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Apacer Disk Steno

Saturday, August 09, 2003

Going out for a vacation but need more pictures than your digital camera can store? Now you have an alternative to buying expensive additional flash cards and memory sticks. Enter, Apacer’s Disc Steno, a discman-sized stand-alone flash card to CD copier that will dump all the contents from your flash card onto a multi-session CD-R or CD-RW. What’s more, it also works as an external 24xCD-R/10xCD-RW/ 24x CDROM drive when hooked up to your computer via USB 2.0 (or USB 1.0). 

The device reads most popular digital media formats like CompactFlash (CF I and II), MicroDrive, Memory Stick (MS), SecureDigital (SD), MultiMedia (MMC), SmartMedia (SM) and xD by using an optional xD to CF adapter. It runs on included Panasonic rechargeable batteries that give you enough juice for at least half a dozen 128 MB flash card to CD transfers. And you can always recharge the batteries using the car charger that plugs into the cigarette lighter point. It comes with a nice protective carrying case.

The multi-session ensures that you can take multiple dumps on one CD. A complete dump from a 128 MB memory stick takes less than four minutes. It takes around 5 mins to burn a 650 MB CD when used as an external CD-writer.

The whole thing is extremely easy to use and shows what can be done if you do away the frills that generally clog today’s high-tech products. Plug in the flash card, put in a CD and press the REC button and voila! 

You’re done.

It would have been fantastic if this cool device also played audio. However, even without it, it is still a good deal at around Rs 7,000. 

Price: Rs 18,990 (one-year warranty) Contact: Xserve India, Bangalore. 5572601/5572603. E-mail: info@xserves.com  

Manas Mittal

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