Gizmodo: thumb

The Inevitable 256GB Thumb Drive Comes to Pass, Courtesy of Kingston

John Herrman — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:00:00 EDT

Here's your cold, bitter, daily dose of hardware obsolescence: Just a month after passing the already-ridiculous 128GB barrier, Kingston has released the 256GB DataTraveler 300. It isn't available in the US, but if/when it is, it'll run around $900. [Kingston]

USBee Flash Drive has Bendable Neck, Heat Ventilation, Vague Resemblance to a Bee

Adrian Covert — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:25:56 EDT

The USBee flash drive is attention-grabbing, not only because of its bee-themed appearance, but also because of its bendable neck and curvaceous shape. The USBee also features heat ventilation around the circuit board so that you don't fry your precious content. This would be a good thumb drive solution for the Macbook Air and its unfortunate USB situation. [Yanko Design]

Wedisk USB Thumb Drive Gives False Hope to The Borrowers

Haroon Malik — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 04:01:04 EST

The Wedisk USB 2.0 thumb drive has its USB connector located where the IR receptor is, coming out only when you press the A button. The Wedisk is available in either 1GB, 2GB, 4GB or 8GB flavors, but apparently it's only available as a mass-produced item, on request. [SolarMemo — Thanks, Chris]

New Zealander Diagnosed With Text Messager's Thumb

Haroon Malik — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 13:25:00 EST

A student in New Zealand has been diagnosed with the first recorded occurrence of Text Messeager's Thumb in the country. The 20-year old student is thought to have sent up to 100-text messages/day, which resulted in inflammation of the tendons in her thumb, causing grave discomfort.

The condition, otherwise known as tenosynovitis, could have been easily avoided with the utilization of Blue Phone Elite 2, which I use to relieve my opposable thumbs of any undue strain. Better yet, why not just text less? We are sure discussing how cute Tom Cruise looks in a black polo sweater is really important gossip, but is it really worth the ensuing pollex paralysis? We think so—gosh, Tom does look hot in a black sweater. [Brisbane Times via Textually]

Nail Cushion Saves Thumbs From Hammers

Brian Lam — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 10:26:04 EST

Too many times have my Karate Kid "one-strike-per-nail" experiments gone wrong. This simple device holds your nail in the middle of a piece of plastic with a cross slice that holds a nail but lets the head pass through when you're finished pounding. Brilliant, but the people too busy to hammer carefully don't have time to fumble with gear, either. Plus, we'll make fun of them. [Yanko]

Hands-On With Lexar's JumpDrive Secure II Plus with Encryption and Capacity Meter

Jason Chen — Mon, 14 May 2007 14:30:27 EDT

Lexar's JumpDrive Secure II Plus brings the e-ink capacity meter previously seen in their other drives and the 256-bit AES encryption previously seen in the JumpDrive Secure II. The result? Something pretty convenient and secure, not to mention that it's the cheapest drive they have that has the e-ink capacity display.

The drive comes with the Lexar dashboard software for both Mac and Vista (although the OS X version required a driver install and a reboot) that was easy to use and easy to create mounted encrypted partitions on the drive. After setting aside 500MB of our 1GB drive on the partition—which was then mounted as a separate disk—we could drag and drop files onto it and it would be completely unreadable (it just looked like a file) when the drive was on another machine unless you knew the password.

What's also convenient is the ability to encrypt and decrypt files that are not on the drive, meaning you can use the drive to encrypt half the files on your hard drive if you wanted. Except if you lost the drive, well, you'd probably have to go buy another one. All in all, their claims of this being the cheapest drive with the e-ink and 256-bit AES encryption makes this drive worthwhile in sizes from 512MBs up to 4GBs. An 8GB version should be available soon. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Lexar]

Kingston DataTraveler Mini for Midget Businessmen

Jason Chen — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 18:00:59 EST

If the standard Kingston DataTraveler drives are somehow too big for you, these Kingston DataTraveler Minis should be more to your liking. The drives come in 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB sizes, and have a capless red sliding cover so you won't lose the top.

They also come with Migo, which is software that lets you take your Outlook Express, Thunderbird, IE, and Firefox settings with you so you can plug in at any net cafe—as if we need net cafes with our laptops and EV-DO connections.

Just remember to keep it out of reach of children and dogs. – Jason Chen

Press Release [Lowyat via Uber Gizmo]

Kingston Water (and Pee) Proof Thumb Drives

Jason Chen — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 15:45:40 EST

Waterproof to a depth of four feet, these Kingston DataTraveler drives are safe from accidental toilet-droppage as well as Travis's midnight pee attacks.

Available in 512MB to 4GB sizes (8GB to come), the drives have 256-bit AES encryption and locks itself down after 10 intrusion attempts. Although a bit more expensive than standard drives, your money goes towards protecting your data from hackers, urine, and urinating hackers. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Kingston via Gearlog]

Dealzmodo: 4GB USB Drive for $14.99

Charlie White — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 09:44:17 EST

TigerDirect is offering a jaw-dropping deal, a Power Up SpeedDrive 4GB USB 2.0 portable flash drive for $14.99. But yes, there is a catch, you'll have to fill out and mail in two rebate forms, each for $30, and don't forget that $6.99 for shipping. But still, $22 for a 4GB USB 2.0 thumb drive? That's $5.50 a gig. Not bad. – Charlie White

Product Page [TigerDirect]

Psychic USB Drive From Japan

Jason Chen — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 20:00:08 EST

Japanese company Princeton has deposited some rather anemic 256MB~1GB thumb sticks onto the land of Japan. To make up for the lack of storage, they're branding this with the "Seven Angels" label and including software that's based on the Psychic abilities of Masako Mitaki. This lady's apparently a big psychic over there in Ashcraft land.

I don't think any US company would get away with this here, but I guess the equivalent here would be to feature Miss Cleo on an IOmega Zip Disk. Let's hope this post preempts any companies that were considering it. – Jason Chen

Buy a psychic USB key to discover your future! [Akihabara News]

Keane Releasing Next Single in a Flash Drive

Jason Chen — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 19:00:56 EDT

Brit-band Keane is set to release their new Single Nothing In My Way on a thumb drive. Neat, because they incorporate new technology to add videos, screensavers, and other tracks into the offering. Everybody's Changing, so if you're the record industry, it's nice that Your Open Eyes are seeing that digital distribution Can't Stop Now.

The thumb drive will cost 3.99 ($7.46), and it may Bend & Break, which if it does for me, This is the Last Time that I buy into such a gimmick. In fact, if the single sucks, We Might As Well Be Strangers. – Jason Chen

Idolator [via Guardian]

p.s. Somewhere Only We Know, She Has No Time, Sunshine, Bedshaped.

Kingston's Waterproof USB Drives For Aquaman's Home Business

Jason Chen — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 16:43:17 EDT

If you're worried about losing your data to theft or water damage—Hurricane Katrina victims?—Kingston's DataTraveler Secure should be right up your alley. Not only does it have 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) hardware encryption, it's protected by a titanium waterproof coating that protects your drive from agua for up to four feet.

The drives are available in up to 4GB sizes ( 147 or $273), and have a read and write speed of 24MB/s and 10MB/s respectively. Definitely useful if you're using your flash drives out in the field like Jack Bauer where you can get wet at a moment's notice. – Jason Chen

Kingston Launches Waterproof USB Drive [Bios Magazine]

Limited Edition Star Wars USB Flashdrives

Brian Lam — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 23:14:29 EDT

An Imperial spy informs us that Mimoco's going to drop a Darth Vadar USB flash drive tomorrow. A limited run of 3500, too, so you'd better queue up now if you want one. They're officially sanctioned by his royal Lucas-ness, and will go for $80 bucks for a 1GB version, all the way to $170 bucks for a 4GB version. That's a whole lotta space bucks for 4GB isn't it?

You know what would be cool? If this Darth Vadar USB drive's cap didn't have little bear ears, and if the helmet was in the shape of the dark lord's helmet. And if the USB plug looked like James Earl Jones. For the record, I'd consider rocking a Han Solo model, for sure.–Brian Lam