Saturday, 21 March 2009
Sunday, 2 March 2008
The death of the CD
2008, the death of the CD and the death of the music business as we know it.- Flash Drive Direct offers solution to music retail sector blues.
The CD is dead and so is the music industry as it faces the prospect of a download only era. Music industry insiders know that the download business strategy is not suited to the labels.
The labels are 5 years too late to stake a viable claim in the download arena. They cannot successfully compete with LimeWire, MySpace and other free services.
EMI, Warner, Hollywood record labels have been seriously exploring the last potent retail replacement for the CD, the flash drive.
Flash drive designer and manufacturer Flash Drive Direct has penned a treatise that describes a new and viable replacement for the CD that will appeal to the download demographic and offer a richer media intense delivery system.
The CD is dead. Sales have plummeted nearly 50% over the last 4 years and a whole generation of consumers are now no longer even familiar with the CD as a concept or the idea that a record store is the place to find the "next big thing".
Record labels have reacted either by standing by and watching as the retail industry tanks or by litigating to death their very own consumers in a futile effort to put the download genie back in the bottle.
This generation wants to buy its music, what they don't want to buy is a CD," states John Graham, long-time music industry analyst and current director of Flash Drive Direct design and manufacturing house (http://www.flashdrivedirect.com). "What the labels have failed to recognize is that the download consumer still wants to buy a tangible tactile product. They are the wealthiest youth generation in history with an estimated annual disposable income of over 20 billion dollars. They lay claim to some of the largest discretionary retail spending. Note the sales of Mac's, iPods, cell phones, $200 jeans and more," concludes Graham.
"The retail experience for the download generation is alive and kicking. The difference is that today's downloaders grew up on MP3 files not CD's," Graham goes on to say. "When MP'3's came along they were first played almost exclusively on computers. However, necessity being the Mother of all inventions, retailers then created the MP3 player industry. As a result the CD player and the CD retail business went the way of the Dodo."
A recent Harvard study on retail trends cited an anomaly in the download generation's retail therapy that was not anticipated. It found that consumers 14-29 would buy music from a retail outlet if two things were changed. One being that the retail environment better represented their personal expression of taste and secondly that if the music were loaded onto a digital device such as a flash drive they would buy it.
The study went on to say that on a secondary level of understanding "the consumer had veered away from the CD as it offered little in the way of new media interactivity". The consumer had found that the CD only offered a 1 dimensional experience and had no "bells and whistles".
John Graham of Flash Drive Direct goes on to explain, "the problem with the CD in recent years was not just a lack of a solid CD's worth of material but the high cost the consumer paid for what amounted to nothing more than a $15 expense for 1-2 singles, a bunch of filler and no killer! The labels only have themselves to blame for much of this."
The new delivery device that will recapture the spirit of the vibrant 80's and 90's CD sales boom is the digital flash drive. To date many artists have released limited edition and on-line sales of flash drive albums. However, there were 2 consistent failures in these tentative approaches. Firstly the retail environment had no rack space to best showcase the drives and perhaps more importantly the artist and labels did not grasp the enormous range of expression that the flash drive offered.
The drive would contain the tunes but what has not been fully understood was what else the flash drive offers. The drive not only delivers songs but videos, print files of all of the artist's previous CD covers, tour posters, band bio's and more. It also could easily be formatted to link to outside websites where the consumer could buy tickets, visit the band's website, download coupons and link to a wide variety of on-line and real world experiences. The flash drive is much more impactful as a retail tool when viewed as a web portal, multi- media storage and song delivery device than just a mere replacement for the CD, as the CD was for the LP.
Flash Drive Direct does work for the corporate world along with new media ventures with record labels, film studios, television and more.
The CD is dead and so is the music industry as it faces the prospect of a download only era. Music industry insiders know that the download business strategy is not suited to the labels.
The labels are 5 years too late to stake a viable claim in the download arena. They cannot successfully compete with LimeWire, MySpace and other free services.
EMI, Warner, Hollywood record labels have been seriously exploring the last potent retail replacement for the CD, the flash drive.
Flash drive designer and manufacturer Flash Drive Direct has penned a treatise that describes a new and viable replacement for the CD that will appeal to the download demographic and offer a richer media intense delivery system.
The CD is dead. Sales have plummeted nearly 50% over the last 4 years and a whole generation of consumers are now no longer even familiar with the CD as a concept or the idea that a record store is the place to find the "next big thing".
Record labels have reacted either by standing by and watching as the retail industry tanks or by litigating to death their very own consumers in a futile effort to put the download genie back in the bottle.
This generation wants to buy its music, what they don't want to buy is a CD," states John Graham, long-time music industry analyst and current director of Flash Drive Direct design and manufacturing house (http://www.flashdrivedirect.com). "What the labels have failed to recognize is that the download consumer still wants to buy a tangible tactile product. They are the wealthiest youth generation in history with an estimated annual disposable income of over 20 billion dollars. They lay claim to some of the largest discretionary retail spending. Note the sales of Mac's, iPods, cell phones, $200 jeans and more," concludes Graham.
"The retail experience for the download generation is alive and kicking. The difference is that today's downloaders grew up on MP3 files not CD's," Graham goes on to say. "When MP'3's came along they were first played almost exclusively on computers. However, necessity being the Mother of all inventions, retailers then created the MP3 player industry. As a result the CD player and the CD retail business went the way of the Dodo."
A recent Harvard study on retail trends cited an anomaly in the download generation's retail therapy that was not anticipated. It found that consumers 14-29 would buy music from a retail outlet if two things were changed. One being that the retail environment better represented their personal expression of taste and secondly that if the music were loaded onto a digital device such as a flash drive they would buy it.
The study went on to say that on a secondary level of understanding "the consumer had veered away from the CD as it offered little in the way of new media interactivity". The consumer had found that the CD only offered a 1 dimensional experience and had no "bells and whistles".
John Graham of Flash Drive Direct goes on to explain, "the problem with the CD in recent years was not just a lack of a solid CD's worth of material but the high cost the consumer paid for what amounted to nothing more than a $15 expense for 1-2 singles, a bunch of filler and no killer! The labels only have themselves to blame for much of this."
The new delivery device that will recapture the spirit of the vibrant 80's and 90's CD sales boom is the digital flash drive. To date many artists have released limited edition and on-line sales of flash drive albums. However, there were 2 consistent failures in these tentative approaches. Firstly the retail environment had no rack space to best showcase the drives and perhaps more importantly the artist and labels did not grasp the enormous range of expression that the flash drive offered.
The drive would contain the tunes but what has not been fully understood was what else the flash drive offers. The drive not only delivers songs but videos, print files of all of the artist's previous CD covers, tour posters, band bio's and more. It also could easily be formatted to link to outside websites where the consumer could buy tickets, visit the band's website, download coupons and link to a wide variety of on-line and real world experiences. The flash drive is much more impactful as a retail tool when viewed as a web portal, multi- media storage and song delivery device than just a mere replacement for the CD, as the CD was for the LP.
Flash Drive Direct does work for the corporate world along with new media ventures with record labels, film studios, television and more.
Friday, 29 February 2008
selling digital picture frames
What is a digital picture frame and how does it work?
A USB digital frame is the perfect gift for sharing photos. The device is about the size and shape of ordinary picture frames. It contains a Panasonic LCD screen, which displays multiple photos in a slideshow and other various formats. It connects to your computer, cellphone or memory stick to retrieve the pictures and then displays them. Many of the new USB Digital Frames have remote controls and are Bluetooth enabled allowing you to send pictures and files to your frame from any other Bluetooth device (Bluetooth…fancy word for wireless connection between devices)
What's in a USB Digital Frames Frame? The frame is actually a very simple computer. It has most of the same components as the computer on your desktop, but they're a lot simpler in the frame because they only have to perform a single task.
CPU The central processing unit (CPU) in the digital picture frame is similar to the kind used in small, electronic handheld games. (see photo)
Memory The frame has some ROM memory to store the operating system. However additional memory is required (SD Cards) to run the programs. It also has some Flash memory, which is where the pictures, settings and some of the operating software live. No data is lost if the unit is unplugged.
USB Digital Frames Panasonic Display The display is a 640x480-pixel, passive-matrix liquid crystal display (LCD). This type of display is thin enough that the digital frame isn't much thicker than an ordinary picture frame. The pictures are displayed in 12-bit color, which means that approximately 4,100 different colors can be presented on the screen.
USB Digital Frames Controls Depending on the model the user-operated controls on the frame can operate a menu of display options, including movies, m-pegs, mp4’s, avi, jpegs. There is a brightness of the display button that corrects the look for your environment.
USB Digital Frames Features Some of the USB Digital Frames styles have speakers, can load and play MP3’s. There is also the ability to send (via Bluetooth) the pictures or songs back to your computer so you can email them to friends.
Monday, 21 January 2008
Flash Drive Direct explains the Flash Drive
I just thought a little technical information might be helpful
USB flash drives are NAND-type flash memory data storage devices integrated with a USB (universal serial bus) connector. They are typically small, lightweight, removable and rewritable. (USB Memory card readers are also available, whereby rather than being built-in, the memory is a removable flash memory card housed in what is otherwise a regular USB flash drive, as described below.)
USB flash drives offer potential advantages over other portable storage devices, particularly the floppy disk. They are more compact, faster, hold more data, are more reliable due to their lack of moving parts, and have a more durable design. Additionally, it has become increasingly common for computers to ship without floppy disk drives. USB ports, on the other hand, appear on almost every current mainstream PC and laptop. These types of drives use the USB mass storage standard, supported natively by modern operating systems such as Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and other Unix-like systems. Also many game systems such as Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 have USB drives.
With nothing being mechanically driven in a flash drive, the name is somewhat of a misnomer. It is called a "drive" because it appears to the computer operating system (and the user) in a manner identical to a mechanical disk drive, and is accessed in the same way.
A flash drive consists of a small printed circuit board typically in a plastic or metal casing and more recently in rubber casings to increase their robustness. This makes the drive sturdy enough to be carried about in a pocket, for example as a key fob, or on a lanyard. Only the USB connector protrudes, and it is typically protected either by a removable cap or by retracting into the body of the drive. Most flash drives use a standard type-A USB connection allowing them to be connected directly to a port on a personal computer.
To access the data stored in a flash drive, the drive must be connected to a computer, either by plugging it into a USB host controller built into the computer, or into a USB hub. Flash drives are active only when plugged into a USB connection and draw all necessary power from the supply provided by that connection. However, some flash drives, especially high-speed drives, may require more power than the limited amount provided by a bus-powered USB hub, such as those built into some computer keyboards or monitors. These drives will not work unless plugged directly into a host controller (i.e., the ports found on the computer itself) or a self-powered hub.
Technology
Flash memory is actually a combination of a number of older technologies, the low cost, low power consumption and small size being made possible by recent advances in microprocessor technology. The memory storage is based on earlier EPROM technology. The first EPROMS had very limited capacity, were very slow for both reading and writing, required complex high-voltage drive circuitry, and could only be re-written by first exposing them to short-wavelength ultraviolet light, which would erase the entire contents.
A later variant, the EEPROM, could be erased electrically without the need for UV light, but as with the original versions, it was still a total erasure. (These were widely used for storing the BIOS firmware in PCs.)
Later EEPROMS were developed where the erasure region was broken up into smaller "fields" that could be erased individually without affecting the others. Altering the contents of a particular memory location involved first copying the entire field into an off-chip buffer memory, erasing the field, and then re-writing the data back into the same field, making the necessary alteration to the relevant memory location while doing so. This required considerable computer support, and PC-Based EEPROM flash memory systems often carried their own dedicated microprocessor system. Flash drives are more or less a miniaturized version of this.
The development of high-speed serial data interfaces such as USB for the first time made serially accessed storage memory systems viable, and the simultaneous development of small, high-speed, low-power microprocessor systems allowed this to be incorporated into extremely compact systems. Serial access also greatly reduced the number of electrical connections required for the memory chips, which has allowed the successful manufacture of multi-gigabyte capacities. (Every external electrical connection is a potential source of manufacturing failure, and with traditional manufacturing, a point is rapidly reached where the successful yield approaches zero).
Modern flash memory systems are accessed very much like hard disk drives, where the controller system has full control over where information is actually stored. The actual EEPROM writing and erasure processes are, however, still very similar to the earlier systems described above.
Many low-cost MP3 Players simply add extra software to a standard flash memory control microprocessor so it can also serve as a music playback decoder. Most of these can also be used as a conventional flash drive.
History
First invention and sale
Flash drive with retractable USB connector
Several companies claim to have invented the USB flash drive. Trek was the first company to sell a USB flash drive (ThumbDrive) in early 2000. However, their patent does not describe the USB flash drive; rather, it describes a very broad family of storage devices which could include the USB flash drive.
M-Systems (acquired by SanDisk in November 2006)[1] had been working on a USB flash drive since 1998. They registered the domain www.diskonkey.com on October 12, 1999,[2] indicating their intention to sell a product. In 2000 Dan Harkabi joined the M-Systems team and led the development of DiskOnKey. The industrial design was done by Ziba and the product won the IDEA award in 2001. M-Systems' patent rigorously describes the USB flash drive and its implementation.
An IBM invention disclosure RPS8-1999-0201 (Sept. 99) by Shimon Shmueli et al. is the earliest known document to describe the USB-FD accurately and completely, and only the USB-FD. M-Systems manufactured the DiskOnKey for IBM, which in late 2000 was the first to sell the product in North America. The IBM 8 MB USB Memory Key became available December 15, 2000[3] [4]. Shmueli later founded KeyNetica, the first company to patent and develop the concept that mobile and smart storage devices are all one needs for mobile computing. Current implementors of the concept are U3 (part of SanDisk, which also owns the original KeyNetica patent) and Ceedo.
Trek Technology claims it was first to conceive and create the ThumbDrive.[5]
“
When we first introduced the ThumbDrive in early 2000, we believed that this little device was set to change the way consumers across the world would store and transport information and data," Trek 2000 Chief Executive Officer Henn Tan was quoted as saying. [Its potential] has made it essential for Trek to invest and protect its intellectual property ownership.
”
Trek holds patents for the ThumbDrive in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Singapore.
Nevertheless, the ownership of the patent for this device has been widely disputed. According to The Straits Times' report, other companies started marketing similar devices. M-Systems, which was listed on NASDAQ at the time, called its gadgets DiskOnKey and Diskey. Electec is M-Systems' importer, and FE Global is its sole distributor in Singapore. Lexar can also lay claim to a pioneering USB flash drive product. In 2000 they introduced a Compact Flash (CF) card having an internal USB function. Lexar offered a companion card reader and USB cable that eliminated the need for a USB hub.
Trek sued the four companies for infringing its patent. They counterclaimed, asking that Trek's patent be revoked as it was invalid.
The Singapore Court of Appeal confirmed the validity of Trek Technology's patent for its ThumbDrive, calling it "novel and inventive" in the decision published in The Straits Times. The city-state's highest court also quashed the plea of four companies—Israeli firm M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers, Electec, FE Global Electronics and Singapore-based Ritronics Components—and ordered them to stop selling similar devices. The decision is expected to have a ripple effect on other similar lawsuits which the Trek group has pending in Britain, Japan and Taiwan. At least one decision in the UK has addressed similar points as those addressed by the Singapore Court of Appeal, but the hearing officer reached a different conclusion from that of the Singapore Court of Appeal, and Trek's patent was revoked in the UK.
Netac Technology of Shenzhen, China also holds a 1999 Chinese and 2004 US patent on USB flash technology which it has licensed to major manufacturers
Second generation
Modern flash drives have USB 2.0 connectivity. However, they do not currently use the full 480 Mbit/s the specification supports due to technical limitations inherent in NAND flash. The fastest drives currently available use a dual channel controller, although they still fall considerably short of the transfer rate possible from a current generation hard disk, or the maximum high speed USB throughput.
Typical overall file transfer speeds are about 3 MB/s. The highest current overall file transfer speeds are about 10-30 MB/s. Older, "full speed" 12 Mbit/s devices are limited to a maximum of about 1 MB/s.
Essential components
There are typically four parts to a flash drive:
Male type-A USB connector — provides an interface to the host computer.
USB mass storage controller — implements the USB host controller and provides a linear interface to block-oriented serial flash devices while hiding the complexities of block-orientation, block erasure, and wear levelling, or wear balancing. The controller contains a small RISC microprocessor and a small amount of on-chip ROM and RAM.
NAND flash memory chip — stores data. NAND flash is typically also used in digital cameras.
Crystal oscillator — produces the device's main 12 MHz clock signal and controls the device's data output through a phase-locked loop.
Additional components
The typical device may also include:
Jumpers and test pins — for testing during the flash drive's manufacturing or loading code into the microprocessor.
LEDs — indicate data transfers or data reads and writes.
Write-protect switches — indicate whether the device should be in "write-protection" mode.
Unpopulated space — provides space to include a second memory chip. Having this second space allows the manufacturer to develop only one printed circuit board that can be used for more than one storage size device, to meet the needs of the market.
USB connector cover or cap — reduces the risk of damage due to static electricity, and improves overall device appearance. Some flash drives do not feature a cap, but instead have retractable USB connectors. Other flash drives have a "swivel" cap that is permanently connected to the drive itself and eliminates the chance of losing the cap.
Transport aid — In some cases, the cap or the main body contains a hole suitable for connection to a key chain or lanyard or to otherwise aid transport and storage of the USB flash device.
Size and style of packaging
Flash drives come in various, sometimes bulky or novelty, shapes and sizes, in this case ikura sushi
Some manufacturers differentiate their products by using elaborate housings, which are often bulky and make the drive difficult to connect to the USB port. Because the USB port connectors on a computer housing are often closely spaced, plugging a flash drive into a USB port may block an adjacent port. Such devices may only carry the USB logo if sold with a separate extension cable.
USB flash drives have been integrated into other tools commonly carried on one's person such as a watches, pens, and even the Swiss Army Knife; others have been fitted with novelty cases such as toy cars or LEGO bricks. The small size, robust nature and relatively low price of USB flash drives makes them an increasingly popular peripheral for case modding.
Overweight or ill-fitting flash drive packaging can cause disconnection from the host computer. This can be overcome by using a short USB to USB (male to female) extension cable to relieve tension on the port. Such cables are USB-compatible, but do not conform to the USB 1.0 standard.
Common uses
Secure Storage of data, application and software files
With wide deployment(s) of flash drives being used in various environments (secured or otherwise), the issue of data and information security remains of the utmost importance. The use of biometrics and encryption is becoming the norm with the need for increased security for data.
System administration
Flash drives are particularly popular among system and network administrators, who load them with configuration information and software used for system maintenance, troubleshooting, and recovery.
Computer repair
Flash drives enjoy notable success in the PC repair field as a means to transfer recovery and antivirus software to infected PCs, while allowing a portion of the host machine's data to be archived in case of emergency.
Application carriers
Flash drives are used to carry applications that run on the host computer without requiring installation. U3, backed by flash drive vendors, offers an API to flash drive-specific functions. The Mozilla Firefox browser has a configuration for flash drives, as does Opera
A Creative MuVo, a small solid-state digital audio player in a flash drive form To boot operating systems
In a way similar to that used in LiveCD, one can launch any operating system from a bootable flash drive, known as a LiveUSB.
Windows Vista ReadyBoost
In Windows Vista, the ReadyBoost feature allows use of some flash drives to augment system memory.
Personal data transport
The most common use of flash drives is to transport and store personal files such as documents, pictures and video. Individuals also store medical alert information on MedicTag flash drives for use in emergencies and for disaster preparation.
Audio players
Many companies make solid state digital audio players in a small form factor, essentially producing flash drives with sound output and a simple user interface. Examples include the Creative MuVo and the all iPod shuffle.
Music storing
USB key without player (called raw USB memory) can be played in a Hi-Fi or Radio-CD with a USB port. The file formats of the music in the USB key are MP3 or Ogg. In 2004, the German band WIZO made a recording industry first of releasing the "Stick EP", an album available only as a USB drive preloaded with high-bitrate MP3s. In 2007, a product known as the MU-STIK appeared in the market, offering a means of packaging music albums by containing all relevant digital audio/video data and a customizable player interface within a USB key.[11]. Other releases on thumb drive include Not Here to Please You by Hadouken!, Icky Thump by White Stripes and Good Life by Kanye West. In November/December 2007 Kylie Minogue's new album "X" was released on a USB stick.
In arcades
In the arcade game In the Groove and more commonly In The Groove 2, flash drives are used to transfer high scores, screenshots, dance edits, and combos throughout sessions. While use of flash drives is common, the drive must be Linux compatible, causing problems for some players.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages
Flash drives are nearly impervious to the scratches and dust that were problematic for previous forms of portable storage, such as compact discs and floppy disks, and their durable solid-state design means they often survive casual abuse. This makes them ideal for transporting personal data or work files from one location to another, such as from home to school or office or for carrying around personal data that the user typically wants to access in a variety of places. The near-ubiquity of USB support on modern computers means that such a drive will work in most places.
Flash drives are also a relatively dense form of storage, where even the cheapest will store dozens of floppy disks worth of data. Many can hold more data than a CD (703[12] MB). Top of the line flash drives can store more data than a DVD.
The power consumption of a typical flash drive is very low, much lower than that of the common alternative, the portable hard disk, due to there being no moving parts inside a flash drive. Portable hard disks, on the other hand, require several motors or actuators to rotate the disk platter, and move the read / write head. Consequently, the USB flash drive need not be as big, or heavy, allowing greater portability.
Flash drives implement the USB mass storage device class, meaning that most modern operating systems can read and write to flash drives without any additional device drivers. The flash drives present a simple block-structured logical unit to the host operating system, hiding the individual complex implementation details of the various underlying flash memory devices. The operating system can use whatever type of file system or block addressing scheme it wants. Some computers have the ability to boot up from flash drives.
Flash drives are much more tolerant of abuse than mechanical drives, but can still be damaged or have data corrupted by severe physical impacts. Improperly wired USB ports can also destroy the circuitry of a flash drive, a danger in home-built desktop PCs.
Some flash drives can retain their memory after being submerged in water [13], even through a machine wash. Leaving the flash drive out to dry completely before allowing current to run through it has been known to result in a working drive with no future problems.
Disadvantages
Like all flash memory devices, flash drives can sustain only a limited number of write and erase cycles before failure. Mid-range flash drives under normal conditions will support several hundred thousand cycles, although write operations will gradually slow as the device ages. This should be a consideration when using a flash drive to run application software or an operating system. To address this, as well as space limitations, some developers have produced special versions of operating systems (such as Linux) or commonplace applications (such as Mozilla Firefox) designed to run from flash drives. These are typically optimized for size and configured to place temporary or intermediate files in the computer's main RAM rather than store them temporarily on the flash drive.
Most USB flash drives do not include a write-protect mechanism, although some have a switch on the housing of the drive itself to keep the host computer from writing or modifying data on the drive. Write-protection makes a device suitable for repairing virus-contaminated host computers without risk of infecting the USB flash drive itself.
A drawback to the small size is that they are easily misplaced, left behind, or otherwise lost. This has led to the common practice of attaching flash drives to keychains, necklaces and lanyards.
In some USB flash drives, the USB interface is bigger than the storing body.
Comparison to other portable memory forms
Flash storage devices are often compared to other common, portable, swappable data storage devices, such as floppy disks, Zip disks, miniCD / miniDVD, CD-R/CD-RW and DVD-RW discs.
Following magnetic tape, the floppy disk was the first popular method of file transport; but floppies have been almost completely phased out due to their low capacity, low speed, and low durability. Virtually no new computers include floppy drives, but they do include USB ports. However, floppy disks are still being used because of their low cost, are often the easiest or only way to share files with older systems, are easily bootable, and because floppy drives can be added to new systems in external or internal forms.
Attempts to extend the floppy standard (such as the Imation SuperDisk) were not successful because of a reputation for unreliability and the lack of a single standard for PC vendors to adopt. The Iomega Zip drive enjoyed some popularity, but never reached the point of ubiquity in computers. Also, the larger sizes of Zip—now up to 750 MB—cannot be read on older drives. Unless one were to carry an external drive, their usefulness as a means of moving data was rather limited. The cost per megabyte was fairly high, with individual disks often costing US$10 or more. Because moving parts are involved and the material used for creating the storage medium in Zip disks is similar to that used in floppy disks, Zip disks have a high risk of failure and data loss compared to flash drives. Larger removable storage media, like Iomega's Jaz drive, had even higher costs for both drives and media, and as such were not pervasively adopted as a floppy alternative.
CD-R and CD-RW are swappable storage media alternatives. Unlike Zip and floppy drives, DVD and CD recorders are now common in personal computer systems. CD-Rs can be written to only once. But CD-RWs are rated at up to 1,000 erase/write cycles, and modern NAND-based flash drives often last for 500,000 or more erase/write cycles. Optical storage devices also usually are slower than their flash-based counterparts. And, compact discs with a 12 cm diameter can be inconveniently large and, unlike flash drives, cannot fit into a pocket or hang from a key chain. There are smaller CD-R media such as business card CD-Rs, which have the same dimensions as a credit card, and (slightly less convenient but have more storage) 8 cm CD-Rs. But these are harder to obtain and generally more expensive than the standard 12 cm version. The small CDs also require a tray-loading drive; they can cause damage if inserted into a slot-loading drive. There also is no standard file system for rewritable optical media. Packet-writing utilities like DirectCD and InCD exist but produce discs that are not universally readable, despite their claiming to be based on the UDF standard. The upcoming Mount Rainier standard addresses this shortcoming in CD-RW media, but it still is not supported by most DVD and CD recorders or major operating systems. As a result, CDs/DVDs are a good way to record a great deal of information cheaply and also has the advantage of being able to put it into any console/optical disk player for playback, but not good for making ongoing small changes to a large collection of information; flash drives' ability to do this is their major advantage.
USB flash drives are NAND-type flash memory data storage devices integrated with a USB (universal serial bus) connector. They are typically small, lightweight, removable and rewritable. (USB Memory card readers are also available, whereby rather than being built-in, the memory is a removable flash memory card housed in what is otherwise a regular USB flash drive, as described below.)
USB flash drives offer potential advantages over other portable storage devices, particularly the floppy disk. They are more compact, faster, hold more data, are more reliable due to their lack of moving parts, and have a more durable design. Additionally, it has become increasingly common for computers to ship without floppy disk drives. USB ports, on the other hand, appear on almost every current mainstream PC and laptop. These types of drives use the USB mass storage standard, supported natively by modern operating systems such as Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and other Unix-like systems. Also many game systems such as Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 have USB drives.
With nothing being mechanically driven in a flash drive, the name is somewhat of a misnomer. It is called a "drive" because it appears to the computer operating system (and the user) in a manner identical to a mechanical disk drive, and is accessed in the same way.
A flash drive consists of a small printed circuit board typically in a plastic or metal casing and more recently in rubber casings to increase their robustness. This makes the drive sturdy enough to be carried about in a pocket, for example as a key fob, or on a lanyard. Only the USB connector protrudes, and it is typically protected either by a removable cap or by retracting into the body of the drive. Most flash drives use a standard type-A USB connection allowing them to be connected directly to a port on a personal computer.
To access the data stored in a flash drive, the drive must be connected to a computer, either by plugging it into a USB host controller built into the computer, or into a USB hub. Flash drives are active only when plugged into a USB connection and draw all necessary power from the supply provided by that connection. However, some flash drives, especially high-speed drives, may require more power than the limited amount provided by a bus-powered USB hub, such as those built into some computer keyboards or monitors. These drives will not work unless plugged directly into a host controller (i.e., the ports found on the computer itself) or a self-powered hub.
Technology
Flash memory is actually a combination of a number of older technologies, the low cost, low power consumption and small size being made possible by recent advances in microprocessor technology. The memory storage is based on earlier EPROM technology. The first EPROMS had very limited capacity, were very slow for both reading and writing, required complex high-voltage drive circuitry, and could only be re-written by first exposing them to short-wavelength ultraviolet light, which would erase the entire contents.
A later variant, the EEPROM, could be erased electrically without the need for UV light, but as with the original versions, it was still a total erasure. (These were widely used for storing the BIOS firmware in PCs.)
Later EEPROMS were developed where the erasure region was broken up into smaller "fields" that could be erased individually without affecting the others. Altering the contents of a particular memory location involved first copying the entire field into an off-chip buffer memory, erasing the field, and then re-writing the data back into the same field, making the necessary alteration to the relevant memory location while doing so. This required considerable computer support, and PC-Based EEPROM flash memory systems often carried their own dedicated microprocessor system. Flash drives are more or less a miniaturized version of this.
The development of high-speed serial data interfaces such as USB for the first time made serially accessed storage memory systems viable, and the simultaneous development of small, high-speed, low-power microprocessor systems allowed this to be incorporated into extremely compact systems. Serial access also greatly reduced the number of electrical connections required for the memory chips, which has allowed the successful manufacture of multi-gigabyte capacities. (Every external electrical connection is a potential source of manufacturing failure, and with traditional manufacturing, a point is rapidly reached where the successful yield approaches zero).
Modern flash memory systems are accessed very much like hard disk drives, where the controller system has full control over where information is actually stored. The actual EEPROM writing and erasure processes are, however, still very similar to the earlier systems described above.
Many low-cost MP3 Players simply add extra software to a standard flash memory control microprocessor so it can also serve as a music playback decoder. Most of these can also be used as a conventional flash drive.
History
First invention and sale
Flash drive with retractable USB connector
Several companies claim to have invented the USB flash drive. Trek was the first company to sell a USB flash drive (ThumbDrive) in early 2000. However, their patent does not describe the USB flash drive; rather, it describes a very broad family of storage devices which could include the USB flash drive.
M-Systems (acquired by SanDisk in November 2006)[1] had been working on a USB flash drive since 1998. They registered the domain www.diskonkey.com on October 12, 1999,[2] indicating their intention to sell a product. In 2000 Dan Harkabi joined the M-Systems team and led the development of DiskOnKey. The industrial design was done by Ziba and the product won the IDEA award in 2001. M-Systems' patent rigorously describes the USB flash drive and its implementation.
An IBM invention disclosure RPS8-1999-0201 (Sept. 99) by Shimon Shmueli et al. is the earliest known document to describe the USB-FD accurately and completely, and only the USB-FD. M-Systems manufactured the DiskOnKey for IBM, which in late 2000 was the first to sell the product in North America. The IBM 8 MB USB Memory Key became available December 15, 2000[3] [4]. Shmueli later founded KeyNetica, the first company to patent and develop the concept that mobile and smart storage devices are all one needs for mobile computing. Current implementors of the concept are U3 (part of SanDisk, which also owns the original KeyNetica patent) and Ceedo.
Trek Technology claims it was first to conceive and create the ThumbDrive.[5]
“
When we first introduced the ThumbDrive in early 2000, we believed that this little device was set to change the way consumers across the world would store and transport information and data," Trek 2000 Chief Executive Officer Henn Tan was quoted as saying. [Its potential] has made it essential for Trek to invest and protect its intellectual property ownership.
”
Trek holds patents for the ThumbDrive in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Singapore.
Nevertheless, the ownership of the patent for this device has been widely disputed. According to The Straits Times' report, other companies started marketing similar devices. M-Systems, which was listed on NASDAQ at the time, called its gadgets DiskOnKey and Diskey. Electec is M-Systems' importer, and FE Global is its sole distributor in Singapore. Lexar can also lay claim to a pioneering USB flash drive product. In 2000 they introduced a Compact Flash (CF) card having an internal USB function. Lexar offered a companion card reader and USB cable that eliminated the need for a USB hub.
Trek sued the four companies for infringing its patent. They counterclaimed, asking that Trek's patent be revoked as it was invalid.
The Singapore Court of Appeal confirmed the validity of Trek Technology's patent for its ThumbDrive, calling it "novel and inventive" in the decision published in The Straits Times. The city-state's highest court also quashed the plea of four companies—Israeli firm M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers, Electec, FE Global Electronics and Singapore-based Ritronics Components—and ordered them to stop selling similar devices. The decision is expected to have a ripple effect on other similar lawsuits which the Trek group has pending in Britain, Japan and Taiwan. At least one decision in the UK has addressed similar points as those addressed by the Singapore Court of Appeal, but the hearing officer reached a different conclusion from that of the Singapore Court of Appeal, and Trek's patent was revoked in the UK.
Netac Technology of Shenzhen, China also holds a 1999 Chinese and 2004 US patent on USB flash technology which it has licensed to major manufacturers
Second generation
Modern flash drives have USB 2.0 connectivity. However, they do not currently use the full 480 Mbit/s the specification supports due to technical limitations inherent in NAND flash. The fastest drives currently available use a dual channel controller, although they still fall considerably short of the transfer rate possible from a current generation hard disk, or the maximum high speed USB throughput.
Typical overall file transfer speeds are about 3 MB/s. The highest current overall file transfer speeds are about 10-30 MB/s. Older, "full speed" 12 Mbit/s devices are limited to a maximum of about 1 MB/s.
Essential components
There are typically four parts to a flash drive:
Male type-A USB connector — provides an interface to the host computer.
USB mass storage controller — implements the USB host controller and provides a linear interface to block-oriented serial flash devices while hiding the complexities of block-orientation, block erasure, and wear levelling, or wear balancing. The controller contains a small RISC microprocessor and a small amount of on-chip ROM and RAM.
NAND flash memory chip — stores data. NAND flash is typically also used in digital cameras.
Crystal oscillator — produces the device's main 12 MHz clock signal and controls the device's data output through a phase-locked loop.
Additional components
The typical device may also include:
Jumpers and test pins — for testing during the flash drive's manufacturing or loading code into the microprocessor.
LEDs — indicate data transfers or data reads and writes.
Write-protect switches — indicate whether the device should be in "write-protection" mode.
Unpopulated space — provides space to include a second memory chip. Having this second space allows the manufacturer to develop only one printed circuit board that can be used for more than one storage size device, to meet the needs of the market.
USB connector cover or cap — reduces the risk of damage due to static electricity, and improves overall device appearance. Some flash drives do not feature a cap, but instead have retractable USB connectors. Other flash drives have a "swivel" cap that is permanently connected to the drive itself and eliminates the chance of losing the cap.
Transport aid — In some cases, the cap or the main body contains a hole suitable for connection to a key chain or lanyard or to otherwise aid transport and storage of the USB flash device.
Size and style of packaging
Flash drives come in various, sometimes bulky or novelty, shapes and sizes, in this case ikura sushi
Some manufacturers differentiate their products by using elaborate housings, which are often bulky and make the drive difficult to connect to the USB port. Because the USB port connectors on a computer housing are often closely spaced, plugging a flash drive into a USB port may block an adjacent port. Such devices may only carry the USB logo if sold with a separate extension cable.
USB flash drives have been integrated into other tools commonly carried on one's person such as a watches, pens, and even the Swiss Army Knife; others have been fitted with novelty cases such as toy cars or LEGO bricks. The small size, robust nature and relatively low price of USB flash drives makes them an increasingly popular peripheral for case modding.
Overweight or ill-fitting flash drive packaging can cause disconnection from the host computer. This can be overcome by using a short USB to USB (male to female) extension cable to relieve tension on the port. Such cables are USB-compatible, but do not conform to the USB 1.0 standard.
Common uses
Secure Storage of data, application and software files
With wide deployment(s) of flash drives being used in various environments (secured or otherwise), the issue of data and information security remains of the utmost importance. The use of biometrics and encryption is becoming the norm with the need for increased security for data.
System administration
Flash drives are particularly popular among system and network administrators, who load them with configuration information and software used for system maintenance, troubleshooting, and recovery.
Computer repair
Flash drives enjoy notable success in the PC repair field as a means to transfer recovery and antivirus software to infected PCs, while allowing a portion of the host machine's data to be archived in case of emergency.
Application carriers
Flash drives are used to carry applications that run on the host computer without requiring installation. U3, backed by flash drive vendors, offers an API to flash drive-specific functions. The Mozilla Firefox browser has a configuration for flash drives, as does Opera
A Creative MuVo, a small solid-state digital audio player in a flash drive form To boot operating systems
In a way similar to that used in LiveCD, one can launch any operating system from a bootable flash drive, known as a LiveUSB.
Windows Vista ReadyBoost
In Windows Vista, the ReadyBoost feature allows use of some flash drives to augment system memory.
Personal data transport
The most common use of flash drives is to transport and store personal files such as documents, pictures and video. Individuals also store medical alert information on MedicTag flash drives for use in emergencies and for disaster preparation.
Audio players
Many companies make solid state digital audio players in a small form factor, essentially producing flash drives with sound output and a simple user interface. Examples include the Creative MuVo and the all iPod shuffle.
Music storing
USB key without player (called raw USB memory) can be played in a Hi-Fi or Radio-CD with a USB port. The file formats of the music in the USB key are MP3 or Ogg. In 2004, the German band WIZO made a recording industry first of releasing the "Stick EP", an album available only as a USB drive preloaded with high-bitrate MP3s. In 2007, a product known as the MU-STIK appeared in the market, offering a means of packaging music albums by containing all relevant digital audio/video data and a customizable player interface within a USB key.[11]. Other releases on thumb drive include Not Here to Please You by Hadouken!, Icky Thump by White Stripes and Good Life by Kanye West. In November/December 2007 Kylie Minogue's new album "X" was released on a USB stick.
In arcades
In the arcade game In the Groove and more commonly In The Groove 2, flash drives are used to transfer high scores, screenshots, dance edits, and combos throughout sessions. While use of flash drives is common, the drive must be Linux compatible, causing problems for some players.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages
Flash drives are nearly impervious to the scratches and dust that were problematic for previous forms of portable storage, such as compact discs and floppy disks, and their durable solid-state design means they often survive casual abuse. This makes them ideal for transporting personal data or work files from one location to another, such as from home to school or office or for carrying around personal data that the user typically wants to access in a variety of places. The near-ubiquity of USB support on modern computers means that such a drive will work in most places.
Flash drives are also a relatively dense form of storage, where even the cheapest will store dozens of floppy disks worth of data. Many can hold more data than a CD (703[12] MB). Top of the line flash drives can store more data than a DVD.
The power consumption of a typical flash drive is very low, much lower than that of the common alternative, the portable hard disk, due to there being no moving parts inside a flash drive. Portable hard disks, on the other hand, require several motors or actuators to rotate the disk platter, and move the read / write head. Consequently, the USB flash drive need not be as big, or heavy, allowing greater portability.
Flash drives implement the USB mass storage device class, meaning that most modern operating systems can read and write to flash drives without any additional device drivers. The flash drives present a simple block-structured logical unit to the host operating system, hiding the individual complex implementation details of the various underlying flash memory devices. The operating system can use whatever type of file system or block addressing scheme it wants. Some computers have the ability to boot up from flash drives.
Flash drives are much more tolerant of abuse than mechanical drives, but can still be damaged or have data corrupted by severe physical impacts. Improperly wired USB ports can also destroy the circuitry of a flash drive, a danger in home-built desktop PCs.
Some flash drives can retain their memory after being submerged in water [13], even through a machine wash. Leaving the flash drive out to dry completely before allowing current to run through it has been known to result in a working drive with no future problems.
Disadvantages
Like all flash memory devices, flash drives can sustain only a limited number of write and erase cycles before failure. Mid-range flash drives under normal conditions will support several hundred thousand cycles, although write operations will gradually slow as the device ages. This should be a consideration when using a flash drive to run application software or an operating system. To address this, as well as space limitations, some developers have produced special versions of operating systems (such as Linux) or commonplace applications (such as Mozilla Firefox) designed to run from flash drives. These are typically optimized for size and configured to place temporary or intermediate files in the computer's main RAM rather than store them temporarily on the flash drive.
Most USB flash drives do not include a write-protect mechanism, although some have a switch on the housing of the drive itself to keep the host computer from writing or modifying data on the drive. Write-protection makes a device suitable for repairing virus-contaminated host computers without risk of infecting the USB flash drive itself.
A drawback to the small size is that they are easily misplaced, left behind, or otherwise lost. This has led to the common practice of attaching flash drives to keychains, necklaces and lanyards.
In some USB flash drives, the USB interface is bigger than the storing body.
Comparison to other portable memory forms
Flash storage devices are often compared to other common, portable, swappable data storage devices, such as floppy disks, Zip disks, miniCD / miniDVD, CD-R/CD-RW and DVD-RW discs.
Following magnetic tape, the floppy disk was the first popular method of file transport; but floppies have been almost completely phased out due to their low capacity, low speed, and low durability. Virtually no new computers include floppy drives, but they do include USB ports. However, floppy disks are still being used because of their low cost, are often the easiest or only way to share files with older systems, are easily bootable, and because floppy drives can be added to new systems in external or internal forms.
Attempts to extend the floppy standard (such as the Imation SuperDisk) were not successful because of a reputation for unreliability and the lack of a single standard for PC vendors to adopt. The Iomega Zip drive enjoyed some popularity, but never reached the point of ubiquity in computers. Also, the larger sizes of Zip—now up to 750 MB—cannot be read on older drives. Unless one were to carry an external drive, their usefulness as a means of moving data was rather limited. The cost per megabyte was fairly high, with individual disks often costing US$10 or more. Because moving parts are involved and the material used for creating the storage medium in Zip disks is similar to that used in floppy disks, Zip disks have a high risk of failure and data loss compared to flash drives. Larger removable storage media, like Iomega's Jaz drive, had even higher costs for both drives and media, and as such were not pervasively adopted as a floppy alternative.
CD-R and CD-RW are swappable storage media alternatives. Unlike Zip and floppy drives, DVD and CD recorders are now common in personal computer systems. CD-Rs can be written to only once. But CD-RWs are rated at up to 1,000 erase/write cycles, and modern NAND-based flash drives often last for 500,000 or more erase/write cycles. Optical storage devices also usually are slower than their flash-based counterparts. And, compact discs with a 12 cm diameter can be inconveniently large and, unlike flash drives, cannot fit into a pocket or hang from a key chain. There are smaller CD-R media such as business card CD-Rs, which have the same dimensions as a credit card, and (slightly less convenient but have more storage) 8 cm CD-Rs. But these are harder to obtain and generally more expensive than the standard 12 cm version. The small CDs also require a tray-loading drive; they can cause damage if inserted into a slot-loading drive. There also is no standard file system for rewritable optical media. Packet-writing utilities like DirectCD and InCD exist but produce discs that are not universally readable, despite their claiming to be based on the UDF standard. The upcoming Mount Rainier standard addresses this shortcoming in CD-RW media, but it still is not supported by most DVD and CD recorders or major operating systems. As a result, CDs/DVDs are a good way to record a great deal of information cheaply and also has the advantage of being able to put it into any console/optical disk player for playback, but not good for making ongoing small changes to a large collection of information; flash drives' ability to do this is their major advantage.
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
How to deal with a customer who goes direct to China for their flash drives.
How to deal with a customer who goes direct to China for their flash drives.
What do you do when you are competing with another distributor who is offering a price for Flash Drives that is direct from China?
Or better yet…what to do when a customer tells you..”I found them on-line for ½ the price…I am going to buy there!………I love these guys………..these are the ones who in the last century did buy the swampland in Florida…………..they also went to Tom Vu seminars in the 80’s as well……they are my all-time favorite people….
Here’s what happens….here’s what you do.
1) If it is a customer who is hell-bent on buying direct from China over the net……say this to them…….first…..”You are right…I can’t match that price…and then say NOTHING………I don’t care if you hold your breath until you turn blue…SAY nada, zilch, zip….NOTHING…….This should prompt the customer to speak first (remember the one who speaks first ALWAYS loses)……they will say something clever like….”Well…..you can see my reasons can’t you…? Or the ever popular reply…..”What would you do if you were in my shoes?”
2) This is where YOU speak up…….you say..” You are right…on the face of it all I would do as you are doing……….there are risks but I am sure you can work through them…”“Risks!” says the buyer….”what risks?”………this is where you look humble, never smile and speak in low soothing tones………”Well…..All I know (aw shucks) is that with most off-shore dealings you need to pay the Chinese vendor with a Letter of Credit or Credit Card or other prepayment options that is sent to a Hong Kong or Mainland China bank before they will process the order…….are you prepared to do that….?
Also remember that when you are at work, they are sleeping so communication will be difficult”…..buyer then says…”A-ha…But they have an American office!”…..you say…”So then the American office will translate and transfer your message to them while they sleep…? How's that going work for you..?”
3) Then you must be honest and say….”listen I don’t really care if you go there..if you get a better price, with no grief or risk…I WOULD do the same!……..however the way Flash Drive factories work is this .
a) There is a charge for the memory drive (also is it tier 1 or is it recycled memory…for a better explanation on what memory is go to…..
b) There is usually a separate charge for the housing.
c) Is there is a screen set up charge?
d) Do you pay for the broker or do they?
e) Is the price landed at your door or ex-factory? (Big difference..trust me)
f) Do they have a return policy if there is failure?
g) What is the warranty? Is there a warranty……..?Now if the customer at this point wants to go to China ..let them……..to quote a Great American….”stupid is as stupid does”…Gump.And walk away……….they will either........
a) Call you back after they have “reconsidered their position”.
b) Keep on going and deal with all of the crap.
Either way…you will have informed them (honestly…..)..you did not show them panic…(remember if someone sees you panicking because you may lose a sale as they will think they are on the right track……if you seem non-plused by the whole thing they will sweat…….if you are calm, they will be freaked at the best and nervous at the least…..this is where you want them………..
Why am I writing about this?
I bring this topic up to you this morning as I just had a situation that hi-lites what I am talking about. We deal with a factory in China and we have problems with communication….I am going to explain the situation and give you the verbatim emails I woke up to this morning.
Here’s the scenario:There is 200 drives that HAVE to be in Dubai Monday.The factory deals with us everyday and has our credit card and courier accounts on file.The customer and distributor are “having kittens” as this shipment is close to the bone.
The customer supplied their DHL account number (which unfortunately was a number or letter wrong.)Laura Wu is the customer service person at this factory. She is EMAILING me at 2-3 in the a.m Saturday morning……..she also has my home phone number….she knows this is an urgent order.
Email 1) 2:18 a.m. HI John,I see this order is extrodinary urgent,so I arranges to ship it out by DHL prepaid for the Dubai shipment 200pcs USB,also bought insurance prepaid.We will caculate the real shipping cost and will ask you for the extra cost over USD 124(shipping cost you have paid for this order).Is it OK?The tracking no.is DHL# 192-8224-012 for the 200pcs USB to Dubai shipment,attached invoice pls find.For the left 50pcs to Canada,tracking no. is Fedex# 9511-2x59-xxx5.B.regards,Laura.......(We are of course ….sleeping when we get this email...)
Email 2 ) 2:42 a.m. John,Just now,the shipping department told me the 3rd party DHL account #FQ5302 is WRONG,the DHL account should be 9xxxxxxxx,pls kinldy inform me the right DHL account asap as you know we are hurry to ship it out this afternoon.B.regards,Laura
Email 3) 2:44 a.m.John,I called you but could only leave message (I am still sleeping) .The DHL account is wrong,how can I ship it out now???
Email 4) 2:50 a.m.John,If we can't receive the correct account in 45 minutes,the courier will be off and can't pick it up.Then we could only ship it out next Monday.Laura
Now…….you might think they would do something like USE THEIR FRIKIN HEAD…but no…..They should have or could have 1) Used our courier2) Charge it to our account or credit card3) Put it on their account and charge us back…..(We do more than a few 100k with this company each year……you’d like to think they took that into account?)
But Nooooo!……they stare at the box and are mystified into absolute stupor…the proverbial “Deer in the headlights”……..So now what happens?
1) We either eat the order or cut a deal for our distributor…why?… because that’s the right thing to do……..
2) The distributor…..we probably lose their business……
3) The distributor may lose his customer……..Now let me ask you this….?If we as a major supplier have this happen (fortunately it is not often) and we deal with the Chinese factories EVERYDAY… ……how do think the end-user will do with them going direct for their 100 or 1000 piece order……?
Feel free to pass this along……..Happy Trails
John Graham
What is a USB Digital Frame and how does it work?
What is a USB Digital Frame and how does it work?
One of the things I have learned is that there is a dirth of info and understanding on what is a digital picture frame and how it works....what is good and what is crap........hope this helps!
What is a digital picture frame and how does it work.....hmmmm?
A USB digital frame is the perfect gift for sharing photos. The device is about the size and shape of ordinary picture frames. A good one....(like ours...:) contains a Panasonic LCD screen, which displays multiple photos in a slideshow and other various formats.
It connects to your computer, cellphone via Bluetooth or via memory stick to retrieve the pictures and then displays them. Many of the new USB Digital Frames have remote controls and are Bluetooth enabled allowing you to send pictures and files to your frame from any other Bluetooth device (Bluetooth…fancy word for wireless connection between devices)
What's in a USB Digital Frames Frame?
The frame is actually a very simple computer. It has most of the same components as the computer on your desktop, but they're a lot simpler in the frame because they only have to perform a single task.
CPU.....The central processing unit (CPU) in the digital picture frame is similar to the kind used in small, electronic handheld games. (see photo)
Memory.....The frame has some ROM memory to store the operating system. However additional memory is required (SD Cards) to run the programs.
It also has some Flash memory, which is where the pictures, settings and some of the operating software live. No data is lost if the unit is unplugged.
USB Digital Frames uses a Panasonic LCD Display
The display is a 640x480-pixel, passive-matrix liquid crystal display (LCD). This type of display is thin enough that the digital frame isn't much thicker than an ordinary picture frame. The pictures are displayed in 12-bit color, which means that approximately 4,100 different colors can be presented on the screen.
One of the things I have learned is that there is a dirth of info and understanding on what is a digital picture frame and how it works....what is good and what is crap........hope this helps!
What is a digital picture frame and how does it work.....hmmmm?
A USB digital frame is the perfect gift for sharing photos. The device is about the size and shape of ordinary picture frames. A good one....(like ours...:) contains a Panasonic LCD screen, which displays multiple photos in a slideshow and other various formats.
It connects to your computer, cellphone via Bluetooth or via memory stick to retrieve the pictures and then displays them. Many of the new USB Digital Frames have remote controls and are Bluetooth enabled allowing you to send pictures and files to your frame from any other Bluetooth device (Bluetooth…fancy word for wireless connection between devices)
What's in a USB Digital Frames Frame?
The frame is actually a very simple computer. It has most of the same components as the computer on your desktop, but they're a lot simpler in the frame because they only have to perform a single task.
CPU.....The central processing unit (CPU) in the digital picture frame is similar to the kind used in small, electronic handheld games. (see photo)
Memory.....The frame has some ROM memory to store the operating system. However additional memory is required (SD Cards) to run the programs.
It also has some Flash memory, which is where the pictures, settings and some of the operating software live. No data is lost if the unit is unplugged.
USB Digital Frames uses a Panasonic LCD Display
The display is a 640x480-pixel, passive-matrix liquid crystal display (LCD). This type of display is thin enough that the digital frame isn't much thicker than an ordinary picture frame. The pictures are displayed in 12-bit color, which means that approximately 4,100 different colors can be presented on the screen.
USB Digital Frames Controls.....Depending on the model the user-operated controls on the frame can operate a menu of display options, including movies, m-pegs, mp4’s, avi, jpegs. There is a brightness of the display button that corrects the look for your environment. USB Digital Frames
Features.......Some of the USB Digital Frames styles have speakers, can load and play MP3’s. There is also the ability to send (via Bluetooth) the pictures or songs back to your computer so you can email them to friends.
This is a short but hopefully easily understood explanation of the usb digital frame. Another time we will talk about how to sell the darn thing.......take care..
Promo Domo
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How to sell flash drives......? What are they and do they bite?
How to Sell Flash Drives to the Promotional Marketplace.
Please don’t take this as an insult to your sales skills or a reflection of my ability to be right 98% of the time. Its just that I have worked both sides of the business and with so many things to sell, it always took me while to learn how to sell something new.
I remember when Pima cotton first came out, I described it as a fabrication designed by Puma and this was the wicking version. Doh!So I figured that sharing a few basics bits of knowledge about selling any Flash Drive (especially our Flash Drive Direct drives) wouldn’t hurt.......
1) What is a flash drive: A flash drive is a memory device for storing data. This includes, files, word docs, pictures, video. ANYTHING that can go on a computer can go on a flash drive.
2) It has NO MOVING parts: Beauty eh? No moving parts means no break downs.....no blue screen of death. Your PC and Mac has a Hard Drive which spins around at about a jillion revolutions per minute and has an arm (just like a turntable arm) that retrieves the data. Compare the 2....1) Flash Drives never breaks down......The other...) will break down...it just depends on when.
3) A flash drive has NAND Flash memory? Who cares! To sell it you don’t need to know this....what you need to know is that there are 2 chips in each drive.....a)the memory chip and b) controller chip. What is important to know is that the chips are THE BEST. The only reliable mass produced chips are made by SAMSUNG and HYNIX.
All of our drives are made from these chips. If you buy a drive that is not made with Samsung or Hynix you are buying crap. Simple!
4) Tier 1, USB 2.0, recycled memory, Tier 1, Windows Vista and MAC ready....what does this mean and why you should care?
Simply put....a reliable quality flash drive MUST have USB 2.0 (this is a faster speedier chip...woohoo) ......Tier 1 (means it is professional grade) Windows Vista and Mac ready...(This means the drive will run with these operating systems.....if it doesn’t have this designation you may have problems) .
Recycled/re-used/Tier 2 Memory: Personally I don’t know ( or want to know) any supplier who will tell you they sell this. Why? Because it is crap!!!.....It will fail... No one ever tells you....”Buy mine...its junk and made with old unreliable crap chips....!”.
So why do you need to worry about this? Call it what you will.... recycled memory, whatever.... it is basically “factory seconds” that didn’t make the Quality Control standards. They are often sold on a “Gray Market”. So how do you know if they are good or bad.....? 1) You can always ask....and the salesman will tell you the truth......duh!...
2) A more reliable way.......The Price....Chip prices are commodity driven and prices go up and down....all reputable flash drive makers (such as us) price the wholesale according to the chip prices that day. If you are buying a 100 pieces of a 1GB for $10-$12 dollars (as I write this) then it is likely you have Tier 1 USB 2.0 Samsung/Hynix chips......If someone says you can have it for $7 ......walk away, it is probably junk.
The promotional emotional sell, the reasons why your clients should buy Flash Drives?
Now that we have all of the geeky techy junk out of the way...trust me I could have gone on and on...and on.......you don’t sell on technical issues do you...?.....( the techy stuff.......its just a good thing to know)?.....you sell on emotion...right? You must present a good reason for someone to buy what you have to sell.........fortunately Flash Drives actually have some great legit reasons for corporations to buy them.....here are just a few
.1) They can be reused up to a million times: (yes someone actually counted it) this means that their logo will be seen forever! You can’t say that about Bang Sticks.
2) They are VERY USEFUL: They can hold 1000’s of files so they can be transferred to another computer, act as a back-up for safety, put their powerpoints and other presentations on it, put pictures, music files and just about anything else from your computer on it.
3) They are an EXCELLENT business tool: Not only can they do what’s descrived above, they can do a number of other things. PRELOADS, this is when files, presentations and more can be loaded onto the drive by the supplier. This way when the drives are given away/sold the recipient will have a fully loaded presentation. These are perfect for tradeshows, corporate identity building, fund raising, team building and more....MANUALS, BUSINESS REPORTS and more........forget about the expense, time and ecological bad karma when a corporation prints a 100 page report on business.
Face facts:......With a business report, the summary gets skimmed over and then....into the circular file it goes. Flash drives help save the ecology.........when their initial use is no longer valid the user just erases the files and uses it to store their Captain and Tenille MP 3’s. Simple.
4) Bigger is Better: DO NOT SELL 64 MB, 128 MB or 256 MB Flash drives.....they are too small. They are also not proportionately cheaper by a long shot and the people who recieve them have no use for them. They will chuck them in a drawer.
If you want to give your client something they will be happy with and that you can be proud to sell......sell them a 1 GB or higher.....they are a great deal....big enough to hold lots of information and most importantly....people will use them.
Well.....That’s the basics......there are always lots of new twists and turns with this technology....new uses and new venues for sales....but I hope the above gives you a small bit of knowledge to help you feel more comfortable about selling flash drives.
ThanksIf we can be of help in any way...visit us at Flash Drive Direct or email me at jg@flashdrivedirect.com
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