The Upgrade Path

I was very happy when, after a huge amount of searching, I found the Lexar Single Slot Multi-Card Reader. It’s a great little product that does exactly what I wanted. The less eagle-eyed of you may be thinking: but it’s just a USB pen, you can pick them up anywhere for under a tenner. Yes, but this isn’t a USB pen, it’s a USB adapter. You see, the radio in my car has an SD/MMC card to allow me to play MP3s on the move, so when I bought my personal MP3 player, I specifically looked for one which had an SD/MMC card slot. This allows me to use the card, and hence listen to the music, both in and out of the car. So, now I’ve become committed to SD/MMC as my flash memory platform (excluding my camera, which has a Compact Flash card).

When I was thinking of getting a little USB drive/pen it occurred to me that it would be better if they made a device the same size as a pen, but that would take a flash card. I could have bought a standard card adapter, but I wanted something that protected the card and wouldn’t let it fall out should it take a jolt or two. Finding one took some doing though, hence my excitement at finding the Lexar. I don’t know why more of these things aren’t made. Not only can I increase the size of it’s storage capacity should I want to, but, when I’m not using it (I doubt I’ll use the pen too often, nor do I make great use of my MP3 player when not travelling) I can remove the card and use it for something else. I’m not sure if other people think about their storage formats or just mix and match depending on the devices they buy, but I’ll certainly be paying attention in future, especially as more and more devices include removable storage.