Most business cards end up in the trash or stored in a drawer, becoming forgotten in an instant. This has resulted in a number of creative attempts to innovate this networking utility in ways that will make them more effective.

Introducing swivelCard, the latest product in this space, which integrates a printed USB drive with a regular business card. When folded up and inserted into a USB port, it directs the recipient to open a web page. What’s cool is, that site address can be changed after the fact, so you could hand a prospective client a business card that leads to your homepage and, subsequently, have that particular card navigate to a different page instead.

swivelCards can also be tracked as to their location and the times when the cards are used. In addition to standing out from the crowd of normal business cards, you can give your swivelCard with pictures, videos and presentations for the anyone to check out. Plus, analytics through a back-end software interface will allow you to access helpful information about your cards and how they are being used.

What Sparks Our Fire: A business card that people will actually remember, keep and use

What information would you share on your swivelCard?

I feel like I missed out, because I never got to give my best girl a mixtape of all the Norah Jones and Counting Crows songs I felt described our relationship. Instead, we’d listen to an iPod with one earbud each, which of course is adorable, thank you, but somehow doesn’t seem to measure up.

Milktape captures the essence of giving someone music you enjoy in the modern age, in a way emailing a playlist just doesn’t. It’s just a cassette-shaped USB drive, but has the sort of retro charm vinyl records and handlebar mustaches evoke.

What sets it apart from other USB drives is that it’s customizable and rewrite-able, so it can be both a keepsake and a shareable device, in the same way the original tape cassettes were.

What Sparks Our Fire: Revisiting old-style technology in a new-world way.

Would you give a Milktape to your significant other?

If you answered “putting the USB cord in upside down and having to turn it over in order to attach my expensive tiny piece of technology to my larger expensive piece of technology,” congratulations, you have very few problems. However, the good people who make your expensive technological miracles are about to solve your annoyance, so you can get back to your monocle and top hat wearing.

The new connector is called the Type-C and is scheduled for finalization during 2014. It is purported to be the size of a micro-USB plug and will support a variety of new features, including scalable power charging and data rates nearing 10 Gbit/s, as well as always being right-side-up.

Says Brad Saunders, USB 3.0 Promoter Group Chairman: “While USB technology is well established as the favored choice for connecting and powering devices, we recognize the need to develop a new connector to meet evolving design trends in terms of size and usability.” This unfortunately means it will not mate with existing USB ports and cables, but  “The new Type-C connector will fit well with the market’s direction and affords an opportunity to lay a foundation for future versions of USB.”

As of now, pictures of the new cable have not been released, but may be similar to Apple’s Lightening Connector, which is reversible.

What Sparks Our Fire: Innovation solving interface issues with the technology we use on a daily basis, leaving us more time to wax our mustaches and go to the opera.

Is this a problem you believe needs to be solved at the expense of older USB models?