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Jack Haller, Advisor and Father of Our Founder, Has Passed Away
Will you be doing the latest version of Firefox as a U3 application?
What other U3 applications are you planning to provide and when?
Seems to be mixed views about the future of the U3 platform. Anyone got any real ¨insider knowledge¨ of what the future is for U3?
PortableApps.com will no longer be supporting or providing any U3 applications. Everything that I've read has said that U3 is being end-of-lifed some time soon, and that Microsoft and SanDisk are working together to develop a new platform that will be similar to U3, but greatly improved (i dont know any details).
If you would like an app that is on this site and want to use it on U3, you can just the app from here, and use SmithTech's Shortcut for U3 Creator to add a shortcut to it in your U3 menu.
Link to Shortcut Creator: http://usb.smithtech.us/projects/shortcut_creator.php
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After a bit of hunting, I found: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199501108
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Ryan McCue.
Blog.
So all that Airbus-delay trouble over here in Europe is because of YOU!
Simeon.
U3 will be phased out next year. Sandisk and Microsoft are working on yet another new portable platform. It will be tied to hardware and only work with XP and Vista. Sandisk has indicated that U3 apps and hardware will not be compatible with the new platform. So, essentially, current U3 hardware and software is a dead end.
Once again Mr. Haller’s disdain for U3 comes shining through! A blanket statement such as “current U3 hardware and software is a dead end” is a little premature, somewhat psychic, and a lot biased. Am I to believe that SanDisk and Microsoft are going to leave hundreds of thousands of customers with absolutely no options or upgrade path?
People were ringing the death knoll when Vista came out saying U3 would leave them all high and dry because the devices were not Vista compatible. True, not all hardware can be upgraded, but a launch pad upgrade was made available for those that can take advantage of it.
In an article I posted earlier by R. Scott Clark, Consumer Technology Editor
http://www.everythingusb.com/sandisk_cruzer_contour_4gb_12563.html
“U3 has been officially been marked as an End-Of-Life product, with its successor coming out from Microsoft and SanDisk in the second half of 2008. Third-party U3 software developers will be given a migration path to the new platform, but further details remain scarce at the moment. The new platform will most likely require updated hardware, including SanDisk's TrustedFlash technology.”
I don’t read this as “dead end”.
I would rather hope that SanDisk and Microsoft will develop some sort of upgrade strategy for existing customers, whether it is another hardware upgrade or some other option geared towards keeping all those customers as opposed to leaving them all behind.
All is not lost! There is life after PortableApps! :big smile:
Regards,
One of Sandisk's representatives stated in an online forum that the hardware being developed would be different from U3 and not compatible (the new platform won't run on the old hardware) and that current U3 apps would most likely be incompatible with the new platform.
And if you really want to be a fanboy for U3, this is probably the wrong place to do it.
and U3 IS a joke . secure blablabla and the first thing
that happens is that good hackers figure out how to remove the crap
and use the ONE useful feature u3 offers, the CD-drive, for something worthwhile :
running liberta autostart and/or truecrypt.
Sandisk did NOT like that, proven by the fact that they changed their updater so it no longer loads an ISO in it's DIR. Instead updates are downloaded to a temp DIR
and applied when you click "proceed" . How clever of Sandisk, these "hackers"
must be idiots who can't figure out how to replace the ISO in the temp-folder with their own before clicking "proceed" .
I think the idea of having a read-only device is GREAT, it's the best way of protecting against viruses infecting your applications and a lot of people
LIKE the autorun, just look how many posts there are here about how to have your flash-drive autorun .
I recently found out about the ease of use of portable apps, which has made my life physically easier by not having to carry my laptop to university in order to use the software and settings of my choice. I just upgraded from a naff branded freebie 512MB USB stick to a 4GB Cruzer as a few people here seem to have. I wasnt best impressed by U3 and was surprised that Sandisk had their own proprietary version of something that appeared to be be almost identical to the portableapps.com system.
One of the things that appeals to me about the portableapps software is having proper control over it all, U3's design makes it much harder. I couldnt really see the point so I saved the information on the partition and then deleted it. Can anyone tell me why, if it even was, that was a foolish decision?
No doubt Microsoft/SanDisk will have an upgrade for U3.
1. For Firefox the upgrade will be Internet Explorer 7.
2. For OpenOffice - Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Edition.
3. For the U3 code - Microsoft Windows Vista Premium.
4. For your stick itself - just pick any currently available Notebook computer running upgrade no.3.
Enjoy your upgrade!
X
And for VLC - WMP Super Edition v.20
“Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts” - Richard P. Feynman
I predict that the upgrade path will be: buy a new device, and probably new licenses for the software. Some of the software you've purchased might give you a "discount" if they have a version on the new platform.
I predict that the new platform will give better security; in Microsoft speak, that means that it will give software owners the ability to restrict what copies can be made and what machines it can run on. In other words, security for software owners.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if the new platform required some sort of funky code signing or other permission before PortableApps.comor other non-sponsored apps will run on it.
It may even offer some encryption ability for the device purchaser. That might be nice.
(I'm just cynical about such things.)
I work in retail electronics sales, and I tell people the value of portable software. (Love this site!) I began using OpenOffice.org Portable to keep track of a few things during the course of my day. Most conveniently is on one of the display PC (where I shouldn't be installing anything) and occaisionally on one in the back (on which I'm locked into what software it has, and it has NO office of any kind, but I can run anything U3). I am in a little dilemma: OpenOffice.org portable works fine in Vista, but the U3 version does not. The U3 version works fine on the XP PC i have access to in the back, but not on any vista machines. It says something about an openoffice directory.
Any ideas?
and on the u3 version number.
Some work with Vista, some are upgradable to work with Vista and some dont work with vista.
I'd check your vendors homepage to find some info on whether you U3 works with vista or not.
Or you could delete U3 and use this site's Menu...
“I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong.” - Richard P. Feynman
I have a Sandisk MicroCruzer 4GB (which I bought in my own store). The U3 Menuis working just fine, as are other U3 Apps. Believe it or not, I need the U3 option in order to use any sfotware on the locked down PC I have access to (I was using a regular 2 GB with both PStart and PortableApps Menu and it wouldn't work on the locked down machine).
I was able to find a version 2.2 that seems to work ok, but its in French! Anyone know how to change it to English? I checked out OpenOffice.org to see if there was a language pack or anything for US English and didn't find anything.
has language packs.
“I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong.” - Richard P. Feynman
So I thought I'd poke around in there and didn't see anything. I've tried unzipping it and adding what appeared to be english language files from a working openoffice portable (of a different version) and then re-zipping, and the installer tells me the file is corrupted.
What a pain! If I didn't need the U3 to get my work done i wouldn't bother. Any other ideas?
Well since PortableApps.com is no longer supporting U3 versions of apps, for various reasons, you could just download OpenOffice.org Portable from this site and then use SmithTech's Shortcut Creator for U3 to make it show up in your U3 menu.
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