Sony has announced Smartphone compatible micro USB flash drive that works on Android smartphones and tablets alike. While the flash drives have the microUSB it also has a USB 2.0 connection for other devices. Currently the drive is supported on all devices running Android 4.0.3 to 4.3 with the promise that KitKat support will be available as well very soon. Sony also states that the drives are fully compatible with USB-on-the-go (OTG) which connects to Android devices making them hosts for the drive.
While most users will look at these drives as un-needed due to the many sharing features baked into Android there are many uses for the drives such as device backups and being able to share when there is no Wifi and Data may be over limits. The flash drives can also be used to install apps on in the event you want the added space in the same way a microSD card allows app installs.
These uses being stated we see potential for those that flash new ROM’s to devices as you will be able to download the flash able files to the drive from your computer and just plug it in to your phone to backup your current ROM too and install the new one from. Lets state another obvious use which would be taking a trip and wanting a drive to hold a few movies for the kids.
Sony states that there are going to be 3 version released first that will be in storage sizes of 8GB, 16GB and 32GB. This being said the cost of these is rather high for the storage sizes but still worth checking out. Each drives price is said to be $19.99, $29.99 and $62.99 respectively. We say this seems high for the simple fact that you can get a cable that converts a normal USB flash drive to microUSB for just a few dollars. If your interested in the microUSB Flash drives they will be available from Sony in January 2014.
Please let us know how you feel about the new storage drives from Sony and any uses you can think of worth mentioning as well as negative aspects you may notice.