Fountain Valley-based Kingston Technology Inc. has packed 2 terabytes of storage into a USB flash drive the size of a pack of bubble gum.
The DataTraveler Ultimate Generation Terabyte, the world’s largest-capacity USB drive, will set consumers back a bit with its $1,650 price tag on Kingston’s website.
The device, which is about 3 inches long and 1 inch high and wide, is geared for niche users, such as architects, production studios for offloading dailies, and IT departments for accessing hard drives.
“We don’t sell a lot of these, but they do sell,” Kingston spokesperson David Leong told the Business Journal during a demo at the Venetian Las Vegas in January at CES, the world’s largest consumer electronics show.
The 2-ounce USB drive can store 70 hours of 4K video, or more than 500,000 photos shot with a 12 megapixel camera.
Kingston four years ago released a breakthrough 1 terabyte flash drive that garnered plenty of hoopla at CES. The device costs about $950.
“We’ve been working on this for a while,” Leong said. “If our customers come to us and request something and we can build it, we’ll find the solution.”
Kingston is the world’s largest memory products maker for computers and consumer electronics, with estimated revenue last year of $6.6 billion, up from $6.5 billion in 2015.
Esports on Road
The Esports Arena in Santa Ana is taking its game on the road.
The company and its Chinese backer, Allied Esports, plans to debut a mobile esports truck this summer.
The Esports Arena Drive aims to bring the excitement and experience of big competitive gaming tournaments to roadsides across the nation in an effort to amplify and develop local esports scenes.
The semi-trailer truck can convert from a standard vehicle to an arena and studio in less than two hours.
The idea builds on a successful tour last year in Europe, where the first mobile esports truck, Big Betty, debuted at Gamescom, the continent’s largest trade show for interactive games and entertainment.
The Esports Arena made a splash in 2015 with the establishment of the first dedicated gaming venue in North America in downtown Santa Ana, which typically draws hundreds of members from around the world for its weekly events and competitions.
A multimillion-dollar investment last year by Beijing-based Allied Esports fueled an expansion into Oakland, where it’s scheduled to open another location in the next few months.
Allied’s network includes the Esports Arena in Santa Ana, Wangyu Esports in Beijing, and the Big Betty mobile esports truck and studio in Europe, along with planned expansion sites in Oakland and Shenzhen, China.
Allied is a joint venture between three Chinese entities Ourgame International, owner of WPT Enterprises and the World Poker Tour; online game developer KongZhong, which is traded on the Nasdaq; and the IRENA Group, which manages and operates sports events, services, franchises and venues.
Innovation
Ontario-based CU Direct plans to establish an Innovation Center in Irvine where its credit union customers can brainstorm ideas and test software and other products.
The company’s marketing team will be among the first employees to move to the office at 18400 Von Karman Ave.
The maker of software and other technology products for the credit union sector plans a grand opening this week.
