Pretec readies smallest USB Flash drive yet
Print storyHoney, I shrunk the storage
Posted in Peripherals, 1st November 2005 10:59 GMT
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Memory card specialist Pretec is to introduce what may be the world's smalled USB Flash drive.
The iDisk Diamond - successor to the company's iDisk II and iDisk Tiny product lines - is smaller than a standard USB connector. The 2.7cm x 1.2cm x 1.9mm sliver weighs a mere 1g, though its 128MB storage capacity isn't exactly much to write home about these days.
The card slots into the host computer's full-size USB 2.0 port beneath the prong that usually fits inside a USB connector's metal sheath.
That's the same principle announced by SanDisk back in Janauary this year when it announced a special SD card with a fold-out USB connector, the Ultra II SD Plus card. While the SanDisk part offers higher storage capacities than the iDisk Diamond - 512MB to 1GB - they're nonetheless physically larger, thanks to the need to support the SD slot format.
As yet, Pretec hasn't formally announced the iDisk Diamond, but one of its Japanese resellers, Solid Alliance, said this morning it had begun selling the part for ¥4980 ($43/£24).
Crucially, the iDisk Diamond has a tiny loop on which to attach a wrist or neck lanyard - or, even, Solid Alliance suggests, an earring hook. Heaven knows, it's going to be hard not to lose the things otherwise... ®
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