Kingston is a leading flash memory manufacturer. They where the first major brand to drop the U3 platform to forge their own path on portable applications.
« Previous EntriesToday I found a flash drive I purchase back in January of 2004. I compared that drive performance to a brand new Kingston DataTraveler. I know the theoretical maximum transfer speed of USB 1.1 is 12Mbps per second and USB 2.0 is that of 480Mbps per second - but it’s always fun to get a real world test.
My real world test came up with the following results. (more…)
I’m just a blogger; have written about Readyboost; but never investigated it’s performance. I found an article today from PC World who took a closer look. Basically, it blows.
“What is Readyboost you ask?” well it’s a feature of Vista that allows flash memory (like USB Sticks) to be used as additional RAM to boost PC performance.
PC World took that claim and put it to the bench. First off, Microsoft indicates that only the best performing flash drives should be used, (3.5MBs per/sec reads and 2.5MBs per/sec writes) so although some web sites claim “use any extra flash drive for Readyboost,” that claim is a bunch of BS.
Using the best performing drives from Kingston, Lexar and Ridata it was concluded the Readyboost did improve performance, but only by 4 to 6%. So unless you had a stop watch - BFD! My Vista upgrade is going to wait. (more…)
The announcement of Microsoft developing a UFD platform to replace U3 could turn into a similar battle we saw 25 years ago between VHS and Betamax.
Major suppliers have already dropped the U3 platform because of high royalty fees (around 5%) to bundle less expensive software which does the same thing. As these suppliers, like Kingston and Memorex, begin to choose the alternate like Migo Software, a heated war could surface between flash drive manufacturers.
Originally SanDisk partnered with M-Systems to develop the U3 solution, but as time went on, SanDisk bought out M-Systems and the evolution of U3 continues with this most recent partnership.
Microsoft is developing the software platform and SanDisk will continue offering their hardware for a total solution (yes, it’s a hardware/software thing). In addition, SanDisk and Microsoft will bundle in the TrustedFlash security technology developed by SanDisk.
“The U3 platform was established with the vision of giving customers a consistent and portable computing experience. The existing 20,000 U3 software developers that joined us show the potential for smart flash memory devices,” said Yoram Cedar, executive vice president of the mobile business unit and corporate engineering at SanDisk.
“We expect this relationship with Microsoft will raise the overall experience for consumers given Microsoft’s unique software expertise, and grow the momentum given the large community of 3rd party companies capable of utilizing Microsoft’s technologies.”
The migration process for the 20,000 U3 developers is a straight forward and simple one - Microsoft puts the pressure back on you to make the migration. Microsoft did say there will be tools to ad in the process, but the bottom line is U3 developers better get cracking if they want to see the light-of-day come mid 2008.
Tis the season for card readers…yesterday we had the latest from Kingston for the MobileLite announcement, now Buffalo introduces their latest line up - the MCR-A28 USB card reader.
This USB card reader supports 30 card types and most notably the new SDHC and Memory Stick Pro format - which are not backward compatible with other card readers which previously supported SD and Memory Stick.
Since the Kingston MobileLite is a 9 card reader focused on mobile memory cards, if you need something with a wider range of support YET still compact in size, the Buffalo USB card reader makes our short list. (more…)
The MobileLite 9-in-1 card reader is Kingston Technology’s version of hatch back - reminds me more of a beetle.
MobileLite takes the shape of a flash drive but where you would typically find the flash memory, Kingston has placed a host of card reader slots. The top pops open reveling the memory card slots.
The PC connection is USB (of course) and the nine flash memory formats are; microSD, miniSD, Secure Digital, SDHC, MMCmicro, MMCmobile, RS-MMC, MMCplus and full size MMC (MultiMediaCard). (more…)
GetUSB.info just closed our latest poll with the best participation ever, over 150 votes, thank you. This round we asked “How Devastating Would it be to Lose Your Flash Drive?”
By a slim margin the majority of people would be OK as they have original content on another computer. Which makes sense as most flash drives are used for file transfer, rather then file storage. However, for the 20% that said your life is over, you may want to consider some of the following solutions:
Again, thanks for voting - I appreciate the interaction. If you’d like to see our latest question, visit GetUSB.info
As I reported back in March about Kingston giving U3 the axe, they continue to charge forward with UFD platform software. Migo Software now comes bundled with Kingston flash drives and most recent entry is the Kingston Data Traveler Mini.
The following summary of Migo software will sound very familiar: (more…)
Kingston is a leading flash memory manufacturer. They where the first major brand to drop the U3 platform to forge their own path on portable applications.
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