Remember birthday parties as a kid? The best part about the birthday party, bar none, was the time after the food and cake, when you were allowed to rip through the pile of presents that each of your hand-picked, birthday buddies brought for you.
It never failed. At least four or five birthday parties as a kid would yield some sort of all-in-one pocket knife. There were quite a few knock-offs you might receive (usually from grandparents), but none were better than the Swiss Army knife. It was always a keeper.
The Swissmemory USB Victorinox is not only a culmination of the knives and miscellaneous apparatus of yesteryear, but it now includes a high-performance portable storage device. It comes with a 128MB USB flash drive and USB extender cable that enables you to carry electronic data and, at the same time, be on the ready when a box needs to be sliced open. The other functions of the knife include a pocket knife, a nail file, a keychain ring, small scissors, a ballpoint pen and a red LED light for short nighttime reading or searching for the right door key in the dark.
The Swissmemory USB Victorinox's form factor is extremely small. A average-sized man can close his fist around it and it disappears. However, in this day and age, you simply can't carry a pocket knife - even a very small one -- with you where security is a concern. You'll most likely have this knife confiscated if you try to carry it onto an airplane. Never fear. You don't have to worry about losing your favorite new toy. The Swissbit and Victorinox folks took this into consideration. To use the USB flash drive you have to slide a locking mechanism on one end of the pocket knife to reveal the flash drive. Once unlocked, the flash drive swings into view so you can insert it into your USB port. With a little additional effort you can also remove the flash drive from the pocket knife completely.
The product comes in 64MB and 128MB versions. Personally, I'd rather have a 512MB or 1GB version to carry around. Also, the ballpoint pen, included with the pocket knife, is handy to have in a pinch. I can see myself using this quite a bit, actually. The only problem is, I've yet to find any information about how to obtain a replacement. I checked the Swissbit Web site to no avail.
I'm not normally one of those guys that always carry a pocket knife, but this product may just change that. When you think of how useful a pocket knife is anyway, and how often you want to transfer files, you may want to try this out for a while.
I'll keep this knife in my pocket, hoping to catch up on yesteryear - hoping to reclaim those memories of birthday parties and grandparents' gifts.
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