Too Cool Devices for Your SneakerNet

Review by Bill Trent

I admit it, I like cute little gadgets. But sometimes cute turns out to be "really useful" instead. Such is the case for two tiny mass storage devices that Linda and I have been using lately.

The first gadget is a USB Pen-Drive. This is a flash memory device, just like the memory cards that are used in digital cameras, that is about three inches long and slightly over a three quarters of an inch in diameter. Pulling the cover off the end reveals a USB plug. Plugging it into a USB jack on a Mac that is running OS 9 or OS X mounts a disk-like icon on the desktop that you can use just like any other removable disk. When you are done, drag it to the Trash, unplug it and stick it in your pocket.

These drives come in a variety of sizes from 16Mbytes up to 512Mbytes. A 128Mbyte version is priced at about $90.

We have found it to be so useful in moving files between home and work that we have both a 64Meg and a 128Meg. Goodbye Zip disks! Being cross-platform, they work very well to transfer files between a Mac and a Windows box (although, the Windows machine needs to have drivers installed and the Mac doesn't.)

The second device is a Smartdisk FireFly hard drive. When I opened the box, I couldn't believe that something this small (21/2 x 4 x 1/2 inches and weighs about 4oz.) could hold 5Gigabytes! It has a single FireWire connector on the end to make it easy to move large amounts of data fast. I measured the transfer rate at over 13Mbytes/sec on my G4. It is powered by the FireWire bus and is also bootable, making it possible to carry a full OS, applications and large data files in your shirt pocket.

This drive is supported directly in OS 9.2 and OS X - no additional software is needed. Earlier versions of OS 9 require the drivers that come in the box. I did have a few problems with the Smartdisk drivers under OS 9.1, but I found that their drivers were unnecessary if I used the newer version 2.8.5 FireWire extensions that come with OS 9.2.

In addition to drivers for OS 9, the FireFly software package includes Smartdisk Tools to format, partition and test the drive and a copy of Connectix Copy Agent. The FireFly also comes with a 3 foot FireWire cable and a soft pouch.

The list price is $199, but as this review goes to press, the Apple Store is selling them for $99.