BIOS: Technology Means Business

The V-Reader does what is says on the box - no more, no less. It's not the prettiest memory card reader in the world, but it is one of the smallest. If you don't already have a memory card reader/writer, the V-Reader would make an ideal low-cost choice - especially for those who travel regularly with a laptop and digital camera.

Pros: Small; light; informative LEDs; no external power supply needed
Cons: No carry case provided; plastic look and feel

V-Tec's V-Reader is currently one of the world's smallest 6-in-1 memory card readers/writers. Designed primarily for digital camera users, the V-Reader has card slots for six of the most popular memory cards and costs less than £20. It also ships with a CD-ROM containing drivers for Windows 98, 2000 and Mac OS 8.x/9.x, a Word file containing brief installation instructions and a Mini USB cable.

The V-Reader connects to your PC (Windows 9x, ME, 2000 or XP) or Mac (Mac OS 8.6 or higher) through a 12MB/s USB 1.1 or 480MB/s USB 2.0 connection. It's designed as a low-cost alternative to the company's V-XS Drive 2, a card reader which is equipped with 20GB-30GB of hard disk storage capacity. Relatively light and compact, the V-Reader includes four integrated memory card slots (Compact Flash Type, SD/MMC, Smart Media and Memory Stick), all of which can be used simultaneously. IBM Microdrives are also supported.

The device is powered through a USB port, so no external power supply is needed. Hot-swapping support means you can insert and remove the device from your USB port without re-booting your PC, as well as insert and remove memory cards whenever you please. The four slots can all be used at the same time for reading and writing data. A neat little touch is the five LED indicators which illuminate when the device is powered and when a certain media card loaded into the device.

Specifications:
Size: 52x90x15mm
Weight: 44.4g
Card slots: CF Type I/II, SD, MMC, Smart Media, Memory Stick
Interface: USB 1.1/2.0
Read speed: 7.1MB/s
Write speed: 2.6MB/s
Other: Busy LED
OS: Windows 98/2000/ME/XP, Mac OS 8.x or later, Linux 2.4.0 or later

Links:
V-Tek V-Reader Web site