The article author probably bought the starter kit a while ago. It might explain why the pore count was low. It's a biological product so it degrades over time.
These are by no means a new product. I think the early prototypes for these possibly predate the microUSB plug.
The brochures always showed it next to a completely non-sterile laptop, but it never made sense. It's fundamentally a bio lab equipment, just small. You probably should be wiping the package with disinfectant, use DNA-cides as needed, or follow whatever bioscience people consider the basic common sense hygiene standards.
> The brochures always showed it next to a completely non-sterile laptop
This can be done in the field (read near a lot of dirt). This does not require sterility at all. The main problems with this are keeping your prep clean (which is different from sterile; primarily involves not getting bubbles where they shouldn't be etc.) and temperature/salt handling.
> These are by no means a new product. I think the early prototypes for these possibly predate the microUSB plug.
> You probably should be wiping the package with disinfectant, use DNA-cides as needed, or follow whatever bioscience people consider the basic common sense hygiene standards.
The consumable product is what needs to be stored carefully. Its delivered DNA-free; no disinfectant is needed. It's actually hard for accidental DNA to be introduced at the sequencing step; that would usually reflect poor practices earlier on.
