iPod Media Reader Slowness

gsfprez writes "According to an official statement by Belkin over at iPodlounge, the reason it takes 22 minutes to transfer a few pictures from your digital SLR's CF card to your iPod with their $99 iPod Media Reader is that, well, that's how they designed it. They wanted to 'address the needs of the largest percentage of owners of digital cameras and iPods,' because -- and let's be honest -- when you want to transfer 128 megs of pictures from your $200 digital camera, you think '$600 worth of iPod and media reader please!,' and not $14 flash readers." Belkin did say they are trying to work out a solution with Apple, perhaps in the iPod firmware, but it seems the problem may be with the design of the reader itself.

Comments

belkin and macs...

[irving47]

Belkin might make some spiffy hardware, but their commitment to Mac OS X is questionable. Ask anyone who's had a Belkin USB-DB9 Serial adapter for the last three YEARS and Belkin just won't get off their asses and release any drivers for it. They flat out lied to me on the Macworld show floor last January...

that price comparison is unfair

[Snuffub]

The whole point of the belkin reader is that you dont need a computer (which the $14 flash reader requires) so if im shooting with my digital camera out somewhere where I dont have a laptop handy I dont have to stop taking pictures when my card fills up.

Check out Lyra, Archos for built-in CF support and

[meehawl]

I work as a photojournalist at a local newspaper, just about to switch to digital photography. It would be great to have a small multipurpose device to backup a compact flash card but ~22 minutes for a 512MB card.

Using an extra $100 under-performing clunky gadget to send data to a device with no image viewing seems like a losing proposition. I like the look of the new Lyra ($400) and Archos ($600... too rich for me!). Both seem to have CF built-in, and support other media with adapters. Both feature full-colour screens for instant viewing. And of course, they all also play mp3s and videos.

However, they don't seem to support RAW format, so you may have to check out this list of photo/video handhelds. The FlashTrax is listed as supporting RAW, and comes with 30GB (80Gb available) built-in for $500 (80GB is $700).

Re:Is there a limit on the cards themselves?

[gsfprez]

no.

there are already CF Firewire adaptors out there.. CF can go really fast...

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/mediacompare/

this shows that moost cards can write around 2MB/sec and read almost twice that speed...

its an issue with the reader that its only going 300kb/sec... as even the cheapest cards can go about 2000kb/sec.

Parallel print adaptor as well

[SengirV]

I have an HP laser printer and I purchased thier piece of garbage Parallel to USB printer adaptor. The thing was very buggy for OS 9, and they haven't done shit with OS X. Almost as bad as UMAX and their horrible scanners.