Usb Flash Drive -- Engadget

Solid Alliance's $10,000 Mnemosyne USB drive is built for style, not convenience

by Vladislav Savov, posted Jul 2nd 2009 at 5:47AM

The Greek goddess of memory, Mnemosyne, would surely be proud of this product bearing her name. For starters, it comes at a price few mere mortals can afford and is couched within an extravagant all-aluminum body. The puzzle cube certainly provides a ceremonial feel to accessing the data within, and makers Solid Alliance are pitching it as a luxurious receptacle for your most treasured memories. Yes, under all the sheen, you are still looking at 16GB of standard issue flash memory, but can we really put a price on mythology-infused style?

Edge Tech announces cheaper 128GB USB flash drive, still not very cheap

by Donald Melanson, posted Jun 16th 2009 at 3:58PM

Kingston got all the bragging rights by rolling out the first 128GB USB flash drive but, with that business now out of the way, other companies are now free to try to one-up 'em, and Edge Tech looks to be among the first to take a crack at it. While it does away with some of the added security and ruggedness of Kingston's offering, Edge Tech's latest DiskGO drive does match that magic 128GB storage capacity, and you will still get a seemingly durable aluminum housing, along with some basic encryption software for a bit of extra protection. Most importantly, however, Edge Tech's drive is more than $150 cheaper than Kingston's. Unfortunately for you and us, it's still $390. Look for it to start shipping on July 31st.

Kingston rolls out 128GB DataTraveler 200 USB flash drive

by Donald Melanson, posted Jun 15th 2009 at 5:58PM

Feeling a little wistful for the old days when USB flash drives costs hundreds of dollars apiece? Then you may want to pick up Kingston's new 128GB DataTraveler 200, which is apparently not only largest drive of its type to date but, at $546, one of the most expensive as well. In addition to that added storage space, that hefty price will also buy you a fairly rugged drive with a capless design, plus some built-in password protection and the usual Windows ReadyBoost capabilities. Of course, if you don't need that extra space, you can simply pick up Kingston's 32GB or 64GB drives, which run a slightly more reasonable $120 and $213, respectively.

[Via Test Freaks]

Penguin USB drive is infinitely cute, hilarious

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 10th 2009 at 11:02AM

It's not like we haven't seen slightly funny / interesting / unorthodox USB flash drives before, but there's just something about a headless penguin hanging from a USB port that gets us chuckling. Available in 2/4/8/16GB capacities, the simply titled Penguin drive even gives a portion of its proceeds to the World Wildlife Fund, providing you with even more reason to cave to the urge and pick one up. This little fellow's up on Amazon right now for $12.95 to $42.95.

Gallery: Penguin USB drive is infinitely cute, hilarious

Transformers USB flash drive is ready to ravage your files, bring carnage to your desktop

by Laura June, posted May 19th 2009 at 4:44PM

Sure, you already have piles of flash drives scattered around your apocalyptic nightmare of an apartment, but this one's more special than those, right? Because it's a Transformer-- Ravage, AKA Tripredacus Agent. Ravage has outlived the age of cassette and is onto smaller, better things, and he can store up to 2GB of your most valuable data. He's going to run $42.99 when he's available in September, and can be pre-ordered now.

Update: It looks like the pre-order is already sold out! Wonder if the fact that we ordered 1,000 of them has anything to do with it?

[Via Coolest Gadgets]

Mini MPC 2000XL / SP1200 flash drives let you take a little Kanye with you

by Laura June, posted May 5th 2009 at 3:04PM

We're not usually very enthused by flash drives, though occasionally they're cute enough to cause a flutter of interest. These, however, are hair-raisingly, insanely awesome. Designed with the modern musician in mind, these two bad boys are convincingly modeled on the AKAI MPC2000XL sampler and the EMU SP1200 drum machine. And by "convincingly modeled" we mean that they look pretty much exact to their original counterparts. They have a 4GB capacity and are going to run you $39.95 each, and you can pre-order them now. We strongly suggest that you look into doing just that. Several more shots after the break.

[Via Crate King; thanks George]

Continue reading Mini MPC 2000XL / SP1200 flash drives let you take a little Kanye with you

Ennova announces USB drive with OLED screen / fingerprint scanner

by Donald Melanson, posted Apr 28th 2009 at 9:31PM

It's still a little ways from an actual release, but it looks like the folks at Ennova Direct just couldn't help themselves from announcing that they've received a patent for a newfangled biometric USB flash drive that packs a built-in OLED screen. Even better, that OLED screen apparently actually doubles as the fingerprint scanner, which may not add much extra in terms of security, but should be good for at least a few gee whiz moments. The actual patent, however, isn't for that bit of convergence, but for the sliding mechanism that covers the screen when it's closed and pops out the USB connector when it's open. No word on pricing or capacities just yet, but it looks like the first few drives should be available under the ION Technologies brand sometime in the first quarter of 2010.

[Via OLED-Display.net]

LaCie DataShare recycles your bits, will never say goodbye or hurt you

by Thomas Ricker, posted Apr 28th 2009 at 6:51AM

As gadget nerds and Type-A early adopters, you no doubt have a few microSD and SD / SDHC cards laying around that Cheeto-farm you call an office. LaCie's $10 DataShare USB card readers let you recycle those cards into make-shift USB drives. Not bad for a ginger. Watch the uncomfortably arousing video after the break -- go ahead it's safe, LaCie wants you to.

[Via Pocket-Lint]

Continue reading LaCie DataShare recycles your bits, will never say goodbye or hurt you

Crapgadget: No wonder the economy sucks edition

by Darren Murph, posted Apr 27th 2009 at 1:08AM

While we here at Engadget are doing everything in our power to get this philosophical "economy" back "on track," it's items like these that aren't doing anything to help. No innovation. No stimulating capabilities. No utility at all, really. Just a webcam that scans business cards, an MP3 player shaped like a cow and a flash drive that's absolutely not certified for circulation by the Democratic National Committee. Though, we must say that they're all tailor made for Crapgadget, which is (just barely) good enough for us -- drop your vote for the lamest below!

Read - CowCow MP3 player
Read - 4-Port Soccer Ball USB Hub
Read - MSI StarCam Flip Webcam
Read - USB Bird Fan
Read - Bling Bling USB Card Reader
Read - Obama Flash Drive

Crapgadget: USB abomination edition (with a pinch of superhero)

by Darren Murph, posted Apr 11th 2009 at 3:50PM

Seriously, just listen at this and try to stifle your sighs. "Bling Bling USB optical mouse." "Jewel Necklace USB flash drive." "Turtle-Look USB 2.0 Hub with a tray." "Magic Sensor LCD Alarm Clock." "Insect USB Mini Fan." Yes, friends, this is the type of utter garbage we're dealing with in this episode of Crapgadget. Honestly, we're simultaneously astounded and deeply depressed that anyone would even consider dishing out their hard-earned cheddar for any of this rubbish, but we're doing our darnedest to pretend that these were simply created for us to have a laugh at.The week's strongest contender? Some superhero magnet pixels... and that's saying something.

Read - Bling Bling mouse
Read - Jewel necklace USB drive
Read - Turtle USB hub
Read - Sensor alarm clock
Read - Insect fan
Read - Magnetic pixels

Corsair gets official with mostly pointless Voyager Port

by Darren Murph, posted Apr 1st 2009 at 6:03AM

Corsair actually debuted its questionably useful Voyager Port earlier this month at CeBIT, but it's just now getting around to making things official. By the books, this one is described as an "innovative solution to transform any USB flash drive into a powerful and flexible portable backup and recovery device," but really, it does nothing that a standalone USB stick couldn't do given the right software. Essentially, one plugs this into their machine, loads up the bundled NovaBACKUP 10 application, sticks in a USB flash drive and mashes a single button to start the PC-to-USB drive backup process. In other words, it's an unnecessary middleman. Unfortunately, Corsair has yet to come clean with pricing, but anything over $5 or so could be classified as highway robbery.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II flash drive: just 21.1MP shy of awesomeness

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 27th 2009 at 9:23AM

You could say that this is the perfect USB flash drive for existing EOS 5D Mark II owners. We'd argue, however, that this is the perfect USB flash drive for those looking to just live vicariously while not shattering the bank. 'Course, $129.99 for a 4GB USB key is pretty absurd, but at least that gets you Live View and a 1080p movie mode. Er, wait...

[Via Zungua]

USB cake design worst birthday surprise in history

by Darren Murph, posted Feb 3rd 2009 at 7:01AM

Imagine this -- you walk into a custom confectionery and inform the design team that you want the image on a USB flash drive made onto a very special cake. In fact, you even leave the flash drive with them so they can really look it over. Sure, you'd think they would get to frost-brushing that unicorn flying through a rainbow right onto the cake, but apparently the artists in question had other ideas. Namely, creating a photo-perfect replica of a Lexar flash drive on the surface of what appears to be an otherwise delicious pile of sugar. Seriously. Too bad about that black icing, birthday boy.

[Via UberReview]

Nine USB flash drives compared in file system showdown

by Donald Melanson, posted Jan 27th 2009 at 3:07PM

Kristofer Brozio already spent more time with more flash drives than most would dare to with his last USB drive round-up, but he's now come back for another go 'round, and this time he's even gone so far as to compare their performance with different file systems. To make things a bit more manageable, he pared things down to nine drives from the initial group of 21, and formatted and reformatted each with FAT32, NTFS and ExFAT file systems. As with last time, he found that the OCZ and Super Talent drives proved to be the best overall performers and, while ExFAT did come out on top in a number of benchmarks, he still recommends FAT32 due to its greater compatibility and still decent performance. Still need a bit more convincing? Then hit up the link below for the graph explosion.

Sirtified throws up hand USB flash drives

by Darren Murph, posted Jan 14th 2009 at 10:54PM

Let's face it -- it's hard to connect with kids these days, but Sirtified clearly knows what's up. The outfit's forthcoming line of Hand USB Sticks include 2GB of storage space and arrive in three street-approved models: Rock, West Side and a version that looks awfully similar to the Engadget logo. Hold the hand of your choice next month for $35.

[Thanks, Kyle]