All Entries Tagged With: "USB drive"

Lacie XtremKey, A Virtually Indestructible Thumb Drive

Busted up more thumb drives than you can care to remember?  If you’re tired of flimsy portable storage, it might be time to make your way to the other extreme: virtually indestructible USB storage.  That’s exactly what Lacie is promising with the XtremKey, an ultra-rugged flash drive with superhero-levels of durability.
Keeping data safe usually means unfathomable levels of encryption, paired with uncrackable passwords and a layer of software misdirection thrown in for good measure.  If your primary concern, however, is dropping your portable storage while crossing the road and having it run over by a large elephant that somehow escaped from the local zoo, then you need a different kind of protection.
The Lacie XtremKey offers that kind, boasting zamac (an especially tough alloy made from zinc, aluminum, magnesium and copper) construction that can reportedly withstand being run over by a 10-ton truck.  Not only that, the screw-shut 2mm-thick metal tube, [...]

Mnemosyne USB Cube Hides Flash Storage Inside A $10,000 Puzzle

The things people do with USB flash drives often border on the silly.  From slotting it into a pair of shades to decking it in garrulous outfits, there’s little shortage of new ways to make the simple accessory just a little more complicated.  The SolidAlliance Mnemosyne 16GB USB Cube takes the concept a little too far, transforming a piece of flash storage into a $10,000 affair.
Not that the price tag is without merit, of course.  Created by  Italy-based designers Toshi Satoji and Katsuya Masaki, the contraption sets the actual storage panel inside a plush-looking aluminum puzzle cube.  Essentially, you’ll have to disassemble the rig before being able to get to the actual USB key.

While the puzzle looks deservedly luxurious, it’s an odd way to store data.  As far as I can tell, there’s no magic secret to disassembling the cube – just pull out each component much like you do [...]