A laptop is the ultimate convenience for mobile professionals, or is it? It seems internationally, that mobile professionals have grown weary even of carrying a 'lightweight' laptop with them when travelling much, and have taken to putting all their vital documents and files on USB drives that can be worn around the neck or put on a keychain.
The rationale is that any computer made in the last five years would host USB devices, so that these files can easily be accessed anywhere. But it can and often happens that the host computer does not have the relevant application or the correct version to read and edit the documents.
One solution for this recurring problem is the introduction of 'smart' USB devices that can, in effect, allow the user to take both data and the relevant application.
Instead of competing to be the first to supply the market with the necessary storage tool, SanDisk and M-Systems, the two leading developers of portable flash drives, entered into a joint venture in January 2005. The venture, called U3, set out to develop a universal platform for 'smart' USB technology and facilitate communications between software and hardware developers.
The venture recently unveiled the U3 Smart Drive, the first flash drive with built-in intelligence. The development of the U3 has given a platform for both software and hardware developers to offer the ultimate convenience to the end user: a tiny USB device that is, in fact, a 'mobile PC.'
The platform includes hardware specifications and application program interfaces (APIs) for software that allows developers to access the unique mobility and security aspects of these devices. In June last year, the platform and its application was presented at the U3 summit in San Jose, California, to international hardware and software developers and accepted with great enthusiasm by developers eager to develop U3-compliant software.
For users, the U3 device means that they will not only be able to store information on USB devices, but to launch applications directly from the portable flash memory and access their entire personalised desktop with their programs, passwords and personal settings, on any PC.
USB flash memory devices have already had tremendous growth worldwide with estimated sales exceeding 70 million units. Since their inception, the large amounts of information that can be carried on USB drives have sparked a demanding market for the devices which in turn has resulted in standardisation on USB ports on PCs. But attempts at using the devices for something more than storage, has been hampered by a lack of an industry standard to define the hardware needs and the software specifications. U3 has now developed the standard that frees developers to work towards improving computing.
It is clear that the U3 platform is going to change the way people do computing. Notes Eli Harari, SanDisk CEO: "U3 ultimately can change the PC from a personal computer to a private computer, where all you need is a display and a keyboard and maybe an Internet connection to do what you need to do. A decade from now, this little device and your mobile handset will be the primary computing platforms."
Indications for the platform are encouraging. All the top makers of flash drives have already announced plans to release U3 devices later this year and 47 software developers already have software products to demonstrate. More than half of these may be available to consumers by a website automatically accessible to any U3-capable device.
Skype, the proliferating online phone call tool, has also been in the process of developing a portable version for the U3 platform. And photo tools have also become available as well as U3 versions of Firefox Web browser and Thunderbird e-mail client.
U3 sells the idea that computer users only really have the need for a personal workspace and not for the generator of that workspace (the laptop or desktop that it is traditionally attached to.)
For more information contact Gary Shap, Tudor Photographic, +27 (0)21 424 2978, gary@shap.co.za
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