| Gobs of products are available that can help you send, store, and transport your data, but few can match the simplicity and sheer portability of a tiny USB flash drive. Like an old-school floppy disk retailored for the twenty-first century, USB flash drives offer the capacity of a modest hard drive, the portability of a cigarette lighter, and the plug-and-play simplicity of a modern peripheral. These portable devices go by a colorful assortment of names--keychain drives, memory sticks, iDucks, and so on--but they all work pretty much the same way. Plug one into a USB port on the back of your PC, and it'll show up like any other hard drive. Drag and drop your data onto it from your PC at work, pull out the drive, and plug it into your computer at home. Who needs a flash USB drive? Erik Aldana, vice president of the USB Flash Drive Alliance, says that these portable drives are perfect for people who regularly work on two or more different PCs--particularly students and businesspeople--and need a dependable way to transport data. Flash drives are also popular in Asia, where not everybody has their own computer. A 256MB flash drive can hold a surprising amount of data: dozens of digital pictures, a couple of hours of MP3s, or hundreds of Microsoft Word documents. While they come in a variety of capacities, ranging from 64MB to 2GB, the 256MB and 512MB models hit the sweet spot. Lesser capacities fill up quickly, especially if you're loading photos and music, and larger capacities are still quite expensive (2GB drives run about $200). Still, prices will continue to come down, though capacities seem to have topped out at 2GB for now, at least from the major manufacturers. In these days of cross-pollinated cell phones, PDAs, and cameras, some may find a basic flash drive too one-dimensional. If you're looking for convergence, there are USB drives that also function as MP3 players, voice recorders, and even FM tuners. Others build in extra functionality such as desktop replication and file synchronization. Several now incorporate fingerprint scanners to protect your data files and Internet usernames and passwords and data files. Whatever form they take, however, USB drives are pricey storage devices when you consider the cost per megabyte. You can buy a 40GB mini USB hard drive for $150 to $200, which works out to between $3 to $5 per gigabyte, whereas a 1GB flash drive runs about $140. If you're using an older operating system, take note: Most USB flash drives will work with both Windows and Mac systems, but if you're still using Windows 98, you'll need to download a driver before you can use the drive. The same goes for Mac fans running anything older than OS 9. Read the CNET editor's take | |
7.4 out of 10
9.0 out of 10
