Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Peripherals

Some things just shouldn’t ever be plugged into your USB port. Not even that dusty, never-to-be-used socket in your 16-port USB hub. The gadgets you’ll see below are among the worst of the worst, with some being so awful, they almost deserve a purchase just to give you a laugh live and in-person. Seriously, just listen: an actual “thumb” drive, a USB key doused in cabbage, a mousepad that doubles as a Lars Ulrich-approved drum kit and a USB Hollywood Film Kit for those still in denial over that acting school rejection letter. There should really be laws against some of this rubbish, but since there isn’t, we’re putting it to you — drop your vote in below to let us know which of the following gizmos reeks the most. Good luck down there.

Read - USB “thumb” drive
Read - Cabbage drive
Read - Hollywood Reject Kit
Read - High heels phone
Read - Finger drum mousepad
Read - Finger skateboard

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Filed under: Storage

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Filed under: Storage

Those looking for a bit more security than your standard off-the-shelf flash drive has to offer already have plenty of options to consider, and they’ve now got yet another courtesy of Kanguru, which just introduced its new KanguruDefender Pro drive. Available in 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB capacities, and in your choice of red, green, blue, tan and yellow “security colors,” the drive boasts hardware AES encryption, along with a tamper-proof aluminum casing and, of course, password-protection. Kanguru’s also seen fit to throw in a couple of decidedly non-security related measures, including custom printing and engraving (at an added cost, that is). If that sounds like the drive for you, you can grab one now for $65, $85, or $130, depending on the capacity.

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Filed under: Storage

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Portable Audio, Storage

Nah, J. Lo won’t go down as the first artist to sell an album via flash drive, but she’s certainly raising the bar concerning price. Apparently, Gresso has landed an agreement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment that allows it to distribute Lopez’s “Brave” album on the Adam&Eve flash drive, which features 1GB of storage and is crafted from African Mahogany or African Blackwood. Word on the street has this one landing later this month for around $70, and while it’s only a supposition, we could definitely see this thing selling better without the musical connection. [Warning: PDF read link]

[Via Luxist]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Portable Audio, Storage

Looking to scratch that retro itch? If so, you’ll likely find oodles of satisfaction in the MIXA USB tape, which not only weds the modernness of a USB flash drive with the old school flavor of a cassette, but also bows down to your funky fresh customization skills. You heard right — those interested can select a black or white 1GB tape, add on any design they choose and cough up £19.99 ($41) to have it shipped anywhere in the world. Finally, the perfect compliment to your shoulder-mounted USB boombox.

[Thanks, Earl]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Storage

Cramming 2GB of storage space into a device no larger than a standard postage stamp is decently impressive, and SiliconSystems has done just that with its new SiliconDrive USB Blade. Hailed as the “industry’s first ultra-small solid state drive for embedded storage applications,” this wee device feels most at home when shoved into incredibly tight quarters on any flavor of PCB. Additionally, the USB 2.0-compliant device is designed to handle shock, vibrations and extreme temperatures, and it features read / write rates of 10MB/sec. The firm plans on releasing these in 512MB and 1GB flavors as well, and while we’ve no idea when to expect ‘em on store shelves, evaluation units and host developer tool kits should be available in December.

[Via SlashGear]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Storage

Wired has a write-up of a new storage technology developed at Arizona State University that could produce flash thumb drives capable of storing terabytes of data in the near future, that also happens to be cheaper and more energy efficient than flash memory. The new technology has been branded programmable metallization cell, and differs from present storage technologies in that it “creates nanowires from copper atoms the size of a virus to record binary ones and zeros.” It all sounds very interesting — if slightly too optimistic — to us, and we’ll get to find out relatively soon just how effective the new chips are: Arizona State’s business arm has licensed the technology to three companies, which may be ready to sell a product containing the chips within 18 months. Watch this space.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!