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Flash Drive Roundup

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the how-can-they-be-smaller-and-bigger dept.

Braedley writes "When [Ars] last took an in-depth look at USB flash drives in 2005, the landscape was a bit different. A 2GB drive ran nearly $200, and speeds were quite a bit slower then. At the time, we noted that while the then-current crop of drives was pretty fast, they still were not close to saturating the bandwidth of USB2. To top it off, a good drive was still going to set you back $50 or $70--not exactly a cheap proposition. Since our first roundup, this picture has changed considerably, and it leads to a question: has the flash drive become an undifferentiated commodity, just like any other cheap plastic tsotschke that you might find at an office supply store checkout counter?"

4 of 311 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Abuse of moderation by coryboehne · · Score: 5, Interesting

    All you want is waterproof?

    USB drives are super cool like that. (No moving parts!)

    All you need is a little 2-part epoxy.

    Take apart your flash drive (any!) and simply coat the green / black components with as much epoxy as you can stuff into it's exterior shell..

    Now, the cap, buy a thin o-ring from your local hardware store, using a knife or dremel, cut a very narrow groove around the inside of your cap. Carefully use epoxy (sparingly here!) to secure the o-ring..

    This might not be 100% water proof, but I'm pretty sure it would be very water resistant.

    -Cheers,
    Cory!

  2. LaCie iamaKey by chrisgeleven · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I did not see the LaCie iamaKey USB flash drive in the review, but I noticed on a Lifehacker post yesterday and thought it would be a perfect USB drive:

    http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=11225

    I constantly have problems with flash drives breaking off my keychain. This would solve that issue and looks very durable. Probably will buy it today.

  3. Will they ever be truly give-away items? by PhilHibbs · · Score: 5, Interesting

    10 years ago, I could give someone a file on a floppy disk and not worry about getting the disk back. I had an essentially unlimited supply of blank disks, you could get a stack of 10 for £1. Nowadays, I do have to worry about getting my USB stick back, as I only have three of them. I suspect that USB memory sticks will never really get to the same point that 3.5" floppy disks got to in that respect. The market value of, say, an 8MB memory stick might be similarly negligible, but no-one's making them.

  4. Pet peeve by stoneguy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why won't anyone manufacture one with a white matte finish? That way they could be written on.