by Jim Bray
Forget floppy disk, ZIP disks and the like. I've found a little piece of portable storage heaven that's becoming ever more "crucial" in my daily life.
It's a new portable storage gadget called the Crucial Gizmo, and it also got me thinking about how far digital storage devices have come over the past 20 years or so.
I mean, this gadget, which they call the Gizmo 2.0, is a little USB-based thingy that holds up to a gigabyte of whatever you may want to put on it. Yet it's smaller than a pack of gum and it comes with a little mounting ring so you can stick it on your key chain and never lose it.
I suppose you could also put the ring through your nose and have it really close by at all times, though that may make it hard to see your computer monitor when your nose is jammed against your PC's USB port....
Other than that admittedly farfetched scenario, the key ring's a pretty good idea, because the Gizmo's so small it could easily get up and walk away if you aren't careful. Heck, if I were silly enough to put it in my briefcase, which usually resembles the aftermath of a hurricane inside, I'd never see it again if it weren't for the little ring and a big lanyard I've attached to it.
Now, Crucial isn't the only company that makes these things, of course. Sony is busy trying to make its memory stick an industry standard and it's pretty neat and other companies make portable memory gadgets like the Crucial. But the thing I like about Crucial's Gizmo, as well as some other USB-based solutions that compete with it, is that you don't need a special drive for it like you do with the Memory Stick. The Gizmo just plugs into a USB slot, which means it's compatible with just about any PC made over the past several years.
The model I've been playing with holds a comparatively measly 256 megabytes – and sells online for a comparatively measly 60 american greenbacks. This pales in comparison with the $230 US gigabyte model, but on the other hand, the last device I used regularly to take files from my home office to other offices was one of Iomega's Zip disks--and not only did it only hold a hundred megabytes back then, it was a lot larger. More expensive, too.
This makes the Gizmo ideal for people who need to get lots of files, or just large files, from here to there and back again-- like from the office to the print shop. and it's fast. Crucial says the Gizmo will transfer 480 megabytes per second, though of course as they say in car commercials, your mileage may vary.
I find myself hardly leaving home without the Gizmo any more if I'm going to be anywhere near a PC. I don't sleep with it (My wife is even more crucial than the Gizmo), but I sure don't like being too far away from it.
Even in my personal life, I recently helped a friend write a toast for a wedding and I did some research into the topic on the Internet from my home office, getting examples and advice and the like and storing it on the Gizmo. Then I took the Gizmo with me and met my friend at a central watering hole (of course being at a bar was only for the scientific purposes of the experiment!) where I took the multiple megabytes on the Crucial and slapped it into his notebook PC and presto! all the research data was on his PC, as a removable disc drive.
Fast, convenient, efficient!
and we got to drink beer, too!
The Gizmo also comes with encryption software that lets you password protect your portable data to help keep it safe.
Now, in this day of really cheap recordable CDs, you may think the Gizmo isn't that attractive--but one thing in its favour is that you don't need a CD Burner--and you aren't throwing used CDs into a landfill when you're finished with them.
and it's just so darn small and cute and useful, it'll wriggle its way into your heart.
The Crucial Gizmo! Hi-Speed USB Flash Drive
* Transfers data at speeds up to 480 megabits per second
* Small form factor (66.5 mm by 16.5 mm) so multiple drives fit into
neighboring USB ports
* LED indicates when data is transferring
* Secure-D software included for data encryption and password protection
* Plug and Play™
* available in 64MB, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB and 1GB System requirements
* Win ME/2000/XP
* Mac OS 8.6 and above
* available USB 1.1 or 2.0 port For Hi-Speed performance
* Win ME/2000/XP
* Mac OS 9.1 and above
Each Gizmo! comes with
* Lanyard
* Key ring
* Multilingual user guide
Backed by Crucial's limited lifetime warranty