The golden wave of storage
How to make an external hard drive look sexy? LaCie's trick is to whack on a layer of gold.
Is there anything sexier than an external hard drive? Well ... everything? And that's the problem.
Storage peripherals for the PC don't exactly inspire the pants-wetting excitement experienced by mobile phone lovers or iPod fans. So how does a manufacturer create desire for what is a pretty dull device? For LaCie, the trick is to make the top surface resemble a choppy ocean and whack a layer of gold* on top.
The company's Golden Disk 500GB USB drive offers a "daring uniqueness" according to the LaCie marketing guff, and brings "a liquid-motion look to your digital life".
The aesthetics are certainly striking, and also open to interpretation. Our take is that the T-1000 has gotten stuck in the process of assuming the form of a standard external hard drive.
As for the specs, you're looking at a USB 2.0 interface, fan-free operation, PC and Mac compatibility and bundled backup software.
The Golden Disk will set you back AU$269.
*An asterisk on LaCie's Web site informs visitors that the device's coating "contains only a small percentage of gold metal content". So don't go trying to melt it off and flog it on eBay.