I want to find the perfect flash drive like baseball pitchers want a perfect game. The perfect gadget is elusive and amazingly rare, and I’ve often come tantalizing close to finding it without actually getting there. I think I’ve found the perfect drive now, but I’ve thought that in the past, too. So, here’s a run down of where I’ve come from, and where I’m at now, and why I think I’ve come as close to perfection as possible.

Monarchs of Old

Two flash drives come to mind when I think back on the long parade of USB keys that have come and gone over the course of my life as a gadget-addicted web worker. Both shared some similarities, but I liked them more for their differences than for what they had in common.

Lexar FireFly

The FireFly represents the first time I paid attention to the case design of a flash drive. Before this, it didn’t matter what it looked like, and to my mind, none really looked that good anyway. It didn’t matter that there were complaints about the speed of the drive, and even some murmurs about high failure rates. It felt solid, had a blue glow, and genuinely resembled its namesake.

When I started using a FireFly, a 512MB capacity drive was all that I really needed. I still have the neon green one that I had back then, and it still works, though I don’t use it any more because all of my documents are now online, and at that capacity there’s very little else I can carry on it. They’re still available from Lexar, but the capacities don’t seem to be increasing and keeping track of the cap started to become a nuisance, so I moved on.

SanDisk MicroCruzer

To escape the tyranny of caps, I moved on to the MicroCruzer, which again boasts a pretty attractive form factor, but with a retractable USB connector to eliminate the need for protective covers. A reassuring orange glow lets you know it’s working, and you get the reassurance of using a SanDisk flash product, a company I’ve found to be tremendously reliable. Many of my MicroCruzers are still in service.

But not all. The retraction trick may prevent the connector from getting damaged and reduce the need for a cap, but with lots of repeated use it seems to wear down, and now some won’t catch when extended, making it much harder to connect them to the computer. And it shares the same small but chunky design with the FireFly, which means they still feel like a bulky imposition in my pants pockets.

Current Ruler

LaCie CooKey/IamaKey/WhizKey

The flash drive so nice they made it thrice. LaCie originally released the IamaKey model of this drive, which I bought as soon as I became aware that it existed. It’s a USB key meant to resemble an actual key, thanks to a housing designed by 5.5 Designers for the Mac-friendly accessory maker. When that model took off, LaCie introduced two further designs that essentially replicated the form factor.

Which is a good thing, because it’s actually perfect, insofar as my current flash memory needs go. The keys come in a range of capacities, from 8GB to 32GB, and they sport a rugged metal design. They’re as thin as house keys, so they fit can on your key ring. The connector is one-sided (doesn’t have the traditional box of a male USB connector, only the business side with the contacts), which allows for the thinness of design.

A little plastic cover is provided for those who are paranoid about damaging the contacts, but as someone who promptly lost that cover on his first key, let me tell you that it isn’t at all necessary. The construction of the contacts is such that they seem impervious, even when kept with the rest of your keys in a pocket filled with change and other bric-a-brac. They’re easily portable, functional, unobtrusive and stylish. Plus clients and people I meet in the course of doing business almost always fall in love with them, so they help with networking and they make great corporate gifts, too.

Have you found the perfect flash drive?

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Here are some cheap ways to put off the day you’ll need to buy a new laptop.

More Memory

My machine was originally fitted with 1 GB of RAM, which seemed like plenty at the time (and fitting more would have been hideously expensive when I bought it). It was really starting to creak under the strain of running multiple web apps, AIR widgets, and apps like Photoshop, all of which demand huge amounts of RAM. If your machine is constantly having to use its swap space, performance will be notably impacted.

Maxing out the memory on my laptop cost just $50, and the difference in performance is huge, especially when switching between applications. Fitting the memory was easy and took no more than five minutes, although on my machine the second module is hidden under the keyboard, which proved a little fiddly to remove.

The Crucial Memory Advisor tool is useful for figuring out which memory upgrades might be available for your machine.

Larger Hard Drive

If you’re running out of space, you have a couple of options. You can either buy a replacement drive, or buy an external one.

I opted for an external portable drive for a couple of reasons. First, it meant that I wouldn’t have to reinstall my OS and all of my apps. Second, a portable drive gives me some additional flexibility. Now I can easily copy large amounts of data between machines and if I need to transport my files, I can just slip the drive into my pocket. The drive I bought was a 320 GB Seagate Freeagent Go, which looks sleek and works well. You can get a drive like this for around $75 (you pay a little more for higher capacities).

New, Higher Capacity Battery

If your laptop is getting on a bit, chances are that its battery life is notably diminished. Rather than buy an expensive replacement from the manufacturer (Dell charge more than $150 for a replacement battery for my machine) look for compatible versions on eBay.  While you’re at it, why not look at getting a higher-capacity battery? I picked up a 9-cell unit on eBay for just $50 that lasts much longer than the original did.

Bluetooth

If your laptop didn’t come with with Bluetooth installed (mine didn’t), you might still be able to purchase an inexpensive Bluetooth adapter for it; check with your manufacturer. Bluetooth opens up communication with whole host of useful gadgets such as mice, keyboards, headsets, cameras, printers and mobile phones. I’ll do anything to reduce the amount of wires cluttering up my desk, so buying a Bluetooth adapter that cost less than $20 was a no-brainer.

Note: Upgrading components on a laptop is not always as straightforward as it is on a desktop. Make sure to consult your owner’s manual before buying any upgrades, unplug your machine and remove the battery before starting work, and take precautions to avoid damaging your equipment with static electricity (use an antistatic wrist strap, or ground yourself periodically on an unpainted metal surface).

How have you upgraded your laptop?

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