Hands-on

Trade

4 September 2006

The arrival of Transcend’s new portable multi-card reader in the Irish Computer offices could not have come at a more propitious moment: Having misplaced an essential USB cable, I had no way of transferring pictures from my digital camera to a PC. (Note to self: when buying next digital camera, ensure its USB socket is a standard one).

 
Perhaps the most obvious feature of Transcend’s portable multi-card reader is its funky appearance, with brightly coloured outer case and neatly recessed sockets. On the more practical side, its rounded edges and light weight mean it slips easily into a shirt pocket. It measures 70mm x 70mm x 15mm and it weighs just 43g.

The reader comes packaged with a mini CD for installing the accompanying software, though this is not required for PCs running Windows ME or XP. Also supplied are a USB cable and a quick-start instruction leaflet. A more comprehensive user manual is available in PDF format from Transcend’s website.

Using the portable reader could not have been simpler. Plug one end of the supplied USB cable into the reader and the other into a USB port in the PC. Within seconds, Windows XP recognised the reader as a removable drive. Once the memory card had been removed from my camera and plugged into the portable reader, the image files could be dragged and dropped onto the PC’s hard drive.

My sole criticism – and it is just a niggle – was that the supplied USB cable seemed a tad short, which might irritate anyone using a tower PC located beneath a desk..

The reader’s five input slots handle the following formats: CompactFlash card type I / II, Microdrive, Secure Digital (SD) card, miniSD, MultiMedia Card (MMC), RS-MMC, MMCplus, MMCmobile, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo, and xD.

Being a USB device, it requires no power source other than the PC. Data transfer rates are up to 480Mbit/sec for USB 2. It runs on all versions of Windows from 98 onwards, and on Mac and Linux machines.

www. transcend-uk.com

 

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