When you think about the French, chances are you think comedy involving mimes and baguettes dancing with their comedy god Jerry Lewis. Is that just me? Alright then. The French are doing something interesting with USB and trains. A kind of wireless easy-pass for trains. French public transportation company SNCF is getting 1,000 customers to help it test an RFID-enabled smart card that doubles as a USB drive, known as the Weneo ID Smart.

SNCF wants to expand its contactless payment system, and the plan would allow customers to plug their train passes into their PC at home. Which makes sense, because at home they can add money to their account, avoid missing trains because the train is pulling away as they rush to put money onto a card, and it probably helps with crowds as well. Schedules can also be downloaded to the card and it’s a photo ID. Once on the train, the fare would be deducted from the card by an RFID reader or an attendant with a handheld device. They’ll have to see if it’s a success first, but if so, the SNCF may want everyone using the system by 2010.

LaCie’s got itself a new designer external hard drive today which is networked for NAS duty. It is called Network Space and you’ll find this drive offering 500GB or 1TB of storage when it becomes available next month.

The LaCie Network Space, which starts pricing around $150, is the latest design for the company by Neil Poulton. It has a black mirror-polished finish, fanless operation and blue LED strip. LaCie says it is usable right from the box by just plugging into an Ethernet port.

Bluetooth headsets are one of the most common accessories for many cell phone users. Many states require drivers to use hands free Bluetooth headsets or car kits. Mostly all the different brands of Bluetooth devices have the same features. BlueAnt has announced a new headset that adds something new to the common Bluetooth headset.

The headset is called the BlueAnt V1 with Advanced Voice Recognition. BlueAnt says that the V1 is the first headset produced to use the Bluetooth 2.1 specification. The headset uses BlueGenie Voice Interface to allow the user to control the headset and phone functions with their voice.

Could we really not come up with a better way to violate these animals via USB? Apparently not, and I have no better suggestions to offer as far as the placement of their uh, receptacle. Poor guys get no respect at all. Just living out USB life day after horrible day, like a having perpetual proctology exam as time slides toward infinity.

You can thank Japanese company Marubeni InfoTech. This is their line of wooden USB drives. Each features a 1GB storage capacity and you get five animals to choose from: dog, pig, elephant, hippopotamus and a swan, available in maple or walnut. They’ll cost you $73. Is there an organization for the ethical treatment of wood animals?

The Folderix USB flash drives from Art Lebedev, the team behind the Optimus Maximus keyboard, are designed to look like a folder icon, and feature 4GB of storage space. We told you about these when they were still in the concept stage. The good news for those of you who want them is that they are now available from the artlebedev.com website. The price is $55 and you get three colors to choose from: yellow, pink or blue. The case material uses multiple colors of aluminum with a laser-etched logo.

Wood classes up almost any gadget. Even simple USB drives. But when you give the Wii a woodgrain makeover, the result is simply awesome. It’s as if the the old Atari woodgrain consoles merged with the Wii. Much better then boring Wii white. For now it’s just a concept design by Joe D, which is a shame. Nintendo would sell a ton of product.

Joe’s concept apparently has a layer of woodgrain veneer on the Wii-Mote, Nunchuk, even the Classic Controller and Nyko Perfect Shot. That’s sweet enough, but he also gave the controllers get some bright white backlit buttons and black paint to bring out the wood. Once you see design like this it’s hard to come back to reality and pick up your white wiimote.

Lexar has gone and increased the storage capacity of its popular, and small, FireFly USB flash drive. You can now pick up a 16GB version for around $100.

The 16GB FireFly, like other FireFlies from Lexar, works both with PCs and Macs and is available in a red color. It is outfitted with a keychain hole for portability and features a protective cap and blue LED tail that blinks during data transfers. It also comes pre-loaded with a free 30-day trial of Dmailer V7 software, which enables you to backup and synchronize files, including Microsoft Outlook …

Sony is betting that there are people out there who really want to be a DJ. I’m not into mixing songs together and making mixed tapes, but I am sure there are many people out there who are into that. If you are such person and you have been looking for an easy way to play DJ — the Sony XROSS FADE is your ticket.

The XROSS FADE is a 450W stereo system aimed at the aspiring DJ. The system has DJ themed features including a cross-fader and monitor cue along with a built-in two-channel mixer. The features allow the user to check upcoming tracks with headphones to ensure they are cued properly before the songs play. The features can also be used to mix two songs together or fade into the next song. A USB recording function allows users to record mix sessions directly to a USB flash drive without the need for PC.

Many gadget makers are looking for unique ways to stand out while providing eco-friendly alternatives to plastic gadgets. As far as USB drives go, this one manages to be both environmentally friendly and able to stand out from the crowd. As a bonus it will hold your data.

The NAND based flash drive will be available in 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 2GB and 4GB sizes. The high speed USB 2.0 memory stick resides inside a hardened bamboo shell that can last forever. It comes with a bamboo slide box, so you’ll always know where it’s at. Plus it looks really stylish sitting on your desk.

Newer Technology was busy this past week showing off a new  FireWire/USB hub for data storage. It is called the Newertech miniStack v2.5 and pricing, depending upon hard drive storage size, runs up to around $280 for 1TB.

The Newertech miniStack v2.5 is a FireWire 400/USB 2.0 powered hub storage solution, according to its maker. At its maximum storage offering of 1TB it can reportedly store upwards of 1 million JPEGs, 350,000 MP3s or 500 DVD quality movies.

Lenovo is showing some olympic spirit with their new line of Mascot series flash drives, which will remind you of the Olympics and it’s mascots long after they are over. The series consists of 6 colorful 4GB units that will cost around $30 each.

Lenovo didn’t just go all Olympic wild suddenly for no reason, they are the official flash drive designer and manufacturer for the event. They’ve got another series that resemble medallions. If those don’t light your torch, how about an extremely limited edition drive set of five 1GB titanium drives in a special mahogany box?

Antec has unveiled a new computing kit for those wishing to upgrade their existing PCs into being more multimedia focused. It is called the Antec Multimedia Station and there will be four models available, ranging in price from around $30 to $120.

Antec said these four new bundles, which include  IR receiver, remote and media management software, offer “1080p resolution, can play nearly all media formats and is compatible with Windows Media Center Edition, Windows Vista and XP.” More details on the four offerings can be found after the jump via Antec.

When it comes to backing up data on our computers most of us never do it. The sheer amount of data that could be lost to a hard drive crash on most user’s computers is disturbing to think about. External hard drives are the storage solution of choice for users that have more data than a flash drive will hold or want an automated backup solution.

Addonics has a new external enclosure called the Portable Dual Drive Enclosure that supports dual hard drives and RAID configurations for even more data safety. The enclosure can hold dual 2.5-inch SATA hard drives 9 to 9.5mm in height. Using SATA-CF adapters, you the enclosure can also support up to four compact flash cards.

There are lots of ways to protect your ultra secret “eyes only”, top level clearance only data. Here’s Thanko’s answer. A pad lock on a usb drive.

Hey why not? If you have nosy co-workers or are just paranoid someone will find out about you moonlighting as a secret agent, it might work. Maybe. Okay, probably not. But it’s a neat idea. Maybe good for protecting regular data. Go for something stronger when hiding Top Secret files. Even a monkey could disassemble this thing.

Solid Alliance is known for doing some pretty funky USB drives. This one though, the USB Commander, is quite the opposite. It looks slim and sleek, but you may think price about that $319 import price from Dynamism.

The USB Commander is a 4GB flash drive designed to pair with “ultrathin notebooks.” The logo and name illuminate when its plugged into a USB port and it is described as being “designed for easy-slide.”