Category: Rants and Raves

We like mobile devices and so we decided to include a USB drive section. So welcome to the inaugural USB drive review.

The first USB drive we decided to test is the Lexar JumpDrive Lightning. This drive is one of the latest releases with 4GB on the stick. Specs say (in red too!):
30MB per sec read speed
21MB per sec write speed

We say its the one of the fastest USB drive we’ve ever had out hands on. Of course there are conditions relating to the drive achieving this speed, namely your PC has USB2 connectors and the latest motherboard drives and so forth. That said even if your system is not optimised it’s still very fast. We won’t bore you with too many stats already out there but if there is demand we’ll put them up.

As un-documented test 5046 files and 1 Gig in size about 10 minutes compared to 55minutes for a normal USB drive.

Construction wise the JumpDrive Lightning is THE best looking USB drive available. Finished in shiny chrome with its rubber seams and single blue LED it is a thing of beauty to look at and hold. Unfortunately it is prone to fingerprints and the end cap covering the USB plug may wear over time, although the catch mechanism is clearly very sturdy and won’t fall off in clicked in properly.

As for size it is bigger than the majority due it the shiny metal case and a tad heavier. However it does appear lighter than the Sandisk Cruzer Titanium.

Lexar have included software with the drive called PowerToGo by a company called Creedo. It is basically a menu system to access any software installed on the drive. Two additional programs, Evernote and Secure II. PowerToGo is very similar to the PortableApps application. Except that PortableApps is freeware. Yes you can run both PortableApps and PowertoGo at the same time.

We have a few issues with PowerToGo mainly its seeming requirement to go the internet to download only specific ‘approved’ software and that it installs something on any PC you run on. We couldn’t for example include other portable applications like Mozilla-portable-edition on the menu without installing it from the Creedo website. That said we simply downloaded the normal portable editon via PortableApps and its worked perfectly. We’ll do a comparison with its competition in the near future.

The Evernote program is a simple note writing application like Palm’s Memo app on the PDA but differs very slightly in that it creates a database of notes you can catergorise sort and useful stuff like that. We like the idea but the fact that it plastered all over with branding indicates an all too commercial flavor without any thought to actual design.

The most useful program included with the drive is SecureII by Lexar its self. Secure II is a data encryption program with allows you to store personal information is whatever format you like. Yes you can store all your passwords and Excel and Word documents even ZIP files and so forth in highly secure and fully encrypted directory on the USB drive. We love the idea and use it. Unfortunately you need to run PowerToGo before you are able to use all the features of Secure II. Both the program and the encryption is very quick and stable.

We tested its operation on both Windows XP and Vista. There where no problems running the software, however we think the need for the PowerToGo program to access the internet is a bit dodgy, especially since we turned all the internet checking features off.

We use USB drives as a portable hard drive with the installed programs we like to use when on our travels. For example at different customer PCs we can run network diagnostics, FTP, browse the web, IM, virus check without ever installing any software or leaving any of our data on the host PC. (Using PortableApps and not PowerToGo.)

Conclusion

The Lexar JumpDrive Lightning works just like any other USB Drive but looks better than any other. Performance matches it’s looks for once and there is very little to complain about. You can use it simply to transfer files or do backups. We like its speed because it can run portable software faster than most. Sure there are cheaper USB drives out there but none look like this!

With Australian Idol 2007 in full swing many people turn to Telstra’s exclusive content available over the NextG. We think its great that someone can offer this sort of mobile content however there are problems with the setup. So is Australian Idol on NextG mobile worth the cost?

First – a generic Telstra problem: They deliberately make the costs of accessing the content and indeed phone call cost difficult to access.
Second – there is a connection charge every time you access or press the Bigpond button on your phone! They charge .70 cents every time you press that button.
Third – you pay $2 a week to access Australian Idol content. Which clearly totals $8.00 every month.
Fourth – If you access Idol at least twice a day that’s $42.00 in connection charges.
Fifth – You cannot watch Idol insider during the show as they imply.
Sixth – Next G is not shared with any other network.

Conclusion – it costs a lot and the content which is basically 1-3 minute clips of scenes in the ad breaks on the show, performance repeats and of course a simplified discussion board – our recommendation is don’t bother.

Alternative networks are so much better at charging for content.

Update: As of January 2008 Telstra no longer charges almost 2 dollars every time you press the button.  Yes it is finally free.  You can probably guess at the number of complaints about the charging, since the button can’t be hidden thanks to the limited range of mobiles they have on offer for the NextG network.

It’s plain for everyone to see that the Telstra website for mobile phones is difficult to navigate without reading every single word they’ve written. (27/8/07) True – they have to cater for a large number of different types of customers but they have truly made a mistake of designing the site for broadband users rather than dial-up.

The majority of Australians still use dial-up purely because broadband is a rarity and if available very expensive. One contributor to this site who lives 20 km from the city cannot get broadband over the land line yet 2 streets away they can get it.

It is clear Telstra plays on statistics and technicalities to meet their claims.
If the phones they provide don’t work then it don’t work.
No matter what sort of supposed equipment they used for measuring signal strength.

You can thank the Kondinin Group for doing this obvious and common sense test.

In a world of people used to judging tech equipment based SOLELY on specifications this should be a wake up call – pun intended.

Australian IT