Lexar has announced that its JumpDrive series USB flash drives will ship with Google software such as Picasa, Google Toolbar, and Google Desktop search beginning January 2006.
Upon first using the drive, the user will be prompted to install the applications. If the user wishes to do so, all three will be automatically installed and then removed from the flash drive. The applications are Windows only, so Mac and Linux users wishing to use the full capacity of the drive will have to manually remove the files.
"We"re excited to make it possible for people to easily search the
documents, photos, music and video they store on their Lexar JumpDrives
and computer hard drives as well as to find information on the
Internet," said Marissa Mayer, Google"s Vice President, Search Products
& User Experience.
Overall, is this really good news for the consumer? Why put freeware applications available on the internet on a flash drive and then prompt the user, who has already paid for the device, to click through screens and manually remove files?