SwissArmyKnife
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Victorinox is working on 'something approaching a smartwatch'
Victorinox, the firm you can just about remember makes the Swiss Army knife when it comes up at pub trivia, is talking up its plans for a smartwatch. In a chat with Reuters, CEO Carl Elsener has revealed that the company will enter the wearable technology space at some point in 2016. This won't be just another Android Wear device, however, but a wearable that Elsener has described as "something approaching a smartwatch."
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]
Victorinox Swiss Army Slim, Slim Duo USB drives begin shipping, won't get you into trouble with the TSA
For frequent business travelers, the days of carrying around a Swiss Army knife on your keychain were gone even before the TSA was born. Well, that familiar pocket multi-tool is back, in the form of Victorinox's Swiss Army Slim and Slim Duo. Both products pack a tool that many of us use far more often than scissors and knives: the USB flash drive. We first took a look at Victorinox's latest gadget at CES, but the colorful, waterproof storage devices are finally shipping, in capacities that range from 4GB ($40) all the way up to 128GB ($350) with the Slim Duo (which, as its name implies, includes a pair of 64GB drives). Both flavors are designed to let you file photos and presentations, not your fingernails -- but if you're looking to do both, Vic's got you covered there, too.
Victorinox Secure Pro USB drive is 'un-hackable,' can file your nails
This isn't the first USB drive / Swiss army knife we've seen from Victorinox, but the company's new Secure Pro drive is the first that is supposedly "un-hackable." To put that claim to the test, Victorinox actually offered a £100,000 prize to a team of "professional hackers" if they could crack the drive during the company's launch event -- they were unable to do so. That un-hackableness apparently comes primarily from the drive's combination of AES256 technology and fingerprint security, which is paired with (get this) a self-destruct mechanism that irrevocably burns the CPU and memory chip if there's any attempt to force the drive open. All that and a pair of scissors -- how can you go wrong? No word on a release over here just yet, but the drive is now available in the UK in capacities from 8GB to 32GB for between £50 and £180 (or about $75 to $270). [Thanks, Nikolas R]
Giant Swiss Army Knife offers 85 tools
Wenger, the manufacturer of the classic Swiss Army Knife, has revealed a 9-inch long, 2-pound "knife" which carries 85 instruments, or: almost every tool that has ever been on a Swiss Army Knife, ever. The list includes seven different knives, a golf shoe spike wrench, a bike chain rivet setter, and a laser pointer with a 300ft range (but where's the freakin' USB flash drive?). Presumably this is so seasoned golfers can tune their bicycle's rivets before heading off on a deer hunt / cycling trip armed with blinding lasers and an entire collection of 3-inch knives. An equivalent "indoor" do-it-all gadget would feature Apple's entire iPod line-up, a SCSI to Parallel adapter and the collective consciousness of the Engadget staff in BBS form, contained in the form factor of a combination Bluetooth headset / wristwatch.[Thanks, William S]
