USB Inserts bring ads into the print age and back again... or something
By Laura June 
posted November 30th 2009 2:04PM
posted November 30th 2009 2:04PM
Be honest: you really want to crack open a magazine and find one of these paper-thin USB key ads, right? No? Well... here's the thing. We really think this is a cool concept -- made to order, super slim, die cut USB drives that can be tucked in the pages of a newspaper or magazine (if you know what those are) -- with whatever content a company wants to throw on there. However, we're also not really sure the inserts would be compelling enough for us to ever consider loading up whatever content was on it. Regardless, that phone on the right sure seems to be familiar...
I love the KIRF gadget and the KIRF logos.
Sweet!
Now I can use my iBerry to order some FRAKUR online that will be delivered to me by RAPID-EX !
iBerry?
@Hydraulics
look at the pictures......
I think only any idiot would actually insert one of these into their computer. Can anybody say VIRUS? It's like seeing a french fry between couch cushions and going ahead and eating it. You don't know what else has leaped onto that fry.
@kjb434
That's true, I would be quite concerned about airborne viruses jumping into my magazine.
I always keep plastic covers on my USB ports when they're not in use, you never know what could get in there.
@kjb434
Normal people have auto-play disabled, and you can simply wipe it.
@Wwhat
"Normal" people don't know what auto-play is.
Alimas is right.
Normal people who would pick this out of a paper or magazine would know all the precautions and would assume there anti-virus software (if they have one) would save them.
@kjb434
Not sure where you are going with the "french fry" analogy. What is this world coming to when it is no longer safe to each couch fries?
@kjb434 so you are saying that we should make them look like french fries?
Someone found a MASSIVE lot of 8/16/32MB chips...
even cheap starter cell phones come with 64MB Micro SD cards.
@(Unverified) Do they even make 64 MB MicroSD cards now or are they sitting in a warehouse somewhere?
Wait! Is that an Iphone with a Qwerty keyboard?
Photoshop FAIL, they put images on SIM cards and not USB drives. You can tell from arrangement of the contacts.
ima go try to shove a SIM card into my USB ... brb
@(Unverified) WOAH !!! i just got a DROID AD!
They look more like sim cards???
Looks like a sim card, but not. It's the way some Slim USBs look....
@Geaux
Hmm, those USB cards with the SIM contact pattern probably violate USB specs. The outer two contacts are supposed to be longer such that power & ground make contact before the data pins do. This way, if there's a big static charge on the card, it will be dissipated to ground first rather than shocking the data line drivers.
I wonder if this is a case of one party doing things wrong, and other people copying them rather than bothering to look at the official standard.
1. Take out of magazine
2. Format
3. ????
4. Free flash drive (profit!)
@JPeak nice SP reference.
@JPeak NOW THEY WILL MAKE THEM READ-ONLY.... DOHHH... get the scotch tape handy...
Yea, to the guys saying it's a SIM card - I have a USB flash drive in my wallet that has that exact pattern on it. A lot of the slim ones do that. No clue why.
What about putting the AOL software on it? They wouldn't be as functional as the CD coasters we used to get, but heck I won't complain.
@donv69 , I had the same thought. Definitely reminds me of the old days where AOL would shove their installer disks EVERYWHERE.
I'm sure they'd be read-only with coupons and stuff -- great idea!
Once you started hearing about people putting trojans/viruses on thumbdrives and dropping them in public for people to pickup, use and get their systems infected - you knew that USB drives would never be a good anonymous mass media distribution method.
I agree that inserting one of these into a computer is probably to dangerous to be sane - that said, plenty of people are likely to do so.
You guys really need to read the links. The product isn't a USB thumbdrive, but merely stores 100 characters to drive a user to a website and such.
"Does the USB Insert™ web key contain content?
The USB Insert™ web key is essentially a routing device. Beyond the relatively minimal info programmed into the key so that it can instantly route users to your online destination, the key contains little content. It has no content storage capacity. This contrasts with "memory sticks" and "flash drives" (as they are commonly understood), which provide significant amounts of memory for digital data storage."
I think it'd be kind of cool if they used these to put the free software a lot of magazines put on CDs now.
frakur? i hardly knowur!
That's a HTC Dash keyboard on the iPhone.... Poor qwetry keyboard.
I got one of these with a credit card ad. It's not a thumbdrive. It's some sort of weird HID device that mimics a bunch of keystrokes to run a browser and punch in a URL when you plug it in. Kind of clever, actually. I took it apart (naturally) and found a bunch of test points on the circuit board that may warrant further experimentation. Maybe the chip is also some sort of keypad encoder?
so the USB Insert actually just takes control of your computer and dumps you at some website on IE?
Probably one of those websites that your mom (and the IT dept) told you to avoid?
I'm not the biggest environmentalist around (I think Greenpeace is pretty worthless), but this is just another huge waste of material. Right up there with the deteriorating disposable DVDs to replace rentals. At least straight print ads can be recycled. Apparently marketing/ad departments just hate the earth.
I can't wait to never see one of these in any of the magazines I subscribe to. More JUNK to toss into the landfill.
YMF
My thoughts exactly. This goes against security best practices. Find random flash drive, insert into your computer, infect your machine, pass USB flash drive to friend.
Cool idea but clearly it wasn't thought out. So what if someone wants to go put a quarter in a news paper machine, (do people actually do that still) take out 20 papers, replace USB flash drives with trojans, malware, spam, then place the papers back in the box for the next iddiot.
Not to mention I can see it now..."ohh cool a Heineken USB flash drive with exciting content". Only to now get beer bottle pop-ups every time you surf the web.
If this even becomes a reality, it won't last long. Many people, like myself, will not stick something into their computer that they just happen to find in a magazine.
@Ubiquity - This is guy is a reseller of the USB Insert and his digital catalogs are from ZMags .... what a loser to give a cheap plug. He calls himself viral , I don't see any of his articles anywhere.
Hmmm.... that would depend on what kind of magazine it was. Some extra video content to accompany an "interesting" article perhaps?