UGN UGN articles

SimpleTech Bonzai flash drive


Review by Daniel M. East

"The keychain drive to have when you're having more than one"

If moving files from home to office (or vise versa) is a challenge based on file size or networking issues, keychain-type drives are now available in a wide range of capacities and styles. For me, the issue was simply running out of space on each keychain drive and needing more of these handy little devices, only to end up with a fairly large collection of them. After all, I could have more key-drives than I have key tags from the local supermarkets, vitamin shops and pet superstores combined.

SimpleTech has made it simple with an upgradeable keychain drive that uses flash card media in both SD and MMC types which the user can replace as needed depending on the storage needs. In other words, you can have multiple cards for a single drive.

While the "footprint" of the Bonzai drive is slightly wider than conventional keychain drives, it is also slimmer than many I've tested and is nicely designed. A green LED indicator lets you know when you are properly connected and the lanyard provided has a quick-release clip so you can grab the drive anytime.

For digital photographers, the Bonzai allows quick transfers from media of this type. Basically, any files, documents, music/video or whatever...the transfer rate is swift (USB 2.0 at 480Mbps), cards are "hot-swappable" and available in up to 512Mb.

When compared to traditional keychain drives, the Bonzai is slightly larger, but well worth the difference and still not much larger than a U.S. quarter. Dollar for dollar, SimpleTech provides the speed, ease, reliability, upgradeability and design to make it the keychain drive to have when you're having more than one...only now one is all you need.

Cross-platform ease, great performance and priced competitively. If you have the need to move files "on-the-fly," get yourself one of these.

SimpleTech Flash Drives

Editor's Note: These devices really are wonderful. I have three of them, one of which is designated specifically for each class I teach at JMU. Likewise I've recommended them to my students as opposed to zips and other forms of moveable media -- and quite a few purchase them.
      However I must caution you: don't let their small size and seemingly rugged appearance fool you. It's still digital media. You need to treat these with care and respect just as you would any other media, zip, hard drive, etc. In my classes I've seen enough of these go bad that this semester I'm recommending CD storage as the only 100% sure storage.

UGN Site Navigation:

Return to: the top of this page, or the INDEX for this department
Exit to: The User Group Network front page
Contact: The Editor, Webmaster or Membership Director

CREDITS:
Daniel East is the founder and president of The Mid-Atlantic Macintosh User Groups Team (MaMUGs); a member of The Apple Consultants Network (ACN); a member of The Apple Developer Connection (ACN); a panelist on "PC Talk Radio;" a live speaker/presenter and a freelance columnist for several Mac publications. This review may be reproduced with proper attribution. Please notify author of placement and provide a copy/URL for reference. All trademarks are property of their respective owners. (c) 2004 Daniel M. East for The Mid-Atlantic Macintosh User Groups Team (MaMUGs) ... Event dates are subject to change. Some products, programs, or promotions are not available outside the U.S. Prices are estimated retail prices and are listed in U.S. dollars. Product specifications are subject to change. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, Power Mac, Velocity Engine, FireWire, AirPort, Safari, Sherlock, QuickTime, iLife, iTunes, iChat, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iCal and Apple Store are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Mention of third-party products is for informational purposes only and constitutes neither a recommendation nor an endorsement.

 

The User Group Network is a member of: The Design & Publishing Center, The News Serve Network, and the Designers' Bookshelf. The User Group Network is the first, and the original user group network for computer users everywhere including, Apple, Mac-Pro, User Group Organization to support Macintosh, IBM PC, Microsoft, Compaq, Amiga, BE/OS, Linux, UNIX, and other leading computer platforms. Hosting services are provided by The Graphic Design Network to serve the computing community. For information about the UGNetwork, to get involved or have your own groups' home page located at user-groups.net, please contact us. Copyright 1994 through present. This site is maintained in the community interest by The Graphic Design Network c/o Showker Graphic Arts & Design, a Corporation of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 22801, established in 1972.

Valid HTML 4.01!