Usb Company

So, you have your nice new shiny USB Stick. The print looks good, it’s well built, and you’re ready to go. Then the phone rings. That new USB stick you’ve got, could you put a few files on it and bring it round later?
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This is often where true quality shines through.
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We recently obtained branded USB sticks from some of our better rivals and performed speed tests on them. We also threw in a major highstreet USB Brand, just to see how we compared to the premium consumer sticks.
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The worst of our rivals came in at 1 Megabyte writing, with just under 8 Megabytes reading speed. This was followed closely by our other rival, who clocked in at 1.18Megabytes writing. Their reading speed, however, came back at a shocking 4.81Megabytes per second. Now this may or may not mean much to you, so lets put it into context. Both of them would require approximately fifteen minutes to fill up a 1GB memory stick. The slower reading stick would then take almost four minutes just to read that data back off of the stick, with the better of the two coming in at just under two minutes.
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Next up was the highstreet brand. This performed far better, 3.8Megabytes writing speed and 9.9Megabytes reading speed. Just over four minutes here to write a full gigabyte to the stick, and again just under 2 minutes to read the data back.
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Now for our results. We picked a random stick out of our local stock, and found writing speeds of 4.1Megabytes per second, and a reading speed of 15.8Megabytes per second. Our one gigabyte stick would be writing at the same speed that some of our rivals are reading. Four minutes would leave you with a full memory stick. It would then take approximately one minute to read it back off of the stick.
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So, why is this the case?
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In other blog posts I’ve talked about the difference between good and bad suppliers. There are companies out there using dodgy controller chips, hacked memory and recycled chips. While we can’t verify for certain that the rivals we tested don’t take part in these practices, this probably wasn’t the case in this situation. It was a simple case of “acceptable” quality against high quality.
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Flash memory is available, from the major suppliers (such as Sony) in both “A” and “B” grade. The B grade memory is perfectly good memory that failed to meet certain standards with regards to speed, reliability and performance. However, it was deemed “acceptable” for certain uses, therefore didn’t end up in the bin with really bad chips. This B grade memory is then put into promotional USB drives in order to cut costs. After all, they are being given away free, right? I’m sure your customers won’t blame you if they end up slow, unresponsive and ultimately unreliable in comparison? Will they? I mean, they were free, after all?
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At USB Company, we’d rather not take that risk. We believe in only using the highest quality memory, paired with the highest quality controller chips, put together in the highest quality factories, complete with the highest quality finish. The result of that is plain to see.= Faster chips, far lower failure rates, and lots of very satisfied customers.
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So ask yourself. Would you be happy if it took you almost 20 minutes to write some data onto your USB Stick then copy it onto another computer?
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If your friend was doing the same thing in five minutes, I bet you wouldn’t be.

With flash memory, the type we use in our USB Sticks, being used in more and more technologies, the original 10,000 re-writes look like they may not always be enough.

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Sure, for the average home user that means decades of flash memory before it starts wearing out, but if you decide to use your flash memory to, say, boost your PC’s RAM (something that faster flash drives, such as ours, can do in Windows Vista) this lifetime can be considerably shorter. In the worst case scenarios, the memory may only last a handful of years.

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While this doesn’t affect most users, and even those it does affect currently have to see it as the price they pay for the usage they get out of the memory, it would be nice if we could somehow increase the number of rewrites each chip can handle.

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Well, it seems that pretty soon, we may be able to.

The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and the University of Tokyo have teamed up to create new flash memory technologies that allow the memory to last ten thousand times as many rewrites as currently. With around one hundred million rewrites, it’s unlikely that even with faster speeds becoming available we’ll see any chips running out any time in the future. Not only that, but it can also be manufactured 3 times slimmer than existing technology.

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Of course, as soon as this technology is available on the market, we’ll revisit this story and let you know how it affects the Promotional USB market. If nothing else, it can only be a good thing if the higher use devices switch to it, allowing the price of memory for promotional gifts to come down without compromising quality.
Read more:

Did you know that major retailers (such as Ikea or Argos) regularly use over one hundred thousand tons of paper every year on marketing tools, such as catalogues and promotional flyers? Or that around 4.5 billion trees are cut down every single year, just for the production of paper? Or that the paper industry is the 3rd largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world? .

At the same time, around 40% of our waste burdon tends to be paper. 40% of what we throw away. What does that suggest happens to all these flyers, catalogues and other materials? . Why not try offering customers a catalogue on a USB stick? Or your students their course materials on usb rather than in thick folders that will end up at the top/bottom (delete as appropriate) of their wardrobe? Why not file internal reports on USBs rather than in giant stacks of paper that’ll end up in the shredder tomorrow, and the bin the day after? .

And why not go one step further, and look into buying some of our eco-usbs for the job? Made from bamboo, probably THE most renewable sources of wood on the planet, they are both renewable and environmentally friendly in production, and save the planet one tree at a time by keeping all your documents in an electronic form. . What do you have to lose? Other than Earth, of course. .

One thing we have a lot of in this office is USB Sticks. However, most of them are our own. The other thing we have a lot of is catalogues, none of which are ours. So, what’s the difference?

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Well, for one thing, catalogues are generally 30CM long, 20cm wide and… Wait, maybe that’s a bit too obvious? What’s not so obvious may be the difference they can make to your business.

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What do you do when you receive a new catalogue? Personally, I have a very clever filing system. The ones that look sort of interesting go into the bottom draw, until I finally get around to cleaning it out. One or two superb ones may make it onto my desk, to eventually be glanced at when bored. The others go straight in the bin.

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Now, compare that to a USB Drive. Who would throw a USB Drive in the bin? The first thing you do is plug it in, che3ck the memory, and have a browse through what’s on it. Then it goes on the keyring, in the pocket or next to the monitor. It’s prime advertising real estate, right there on your best prospect’s desk, on his keys, or in her purse. Where else would you want your name? Not only that, but your catalogue is also there, weightlessly sitting in their pocket, by their side, or more often than not, plugged into their computer. With it around, all the time, you can be sure it’ll be in reach if they ever need anything. You can also be fairly sure they will have at least browsed through it once. Curiosity killed the cat, but it also led them to open that .pdf on the stick and have at least a quick look through.

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So, where do you want your logo? Decorating their bin or sitting on their desk for all to see?

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WHa.

What is it?

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The USB Web Button is a round button, 6CM in diameter. When
connected to a USB Port and pressed, it launches a pre-defined website. It can
also be used to launch a specific application, as long as it is installed on
all computers.

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How can you use it?

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The Webpage:

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One possibility is to have it link to your homepage.

Better yet, why not have it link to an exclusive promotion
only available to those with the web buttons?

Better still, why not have that link show new, updated
offers once a month, encouraging people to bookmark the link or keep the button
lying around?

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The Program:

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Does everyone log in from a workstation fed from a single
server? Or are all PCs in your office/school made equally? Have a program that
everyone has to open regularly, such as a data input program or office suite? Instead
of running www.yourpage.com the button
can also run yourprogram.exe.

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The Portal:

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Have a staff/student portal?
A customer relations management tool? Maybe even a central login page?
Why not have the button open it for you?

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Viral:

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So you’ve employed the best minds in the business, came up
with a brilliant idea, shot the video, uploaded it to YouTube, and nothing.
No-one’s noticed it. It hasn’t spread. It isn’t making your product the talk of
town. Why not scatter USB Buttons around the town, linking to the YouTube
video, the front page of the publicity-gaining viral game or whatever it is
your top marketing agents have come up with?

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Please contact us for a free visual and quote on the USB Web Button.

Woke up late?
Snoozed through the alarm clock?
Yet another missed breakfast?
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Well, we have a great new product for you. We’re still working on the technical details with regards to logo printing, but we thought we’d start the hype early and let you know what next year’s top corporate giveaway will be…
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Presenting:
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The USB Toaster!
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Okay, so maybe it is a joke, but it just shows that USBs really are the future!
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(Pro tip: Buy a brand new, graphic-intensive game such as Crysis and you can turn your laptop upside-down and use it to fry an egg to have on your toast.)

We are pleased to announce that we are now able to deliver individually personalised USB sticks. A personalised USB stick with your student, colleague or clients name along with your logo will certainly be a present your recipient will remember you by.

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Of course we offer any kind of logo/text for individual personalisation such as serial number, bar code, date etc.

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All you have to do is to supply us with a logo and an excel spreadsheet with the names, numbers or text you want printed and we will sort out the rest.

Back in April the BBC reported that at two well respected universities, almost 1% of their students were caught plagarising. Chances are the true numbers were even higher. When I was at University, I caught a flat mate of mine on the same course as me copying large chunks of one of my essays (before slightly rewording them) when I placed them in the shared folder to print. That case, for instance, was dealt with “In house”, and my shamed flat mate found himself stuck in front of his PC all weekend while the rest of us went out and had fun.

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What, you may wonder, does this have to do with USB Sticks?

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Well, one method of checking for plagiarism is the use of various software packages, which can compare thousands of essays, as well as checking Essay banks to make sure none are sourced from them. However, for this software to be of any use at all, you need an electronic version of the complete essay.

So, why not offer your students a branded USB Stick to put their files on? They can then drop it into an envelope and hand it in to the office?

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Better yet, why not have each USB Stick customised with the student’s own student ID on the back, along with the department and/or university logo on the front? That way, even if the stick is lost it’s likely to find its way home, and can then be returned to the student for future essays. When the student graduates, they also have something nice to remember you by.

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In addition, we can pre-load the sticks with your university policies on Plagiarism, and perhaps A couple of PDFs on the correct usage of referencing styles, how to avoid plagiarising and any other essay related tips you may already have flyers for in the library or offer for download from the department home page.

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You may even decide not to ask students to print a copy of their essay at all, both easing the strain on your IT Department on deadline day but also easing the strain on the environment.

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Reduce cheating and your carbon footprint in one move? What more could you ask?

Travel by train regularly?

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Transport files between the office and home?

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Tired of seeing your top secret documents read over by the Nation’s Media?

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Perhaps you need Easylock^tm?

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USB Company are proud to announce a new piece of software from the creators of Carry It Easy +Plus ^tm. Equipped with 256bit AES CBC-mode Military Strength Data Encryption under the hood, but a simple Drag and Drop user interface, Easylock is the perfect solution for your data security needs.

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It’s not just government agencies that need to tighten up data security. In the modern business world, almost any data has value to someone outside your company. Unfortunately, this is usually to the detriment of your own company. On top of this, there’s nothing as damaging for your image as news of a data leak.

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A word of warning, however. Easylock only allows passwords up to 128 characters, so those of you planning to use the first chapter of “1984″ to keep your data secured may be disappointed.

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Easylock usually retails for approximately £13 per licence. However, we can offer Easylock pre-installed on our custom USB Sticks for less than £2 per unit. For more information, please contact a member of our sales team.

We recently took delivery of some books from Amazon, with those came a couple of vouchers. One of them was from Vistaprint which offered “free” stamps. Their targeting was spot on as we just thought about ordering some stamps so we went ahead and ordered the “Free” one and another on from their range. 2 Weeks later the stamps arrived and it was all looking good.

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But.. a month later an unidentified charge appeared on our bank statement, it was a payment of £9.95 with the reference clubprem.com. We had never had anything with them to do so we called the bank and they told us this was a charge from Vistaprint and of course the charge was irreversible. So we called them and right enough when we ordered the “Free stamps” we had to pay for postage with our credit card and apparently there was some very small print there stating that we agreed to subscribe to clubprem if we ordered these stamps. Certainly we did not see any of these small prints and we have got nice big computer screens..

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It makes us wonder how big companies like Vistaprint are allowed “lure” customers into these traps, it also surprise us that Amazon being on the forefront of e-commerce engages into business activities with dubious companies such as Vistaprint.

We can imagine many people don’t even take notice of such a small charge, luckily we did and manage to cancel the subscription. It definitely teached us a lesson so people beware of these stunts from Vistaprint or others that are offering “good deals”

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Here at USB Company we would never engage in such activity, we believe in honesty and straightforward communication. Imagine luring our customer into a subscription for promotional Usbs now that’s silly….