Jewelry-encased USB keychains

By Cory Doctorow at 9:07 am Monday, Sep 27

eGem is selling hand-made "digital lockets" -- basically, USB flash-drives in enclosures made from precious metal. They're very pricey ($250-$500) and carry a disappointingly small amount of memory (why do people who make bespoke, high-priced electronics enclosures insist on using 64MB dollar-store boat-anchors as the technical core?).

As much as I admire the aesthetics of these things, I wouldn't buy one even if I had the money. It's something like a sin to buy a beautiful work of handmade art that is intended to cradle a bit of technology that will be obsolete in six months. Three months. It's like those gorgeous limited-edition Bang and Olufsen Bose (Thanks, Andrew!) 20th Anniversary Macs -- a work of art surrounding a piece of junk.

Now, OTOH, if someone were to mass-produce cheap, gigeresque enclosures for high-cap memory sticks, the kind of thing you don't mind showing off today and won't mind throwing out tomorrow -- *that* I'd buy in a second! Link (via Gizmodo)