Archive for: jump drive
Lovers of old things and old looking things rejoice. The Steampunk movement is alive and well. In particular, Steampunk-ified gadgets are quite the site. Taking something that is technologically advanced and then blending styling cues from the 1800′s is quite the combination. Such a sight can easily be seen with the Steampunk Flash drive above.
It’s not the first nor will it be the last. But in there here and now, it’s certainly cool enough to stare at for at least a few seconds. But that’s where the fondness will stop. Though the drive features a slightly higher than average 8GB of storage, the price for the custom old fashioned design will set you back $250 bones. Is it worth it to you?
Gallery
GizmoWatch > AtCrux
Dog tags as a means of self identification for your four legged friend are sooooo 1890. Come on guys, let’s get with the program here. Shall we? The Pet ID Tag is the dog tag of the year 2010 and beyond. Essentially it’s just a rugged flash drive that can be affixed to your pooch’s collar giving whoever finds them in the unfortunate misplacing, a quick, clear, and easy way to get your lost mutt back to your happy, humble abode. It’s a great idea really. At only $14.99, it’s at least considerable as many custom dog tags cost as much or more. Personally, I’d rather have a geeked out dog tag than some stupid flower design with glitter. But that’s just me. Though no information regarding storage capacity is present, we have to ask: Does it really matter? I mean, a simple text file with your information doesn’t need that much space. Your dog certainly doesn’t need a 16GB dog collar flash drive does he?
If you really want to be a dork, you’ll get GPS installed on that furry animal of yours. Then you won’t even need a dog tag or to “search” when they wonder off. Simply track the signal. Though the above solution is a lot cheaper. Which are you leaning towards?
Ubergizmo > Coolest-Gadgets
Transferring large files onto flash drives these days, with multi-GB sized files, can be painfully slow at best, agonizingly tragic at worst. This is all over USB mind you. Extremely portable solutions other than USB are pretty much non-existent. Granted, once USB 3.0 starts going mainstream, USB 3.0 flash drives will of course flood the market and make us consumers happy campers. But what do we do until then? Use the Active Media Products USB/eSATA flash drive combo.
The beauty of this flash drive is of course the dual port design — USB 2.0 for compatibilities sake and blazing fast eSATA for those large transfers. The drive comes in 16GB or 32GB capacities thanks to it’s MLC NAND while remaining small and pockatable.
When all is said and done however, mobile eSATA in a 16-32GB flash drive doesn’t exactly sound cheap. But, in this case it actually is with the 16Gb version coming in at a “I’m ordering two now” $69.95 and the bigger 32GB sibling weighing in a tad heavier on the wallet at $109.95.
Ya, they’re more expensive than your typical flash drive. But your typical flash drive doesn’t yet come in 16/32GB variants, feature eSATA, and provide up to 100/50(MB/s) read/write transfer rates. The only thing that will top this is an eSATA/USB 3.0 combo. Either way, I’m getting one of these. eSATA is quickly becoming more common. Why not add another gadget to the collection?
TechFresh > TweakTown
Active Media Products
If you ever found yourself on the wrong side of the law, just how far would you go in evading the 5-0? Would you run on foot, by scooter, car, or plane? Would you pull knife, gun, rocket launcher, plasma shifting uber weapon? All of these and more are thoughts that go through a persons head in the few seconds in which they transform from innocent, frightened civilian to hardened criminal. I’m sure that running on a scooter and shooting plasma beams at the police is a much more favorable “goin down in a blazing glory” that Florin Necula would rather prefer. Unfortunately for Mr. Necula whom recently found himself on the wrong end of not the police, but the Secret Service, the only means to hide the sought after information from the men in suits was to literally keep his mouth shut — and swallow a flash drive.
Can you say ouch? It makes me barrel over and wince in pain when I think about all of the unsettling feelings a flash drive would bestow upon my innards. For Mr. Necula, four days was as much as he could take. After which, the dreaded “removal operation” ensued at a local NYC hospital. I’ll let you all use your grown up minds and imaginations on how it was removed. Was the data recovered fully? That information is MIA at the moment. Looks like we’ll have to follow up on this one a little on down the road.
As for Mr. Necula, he is currently facing (4) felonies, “obstruction” humorously and ironically being one. Now that’s what I call determination…(or stupidity)
Cnet
- February 22, 2010 3:08 am
After a brief 15-month hiatus, it looks like personal flash drives will once again be allowed inside the Department of Justice. Spurred by a rash of virus outbreaks and compromised computers, the DoD enacted the ban back in late 2008 to get a grip on the damaging and stubborn malware war path.
Don’t go all hogwild just yet though, bringing in a bin of flash drives and relying on them for home and work use. The new decree strictly mentions “mission critical” jobs as the only time in which flash drives can be used. So simple flyers for DoD employee of the month and luncheons probably won’t fit the bill. Sorry.
And not any old flash drive will do. Only a select few drives from only a couple of manufacturers have enough password or encryption security to stand up to the military’s and DoD’s strict standards. With that said, such high security features mean your little Hello Kitty talking head flash drive probably won’t cut it. To some, that’s a blessing. Hey, at least it’s good to see the DoD moving back to 2002 tech again, is it not? Flash drives FTW!!
DefenseNews
- February 9, 2010 12:36 am
What would you say if I gave you a USB hub that was made out of cheap plastic, a crystal eagle, and featured gimmicky blue LED’s? You’d probably laugh and hopefully take the joke in good stride. There is of course the ever persistent danger that you’d take that econo-hub and chuck it right back at my face. Seeing as how it costs next to nothing, the loss after it fell to the ground and shattered would be relatively painless. The fake crystal shards in my face however, would not be. On the bright side, it has 4-usb ports…
If such a tale sounds uber exciting, you can relive it for yourself for the low low price of $5.99.
[Nerd Approved]
- February 9, 2010 12:14 am
Mentioning the word “Woody” to your elders — especially the “older” elders — will garner colorful stories and vivid accounts of years past when cars had actual wood on the outside of the body. Crazy stuff. Nowadays, the only thing slapped on the outside of most cars is some form of metal or carbon fiber. Different times, different toys. Seeing as how a ton of wood is now being freed up since it isn’t going to automobile designs, why not take the chance to do something crafty and put that non-used wood to good use?
If you’ve got a solid hour, a USB stick, a couple of blocks of wood, a tool of some sort to cut and/or drill (a dremel is preferred), some glue, and a small bag of patience, you’ve got all that you need to set out and make your own homemade flash drive. The full instructions can be found at Instructables. But really, how hard could it be? Just drill/dremel/cut a hole in the wood, pour in some super strong glue, place USB stick inside, and let dry.
One more thing. The directions and pictures on Instructables depict a rather thick block of wood being used. I can understand the added thickness for durabilities sake. If I decide to undertake “Woody Remake 2010″, I’ll more than likely go with a slightly thinner piece of wood. If you’re in the same boat as me concerning drive size, be prepared to color outside the lines a bit.
See, I told you it was easy.
Instructables
I’ve seen some strange novelty flash drives before in my relatively short time span spent on this planet so far. But I think the title of “world’s weirdest” or “world’s most disturbing” flash drive has been one-upped by the Taxidermy Flash Drive Mouse w/ light up LED eyes. Yes, you read that right, an actual mouse carcass all hardened up and stuffed chock full of wonderful flash storage and light up LED eyes to boot.
I have to ask, at what point does the cool or funny aspect of a novelty flash drive cross into weird, gross, or downright disturbing? One thing’s for sure — If you have a knack for going all out on Halloween, this flash drive is definitely up your alley. As for me, I’m not really grossed out by stuffed animal bodies. Though, used in this fashion is admittingly, slightly odd.
Would you use it?
Ubergizmo > Make
Are you a fan of Steampunk’d gadgetry? I’m kind of on the fence personally. While it is cool to see custom electronics and one-offs, a couple months back there was a huge explosions of steampunk material that frankly, burned me out.
A few months out of the public eye however will do wonders for your interest. Not to mention, if done well, Steampunk gadgets are a sight to behold. Take for instance this Steampunk’d USB flash drive/Hunley (old classic submarine) replica. The drive itself is your run of the mill 16GB flash drive, which I might add is a fair amount larger than many novelty/custom flash drives. Even better however is the obvious attention to detail the creator “WillRockWell” of Etsy put into this little digital wonder.
If you’re feeling all nostalgic (and have a healthy, fat wallet) why not make this flash drive part of your collection? It’s mighty shiny…don’t let the $800 price tag blind you.
[Product Page]
GizmoWatch
