The Best 5 Gadgets: #5 Lacie iamaKey

Good times

• No one has ever picked out that I am carrying a memory stick on my keyring .. success!
• Reasonably priced
• Seems to be hard wearing

Bad times

• The stupid cap that comes with it to protect the insertion point was always going to get lost ...

I also considered

• There are loads of USB memory stick you can attach to your keyring, but none of them look like a key

Something need not be complex in order for it to bring gadget joy. Witness, the Lacie iamaKey. It is a memory stick. Yawn. It is a memory stick that you are likely to keep with you at all times - I mean you never know when you need one - and nobody will realise that you are that kind of geek until you need to use it. Well that is a little more interesting.

I do not treat the iamaKey with any kind of care, yet it seems to withstand the pressure of living alongside my real keys quite well. It comes with a protective cap to protect the pins, which I lost on day one. Stupid piece of design. Make the pins retract a la the SanDisk Cruiser range and Lacie would really have something.

Functionally, it is a USB key. It works.

- The Best (and Worst) 5 Gadgets series -

The best five gadgets

1. iPhone 4 smartphone
2. Sagem PVR6240T PVR (as buggy as it is ...)
3. Logitech diNovo Mini miniature QWERTY keyboard
4. Logitech X-230 speakers
5. Lacie iamaKey USB memory key

The worst five gadgets

1. One For All URC-9900 Director (Mosaic) universal remote control
2. Nokia N800 internet tablet
3. Sony Playstation 3 (slim) games console
4. Asus EeeBox PC EB1501 nettop
5. Aliph Jawbone bluetooth headset