The USB 3.0 might be closer than it appears. The USB Promoter Group finalized the “SuperSpeed” USB 3.0 specification today and we are to expect more details to emerge soon.

Flash drives and hard drives are expected to be the first devices to take advantage of the new technology but we’re at least 8 months away from an USB 3.0 product release. The second half of 2009 or even later will bring us the new USB 3.0 ready drives.

How fast is USB 3.0 you ask? Well imagine a 25GB HD movie. With USB 1.0 you would copy it in 9.3 hours. With current USB 2.0 you would do it in 13.9 minutes while with USB 3.0 the job is reduced to 70 seconds. We’re looking forward to a hands-on experience, whenever that will happen! Let’s see what Intel, Microsoft, NEC and Texas Instruments are going to do with the whole USB 3.0 thing!