This isn’t the first Transformers flash drive we have seen, back in 2009, an official flash drive rocking Transformers’ looks surfaced, and then there were some cartoony Mimobot drives too. This new flash drive comes with either the familiar Autobot and Decipticon face logos on it, along with a “TF3″ logo that lights up when accessing data.

The face logos are made of die-cast metal, though the rest of the drive appears to be plastic. The USB connector retracts so there is no need for a cap, making for one less thing to lose. You can even flip the metal face up to find another Transformers logo underneath.

The Transformers drives are available on Amazon in 4GB and 8GB capacities starting at $33 (USD).

[via EverythingUSB]

These drives have a 4GB capacity for anger/data and the USB drive itself is hidden inside the body of the bird or pig that you choose. If you love flinging birds at pigs with a slingshot, then you will probably love these drives.

You can score one for €19.99 (~$26 USD) from EMTEC. That’s not a bad price for a bird or pig USB drive. I think that yellow guy looks like Bert from Sesame Street, but more pissed off, which I didn’t think was possible.

[via Journaldugeek]

The Empty Memory drives come in two variants, each with its own subtle visual trick to indicate vacuity. The Structure only has an outline of a body while the Transparency is, you know, transparent. The functional part of the flash drives take up only a small part of the whole thing.

The message is supposed to be that you’re going to fill that emptiness with your own memory, a metaphor that fails when you consider that the drives don’t change appearance when the drives are no longer empty. But still, they’re really nice to look at. I particularly like looking at the shot with the Structure drive plugged-in.

Logical Art’s online shop is now accepting pre-orders for the drives, which by the way are cast from stainless steel, hand-polished and finished in various colors. If the title didn’t already clue you in, that previous sentence should prepare you for their price tags. The drives are only available in 4GB capacity and sell for £48 (~$73 USD) for the standard stainless steel finish and £60 (~$92 USD) for the gold or rhodium variants. I know, you could get a 1TB external drive for just a few dollars more, but will it have the fancy illusion? And can you wear your terabyte drive as a pendant? I didn’t think so, peasant.

[via Logical Art via MoCo Loco]

Since most USB designs are pretty boring, I’d like to see this idea expanded on. Say, one large spaceship with some smaller ones in the docking ports maybe. I’m sure it will become a reality one day.

[via Likecool]

Most flash drives come with chain or one of those loops which you can use to tie around your wallet or bag or keychain. But I think this simple clasp on the LOOPO flash drive makes the whole hanging on thing easier and much quicker and easier. Basically, one end of the LOOPO features a loop with a clasp, much like the one found on necklaces. So just save your stuff, clasp it on, and unclasp when needed. Perfect!

The LOOPO is a design of Emami Design, and there’s no word on if or when they’ll come to market.

[via Yanko Design]

This promotional flash drive comes filled with a tiny bit of beer, complete with foamy head. For the low, low price, of $14 to $17 each, you can order up a batch of at least 25 of these lowly 4GB flash drives filled with this foamy yellow substance that I’m not even sure is really beer. Either way, it’s a crappy low capacity flash drive, filled with some yellow fluid you’d never want to drink or accidentally have spill into your computer. Sounds just like the kind of thing I’d never buy.

[via Fancy]

(This article has been significantly revised because the whole “Cryptex” concept from The DaVinci Code flew over my head. My apologies. And now, we return to your scheduled programming.) The Crypteks USB drive doesn’t just have a mechanical lock like the DIY Cryptex drive. It has additional security features aside from the mechanical lock, like 256-bit AES hardware encryption, a read-only mode and the ability to set the number of wrong password attempts before the drive goes Men in Black and wipes its contents.

The Crypteks USB has already earned more than twice its target goal on Kickstarter. The fundraiser will still be up for 22 days, so sneak your way to its project page if you want to be one of the first to own a Crypteks USB drive. Those of you who want to play it safe with your money (but apparently not with your data!) can avail of the retail version when it drops mid-2012. My only complaint about this drive is that it’s USB 2.0-spec only, which is kind of disappointing considering the drive costs $130 (USD) for the 8GB version and $160 for the 16GB version.

[Crypteks via The Verge]

I protect my folders using third-party software, and everything was fine and dandy until last week, when the program suddenly crashed and locked me out of my other non-work related folders. Thankfully, I had a backup of my other files, but I wish I had a much simpler way to partition different folders without risking a crash, kind of like how designer Hyunsoo Song from SADI envisioned organizing files with the Amoeba Modular USB Flash Drive.

The Amoeba USB drive is basically four, separate drives connected into one: there’s a segment for personal files, a segment for photos and related media, another segment for music files, and a segment for documents. So when someone wants to copy something from you or when you need to pass on a certain file, just separate the entire thing and hand off the segment with the file to be shared. (Plus, you know, it saves you from possible embarrassment if you happen to have files on your drive that are meant for your eyes only, if you know what I mean.)

[via Yanko Design]

If like me, you thought that the cufflinks would give you a mobile hotspot on their own, prepare to be disappointed. You have to plug either of them to a computer that’s connected to the Internet before it can create a network. You do know you can do this for free with software like Connectify already, right?

It would have been awesome if they worked like the MiFi and could turn a person into a walking wireless network. You’ll surely be a hit at parties. People will flock to you so they can go online and post about this dude who has a Wi-Fi hotspot on his wrists. Eh, I guess they’re still useful, but I’m just not sure if they’re worth the price – Cufflinks.com is selling them for $250 (USD) a pair.

[via Cool Material]

A novel and pretty presentable way of keeping a closer eye on your drives is with Memory City from Koziol. It’s a molded plastic case with slots where you can stick your USB drives and memory cards in. Once you’ve got enough drives on the thing, it will start to look more and more like a (you guessed it) memory city.

There’s enough slots for 3 micro SD cards, 3 SD cards, 4 USB sticks (just right for me)  but just 3 USB lids (although you can just fasten the lid on to the bottom part of your USB drive.) Memory City goes for 9,95 € (~$14 USD), which is already inclusive of VAT and shipping. You can get one from Design 3000 or Made in Design if you want one.

[via Holycool via Oh Gizmo!]

Needless to say that this USB flash drive would be ridiculously expensive, but odds are after a few months, flash drives in the 500GB to 1.5TB sizes would hit the market costing less. If this happens, it’ll make a lot of sense to ditch USB hard drives for flash drives, unless you need to run a RAID array.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

While Transcend thinks it’s possible, it might also take a while, as the biggest USB flash drives currently on the market only hold 256GB.

[via Computer World via DVice]

Journey to Etsy to wield one yourself. The drive comes in 4GB, 8GB, 16GB and 32GB capacity and sells for $34 (USD), $40, $44 and $60 respectively. No, Zantaff doesn’t accept rupees.

[via This is Why I'm Broke]

Yep, you read that right. Crave, a small team based in San Francisco, wanted to make vibrators do more than just what they’re supposed to do. So what did they come up with? The little device called Duet which has had the tech world talking.

Gizmodo calls it a “cute little love toy,” while Wired comments that Duet “doesn’t really look like a sex toy at all.” Good for women who like to do their thing on the sly, right?

The Duet will come in three colors and will be available in 8GB and 16GB drives. On its CKIE page, Crave boasts that the compact and discreet size and shape of the Duet will tickle any woman’s fancy and add to its portability. Two motors in the flash drive-slash-vibrator allows the device to run virtually silent, so no one who happens to be passing outside your room (or office door, if you’re into that type of stuff) will suspect what you might be up to behind the closed door.

The Duet will also allow the user to choose from 4 vibration modes and 5 power levels, so she can “personalize” her experience even more. The pledges on CKIE currently amount to around $58,000 as of now with a lot of time to spare before the project closes on the site.

[via Yanko Design]

Engrish aside, I love how Brando describes this product: “built-in flash memory lets you store your data on the go.” Yes. Because that’s the notable thing about this particular product, not that it looks like something else entirely.

Ask your mole to use someone else’s credit card and purchase the USB lipstick flash drive from Brando. It’s available in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB models, priced at $16 (USD), $18 and $25 respectively. But you already knew that didn’t you.

[via 7 Gadgets]

Unlike most of the DIY projects we’ve seen, this one is surprisingly simple to make. Simply put, you make an outline of your shuriken design on paper, then use that to trace and cut out two halves from a piece of foam-core poster board. Then trace and cut out a space for the actual flash drive that you’ll hide on the halves. Then it’s just a matter of gluing the pieces together.

It’s eyefail’s finishing moves that makes the shuriken USB look good. A deadly combination of black acrylic paint, spray paint and aluminum foil along with quick ninja slashes to give the housing a weathered look. Go, do your jumping from tree to tree thing until you reach Instructables so you can read the full instructions.

[via Get USB]

It was introduced in the early 1980s, which actually makes it several years older than I am. And while this Roland TR-808 Flash Drive can’t really help you lay down some beats, it sure looks a lot like the real thing.

Since it’s a USB drive, you can expect it to be really small in size, but that doesn’t make it lacking in detail whatsoever, no sirree.

Skeptical? Then check out the photo below of a real Roland TR-808 and compare it to the photos of the flash drive above and get ready to be pleasantly impressed:

Now, do you agree?

The Roland TR-808 Flash Drive is available from Alkota Beats and is priced at $39.99 (USD). It’s a bit pricier than other 8GB flash drives, but hey, none of those actually look like the Roland TR-808 so that sort of makes it worth it, right? Right.

[via Engadget via Slippery Brick]

Measuring about 3.2″, this flash drive has a wooden case – Japanese bigleaf magnolia, if you’re interested in specifics – that’s coated with high-quality gold leaf from Kanazawa City in the Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan. Kanazawa City’s association with gold leaf dates back hundreds of years; in fact Kanazawa literally means “marsh of gold”. Until today Kanazawa City still accounts for 99% of Japan’s high-quality gold leaf, and the material is used extensively in the city’s crafts. In other words, this flash drive is legit.

You can order the 4GB Gold Ingot USB drive from GeekStuff4U for approx. $186 (USD). Legit indeed. Each flash drive is made-to-order, and once you send for one your purchase cannot be cancelled. Although I think the only people who would even consider buying this already have the dollar and the desire, and would never back down from what would be to them is a petty transaction.

[via 7Gadgets]

There are already programs that can create virtual drives for loading ISO files and other disk images, but the Isostick is a huge step up from these programs. First of all, you can boot from the Isostick. It even has its own bootloader so you can change the CD or DVD image before booting. It’s very user-friendly too. Just move or copy ISO files into the Isostick like you would a normal file. Since it’s also a flash drive you can add other files to it too, you don’t even have to configure or separate the ISO files from non-ISO files. Watch the video for more information:

The Isostick will be a very useful tool not just for computer technicians but for gamers and even ordinary computer users as well. Imagine being able to carry multiple discs’ worth of game installers, software installers and even operating systems – all those discs and an optical drive in just one small flash drive.

As of this writing, the Isostick only supports ISO files, but Elegant Invention is also working on supporting other formats like BIN, CUE and DMG. One other feature that would make a lot of people happy is support for other file systems. You can partition the Isostick like any other drive, but currently the Isostick’s virtual optical drive can only read from a partition that’s in FAT32. Mac users – imagine if they can make it mount DMG files and read from HFS+. Effortless booting and installing an OS from USB? Yes please! I wonder if it’s possible to install Windows on a Mac using the Isostick.

The Isostick will be available in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB formats. As of this writing Elegant Invention still has 21 days to raise more funds at Kickstarter, but they’ve already met their target amount so there’s a good chance that it will see the light of day. No word yet on how much the final products will cost, but if you pledge at least $125 (USD), you’ll be one of the first to get an Isostick. Visit Kickstarter to pledge or to find out more about this handy invention. You can also check out Elegant Invention’s blog for more info.

[via TechCrunch]

The Data Clip [JP] USB drive was designed by Nendo for Elecom, the Japanese peripheral company. It’s an interesting visual, because the flash drive will store digital documents and media files, but you can clip it to your hardcopied documents and business cards. The shape is supposed to create a relationship between your daily life and digital data.

The drive comes in 4GB size only at this point, and offers password protection as well. Your data can also be encrypted, but that will use double the storage requirements. The Data Clip will be released this August in Japan, but no price has been announced yet.

[via designboom]

Actually we already saw a camera-shaped flash drive a couple years ago, but that old model had the actual flash drive on the body, which made it awkward and too bulky for some USB ports, especially on laptops. But you won’t have that problem with this flash drive because the lens is just a tad wider than most USB plugs or drives.

You can order the Camera USB Drive from Photojojo for $20 (USD). There are three designs to choose from – Canon, Ricoh and Nikon, but productive photographers may be disappointed to find out that it only has 4GB of storage. Perhaps there’ll be 16GB telephoto or 32GB zoom lenses available in the future.

[via Svpply]