Michael Leung's "Hardwood USB" flash drives
By Evan Blass 
posted Jan 24th 2006 8:30AM
posted Jan 24th 2006 8:30AM
We've seen plenty of attempts at creating a stylish USB flash drive, but
until now we've yet to see one product that delights our inner fashionista. That is until Inhabitat turned us on to
Michael Leung's line of mostly-prototype drives which feature simple, classy designs that you'd be proud to shove into
your USB port. Among his several designs (a USB ruler drive whose length represents its storage capacity, a
stone-shaped portable hard drive) is one that actually made it to production, the so-called "Hardwood USB."
Available in different wood casings with a leather string attached, these drives offer new school functionality in an
old school, earthy design that we could totally get down with- if we didn't already have a drawer full of blank
promotional drives, that is.[Via Inhabitat]
#7 I am sure they don't make the internals themselves so you must be right, but that is besides the point. People like things like this and it doesn't matter is somebody can make it cheaper - what matters is that they can sell it for that price...
For any one interested will sell these drive in maple, rosewood, walnut and bamboo from 512MB to 1GB. They cost just a little more than normal drives. Say $12 for 1GB.
They are part of our green line of promotional products. See more at www.proformagreen.com
Sorry, meant to write we carry the drives in memory from 512MB to 8GB.
http://proformagreen.com/eco-flashdrive.shtml
~ JS
Let me guess: $199 for a 128MB version!
:-P
Hey guys,
Are we going to cut more trees to satisfy our "fashionista" ego? I would strongly recommend not to buy this article....
Manuel
why do we have to cut trees for this waste of crap - how about donating a promotional drive to me - i need one to store my college work on it and i am poor - in fact very poor :(
#2 Manuel
Yeah, wow, look how much wood that thing uses! They should call it a flash LOG! It would take all the endangered, cancer-curing trees of the Amazon to mass-produce these!
maybe you at Engadget SHOULD get down on one of these, that is, after you mail me some of the blank promotional drives to clear some space in your drawer!
those look decent, but the whole "wood technology" thing needs to come from the top down, not the bottom up. Wood (done right) is luxury... no one would want a wood-panel dash in their high-end car if the first people in the industry to offer wood interiors was Hyundia.
wood is a renewable resource, before buying I would make sure that it's not rainforest wood.
Wood is good.
yeayeayea you smacket it Michael!
it really looks nice:)
If the wood is from a renewable resource I don't see the problem.
I think this looks alot nicer that most usb drives which have an abstract moulded plastic shape, garish colours and flashing lights in an attempt to look cool or high-tec.
This should also FEEL more robust and reliable than a piece of cheap plastic: whether it actually is, is a different matter.
I supose an analogy would be: would you prefer the feel of pushing buttons on your ipod or using the click wheel? Which feels nicer?
And yes it is simple to make, no bad thing if you have the time and inclination to make one! :)