Every piece of hardware that I test should be as easy to use as the VST Flash Media Reader. This attractive and clever little storage device for CompactFlash or SmartMedia memory cards belongs to a family of drive-related products from SmartDisk Corp., formerly VST Technologies. The VST Flash is available in two styles: Both share the same upright wedge shape with a tiny footprint, but one is trimmed out in black and silver, while the other is white with a snap-on color kit that coordinates with your Apple iBook, iMac, or G3/G4 Power Macintosh.
I received the Apple version and quickly replaced the grape trim with blueberry to match my G3. Whatever style you choose, the compact device fits anywhere, and its non-skid base keeps it from dancing around your desktop. As I write this, it's comfortably snuggled between my 21-inch CTX monitor and G3 Tower.
Connecting the drive is simple. You plug a single USB cord into your computer. Unlike some USB devices, the VST Flash Media Reader easily works through hubs. It performed perfectly when connected though my four-port Belkin USB Hub. There's no power connection needed; all of the power for this tiny drive is provided by the USB connection itself. This makes the reader a good match for digital imagers who want to download files to their laptop computers. After the driver is installed from the provided CD-ROM disk, you're ready to get started.
Unlike other card readers I've tried, the VST Flash has small LEDs at the bottom of each vertical card slot. When you insert a card, the light flickers between green, yellow, and red before turning solid green to let you know that the card has been mounted. Inserting a CompactFlash or SmartMedia memory card creates an icon on your virtual desktop. Once mounted, your computer treats the card as if it were any other kind of removable media, such as an Iomega Zip or floppy disk. You can open images with Adobe Photoshop or any other digital imaging program or simply copy selected files to your hard disk. You can even copy image files from CompactFlash to SmartMedia cards inserted into the drive without having to save them to your hard disk first.
Quibbles? The VST Flash Media Reader won't read Sony's Memory Stick, but few products outside Sony's own compound do. What it will do is handle Type II CompactFlash cards, which means it will read IBM's Microdrive, which is far more useful to the digital imager than Memory Stick is at this point in the digital-film continuum. While I've referred to the VST Flash Media Reader as a digital imaging device, it's applications go outside that realm to include collectors of MP3 music files and users of any other devices that store files on CompactFlash and SmartMedia cards. The VST Flash Media Reader costs $69.95, and you can purchase it at your favorite retailer or from SmartDisk's Web site.
