Using large USB Hard Drives with the MK802 Android 4.0 Mini PC Smart TV Player

Because of its abilities as a home media and entertainment center, we wanted to make sure the MK802 Android 4.0 Mini PC Smart TV Player was able to work with USB 2.0 Hard Drive Disks (HDD) in addition to portable USB 2.0 Flash Drives mentioned in its marketing materials.

We plugged a 340GB USB 2.0 HDD into the MK802 Android 4.0 Mini PC Smart TV Player's USB port and the entire drive was accessible, and we were able to play various media files off the drive. This means large media libraries can be deployed without concerns about the relatively limited capacities of USB Flash Drives. We don't know if there's a capacity ceiling for USB HDDs used with the MK802, but we will continue to test various USB 2.0 Hard Drives with the device as time permits and post any results here.

Delock FireWire 800 to UDMA CompactFlash Drive Read-Writer

Synchrotech's Delock FireWire 800 to UDMA CompactFlash Drive Read-Writer is a must for pro photographers and other demanding users of high speed CompactFlash memory cards. Capable of exploiting the high speeds of the latest generation of CompactFlash memory cards, the FireWire readers 800 boasts incredible read speeds. The Delock FireWire 800 to UDMA CompactFlash Drive reader supports all the recent high-speed CompactFlash standards including PIO Modes 0-4, DMA Modes 0-2, and UDMA Modes 0-6. it features a single CompactFlash slot for CompactFlash Type I and II including Hitachi Microdrives and other CFII+ rotating media. It supports FireWire 800 (and 400 with and optionally purchased adapter or cable) connectivity on both Macintosh and Windows Operating Systems. The FireWire 800 to CompactFlash uses FireWire bus power, so the CFFire800 reader plugs and plays with no external AC power. The Delock FireWire 800 to CompactFlash Drive requires no drivers and comes with a one year limited warranty.

Check out UDMA CompactFlash Reader Benchmarks over Various Bus Connections for benchmarks using the Delock FireWire 800 to UDMA CompactFlash Drive Read-Writer.

Hot August Special on the OCZ 240GB Vertex 3 SATA III SSD

Hot August Special: $20 off the OCZ Vertex 3 Series SATA III 2.5" Solid State Drive 240GB model using coupon 1343683571, exclusive of other offers, expires 08/31/2012. This brings our already low price on this model to only $295! OCZ Vertex 3 Series SATA III 2.5" Solid State Drives

Using the MK802 Android 4.0 Mini PC Smart TV Players on a wired network

The MK802 Android 4.0 Mini PC Smart TV Player has built-in WiFi 802.1b/g/n Wireless networking, but what if you only have a wired network? Well, the good news is that The MK802 works with many USB based Ethernet Adapters. We've tested our USB 2.0 to 10/100Base-TX RJ-45 Ethernet Adapter U-250 with the MK802 Mini PC, and it worked like a charm.

You do need to change some Settings in order to get the MK802 Android 4.0 Mini PC Smart TV Player up and running on a wired Ethernet network, but it's a straightforward process. Once it's up and running, the MK802 takes full advantage of being on a wired connection.

The MK802 screen to set up Ethernet looks much like this.

Updated Sony Driver Transforms Sonnet's Echo ExpressCard Adapter Fastest and Least Expensive SxS Memory Card Reader with Thunderbolt Technology

Sonnet Technologies announced on April 16, 2012 that the Echo™ ExpressCard® Thunderbolt™ Adapter, which enables the use of many Sonnet ExpressCard/34 cards with computers equipped with a Thunderbolt port—including the latest Apple® iMac®, Mac® mini, MacBook Air®, and MacBook® Pro models—can now function as an SxS™ memory card reader. Sonnet supported Sony® in its work to create a Thunderbolt technology-compatible Mac OS® X driver to enable this functionality. This updated driver also enables full functionality of Sonnet’s Qio™ E3 professional SxS media reader, when connected through the Echo adapter to a computer with a Thunderbolt port.

High-performance SxS memory cards are used in Sony’s popular XDCAM® EX™ line of professional HD camcorders and the ARRI® ALEXA line of digital cameras, and share the same form factor and connector as ExpressCard/34 adapter cards. These shared traits make ingesting footage from SxS media a quick, simple task in ExpressCard slot-equipped notebook computers. In any other situation, this process requires the use of a specialized media reader, such as Sonnet’s Qio™ pro media readers with multiple SxS slots for speedy file offloads. With the added capability to read SxS, SxS Pro™, and SxS-1™ cards, the Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt Adapter instantly becomes the least expensive high-speed SxS memory card reader available, enabling Thunderbolt technology-equipped Mac computers to read SxS cards at over 100 MB/s.

When used with the Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt Adapter, users can connect Sonnet’s Qio E3 professional SxS media reader, with its ExpressCard/34 interface card, to compatible computers with a Thunderbolt port. This setup supports concurrent data transfers from SxS memory cards in all three slots for even faster file ingest speeds.

“With the installation of Sony’s Thunderbolt technology-compatible driver for Mac OS X, Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt Adapter users gain the ability to ingest footage through a small, rugged adapter using the latest I/O technology to improve workflow speeds significantly,” said Robert Farnsworth, CEO of Sonnet Technologies. “This new driver benefits users of our Qio E3 professional media reader, enabling them to connect their readers to Thunderbolt technology-equipped computers through the Echo ExpressCard adapter and ingest footage from multiple SxS memory cards at the same time.”

Developed by Intel® and brought to market with technical collaboration from Apple, Thunderbolt technology supports high-performance data services and high-resolution displays through a single compact port. The Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt Adapter supports PCI Express technology with 2.5 Gbps throughput in both directions. The Sonnet adapter connects directly to a computer or at the end of a Thunderbolt device chain with a Thunderbolt cable, which is available at the Apple Store®.

“Thunderbolt delivers unparalleled performance, flexibility and simplicity to personal computing.” said Jason Ziller, Intel’s director of Thunderbolt marketing. “The Sonnet Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt Adapter and Qio E3 help highlight what Thunderbolt technology makes possible.”

The Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt Adapter—part number ECHO-E34—is compatible with all Apple computers running Mac OS X that are equipped with Thunderbolt ports. It is available now at a suggested retail price of $149.95 through Sonnet and Sonnet resellers.

A link to the driver is below. It says nothing about the Thunderbolt compatibility on the downloads page. As of this morning, the actual version of the driver that gets downloaded is 1.1.0.03142 (even though the text on Sony's site says "Latest Version for Mac : Ver:1.0.52020") http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/cat-recmedia/resource.downloads.bbsccms-assets-mkt-recmedia-downloads-upgrades.shtml

About The Memory Card Explorer (MCE) Demo And MCE In General

MCE 3.21 was the final revision of the software, released in January of 2005.

Elan Digital Systems Ltd. was placed into liquidation in late 2011, and is no longer manufacturing any products or updating any software. This means, to all intents and purposes, MCE is an End Of Life product (discontinued).

We have some excellent alternatives, including a stand alone software package and portable PC Card readers with that software bundled. We strongly recommend all our customers consider those options since they are current and maintained products that run under modern versions of The Windows, whereas MCE's compatibility ended with the 32-bit version of Windows XP.

The product line we recommend is from CSM/IPI and you can view the whole range of their products, including USB 2.0 based PC Card Drive/software bundles on this page:

PCMCIA PC Card Manager Software for OMNIDrives and SoftDrive Professional

OmniDrive devices and their related software work with all modern Windows installations, including the 64-bit version of Windows 7. PC Card Manager and SoftDrive Professional offer all the same capabilities of MCE including the ability to erase, checksum, query, copy to and from, and create byte-for-byte binary images of PCMCIA PC Card memory devices.

All that said, there are still installations of Windows XP and older that will run MCE. In some cases, customers have a reason for running the software and or this demo version -- frequently to identify an unknown PC Card -- so we will carry MCE until our supplies are exhausted.

CAVEAT EMPTOR

MCE and MCE demo are End Of Life products with no upgrade path and no update potential. Moreover they are unsupported products. We will not provide any support on them at all and can't guarantee that the FAQs and support documents on Elan's website will be available in the long term. Install the demo or purchase MCE at your own risk. Again, we recommend all customers purchase the CSM/IPI products discussed above in lieu of MCE.

Because MCE is an End Of Life Product, Synchrotech is offering a massive 50% discount discount on the retail price.

Memory Card Explorer