[ajross]

It's, uh, a reference to "new car smell" -- the combination of fragrance and volatile outgassing from new plastics that only lasts for a few months after manufacture. Even if you missed the social reference you got the idea: "new hard drive smell" is surely a physically similar effect.

[khedoros1]

I understood that part of the reference, but "tech" is ambiguous. If it meant "technician", then it would imply to me that the "new memory smell" was both figurative and something that a human nose could detect, in a literal sense.

Reading the article makes it clear that "tech" refers to "technology", making it more likely that the "smell" is purely figurative.

[codetrotter]

I too expected to read about people smelling the flash memory. The reason I expected that was exactly because I have smelt new car smell.

[mirimir]

You can buy that smell in a spray can.