Cool storage at CES - part 1

Credit card-sized flash drives? Repair that trashed copy of "The Little Mermaid?" I've only seen only a fraction of the 35 football fields of show floor. But here are some early impressions. I'll do another post tomorrow.

Wallet-friendly flash drives My car keys are too big already, so adding a even a tiny flash drive to it isn't going to happen. But my wallet has a little more space - and Walletex is ready to fill it with a 2 GB credit card-sized flash drive.

Less the 2mm thick, with a naked USB connector, the Wallet Flash looks fragile but as Popular Mechanics found it isn't. I was more concerned about the USB finger, but after trying to flex it I found it quite solid.

High quality optical media repair Kids and DVDs don't mix. And scratched DVDs stop playing. Enter the combination of ChekFlix and Venmill Industrie.

ChekFlix makes a couple of devices that measure surface damage on optical disks, using a less-sensitive version of the technology used to check disk platters. In just five seconds the CheckFlix device can determine if an optical disk can be salvaged.

If it can, Venmill can repair it. Their family of machines use a combination of heat, pressure and buffing to repair the disk surface. The process is not abrasive, so a disk can be repaired hundreds of times.

Voicemail storage SimulScribe takes your voicemails, converts them to text, and emails them and a .wav file of the voicemail to you. You can keep both for as long as you want and Simulscribe will store the email text indefinitely. Works with all cellphone and landline companies.

More later. Stay tuned.

Update: Walletex also makes a wallet-friendly MP3 player as well as several flash-enabled apps. They've carved out a interesting niche - flat computing - that has some legs.