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Integral i-Pen 8 GB
by blissman70
For anyone that knows me, or maybe even browsed through some of my reviews, you'll know that I have a rather 'mad' collection of memory devices that I use to store my 'mad' collection of life on. These devices store such things as photographs, videos, drawing, data and more, so over the time my collection seems to be growing more and ... more.
The memory devices I own come from all walks of life, from well known brands such as Kingston and SanDisk to other ones that I have picked up from the local 'pound plus' type shop that only have the GB size etched on the plastic covering and a small squiggle to inform you that the device was made on somewhere in China.
Some of these devices have done what they are designed to do, holding my 'data' until I need to access it, keeping it safe and sound so I don't need to worry.
Sadly though, some I have bought, and not only from the 'pound plus' shop either, that have failed in doing what they are designed to do, either freezing so that the 'data' stored on it becomes totally inaccessible, losing it forever. Or falling apart when you push it onto the USB port or pull it out, sending the many bits scattering all over the floor. (my advice in all cases is to back up your back ups, spread your more important things over several memory devices just in case one fails).
Anyway, one of my 'older' memory device is from a well known company called Integral, who have been going for many years now and are well established, with the full name of this device being the Integral i-Pen - USB flash drive.
This particular pen drive actually comes in a few sizes, internal GB storage sizes that it, although they do sell different 'physical' size pen drives as well, but as for the memory size, this product comes in a range, such as a lowly 512MB... very lowly these days... up to this 8GB one, with a few ones in between.
What does it look like?
It's as small as a baby mouse that was born three months early, with the body being made of a firm white plastic, (The flash drive not the mouse), being about 55mm long by 20mm wide and a mere 10mm deep, (sizes are approximate), and it weighs less that 10grams.
The end 3rd of the casing pops off to reveal the USB connector which is embedded in the rest of the plastic body, which in turn houses the workings of the unit itself.
On the far end, the furthest away from the USB connector, there is what looks like a small hole which is used for slotting something like string through it so you can hang the whole thing from your neck, making you look like one of those zombie students that seem to wonder on front of my car whenever I drive passed a school or collage. Honestly, it's like driving through the land of the living dead.
The whole thing is as light as a feather, almost, being about 9 grams in weight.
There is a little light that flashes away when it is being used, such as when you're transferring data, be it uploading or downloading, or just browsing through the files on the drive, the flash is still the same.
Will your PC be able to cope with this..?
Your PC will have to have a few specs, such as running windows OS XP and above, although I have struggled a few times when using this on Windows 7, but I have eventually got things up and running after a few swear words, kick and tantrums.
I did ask a friend of mine, who happens to run one of those fruit systems, oranges, no grapes... hang on, no, it's Apple isn't it? Yes, she prefers to use Apple. When she tried this it did run perfectly well on her system which goes to show that it runs on Pineapple OS without any hassles... no, I mean Apple don't I?.
It runs on USB 2.0 and it backwards compatible so that it can run on older USB ports,
It houses the good old fashioned 'plug and play' system, which means that you just plug it into your PC and, within a few seconds, hopefully, it is ready to play with as it finds it's own drivers without you having to go searching on line for them like a drunken man looking for his front door key.
What about the speeds..?
Well, if you throw it at the wall you can get about 50mph out of it, maybe more on a good day, if the winds behind you and you use a tennis racket to whack it with...????
Seriously though, the speeds offered on this are not too bad really, giving about 11MBp/s read speed and just under 4MBp/s write speed.
How easy is it to add or move files?
This is simple.
Once it is plugged into your PC via the USB port it should open up as an external drive. It's then a choice of either 'send to', 'copy and paste' or 'drag and drop' your files to this external drive.
As I said, simple.
And when this is doing what it does, reading or writing, the little LED lights flashes away to let you know it's working away.
My opinion...
I have had this pen drive for what must be years now, in fact I think it may have been a coming of age present from my parents, (I know, no imagination at all), and it still does what it is supposed to do, it stores my data and helps me keep it safe.
It looks quite nice too, having nice curves so that when it is in my pocket there's very little danger of being jabbed by sharp edges, which is never pleasant, (unless that's what you're into of course).
I could be wrong but if I remember correctly there was a key rings attached to the end of this but over the time this has come off, why I don't know as the plastic connection piece is still intact. Although, I do have to say that the USB connector cover has come a little loose over time but it still grips the pen drive well enough so that it doesn't fall off in my pocket or on the street.
Speaking of this cap, once it is removed from the USB connector it has no where to go, unlike some of my other pen drives where you can slot the caps onto the back end of the device so that it doesn't get lost. So you do have to be a little more cautious with this cap, remembering where you put it so that you can replace it afterwards.
The speeds are good enough for what I need and as it has 8GB of inner space, (almost), I have managed to cram a lot of things onto it so that I can keep things safe without fear of losing it all if an when my PC spits its dummy out and throws a tantrum.
What more can I say about what is a neat little device that can hold more information that Stephen Hawkings notebook?
It gives good read/write speeds so you don't have to wait around too long, depending on the size of your files of course, and it is more portable than a pound coin in your pocket.
As for the price..?
This pen drive can be bought from a few retailers, although I do have to confess that I haven't seen this one on sale at the more popular ones. But if you can find it then it should be priced around the £7.00, which, for 8GB of space in such a small, portable device, is not that bad value for money.
There are many other pen drives out there for you to buy, some offering bigger space for the same amount, or even less, so do shop around and make a wise choice. But if you do opt for this one then you won't be disappointed.
In all, if you can get this at about a fiver, maybe even the £6.00 region, then you'll get yourself a bargain. but if it's selling for more then look around as you may get the same specs, or even more, for your money.
©Blissman70 2012
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Integral Courier 256 MB
by JJJJ
Let's take a stroll through recent history... to a time when dooyoo was in its infancy, and flash drives had significantly less capacity. When I bought the 256 megabyte Integral Courier, two-hundred-and-fifty-six megabytes seemed like a respectable amount of data - little did I know that only a few years later terabytes rather than ... megabytes would be the order of the day.
Flash forward to 2012 and the Courier is beginning to show its age in the looks department - it's not especially ugly, it's just that there are many, dare I say, sexier, flash drives on the market. Measuring 24 x 7mm - the product is large enough not to be fiddly, and it's generally comfortable to hold on to. As a whole, the Courier feels quite tough, and there's a removable cap which protects the USB end.
Price & Availability
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So let's talk about cost - and it's probably needless to say that this particular flash drive (or at least the 256MB version) isn't manufactured at present. That said, there are still a number of these that infrequently crop up on eBay - the last one I saw sold for a whopping 29p!
Performance & Final Word
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Using the Courier is a pleasure, and it has been really reliable over the years. It will work with both PCs and Macs, and there are no drivers to download for it to operate. As a slight downside, the read and write speed isn't that quick (twelve, and three megs-per-second respectively) - but when you're only dealing with a 256MB capacity, you're never going to be waiting around for too long. The major negative is the capacity - and it will only store around forty photos from my digital camera. Nevertheless, i've been very happy with my 256MB Integral Courier flash drive - it doesn't really excel in any area, but it has stood the test of time and therefore comes with a recommendation from me.
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