LaCie takes USB keys literally

As portable USB drives have gone forth and multiplied across the planet they have evolved into all sorts of different shapes and sizes. We’ve seen credit card shaped drives and even coin shaped drives and all varieties in between. Now LaCie has announced a range of USB drives designed to appear right at home on your key-ring by sporting a key shaped form-factor.

The new USB keys come in three different shaped models – itsaKey, iamaKey and PassKey. The itsaKey and iamaKey are both your standard USB flash drives available in 4GB and 8GB capacities. Both feature a metal key design, have transfer rates of up to 10MB/s for writing and up to 30MB/s for reading with the iamaKey also featuring a gold SIP connector making the unit both water and scratch resistant. Meanwhile the PassKey is a microSD USB card reader that turns microSD cards into USB drives. The PassKey comes with a Push/Push microSD connector in the head of the unit and boasts transfer rates of up to 40MB/s.

It can be hard to display your individuality in an office environment, but LaCie’s new USB keys might help get you a minute or two of attention – albeit in a very low key way.

All the new USB keys support USB2.0 and are available now with the iamaKey retailing at USD$17.99 for the 4GB model and USD$27.99 for the 8GB, the itsaKey priced at USD$14.99 for the 4GB and USD$23.99 for the 8GB model, and the Passkey available for USD$9.99.

Darren Quick