Flashe Reviews

PLS. SEND INFORMATION ON CANON POWERSHOT S200, COMPACTFLASH CARD FC-8M. THE FC-8M CONTAINS 12 TO 14 PICTURES. I NEED A BIGGER SIZE
CARD. WHUCH ONE IS BETTER, AND FOR WHAT PRICE. SHIP TO THE STATE OF ISRAEL.
THANK YOU.
Israel Shur.

Specifications: Like most "USB ram drives" this device is the size of the average disposable lighter and about as heavy. The interface is USB version 1.1, which means that you can expect a transfer rate of about 1.5MB a second. The ram configuration is static, which means that you cannot upgrade the drive for greater memory capacity. The drive is plug n play for Windows ME, 2000 and XP only. Other operating systems will need a driver update.

Performance: Plugging this drive into the USB port of my computer, the drive was instantly recognized and installed. Within "MY COMPUTER" it was listed as a removable drive for ME, 2000 and XP. I have not tried any other OS.

There is no special formatting necessary to get the drive to work with Windows operating systems. These drives behave as any other hard drive. Files can be written and deleted with simple drag and drop actions. Copying enough files to fill the entire 256MB of this drive took about 5 minutes, as expected.

Quality and Fit: These drives are small enough to put into your pocket, and easy to misplace as well. All manufactures offer some way secure the device to a tether and wear around the neck or on a key chain. Unfortunately, the case these devices come in are often flimsy and will likely wear out and break eventually, exposing the ram and board inside to the elements. Additionally, The cap that protects the USB connector will likely be lost within a couple of weeks. Again, this exposes the device to the elements and limits the mobility characteristics.

This drive is small enough to fit into a USB interface without an additional cable extension, though one is provided. It is a tight fit when there is another USB device next to it though.

Other issues: Because not all computers have Windows ME and up installed on them, you will need to take the driver CD with you when you take your "ram drive" out to remote locations.

It is sometimes inconvienent to plug the ram drive into USB Ports on the back of a computer. A front USB port on a computer is a welcome site.

Because the drive uses the USB 1.1 interface, the read and write speed is limited. Other drives use the USB 2.0 standard and can read and write data much faster. Above 256 Megs this becomes relevant.

Other drives have the ability to change out multiple ram cards to make the USB drive truly flexible. Those drives tend to be twice the size however.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

-Does everything it should do, and fills an important void in computer storage
-Very Small and convenient for transport
-USB interface available on most all computers made within the last 5 years
-All recent computers use ME and above for a OS (USB Plug N Play)
-About a million read/write operations before the ram fails

Cons:

-Small size makes it easy to lose
-Cost is still too high for mass adoption
-Need to carry around drivers for older or special OS
-Flimsy case will not likely last long
-Write times not as fast as USB 2.0 (1GB = 20 MIN)

Bought this product and tried to install it on 3 Win98 systems, would not work on any of them. After finding the phone #, I found that tech support dropped into some guy's voice mail. I finally got ahold of a saleman and told him my problem. He said that the USB 2.0 keys take a new driver that isn't on the web page yet and not shipped with the package. He did give me a link to get to the driver... but I spent hours trying to make the other one work. Other than that its a great product. Support is poor but I believe that they just rebrand this product under their name. If you have XP it should be no problems....I hope.....

I JUST BOUGHT ONE OF THESE CAMERAS AND THE CD ARRIVED DAMAGE
I COULD'NT FIND ANY ONE ELSE THAT HAS THEM. THIS WAS THE LAST ONE ON THE SHELF AT A FLEA MARKET. WOULD YOU PLEASE CHECK AROUND AND SEE IF YOU HAVE ANY CD FOR THIS CAMERA "PLEASE" (DIGITAL CONCEPTS YAHOO 1.3 MP) MY ADDRESS IS 1412 GLENBECK AVE KETTERING, OHIO. 45409 APT#3 GOD BLESS YOU....
HARRY RIVERA

not yet familiar with the device, sorry if my review is incomplete.

I love my Foxda player, it looks very good, easy & simple to use. Sound quality is better than my friend's one, i am very impressed with Foxda product.

A very cool little device, this gives you an expandable flash USB stick - I guess you can use up to and including the new 512 MB cards with this device. I use with only 64 MB at the moment :-(
I have tried on Win98 and Linux, the former you will need to install a driver, but it works as standard USB mass storage, so no special driver is needed for Windows200/XP or recent Linux.
If you don't have xD cards, then look into them they are tiny and perfect for devices like this. I can't wait for an xD based personal stereo. My one gripe about this particular device is that the cap does not fit very well, leaving me to wonder how dust proof it is. I won't be keeping it in my pocket because of that, but will carry it around in my laptop bag.

This module has an 8 mb backup chip and an 8 mb flash memory chip. Very easy to use and works like a charm. It's hard to find one of these features in a module, for the price, let alone both of them in the same unit.

This product is a reliable memory card. And it's cheap. Why pay more for the same basic product?

I wrote extensively about the 790 version of this iRiver model, so see that review for a comprehensive look at these beauties.
Because I liked the latest iRiver model so much, I returned the 790 and got the 799 1-gigabyte version instead.

I paid $190, tax included, for 256 MB at Best Buy. I figured, why not double the price at Amazon ($360) for four times as much space for my music.

It is a minor fortune, to be sure, but I want to be able to keep 20-30 albums on my player at any one time so I don't have to change my music very often. I find that a small inconvenience, especially since there is no simple drag-and-drop function.
I also figure that fewer music transfers will limit potential wear and tear on the USB connector and thus extend the life of the piece of plastic that covers the USB port.

My suspicion is that the cover would be the first thing to go, an event that would surely shorten the practical life of the player. Can't have that happen with such an expensive piece of equipment.
A few other things. The primary difference between the 799 and 790 is build quality. The 799 is somewhat sleeker and the casing seems a bit sturdier. The buttons are smaller and stick out less, especially the joystick.

The joystick is maybe not quite as easy to use, but it has better tactile feel and seems less likely to wear down from constant use. It's a very good improvement.

The USB port now has a sliding plastic door - much different than the rubberish flap on the 790.

The 799 is a better color, too. LA Raiders black and gray. I wasn't crazy about the red color of the 790.

One seemingly small flaw. The inline jack and headphone jack are on the same end of the player - unlike with the 790 -- so it's not as easy to plug in the headphones in the dark.

Otherwise, I repeat. This is a fabulous player, the best sounding portable on the market. Most of my CDs ripped as WMA files encoded at 64 kbps sound terrific. (Classical music might require VBR recording).

I use the free Real Audio (best music lookup success of the dozen programs I tried) and paid MusicMatch. Yet only Microsoft's Windows Media had VBR for WMA files, but the media player kept crashing on me.

Just make sure you have great headphones to match if you are going to use 64 kbps files.