By LAWRENCE TAN

Tired of the Rubik's cube and its various configurations? Here’s a new cube to tease your brain, and once you solve the puzzle by sliding the aluminium pieces to their correct positions, you’ll be rewarded with your prize: a detachable 16GB USB Flash drive.

The work of Milan-based Japanese design studio Toshi Satoji Design, the Mnemosyne, as Satoji calls it, is taken from the Greek goddess of the same name meaning “memory”, and is created for Japanese company SolidAlliance, maker of wacky USB drives.

Notwithstanding a massive 1 million yen (or slightly more than US$10,000) price tag, the Mnemosyne is everything a USB flash drive is not.

The solid cube measures 7.2 cm by 7.2 cm, a giant as far as flash drives go. And the fact that it’s crafted out of a single block of aluminium makes this flash drive bulky and heavy. Having to twist your way to access the embedded drive, and then reassembling it after use is not exactly an easy task either.

But that’s precisely what Satoji and his team of designers intended.

“As we wanted our USB flash drive to be used with care and attention, we chose a precious, expensive, bulky and heavy material, that would be difficult to use,” said Satoji.

“This is exactly the opposite way that a common USB Flash Drive is used. Something very precious shouldn’t be easy, in the same way an opera of art isn’t,” he added.

We recommend storing only photo albums of your family, wedding, anniversary celebrations and other precious moments inside this flash drive, not the business proposal or powerpoint slides you have prepared for the next day’s presentation. 

Images are taken from IT Media +D PC User

SolidAlliance