Splash Drive

Nothing to do with driving. This USB stick drive, USB pen drive and also a variety of other names. Integral who are part of Just Rams choose to call theirs a Splash Drive, it does have a couple of unusual features.

6x2x1cm are the dimensions with a hole through the base so you can attach it to a keyring. It is covered with a rubberised material that protects it from possible damage through dropping and no doubt it would also protect it from the occasional splash from a cup of tea or coffee.

Plug it in to any USB port (it is USB 2 but works on USB 1.1) and Windows will install a driver you can drag and drop files to and from it as it will be given a letter in My Computer, so far it is just another USB unit apart from the rubberised coating. Here is the extra ability it has a built in ability to Zip files so increasing the capacity of the drive.

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The Splash drive is available in sizes from 128MB to 2GB, the one I saw was 256MB. The other unusual feature – if we disregard the rubberised coating is that it is available in a range of colours.

The stated available colours are blue, green, pink, yellow and lilac. I can see a use for different colours in an office environment where people have different colours or different file types are saved on different colours, a gimmick maybe but lots of things that start as gimmicks soon become a gadget and then an essential must have. 

A 512MB unit should be available for around £50 from www.maplin.co.uk, www.insight.com/uk or www.pcwb.com. You could also try www.justrams.com

Wind-Up

This is a simple product a wind up torch, I remember having one a long time ago you wound it up and got light for a few seconds. Here the technology have moved on a long way 30 seconds worth of winding gives enough battery power for between 10 and 15 minutes worth of light as your winding is stored in a rechargeable battery.

The unit is just about palm size with notched rubber grips on either side. Dimensions are 17.5x5x5cm and the weight less than 200grams. Three small LED’s in the front give a very bright tungsten type light that will show your way in the darkest recesses. A push button on the top has two modes on with three lights or off. However press it again and it comes on with just the centre LED and then press again for off. The more pedantic may say that’s three or even four modes.

The winder is underneath and folds out to a 10cm length, while it is not hard to turn a couple of minutes will probably be enough exercise for most at one go.

I think this is an indispensable item for everyone as unless you have regular power cuts any torch you have probably has flat batteries and this can work after only a few seconds of turning the handle, it works if you turn clockwise or counter clockwise but you should not mix turns on the same charging cycle.

If I have one small gripe it’s the fact you need a very firm press to turn it on/off

This is the sort of gadget that you think why did someone else not produce it, well while it’s not unique the way of implementation at the price certainly is. This is something I intend to keep handy it’s £8.99 from the link below.