Intuitive Indications - swelling flash drives...

Here's a neat little concept from PlusMinus Design: a USB flash drive which swells up to indicate how "full" it is. Now, there are a few other flash drives which show available space when offline, usually with a teensy LCD display powered by an eensy internal battery. This one has an advantage in its technical implementation, since its indicator only requires power to change its status, not during the static display of the status - therefore, no battery that can wear out. (The suggested tech behind this is a micro-pump, which literally inflates or deflates the drive.) On the other hand, it lacks the precision of a quantitative display - and qualitative indications (the drive is "kinda" full?) don't usually jive with the computer world. Of course, that might be the whole point - to appeal to the less computer-savvy, the more casual users for whom a friendly and accessible approach is worth sacrificing precision.

But we all know that the real idea is to make something cute, unique, and with enough of a wow-factor to be buzz-worthy. And blog-worthy. And in that, these little guys are a success!