I just got a samsung-a920 cell phone to play with and one of the most interesting aspects is the absolutely TINY TransFlash memory card that comes as part of the package. As you can see from the picture at the right this card is smaller than an American quarter. It comes with the SD adapter, also pictured. Now, this got me thinking. I had seen at least one USB card reader in the past. Are there more? Are they small? SO I set out to discover what is out there. What I was looking for were models that look like USB thumb drives. I have seen the multi-slots that are often large and clumsey (in my view). What I want is something small and easy to carry around. And something that’s going to work in nearly every computer.|
All of the following drives use USB 1.1 or 2.0 and can be used on windows and Mac OS 9 or greater. They don’t all read every memory card, however. And some will need an adaptor for certain cards like the very very small TransFlash. These cards tend to come with their adaptors, which is good.
|
The Ezonics SD2GO can read SD/MMC Cards and comes with browsing photo software and photo touch up software, although people have been known to complain about the looseness of the cap.
IOGear GFR202SD Drive reads Digital Card (SD) and MultiMedia Card (MMC) memory cards for PCs or Macs. There’s also a complaint about the end caps being loose with this model as well. I ended up buying this one and so far I haven’t had any significant problem with the caps.
Iogear – GFR201TF has LED power and data indicator light when reading Micro Secure Digital Cards (microSD) and TransFlash Cards
Lexar makes a 4-in-1 single slot Card Reader which can read SD, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, MMC and xD-Picture cards.
Next is the PQI Traveling U728 Genie 6 in 1 Flash Memory Card Reader. The expansion slot supports SD and MMC cards. You can also insert miniSD, microSD, RS-MMC, and Mobile MMC formats with adaptors.
SanDisk claims that it’s MobileMate line is the smallest reader on the market. You can insert SD, miniSD, MultiMediaCard, RS-MMC, TransFlash.
Bonzai achieves a fast data-transfer rate of 60MB/s (480 Mb/s) by using the latest USB technology
Supermedia Handy 6 in 1 reader can read SD, MMC, miniSD, microSD, RS-MMC, Dual Voltage MMC formats.
The Kanguru MicroDrive can read SD and MMC cards, and can even be used in linux systems (at least Kernal 2.4). It comes with a USB cable and has red and green LED lights so you know when the drive is reading/writing.
Sabrent makes a pen drive (CR-SDMMC -V21) that seems to read every known memory card in existence! And by that I mean MMC, MMC Mobile, MMCI, ULTRAMMC, DV MMC, RS MMC, HS MMC, HS RS MMC, RS MMCII, ULTRA RS MMC, DV RS MMC, SD, MINI SD, ULTRA SD, DV SD, HS Mini SD, Extreme SD, SD PRO, SD Elite Pro – , HS SD, T-Flash.Written by Cecilia