Ah. . . the price of portability. Gadgety, yet practical portable things can generally be a tad expensive, as is the case with the Disc Steno from Apacer.
This device is an external CD rewriteable unit, with a built-in reader supporting six types of memory card. Although it supports a USB 2.0 connection, it can be used standalone when burning the contents of your memory cards.
It also comes with a rechargeable 7.4V rechargeable Li-Ion battery, making it as portable as portable gets. According to the manufacturer, the battery provides up to an hour of recording time. As a result, the Disc Steno is a great solution for digital photographers in the field, who can dump the contents of their memory card to CD without the need of a laptop.
Although there are two multifunction slots for memory cards, which accept CompactFlash (CF) Type I and II, Microdrive, Memory Stick (MS), SecureDigital (SD), MultiMedia (MMC), SmartMedia (SM) and xD (with an optional xD-to-CF adapter), these slots cannot be used simultaneously. Instead, the device supports multisession burning, writing the contents of each card you may be using into a new folder with each session.
This is how difficult it is to use as a standalone device. Insert your memory card. Insert a blank CD-ROM. Push the button.
Now, if you find that a challenge, go read Noggin.
Admittedly, there is no way of controlling which files should be burnt when used it standalone. With 1GB CompactFlash memory becoming more affordable, this could become an issue.
We tested the device with a 64MB CompactFlash card and a 128MB SecureDigital card, both chock full of JPEGs, MP3s, Word documents and PDF files. It took only a few minutes to flawlessly duplicate the contents of each, onto a single CD-R.
For PC support, the device will operate under Windows 98/SE/2000 using the supplied drivers and bundled Nero software. Windows XP is supported natively. It will also work under Mac OS X, (but not 9.1) without drivers, provided that Toast 5 Titanium is installed, although this is not supplied.
The most attractive thing about the DiscSteno, apart from its sexy design and portability is that it just works. Fast and simple.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012