U3 USB drives

[Fred Derf Veteran]

What's the deal with U3 drives?

http://www.u3.com/

What special features do they offer that you can't do on a normal USB drive? I mean, as long as you can install all of these portable applications on a regular USB stick, why do you need a U3 drive? Do they somehow make non-portable applications portable for you? I don't get it.

[sharkbait88]

basically, with u3, and when u put u3 software on them, u will be able to run the program FROM the usb drive itself. like i know openoffice has their own U3 capable version, and it is very small, and offers the basic word processing etc of its larger counterpart, but u can carry it around with u, just in case the comp u work on later doesnt have it. i think it is pretty useful.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

I can run PortableOpenOffice on a regular USB drive though. So what is the point of U3 again?

It is just marketing hype for people who can't find http://www.portableapps.com or http://portablefreeware.com on their own?

[chconline Veteran]

U3 - for U3 certified apps -- wow.

Marketing, woohoo. I'd stick with the 'normal' portable apps that runs off any drives, and all the latest OCZ drives arent U3 either... the only one Ive seen is the ones from the developers, eg. sandisk, memorex etc

[fuBar.]

I don't think you have to worry about purchasing a product like that in a long run. The storage that we have now is adequate enough to store our data mobily. I still use my USB flash drive and floppy disc.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

So what is stopping you from running "U3 Certified" applications on a normal USB drive? Are U3 sticks special in any way?

I'm trying to figure out if they have customized hardware or something beyond marketing.

[Cody]

its for deploying portable apps, when you plug it in, it mounts its self like a cd rom and auto runs, if you have auto run turned on

so they are a big security concern in the corporate world

[strekship]

I don't think there is anything special about them. I have a drive with PSTART and a bunch of portable apps that does the job.

[JodyWatts]

The U3, when it autoruns, installs some files to the locak HDD of the computer you put the memory stick into. I removed it!!