And the Winner Is...
head 2 headTWO TECHNOLOGIES ENTER, ONE TECHNOLOGY LEAVES
While we’re always willing to champion the limitless potential of
youth, there’s something to be said for age and experience. And
when it comes to thumb-drive apps, years of accumulated wisdom
(and developer support) give U3 a substantial edge. A massive
catalog of readymade software and the ability to detach from a PCwithout crufting up the rig make the U3 platform a leaner, meaner
launcher for thumb-drive apps. And while we’re not blown away
by U3’s simple 128-bit encryption, Ceedo’s complete lack of data
protection is simply unforgivable.DECEMBER 2006 MAXIMUMPC 17
SECURITY
If you’re going
to carry all your
personal data around
on a thumb drive,
you should definitely
secure it from prying
eyes. U3 drives
support 128-bit AES
encryption, which
ought to prevent the
average Joe from
reading all your email
should he find your
thumb drive lying on
the sidewalk. That’s
a darn sight better
than Ceedo’s utter
lack of encryption—
or even simple
password protection.
At press time, we
couldn’t even find a
Ceedo add-on that
enables security for
the device.
WINNER: Uround^3
APPLICATION
SUPPORT
If it weren’t for their
ability to run real
applications from the
USB drive, thumb-
drive launchers
would be pretty
lame. So application
selection really
makes a difference
here. Because it’s
been around for a
couple years, U3 has
established a large
library of pre-tuned
portable apps, ranging
from customized
web browsers and
instant-messaging
programs to games,
antivirus utilities, and
more. Nascent Ceedo
has yet to boast as
impressive an array of
applications, although
it does currently offer
the standards—
including Word, Excel,
and PowerPoint.
Theoretically, both
launchers allow you to
shoehorn unsupported
Windows apps onto
your thumb drive,
but we had mixed
results using apps not
specifically written to
work with this type
of software.
WINNER: Uround^4
FOOTPRINT
It’s all well and good to have access to your apps and data on the go, but
it’d be nice if you could avoid leaving a trail of install files and registry entries everywhere
you go. U3 leaves almost no footprint in most cases, as it cleans up all its registry entries
each time you eject the drive. Ceedo, on the other hand, leaves a mess of entries in your
Windows system registry whenever you yank the drive. WINNER: Uround^5
U
Included with
some thumb drives,
http://www.u3.comWINNER: U