With more cell phones and other mobile devices sporting memory-card slots and multimedia playback capabilities, SanDisk’s V-Mate ($130) provides an easy way to take advantage of those features.
The V-Mate looks like a memory card reader you’d plug into a PC. In fact, it’s a tiny digital video recorder (DVR). Slots on the front are sized to take in any of 13 flash-memory formats, including various types of SD, MMC, and Memory Stick media. The back is outfitted with AV jacks that accept analog signals from your television, cable or satellite box, DVD player, VCR, camcorder, or full-size DVR.
It’s easy to set up the right recording format, thanks to an intuitive programming interface. From a list of supported products that includes the Sony PSP, the Palm Treo 700w, and many popular cell phones, pick the portable device you own and insert the flash-memory card it accepts. When you play back your recordings, the video displays at resolutions of up to 640 x 480 pixels, and up to 30 frames per second. On a handheld screen, that’s high enough quality to satisfy most viewers.
