Just when you think that USB Flash storage can't possibly get any smaller, a company pops up with something so tiny that you're going to need the corded fob to make sure you don't lose it. Dutch promotional product manufacturer Deonet - maker of the diamond-studded Golden USB memory stick and the FSC-certified, maple-enclosed Eco Wood drive - has announced just such a portable storage solution, and is the latest to claim the title of the world's smallest USB stick.
The new 19.5 x 14.5 x 2.9 mm USB stick - which is slightly thicker but a good deal shorter than the Super Stick Mini from Kingmax, that I've often quoted as being the smallest - will be available in 4, 8 or 16GB capacity versions when it's launched at PSI Düsseldorf this coming January.
It's based around something called the Micro UDP chip (where UDP stands for the USB Disk In Package assembly process, which sees the controller, flash IC, substrate and passive components molded into a very small, single package), which is less than half the physical size of other USB memory solutions.
The company says that once plugged into the USB port, it hardly protrudes at all so can be left in - in much the same way as the full-USB-plug-toting MosKeyto from LaCie, which looks like one of those nifty wireless peripheral transmitters - for extra storage or boot power.
At the time of writing, Deonet has not revealed pricing for the new drive. We'll keep you updated.
