www.slashgear.com: From the battleground to the boardroom, Swiss Army Knives have evolved to fulfill modern needs. And one unexpected way that it manages to do it? Adding a USB drive into its arsenal. While USB flash drives are typically used for storage, they can do a ton of other nifty things as well, like act as a password manager, boot operating systems, and even act like digital keys.
8 comments:
I always carry a thumb drive with me. Especially as a theater technician, I will frequently find myself, at the last minute, needing to move large files from computer to computer, and having a thumb drive on hand makes a huge difference. I would highly suggest getting a small drive if you're a theater technician. As the article says, they do so much more than storage. I don’t have one on my multi tool, but I have one on my keys. I agree that the one’s on swiss army knives are not ideal. 32 GBs is not that big, the one I have is 128. I also agree that you probably don’t want one on a multitool in general. I knock around my knife all the time, drop it, shove it in my bag, etc. And I’m definitely not willing to pay 3,000 dollars for one. The intent is good, but it should be implemented better. I do think there could be a good way to attach a thumb drive to your multitool .
I think that having a USB on a swiss army knife is a great idea theoretically. However, there are definite drawbacks to these USBs specifically. They seem to be very big and bulky, especially for a swiss army knife, which has the specific goal of stuffing as many useful tools as possible into the smallest package possible. These USB sticks are also not that great. I bought a pack of four different 128gb USBs for about ten dollars. The USB sticks attatched to these swiss army knives are only 32gb, which is not really that much. Truthfully though, I feel like the best use of a USB stick on a swiss army knife would be to act as a passkey, rather than for storing information. Whenever I need to transfer anything, I generally find that I know ahead of time and can plan to bring a USB. but having an additional key on your person could be smart if you have a work computer that you don't want others accessing.
OKAY SO THIS IS AWESOME !!!!! like. What the heck. What world are we living in?? This is the news I want to hear and technological advancements I want to see!! This is actually genius to me and generally just really really really cool, smart, and exciting. BUT I do have some questions such as, what will become the norm for swiss army knife users to keep on their flash drives? Is it gonna be photos, or music or videos or documents? What media is the most important. I will say though that it is maybe just a little bit worrying to have a flash drive on our army knife because of how much we use them. A part of the swiss army knife's appeal in its design is that they are durable, always there, and can be tossed around. So I naturally just feel like the flash drive is bound to get damaged as well as whatever media is on it.
What I found interesting about this article is how it represents our needs for tools based on our modern living condition as the article mentioned. More specifically how I imagine that a swiss army knife with a USB in 2025 is likely much less desired than one in 2015 or 2005. While there have been a small set of tools that are essential to any everyday carry such as a Swiss Army Knife or Leatherman, there is an interesting rotation of other tools that may be incorporated for your specific needs. In a certain way these tools represent the developments of engineering and technology at their most basic level of needing to interact with machinery in your everyday. As computers and hand held technology advanced, there was a more practical usage of a USB drive in an everyday carry, yet now as technology has become so accessible, a USB drive has less direct application for the standard purchaser. While still providing utility to some, within a short amount of time the USB has lost some its value.
I have never heard of a knife with a USB in it and I truly think it would be decently helpful to an extent. USB drives are a very helpful way to transfer data and ensure that everything you need is saved in a succinct place. One of the only downsides I can see to this is that it's connected to my knife. I don't necessarily want to be the most intimidating person in the room pulling out my knife just to reveal that it is a USB. I would also be concerned about losing the knife because traveling with a swiss army knife just to carry my computer information can get a little complicated. If the knife ever got confiscated I would lose all the information that is kept on my USB. Overall I think that both components of this multi tool are equally useful but together they become a little overkill and unusable.
The whole concept of this creation is really interesting to me. I guess if you only really need your Swiss army knife for aesthetic purposes if you work in some 9:00 to 5:00 job it would be helpful to have a USB on it, but in the theater industry, I can see so many cases in which we need a Swiss army knife or a multitool that would all be very difficult to keep a USB safe and secured in. For example, I think it would be a lot harder to work using your Swiss army knife the way that it's meant to be used if you were worried about getting a component of it dirty or wet or whatever. Additionally, like the article says, USBs do not have the same life cycle or dependability that a lot of other parts of the Swiss army knife will have. the USB will crap out long before the rest of the Swiss Army knife, and then you're just stuck with a useless little square on your Swiss Army knife.
This title made me raise my eyebrows a little, it feels a little… gimmicky. And I’m not necessarily convinced yet. I primarily use my swiss army knife for camping (to the point that I actually didn’t even bring it to school with me because I wanted to leave it with my siblings so they could take it camping without me) so the idea of having an electronic part on it makes me shrivel up a little. The rain and the mud and the muck…. Would not go together. That being said, I can see how this would be really useful for people that don’t try to drown their multitools on the weekend. It sounds really convenient to just have it there with all your other tools, and on that principle I think its pretty cool. That being said, the concern about buying it secondhand because of malware on the USB is an incredibly valid concern. I’m a big fan of buying secondhand, and being limited to buying a knew knife like that firsthand due to safety concerns isn’t my favorite, admittedyl.
I feel like I like this idea in concept but I wouldn't like it in application; to be honest I'm pretty hard on my multitool. I can say there have been multiple occasions in which I have used it like a hammer when I didn't have a hammer, or where I've slipped and I had it on my belt and I landed on it or I dropped it in some substance like water or paint or something of the sort. I think multitools are just something that gets used in such harsh conditions constantly that it would be incredibly difficult to add a USB or USB C drive and actually have it work. I feel like an easier solution to this would be to carry it around on a carabiner in which you have your keys on. sure you still have the risk of dropping it banging it into something but I don't think it would be used as harshly intentionally as a multitool is.
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