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Is anybody on the list working primarily with portable apps, by any chance? What's your story?
Anybody moving among Windows and Mac machines? Can you use Portable Apps with Parallels?
To carry a big suite of portable apps (and a variety of projects - data) I'm looking to get a larger (16GB or 32GB) USB memory stick. The prices are all over the map, even at same sites.
How to tell if you are looking at the higher-priced unit of a given size because:
a) it's new, but it's better/stronger/faster
vs
b) it's old and is left-over stock from the expensive introductory production run before they turned it into a commodity and got better at making that size?
Similarly, how do you tell if you are looking at the cheapest one in a particular size because:
a) it's latest generation and they've simply ramped up the volume and tweaked the production methods to the point where it is dirt-cheap to make good ones...
vs
b) it's same generation as the more expensive ones (at this size), but the maker just cuts corners and uses cheap shoddy materials?
I know how I determine similar questions about bigger tech items - the feature sheet and the language of the blurb will usually offer clues. But many sites don't even bother with feature lists of basic items like USB thumb drives. All they'll tell you is USB 2.0 and 32GB. If you don't get a clue like "ruggedized case", how to know if anything justifies a cost difference? Often a trip to the manufacturer site is fruitless because they are showing newer models (that haven't made it over here yet) or they don't identify the re-branded ones that they make for other companies.
Yeah-yeah, $50 bucks isn't going to kill me if I guess wrong, but I'd be keeping data on there as well as apps, AND my time (to load up another one after the junker fails) is worth money, too. What do y'all consider when buying these things?
I've thought of getting a small external hard drive (or making one from a tiny laptop drive in a USB case) - larger capacity and faster access - but that's definitely bigger in a pocket, more of a drag on a laptop battery, etc., etc. Thoughts?
Kevin McLauchlan
Senior Technical Writer
SafeNet, Inc.
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