Came across an article today, which I thought was a very good read. It’s a niche article, but for anyone who deals with flash drives, I would suggest checking it out.
From the article:
The optical drive is nearly dead – they are no longer found in laptops and rarely found in tower PCs. With that said, the trend for giving out data is shifting to USB flash, not CD or DVD media. Because of this shift, many companies are taking a closer look at buying a USB duplicator.
There are several factors one must consider before spending thousands of dollars on a USB duplicator. We have broken down the most important considerations into four categories. After reviewing these four categories, you should have an excellent idea of which type of duplicator is best for your organization.
USB Duplication Speed
Speed is the first area you should analyze to figure out which direction you should go. When considering speed, we are not simply talking about the copy speed of the USB duplicator, but other factors as well, such as number of USB sockets and the user interface required for feedback during operation. Questions you should ask, include:
# How many USB drives will you need to copy in a day or week?
# How large is the data load in MBs or GBs?
# What kind of turn-around time do you have between a duplication request and when that request should be completed?
# Is there printing, or branding required, on the outside of the USB?
# Do you need proof of performance via a log file?
Answering the above questions will give you an idea of what type of USB duplicator to consider. The type of duplicator will be size, how many USB sockets, copy speed of the duplicator and what type of software, if any, your organization will need.
Your Production Crew
Your next step is to consider the production crew who will be running the equipment. Will there be non-technical people running the equipment, or will a more hands-on approach be required? Is the IT department looking to restrict user access to the equipment or restrict access to the data content during the duplication process?
Much of the above depends on how the data is received before copied to the USB flash drive. For example, a duplication company might receive a physical master from a client; where-as a fulfillment house may get content delivered from a server from an on-line order submission process.
Will the organization require multiple USB duplicators located in different parts of the world? Said another way, many global companies standardize on one manufacturer so the user experience is the same across multiple locations. This also makes production easier as both support and experience can be shared between divisions to streamline processes on a global scale.
Knowing the production crew, their capabilities and responsibilities will help narrow the search for the right piece of equipment.
Read-Only or Read-Write
The third category worth investigating is asking the state of what the USB should be once sent delivered. Is the organization looking to ship out a read-only flash drive? By default all flash drives are read-write. Because of this, many organizations fear a virus could jump onto the drive and spreading to other computers. With that fear in mind, most companies are looking for a USB duplicator which creates a read-only drive product. This means the USB drive is locked, or write protected. The files cannot be deleted or formatted off the drive, and more importantly, files cannot jump onto the drive.
Nexcopy is world leader in read-only flash drive duplicators and therefore used as an example of a duplicator system worth considering.
One of GetUSB.info’s most popular post’s is the Review: MagicJack Phone article that talks about the product and services as experienced by one of my contributing editors. Today, we find out that MagicJack paid $50Gs to Boing Boing in a defamation lawsuit pertaining to an article they wrote.
So what was all the fuss? Boing Boing uncovered some interesting information about the MagicJack which we didn’t realize during our review. The MagicJack uses customer profiles, locations and call habits to push targeted ads to the MagicJack software interface.
Boing Boing reports that during the purchase of the product, activation of the product or support for the product, at no time is the user aware of these terms and conditions.
Now, I don’t think the ad sponsored business plan is a bad one, but giving the users a heads-up or opt-out choice is definitely needed. Even with the small amount of ad space used for such an incredibly cheap and convenient product is not a big deal [in my eyes].
So here is our official notice: be aware of this fact before buying a MagicJack phone. To read the full review of this wonderful product, please visit the original article: Review: MagicJack Phone.
Source:Â Boing Boing.
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Flash update – Blogged.com reviewed GetUSB a week ago and just sent in the results: 8.5 out of 10. Not bad & others have done worse {haha}. Blogged.com reviews, rates and categorizes each website by their editors, so you won’t have to experience the frustration of filtering through blogs that are either spam, outdated, or irrelevant. You’ll be able to find quality blogs that you would have unlikely found through a traditional blog search.
“Our editors recently reviewed your blog and have given it an 8.3 score out of (10) in the Technology category of Blogged.com.
This is quite an achievement! We evaluated your blog based on the following criteria: Frequency of Updates, Relevance of Content, Site Design, and Writing Style.
After carefully reviewing each of these criteria, your site was given its 8.3 score.”
Well, we didn’t score a perfect 10 like TechCrunch or Gizmodo but don’t worry, you can help. Jump over to Blogged and review my site – let me know where to improve – and maybe the next go around we’ll get into the 9+ range.
8.3 or 5.0, either way I’m happy took the time and energy to read and review my blog. I though only family did that.
Amy – if you are reading this you want to review some of my other sites like free RSS Filter utility or Flash Memory News?
If you find my site as valuable and useful as Amy did, you can sign up for GetUSB’s RSS feed or get-the-goods via email.
On a closing note: Don’t forget to review my site – Cheers!
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Dream Cheeky has carved out a name for themselves with the USB missile launcher and USB circus cannon. Recently the bloggisphere reported on the updated version: USB missile launcher with webcam.
Dream Cheeky partnered with Microsoft on this one and integrated the webcam and control of the robotics through MSN instant messenger. For that reason, it’s called the USB MSN Missile Launcher.
This added user experience lets a remote person view and control the missile launcher to pelt the enemy during a moment of weakness. I reviewed the USB Circus Cannon a while back, and if the webcam version is as loud as the circus cannon version, there is no chance of a surprise attack.
The launcher comes with a detachable video camera and
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Several weeks ago I picked up a 1 penny (yes 0.01) card reader for microSD cards from USB Fever. Today, I set aside some time to see how well the little bugger performs…and to my surprise, very well.
Introduction:
The microSD USB Card Reader is very compact and comes with mini lanyard and plastic case. The device is unique in that all components for the card reader sit inside the USB Type-A connector. It makes for an extremely small and portable reader, and can be, at times, difficult to pull out from a stubborn USB port. However, given the idea of what this product is all about – compact, portable performer – it didn’t bother me too much.
I compared the performance of a direct connect of the microSD card through the USB card reader to the microSD adapter provided to me from SanDisk when I purchased the flash memory. When using the SanDisk adapter, I did need a USB card reader which could contribute to
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Your Production Crew
One of GetUSB.info’s most popular post’s is the 
Flash update – 
