I4U News

Manufacturer: Laks (Web Site) 
MSRP: $89
Buy it here: Laks.com Online Store

Experience:

The Watch comes in a neat cube form package. Besides the Watch I find a USB cable, a mini CD and manual. The Laks USB Memory Watch is very easy to use. The watch itself features an analog time display. It comes with a resin band. The USB cable is neatly put away in the band. So nobody will actually see that the watch has a twist. Only hint is on the face plate, where it says in small font: "Memory 128MB". 

First thing after setting the time, I pulled out the USB cable from the strap and connect it to my Notebook. The Watch does not require any software drivers (only for Win98). The Windows 2000 OS recognizes the Flash Drive in the Watch and maps it as a removable drive. I drag'n'dropped several files onto the drive and it copied them quite fast (Writing speed: 920KB/second). 
As soon as I connected the watch to the computer a small red light lights up on the face plate of the watch. I did not see that LED before, it is very tiny. During file transfer the light is blinking. It is recommended to stop the USB device before removing it from the USB port, so i did just that from the USB Device icon in the windows tray.
That's it! I put the watch on and now I am able to carry all my vital data with me; Family photos, my favorite party MP3s, Business presentations, etc. Wherever there is a USB port, I could plug the watch in and upload or download stuff - quite cool! I like the watch flash drive concept better than the key chain or pen drive concept. 

With the umsd software on the CD the watch supports password protection for the storage. That's a quite important feature if I would want to protect my valuable data. The software lets me configure either the whole flash drive as password protected, or I can also create public and secure areas. Every time when changing the partitioning all files will be deleted, so think before how you want to use the storage in the watch.



On the CD I also found a folder called Windows CE. in there is beta version of a USB driver for the watch. I currently do not have Windows CE (PocketPC) based PDA to try that - could be fun though.

Details:

• Standard USB interface and extension USB cord included(1 meter).
• Plug and play, easy operation with startup cd disk included
• LED indicator light indicating the status of the device
• Operating Systems: Windows 98 , Windows Millennium Edition
(Windows ME), Windows 2000, Windows XP, Linux 2.4 or higher, Mac OS 8.6 or higher
• Reading speed: 1000KB/second. Writing speed: 920KB/second
• Shock proof and Anti-static.
• Water resistance
• Citizen 2035 movement with 3-year battery life.
• Memory sizes available are: 32MB, 64MB, 128MB and 256MB!

Pricing:

Pros:

casual watch design
no drivers necessary
easy to use
password protection
fair pricing

Cons:

no date function
I prefer digital display watches

Conclusion:

This a great USB flash drive watch. It is part of the first generation of these kind of memory watches. I also saw the same watch branded by other companies. Little hints, like Chinese language option in the installation software, tell me that the watch is manufactured by a Chinese OEM. 
I am looking forward to more edgy and futuristic watch designs that feature flash drives. For instance my Spoon Secret Agent Watch (photos below) is much cooler looking and people always ask me what this watch can do. It can tell the time, that is it. But it looks like it has a satellite remote control system built in. The SAM watch is discontinued and hard to find. In my opinion high-tech gadgets should be packaged in smart and edgy design. The Spoon SAM design would be a great design for a Wrist PDA or flash drive watch.

Read More I4U Gadget Reviews