Category: News You Can Use

What to do if you’re on the go an there is no computer around? If you’ve got a USB flash drive, there is much more you can do now. Word from the USB Promoter group in Beaverton, Oregon says the game has changed. Phones and cameras can connect to USB drives without a PC. Using the fast USB 3.0 connectivity, users can download data from device to device rather than from device to computer to device again. Thanks to the Embedded Host features, your USB devices are no longer like children, always in search of a parent computer. Is there a day in the future when the USB device will replace the PC? Unlikely, but always possible. Let us know what you think.

From time to time a debate about USB drives bubbles up. And it mostly has to do with security. How do you stop the spread of malware and other evils that occur via USB drives? In today’s complex mobile computing world, it’s a valid question. On the one hand, USB flash drives are practically a necessity, on the other hand not everyone follows the security rules – something not unique to the USB world. Along the way we have outlined an array of security measures that can be taken. From portable antivirus apps to encryption and more, it’s all possible. But there could be another way to deal with USB drive security. Michael Vizard who covers IT issues believes that IT departments need to embrace the USB drive more fully than they’ve done in the past. And if IT departments support and manage security software for USB drives, everyone would be happier and the USB drive would be the star of portability that it was meant to be.

By now much has been said about the anticipated popularity of USB 3.0 with its faster transfer speeds – all the better for future computing. But one day you’re standing at your local electronics store ready to buy a USB drive or some other drive. Should you go with USB 3.0 or USB 2.0? How do you know? As you can clearly see there are tons more USB 2.0 ports and relatively few USB 3.0 ports. Conventional wisdom says you should always get the most advanced technology available because upgrading happens rather quickly but this isn’t always the case. In the case of USB 3.0, the devices are usually backwards compatible but obviously using a USB 2.0 port results in slower transfer speeds. Reading from a USB flash drive generally goes faster than writing to it. But as it turns out, for now, most people can get by with the more common USB 2.0 flash drives and ports.