• Product: SmartDisk's VST USB Flash Media Reader
• Date: 3-10-01
• Reviewer: Dave Schultz
• Company: SmartDisk VST
• URL: www.vsttech.com
• Company Specs Page: Here ya go.
• Contact: sales@vsttech.com
• Price: $69
• Rating: 5 out of 5 bites from the Apple -- very tasty!

A Personal Story: Testing Under Intense Expo Conditions

Okay, here is the story. We had everything we needed for our first MacWorld Expo trip. Since I would be doing reports "from the floor" as it were I had my Powerbook but I needed a camera. So we went out and bought an Olympus 460 digital camera. It has good image quality but lacked a USB connection for my Powerbook. But I needed to transfer files from its Flash Media card. I could spend some money on a USB adapter or even Olympus' reader, but I had other ideas. Namely, I had my eye, for some time, on the SmartDisk's VST USB Flash Media Reader.

Because we have reviewed SmartDisk's VST products before, I made an inquiry with them about a review unit. The PR person said to meet her on the Expo floor. You know, bigwig power lunch meeting and all that!! Ahem ... so SmartDisk's VST booth was our first stop. After all, I had the Powerbook, the camera, but no way to make them talk with each other. I could take all the pictures I wanted to but they'd never see the light of day on the site without a reader. The contact promptly gave me a review unit (how is that for service!!). Would it work right then there? It better.

We walked over to a corner of the show hall and sat down on the floor. As the crowds passed, some looking down at us wondering what we were doing sitting on the floor (yes, along with about a 100 others resting their feet!), I opened SmartDisk's VST FlashMedia Reader right there, installed the sofware from the enclosed CD, rebooted, and attached the drive to the Powerbook. I put my pic-stuffed Flash card in it, and, in flash (sorry, couldn't resist), the disk showed right up on the desktop with all my pics nice and secure. I just dragged them to a directory on the Powerbook, opened them in Photoshop for a little cleaning, and using AirPort in the Press Room got the keynote pictures to my Expo editor.

The Flash Media drive shows right up on your desktop, like any other disk.

During the next three days at the Expo this little media reader was put through some hard paces. I took a lot of pictures and did a lot of transfers. I could not imagine a more stressful workout for this little media reader, and it passed with flying colors! SmartDisk's VST Flash Reader saved me when I was without a solution at the Expo, and the ease of use and reliability of the product was a godsend at a critical time for me.

Spoking the Digital Hub

As portable digital devices become even more ubiquitous we will need reliable, fast FlashMedia and Compact Flash Media readers. We'll have a lot of files being transferred between all kinds of devices. As we realize Steve Jobs' vision of a "digital hub" we'll need a way to connect the spokes. With iTunes and DiskBurner, and a Rio MP3 Player in hand, we'll be transferring MP3s all the time. Digital cameras are becoming less expensive and better. we will be taking a lot of pics and will need to get them to our Macs. With a Mac as a hub, SmartDisk's VST Flash Media Reader is a device which will help us spoke it.

The Media Reader reads SmartMedia and Compact Flash (type I and II) cards. You use these cards with digital cameras, PDA's, and MP3 players. Cameras and MP3 players have the largest files to deal with. But even with a USB connection this little drive performs very well. Its simple drag-n-drop, just like a small floppy. We have only an 8 MB card to use, but even with a nearly full 8 MB the Media Reader transfers files very quickly. SmartMedia transfer rates are 475KB/sec (Read, max), 353KB/sec (Write, max). Compact Flash transfer rates are 746 KB/Sec (Read, max), and 624KB/sec (Write, max). While not quite up to USB rates these speeds are sufficient for most user's purposes.

SmartDisk's VST brand is becoming known for its flashy designs, and the Flash Media Reader is no different. The triangular, almost non-Euclidean (if you can imagine that!), design is a nice change from flat drives. It sits vertically on the desktop without taking up a lot room, and weighs a mere 6 oz. At first, for me being new to Flash media, it got a bit confusing putting in a media card, making sure it is inserted right, but once you get used to what's up and down the cards snap right in. A glowing green LED tells you the card is being read. We have the black, metalic model which looks nice next to a Palm IIIc dock or attached to a Pismo.

And there is an extra Mac users get with this drive: iView MultiMedia. In case you do not know what it is (I have registered and used it for years), it is media cataloging application. (The same streamlined version that comes with this drive also comes with Toast Deluxe.) It reads TIFF, PNG, JPG, GIF, and many other kinds of media types, inclusing sound files. You can export a folder of pics as html and iView will write the code for a nice slide show or thumbnail gallery for you as well. It's perfect for digital camera users who will use this drive for lots of pictures -- it can become confusing which picture is which (especially since the Olympus camera I have uses nonstandard naming schemes for the files). Well, iView MultiMedia will catalog them through simple drag-n-drop and you can see your pictures thumbed in a nice catalog. This little extra really makes the SmartDisk's VST Flash Media Reader even more useful. You get a demo version of the streamlined products on the CD. You can register a single version for $25. I suggest you do -- it's a nice program, and an OS X version is on the way.

Note: If you go to the iView page you will see the newest incarnation of this media cataloging app -- iView Media Pro. The version that came with the Flash Reader has been replaced by this new version which is jam packed with features. We plan do to a separate review of this new application soon.

I have tested the Flash Media Reader on a G4 (AGP), connecting the drive to both the USB ports on the G4 and through a KeySpan 4 Port USB Hub with no problems. I have also used it with a Pismo with the same results. There have been no software conflicts, and the install only puts a single "VST Flash Media" 88k extension in your System Folder which keeps conflicts and hassles to a minimum. After working with literally hundreds of pictures with this drive I can say that not one conflict or corrupt file has showed up. Solid indeed. I have used to transfer pics from the camera as well as MP3 files.

There are two models of the drive (see the first picture at the top of this article): The black like we have, and a blue-ice one with a "color kit" to match all your fruity iMacs (sorry, no Flower Power yet!).

SmartDisk's VST division has done it again with a simple plug-n-play device that will help Mac users realize Steve Jobs' vision of a "digital hub." After all, a digital camera, PDA, and an MP3 player are spokes of that hub, and now we have a simple, reliable and stylish way to implement them thanks to SmartDisk's VST Reader. The digital hub is becoming a reality.

Email David Schultz

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