Flash drives have evolved significantly over the past few years. There was a time when 64MB of space in a bulky USB package was considered an achievement, and yet now an individual drive can hold upwards of 64GB while being less than half an inch in length. IntelliPaper looks to take the thickness (or thinness) of flash drives to the next level.

The idea is what it sounds like: a USB storage device made on paper. With the help of IntelliPaper, you can send paper thin flash drives in the mail alongside business cards, invitations, gifts and more. The company behind the product recently created a website www.intellipaper.info, and is selling inserts and handouts for $0.50/unit. Although the storage on these drives only ranges from 8 to 32 MB, that should be plenty of room for attaching files, images, and even small lower-quality video files.

While such small amounts of storage space aren’t that practical in most situations, it is just another proof of how far we’ve come storage technology in general. Imagine what future storage methods will look like in another 5 to 10 years. Of course with the growing importance of cloud storage, the idea of physical storage might soon be a thing of the past. What do you think of IntelliPaper, like the idea or do you feel its small storage size severely limits its usefulness?

[ Source ]

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USB flash drives are getting more and more affordable. Case in point is the Patriot Xport XT Rage USB 2.0 high speed flash drive, the 32GB version of which is now on sale for an amazing $32. Remember that the regular price on this drive is $95, so you’re getting quite the deal.

One other cool feature about this drive is that there is no cap for you to lose. Instead, it uses a retractable design where you slide the top cover in to reveal the USB connector and then slide it back to cover it up. While it’s not really a “ruggedized” USB drive, the Xporter XT Rage is rubber coated for some level of protection from daily abuse too.

Yes, it’s not USB 3.0, but the quad channel technology allows the USB 2.0 drive to reach up to 27MB/s read and 25MB/s write. You can find it on sale on Amazon.com for the aforementioned $32. Variations with 8GB, 16GB, and 64GB capacities are also on sale, ranging from 44% off to73% off.

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The Swiss Army knife is iconic, but the modern day urban commando doesn’t have nearly as much use for a corkscrew and serrated blade as we may have once had. Unless we’re camping, of course. We use computers, mostly, so we need adequate memory. That’s where the Victorinox Slim and Slim Duo USB drives flip into the picture.

Originally showcased at CES 2011 earlier this year, these drives clearly mimic the look of a real Swiss Army knife (Victorinox is the company behind that line, after all). As their names imply, the Slim boasts a single USB drive, while the Slim Duo hides two USB sticks under its colorful shell. You can choose from silver, blue, orange, pink, and green.

The entire line is now shipping through retailers and e-tailers like Amazon. The cheapest of the bunch is the 4GB Slim at $39.99 and that ramps all the way up to a hefty 128GB Slim Duo for $349.99. The usual capacities slot somewhere in between with pricing to match.

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They’ve shaped it to look like a conventional camera, including the “bump” where you might normally find a hot shoe, but that’s not really a functional bump. It’s just for look. You can then pop out the side cap to reveal a USB connector, which is used both for transfering images and video off the camera and for charging its internal lithium-ion battery. It takes microSD cards up to 16GB.

The images can be up to 1.3MP (1280×1024) and the videos can be up to 720×480 in resolution, despite the CLAP having a 2MP F2.8 lens. You can expect image quality to be similar to that of an entry-level webcam, it seems, so it’s probably a better idea to whip out your iPhone or Droid instead. I don’t see this tiny camera being all that more discreet, considering it’s shaped like a camera and has a very obvious lens too. It also doesn’t help that you have no viewfinder to frame your shot.

Shrug. I guess there’s a place in the market for almost anything and there are certainly worse ways to spend $49.95. I can think of lots of better ways though.

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All of these questions could have easily been posed to designer Olivier Demangel at some point, but I guess he didn’t really care. And so, somehow we find ourselves looking at the Konect Watch. It’s a watch that happens to have a built-in USB drive, Bluetooth connectivity, and media controls.

Oh, and tell the time, you might need to spend a few more moments than you normally would looking at a typical analog clock face (or regular digital clock). First, you have to spot the blue light to indicate the hour. Then, you have to look at the purple light to determine the “five minutes group” and then the quadrant blue lights for the single minutes. It’s no red ring of death, but the single minute part sure looks like the Xbox light system.

And let’s not forget about the background music that sounds pretty much the same as the theme song to House. That’s a good show. This watch, on the other hand, sounds overly complex for no particularly useful reason. If you really want Demangel to go ahead with this, you’ll need to lobby Tokyo Flash to put it into production. Otherwise, you can join the rest of us and just read the time on your smartphone screen.

[Giz via Olivier Demangel]

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On the surface, it looks like a rather unassuming and nondescript grey box. What makes it interesting is that you can attach just about any USB Internet stick to this and it’ll take that web access, broadcasting it out just like your wireless router at home. Furthermore, it can support as many connected devices as you’d like, unlike the typical five device limit on MiFi devices from Novatel and crew.

If you really want, there’s even an Ethernet jack in there for connecting to a more conventional modem. The USB modem part is carrier-independent, as you’d expect, so that’s pretty useful for traveling. On the downside, it’s a heck of a lot uglier than the comparatively slick MiFi modems.

In any case, the pocket 3G router has an official MSRP of $115, but the street price is closer to $85 or so.

[Electronista]

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For many people, a USB flash drive is like any other USB flash drive. Then there are people who want something that can more easily blend in with the rest of their gear, like a Swiss Army knife. That’s where the Victorinox Slim and Slim Duo drives come into place, but what about when you’re about to hitch a flight across the country?

Both the Slim and the Slim Duo are designed to be like real Swiss Army knives. In addition to the swing out flash drive you also get regular pocket knife things like scissors and a nail file. That’s not going to fly (terrible pun intended) with the guys and gals at the TSA, so how do you hang on to your docs without losing the cool of a Swiss Army flash drive?

Well, Victorinox is offering “flight friendly versions” of these drives too. The assumption is that these variants will offer the same kind of look, but they’ll lack in the sharp object department. Yeah, not as cool, even if you get to pick from red, blue, orange pink, green and silver.

In any case, the “advanced USB flash drives” of the Slim and Slim Duo variety will come in capacities as big as 128GB. That should be enough to store all the documents required for your, um, upcoming plot to overthrow the government.

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After a good attempt at every iteration possible USB drives tend to be just that, USB drives.  Well, leave it to the design team over at Verbatim to keep things interesting.  They’ve come out with a Clip-it line of USB drives, which basically do just that, clip on to things like a paper clip.  You can clip it to your tie, business cards, pocket protector, heck you can clip it anywhere you want.  The clip is so clipping cute it has won a red dot Design Award for ingenuity.  Priced from €8.99 ($12) for a 2GB and €11.49 ($15) for the 4GB clip, it will come in seven colors.

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Apacer SmartBadge with USB Photo: Michael Kwan

It sure looks handy for the tech employee working at a data-intensive, secure office; or even trade shows where exhibitors can simply transfer data to a visitors badge by plugging them in, or grabbing their info over RFID.

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Well, the good news is that this barrier has been absolutely crushed by the newly announced PQI Cool Drive U366 flash drive. The bad news is that it makes use of the USB 3.0 standard, so you won’t be able to achieve that kind of speed on your computer for now.

For a glimmer of hope, PQI does mention that the Cool Drive U366 is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 ports, but you won’t get anywhere near the claimed 5Gbps maximum speed with that kind of connection.

The PQI Cool Drive U366 will be made available in your choice of 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB capacities. There is no mention of a release date or pricing scheme just yet, but you can expect things to be pricey when they are new and shiny.

Source: CrunchGear

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