What Your U3 Shouldn't Be Without

Although U3 technology has been on the market for some while and it has already been adopted by many users, I still get questions from friends of mine asking me to explain the difference
between a regular USB drive and a U3 Smart one. At the end of the explanation they are pretty disappointed that the U3 is not that smart to cook or do laundry and that the only difference is ease of management via the LaunchPad it comes with and the security program that protects the key via a password.

Surely, these do not seem like much, but to tell you the truth, Launchpad makes things a whole lot easier as you do not have to appeal to application launchers (I imagine you do not dig for the executable manually each time you want to start an app) and installation files no longer mix with personal data as there is a delimitation between the two (just like Program Files on a PC. Only on U3 these are hidden from view).

I have a list of applications installed on my U3 I can't do without. This is a software that makes moving to a new computer as easy as plugging in my U3 Smart drive. The basic apps a regular user needs include an email client, and for this Mozilla Thunderbird's capabilities are great and if you are willing to shell out some money, The Bat! Professional and Voyager make an extraordinary team. Not a single email is missed and everything is securely stored on your U3 smart drive.

If you are looking for easy navigation on your computer or another one you stick your USB into, my recommendation goes for Total Commander. This is a tool that makes an installed version portable for all memory sticks while this one is specially tailored for U3 Smart drives. But the Real U3 installation McCoy can be found here. They both work great, although for U3 installation I would pick the second link.

With email and file managing problems down, I say we stick with keeping things organized and make some order in our lives as well. Essential PIM also has a portable form for U3 drives which maintains the same ease of use and flexibility as the desktop version of the application. The only downside is that it will create a folder right in the middle of the drive for storing created database.

Web browsing is a constant need of today and the tools to do this are plenty and various, providing a myriad of options, ease of use and low computer resource footprint. In the case of portable devices, there is another aspect to consider and that is security. If a portable web browser does not delete the temporary files, cookies and web forms before ejection and they remain on the host computer, there goes your privacy. Mozilla Firefox however does take this thing seriously and its portable version will not leave a trace.

Staying in the same field of web navigation and security of sensitive data, the portable side of Roboform 2 Go just has to be mentioned. Thanks to U3 equipment it can start whenever the stick is stuck into a computer, helping you to easily complete username and password fields as well as web forms with your data, in an absolute jiffy.

Staying in touch with your friends from absolutely any computer is no longer a desire as it turned as real as you and me. Chatting with your close ones, be it in writing or in speech is a long forgotten issue due to the release of Skype and Trillian in portable form. They can both be installed on U3 easily and hassle free and with Trillian you will have access to AIM, ICQ, IRC, MSN and Yahoo networks (sure, for all of them there are web alternatives like Meebo or KoolIM so this can be covered by your web browser).

An office suite is an element that should not be left out on a memory stick as you never know when you need to create a new spreadsheet or quickly make a presentation or simply write a letter. I remember in my younger age going to Internet Cafes just to write a final page of a paper and how tough it was for me to find a computer with a text processor that would provide the same choice I had home. Nowadays, a simple copy of OpenOffice would totally eliminate the problem.

Besides all these, I also have some apps I need in my line of work, but as they are specific to my daily activities, I will spare you from presenting them as well (plus not all of them are U3 compliant). Sure you can customize the U3 with whatever apps you want, thus obtaining a flexibility of the memory stick that fits your needs perfectly.

But, if you are not a U3 fan or simply do not want to put your money into a new memory stick, I suggest you to try the regular USB drive customized with MojoPac. This little fellow here is as portable as can be, and contagious also, because it permits you to make absolutely any application portable. The reason is that MojoPac is a portable virtualization software that mimics perfectly Windows XP environment and permits you to "carry" XP on a stick.

Although U3's advantages over the regular thumb drive are not overwhelming, it does make your life easier and comes with innate capability of securing all data it carries. The handy LaunchPad provides access to more U3 compliant software from different categories.