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16GB Flash USB Dongle

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the that-might-be-pushing-it dept.

Derek Dongle writes "This is great — Toshiba plans to bring out a limited edition 16GB USB dongle. What would you do with 16GB in your pocket? Who knows? As the writer of this story says, "It may be one of the occasional cases of: who cares? It's a 16GB USB drive that fits in your pocket and weighs 12 grams!" I'm not quite sure I want to call it a dongle. At 8x2 cm it's not the smallest thing to attach to a keychain. But at 16 GB you could keep a good bit of your life there, provided you aren't working in audio or video. I keep a 1GB stick on my keychain, which is enough for almost anything.

7 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. How about some more *durable* flash drives? by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Speaking of carrying the flash drive on your keychain, how about we see some more DURABALE flash drives for your keychain? So far, the only drive I've seen on the market recently that's worth its salt is the Lexar Jumpdrive Sport (with a strong rubber boot that fits snuggly around it and a strong metal body). But it only goes up to 1 GB.

    Let's face it, most "keychain" drives are flimsy affairs made of plastic, with tops that pop off easily--hardly the kind of thing you want to carry around every day in your pocket (especially if you're active). I wouldn't every want to drop these things, much less think of them going through the wash or getting banged around by my keys.

    How about we see some more durable drives in larger sizes? Hell, I'd be willing to pay a premium for something I could rely on to take a beating.

    -Eric

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:How about some more *durable* flash drives? by rogabean · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How about we see some that are reliable in general?

      My 256MB Lexar thumb drive has worked great for the past year of heavy usgae, but my 2 Memorex 1GB both failed after 4 months of usage. I'm currently using a 4GB PNY Attache thumb drive. I will agree it's flimsy and I don't have much hope of it lasting either. Hell I have a 16MB Dell thumb drive that is still working great even after 3 years of heavy use! Yet the larger ones always seem to have a pretty unacceptable failure rate.

      I really can't see needing 16GB's of storage in my pocket when I'm having trouble finding usgae for the 4GB's I currently have. I'd like to see how reliable this 16GB drive is as well before I even think about it. It seems to me the larger the flash drive, the less reliable it is long term. I'm not sure why though, and YMMV.

      --
      "why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
    2. Re:How about some more *durable* flash drives? by AnonymousKev · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They were thinking people would rather have 2 pounds of keys attached to the cap on the desk, instead of working with gravity to pull the flash drive outta the USB port.

      --
      Anonymous Kev
      Proudly posting as AC since 1997
      (Finally got a dang account in 2004)
  2. Losing your keys... by Langfat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just think how frustrated you get when you lose your keys at the moment...now imagine 16gb going missing with them!

  3. There's never enough storage ... by bestinshow · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "But at 16gb you could keep a good bit of your life there, provided you aren't working in audio or video. I keep a 1GB stick on my keychain which is enough for almost anything."

    Two years ago it would have been:

    But at 1GB you could keep a good bit of your life there, provided you aren't working in audio or video. I keep a 64MB stick on my keychain which is enough for almost anything.

    Four years ago it would have been:

    But at 64MB you could keep a good bit of your life there, provided you aren't working in audio or video. The convenience would make this a useful investment and allow us to throw the good old floppy away for good.

    In 2010 it'll be:

    But at 512GB you could keep a good bit of your life there. I keep a 32GB stick on my keychain which is enough for almost anything.

  4. got one already, from Apple Computer by bazorg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What would you do with 16GB in your pocket?
    Besides carrying my files in it, I plug in my headphones and listen to music while I'm working out.

  5. Re:But... by CrazedWalrus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You know, you bring up a good point with this flash stick. Check out the numbers:

    Memory Size 64GB
    Write Speed 1 MB/s

    If these things are gonna be larger and larger, they're really gonna have to work on the speed. The stick you point out would need to be partitioned and used in an LVM-like fashion (add partitions as you need space), simply because formatting it would take almost 18 hours.

    Granted -- after initial formatting, you wouldn't need to write 64GB all at once to the stick, but even for "smaller" items (DVD-quality movies, large quantities of music, etc), you're still talking a little over an hour.

    Capacity is wonderful -- if it's actually practical to use.