Dec 16 2008
Mobile Gadgets: Flash drives grow in capacity while costing less
Flash drives are undoubtedly one of the most mobile ways to carry data with you. They are small, fast and the capacities are growing. While the capacities are growing the cost per GB is going down so today you will pay about the same price for a 64GB flash drive as you would have paid for an 8GB a year ago.
Don’t be confused by the name flash drive. You may also hear them called a thumb drive, a pen drive, a jump drive and a USB flash drive.
Regardless of the name most will look similar. Resembling the shape of a pack of chewing gum with a USB plug sticking out of one end. However, there are specialty flash drives that resemble animals, toys, food and sticks of wood.
Flash drives can be purchased in 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities. I wonder how long we will have to wait for the 128GB? Depending on the retailer prices range from less than $10 for the 1GB flash drive and less than $200 for the 64GB flash drive.
Flash drives make great gifts – especially when preloaded with digital photos. Anyone that uses a computer can use one. There are so many people that do not backup their files because they don’t know how. Using a flash drive is easy – just plug it in and send the files to it.
My advice – if you backup large files choose a high-speed model.
