The USB flash drive is far from the most exotic hardware most people use, but for many, it’s incredibly important. A fast USB drive can shave minutes of data transfers, and if you use it every day, that can add up. Just one problem; you usually have to pay for the performance.

Or do you? To find out, we set upon the Internet to find not just the fastest USB drives but also the largest, the most affordable, the most rugged, and more. There are plenty of options, but some drives do stand out from the rest.

The Fastest Under $100: SanDisk Extreme

There are plenty of fast USB 3.0 drives in the market, but one stands out from the rest; SanDisk’s Extreme. With transfer speeds of up to 190 MB/s and a 64 GB capacity, this drive blows the doors off rivals and also offers plenty of storage. The $75 price tag (about $1.20 per gigabyte) is more than many will want to pay, however.

SanDisk also sells this drive in 16 GB and 32 GB capacities for about $25 and $45, respectively. They aren’t rated to deliver the 190 MB/s transfer speed of the 64 GB drive, and they cost more per gigabyte of storage.

The Most Expensive, Largest And Fastest: Kingston DataTraveler HyperX Predator

Technically, the most expensive USB drive is probably something like the MiiStore, which is encased in over 400 diamonds. Since this guide is meant to be practical, we’ll instead focus on Kingston’s DataTraveler HyperX Predator.

The bulky Predator is available with a capacity of 512 GB at around $630, which works out to a price-per-gigabyte of about $1.20; not terrible compared to smaller drives. The Predator also boasts insane transfer speeds up to 240 MB/s, beating even the SanDisk Extreme. Of course, the Extreme is actually affordable, while the Predator isn’t.

The Most Rugged: Corsair Flash Survivor

Most USB drives can take a surprising amount of punishment, but few are officially rugged. The Survivor is one of the few among that ground, and it makes impressive claims. According to Corsair, this drive can survive drops, extreme vibration and submersion in up to 200 meters of water.

Performance is reasonable, but not stunning, with reads topping out at 85 MB/s and writes at 70 MB/s for the high-end 64GB model. Smaller drives offer similar read speed, but sacrifice write speed.

These drives comes in 16/32/64 GB capacities that retail for $35/$40/$60, so price-per-gigabyte ranges from $2.18 for the smallest version to about $1.00 for the largest.

The Least Expensive: Whatever’s On Sale

Cheap USB drives, even those offering USB 3.0 speeds, are in no shortage. Every company in the flash drive business offers a cheap introductory version, and most of them retail around $8 for an 8 GB drive. Examples include the SanDisk Cruzer Fit and the Kingston DataTraveler G3.

The drive that is least expensive usually depends on the sale, deal or coupon available. With most of these drives selling under $10, any small discount will make on drive the least expensive. In terms of quality, there’s not much difference; most drives don’t even bother quoting a transfer speed and will fall between 20 and 40 MB/s. In summary, buy whichever best fits your pocket and wallet.

The Smallest: Who Knows?

While all USB drives are small, some are smaller than others, and many users prefer the convenience of a drive so small it can rest unnoticed in a laptop’s USB port. While some may seek the “smallest” drive, this endeavor is pointless because many companies claim to have the smallest drive, yet most fail to offer meaningful information about their product’s measurements. There are also very small drives from off-brand providers that can match the most diminutive brand-name options.

There are some common, reliable choices, however. Among them are the Patriot Tab, SanDisk Fit and Kingston DataTraveler Micro. Small drives are often inexpensive and offer more than one gigabyte per dollar, but the value is often at the cost of performance, as drives in this category are often USB 2.0 only and, if they do support USB 3.0, usually have a transfer rate below 50 MB/s.

The Most Cutting-Edge: Kingston Digital Wi-Drive

USB flash drives may soon be obsolete thanks to the rise of a new device; the wireless drive. These alternatives are in many ways identical to a USB drive, but they include a wireless radio, making it possible to access data on multiple computers without a physical connection.

The best example available thus far is arguably Kingston’s Digital Wi-Drive. Slightly larger than a common USB flash drive, this sleek device can operate on battery power for up to four hours. When the battery goes flat, it can be charged via USB, and files can also be transferred over USB (though only at 2.0 speeds).

Like most new technology, however, the Wi-Drive isn’t cheap. The smallest version, which offers a 32 GB capacity, sells for about $70. The 64 GB and 128 GB versions are $110 and $130, respectively. This works out to a cost-per-gigabyte of over $2 for the 32 GB drive, but the largest 128 GB model is priced at barely more than $1 per gigabyte, which is reasonable for a flash drive.

Conclusion

USB flash drives have come a long way over the last few years. The introduction of USB 3.0 has drastically improved transfer rates and improvements to solid state memory production have slashed both cost and size. Wireless may even one day replace USB. For now, however, flash drives are still important to many users. Which is your favorite?

Novelty fades quickly. While we have become used to touch screens, the latest fad are touch-less interfaces. Game consoles have long embraced natural interaction and even your webcam can detect motion and gestures to some degree. Right now the first application driven gesture recognition devices for personal computers are hitting the market, most notably the Leap Motion.

The Leap Motion Controller is a novel user interface device for Windows and Mac. It lets you control your computer through finger gestures painted into the air above the small device. Leap Motion promises to make interaction with the computer and software more natural. In this article I will take you through the initial setup, introduce you to the Leap Motion’s app store, and generally explore how intuitive and useful this gadget really is.

The Package

The Leap Motion is available for $79.99 plus tax and shipping through the Leap Motion Store. And this is what you will receive:

• The controller,
• two USB cables, a short and a long one, and
• some basic documentation.

Setting Up The Leap Motion Controller

When you first connect the Leap Motion Controller to your computer, you need to run the Windows or Mac setup. The files can be downloaded from the Leap Motion Setup page. While the software is downloading, you can watch a video that demonstrates the entire setup procedure.

After the software was installed, a splash screen loads, which will guide you through the rest of the super quick setup. Basically, you need to connect the controller to your computer and place it in a suitable location, as pictured below.

From there you will be directed straight to Airspace, the Leap Motion’s home screen and marketplace. To enter, you first need to set up your account. Before you are let onto your Airspace Home screen, the place where all your apps are listed, you will be taken through an orientation. Here you will complete several demonstration exercises to familiarize yourself with the Leap Motion Controller.

Amazingly, the Leap Motion Controller can detect single fingers, all 10 of them.

Airspace Home

After you completed the orientation, you will be dropped off at the Airspace Home screen. Here you will find a couple of default apps, including Google Earth, and a link to the Airspace Store. The store will launch in your default browser.

The next time you boot your computer and want to play with the Leap Motion, you can access the Airspace Home screen through the green bar in your system tray. The bar shows up whenever the Leap Motion Controller is connected to your computer and ready to go. Right-click on it and select Launch Airspace. Should there be a problem with the controller, the bar will change its color and display a warning.

Leap Motion Apps Via Airspace Store

Leap Motion worked closely with developers to make sure a selection of cool apps would be available at launch. You could say they succeeded as the Airspace store contains dozens of apps in a handful of categories, including creative tools, education, games, science, and productivity and utilities. However, not many apps are free.

When you get an app, it will immediately appear as downloading on your Airspace Home screen.

Most of the free apps are cute proof-of-concept or training apps, for example VIZ.it (Mac), with which you can draw patterns or play Cut the Rope, a physics game that has won several game awards on other platforms, but with the Leap Motion it mainly allows you to practice precise finger movements.

My favorite non-game app is Corel’s Painter Freestyle. The app was easy to control with finger gestures and thus a lot of fun to use. While it did work very well, it sometimes required a little bit of patience as colors, brush sizes, and other changes are activated in a time-sensitive manner.

Challenges With The Leap Motion

The technology used by the Leap Motion Controller is in its infancy and early adopters will have to tolerate a couple of shortcomings.

• Inaccurate Input: I found it very hard to make accurate moves and thus control my computer. This may be due to the Leap Motion’s incredible precision, which is unmatched by my own clumsy finger movements. Particularly the Touchless for Windows app was more of a drag than an actual help and I was never able to properly use The New York Times app.
• Finger Detection: When I tried to point with one finger, the controller would often detect a second finger somewhere, no matter how well I tried to hide the other fingers. My hand movements became very artificial and anything but intuitive.
• False Positive Malware Detection: Several of the apps I installed were flagged as malware by my antivirus program. Of course that’s a false positive, but it’s worth to be noted.

Tips For Better Working With The Controller

The Leap Motion controller comes with some default settings which you should customize for optimal results. In the system tray, look for the Leap Motion Controller icon and double-click it to launch Settings. If you ever have issues with your controller, you can switch to the Troubleshooting tab and consult the support material or run diagnostic testing.

There are several default settings you might want to to customize:

• Enable Automatic Power Saving: When I worked with the Leap Motion controller, I noticed that it became pretty warm and my computer was more busy than usual. If this bothers you, you can enable automatic power saving, which reduces performance and conserves power whenever possible.
• Change Interaction Height: The default is set to 20cm, which is on the high end. I played with different heights and in the end selected automatic interaction height.
• Tracking and Low Resource Mode: On my relatively new laptop, the Leap Motion worked just fine. On an older machine, however, it froze and apps wouldn’t load. When I disabled tracking and enabled low resource mode (under Troubleshooting), it performed much better.

Verdict

The concept is amazing and if it worked effortlessly, I would probably love my Leap Motion. Unfortunately, I had my challenges, which makes me believe this gadget still needs some serious work. In its current incarnation, it is slightly cumbersome to use for any productive work. That said, I do believe this is the next big thing and we will see touchless gesture detection as a standard feature in many devices soon. The games, however, are a lot of fun and I can imagine they are great to keep kids busy without ending up with smudged screens or keyboards.

For more insights and updates, stay tuned for an in-depth review of the Leap Motion by Jackson coming up in August.

What do you think of the Leap Motion? Are you eager to try it immediately or would you rather wait until the technology has matured?