While Xbox 360 owners might think that today’s system update was routine, it is far from usual.  The April 6th update is an important one, allowing Xbox 360 owners to use their own USB flash drives and eliminating the need for proprietary memory cards, as was announced last month.  In addition to augmenting your system's own storage, memory cards (and now USB flash drives) allow players to save and transfer their profiles, save files, and Xbox LIVE Arcade games. 

Up to two 16GB flash drives may be used at once, with a 1GB minimum requirement, though they may need to be formatted in the system settings.  Of particular note to those keeping their systems offline, Microsoft plans to sell its own pre-configured brand (which can already be pre-ordered from Amazon and GameStop) sometime in May.  Set to be provided by SanDisk, the preformatted, Xbox 360 brand flash drives will also come with a 1 month Xbox LIVE Gold membership; they will be available in 8GB and 16GB sizes and cost $39.99 and $69.99, respectively.