Goodbye floppy disks and hello to fast flash drives
Sunday, 30 September 2007
Gregg Ellman
Ask a co-worker or your kid for a floppy disk or a writable CD, you might hear: "Who uses those anymore? Where's your flash drive?"
Flash drives also known as USB drives, thumb drives or jump drives are an increasingly popular alternative for transferring and storing digital files, including music, photos, documents, PowerPoint presentations and videos. Using a flash drive, people can even run your computer while sitting at someone else's, without leaving a trace of information behind.
Most of the drives available today will work on both Mac and Windows systems, but know what you're buying: If the drive includes software, make sure it will work with your system.
Easy to use (just plug one into the USB drive of the computer) and fast, flash drives are also, well, fun. They come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes, and you can even find them on key chains and money clips.
All of these flash drives are available online from the manufacturers' Web sites; most of those sites also include lists of local electronics stores that carry the products.
Pricing for these drives has dropped dramatically in the last few years, which makes them a more attractive option. Just five years ago, a press release from Lexar had a 64-megabyte JumpDrive at $79.99. Today, a 1 gigabyte Lexar JumpDrive sells for $18.99.
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Internet
Ask a co-worker or your kid for a floppy disk or a writable CD, you might hear: "Who uses those anymore? Where's your flash drive?"
Flash drives also known as USB drives, thumb drives or jump drives are an increasingly popular alternative for transferring and storing digital files, including music, photos, documents, PowerPoint presentations and videos. Using a flash drive, people can even run your computer while sitting at someone else's, without leaving a trace of information behind.
Most of the drives available today will work on both Mac and Windows systems, but know what you're buying: If the drive includes software, make sure it will work with your system.
Easy to use (just plug one into the USB drive of the computer) and fast, flash drives are also, well, fun. They come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes, and you can even find them on key chains and money clips.
All of these flash drives are available online from the manufacturers' Web sites; most of those sites also include lists of local electronics stores that carry the products.
Pricing for these drives has dropped dramatically in the last few years, which makes them a more attractive option. Just five years ago, a press release from Lexar had a 64-megabyte JumpDrive at $79.99. Today, a 1 gigabyte Lexar JumpDrive sells for $18.99.
.............
Internet