From Storage, a New Fashion

In computers everywhere, from classroom to coffee shop, there has been an explosion in the use of USB flash drives, or Universal Serial Bus, commonly called jump drives. These small portable storage devices come in capacities ranging from 16 or 32 megabytes to 2 gigabytes, which is 2048 megabytes, and are fast replacing floppy disks and even CD's and Zip disks. Aside from the storage purpose, flash drives have also become a fashion statement. They come in a rainbow of colors, from standard silver and i-Podish ivory to a mix of candy colors. They can be seen clipped onto backpacks and hanging from keychains, hanging from lanyards around peoples necks, and even hidden inside every day objects such as pens. Flash drive sales have tripled over the last year and are expected to rise even more. With their new popularity comes easier use, as most computers built now come ready to recognize flash drives without utilizing special drivers and more USB ports, the spot on the computer you plug the flash drives into, are put into PCs and laptops. There are some computer users that are not as enchanted with the new technology as some. One such person is Jose Velasco, a film-maker from New York, who says that the drives don't have enough capacity for his digital video files and that the larger ones are still too expensive. Some analysts say that prices will fall as capacities rise, but they are certainly big enough for high schools, some of which now require a flash drive as part of students school materials.