FlashDrives
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'World's smallest' USB 3.0 flash drive is about the size of a dime
Thanks to Moore's Law we've seen flash drives grow steadily smaller and smaller as storage capacity does exactly the opposite. To wit, the new SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 USB 3.0 storage unit is perhaps the tiniest we've witnessed yet. The company claims the device is smaller than a dime and the 128GB of space can store some 16 hours of 1080p video with read speeds clocking in at up to 130MB per second. Gizmodo Australia notes that this isn't the most expedient drive available, but hey, given the rather diminutive footprint it's probably pretty safe to leave permanently stuck in your gadget of choice. That minuscule size comes at a steep price though: $119 for the 128GB model -- or 1,190 dimes.
Victorinox offers refunds for secure USB drives in light of discontinued software updates
Software support and security certificates are coming to an end for Victorinox's line of secure USB drives, but the firm announced on Facebook that it's offering customers full refunds until December 31 if they'd like to return their products in light of the developments. In order to avoid losing data, owners of the flash drives should perform a backup before the encryption application meets its untimely end on September 15th. However, files stored on non-encrypted areas of the device will remain accessible without further action. The Slim, Secure and Presentation Master storage sticks can still be used as run-of-the-mill thumb drives after the cut-off date, but the Swiss Army Knife maker's application will no longer be able to scramble or unscramble their contents.
Victorinox nixes software updates for USB drives, security certificate to expire in September
Victorinox may have offered a hefty bounty to crack its secure USB drives' encryption, but the storage sticks seem to have met their match another way: the end of software support. In an email sent to customers and a pair of Facebook posts, the firm announced that it will halt updates as of next month and that its security program's VeriSign certificate is only valid until September 15th. As a result, customers are urged to backup their data lickity split. According to the outfit, the economics of continuing application development just weren't reasonable and it'll now refer to a third party for all software. However, the Swiss Army Knife maker isn't out of the flash drive business -- it's committed to putting more of the devices on the market. We've reached out to the company for more details on how the thumb drives will be affected and we'll update when we get word. In the meantime, hit the source links for the notice or check out the e-mail below. [Thanks, Scott]
Portuguese opposition party wants 'terabyte tax,' voters want a new opposition party
Portugal's opposition party, Partido Socialista, is pondering a tax on storage media under the flag of copyright protection. Under the proposal, consumers would pay €0.02 for every gigabyte of storage purchased, so a 1TB HDD would cost around €21 ($28) extra, plus an additional levy on devices over that size means a 2TB drive could cost an additional €103.2 ($135). It doesn't just stop at desktop platters: USB sticks, memory cards and even smartphones would also be charged, with any device packing 64GB of storage facing a surcharge of €32 ($42). A party member defended the idea, saying that the tax is aimed at professionals who use larger capacity drives -- but since most consumer HDDs come with a minimum size of 160GB and the legislation is also supposedly meant to tackle piracy, we're not entirely sure it adds up -- except maybe in government coffers.Update: We're hearing that the bill titled PL118 has been withdrawn in the face of overwhelming common sense.[Thanks, Ricardo]
Mimobot Transformers thumb drives are exactly what meets the eye
Oh, look, Mimoco is back with a couple of new USB flash drives. These particular Mimobots come in the likeness of everyone's second favorite morphing robot rivals -- Optimus Prime and Megatron. (Obviously Cy-Kill and Leader-1 take the top slot in our hearts.) Sadly, these Transformer thumb drives don't actually transform, but they do come preloaded with screensavers, wallpapers, and digital comics... if you're into that sort of thing. The Autobot and Decepticon leaders are available now, starting at $23 for 2GB of storage and reaching $60 for the 16GB model. PR is after the break.
Rogue modder rips off stingy consumer, puzzles repairmen... all with a USB thumb drive
Welcome to today's episode of "You Get What You Pay For," starring some poor sap in Russia who bought an external hard drive in China for a "very, very low price." It seemed like a bargain, until the schmo noticed that video files were picking up from the tail end, as if the preceding footage had vanished. When the folks at a local repair shop tore the disk apart they found a dinky 128MB thumb drive running in a loop, emptying itself when full only to start saving more data. Laugh all you want, but the repair guys (and us, frankly) are still scratching their heads as to how those scam artists pulled off this mod in the first place. [Thanks, David S.]
USB mass storage support coming to Xbox 360 on April 6th
We had a pretty firm idea that this was happening, but now Major Nelson has gone and made it official: mass storage is coming the Xbox 360 at long last. There will be a system update on April 6th, which will allow up to two simultaneous USB flash drives plugged into the system, which will be capable of storing profiles, game saves, demos, "and more." The maximum size supported is 16GB, and even though regular USB hard drives will be supported, they'll be up against the same size cap, and performance will suffer as well. You'll have to manually format a USB device for use in this way when plugging it into the 360, but Microsoft will be partnering with SanDisk for a branded drive in May that will come preconfigured. Also tweaked is the new memory management screen (what convenient timing!) which should make shuffling around these files less of a chore. Check out some screenshots below. [Thanks, Jeff] %Gallery-89099%
Lockheed Martin introduces 'PC on a stick' flash drive -- yes, Lockheed Martin
Our coverage of Lockheed Martin here on Engadget normally focus on things like laser weapons or futuristic airships, but it looks like the mega-defense company is now trying its hand as something a little closer to home for us: an ultra-secure USB flash drive. As you can see above, that's done with a little help from the folks at IronKey, but Lockheed Martin does seem to have made its new IronClad its own, and included some custom software that promises to let you carry your entire computer with you and securely use it on any public computer. Of course, exact details are a bit hard to come by, but the drive is available with "at least" 8GB of storage, and includes 256-bit encryption, built-in virus protection, and a variety of networking features that will let organizations keep watch on individual drives and control what can or cannot be installed on them. No word on pricing, but Lockheed Martin is apparently ready to talk with any companies that are interested in using the drives.
Maxell launches flash storage line
Could this mean the death of the Cassingle?
Calvin Klein gets into the Crapgadget biz
Yup, we see a ton of flash drives round here -- but this is the first one we've seen from the august house of Calvin Klein. Somehow, these sunglasses with a 4GB flash drive stuffed into the right stem are simultaneously uninteresting and horrifying to us... though we certainly enjoy the mental imagery of spotting someone sporting these while half a stem-piece is jammed into their laptop. If you're enough of a fashion victim to consider purchasing these bad boys, they'll be unleashed on the waiting world in October, and run you about $200. [Via Switched]
Flash drive bonanza: 36 crummy drives tested and compared!
The wild array of flash drives you see above -- a veritable cornucopia of bad taste, if you will -- has been put through some rather exhaustive paces by the freaks over at Test Freaks. That's right, they rounded up the finger tip, the tiny skull, the truly disgusting chicken foot, as well as a wide variety of fake edibles -- and poked and prodded them en masse until they came up with the answer we expected: most of these are actually pretty shoddily made. As if you buy a foul-looking shrimp tail flash drive because you expect it to get the best transfer rate. Hit the read link to check out the full insanity of this undertaking.[Thanks, Vincent D.]
Star Wars flash drives' giant heads seep into our teensy hearts
We see so many flash drives around these parts, it is truly, truly hard for any to distinguish themselves in our eyes. These ones? Well, we'll admit it: we have a giant soft spot for their massive noggins. Not the first Star Wars flash drives we've seen -- this newest set store up to 2GB per drive -- which isn't anything to throw a party over, but they're really cute, right? The set, which includes Darth Vader, Yoda (look at his toes!), a Stormtrooper and Boba Fett, will be available starting in October for $25 each. [Via Technabob]
SanDisk Cruzer Contour flash drive improves your looks
We've all been there: you're at an important meeting, Henderson asks you to see the Smith report, you reach for your flash drive to get the files and the entire room bursts into laughter because of your cheap looking storage device. Well SanDisk wants to help, and has, with its new Cruzer Contour. The "stylish" drive comes in 4GB or 8GB configurations, sports a trendy blue LED, and uses a sliding cap to protect the USB connector. On data transfer speeds, the company says it's twice as fast as its previous high-end offering, although it seems to have the same performance specs as the last Cruzer Contour model we saw in January. Regardless, thanks to SanDisk, you will never again suffer the humiliating jeers and jokes of your coworkers -- at least when it comes to flash storage.
SolidAlliance dock puts your USB ducks in a row
Anyone with even an ounce of geek cred has at least one of the many varieties of duck-shaped flash drives hanging obtrusively off of his or her computer, but up until now there hasn't really been a proper way to showcase these tributes to the whimsical bathtub days of youth. Well that's all about to change thanks to duck-loving SolidAlliance, who has just released a USB hub specifically designed for the iDuck, iDuck Love, Devil Duckie, and their many, many brethren. What makes this particular hub so duck-tastic, you ask? For starters, its got pictures of USB ducks adorned above each input -- so, you know, you don't accidentally plug in your sushi drives or something stupid like that. You'd think that they'd also space out the USB jacks so that you could squeeze in three full-size ducks next to one another, but alas, it seems that you'll need some baby ducks (or ducklings, as it were) in the mix if you want to fill up all four slots. And if you don't have enough electronic waterfowl to justify a dedicated dock? No problem: these damn ducks are so popular nowadays that you can even pick up non-functional, completely ornamental models to fill in the blanks.
Lexar recalling 66,000 defective JumpDrives
Here's a new one for you: we've all seen product recalls stemming from overheating batteries, defective CCDs, and faulty power cords, but this is the first we've heard of a USB thumb drive being called back for "posing a risk of burns to consumers and property damage." Actually, Lexar -- in conjunction with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission -- is recalling a total of five different models when all is said and done: the 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB flavors of the JumpDrive FireFly and the 1GB version of the JumpDrive Secure II. According to the CPSC, 66,000 of the faulty units were sold between April and May of this year -- check the Read link for specific serial number ranges -- and although so far no injuries have been reported, consumers are advised to stop using affected models immediately. As usual, the company will hook you up with a new model free of charge if you ask very nicely; as for us, we're probably gonna hold onto ours and use them to brand new interns with the Lexar logo as part of our geeky hazing ritual.[Via The Inquirer]
Sony to offer fast, high capacity Micro Vaults
Sony will soon be bulking up its line of Micro Vault USB thumb drives, so to speak, by adding several new models that offer either increased capacity, increased transfer speeds, or both. Though not reaching the 8GB plateau of the Micro Vault Pro, the upcoming units still manage to pack between 256MB and 4GB of data into a pocketable design, and all feature Sony's Virtual Expander software for automatically compressing your bits to store up to three times the drive's labeled capacity. Besides the storage boost, Sony will be offering the same size drives in a lineup called the Excellence range, which promise zippier read and write speeds of 29Mbps and 23Mbps, respectively. While all the new models are expected later this month, Sony is keeping pricing details...hold for terrible pun...locked up in the "vault."
Pretec's iDisk USB drives go BulletProof
Sure, HP's ballistics-tested StorageWorks XP1200 server is keeping your spy operation humming on the homefront, but what happens when your agents come under fire smuggling sensitive data in the field? Storage expert Pretec knows that people want their USB drives small and secure, and now they've apparently identified a demographic who also want those drives to be virtually indestructible, as evidenced by the recent release of the iDisk BulletProof lineup. As their name suggests, these 20Mbps thumb drives -- which sport capacities between 32MB and 2GB -- are able to not only take a bullet thanks to their "double layers of sealed protective metal," but will also survive unscathed should your enemies happen to set you on fire or submerge you in water while they're shooting at you. The entire set of drives is available immediately, but before rushing out to order one, perhaps you should first step back and consider the lifestyle choices that have made bullet-resistance a feature you so highly value in your portable electronics.[Via I4U]
