Hagiwara announces new FlashGate reader!
By
Mike Tomkins
(Wednesday, February 21, 2001 - 13:37 EST)
Japanese peripherals company releases new Mass Storage Class CompactFlash reader...
Our friends over at the digitalcamera.gr.jp website in Japan have posted a news item pointing readers to a new flash reader from Japanese PC peripherals company Hagiwara Sys-Com. The FlashGate HBC-UCF1 is a Type-I CompactFlash-only reader, and is noteable for conforming to the USB Mass Storage Class standard.
If you're not familiar with USB Mass Storage Class, essentially what it promises is to free users from needing to install drivers before connecting a device. Older operating systems such as Windows 98, MacOS 8.x, etc. will not benefit from this capability, but if you're using WindowsME, Windows 2000, or MacOS 9.x then the Hagiwara reader can be connected and used without needing to install a driver - a pretty useful feature if you're going to be using multiple computers and may not have the time (or the access) to install drivers...
The new FlashGate reader will ship tomorrow in Japan, at a cost of some ¥5,000 (US$43). The unit has dimensions of 100 x 71 x 20mm excluding the USB cable, weighs 120 grams, and comes with a driver CD-ROM for Windows98 or MacOS 8.x users. A 1 meter cable is also included, as is an instruction manual. The device draws 500μA in sleep mode, or 100mA in use. No availability information is provided for the US market, however Hagiwara's other flash readers have sold in the US before, so we'd expect to see it arrive in the US given time.
Source:
Hagiwara Sys-Com website
Thanks to
Yamada Kumio / digitalcamera.gr.jp
for this item!
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