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Sony has announced a new flash drive with a micro USB on one side and full-sized USB on the other for easy smartphone storage expansion and file transferral.
(Credit: Sony)
The Nexus 5 is one heck of a smartphone, but like many it’s missing something we feel is key: expandable memory. Sony has unveiled what could be a neat solution.
Catchily named the USM-SA1, it’s a flash drive with two USB plugs: a micro USB on one side for plugging into your Android smartphone, and a regular USB on the other for plugging into a computer. Not only does this allow you some extra temporary space on your phone — for example, if you’re snapping pictures at your family’s holidays — you can then easily transfer the files to your computer. A cap protects the micro USB when not in use.
“Consumers want to let a friend see the photo they just took or share a video easily with as few steps as possible,” said Sony director of consumer media marketing Viviano Cantu. “These new drives combine convenience, peace of mind and performance and are perfect for mobile multi-tasking.”
The drives will be available in three sizes — eight, 16 and 32GB — with a choice of three cap colours, and are compatible with Android 4.0.3 to 4.3, with KitKat support on the way. They also support USB On-the-Go, which allows the smartphone to act as host when connected to a secondary USB device.
They’ll be available in Sony stores in the US from January 2014, priced at US$19.99, US$29.99 and US$62.99 respectively. Australian pricing has yet to be announced, but we can’t imagine it will be much farther behind.
You can find out more on the USM-SA1 product page.
