Key to My Data

My visit to the Apple store in Covent Garden made me stumbled upon this USB drive that I've been wanting to get my hands on. I was at the top floor, down right to the back of the store where all the laptop bags are located, when i spotted this little beauty hidden on the shelf. I was actually looking for a 8Gb version, but it's not there - but in the end took the 4Gb one to pay. Well, I blamed the sales assistant though coz she made me wanted to buy it. (Did I mention that all the sales assistant at Apple's Covent Garden store are all good-looking and gorgeous?).

Anyway. It's the Lacie iamaKey that has a very unique design; looking like...erm.. a key itself. Even the packaging made you drool coz it does give you suggestion to keep it on your keyrings.

So, the iamaKey. It's made of solid metal - very sturdy and tough. Quite heavy compared to the typical USB drive in the market due to the material used. It has a keyhole for you to slip into the keyring and the gold SIP connector on the other end for the data transfer. In case you're wondering, this USB drive is water- and scratch-proof. (Don't worry, I've tested it myself). But if you're still unconvinced, there's a plastic cap provided that you can cover the gold connector should you wanna bring it travel with you.

Talking about the memory storage, the one that I got is 4Gb. One thing which is great about it is Lacie also give you another 4Gb storage on the cyberspace, through what they call the 'Wuala' drive. (Or maybe it rhymes with 'voila'. No?). The transfer rate? It mentions somewhere that the read mode is up to 30 MB/s while the write mode is up to 10MB/s. Remember to read it carefully: UP TO. Which doesn't mean it does 10 MB/s anyway, coz when I tried to transfer a file of 103,566 KB - it took 16 s making the transfer rate as 6.47 Mb/s! Less than the maximum capability, huh?

Anyway, this iamaKey USB drive looks great. Plus it glides smoothly in/out the USB port, unlike some USB drives which take some effort to do so. And what more? I fit perfectly with all my keys on my Marc Jacobs keyring! (Come on, it's the look that counts, people!)

Oh, in case the key is too big for you and you'd rather get a minuscule one that only visible to the 'microorganism' eyes (literally), then this Busbi Nano might be the one you're looking for. Very small. And you can even lost it even before you use it! =)