Review of SD Card Readers

[Bob Russell]

There are less and less mobile device users that don't also use a memory card. But we've also learned that it's usually much slower if you use your device synch to move data between a desktop computer and a memory card.

So a card reader becomes the natural choice. Personally, I'm very happy with my Sandisk ImageMate 5 in 1 Reader. Be careful of older card readers because the old firmware can cause cards to be corrupted or even rendered unusable. (I've experience this myself, and ended up throwing away the old card reader.)

Palm Addicts is pointing us to a nice review of SD card readers at TreoCentral..."I hate performing HotSync operations. Back in the day, Palm users did not have fancy NVRAM that prevented data loss when your battery died, so a daily HotSync was almost a necessity. Since a daily sync operation took less than a minute, it wasn't too bad. However, with the Treo's multimedia features, syncing can be a real pain. It can take 10-20 minutes to transfer a few sound or video files to the Treo's SD card. With 1 GB SD memory expansion cards prices are coming down, it can really take a long time to get your multimedia files over to the SD card."

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by BobR

So a card reader becomes the natural choice. Personally, I'm very happy with my Sandisk ImageMate 5 in 1 Reader. Be careful of older card readers because the old firmware can cause cards to be corrupted or even rendered unusable. (I've experience this myself, and ended up throwing away the old card reader.)

I had a Sandisk ImageMate and presumably one with an older firmware (bought at Compusa on Nov 26th, 2004). It killed my 1GB SD card several times and with it all the data that was stored on it. Ever since then, I don't trust external card readers. I either use WiFi to directly access software on my desktop PC (via shared drives), or use CardExport. Both alternative methods of exchanging data between my PPC and my desktop have been very reliable (although perhaps not as fast as using an external reader).