Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  Flash and carry (09 Jun 2005) Rappers and hip-hoppers bear some responsibility for the rise of the wearable flash drive. Their enthusiasm for heavy, metallic neckwear made it acceptable for men—who own 80% of flash drives—to wear chunky pendants. But flash drives aimed specifically at women are on the way too. PNY, a New York-based manufacturer with a product line that includes a flash drive hidden inside a pen, will launch a collection this autumn of drives with “feminine” shapes, colours and materials. “A fashionable drive needs to be shown off,” says Stephane Rouveyrol of PNY. Similarly, Maastrek, a firm based in Hildesheim, Germany, that already sells flash drives built into watches, is designing a line of flash-drive earrings and bracelets, and a series of necklaces in the shapes of tigers, birds and fish. They will go on sale later this year. Article URL: http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4031109 Read 73 more articles from Economist sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: Google, meet TiVo     This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy