$180 for an overpriced, dubious SSD drive? Maybe don't join the USB Club Imagine that your USB flash drive came with software that lets an unknown cloud platform scan its contents and upload files, inform your friends about whatever you publish, and then them download your stuff for themselves. Got that picture in your head? Then you've just imagined the concept behind USB Club and the $180, 1TB …
I have a niece who had been persuaded by social media that she really needed some kind of esoteric lip gloss and asked for it for a present. In order to get it, you have to subscribe to a wait list and, periodically, you are advised the supergloop is in stock - in limited quantities. I only once got to the point of actually being able to order it - at which point the order was immediately cancelled for unspecified "reasons". I gave up and bought something else, but I was recently sent a breathless notice that the supplier was going to briefly open a "pop-up shop" in London and advising the faithful to avail themselves of sweaters and umbrellas as they'd be obliged to queue outside while the chosen few would be permitted to enter in small groups for the few days they'd be open.
What seems to happen is that the desirability of the unobtanium drives the sales of the regular grease paint.
Relentless social media promotion tied to inflated prices and artificial scarcity seems to be a big thing right now. And a lot of people seem to be falling for it.
> the desirability of the unobtanium drives the sales of the regular grease paint
A variant of the "halo effect", then.
If it quacks like a scam and waddles like a scam it's a scam.
About £120 for a metal case 1T Corsair. Searching from most expensive down on Amazon.
Most expensive Kingston or Sandisk about £72 to £85 on Amazon.
I think about £35 is possible.
The unsafe sharing bit is practically built-in free on all platforms.
Technically any USB stick or SD card memory that mounts as a drive is a solid state drive, but it's the PCIe NVE ones that people are thinking of when they buy an SSD.
I wondered if this was some kind of piracy tool, where you claim you're buying a weird USB drive but what you're really buying is access to a server where you can upload a terabyte of something and download others' terabytes of something. That could be a way of getting video files or, you know, some very normal files that you need a terabyte of storage for without making it obvious you're doing so. The automatic deletion thing could help clear any trails if someone wanted to check what it was used for. However, on reading this, I'm beginning to think this idea might be more thought through than whatever they actually intend.
but no thanks.
Yes, I do use some (allegedly reputable) cloud storage for additional back up, and for sharing some files, but I have several external SSD drives for back up as well. As Lu Tze puts it in The Long Earth: you can never have too many back ups. Unless, of course, the alleged back up is a security hole a mile wide.
whether these devices are running an embedded Napster instance to allow these gen-Z folk to enjoy the thrills of Grandpa's illicit file sharing? The sort of cunning scheme Kim Dotcom (or Balderick) might hatch.
The youngsters purchasing CDs I can understand as I could never warm to DRM download collections which could sublimate in seconds before your very eyes. But vinyl LPs or SPs - daftness incarnate - I was happy to see the back of the blighters. Next I suppose pianola rolls will de rigeur. The only apparent sanity is that (compact) cassettes haven't enjoyed a renaissance but then I may be a little premature in that conclusion.
"Despite USB Club's claims, this is a pint-sized SSD; we suspect it's really just a regular old flash drive."
really should be
"Despite USB Club's claims this is a pint-sized SSD, we suspect it's really just a regular old flash drive."
or even better
"Despite USB Club's claims that this is a pint-sized SSD, we suspect it's really just a regular old flash drive."
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