Recently I purchased a new USB Flash Drive, and it came equipped with a new technology U3 installed on it. This is a fantastic tool as it enables me to run programs I have installed on the Flash Drive on other computers, without having to install software on the machine, for example the Firefox browser. Also I can run an anti-virus program when I connect the drive to a computer, and have the anti-virus program confirm that it is safe for me to use drive on the computer I am connecting to, safe in the knowledge that I won't get a virus on the drive, that I could by accident take to another computer.
I think in the future, drives like this will really take off. For example lets say you work in an office and you don't have your own desk, because the company you work for does not give an employee a specific desk, with a U3 enabled flash drive you can take your computer settings and use them on any machine, as well as have access to your contacts, e-mails etc all on the key.
Only downside is that this technology is only available at the moment for a Windows PC. It would be great if it worked on an Apple Mac or a Linux machine. Perhaps in the future someone will develop this technology so that it works no matter which operating system you use.