What is the release date of USB 3.0?

Hi,

You'll be happy to know that not only has it been confirmed, but it has been released sometime back. The specification for USB 3.0 had been announced in November, 2008 and since then, has been available on a variety of storage devices and computers/laptops. Companies like Seagate and Western Digital have already released External Hard Disks with USB 3.0 compatibility. If you're keen on buying storage with USB 3.0 capabilities, here are a couple of links to get you started:

Western Digital My Passport Essential:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=440

Seagate GoFlex External Drive:

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/freeagent/desktop-hard-drive/

Kingston, Transcend and other flash-drive manufacturing companies have also come up with USB 3.0 pen drives for usage. Even the latest laptops come with a built-in USB 3.0 port.

More information about USB 3.0:

Transmission speeds greater than 5 Gigabits per second, which is 10 times faster than USB 2.0 (480 Megabits per second).

It significantly helps in reducing time while transferring data, has a lower power consumption, and is backwards compatible with USB 2.0. This means that one can use USB 3.0 on any device that supports USB 2.0.