These days, practically every computer-savvy consumer needs flash card media. Whether it’s in their camera, camcorder, cell phone, PDA, or any of a host of other gadgets with removable, solid state memory, flash cards are everywhere. Unfortunately, while most of these multimedia and communication gizmos come with USB or FireWire cables for transferring data directly off the card in the device to the PC, this “simple” approach is time intensive, takes an additional toll on the device’s batteries, and necessitates the user hauling around yet one more data cable. Moreover, we seem to have more flash memory formats emerging every year rather than fewer. I’ve even seen vendors advertising support for new flash formats that haven’t even come to market yet.

SanDisk’s new 8-in-1 Memory Card Reader covers every major flash format available today: Compact Flash Types I and II, Memory Stick regular and PRO, MultiMediaCard, SecureDigital, SmartMedia, and xD-Picture Card. Via a USB 2.0 interface, the 8-in-1 can offer markedly faster transfers than most devices can offer natively. SanDisk’s slim, black and silver styling looks sleek and professional anywhere, and its modular design lets the main reader detach from its desktop base for compact storage and use during travel.

Interestingly, SanDisk distinguishes it’s 8-in-1 from other flash readers by keeping all four media slots active simultaneously. This allows users to copy data directly between cards rather than using the hard drive as a buffer between flash cards. The 8-in-1 is flexible, fast, and virtually idiot-proof to install. If you have road warriors among your clientele or even consumers who occasionally need to copy card data among friends, this affordable tool is an essential upsell.

Electrovaya PowerPad 120
MSRP: $299
www.electrovaya.com

This story starts with Finding Nemo, but it ends with finding Electrovaya. See, my toddler is now 22 months old, and my wife and I just wrapped up a holiday vacation to Hawaii. For those of you who don’t have kids or have forgotten this blissful stage of human development, simply think of a two-year-old as the Tasmanian Devil. He drools a lot. He leaves a trail of destruction. And he exists to do very little except run and yell. Now imagine trying to strap the Tasmanian Devil into a coach class flight for nine hours...each way. See our problem?

The one and only force in the universe strong enough to tame our toddler is Pixar’s Finding Nemo, which will keep him preternaturally glued to any seat and silent all the way from the previews through the final credits. I have a 14” Centrino laptop with a DVD player, and I estimated weeks in advance that we might be forced in such a strange, potentially scary environment to play the movie up to three times during the journey. That’s five hours of MPEG-2 decoding and running the optical drive, which is far more demanding on system power resources than, say, running Office. Add to that the writing work I knew I had to get done if and when he napped on the plane. Under normal conditions, my notebook might make it through the movie once and give me an hour or so of word processing time on top of that. Clearly, I had a crisis waiting to happen. What to do?

There are only a few ways to get extra juice for a notebook when cut off from all outlets. (The odds of finding an outlet in coach is about as good as getting quick access to the restroom three minutes after the end of an in-flight movie.) The most common is to buy an extra proprietary battery for your specific notebook model. The problem with this is that proprietary batteries are quite spendy and offer a poor cost vs. runtime equation. After looking at a few other unsatisfactory options, I finally settled on Electrovaya’s PowerPad 120, which promises up to 12 hours of runtime.
The PowerPad is a rugged battery filled with superpolymer lithium ion, which is the most advanced battery substance now in commercial use. The unit stays quite cool to the touch even after hours of runtime. This comes in very handy in cramped quarters (such as coach seating) where you have to run a hot laptop actually on your lap. Just set the notebook on top of the battery and forget about melting your slacks. The 120 model measures 8.75” x 11.75”—barely larger than a sheet of paper—and is a svelte 3/8” thin. Since most notebook users tote about carrying cases with internal file folder divisions, the PowerPad simply stores in one of these divisions, so you have no extra lumps or girth to your bag. Better still, the unit weighs only 1.9 pounds.
Electrovaya sells three PowerPad models: the 80 ($249), 120 ($299), and 160 ($449). Getting back to that cost vs. runtime equation, the 12-hour unit was clearly the best deal. Moreover, the 120 will charge from empty to 80% full in only three hours. So I was able to do our first Nemo viewing between Portland and San Francisco, top off the battery during the Bay layover, and cruise blissfully to Honolulu with the notebook running nearly constantly.

Of course, the PowerPads are meant for more than keeping toddlers under control when the lure of new toys wears off at 30,000 feet. These batteries should be standard equipment for every notebook user who ever fights against forced shutdowns caused by drained cells. That could apply as much in a mountain cottage or park bench as in coach class. Any reseller that works with companies employing mobile sales or executive staff needs to make this a mandatory upsell option.