ON THE MUTATION OF USB DRIVES

JUMPING JACK FLASH

The humble USB drive is mutating yet again.  Regular readers know of my ongoing fascination with the role that USB powered drives and "computers on a stick" can potentially play in a few years (see posts here, here, here...also here, for a whimsical application).

To date USB drives are being used primarily as extra, on-the-go storage, typically for mundane, everyday tasks.  Every once in a while, they're re-conceived by Apple and they go from being ordinary caterpillars to butterflies like the Shuttle and the Nano, designed for a specific application.

I've talked about USB drives that being introduced, that have on-board CPUs, allowing them to become miniature computers without a screen.

But all these devices to date have needed a computer to make them useful.  Until now.

Sharedrives (via jkOntheRun) is introducing a USB drive that allows the user to directly plug in another USB drive in order to transfer files to and from the device, WITHOUT going through a PC. 

Since the device doesn't have a screen, the user puts the files to be transferred into a folder titled SHARE on the product, press the SHARE button and the files are transferred to the regular USB drive.  Similarly, files stored in a folder on the regular drive called LOAD are automatically transferred into the Sharedrive device upon pressing the LOAD button. 

A little kludgey, but likely effective.  I haven't tried the device, but do intend to order one to try out.

What's important is not the device itself but the stepping stone it represents.  It's not hard to imagine future devices that have built-in wireless capability (wifi, 3g, evdo, etc.),  that  facilitate  efficient, on-the-go portability of data for mainstream users, foregoing physical connections and transfer hops.

We're rapidly approaching a time when consumer devices will be as important for "machine-to-machine" data transfers as providing data-on-demand to users (PDAs and the like). 

So it's interesting to take note of intermediate devices like the Sharedrive, on the way to true wireless jumping jack flash devices.

Comments

[D Zell]

For a complete look at the future of Wireless file sharing flashdrives, check out Memsen Click and Share drives, featured in the April 2005 issue of Popular Science. www.memsen.com for details. Flash Drive Future.