If you are looking for a simple way enjoy your tunes on the go, look no further than the Verbatim Store 'n' Go Car Audio USB Drive. The iPod is a fabulous way to enjoy your music anywhere, but when it comes to connecting it in your car, it can get a bit messy. There's the less than attractive wire that can get in the way at the most inopportune times, and let's not forget the fact that accelerating and decelerating can cause your iPod to take a trip towards the floor, usually as far away from you as humanly possible. The Verbatim Store 'n' Go Car Audio USB Drive puts to use the USB port built into your car or home stereo stystem, giving you a wireless way to enjoy your music library.

Features

It's main purpose is to make your car audio experience more enjoyable and simple, but it can also be used in any stereo which features a USB port. Most stereos on the market today, car or otherwise, feature a USB port. This tiny little device offers 8GB of space to load your music library, which equates to roughly 2,000 song files. Plug the flash drive into the port on your dash, and away you go. You probably won't even remember it's there, and passengers will likely not notice it is there, either. It is sleek and designed to blend in with its surroundings, which is the only problem with it: if you want to remove the device, you might have a tough time as there is not much to grab on to. It's best to just leave it plugged in.

Design and Compatibility

It measures 0.30 by 0.57 by 0.68 inches, making it smaller than a penny. Weighing in at 2 grams, it is lighter than one, too. This miniscule size is its biggest flaw. It is so small, if removed from the drive and misplaced, you may never find it. In fact, during testing, the device was lost numerous times.

The Store 'n' Go Audio has no software installed save for the plug-and-play drivers, and is preformatted in FAT32. The device is compatible not only with all Windows and Macs, but also WinCE and Linux which is used in the a lot of the stereos, TVs, and various other media devices on the market today.

Performance

Testing showed the drive had a read speed of 26MBps and a write speed of 12MBps, both great speeds for a USB 2.0 drive. Quite unexpected performance for a device designed solely for playing MP3 files, especially with its miniscule size.

Value

If you are looking for a way to more easily and attractively listen to tunes on the go and you intend to leave this device plugged in for a long period of time, the Verbatim Store 'n' Go Audio USB Drive is probably a great investment at $14, which seems to be the cost for 8GB of storage across the board. If you are looking for a more secure drive, you'll have to look elsewhere as this device offers no form of protection or security whatsoever.