Victorinox previews a knife for simultaneous PowerPoint/shanking

CES 2011: If MacGyver filled out TPS reports, he would own one of these

Jan 7, 2011 by

Victorinox had an impressive spread of pocket knives on display, nearly all of them containing one or more flash memory sticks of some sort.  The Belle of the Ball however had to  be the unreleased “Presentation Master”  knife/biometric protected flash drive/Bluetooth Power Point slide advancer/laser pointer/nail file/screw driver/scissors/owner of my heart.

This impressive bit of keychain technology has been thought through to the point of airport security considerations.  If the TSA catches you trying to smuggle your massive 2 inch blade in your carry on they will likely confiscate it.  In anticipation of this event Victorinox has built the flash module in such a way as to be detachable, enabling your data to still make it through security even if the rest gets swiped and pocketed by your friendly airport crotch grabber.  They also have a version sans blade entirely to alleviate airport troubles.

The initial capacity of the drive on display was 8GB, which should be more than enough space for all but the most multimedia heavy presentations.  Larger capacities up to 128GB are anticipated on launch in the next couple months.

In “plain-Jane” flash land, there are a large number of options encased in multi-color optioned anodized aluminum and able to survive daily trips through the wash.  Options include single and double stick apparatus up to 128GB per stick.  Speeds are rated at approximately 25 MB/s read and 14 MB/s write.  Victorinox was gracious enough to gift your humble author with a bright orange 32GB model for testing, and a couple quick benchmarks put real world write speed (best case scenario) at closer to 30 MB/s, and writes at 26 MB/s.  It’s a bit refreshing to see conservative numbers on marketing materials for a change.

These drives aren’t going to break any speed records, but are fast enough for most basic tasks, attractive, and some models can even open your beer for you, bonus.S|A

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Dave Morgan