USB pen drives are all the rage nowadays and are tagged as the next big thing in the USB flash drive industry. They come with a lot of added features such as MP3 playback, fingerprint biometric privacy and even built-in cameras. Most of these USB pen drives are not yet widely available but are showcased and even sold at computer trade shows and through the Internet. Most of these devices are expected to hit stores early next year but proper caution must be taken before jumping on the bandwagon and buying one just because you can. Since pen drives are new products, it is fairly safe to assume that better kinds will surface pretty soon after their formal launch. So it is best to wait a while before disposing of your USB flash drive for a USB pen drive.

Being about the same size as the standard pen, USB pen drives, most popular added feature to date is its MP3 playback function. A lot also have an LCD display for track browsing, and audio input jack and a rechargeable battery. The newer models also offer up to 10 hours voice recording and may even come with tiny speakers for added functionality.

Further, a lot of pen drives come with card reader support for portable memory formats. Some of the newer pen drives can double as a Web cam and a still camera because they have tiny camera lenses for snapping low resolution pictures. These units also come with mountable stands and for greater functionality as Web cams.

USB pen drive applications may also be used to allow the user to save desktop configurations, documents and even bookmarks and makes for easy accessibility and transfer from one computer to the next. It only takes a minute to display the personal settings and data from the previous changes including the updates and changes that you have saved in the USB pen drive.