Comments on: Tiny 32 GB USB flash drive

By: Alan Wexelblat

Alan Wexelblat — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 18:20:00 +0000

Dude when/where were you at Burroughs? I was there (in PA) from 84-85.

By: goretsky

goretsky — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 06:57:00 +0000

Hello,

Interesting! All the one’s I’ve seen so far are just MicroSDHC card readers with an embedded card. What sort of read/write speeds do you see with yours?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

By: Knux The Fox

Knux The Fox — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 06:26:00 +0000

Yeah, everything on mine exists in duplicate on my 2tb hard drive. I might get a 3tb down the road, but there’s still plenty of space on my 2tb, by time I need to upgrade, prices will have dropped. I paid $94 for my 2tb in 2010, shortly before the flood which caused prices to skyrocket.

By: Knux The Fox

Knux The Fox — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 06:22:00 +0000

I tied a string to mine so I can pull it out of my Wii. I bought it with my Wii in mind, so I probably won’t be carrying it in my pocket. Plugged in, it’s barely noticeable. In retrospect, I really didn’t need something so small, but it was one of the best rated 32gb flash drives for the price. I paid under $20 after shipping.

By: pjcamp

pjcamp — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 02:42:00 +0000

La Cie has had one that size for years. I run my FreeNAS server off of one.

By: fidel_funk

fidel_funk — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 22:05:00 +0000

Funny, i told my six year old pretty much the same story last week ;-)

Just with – what was the name – the big phat 40 mbs and an 8 gb usb

By: Tim Butler

Tim Butler — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 20:38:00 +0000

By my calculations, ~10,368 of those drives could fit in a space the size of a washing machine.

By: BillStewart2012

BillStewart2012 — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 18:07:00 +0000

The first computer that I was admin for was a VAX, with four washing-machine-sized disk drives adding up to a gigabyte of storage. The drives cost something like $30,000 each, and the removable disks were $1000. And a year or two ago, I lost a 4GB drive that was a bit smaller than this one, presumably in the wash, and the drive had been a free handout from a vendor at a trade show with 2GB of demos and marketing on it.

(And with terabyte hard drives under $100, storage has really gotten a million times cheaper in the three decades since I got that VAX. And the 32GB flash drive is probably faster than the 4MB RAM was, which had probably cost something like $50-100K. And the PDP we’d had before it had something like 48K of core for $16K.)

By: Itsumishi

Itsumishi — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:22:00 +0000

Its also perfect for just plugging into the side of your laptop and forgetting about it until its needed.

I’ve had one plugged into the side of mine for months, I’ve chucked the laptop into its bag, and my backback pretty much every day since. I’ve never noticed it catching or getting banged around or seeming like its going to break. The only time I actually remove it is when I’m loading up stuff onto another computer.

By: That_Anonymous_Coward

That_Anonymous_Coward — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:21:00 +0000

I recently got one of these to plug into my PirateBox.
http://wiki.daviddarts.com/PirateBox_DIY_OpenWrt
Its keeps the whole package nice and compact.

By: Itsumishi

Itsumishi — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:18:00 +0000

This isn’t a compact MicroSDHC reader. It is also not terribly slow, or at least the 8GB model isn’t.

By: Over the River

Over the River — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:23:00 +0000

In the future, just before the end of the world, McDonald’s will be run by pirates.

By: Over the River

Over the River — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:21:00 +0000

These also have a little ring you can attach a clip, a piece of string, apiece of (unwaxed) dental floss, or a beard hair to.

By: Over the River

Over the River — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:19:00 +0000

That’s what she said!

By: trentboyett

trentboyett — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:18:00 +0000

I’ve got one of these http://www.amazon.com/elago-Mobile-microSDHC-Memory-Reader/dp/B002HGFKR8/ref=pd_sim_pc_9

it’s about the same form factor but it takes a 32gb MicroSD card, so it easily swaps data to and from my phone, tablet, mp3 player and camera.

By: Brad Bell

Brad Bell — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:14:00 +0000

It’s a bit weird maybe, but I have grown to love this USB key.
http://www.lacie.com/uk/products/product.htm?id=10611

Good design. Can’t lose it. Familiarity and link to my keys makes it seem more personal and emotional. It’s good design.

In contrast: I mourn the loss of my Glif iPhone stand/tripod mount. It was about the size of a large USB stick. Lost. Similarly, my wife has a small tie clip USB stick. It kept getting lost. We determined the *only* way was clipping it to you and wearing it like jewellery. Good in theory. I think it’s lost again.

By: PaulDavisTheFirst

PaulDavisTheFirst — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:00:00 +0000

you forgot time travel. the future went into the past to make sure that the future would come to pass.

By: PaulDavisTheFirst

PaulDavisTheFirst — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:59:00 +0000

Not quite perfect. That size forces me to make choices about what to put on. Now, a 128GB USB flash drive – that would be perfect

By: karrock

karrock — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:11:00 +0000

Don’t worry, they get even smaller!

Deonet’s is currently “The World’s Smallest”
http://www.deonet.com/news.html

By: pickledbeatnik

pickledbeatnik — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 13:30:00 +0000

What’s that thing next to the flash drive? It’s got a weird face on it.

By: traalfaz

traalfaz — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 13:25:00 +0000

And really, that’s relatively large. If you’re just comparing to disk DRIVES you should probably compare it to 32GB (or 64GB) MicroSD cards. You could probably fit 5 or 6 MicroSD cards in that much volume.

By: Paul Renault

Paul Renault — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 13:16:00 +0000

In the early 1980′s, I used to own an Apple //e clone (yes, a clone). At a sidewalk sale, I stumbled upon a “we have no idea if it works” Apple ProFile FIVE MB hard disk (meant for the Lisa). I took a chance and bought it. After some no-Internet-at-the-time research, I special-ordered an interface card and cable. A couple of hundred dollars later, I had it up and running – running ProDos 3.3. W00T!

How big was 5 MB in a 360K-capacity FD era? I never managed to use more than 60% of the drive’s capacity.

How much did I pay for it? $50.

There’s a photo of a ProFile sitting on top of a Lisa here:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Apple_Lisa.jpg

By: Mladen Kalinic

Mladen Kalinic — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 13:13:00 +0000

These are perfect to load with music and leave plugged in into your car stereo. I’ve done it with a Sony MEX-BT3600U, just in case anyone’s got one and is wondering of it’s capability :)

By: puppybeard

puppybeard — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 13:07:00 +0000

Why is it so attractive?

I have a perfectly find 32gb USB key. I don’t need this. But I really want it.

If only batteries would get smaller the same way.

By: Just_Ok

Just_Ok — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 12:46:00 +0000

Don’t eat at McD’s. Potential problem solved.

By: goretsky

goretsky — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 12:15:00 +0000

Hello,

Having used similar models from LaCie, it turns out this is nothing more than a very compact MicroSDHC card reader with a MicroSDHC card installed in it. The LaCie one was incredibly slow, Class 2 or Class 4. Frankly, you’re better off getting a compact MicroSDHC card reader like this one for $4 from China: http://dx.com/p/kawau-world-s-smallest-microsd-transflash-tf-sd-sdhc-usb-2-0-card-reader-keychain-25558 and then installing a Class 10 MicroSDHC card in it.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

By: retepslluerb

retepslluerb — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 11:55:00 +0000

Mobile data storage devices aren’t really a new thing, though.

By: retepslluerb

retepslluerb — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 11:53:00 +0000

No, no really. I keep my fingernails as short as possible and stuff like that still works for me.

Also, an USB drive is never-ever the sole place for any important data. Which should be encrypted anyway, since even bigger drives get lost easily.

By: ROSSINDETROIT

ROSSINDETROIT — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 11:46:00 +0000

My first computer was a KIM-1 8 bit micro in the mid ’70s. It came with 4K of memory and the chips to upgrade (the 2114LS3 IIRC) cost $125 for another 4K.

By: Ray Perkins

Ray Perkins — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 11:02:00 +0000

Having retired from a lifetime in electronics, where the largest chip was a dual RTL flip-flop, I am still impressed by being able to put billions of parts on a similar-sized chunk of silicon.