The Midas Touch: Ora Ito’s Gold Hard Drive
A few weeks ago I set out to buy a new external hard drive. Admittedly, I wasn’t looking for a blinged- out piece of golden desk candy (at first), but I found one and it was pretty hard to resist.
Definitely not your standard-issue black plastic, this hard drive is designed by Ito Morabito of Ora-Ito. You may remember him as the Parisian designer who created a series of Lego-block-shaped hard drives for LaCie back in 2005. Well, he’s back with another LaCie drive and this time it’s a 500GB, Hi-Speed, USB 2.0 beast that looks like a gold brick (click here for more specs).
The drive sells for $189 and it’s surprisingly functional for what seems like a novelty product. You’re only getting 500GB of storage, which for $200 isn’t the best. But, the drive is driver-free, plug-and-play and fanless. That means it’s quiet and easy to use. It also comes with a two-year warranty from LaCie, one of the better drive manufacturers.
The best part? LaCie describes it on their website as “500GB of capacity under a glitter wave.” Something definitely got lost in the translation there, but we’re loving it anyway. Of course, I chickened out in the end and opted for a more “practical” (read: boring) 1TB Western Digital My Book.
I would not mine having that sitting next to my computer while I am writing my blog posts. I could look at my own shiny, goldy (word?) reflection in my hard drive.
HA! It’s sitting here on my work table, reflecting the underside of my iMac G5, so shiny, with that little pink light proving it is connected. Bought it yesterday at 50% off at my local Apple store for less than 100 euro. I love it! P&P without a hitch.