.0/2.0), but also as an additional storage drive for the PS3, with Toshiba Regza, or as a storage drive for TV recording.

Size 34×206×115mm for 466g (without hard drive). No word yet on pricing.