The tough fashion look of dog tags now adds function to style with Olinari -- Uncommon Design. Hidden inside the tag is a 2GB Sony micro vault USB drive so your info is on the go with you at all times. Hanging from a 24" sterling silver chain and featuring four different design options to suit your attitude this is the perfect holiday gift for that hard-to-buy-for, rugged person. For $349 I might opt for the cheaper version at the local office store but I do like the creative punch and combination factor... I wonder if they will make other jewelry or accessories that carry things I need? If someone designs a watch with USB, camera and ipod cables, earphones and cell phone charger then we'll talk.
The folks at Gresso have found a new way to sell music using on of their wood USB flash drives. They are now teaming up with music companies to release flash drives for specific albums. Their first offering is Jennifer Lopez's new album "Brave". The flash drive costs $70. Considering that Lopez is having enough trouble selling the album in its regular format this doesn't seem like the best choice for an initial offering.
You can find a lot of information about Bordeaux online but this bottle-shaped USB flash drive from BeWine Connected provides info you can take with you anywhere. The drive contains the wine cellar management software "Open Cellar" a guide to the Grand Cru from the Bordeaux area and their classification, videos of tastings by Michel Rolland, a screensaver and wallpaper dedicated to wine, ringtones on wine for your mobile phone, and access to the BeWineConnected Club with links to our partners and wine professionals. The drive can also be used to hold your data. The wine-related information takes up about half of the one gigabyte memory. It sells for 35 euros.
Luxury phone company Gresso has strayed from the phones and into world of luxury USB flash drives. Their Adam & Eve flash drives are made of African Mahogany or African Blackwood and white diamonds and come in three different shapes, a bitten apple, a cross and a simple rectangle on a caoutchouc strap with a gold clasp. The prices for the jewelry collection of USB flash drives range from $300 to $1000 and will launch in October 2007.
These are just darling, don't you think? They're the latest stick type mp3 players/USB drives from Sony. Available in a beautiful mix of pastel colors (blue, gold, pink, and violet) and black (classy), the cap is covered with a design in Swarovski crystals. Sony has announced that the 'NW-E010 series' will be available by the end of next month in the Japanese market (they get everything first it seems!) and no word on when they might make an appearance here in the U.S. Pricing is expected to be around 18,800 yen for the 2GB versions and 24,800 yen for 4GB.
Some things, cool or creative as they may be, just strike me as hilarious. And these Wooden Memory Sticks by Oooms had me laughing out loud when I first saw them. Maybe it's because they're so life-like that it brought to mind visions of shoving a stick into my computer and expecting it to store my data for me. And they look so realistic because they arereal -- they're handpicked branches from the woods that are professionally handcrafted into USB storage discs.
Available in 256 mb, 512 mb, 1 Gb, and 2 Gb memory sizes and measuring about 2cm x 2cm x 10cm, they cost between 45 and 80 euros each. All laughter aside, it's a really neat idea.
There's always room for more bling in our lives, sometimes in the most unlikely of places. It's not that I haven't seen decked out USB drives before, but I guess I just figure if you're going to go there then do it right and go all out. The Phillips-Swarovski Active Crystal collection definitely goes there, squeezing as many Swarovski crystals as possible onto some very cute electronic gadgets. For USB drives there's the 1 GB "Heart Beat," a two-piece locket style, and the 1 GB "Lock-Out," and retractable padlock shaped one, both of which will sell for $179.
The collection also includes headphones and earbuds with large crystals embedded in each ear piece. Available in 4 different designs they will range in price from $79-$149. The entire line is scheduled to come out this August.
Tomorrow is Chinese New Year and, in honor of the fact that it is the year of the pig, PQI has released two limited edition Chinese New Year USB Memory Cards. The 2GB card has a peony surrounded by "fortune pigs" and the 1GB card has a single fortune pig. Each gold card is just 3mm thick. Only a total of 1,500 cards - 1000 units of 1GB and 500 units of 2GB - will be produced. The cards, both the 1GB and 2GB versions, will retail for $510 each.
Let's face it; it's downright humiliating to be caught with a boring old plastic jump drive when the rest of the gadgets in your pocket are encrusted to the teeth (err, lanyards) with diamonds. So thank Mii Stor for finally pressing some ice into this 4GB USB flash drive, dubbed the "Snow". The case AND the chain are white gold, so you can be sure you won't be embarrassed when you hang this puppy from your neck with the rest of your uber-posh-gadgetry. It's yours today for a song (if your songs are worth $19,000).
This gem of a USB drive is made by SolidAlliance and is known as the Mottainai. The 2 GB memory stick looks like gold, although it is actually made of bronze, and has beautiful, multi-faceted crystals from Statsuma Kiriko embedded in it. Apparently, it was made "as a tribute to the Japanese craft industry," although we suspect the manufacturer didn't mind the idea of adding a little bling to computers, either. Price: $765.
This seems like it would be a good gift item for a Star Wars fan, especially if they don't need all the space that a 64-GB flash drive provides. These Darth Vader Mimobot USB Flash Drives are due to be released in a limited run of 3,500 units in January 2007 (just a bit too late for the holiday season!). Each one stands just over 2-inches high and is available in four memory sizes: 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB. Prices range from $80-$170, and placing a pre-order is probably a good idea, since, as collectibles, they will probably sell out quickly.
The problem with getting a nice external hard drive for your computer is that even the smaller ones are too big to fit in your pocket, not to mention that they need to be plugged in to a wall outlet to be useful. This tiny, keychain-sized USB drive from Buslink has 64-GB of storage, which might be enough to carry around the entire contents of your computer's main hard drive, if necessary, and more than enough room for photo albums and videos to share with relatives when you're traveling around during the holidays. You will have to pay for the convenience of its size, though. This little gadget is $5,740.
Would you wear your flash drive around your neck? You
can with the new Petito flash drive. We've seen
gold drives and ones that fit into Swiss Army knives
but this one has a little loop so you can hook it onto a necklace or keychain. It was also designed to be waterproof.
The USB 2.0 compliant Petito is from ATP Electronics and can store from 256MB to 1GB. The tiny gold- or
silver-colored Petitos sell for around $60. Dark-blue and titanium Petitos will also soon be available. What, no pink
one?
Memory brand White Lake joins Victorinox
in entering the gold and diamond USB stick market. The White Lake version is
made 14K gold and has five diamonds and was created by Dutch goldsmith Erwin de Vroome.The new USB will be
displayed at the CeBIT electronics fair. It sells for 2,950 euros and is also available in 18K gold or without
diamonds. Often these sorts of things can be tacky but I think this one is pretty classic looking.