Imation wants you to lose its Atom flash drives too

Another day, another ridiculously tiny USB flash drive. This one comes to us from the folks at Imation, and while it's a few millimeters shy of Super Talent's supposed record-holder, the company's Atom drive is still plenty easy to lose (despite the best efforts of the attached keychain). If you aren't swayed away by that prospect, you can look for the drive to be available in capacities from 1GB to 8GB, with it boasting the usual Windows Ready Boost feature and some basic security measures -- no word on pricing just yet though.

[Almo @ Apr 9th 2008 12:58PM]

Why all the fuss about losing these drives? I'm sure most people won't regardless of how small they are. Plus, it'll be nice to have it as a permanent ready booster attached to a desktop or even laptop without having to remove it & not being too obtrusive...

[Dan Davis @ Apr 9th 2008 1:11PM]

Totally agree... who are these irresponsible people who lose these flash drives???

They do, however, remind me of the tiny cell phone Will Ferrell accidentally swallows in that SNL skit!

[Anthony @ Apr 9th 2008 3:29PM]

My Ready Boost micro mini Sony's always having problems when the system restarts. Eventually I just took it out. The idea of having an almost flush drive is nice, but in practice it didn't work for me.

Upside- love having a super small card @ all times.

However- this one doesn't appear to be "already available" as the original link/post implies. 4gb seems to be.

[Mark @ Apr 9th 2008 4:13PM]

UP AND ATOM!

[Nick @ Apr 9th 2008 5:39PM]

"who are these irresponsible people who lose these flash drives?"

People who go outside? ;)

Though that said, I haven't left the house for week and I'm still losing stuff.

[microSDFTW @ Apr 9th 2008 6:03PM]

i'll be glad when we can name our own ammount that we want to store on our drive(s)!

[Christy M @ Apr 9th 2008 1:01PM]

Great! It's so small I can lose it more easily! Pffft make it 64GB and 20 quid and i'll buy it without question.

[randompass @ Apr 9th 2008 3:07PM]

sure... just wait a *few* years and that'll probably be a reality
but right now that request just sound unrealistically dickish.

[Christy M @ Apr 9th 2008 3:17PM]

Right. I'll keep in mind not to be 'dickish' when making future requests.

[randy @ Apr 9th 2008 1:18PM]

Looks atomic.

[Jay @ Apr 9th 2008 1:25PM]

stop making fun new toys to taunt me with

I only got my cruzer titanium like a month ago

[D @ Apr 9th 2008 1:36PM]

What phone is that? I have a blackjack and I don't have a camera on the front of it.

[Randy @ Apr 9th 2008 1:53PM]

That is the Blackjack's (Hotter) European twin the i600.

[FrankTheCrank @ Apr 9th 2008 1:53PM]

The MSRP on the Super Talent version was $35 bucks.

Holy good God, man...$35 for 8GB. That's just sick.

I payed $50 for my 256MB drive.

Times are good.

[Josh Warner @ Apr 9th 2008 1:54PM]

Why is "Windows ReadyBoost" listed as a feature? This is default Vista behavior which applies to any flash storage attached.

Digressing, IMO that is a terrible idea in Vista, as flash has limited write/re-write cycles. You rarely ever top this out using flash for mp3's or even pictures, because you fill it up & dump it maybe once a day. One million re-writes would take more than your lifetime at one rewrite/day. However, start using flash as a scratch drive which is churning data as fast as the computer can push it out & you start to see the problem.

Yes, I know recent flash technology has pushed the barrier out pretty far. But you won't see me using that feature (if I had Vista, I'd disable it straightaway). It's contributing to a faster death of your flash memory - whether that death is a month down the road or 5 years, it's still orders of magnitude closer than it would have been without ReadyBoost.

[packetsniffer @ Apr 9th 2008 2:06PM]

I've been pointing this absurdity out since the first time Engadget mistakenly thought it was a 1337 new feature that had to be specially made on flash drives. They eventually partially admitted that it wasn't actually anything other than a bandwidth requirement, but then they went right back to Ready Boost-gasms again. Oh well.

By the way, not every USB drive is Ready Boost compatible -- Windows runs a quick benchmark on them to determine whether or not they are fast enough to be effective. I've got an older Lexar that doesn't make the cut.

[thatkidmattt @ Apr 9th 2008 2:28PM]

To be fair... flash drives aren't particularly expensive, and it's not like you will burn through one in a week.

It still works out to be cheaper then adding RAM under the hood.

[packetsniffer @ Apr 9th 2008 2:01PM]

There are far smaller flash drives available. What's newsworthy here?

Looks like we're continuing to recycle the ReadyBoost "feature" line too -- any USB drive can do Ready Boost as long as it meets basic bandwidth requirements (eg, isn't a piece of crap).

[Actually, any USB drive at all can do Ready Boost if you make a simply registry tweak, but that's another story.]

[bobartig @ Apr 9th 2008 5:27PM]

Agreed. My smallest flash drive is smaller than the one they had yesterday, and my current flash drive is smaller than this one. Engadget are flash drive noobs.

[Joel @ Apr 9th 2008 3:08PM]

It's only up to 2GB at the moment but I've got one that is 30.3mm x 12.3mm x 2.4mm and weighs 2g. It's so small I need to find a thinner key ring so it can float freely on the ring. Best yet is I only paid $13.40 for it direct from the namebrand manufacturer. No, I'm not telling who, it's my little secret.

[Marvin Quach @ Apr 9th 2008 3:37PM]

@ Joel

lol google search says Transcend JetFlash T3

I WEEN AT INTARNETZ

[beq @ Apr 9th 2008 3:59PM]

Posters in the other thread have also mentioned A-DATA's microSD USB reader that may truly be the smallest. It's smaller in all dimensions but particularly shorter. My post from there:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/08/super-talent-pico-usb-drives-lose-em-even-faster/comments/11532008/

Quote:
"As a couple of posters had already commented, A-DATA has a microSD card USB reader that's even smaller, at 21.5 x 12 x 2.2 mm (rounded UP in inches that's 0.85 x 0.47 x 0.087 in ). Whereas the Pico C is 31.3 x 12.4 x 3.4 mm.

http://www.adata.com.tw/adata_en/products_list.php?ProductType=Flash&TypeUse=Card&product_category=Reader%20series

NewEgg sells the USB reader bundled with 2GB microSD card for $11.99:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211154

A-DATA also bundles the reader with microSDHC cards 4GB (or larger) but I haven't found these larger bundles to buy yet. NewEgg does sell A-DATA's 8GB microSDHC card by itself for $49.99, which you can then insert in the reader to get the world's smallest 8GB USB drive (which also seems to be water resistant). :-) I can't wait for 16GB or larger microSDHC cards to become available..."

[mike808 @ Apr 9th 2008 4:34PM]

Joel, if you paid $13.40 for the Transcend JetFlash T3 2GB Flash Drive (USB2.0 Portable) AES Encryption Model TS2GJFT3K, you paid too much, d00d.
Newegg has it for 32% less at $8.99.

Manuf Link: http://www.transcendusa.com/Products/ModDetail.asp?ModNo=181
Manuf Link: http://ec.transcendusa.com/product/ItemDetail.asp?ItemID=TS2GJFT3K
NewEgg Link http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208379
NewEgg Item N82E16820208379

[Anthony H. @ Apr 9th 2008 4:45PM]

Ya it's 8.99 + shipping, which is another 6 dollars if you choose to receive it in 3 business days.

Last time I checked $13.40 is less then $14.98.

[Joel @ Apr 9th 2008 3:42PM]

Yes Marvin, good you is. Extremely good transflash pricing as well. I think shipping bumped my order value up by 30%.

[Marvin Quach @ Apr 9th 2008 3:45PM]

$13.40 is REALLY cheap though, that's for sure!

[Ian @ Apr 9th 2008 4:00PM]

Blackjacks do not have cameras on the front. WTF is going on?

[European 3G phones get a video conferencing camera. @ Apr 9th 2008 9:14PM]

As someone else pointed out, this is likely the European Blackjack. Since AT&T can't seem to keep up with current cell phone technology(or maybe it doesn't want us to reap the benefits of better technology), front facing cameras are removed on the US versions. They did this on the Tilt and 8525 too.

[Samiel @ Apr 9th 2008 6:32PM]

I've got one I bought in Hong Kong that, slide-case included, that measures far smaller than this. It's about the size of a euro coin (slightly smaller), and carries a gigabyte.
Without the case, it'd be smaller still, my guess is about 20/12/2mm. The brand is "pqi": http://www.pqi.com.tw/

Whoever decides what's "Officially" the smallest here isn't doing their research at all. Neither is Engadget for taking them at face value.

[mmmmna @ Apr 9th 2008 7:49PM]

Bleh: "Windows Ready Boost". No M$ trash for me, thanks.