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Pocket Drive & Thumb Drive Portable Storage Devices:

Pocket Drive Portable Storage Devices can more aptly be divided among USB Flash Memory (Key Chain Devices) & USB Portable Storage Products (Pocket Drive Devices).

We started this Portable Storage Device List and promised to refrain from comment until we saw market maturity and product availability. We're getting there very quickly! They're here! And current prices reflect affordability too!

We've progressed from Floppies to Zip Disks to CD-R Recording, DVD Recording and now Flash Memory. And each iteration of portable storage media progressed through another interface from Floppy Controller, Parallel Port, ATA/ATAPI Controller to USB 1.1 & USB 2.0 to Network Attached Storage Device though either CAT5 direct or USB Device to the Network. What a ride!

Iomega owned the portable storage market when they announced 10 MB Zip Disks, then actually introduced 100 MB Zip Disks. The ONLY place we ever saw a 10MB Zip Disk was @ Comdex. Even then, Iomega was working on the 250 MB Zip Disk when they introduced the thing. Zip drives were introduced with a parallel port interface, followed by SCSI, then ATAPI and finally USB followed by 1394 FireWire interfaces. Surprising to see Iomega was unable to progress with the times. They had a good thing going until they forgot who put them back in business - Loyal Customers. Iomega was true to form in introducing another proprietary format - Click Drives and then Peerless Drives. Iomega's Peerless drives are a part of the Iomega.com - Iomega HDD product line.

Iomega appears to have embraced a Technology the HD Manufacturers own - NAS (Networked Attached Storage). Iomega should have remained true to their roots - Portable Storage. Had they done so, Iomega could have lead this current Portable Storage phenomena instead of following it. GB - Enjoy!

• Pocket Drives Commonality - Flash Memory and a USB Interface.

How big is your Pocket?

Do not be mislead by the terms Portable Storage & Pocket Drives. If Physical Size & Capacity seems somewhat confusing - Take a look @ these different offerings to decide if any meet your criteria for either. 

Portable Storage could be anything portable. Whereas, Pocket Drives actually fit in a pocket. So, how big IS your pocket these days?

Portable Storage News Update:

1. Content: www.extremetech.com - New DRM-Enabled USB Drives Attract Label's Eye: CyberKey has added digital-rights-management technology to its line of USB flash drives, an improvement which has attracted the attention of a major music label interested in distributing pirate-proof music (3/22/2003).

2. Just when you thought Compact Flash was only 1GB... Now - www.LexarMedia.com adds 2GB & 4GB capacities to it's CF Card Line with 32X Write speed for 4.8MB per second Data Transfers (3/6/2003).

   1. Lexar Media Introduces World's Highest Capacity CompactFlash: "We are pleased to be the first company to bring 4GB CompactFlash to market, which is made possible by our advanced controller technology and the new industry leading 4-gigabit quad die pack flash memory from Samsung. The close Lexar Media and Samsung relationship allows us to collaborate to optimize our controller with the Samsung 4-gigabit flash memory device and deliver the largest CompactFlash available." The 4GB card will be Type II and is expected to ship in the 2nd quarter [2003] for $1,499.99 (3/6/2003).

    
3. Preclick Photo Manager software, "Photos-to-Go" solution bundled with CyberKey "Plug and Play" removable flash memory storage drives. According to Brian Smiga, CEO of Preclick, "As one of the first developers for Palm, we are going to be bundling with USB drives, CompactFlash, and all types of storage devices. We see Preclick software as a driver of demand for storage and paid web-services (like high-speed internet, travel, and sharing) as well as photo-finishing." (3/4/2003).
4. ExtremeTech.com:  Tiny New Hard Drives May Incorporate DRM - Prototype Drives to be Showcased @ CES Hitachi Booth will include both Parallel ATA & less expensive Serial ATA Interfaces. The Consortium aims to reduce the 80 GB 'Tiny' HD Disk price for Consumer Video Recorders to under $80.00 (1/2/03).
5. Trade Organizations: www.iVDR.org: Hard Disk Drive Consortium - Digital Rights Management (DRM) (1/2/03).
6. Iomega Mini USB Drives: 64 & 128 MB (12/9/2002).
7. Lexar Media Introduces New High-speed JumpDrive(tm) For Personal Data Storage and Transfer (8/3/2002).
8. Smart Media, Compact Flash, Memory Stick Data Recovery (5/7/2002).
9. Sony Memory Stick (5/7/2002, Updated 2/2/2003).
10. The Electronic Times Internet - IT News Service: Jungsoft Unveils Portable Storage Device (4/02/2002).
11. www.courier-journal.com:  Portable storage options: More choices for portable storage (2/2/2002).
12. Nanochip, Inc.: Press Release... Nano Storage Quote: "One of the first products that Nano Storage will offer is a series of Compact Flash™ like storage devices ranging in capacities from one to eight gigabytes." (4/19/2001)

Portable Storage Products:

1. ARCHOS - Cinema to go: Hard Disks - ArcDisk & MiniHD both with USB 2.0 Interface.
2. www.BantamUSA.com:
3. BesTradeUSA.com:  FlashDio USB Drive
4. www.buslink.com - BUSlink: (Portable Storage) Pocket Drives, BUSlink's Disk On The Go Series, 20 GB.
5. Cendyne.com: Grüvstick 64MB & 128MB Storage Capacity (12/10/2002).
6. www.centon.com:  Centon Electronics - Data Stick Products
7. CyberKey (3/4/2003).
8. Cyclone Flash Key (12/27/2002).
9. www.diskonkey.com - M-Systems-DiskOnKey: Personal Removable Storage USB Device.
10. www.easydisk.com - Easydiskusa Transporting Your Data Has Never Been This Easy:
11. www.FujiFilmUSBDrive.com: Site may still be off line (12/19/2002).
12. www.iodata.co.jp:  MSR Series - I-O DATA Memory Stick
13. www.iomega.com:  IomegaDirect Hard Disk Drives: (Portable Storage)
14. www.lacie.com/pocket - LaCie PocketDrive:
15. www.LexarMedia.com/JumpDrives: JumpDrive Portable USB Storage
    1. Pro 2.0 Press Release (11-18-02).
    2. www.everythingusb.com - Lexar JumpDrive 2.0 Pro: Sales Comps & Review
16. www.macally.com - Products- FlashDrive- Portable USB Storage Drive
17. www.meritline.com - Pen Drive (USB Flash Drive), Pocket Drive, Pendrive: 32 MB - 1 GB. 

18. NEXDISK by Jungsoft.com: Makers of HD Sheriff and now NexDisk, USB Portable Storage Device -  The Next Generation Disk! (5/14/2002)

19. www.on-click.biz - On-Click LLC is your USB Drive distributor: USB Drives from 32 MB to 2 GB! 

20. www.pocketech.net: Pockey Drives
21. www.pqiusa.com: Portable Disk, DRAM Module, DiskOnModule & USB Card Drive etc.
22. www.sandisk.com - SanDisk Consumer Products: SanDisk Cruzer is the world's first portable, pocket-size storage device with upgradeable flash memory powered right from the USB port!
23. www.sony.co.jp/microvault: 16 - 128 MB.
24. www.sonnettech.com -  Piccolo USB Flash Drive: 32 - 256 MB.
25. www.tnm.co.kr - FlashDio: A portable storage device with internal flash memory in capacities from 8 MB to 512 MB.
26. www.trekstorusa.com:  Thumbdrive - Your Personal Data Vault:
27. USB 007 - Portable Mini USB Drive with Secure Data Encryption System (12/12/2002).
28. www.usbgear.com - USB External Drive Up to 100GB Portable Storage:
29. www.Verbatim.com: Store 'n' Go USB Thumb Drive - USB 2.0, 256MB to 1GB.
30. www.wiebetech.com - WiebeTech Micro Storage Solutions: FireWire KeyChain support IBM MicroDrive!