INTRODUCTION

   Whether that's a USB flash drive that we carry around with us or a portable hard drive which we use for the transfer of large chunks of data there's no doubt that portable storage devices have become part of our daily lives. The same can be said about tablets and although they haven't been around for nearly as much as USB flash drives i know many people who can't return back to the way things were prior to them getting their first tablet. Up until recently in the market one could find numerous USB flash drives of all sizes and capacities by many manufacturers which could be used with tablets either featuring full sized USB connectors or with the help of USB to microUSB adapters sold separately. It didn't take long however for that to become a serious problem when tablet manufacturers ceased support for full sized USB connectors (it was a necessary move to make tablets thinner) and since USB to micro USB adapters where never very popular to begin with a solution was needed. Kingston is amongst the very few USB drive manufacturers to take care of that issue with their latest DataTraveler MicroDuo OTG USB Flash Drive.

   Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world’s independent memory leader. Founded in 1987 with a single product offering, Kingston® now offers more than 2,000 memory products that support nearly every device that uses memory, from computers, servers and printers to MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile phones. In 2009, the company's sales reached $4.1 billion. With global headquarters in Fountain Valley, California, Kingston employs more than 4,000 people worldwide. Regarded as one of the “Best Companies to Work for in America” by Fortune magazine, Kingston’s tenets of respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity create an exemplary corporate culture. Kingston believes that investing in its people is essential, and each employee is a vital part of Kingston’s success. Kingston serves an international network of distributors, resellers, retailers and OEM customers on six continents. The company also provides contract manufacturing and supply chain management services for semiconductor manufacturers and system OEMs.

   To solve the mentioned problem Kingston had two obvious solutions to choose from so they could either use a standard USB connector and attach an detachable microUSB adapter onto it or place both a standard USB connector and a microUSB connector into the same USB flash drive. Well as revealed clearly by its name the DataTraveler MicroDuo OTG features both a standard USB connector on one side and a microUSB connector on the other allowing it to be used both with standard PCs/Macs, smartphones and tablets. Unfortunately Kingston chose to use a USB 2.0 chip and although tablets don't support USB 3.0 as of yet i really think that USB 3.0 would be much more appealing (just because you can't have USB 3.0 speeds when plugged in a tablet that doesn't mean you shouldn't have them when plugged into a PC especially if you plan on using all of its capacity). Regardless the concept seems quite interesting so let's get a closer look.