.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE U3 means portable software in your pocket
.AUTHOR Bill Mann
.OTHER
.SUMMARY Do you ever wish for the day when you can take your personal computing environment with you wherever you go, without having to physically carry your desktop or notebook computer around? Well, that day still isn’t here. However, you can take your key programs and data with you wherever you go, and they’ll fit in your pocket. At least you can do this if you carry a U3 smart drive. To learn how well these drive works, read this article by Contributing Editor Bill Mann.
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.H1 About this article
A few weeks ago, we ran an interview with Heather Skinner of Kingston Technology that helped us understand some of the inside scoop about the U3 technology. You can read it at http://www.computingunplugged.com/issues/issue200606/00001785001.html.
In this article, Contributing Editor Bill Mann takes you through an in-depth review of the U3 technology and the Kingston DataTraveler product.
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Do you ever wish for the day when you can take your personal computing environment with you wherever you go, without having to physically carry your desktop or notebook computer around? Well, that day still isn’t here. However, you can take your key programs and data with you wherever you go, and they’ll fit in your pocket. At least you can do this if you carry a U3 smart drive.
U3 is the standard that makes this possible. Install programs on a U3 smart drive, and you can run those program on any Windows XP or Windows 2000 computer, without making any changes to that computer, and without leaving any traces behind.
.TEASER To read the rest of this review, tap here.
To learn more about this standard and the software that works with it, we got our hands on the Kingston U3 DataTraveler High-Speed USB 2.0 smart drive and got to work.
.H1 Living with the Kingston U3 DataTraveler High-Speed USB 2.0 smart drive
When you plug the U3 Data Traveler smart drive into a USB slot on a compatible PC, the U3 Launchpad shown in Figure A appears.
.FIGPAIR A Use the U3 Launchpad to control your U3 software.
As long as the U3 smart drive is plugged into the computer, you can get to the U3 Launchpad by clicking the U3 icon in the Windows System Tray, as shown in Figure B.
.FIG B Click the U3 icon to bring up the Launchpad.
The drive came with three programs installed on it: Pass2Go, ACDSee PE for U3, and Zinio Reader.
Once you start it, Pass2Go runs in the background and records your passwords and bookmarks so it can log you onto online accounts automatically. This is a 30-day trial version that you can give a good workout before deciding if you want to buy the full version.
ACDSee PE for U3 manages your digital photos for you. This version is free, but you can upgrade to a more powerful version that offers more extensive tools for finding, organizing, editing, and sharing your digital photos.
Zinio Reader allows you to read online versions of dozens of popular magazines. The reader itself is free, but you will need to subscribe to the digital versions of your favorite magazines to get the full benefit from Zinio Reader.
.H1 Making it our own
While the software that comes pre-installed on the Kingston U3 DataTraveler is good stuff, to us, the real excitement of U3 is the ability to use the programs we normally work with. Quite a few popular programs are available in forms that can run on a U3 smart drive.
It’s easy to go hunting for software to add to your U3 smart drive. Just click the Download Programs button in the U3 Launchpad to visit U3 Software Central, as shown in Figure C, and start your search.
.FIGPAIR C U3 Software Central is the place to find additional programs for your U3 smart drive.
As of early June 2006, there were dozens of U3-compatible programs available here. They run the entire range of possibilities from games to lots of media viewing and managing tools, to communication programs and U3 versions of business applications.
We wrote this story with the U3 version of OpenOffice.org that you can download here, did the screen captures with IrfanView, and submitted the story using the U3 version of FireFox to connect to a Web-based email account. While working, we chatted with friends using a copy of Trillian, which was, you guessed it, downloaded from Software Central and installed on the U3 drive.
Because everything needed to write the story was stored on the smart drive, we were able to do the work on various different computers while scarcely missing a beat. When it was time to move on, all we had to do was save our work, close all our programs, and click the Eject button on the U3 Launchpad. No fuss, no muss, and no trash left over on the computer we happened to be working on at the moment.
.H1 Minor snags
That isn’t to say everything went 100% smoothly. There are always minor snags when dealing with any product. In this case, the first minor snag had to do with drive letters. When I was working on my main desktop computer, the U3 drive appeared as drive "M:". That’s because my desktop machine has several hard drives installed, along with a flash memory reader. This meant that earlier drive letters were already taken when I plugged in the U3 drive.
The other computer I used didn’t have all the extras installed, and the U3 drive appeared as drive "E:" on that machine. When I switched from my main machine to the second one, OpenOffice Writer tried to find this article on drive "M:". When I tried to reopen this document on the other computer, OpenOffice Writer couldn’t find it since the drive letters had changed. I had to manually navigate to the "E:" drive before it could open the file.
Another minor hiccup came when ejecting the U3 drive from the computer. If you have looked at any of the data on the U3 drive with a program that resides on the computer the drive is plugged into, you may need to shut down that program before you can safely eject the U3 drive.
These aren’t major problems, and they all have to do with the way Windows works rather than any flaws in the U3 standard or drive, but they show that you do need to be at least a little computer savvy to use a U3 drive effectively.
Nothing good ever comes for free, and the flaws we found while working with the Kingston U3 DataTraveler High-Speed USB 2.0 smart drive are really minor. Things will only get better as more U3-ready versions of popular software become available. We give this combo four thumbdrives out of five. Keep an eye on U3. It’s got potential.
.RATING 4
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.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on U3 straight from the people who created the standard, visit http://www.u3.com.
To see what software is available for U3 smart drives, visit http://software.u3.com/.
To learn more about the Kingston U3 smart drive used in this story, visit http://www.kingston.com/flash/dt_u3.asp.
To read "Kingston Technology and the meaning of U3", visit http://www.computingunplugged.com/issues/issue200606/00001785001.html.
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