The Top 10 Weirdest USB Drives Ever

Ant writes "Fosfor Gadgets lists the top weirdest USB drives ever, including photographs. Sushi and shrimps look yummy." From the article: "We start off with the least weird USB drive, and it's the iDuck from the Japanese company Solid Alliance. They are available in six different colors and the version on the picture even lights up when it's plugged in. It's cute so it's not that hard to understand why it's popular, right?"

twisted?

[caffeinemessiah]

at first, i thought "oh what's the big deal? you can stick a little flash drive ANYWHERE these days"

but then ...

Rip the head of the cute Barbie doll, and plug it into your PC.

can you say TWISTED???

Re:twisted?

[Jeng]

Oh C'mon, like who hasn't ripped off Barbies head?

Though I think they have it backwards, the head should be the drive, pluggin the body in is just absurd.

Re:twisted?

[kfg]

No, the body should be the "device."

KFG

Re:twisted?

[Jeng]

Shouldn't the memory be stored in the head?

And haveing a Barbie body sticking out of ones computer is just a tad too much, now haveing a Barbie head sticking out is more managable.

Though then again, those heads always get lost.

Re:twisted?

[kfg]

Shouldn't the memory be stored in the head?

Of a Barbie!?

KFG

Re:twisted?

[tehshen]

Metadata journaling is hard. Let's go shopping!

Dumb Blonde

[sconeu]

RTFA. The Barbie doll in the picture was a brunette.

Re:twisted?

[Mehtuus]

Speaking of body, what about these?

USB Dildo [blissbox.com]?
USB Dildo [myfunlink.de] with Bluetooth...

Theres more than one... lol

Re:twisted?

[the_Bionic_lemming]

Can you say "Photoshop"?

Re:twisted?

[IvanTheViking]

Barbie USB [gizmodo.com]

That was the link under the blurb. I don't think that is a photoshop...
Fear not the power of power tools (i.e. Dremel and drill press) and some 5 minute epoxy on making one.

Re:twisted?

[iamhassi]

It's real, but it was just something some guy made, not a commercial product like the rest of the USB drives there.

Since it was homemade I dont really consider it in the same category as the rest of the products since it'd be easy for someone to make all kinds of strange USB drives at home. Example: hollow out a snickers candy bar and shove a USB drive in there! Tada! I now have one of the weirdest USB drives ever!

Re:twisted?

[Romancer]

I literally laughed out loud. Not many things online have been able to actually do that, maybe a smile or a chuckle. But to actually scare the cat across the room, that was hilarious. scrolling down and seeing the Barbie with a male usb port for a head. damn. that's just too much.

Re:twisted?

[Zaleov]

Can you say I want one... NOW?

Re:twisted?

[kfg]

can you say TWISTED???

My analyst told me
That I was right out of my head
The way he described it
He said I'd be better dead than live
I didn't listen to his jive
I knew all along
That he was all wrong
And I knew that he thought
I was crazy but I'm not
Oh no

KFG

Re:twisted?

[Ohreally_factor]

Two heads are better than one.

Re:twisted?

[xquark]

Can you imagine where the USB plug will be for the Ken doll? ;)

Re:twisted?

[aywwts4]

In his baren desert of a nether region? why would anything be there?

Re:twisted?

[Mr2cents]

Rip the head of the cute Barbie doll, and plug it into your PC.

It has excellent Debian Sid support, I've heard.

Re:twisted?

[tsa]

That barbie doll is so funny I almost laughed my head off!

Before you post on how vapid this story is...

[Quirk]

remember it's friday night and you're reading /.

Anything, even the weirdest USB drives ever, could only improve on the sad, shallow life you now lead.

except for me, uhmmm... I'm doing research... drawing statistical relevance from the /. polls.

Before you post on how shallow this story is...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Anything, even the weirdest USB drives ever, could only improve on the sad, shallow life you now lead."

Of course my life is shallow. I'm the lifeguard for the kiddie pool.

Re:Before you post on how vapid this story is...

[AndreiK]

Actually, for me, it's Saturday morning, and no hangover as usual ;-)

Re:Before you post on how vapid this story is...

[Chmcginn]

relaxing to a glass of root beer and tequila

...

This is sad and shallow?

Well, when you edit it like that, it is. :) Seriously, root beer & tequila? Why not just go all the way and combine everclear & kool-aid.

If this is the weirdest they've got, then

[Council]

I never thought I'd find myself saying this, but I just don't think the internet is weird enough.

Re:If this is the weirdest they've got, then

[bersl2]

I never thought I'd find myself saying this, but I just don't think the internet is weird enough.

Please tell me I did not just read that.

You've got to be kidding me.

Re:If this is the weirdest they've got, then

[Council]

I once wrote a syllable-counting script to find unintentional haikus in IRC logs, and this was my favorite:

  sweet baby jesus
  no more room in your manger
  tucked in my anus

Which is, I believe, intentional and perhaps not original, but nonetheless hilarious.

Re:If this is the weirdest they've got, then

[Council]

Given a word $word, this counts the syllables with something like 98% accuracy:

$word=~s/^[^a-zA-Z]+//g; #make lowercase

my @count=$word=~/[aeiouy]+/gi; # base count is # of vowel groups
my @trailinge=$word=~/[e]$/gi; # count traiing Es (-1 to syllable count)
my @trailinged=$word=~/ed$/gi; # count trailing EDs (-1)
my @threevowels=$word=~/[aeiou]{3}/gi; # count three vowels in a row (+1)
my @ded=$word=~/ded$/gi; # if word ends in 'ded', trailing ED rule doesn't apply, add one
my @apot=$word=~/sn't/gi; # count ap

Easy to lose flash

[IvanTheViking]

4. idisk ..... How on earth should can you avoid not misplacing this really tiny (and very weird) product?

Obviously whoever wrote this forgot about TransFlash cards in cell phones such as my i870. Try keeping a spare one of those out of the vacuum cleaner.

Easy to lose flash-Presto

[Anonymous Coward]

"Obviously whoever wrote this forgot about TransFlash cards in cell phones such as my i870. Try keeping a spare one of those out of the vacuum cleaner."

Disappeared in a flash, did it?

Re:Easy to lose flash-Presto

[mikiN]

Lost it in the vacuum cleaner? That sucks.

Re:Easy to lose flash

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously whoever wrote this forgot about TransFlash cards in cell phones such as my i870.

Why do I think this is a clever goatse.cx-esque troll? Imagine the Google results that will return.

Cheers. :)

Re:Easy to lose flash

[bhtooefr]

I'm sure he was thinking something about transexuals flashing.

Anyway, TransFlash is a real type of flash card.

Take a look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TransFlash [wikipedia.org]

Besides, there was a Slashdot article about TransFlash being renamed to microSD (that's microSecureDigital).

USB Elmo knows your name...

[Chris Bradshaw]

I'm suprised the "My Personalized Elmo (Special Spyware Edition)" hasn't made the list... Check this out.

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000100066100/ [engadget.com]

Re:USB Elmo knows your name...

[bmgoau]

With toys like that becomeing avaliable, even if slightly unrefined, its only a matter of time before we have toys for children alot like the Bear from the movie A.I.

Who said artificially intelligent, nuclear powered, tonka-tough toys bend on makeing sre your children eat their breakfast and do their homework?

iDisk

[The Amazing Fish Boy]

They're all pretty weird, except the iDisk [akihabaranews.com]. That product seems pretty useful to me. I might actually be tempted to keep that little thing on me, unlike clunker "keychains". I could put it in my wallet, for instance. Who cares about the likelihood of losing it? That doesn't make it "weird." When I buy it I know it's small.* Small is useful. It's not weird at all.

* There's a joke in there, somewhere. Go nuts.**
** Yeah, I know.

What would be stranger

[mattydont]

if you could actualy eat the usb drive (the shrimp not the thumb) ones.

Re:What would be stranger

[saskboy]

Perhaps we could modify this idea, and someone could swallow a Wi-fi access point, powered by a chemical reaction within the body, and you'd always have wireless internet access for your laptop?

Re:What would be stranger

[zippthorne]

You want to build robots that can eat people?

I certainly can't envision something like THAT coming around to bite us in the ass.

Re:What would be stranger

[xstonedogx]

if you could actualy eat the usb drive (the shrimp not the thumb) ones.

You're responding to The Amazing Fishboy, you insensitive clod!

Re:iDisk

[saskboy]

If I didn't have a rule about never buying anything in a Slashvertisement, then I'd have given any company my Christmas credit card for an iDrive about 2 minutes ago.

Re:iDisk

[tsa]

Who cares about the likelihood of losing it?

So I take it you don't want to actually put data on it?

Re:iDisk

[Rich0]

To me this looks like the perfect device either to be attached to a keychain, or to just leave in a drive all the time just in case. Or, imagine if you had a thin-client solution with no hard drives - this kind of removable USB storage might be the perfect thing to use to store config data or something along those lines. Then you could upgrade the machine just by swapping it.

Re:iDisk

[cmason]

I agree that a tiny (keychain) USB drive would be useful, but I'm a bit worried about that product's lack of metal shield and case: does it stay in? Does it get crudded up?

Not quite as minimalist, but more ergonomic, and probably more durable are these products (which may be simply wrappers around the iDisk.):

• Pretec iDisk Tiny [pretec.com] $40/128MB - $150/1GB
• Iomega MicroMini [cnet.com] $16/64MB.

Re:iDisk

[cmason]

Better link for MicroMini [iomega.com]. $40/256MB - $110/1GB.

iDisk

[wdd1040]

Anyone know where you can buy the iDisk [akihabaranews.com] referenced in the article? Also, does it have any other storage options larger than 128 meg?

Has anyone out there ever used a usb drive this small, and was it effective?

Re:iDisk

[Council]

Has anyone out there ever used a usb drive this small, and was it effective?

It's convenient, but the bits are so small.

Re:iDisk

[neurojab]

Has anyone out there ever used a usb drive this small, and was it effective?

It's convenient, but the bits are so small.

I concur. I used it to store a Word document (a research paper). When I read it off the disk, the average font size had gone from 12 to 6. That's some serious bit shrinkage. The shrinkage seems to occur in all the critical places.

I used one to store my bank account information, and found that my money was convered from dollars to cents.

However, that doesn't compare to the horrors that will befall the user that attempts to use this drive to store their pr0n collection, and views the result.

Re:iDisk

[wdd1040]

After looking into it a little more....

I noticed that SolidAlliance makes almost all of these products, and they can be purchased from SA-Store [sa-store.com].

Re:iDisk

[belmolis]

Yeah, unfortunately the prices are about the same as from the site in the article, twice or more what you'd pay for a regular USB stick. I like the sushi ones, but I don't want to pay that much of a premium.

How very Japanese, though, to offer them in a "family set" and "dinner set" along with a mug showing the Chinese characters for various things eaten as sushi.

Re:iDisk

[dorkygeek]

Yeah, unfortunately the prices are about the same as from the site in the article, twice or more what you'd pay for a regular USB stick.

Nevermind, somebody will eventually place the right numbers into the wrong fields, and you'll be able to purchase one for only 0.83 cents.

Re:iDisk

[Diamon]

And the SA-Store also has some interesting webcams [sa-store.com] for sale.

Re:iDisk

[SaguratuS]

To be specific, you can buy the IDisk here:
http://sa-store.com/shop.php?category_id=52&item01 _id=78 [sa-store.com]

Price: 4,980 Yen ($41.50 USD)

Re:iDisk

[zoloto]

yeah - I found that as well, but how about an english page for those of us on the eastern side of the pacific?

is there a translation please? (apologies!)

[fantomas]

Is there an English translation please? my apologies, I'm very poor at languages :-(

Also would you know if they post overseas?

I have to admit I quite like the idea of a tiny memory stick....

Re:iDisk

[cmason]

Also available from Dynamism [dynamism.com]. $79/128MB. But see my other post [slashdot.org] about possibly better (and cheaper!) options.

Re:iDisk

[noone06]

Here maybe:
http://sa-store.com/shop.php?category_id=52&item01 _id=78 [sa-store.com]

Re:iDisk

[BrynM]

Try one of these [pqi.com.tw]. I have an older one and it's pretty durable.

Re:iDisk

[Spoing]

Has anyone out there ever used a usb drive this small, and was it effective?

Yep. I have 2 of these. [pqimemory.com] They both fit in my wallet, much of the time just like a credit card w/o any special case.

What makes no sense to me is why are the thick drives selling so well, when the slim ones can't get shelf space? There are no benifits to the thick ones over the thin ones -- and I consider the Iomega Micro Mini to be one of the thick ones.

More wierd stuff from SolidAlliance...

[pario]

sushi disks
http://sa-store.com/shop.php?category_id=25&item01 _id=37 [sa-store.com]

more food
http://sa-store.com/shop.php?category_id=40&item01 _id=60 [sa-store.com]

shinto amulet
http://sa-store.com/shop.php?category_id=50 [sa-store.com]

USB camera (from the old Gegege-no-kitaro cartoon)
http://sa-store.com/shop.php?category_id=48 [sa-store.com]

mice
http://sa-store.com/shop.php?category_id=46 [sa-store.com]

These things make me very proud of being a Japanese, hehe...
(Yes, we do have a sense of humor, albeit a rather wacky one.)

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:More wierd stuff from SolidAlliance...

[fbjon]

No, it's a pun on 'omamori' = amulet/charm.

Forget the thumb drive!

[Khyber]

They need a middle-finger USB drive. At least that way I know what my computer's trying to tell me everytime windows crashes!

Weird? Weird!

[paul248]

I think that guy definitely needs a thesaurus.

Re:Weird? Weird!

[themoodykid]

Only if it's USB-powered and weird.

Re:Weird? Weird!

[exley]

Hehe!

Weird to your mother

[themoodykid]

Yes, I know it's a list of *weirdest* USB drives ever, but couldn't they have checked with a thesaurus for alternate words to use? Each entry makes use of the word "weird".

No digg--er, lame.

Difficulting rating of creating a weird USB drive

[t0qer]

Is zero, with the small size of most USB drives, I could carve some space out of anything, even "mariatal aids".

Re:Difficulting rating of creating a weird USB dri

[MichaelSmith]

even "mariatal aids".

I wouldn't want my SO quizzing me on where else my USB drive had been recently...

I'm still waiting

[AutopsyReport]

I'm still waiting for a USB penis so I can finally shut everyone up by showing that my e-penis is as big as I've been claiming for years.

Damn you...

[zoloto]

.. and your irc scripts. e-penises are for pussies... err e-pussies! damnit!

Re:I'm still waiting

[LostBurner]

Careful what you put on that stick, or you'll be at risk of transmitting more than one kind of virus. I know a friend who tried a USB marital aid, and his girlfriend ended up trying to swap floppies with his buddies.

"lol no its not its a marital aid."

Build it

[this great guy]

I'm still waiting for a USB penis so I can finally shut everyone up by showing that my e-penis is as big as I've been claiming for years.

Build it yourself based on an existing USB drive, like this one [svardh.com] for example. Plus I bet its size would match the scale of you e-penis ! Enjoy :)

Almost a slashvertisement

[dtfinch]

At least 7 of those 10 drives are made by the same company. Cute though.

Re:Almost a slashvertisement

[rhesuspieces00]

7 of the 10 weirdest originate in japan. suprised?

yes, actually. I was expecting atleast 9/10.

This is a read-only one but...

[teletype]

I learned of the existence of this in a SkyMall catalog on a particularly awful Delta flight today:

USB Bible [skymall.com]

Pray tell, (ok, pun not intended), what is the point of this thing? Is this for when you really need that Jesus fix, and are at a computer with no net access? I don't get it...

Re:This is a read-only one but...

[ebuck]

Well, if it's in the SkyMall magazine, I guess you could use it as a backup guidance system.

Delivery would be a pain though. I would suggest DHL, as they have those nifty flying vans that could probably pull alongside the plane. Pay for the "ship it right now" shipping, as the 2-day delivery option isn't very useful when you really need a guidance system.

Re:This is a read-only one but...

[smoker2]

Actually, that's quite an intelligent design ...

Not that weird...

[evilviper]

#6 and #1 are odd enough that I might buy them as gifts for someone. #6 I'd buy even if it was just a paperweight. #1 is just so insane I'd have to buy it.

4 is tiny, so it could be a very good purchase, although the combo USB/SD drives would be more useful.

As for the rest... just WHY??? Who wants to make their USB thumb-drive 10X bigger so it can look like sushi?

This would have been a good top 3 list...

Feed readers?

[Dzimas]

Some other excellent Slashdot post ideas: 1. The top ten iPod tea cozies 2. The top ten keyboard warmers 3. The top ten stickers that attach to the top of cheap laptops 4. The top ten girlie-themed skins for WinAmp 5. Top ten USB-powered mug warmers (and fans, and lamps, vibrators and anything else that shouldn't be attached to a computer) Any idiot can stuff a USB drive into a farking prawn. That doesn't make it technologically interesting. Do people not have feed readers that enable them to read gadget

Re:Feed readers?

[bladesjester]

Too late for #2. There really are heated keyboards...
http://www.x-tremegeek.com/templates/searchdetail. asp?productID=10313 [x-tremegeek.com]

There are also a scad of usb coffee warmers, which I will admit would have been convinient when I was still working as an analyst because my coffee was almost always cold by the time I got to finish it.

Re:Feed readers?

[SharpFang]

http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/27/02 59249&tid=133&tid=4 [slashdot.org]

stickers for ya.

Re:Feed readers?

[wheany]

You know, I have a great slashdot story idea: Why women don't play videogames as much as men?

Re:Feed readers?

[cyberwench]

Because I don't read gadget blogs. Frankly, I don't generally read blogs. I've got games to play and only so much time to play them in. =) I enjoy reading about gadgets now and then, but not so much that I'd do it all the time. I know all these articles can be found in other places - Slashdot supplies links to news, but they don't generally make their own. I read Slashdot because it collects all this stuff in one neat package, complete with occasionally interesting comments.

Old news

[Adelle]

USB Sushi is Old News http://www.oldnewsbaby.com/url/22b621f2fb44d168d34 f9064bc3358d4 [oldnewsbaby.com]

Wouldn't wanna...

[bredk]

Wouldn't wanna see the Ken USB-drive...

I like number one...

[vistic]

...it reminds me of that one nightmare on elm street where the girl puts her head in the TV

Don't forget the penknives!

[amarc]

VICTORINOX SWISS MEMORY USB http://www.swissknifeshop.co.uk/swissmemory_standa rd.html [swissknifeshop.co.uk] 64mb - 1gb It's even penguin friendly!

iDisk + something nefarious?

[AgentPhunk]

The only drive on the list that I thought would have any value (other than, aww heck I'll say it, the "Wierd"-ness factor) was the iDisk, and only then for its small footprint. Specifically, I thought its size would allow it to be easily inserted into a system, left there for a few days to collect data, and then recovered without anyone being the wiser. You'd need some time of AutoRun / rootkit to install a keystroke logger onto the host system, or perhaps a version of DSniff to capture interesting passwo

Weird? Not weird enough!

[Kusunose]

See these [angelkitty.jp] wearable [angelkitty.jp] USB memories [angelkitty.jp]!

Fruit F*cker

[Ratbert42]

I'm waiting for the Fruit F*cker model.

This is just an ad

[rubberpaw]

This is just an ad for Dynamism's USB products.

Compare the items in the article to:
http://www.dynamism.com/solidalliance/pricing.shtm l [dynamism.com]

Having said that, I will say that the barbie USB port is just freaky. Wow.

USB Drives using fake chips

[jolyonr]

Beware - some companies such as Goodmans in the UK - have been using chips designeded for "ROM ONLY" use rather than continual rewrite cycles in their USB drives.

More information about the one I found at:

http://www.mways.co.uk/rom_use_only_usb_key.html [mways.co.uk]

Jolyon

Make Yourself a Custom-Made USB Drive

[wehe]

To make your own do-it-yourself usb stick using these tutorials [repair4laptop.org] is not that difficult. See for example this HowTo: Homer USB Drive [zerosign.net].

"Thumb" drive...

[EmagGeek]

I hear you can get those for just $1.99 with any value meal that includes Chili at Wendys...

Disappointment!

[Morgalyn]

I am very sad that the Tiki drive is apparently no longer available from thinkgeek. I think my husband would have liked that for christmas :( Has anyone found this elsewhere? I haven't googled, I'm just being lazy!

Are we related...

[jpardey]

...because that sounds exactly like my neice, hehe! Oh wait, I don't even had a neice, it just seemed so real. Hehe, ok!

Re:Nice, but...

[nukem996]

Every other USB drive ive ever plugged in works fine(via the usb-storage module). Why would these be any different?

Digg this:

[casuist99]

Again, yup, this was on Digg. So what? The sites may occasionally (ok, maybe relatively frequently) contain similar stories, but the sites are fundamentally different. Digg is content oriented (many many posts of stories) and Slashdot is comment oriented (many many comments on all manner of things tangentially related to the article).

I like Digg just as much as the next guy and read it frequently just to get a zeitgeist of interesting tech news, but for interesting discussion on the story, I come to Slas

Re:Digg

[mobby_6kl]

>And I saw it before it was on Digg. Where should we stop?

Even better, I saw all of these drives separately, before there was this article.

Re:Security

[suwain_2]

You could also carry one of the "disguised" ones like the Barbie doll into a secure environment without drawing attention to yourself.

Oh, wait...