Trek ThumbDrive

I've waited for this thing for just about a year, and it was worth the wait. Quite simply put, this thing kicks ass! The ThumbDrive utilizes the most modern technologies to create a product that is truly innovative and revolutionary--not just evolutionary like so many other products.

The ThumbDrive fully utilizes two key technologies: USB and non-volatile flash memory. Better yet, it uses these technologies in ways I've never quite seen in any other product.

First, its use of USB. USB has many advantages over legacy connection standards and the ThumbDrive milks all of them: plug & play, speed, hot-swapable, bus provided power, and even USB's small but robust connector! This drive uses all of these advantages to provide an ultra-portable storage device that goes miles beyond anything that has come before it.

Secondly, it uses non-volatile flash memory to store your data for up to 10 years. There is also a write protection switch on the end of the device. I'm going to say this once: that switch is the only moving part on the drive. Everything else is solid-state. As far as I can tell, the case is actually molded on around the internal components! While this media dramatically increases the cost, it provides this drive with its largest advantage: size.

This thing is insanely small! It lives up to its name: even including the USB plug, it is a bit smaller than my thumb. When I first showed it to a friend of mine, he initially thought it was a pack of mechanical pencil leads! (The brand he buys comes in a tiny plastic case that looks eerily similar to this drive.) The only media that I know of that's in this thing's size class would be iomega's pocket zip disks (Formerly called "Click!") and Sony memory sticks. The difference being that those are simply storage media and this is a complete drive.

The fact that this is a complete drive can not be over emphasized. With this solution, it doesn't matter if the computer has X kind of drive. Just download the software and you can use the Thumb Drive on any computer with USB. No more asking "Do you have a Zip Drive or SuperDisk or...?" Software is all you need.

How does it work? Just as advertised. Install the software and plug it in. The ThumbDrive shows up and works just like a hard drive. On my Mac I was even able to reformat it to HFS using the Finder's "Erase Disk..." command (It comes formated as a PC HD.)

The model I purchased holds 32MBs and cost $79(US). The capacities range from 8Mb to 512Mb, with 1Gb in progress, expected in Q3 of 2001. Obviously, the 1Gb model is prohibitively expensive, but way cool. The idea of carrying around a Gig of data in a package this small and convenient blows my mind.

I'm using this drive to hold my working copy of this web site and other writings I'm working on. It allows me to carry a tiny device between work and home while working on the same chunk of storage... just like you used to be able to do with floppies, back when a floppy was considered reasonably "reliable" and "spacious." The best part is that I don't have to have a bulky drive hanging off both machines.

If you are using modern Macs or PCs and need to find a "Sneaker Net" solution to transfer average documents and small apps, this is one I recommend.

The ThumbDrive plugged into my powered USB hub.
(Sorry for the sucky pic...)

ThumbDrive mounted on my Mac's desktop, with custom icon.