[CUBE] Card reader

[Christian Leue]

Ok, the Hama card reader 
<http://www.imaging-resource.com/EVENTS/PKNA02/1033017550.html> arrived 
today already. It does look neat and it works fine. It has the size and 
shape of a small beer can. And it matches the Cube and Cinema Display 
very well. The acrylic is slightly purplish when looking from the top, 
but from a normal angle you don't notice. First project will be to open 
it to remove the "Hama" label, which is really placed to prominently.  
Then I will try to reverse the color of the idle and activity LEDs so 
that it glows blue when asleep and yellow when working, because one of 
these days I want to duplicate the "blue cube" project discussed here a 
while ago (wonder if I can turn the throbbing sleep lights on the 
Studio Display and the Cube blue, too).

The USB ports look out directly to the right and left sides at 180 
degree angles, so you can't hide any cables you want to plug in there. 
That's too bad. I would have preferred the sockets to be at the bottom, 
like on the Cube.

If you are already happy with your current solution for transferring 
images from your camera, there is probably no reason to buy it. The 
unpowered USB ports are interesting for "on demand" connections, but 
for permanent connections you will probably want to hide cables and 
equipment under the desk. If Hama were to reduce the price to 30 Euros, 
however, I think everybody should get one just because they look so 
cool.

Cheers,
Christian

PS: beware if you have small kids, because the card slots on the top do 
make it look strikingly similar to a piggy bank, inviting to stuff 
alien objects in it...