Sure a card reader on your desk is easy enough to use, but the problem is that we have so many USB toys and other things on our desks that space is getting scarce. That’s why this new Elecom card reader is pretty handy.

It’s magnetic, so it will stick to metal surfaces, keeping it out of the way, but still readily available for your needs. Plus, it looks nice and retro which we love. It will only cost you $27.

Our fascination with the Rubik’s Cube seems never ending. It still entertains and frustrates us. The Rubiks cube probably inspired this awesome USB 270° x 270° Rubik Card Reader. Call it a hunch.

It sports the cube form factor of a Rubik’s Cube, but without the familiar color scheme. The idea is that you can twist all three levels so that you always have room to plug in all your memory cards. It also features a blue LED as a status indicator.

Thanko has released a new four-slot USB SD card reader in the form of a pen. I’m not sure what situation would arise where you would need to read four different SD cards at the same time, but if it happens you are covered.

The SD4PEN can read four SD or SDHC cards (up to 16GB) as well as let you write all of the usual mundane things you write throughout the course of your day. Nothing on pricing yet or a release date, but we’re sure it will be soon. I mean you need another pen and you’ve got SD cards. You need this.

Delkin has a new CompactFlash card reader they are showing off this week called the ImageRouter. This device solves the problem of photographers having to download multiple CF cards to a computer after a shoot. The ImageRouter doesn’t really make the actual transfer happen any faster but what it does do is allow the multiple cards to do their transfer simultaneously so you don’t have to watch it and swap them out when each are done.

As if loading 4 of the cards at a time is not enough Delkin says that if you buy more than one you can daisy-chain them together with two ImageRouters letting you download 8 CF cards at the same time. Delkin doesn’t elaborate on their site on just how many can be connected at a time but does say that you can connect “two or more” and also mentions that the ImageRouter will help whether you have “four or fourteen CompactFlash cards”. We’re guessing that after a few connected together things might get pretty slow and according to SlashGear three is the limit.

The card readers connect through a USB 2.0 connection and reach transfer speeds of 19MB/sec reads. Two ImageRouters connected slows it slightly with a 17MB/second read and 15MB/sec write speeds. Delkin is getting these card readers ready for purchase by April retailing at $149. The BackupandBurn software can be purchased with it in a bundle for $249, which helps with automatically routing and naming files during the transfer.

Take a look at this card reader from USBFever that says it will handel up to 62 different types of memory cards and connections. I’m not sure what those 62 types are and the product page doesn’t even list them but you can feel pretty confident that it will take just about whatever you got. We do see support for CF, SD/MMC, MemoryStick and xD at the least.

Aside from being just a card reader, the gadget also works as a hub for a single connection for each of USB, Fireware, SATA, e-SATA, headphones and a microphone. All of this is conveniently built into a box that fits in your internal 3.5″ drive bay on your computer so you don’t have to have yet another device taking up space on your desk and another USB port.

Isn’t it a pain in the ass with so many different types of media cards for different devices? Universal card readers and similar products at least help in making it easier to be able to pull data off these many different formats. Kingston is introducing its own multi-media card reader, the new Kingston Media Reader. It’s priced at around $17.

The Kingston Media Reader is capable of supporting 19 different media card formats via its four slots. These include CompactFlash Type I and II, SD, SDHC, miniSD, miniSDHC, microSD, microSDHC, MMC, MMCmobile (DV RSMMC), MMCplus, MMCmicro, RS-MMC, Microdrive, Memory Stick Micro (M2), Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick PRO Duo. Connection is made to a host computer through a USB 2.0 port.

It’s tough to make a USB Flash memory card reader stand out from the crowd. The functionality is pretty straight forward and really the only variable comes down to how many and which card types it will support. With this in mind, Elecom has recently done a pretty good job here with their MR-C12 USB 2.0 card reader.

The card reader supports SDHC, SD, MMC, xD and Memory Stick MagicGate/PRO/Duo which is nothing fantastic, but the lid on this one opens up to store a number of those cards inside, giving you a single tidy package that both stores and connects your external Flash-based media.

SanDisk today unveiled a multi-card ExpressCard adapter for use with notebook computers which sport ExpressCard slots. This new device is priced at around $30 and should be available in September.

The SanDisk Multi Card ExpressCard Adapter slides into the ExpressCard slot of a laptop computer without need for software or drivers to install. The adapter supports six card formats: SD, SDHC, MultiMediaCard, MMCplus, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo and Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo.

Kingston has a USB memory card reader that’s able to handle a lot of the many types of memory formats out there, bundled into one small thumb drive-sized device.

The MobileLite 9-in-1 card reader connects via USB 1.1 or 2.0 direct to your computer with no additional cords, and has three slots that support 9 different types of memory cards. On one side of the reader there’s one slot that supports SD/SDHC, MMC, MMCmobile, RS MMC and MMCplus card formats. The other side has two slots that both support microSD, MMCmicro and miniSD card formats. When the MobileLite reader is connected to your computer, all three of the slots show up as separate drives to drag and drop files between your computer and the memory, or between each other.

Although 9 different formats in such as small device is certainly not …

Seen last week at the CeBIT convention and heading to stores shortly is TrekStor’s DataStation maxi t.uch external hard drive. It comes in three sizes (250 GB, 320 GB and 400 GB) and can double for a USB 2.0 hub with its two ports up at the front.

Compatible with Windows Vista and everything back to Win 2000, as well as OS X and Linux, this is a nice and easy way to backup your system at the touch of a button and also to take it with you if you like. The unit’s 9-in-1 card reader offers you a variety of supported formats for your memory card needs so you should be able to practically plug and download right out of the box.

TrekStor claims that this baby has low energy needs and is practically silent when in …

SavitMicro has just released a nice solution for backing up your flash memory cards when out on the road. The SPACE HyperDrive is a 2.5″ HDD enclosure which has slots to support 18 different types of memory cards.

The HyperDrive SPACE is the enclosure for the hard drive, and requires you to provide your own 2.5-inch hard drive of whatever capacity you would like. The storage gadget has an interface to control the action of transferring data to and from the drive, and connects to your computer via USB. The SPACE drive can transfer data up to 1Gbps, and has a battery that according to the web site lasts at least long enough to transfer 100GB of data to the internal HDD.

This drive is a great solution for backing up your multimedia from audio recordings pictures and video. Easier to …

The NOVOMAX Joypot C210 is a little digital audio player that could give the iPod Shuffle a run for it’s money, depending on the money of course. There isn’t word as to the price of this little interface-free player, but it may provide some competition due to it’s similar size, capacity and increased functionality.

This digital audio player will be available with internal memory capacities from 1GB down to no memory whatsoever. You can then add external memory in the form of an SD or MMC card.

Since the Joypot C210 connects to a PC via USB 2.0 and it takes external memory it can double as a card reader to transfer any data from a the memory card to a PC. Charging the JP C210 will not happen the the USB cable however; it runs of a single AAA battery.

A full battery will give the …

The TravelDrive Mobile 25 in 1 card reader is very small and handy card reader with a USB 2.0 interface that looks a lot like a flash memory thumb drive, but instead of having internal flash memory it works as a card reader for 25 different types of memory cards.The drive supports the following memory cards, requiring no adapters or any type of drivers:

Secure Digital Cards: SD, SD Ultra, SD Extreme, Mini-SD, Micro-SD(Transflash)
Multimedia Cards: MMC, RS-MMC, Dual Voltage MMC, MMC Mobile, MMC Plus, MMC 4.1, RS-MMC 4.1
Memory Sticks: Memory Stick, Memory Stick Magic Gate, Memory Stick Select
Memory Stick Pro: Pro, Pro Magic Gate, Pro Ultra, Pro Extreme
Memory Stick Duo: Duo, Duo Magic Gate
Memory Stick Pro Duo: Pro Duo, Pro Duo Magic Gate, Pro Duo Ultra, Pro Duo Extreme

Most card readers that could handle this many different types are nowhere near …

This is the ExpressCard/34 5-in-1 Card Reader/Writer from computer peripherals and accessories manufacturer Griffin Technology Inc. This handy ExpressCard will read and write to most modern memory cards including Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick, SD Memory Card, MultiMediaCard and xD-Picture Card.

The Griffin 5-in-1 Reader is easy to install and works with the ExpressCard/34 or /54 slot found in Apple’s MacBook Pro and newer Windows laptops. The card is plug-and-play and you don’t need to worry about installing drivers.

The USB 2.0 High-Speed interface gives you speedier transfer rates up to 480 Mbps compared to your old USB 1.0 card reader (up to 12 Mbps) and it will be infinitely faster than the transfer rates you get from your camera. Just pop the card out of your camera and let the Griffin reader do the work - much faster.

The Griffin reader is a …