Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

I’ll spare you my thoughts on the new Star Trek film, given this isn’t a movie-review site, and I seem to stand in the minority with my opinions, but if you were a fan of Abrams take on the Trek universe you might be interested in this limited edition version of the film which comes on a 4GB Starfleet insignia flash drive. (Each one is individually numbered.) The digital copy of the film is all DRM’d up so it can only be played on up to 5 registered devices, or burned to a DVD, and it’s about 1GB in size, leaving you 3GB of storage to boldly store what no man has stored before. ~$28 from Play.com.

[ Star Trek (2009) USB Stick ]

By Andrew Liszewski

When was the last time you used any of the flash drives you have kicking around to measure something? That’s right, never! So as long as that ’something’ is no longer than 5 inches, or 15 centimeters, this 2GB flash drive ruler becomes slightly more useful than your run-of-the-mill flash drive. And it would be even more useful if it was bigger than just 2GB, which is kind of small given the $35.99 price tag on AudioCubes.com.

[ IMM Ruler USB 2GB Flash Drive ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Wow, check out what Etsy seller 123smile is now selling! We’ve covered their LEGO flash drive creations before, but these new Minifig USB drives are a must-have. They’re available in 2GB ($59.95), 4GB ($69.95) and what looks like 4GB high-speed ($79.95) capacities and come in a variety of characters including Star Wars figures which I’m sure will be their best seller. Now I’m not saying LEGO should copy what 123smile is doing, but come on! When you see things like this you have to wonder why the company can’t think of anything more creative than another flashlight?

[ Etsy - 123smile - LEGO Flash Drives ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]

By Chris Scott Barr

In case you weren’t aware, the Transformers franchise is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. To commemorate the anniversary, Toshiba is releasing a new line of mice and USB flash drives. As you would imagine, there is more than meets the eye with each one. All will be fully transformable, and will set you back $50 each. Kids and huge fans of the series might enjoy them, but $50 is a bit much methinks. They haven’t released a lot of details, such as the capacity of the USB drives, though we do know these will be out before the holiday season.
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By Andrew Liszewski

For you clumsy yet eco-conscious types, Transcend has just released a new USB flash drive called the JetFlash V70 which fully meets the U.S. military’s drop-test standards (MIL-STD-810F 516.5—Transit Drop) thanks to its durable eco-friendly silicone rubber housing. The drive is also splash and dust resistant as a result, and even features a hard to lose tethered USB cap. I assume the drives are available now, or sometime in the near future, and will come in 16GB (red), 8GB (orange), and 4GB (purple) capacities.

[ PR - Transcend Releases JetFlash V70 Rugged USB Flash Drive ] VIA [ Fareastgizmos ]

By David Ponce

It’s kind of hard for flash drive manufacturers to stand out these days. They’ll try anything. So when they’re not making them out to look like a spoonful of cereal or kitten ears, they sometimes give them higher capacity or make them really freaking small. The IronKey S200’s claim to an undisclosed chunk of your wallet is security. It’s the only flash drive on the market to meet FIPS 140-2, Level 3 validation for cryptographic modules mandated by government agencies. That means it’s really, really secure so it should at least make you feel like your porn your sensitive documents are safe from prying eyes.

It comes in 16GB capacity and is compatible with Windows XP, 2000 and Vista as well as Mac OS X and Linux. There’s no word on price or availability yet.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Electronista ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Buffalo just upped the capacity of their itty-bitty 5mm Thumbkey USB flash drives from 8GB to 16GB, making them the perfect way to easily lose a big chunk of data. The drives should be available from Geek Stuff 4 U in black, red or white sometime near the end of June with a price tag of about $136. Expensive yes, but a ridiculously easy way to increase the storage space on your netbook.

[ Buffalo 16GB 5mm Thumbkey ] VIA [ Akihabara News ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Instead of having to connect your mobile phone and a USB flash drive to a PC in order to transfer files between the two, the Mobidapter lets you do it directly, as long as your phone has an external SD. It includes adapters for full size SD card slots as well as microSD and miniSD, and it will read any USB flash drive with a capacity of 32GB or less. Power is leeched from the cellphone’s battery, and the actual copying procedures are handled by the phone’s file browser, with the device simply showing up as a USB flash drive. (Though that could vary depending on the OS.)

The Mobidapter will set you back about $46, but it seems like a dead easy way to backup or upload multimedia content to your phone without the hassle of booting up a PC.

[ Mobidapter ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Kingston may claim to be the first company to offer a 128GB flash drive, but DiskGO has already beaten them when it comes to pricing. While Kingston’s asking a wallet-lightening $546 for their 128GB DataTraveler, the DiskGO 128GB model will sell for a mere $389.95 when it becomes available sometime after July 31. And that’s with free shipping!

Of course if you don’t need 128GB right now it’s probably not a bad idea to wait it out because it’s inevitable that one day we’ll all have a drawer full of ‘tiny’ 128GB flash drives from trade shows or other promotions that aren’t even worth giving away.

[ DiskGO 128GB Flash Drive ] VIA [ The Gadgeteer ]