My recent trip to Egypt has proven two things to me: I'm too clumsy to be allowed near ancient artifacts, and I can fill up nearly 3GBs of space with vacation photos. Thankfully, I can easily share those photos by putting some of them into the Tao Digital Photo Keychain.

This tiny keychain (1.4 inches of picture pleasure) lets you carry up to 56 digital photos that you can transfer directly from your PC or Mac. The software that comes with the Tao device was easy enough to install and use, and I was transferring vacation photos in record time. It's a little too simple and I found myself longing for an option to delete pictures via the computer rather than straight through the device. The Tao keychain also requires the software to transfer pictures. The keychain itself has a simple interface, with only three buttons that change function depending on whether you press it or hold it down. Manually scan through your digital memories, or just tap the power button to put it in slideshow mode. Powering the lithium battery device is equally simple. After just a half-hour of charge time, the Tao Keychain is good to go for about two weeks of show and tell.

Brightness and resolution have been improved over previous models and pictures come out quite clean and crisp on the display. In my collection of pictures the brightness did seem a bit too high, and some of the pictures had a slightly washed out look. Perhaps an option to change brightness should have been included, but these things are made to get attention and the Tao Keychain does the job dutifully.

This portable memory machine sells for $49.99, and if you find yourself bereft of interesting photos you can fall back on the generic ones that come with the device and just make believe that these people are your real friends.