By Mielle Sullivan, Janus Networks
USB 3.0 was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week and it is creating a lot of buzz and excitement among even the most weary of gadget bloggers. The new generation of USB promises 10x speed, better electricity flexibility and efficiency and complete backward compatibility with older generation USB technology.
In many ways, USB 3.0 is the industry catching up with consumers. Since USB 2.0, mobile flash memory devices and drives have become mainstays of the tech world and often the rate limiting step in mobility has been data transfer times. With USB 3.0 there will be a lot less waiting. A high definition movie that would have taken almost 14 minutes to transfer with 2.0 technology will take 70 seconds with 3.0. This means that backing up data, transferring photos and all other exchanges between mobile devices and computers or other devices will be virtually wait free. In other words, the mobile world just got tires on it’s wheels.
Power usage has been the other speed bump for mobile technology and USB 3.0 provides some solutions. Devices with of this next generation will be able to pull power from other devices, faster and easier–so battery charges will be quicker. They will also be able to enter a sleep mode to save power and will even still be detectable to laptops and other devices when the battery is completely drained.
Compatibility with USB 2.0 means essential flexibility as the new generation is adopted. The only catch to all of this advancement is that it won’t start rolling out in new consumer electronics for another year. When it does happen expect a faster more efficient mobile tech life with more movies, photos and games.
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