Kingston DataTraveler MicroDuo: Turn your phone into a 72GB beast The Kingston DataTraveler microDuo is a convenient flash storage device that features a full-size USB interface at one end and micro USB at the other. The thinking here is that you can upload data to it from your computer or NAS box, and then stuff it into your phone or tablet for easy file sharing and to supplement any fixed …
So it contains a Micro USB drive of around 8, 16, 32GB etc, AND can also allow you to plug in another USB drive?
So I could buy the 64GB one of these AND then plug in a normal USB pen drive? (upto another 64GB?)
Otherwise what is the slot for on the outer edge?
If you can it removes me having to carry an annoying adaptor cable for USB pen drives to plug into my phone.
Nope its just a standard USB drive with two ends one standard and one micro if you were to plug a.n.other drive into it you would need an adapter and the software may have issues recognizing the second drive.
My issue with this type of drive is the poor protection they have on the connection side after all its banging around with keys and change in your pocket all day.
My reading of the article is that this is a flash drive with both standard USB and micro-USB connectors built in, thus eliminating the need for the annoying adaptor cable.
PNY makes very tiny USB flash drives, barely larger than the USB connector itself, so paired with a very short cable it's not much more inconvenient to use use that this device would be.
Don't blame yourself (unless you've done that to, like, a lot of cards). I had one do the same, but the next one's been fine for more than a year, touch wood.
I think that just illustrates how flaky the bleeding-edge flash tech is. It's only on the market at all because the beancounters worked out that $revenue > $cost-of-return * incidence-of-failure.
Same reason I tend to steer clear of stupidly-high capacity thumb drives (well, that and the lack of a real use for one).
Can't see much use for this widget either, but at least I learned my SIII has USB OTG - wouldn't have expected that, wonder what else I can do with it?
@ theodore - buy from a reputable brand, from a reputable dealer, at least you can replace it under warranty if the worst happens. Only time I've heard of MicroSD cards dying is when buying dirt cheap (knock offs) from eBay, from China (for example)
Besides, who's to say this USB device won't be as unreliable.
Or alternatively go on Amazon or wherever for an OTG cable for a couple of quid, then just use one of the many full-sized USB thumb drives that most people already own?
This thing makes sense if it's going to be (semi-)permanently stuck in the phone or if you are in the market for a new thumb drive for whatever reason, but from experience for most uses just hooking up to a cable works well too and saves buying yet another drive.
That said for general travelling I use a Ravpower filehub and a WD hard drive, which turns both my Windows Phone and my Nexus7 (and my work laptop) into shared 2TB wifi beasties instead.
Very nearly bought one yesterday before deciding having even a shortish stick hanging off the charging port is risky, too much leverage as it flexes and chance of damaging the port. Really needs to be much smaller or at least flatter to cut down the flexing. Instead I'll be trying an OTG cable adaptor and normal stick.
Someday there'll be the right combination of form factor, speed & price but this falls a little short.
"Someday there'll be the right combination of form factor, speed & price..."
Yep. It'll be a phone with built in 128 Gb storage for an extra £50 over the current prices. If I can buy 128 Gb for £60 retail markup, tax and distribution included, there's no reason why idiot phone makers couldn't do that instead of sticking in 8 or 16 Gb (which requires just the same package and interface as a properly sized lump of storage).
The only explanation is a "640k is enough for anybody" mindset amongst mobile phone hardware designers, accompanied by the marketing teams' desire to ream out the more gormless customers with "propositions" like £60 for an extra 8 Gb.
there's no reason why idiot phone makers couldn't do that instead of sticking in 8 or 16 Gb
Unfortunately in reality there is reason, namely if punters who know no better are willing to pony-up 3x the price for it to be built-in. Or that they can then sell their own cloud storage solution as an alternative, thus generating their own captive market (looking at you Google and Amazon).
There shouldn't be a reason, but greed and profit will trump any kind of logic like that.
It won't usually draw that much, but if it's rated that high then it probably means it may do so occasionally.
I had such a problem with a Raspberry Pi and some bog-standard thumb drives: the Pi puts out 100mA per port, but the drives were rated 200mA in both 8GB and 16GB capacities (same brand). With the 8GB ones I had no issues in a couple of months, but when I changed to the 16GB I suffered a power-shortage-based drive error within a week.
The workload of that rig was mostly random reads seconds or minutes apart, but varying wildly in size; I'm guessing it was a longer read that pushed it. If you're streaming a movie off this thing, I'd bet it'll max out a few times...
I have a Nexus 4 and use a Ravpower device to backup over WiFi. It won't power a USB but a hack does allow the phone to back up and restore via USB as long as it's externally powered with a y-cable. I wonder could I power this through the standard port while the phone is connected at the other end? Might be a little less messy than my current y-cable and Ravpower setup.
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You need as much internal memory as you can afford.
My Samsung GS4 has 'only' 16GB. Apps such as the BBC's iPlayer and Sky Go will only download shows and films to internal memory. They will not use the 64GB card I've added to the phone. You very quickly run out of space and with 8GB it would be even worse!
where on the go means not actually going until you've dismounted it and unplugged it so you can put your phone in your pocket and then go without breaking the connector.
I think I'll stick with a wireless drive that I can keep in my pocket/bumbag and still access - and it can have a fuckoff battery pack if it has to!
JUST PUT MICROSD SLOTS BACK INTO ALL PHONES AGAIN YOU TOTAL IDIOTS!
WORRIED ABOUT PEOPLE TAKING THE CARD OUT WHILE THE DEVICE IS IN USE? PUT IT UNDER THE BATTERY.
THEN I WOULDN'T HAVE TO PUT UP WITH...
1) HORRIBLE MTP TRANSFER
2) THE CONSTANT RISK THAT ANDROID MIGHT BRICK ON MY DEVICE AND I HAVE TO RE-FLASH, LOSING THE CONTENTS OF THE INTERNAL MEMORY.
I SUPPOSE THEY EXPECT ME TO USE CLOUD STORAGE INSTEAD, BUT HOW DOES THAT WORK ON A PLANE/TUBE/IN ANOTHER COUNTRY.
BUT THE MOST INFURIATING THING IS THAT MOST INTERNAL MEMORY IN PHONES IS JUST A SOLDERED IN MICROSD SLOT/CARD ANYWAY!
Sorry about the shouting but it's just incredibly annoying that it seems most smartphones now don't seem to have MicroSD slots.
I bought an 8GB Moto G. Great phone but only 5GB is actually usable by the user, even then there's a bunch of Google bloat on there taking another 500MB
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