Occasionally, the Dazzle reader experienced errors. Transfer rates averaged 1.3 MB/s when connected to a USB 2.0 port, except where the older card was involved. I was particularly curious to see if the Dazzle 6 in 1 Media Reader displayed any problems with older Compact Flash cards. A green LED is located on the left side of the reader to signal operations.įor the purposes of this Daily Feature, I used 8-MB, 16-MB, and 64-MB Compact Flash cards. There are two ports on the front of the reader-one for Compact Flash devices and the other for the SD cards, MMCs, Smart Media, and Memory Sticks. The black and gray casing does not draw attention to itself, nor, in my opinion, should it. It is only a bit larger than a mouse and has a similar profile. Macintosh OS X and Linux support is not available from Dazzle. For Macintosh OS 9.x and Windows 2000 or 98 SE, you have to run the installation process first and reboot the computer before attaching the device. Installation is a simple matter of plugging the device into a USB port on Windows Me or XP. The presentation card has the basic installation instructions printed on it, something I wish more products that don’t include printed manuals did. The packaging is a typical blister pack containing the reader, warranty cards, and a CD with the drivers and user manual PDF. Capable of reading all Compact Flash cards, including Microdrives, MMC, SD cards, Memory Sticks, and 3.3-volt Smart Media cards, it can clear a lot of clutter off your desk. Dazzle, maker of a variety of media-crossing devices, has combined this multitude of readers into the 6 in 1 Universal Media Reader, a single, relatively low-profile device equipped with a fast USB 2.0 interface that retails for $49.99. With sizes ranging from an almost-pitiable 4 MB up to at least 256 MB on most formats, with Microdrives able to reach over 1 GB, managing that data requires having media readers, likely many media different readers, to get that data onto your network.

Between Compact Flash (Types I, II, and the high-power II variant used by Microdrives), Smart Media, MultiMedia Cards (MMC), Secure Data (SD) cards, and Memory Sticks, you probably have to support as many different kinds of memory cards as you do portable digital devices. Tell us what you think - opens in new window or tabIt seems like no two portable digital devices use the same type of flash memory.

Dazzle usb card reader