Lexar tries to make USB thumb drives fashionable

By Sharon Fisher | Published January 7, 2009, 1:11 PM

Watch Tower temporary bannerhead

For those who like to make a fashion statement with their solid-state memory -- as well as for those who keep losing the caps on the darn things -- Lexar has announced two new families of USB drives that don't have removable caps. JumpDrive TwistTurn has a rotating case (really, "JumpDrive SwitchBlade" would probably describe it better, but that name probably didn't test well), while JumpDrive Retrax clicks in and out like a ballpoint pen. Each model comes in multiple sizes, with colors mapped to the size: 2 GB in white, 4 GB in red, 8 GB in blue, 16 GB in gray, and 32 GB in black. They each have a two-year warranty and come with a free 30-day trial of Dmailer software, which lets users back up and carry files, photos, and videos, as well as Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail. They will be available in March for undisclosed prices.

Comments

View comments by with a score of at least

I wanted to! They didn't have them! Still waiting!

But in the meantime, here they are in situ on the Lexar website. The first two under 'standard.'

http://www.lexar.com/jumpdrive/index.html

Score: 0

|

Gotta say, I like the retractable better. The switchblade one looks almost fragile.

Thanks for the link!

Score: 0

|

SanDisk has had a retractable USB flash drive for years. I am sure others have as well.

...and how can you have an article about the "look" of a device and NOT include pictures? Does that make sense to anyone?

Score: 0

|

Couldn't agree more. I was expecting pics as well.

Score: 0

|

That's how they're marketing it, dude. Srsly.

Score: 0

|

"For those who like to make a fashion statement"...

Oh brother... :-S

Score: 0

|

Will Firefox beat IE9 to Direct2D rendering?

Just days after Microsoft executives gave conference attendees a peek at a new rendering technology, a Mozilla contributor revealed he's working on the same thing.

AOL's decision to rebrand as Aol. takes a bad brand and makes it worse

The idea behind the social Web is to crowd source before bringing out something new. But not at AOL, which new logo debuted with a cry of "fail!" across the blogosphere and Twittersphere today.

Microsoft's Bob Muglia and Ray Ozzie on Silverlight vs. standards

Bob Muglia: "We're trying to provide people with an environment that has capabilities that you just simply can't do today in the standards-based world."

Uh-oh, netbooks -- not Windows 7 -- will lift 2009 PC sales

Santa may bring a lump of coal to the Windows PC industry this holiday season. Netbook sales will sap PC margins, while weak Windows 7 PC sales could further drive down average selling prices.

Kindle 2 update adds battery life, native PDF reader

Amazon has pushed out an update to the Kindle 2 e-reader that lengthens battery life and adds a native PDF viewer.

Safari on iPhone gets competition from a $1 browser app

Apple likes to say it gives iPhone users a full browsing experience, but a new competitor tries to incorporate more desktop browser features.

Action Replay maker sues Microsoft for Xbox 360 'predatory technological barriers'

Third-party video game accessory maker Datel has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft over the Xbox 360's recent Dashboard update.

Where there's smoke: Apple warranty stance raises troubling questions

Carmi Levy | Wide Angle Zoom: Smoking can be dangerous not only for your lungs, it appears, but for your Apple hardware warranty.

Microsoft's .NET Micro Framework is now free and open source

The latest version of Microsoft's .NET Micro framework is now in the hands of the FOSS community.

Google's value proposition for Chrome OS: Should we feel insulted?

For a search engine that has direct access to all the world's online history, it appears to have taught Google nothing about selling a machine.

E-book readers will be in short supply this holiday season

E-readers are hot this year, and a lot of compelling new products have been released, but are there enough electrophoretic displays to go around?