Product Reviews

On one keyring we now have the car keys, the house keys, a few QuickTime movies, some disk rescue software, a presentation and some Web site projects. No, we're not mad, we've been using the Sonnet Piccolo, the latest USB flash memory device.

The Piccolo is basically a USB plug, some circuitry and 128Mb of flash memory in a simple, ultra-compact, plastic shell designed to link to a keychain. With its small clip-on cap to keep the main unit in place, it makes a very unobtrusive keyfob, despite having more storage space than a Zip disk. Plug it into the spare USB socket in an Apple keyboard and it barely peeks past the edge, and, unlike some other USB flash memory devices, it won't hog space even when used in the most compact of USB hubs.

It uses virtually no power, which is why it works perfectly well in the USB socket in any Apple keyboard. This also means it won't be a noticeable drain on a PowerBook or iBook on the

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road.

As a solid-state device, it can take any amount of vibration and shocks, even when in use - although it's called a flash drive there's no spinning disk to jolt and damage. However, its size does make it slightly vulnerable to ham-fisted users - push it sideways when it's in a USB socket and the body does bend more than feels right. This was our only particular concern, and came to light when we tried using a slightly tight USB socket. However, this shouldn't be a risk if you use a bit of common sense and care.

Fob story

The Piccolo comes formatted for the Mac, so it's safe to put your files and folders and even applications on it and use them directly from there. Because it works with Apple's Mass Storage USB drivers, it mounts automatically on Macs running any recent version of the Mac OS. It also works with Windows 98, ME, 2000 and XP, although you'd need to format it as MS-DOS before it could be read by non-Mac systems. The Piccolo formatted without a hitch in Mac OS 9's Drive Setup and Mac OS X's Disk Utility, so reformatting it to suit your needs isn't a problem.

As it's USB, don't expect it to be a speed freak. In our speed tests it managed a throughput of 0.35Mb/sec, lower than we expected, but not outrageous for USB. At this speed it would take a few minutes to fill it up, but it's most likely to be used as a simple way to move regular documents around, as well as a useful place to keep emergency software. And as long as you don't lose your keys, you'll always know where it is.