IMAGEMATE WORKS WITH 12 MEMORY CARD STANDARDS
Did we learn a lesson in the Betamax vs VHS standards war?
Evidently not since incompatible standards continue to plague the
computer and digital technology worlds to this day. And while DVD
has all but replaced tape, we still have to deal with a myriad of
recordable DVD standards. Time does have a way of working things out
though. Many of the DVD recorders now work with multiple standards
but there are even more on the way.
Incompatibility issues continue in even the newest kinds of
media. Take flash memory as an example. Flash memory cards continue
to appear in all kinds of consumer electronic devices these days.
Cell phones, computers, PDAs, digital cameras and printers are just
some of the many devices that work with or rely upon these tiny
flash memory cards that retain megabytes of data without battery
power. Yet there are around 12 different formats out there in the
mainstream. And while these cards come in different shapes, sizes
and capacities, they all basically do the same thing. Why oh why do
they keep making different flash memory standards? Just to keep you
up on the matter, the different flash memory cards are CompactFlash
Type I and Type II, SD Card, miniSD, MultiMediaCard, RS-MMC, Memory
Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo,
SmartMedia and xD.
 But
I have a way for you to deal with all of them at once. It turns out
that there is one company that makes all of these flash memory card
types. So it wasn't much of a stretch for them to come up with a
single device that can read as well as write to every single one of
them. The company is SanDisk and their device is called the
ImageMate 12-in-1 Reader/'Writer.
Actually SanDisk makes several different ImageMates but this
12-in-1 model represents their latest effort to consolidate the many
Flash memory standards. The ImageMate 12-in-1 Card Reader/Writer is
a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 multi-card Reader/Writer that connects to your
computer's USB 2.0 port. I was glad to see that it supports the
faster USB 2.0 standard since many of the newer cards can hold
gigabytes of data. The faster transfer rate makes working with the
slower flash memory cards a lot more tolerable although it is fully
backwards compatible with the slower USB 1.1. The ImageMate 12-in-1
also sports a large transfer button to initiate the transfer
process. This requires the installation of the included special
Windows driver and is not supported on the Macintosh platform.
However, it is fully compatible with the Macintosh OS X operating
system, needs no additional software to operate and so it works
right out of the box.
 An
amber power light indicates the ImageMate is receiving power from
its USB connection as it needs no separate power adaptor. Inserting
any of the 12 kinds of flash memory cards lights a corresponding
green LED that shows the card is being recognized by the device. The
face of the ImageMate is clearly labeled so you know what kind of
memory card plugs into which slot. You can insert more than one card
at the same time if you are so inclined. When inserted, an image of
the card will appear on your computer's desktop as a logical device.
From there, you treat the data on the card as you would an other
storage device.
The ImageMate 12-in-1 Reader/'Writer comes with its own stand
that positions the unit at an optimal vertical angle or you can
simply let it rest on the table. But however you position it, it
puts you in the best possible position when it comes to dealing with
all of your different flash memory cards.
The ImageMate 12-in-1 Reader/'Writer sells for $34.99 and is
available from the SanDisk website at
www.sandisk.com. |
