Perhaps I shouldn’t be so enamored of LaCie’s “iamaKey” and “itsaKey” flash drives—I have at least a dozen flash drives of varying sizes sitting around the house and hardly ever use them—but something about the way they look like regular keys just appeals to me in a way that putting another flash drive on a keyring does not. They’re around $16 for the 4GB versions; $26 for the 8GB.
That one on the right? It’s the “PassKey”, a microSD reader. It’s $10.
About time. My last San Disk drive broke off my key chain and I was very lucky to notice it and pick it up off the street. These things need un-breakable key rings but surprisingly, fairly few have them.
I’m afraid I’d insert this thing into a port, and be gripped with the need to twist it violently, while shouting “VROOM VROOM!”
This is why we can’t have nice things.
I have a 4GB iamaKey and I gotta say I love it. I don’t always have one of my (too many) portable hard drives or flash drives with me, but I *always* have my keys.
It’s barely bigger than my front door key, is solidly constructed, and lies flat with my other keys, unlike other flash drives I’ve kept on my keychain. I lost the little cap that goes over the USB port, but it hasn’t affected performance yet.
It’s a great idea and I’ll be buying one when they show up near me. Westerly is quite right, you don’t always have a drive nearby, but you always have your keys. Having lots of usb drives is a pain the proverbial and replacing them with one that you have on you all the time would be excellent.
I really like that Micro SD reader, as my phone takes MicroSDs, and I’ve got a handful of 4GB ones floating around. If I keep one in my phone, and one in the key, I’d have 8GB of USB accessible storage on hand nearly all the time. Sweet!
The one on the left looks like the most comfortable to have on your keychain.. it has the half-missing style USB connector so it’s thinner than the other two. I hope it has good static protection! (especially if you’re prone to wearing wool and leather..)