If you’ve built a PC, upgraded a laptop, or bought an SSD in the last twenty years, chances are you’ve run into the Crucial brand. For a long time, Crucial was the friendly, consumer-facing arm of Micron — a way for one of the world’s biggest memory manufacturers to sell directly to everyday users. So when news broke that Micron is winding down Crucial-branded consumer memory, it caught a lot of people off guard.

Here’s the important thing to understand up front: Micron is not exiting memory. They are exiting retail branding. That distinction matters, and it explains almost everything about what’s happening next.

From the outside, it looks like Micron is leaving — but it isn’t

Micron is a fully integrated memory manufacturer. They own wafer fabs. They design DRAM and NAND. They fabricate, test, package, and ship memory at massive scale. Unlike companies that simply buy chips and rebrand them, Micron controls the silicon itself. Because of that, they don’t need a consumer brand like Crucial to stay relevant in the market.

What Micron has decided to walk away from is the lowest-margin way of selling memory: boxed retail products competing on price, rebates, and shelf space. Crucial SSDs and RAM kits were sold into a brutally competitive consumer channel where margins are thin and volatility is constant. That model made sense when consumer PCs and laptops were the growth engine of the industry. That’s no longer the case.

The world Micron operates in today is driven by data centers, cloud infrastructure, enterprise storage, automotive systems, and — most importantly — artificial intelligence. Those customers don’t buy memory off a shelf. They sign long-term contracts. They buy in volume. And they pay a lot more per wafer.

What actually replaces Crucial in Micron’s world

A sweeping shortage of DRAM and NAND, driven by AI demand and global supply constraints, is pushing contract prices up by as much as 60% this quarter.

Memory-chip pricing is no longer inching upward — it’s jumping. Recent reports indicate that Samsung Electronics has raised contract prices for certain memory chips by up to 60% compared with September levels. For example, some 32 GB DDR5 modules are said to have moved from around US$149 in September to roughly US$239 in November. Analysts suggest that for the October–December quarter, Samsung may lift contract pricing 40–50% overall, well above the industry’s already-strong average increases.

The cause isn’t tariffs — it’s capacity. Memory manufacturers are prioritizing high-density DRAM and NAND for AI data-center build-outs, while output on older, mature nodes remains constrained. Inventory levels have fallen, and many buyers are now dealing with allocations instead of open, competitive supply. These supply constraints are global and affect the entire tech ecosystem, from enterprise servers down to consumer devices.

Market sentiment is reflecting the shift as well. Shares of major memory players such as Micron have rallied on expectations of stronger earnings as pricing power returns. While short-term prices for some PC-grade memory products may look less aggressive, the upstream contract hikes are real and will likely filter down across a broad range of components over time.

For buyers and specifiers of storage and memory components, this is not the moment to assume stability. For high-density enterprise SSDs, server DRAM, or large-format modules, it is reasonable to plan for an additional 10–20% in cost. For consumer-grade flash and USB devices, the move may be smaller (around 3–10%), but the bias is still clearly upward.

In short, the flash and memory market has pivoted from discounting mode to premium pricing mode. With AI data-center demand rising and supply constrained, contract pricing is tightening and discount channels are thinning. For tech buyers, locking in volumes early or budgeting for higher component costs is a prudent next step.

A tiny design decision in 1996 didn’t just annoy us — it reshaped tech culture, product adoption, and billions of daily interactions.

This post was drafted on a napkin somewhere between a refill and a revelation.

Let me paint you a picture. It’s 1996. Somewhere in a conference room filled with beige computers and men wearing pleated khakis, a group of engineers is finalizing the design for a new kind of cable called USB.

And then… it happens.

Someone says, “Should we make it work both ways?” Someone else replies, “Nah, people will figure it out.”

That’s it. That was the moment. That was the butterfly wing flap that doomed humanity to decades of flipping a plug three times before it fits.

Fast-forward to today. Seven billion people have lived through the USB Shuffle:

1. Try to plug it in. Doesn’t fit.
2. Flip it. Still doesn’t fit.
3. Flip it back. Suddenly works, because the universe is mocking you.

If you haven’t cursed under your breath during step two, congratulations — you’re either lying or, I don’t know, you use wireless everything and hate productivity.

The Cost of the USB Struggle: Humanity’s Dumbest Time Sink

Let’s talk impact. Because this isn’t just inconvenience. This is a global time suck of biblical proportions.

Quick napkin math:

• Average person plugs in a USB 2× a day
• Each attempt wastes 3–5 seconds of flipping, inspecting, and questioning your life choices
• Multiply by 3+ billion USB users worldwide

We’re looking at millions of hours of collective human existence lost to a tiny, avoidable design flaw.

Think about that. We could’ve cured something. We could’ve written more books. We could’ve finally understood taxes. But no — we were busy rotating a rectangle like chimps trying to solve a puzzle box.

If USB Had Been Reversible From Day One

We recently came across a report from GetUSB.info discussing a new breed of USB flash drive in development by a tech group based in Southern California. What makes this drive unique? It presents itself as a Local Disk instead of removable media — a small but powerful distinction with major implications.

Why does Local Disk mode matter?

Unlike standard USB drives that identify as removable storage, this hardware uses a controller-level configuration to mount as a Fixed Disk. That behavior is consistent across Windows, macOS, and Linux, and is not dependent on software or drivers. For developers and IT professionals, this means improved compatibility with tools that expect a native hard drive environment.

From what we’ve gathered, early testers have pointed out benefits for Windows To Go installations, disk imaging workflows, and locked-down enterprise deployments. Because the OS sees the drive as a hard disk, software that typically blocks USB installs can now proceed without registry tweaks or mounting hacks.

Built with integration in mind

Details emerging from the project indicate that the drives will support USB 2.0 and 3.0 standards, come in multiple case designs, and meet global compliance marks (FCC, CE, RoHS, and UL). Initial models start at 2GB, with custom configurations available for evaluators and system integrators looking to test this fixed-disk approach.

This looks like a welcome solution to a known frustration in the USB space: making a flash drive behave like a permanent part of the system. Instead of clunky workarounds, it’s a plug-and-go experience — built on hardware-level changes, not software patches.

More details are expected once the manufacturer finalizes their specs. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: We’ll include a link to the full product spec sheet as soon as it’s released.

Trump Tariff Hurts USB Flash Drive Market

Yes, there is a tariff on USB flash drives coming from China.

Two tariffs have been assigned to the USB flash drive category when importing product from China since 2020:

• February of 2020 — a 7.5% tariff was enacted by Trump
• January of 2025 — a 10.0% tariff was enacted by Trump

The total tariff amount is currently 17.5% for all USB flash drives imported from China into the United States.

Many economists argue tariffs are harmful to the U.S. economy because they raise costs for consumers and businesses while disrupting global trade. U.S. manufacturers rely heavily on imported semiconductors, steel, and electronic parts. When input costs rise, American companies lose competitiveness, jobs are threatened, and growth slows.

Is this bad? Mostly YES and a little no.

Yes — because a tariff functions as a tax. No matter how you spin it, the cost is passed down to the consumer.

No — because tariffs are designed to reduce the trade deficit by nudging U.S. suppliers to manufacture locally. But in reality, this “reshoring” rarely works in industries with globalized supply chains.

Retaliation is another risk. China, or other partners, can respond with tariffs of their own, hurting U.S. exporters. The cycle becomes less about strategy and more about political chest-thumping.

For example, no major players — Kingston, Western Digital, Nexcopy, or Micron — manufacture flash memory in the United States. All rely on contract factories abroad. Even if final assembly happened in the U.S., NAND memory (85% of the bill of materials) would still need to be imported. In practice, it’s cheaper to pay the tariff than to rebuild the entire supply chain domestically.

Tariffs: An Old Playbook

Tariffs have been around for centuries as a blunt tool to raise revenue and protect domestic industries. But global trade has moved on. Free trade agreements and rules enforced by groups like the WTO have proven more effective for long-term growth. The Trump 2025 administration’s reliance on broad tariffs underscores a lack of modern trade strategy, leaving U.S. consumers holding the bill.

What can you do?

Not much. No U.S. factory is producing USB flash drives, and shipping through third countries like Mexico or Taiwan costs more than paying the tariff. Consumers can’t “game” the system because U.S. Customs enforces thresholds aggressively.

A couple notes:

• Shipments valued under $800 are exempt from tariffs
• But $800 is too small for manufacturers to realistically benefit
• The Harmonization Code for USB Flash Memory is 8523.51.00.00

U.S. flash drive sales are estimated at $5.47 billion for 2024. Even if the U.S. market was just 1% of that figure, the sheer volume makes “under $800 shipments” impractical. Customs would catch on quickly to any attempt at breaking orders down.

Bottom line: tariffs on USB flash drives are here, and they hit end-users hardest. The only real way forward is through better trade policy and electing leaders who understand how to negotiate deals without defaulting to tariffs.

This original article was posted on the English GetUSB.info website at: Is There a Tariff on USB Flash Drives?

Memory Apocalypse: How the Surge in AI Demand Is Rapidly Driving Up the Cost of PC RAM and SSD Storage

The so-called “memory apocalypse” is hitting the PC world like a bad hangover, and it’s showing up everywhere—from empty motherboard aisles to gamers quietly shelving their upgrade plans. Motherboard sales in key markets have fallen by as much as 50%, and the blame lands squarely on exploding DRAM prices. Enthusiasts who planned full new rigs are now downsizing or simply waiting it out because DDR5 kits that were around $79 not long ago are now pushing $140, while 64GB kits routinely sail past $250. Industry trackers show contract memory pricing climbing hard quarter over quarter, and NAND flash wafers used in SSDs are up sharply year over year, pushing SSD prices 20–30% higher and taking the fun right out of “I’ll just add more storage.”

Underneath all this, the villain wearing the expensive suit is AI. Training massive language models, recommendation engines, image generators, and all the other buzzword machines takes a stupid amount of memory. We’re not talking about a couple of DIMMs in a gamer box; we’re talking about racks of servers loaded with high-density DRAM and stacked with ultra-fast NAND-based storage. Nvidia GPU clusters need mountains of memory to keep those accelerators fed, and hyperscale players like Microsoft, Anthropic, and every cloud provider with an AI slide deck are placing orders measured in tens or hundreds of thousands of high-capacity modules. That demand doesn’t just nudge the market—it steamrolls it.

When Samsung and SK Hynix look at that firehose of data center demand, they don’t rush to flood the market with cheap chips. Instead, they “optimize capacity” and “minimize oversupply,” which is corporate-speak for keeping the supply tight and the margins fat. The same logic slams into NAND: AI workloads chew through enormous SSD farms for training data, checkpoints, and logs, so TLC and QLC wafers get bid up before consumer drives ever see them. The end result is simple: data centers get first dibs, and the rest of us pay what’s left over. That’s how you end up with SSDs that cost more this year than last, even when nothing about your gaming rig got any smarter.

The domino effect is brutal. When RAM gets too expensive, nobody buys motherboards. When motherboards sit on shelves, CPU sales stall. GPU deals suddenly don’t look like deals at all, and gamers end up spending their money on cheaper toys like mice, keyboards, and new monitors because at least those don’t require a second mortgage. Even Black Friday couldn’t disguise the mess, with GPU and memory pricing mostly shrugging at the idea of “sale season.” If the current forecasts hold, this memory crunch could stretch into 2028, leaving PC builders tiptoeing around upgrades and nursing a long, ugly DRAM and NAND hangover while the AI giants happily drain the global supply.

Rising Memory Costs Across DDR5, NAND, and Contract Markets

This chart shows (Q4 – 2025) how memory prices have surged across the board, with DDR5 32GB and 64GB kits climbing the fastest over the past several months. Industry contract pricing has also moved upward, including DRAMeXchange’s Memory Contract Index and TLC NAND wafer prices. Together, these trends highlight broad market pressure driven largely by soaring AI demand, supply tightening, and renewed data center spending.

What Is a Security Dongle? (Summary)

A security dongle is a physical USB key that verifies software ownership through hardware-based authentication rather than cloud logins or passwords. Inside the dongle sits a secure chip that stores encrypted keys or runs protected code, making it extremely difficult to clone, spoof, or bypass. Because authentication happens locally on the device, security dongles remain a trusted and highly resilient form of software protection.

Introduced in the 1980s to prevent unauthorized copying of high-value software, dongles continue to be widely used in engineering, media production, industrial automation, and any environment where offline reliability matters. Although they require careful handling and introduce some logistical challenges, their unmatched ability to provide secure offline validation makes them indispensable in many professional workflows.

Read the full article here:

Full Article: What Is a Security Dongle?

iOS 26 Adds a Simple but Powerful Defense Against “Juice Jacking”

Apple’s latest iOS 26 update slips in a quiet security feature that tackles a real-world threat: juice jacking. That’s when someone uses a seemingly harmless charging port to secretly access your phone’s data. The idea has circulated in security circles for years, but Apple’s answer this time is both elegant and firm.

Instead of letting accessories talk to your iPhone without question, the new update inserts a deliberate pause. When you plug a new USB-C accessory into your device, iOS 26 now stops and asks whether you want to allow data access. If you choose “Don’t Allow,” the device will still charge—but the data line stays closed. No silent handshakes. No hidden transfers. Just power.

The protection goes a step further when your phone is locked. iOS 26 blocks data access by default until you unlock the device and explicitly approve the accessory. This ensures that even a quick stop at a public charging kiosk doesn’t quietly expose your data.

This extra step may feel subtle, but the reason behind it is anything but. Over the last decade, several government and security bodies have raised concerns about compromised public charging stations. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has published guidance warning that malware can theoretically be loaded onto public USB ports to compromise devices, though it admits there are no confirmed incidents to date. The U.S. Army Cyber Command released a fact sheet outlining how malicious charging stations might exfiltrate data and advising travelers to avoid public ports altogether. And more recently, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) issued public warnings encouraging air travelers to use their own chargers or portable power banks rather than airport USB kiosks. These aren’t panic headlines—they’re official advisories built on the recognition that the attack vector is real, even if confirmed cases are scarce.

The absence of publicized incidents from airlines or airports doesn’t mean the risk is zero. If a breach occurred, it might go undetected or be treated as a confidential security issue. And with modern operating systems requiring explicit USB permissions, mass attacks are harder than early warnings implied. Still, agencies see enough theoretical and lab-demonstrated risk to recommend caution.

Beyond the new prompt, Apple is encouraging safer charging habits. The update includes battery tips that make it easier to keep your device powered without leaning on questionable public ports. Portable power banks and MagSafe accessories give users options to charge securely on their own terms.

None of this arrives with splashy marketing or a big stage announcement. It’s a quiet, strategic shift that reflects Apple’s broader security approach: give the user the final say. In a world where charging can mean exposure, iOS 26 turns what used to be a passive moment into an intentional choice—reinforced by the kind of security guidance that’s been coming from agencies for years.

Another site we follow, GetUSB.info is hinting at some new technology which will replace the USB Write Protect Switch found in some legacy USB sticks.

Back in 2008, when USB flash drives first really started coming onto the tech scene- many nerds and professionals relied on the physical write-protect switches to make the drives read-only. These switches offered a simple way to prevent file tampering and data corruption. However, their time may be coming to an end.

Word from industry sources points to a prominent USB tech company in SoCal preparing to launch a next-generation flash drive that eliminates the need for a physical switch entirely. Early information suggests the new device leverages firmware-level control to enforce a default read-only mode — removing the risk of accidental toggles or user error.

What’s more, the drive is reportedly password-protected, reverts to read-only upon unplugging, and allows for scripting capabilities ideal for bulk deployment. These features make it especially appealing for use in sectors like healthcare, government, and industrial operations, where data integrity is non-negotiable.

Rather than a mere update, this device appears to represent a complete overhaul of write-protection strategies for USB storage in 2025. An official release is anticipated soon, potentially within the coming days.

With this innovation, the era of the physical write-protect switch is fading — ushering in a more secure and automated standard for portable data protection.

**Editor’s note:** Once GetUSB.info updates their content, we will update here as well.

Review: USB-C cable tester by BLE caberQU

USB-C has firmly established itself as the universal connector standard, integrating data transfer, power delivery, and video output into a single interface. With so many cables on the market, knowing which ones truly deliver on their promises can be challenging. That’s where the BLE caberQU comes in, a great USB-C cable tester that provide all the details one would need.

We can break down the need to test USB-C cables into five categories; and it’s worth noting if you are going to spend good money on a device, monitor or other peripheral, isn’t it worth a bit effort to make sure the cable connecting it all works at the highest level?

The most important factor to consider is USB-C data transfer speed. Different USB-C cables can transfer data at different speeds. For instance, some are USB 2.0 (480 Mbps), while others might support USB 3.1 or USB 3.2, which can go up to 10 or 20 Gbps. Testing the cables makes sure you’re getting the right speed, especially when dealing with large files or using external drives.

The BLE caberQU performs great in its main functions. It provides a dependable way to test USB-C cables for data speed, charging power, and overall condition. The LED indicators give a clear and quick visual of the cable’s pin connections, making testing easier. The LCD screen goes further by showing detailed information about the data speed of the cable being tested.

The second most important category is Compatibility. Not all USB-C cables are created equally. Some might not be compatible with high-speed protocols like Thunderbolt 3 or 4, which can impact both data transfer rates and compatibility with devices like monitors or docks. The BLE caberQU provides a systematic way to determine the true connectivity protocol of the cable. Although some cables may give false positive results, it is recommended to test the cable multiple times for Compatibility to insure the BLE caberQU reports the correct value.