LaCie cuts flash drives down to size with MosKeyto

Stephen Withers
Friday, 03 September 2010 16:15

Your IT - Mobility

Have you ever wondered why USB thumb drives are so large? Someone at LaCie has.

If thumb drives weren't the size they are, they probably would never have got that name. But comparing the size of a MicroSD card with the typical thumb drive does make you wonder why the latter is so large. Some Bluetooth dongles and certain other USB devices are a fraction of the size of a thumb drive, so clearly it's nothing to do with the interface.

Anyway, storage specialist LaCie has released the MosKeyto, a flash drive that's less than 2cm long and weighs just 10g. At $A24.99 for the 4GB model and $A44.99 for 8GB the MosKeyto is at the higher end of the price range, but it isn't hard to find flash drives from other manufacturers at similar prices.

We're not sure what this mosquito is doing to the MosKeyto...

LaCie officials suggest the MosKeyto is small enough to be left plugged into a notebook being transported in a sleeve or case. If you're worried that an unplugged MosKeyto could be easily lost, there's a nylon strap allowing it to be attached to a keyring.

As a bonus, LaCie throws in 4GB of online storage from Wuala (free accounts normally only get 1GB, and 10GB costs $US29/year).