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PenDrive chit-chat

Data on the move away from the office.
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I just bought a tiny USB pendrive (sort of like a flash card) and it's great! But a feature I would like to see on it would be a USB socket to enable a second pendrive to plug into it. May be problematic as there's nothing to power either of them, so what I suggest is a small hub about the same size, powered by an AA battery, or even a watch battery. You could plug in both pendrives, and update the contents of both of them. Files that appear on one but not the other are automatically transfered across, and files that appear on both are updated with whichever is the later version. Could be handy for couriers on the move (when they meet each other), latest share market prices (when stockbrokers meet for lunch) or even global gaming systems. The other alternative is having a small rechargeable battery in each pendrive, but I'm not sure how much bigger that would make it.

PS PenDrive may be a brand name, not sure what the generic name is. Flash-harddrive?

simonj, Jun 12 2004

a selection of pendrives http://www.allcam.b...ducts/usbflash.html
[simonj, Oct 04 2004]

Digital pen takes on mouse http://news.bbc.co....hnology/3774747.stm
"Imagine if you could pick up a digital file or a note on a computer and pass it to a colleague's computer as easily as you can give them a paper document or a Post-It note." [half, Oct 04 2004]

USB Bridge http://www.delkin.c.../connect/usbbridge/
Baked. Though it looks like it just transfers all files from one device to the other. [Random832, Oct 18 2007]

[link]






       I just got a pocket USB hub as a giveaway at a trade show - want it?
DrCurry, Jun 12 2004
  

       Yes pleasse! will it auto transfer files as per my description...?
simonj, Jun 12 2004
  

       This is perhaps a nice idea, but it wouldn't be trivial to implement. Going with the hub-type idea, whetever you plug the pendrives into would have to be itself a USB host. With such a device, you could theoretically sync files between any USB mass storage devices (e.g. a digital camera), which would be useful, but you'd probably also want more control than just syncing two sets of files.
Thod, Jun 12 2004
  

       Not that I'm saying it's same, but the link is interesting and similar. It looks to me to be the next logical step beyond the proposed idea or maybe a step in a different direction.
half, Jun 12 2004
  

       Moving files is tricky business, particularly without display or selection. What happens if both cards are full of different files? Nevermind, get to work on it!   

       Design it with that rechargeable battery and an infrared port. Then "beam" the data between pendrives, without extra hardware. Its infrared port would be a useful accessory when plugged into a PC.   

       Batteries and IR ports could even be built into ordinary memory cards. And in addition to IR, there are other wireless systems that could be used.
Amos Kito, Jun 12 2004
  

       Would appeal to MP3 swappers too no doubt
simonj, Dec 13 2007
  
      
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