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Verbatim has added a new member to its family of Store 'n' Go products.  This latest entry is the Store 'n' Go U3 Smart Drive with a capacity of 1GB.  By taking on-board the U3 technology, the Verbatim Store 'n' Go device acts more like a personal workspace unit than a mere portable storage offering normally associated with flash memory products.

The U3 environment consists of a personal work area with content that can be transported from one computer to another.  This area can hold a range of applications, although these have to be U3 specific, which can be run on the host computer.  When the Store 'n' Go device is removed from the computer, no trace of activity should be left behind on the host computer.  All the various elements, such as data, configuration settings and history lists, will only register on the U3 supported device.

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At present there are a limited number of U3 applications available.  As standard a copy of McAfee Anti-Virus is already installed on the product.  Some are supplied free of charge while others can be purchased or downloaded as a trial version.  These can be found on the U3 website with a small selection also appearing on Verbatim's website. 

To take advantage of the special U3 features you will need to be running either Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 or Windows XP.  Unfortunately Mac users and those running Linux will be limited to using this device as a basic USB flash drive.  Inserting this Store 'n' Go device into a free USB port, preferably USB 2.0 although it does support USB 1.1, will result in it being recognised as a removable drive and a brief animated introductory sequence will be run to explain the U3 capabilities and its companion Launchpad feature.

The Launchpad could be described as a "Start Menu" for the Store 'n' Go device.  Sitting in the System Tray until called for, the Launchpad displays any U3 installed applications of the device on the left and tools on the right.  There are also links to the U3 website and a button to ensure all applications are closed before removing the Store 'n' Go from its port.

As mentioned earlier this Store 'n' Go U3 Smart Drive can also be used to transport data, such as images or MP3 files, from one location to another.  Testing the device's read/write capability with 775MB of MP3 revealed that the write function was 40% slower than when reading data.  Copying the files to the Store 'n' Go device took 4 minutes 54 seconds while reversing the transfer took 2 minutes 7 seconds.

This latest Store 'n' Go device is best suited to anybody who regularly needs to work on several machines in different locations.  In situations such as these, then the Store 'n' Go U3 Smart Drive is in its element with its ability to keep its data segregated from its host.  Verbatim advise me that this product should be available for between £79.99 and £89.99.

http://www.verbatim.com/u3/