PRODUCT
reviews
Hamilton USB Transfer Express
By J.V. Bolkan
T here is no doubt that the flash
drive is among the most useful
personal storage solutions ever.
It’s fast, rugged, reusable, and almost
universally compatible. And with
costs as low as a couple dollars per
gigabyte, it’s no wonder it has become almost ubiquitous in computer
environments. Now the Hamilton
USB Transfer Express expands the
value of flash drives in the classroom
by making transfers faster, easier,
and almost foolproof. The Transfer
Express is about the size of a standard
textbook and has inputs for up to 16
USB devices.
It’s capable of working standalone
(no computer needed), or you can
transfer from the source slot to as
many as 15 other drives or copy
unique content from the 15 onto the
source drive. This means that once
you place materials for an assignment on your flash drive, you can
copy it onto 15 other drives with a
single push of a button. Then, when
the students complete and save their
assignments on their flash drives,
you can press one button to copy and
collect each of their files. For larger
classrooms, labs, or media centers, the
Transfer Express can be daisy-chained
to another unit to transfer to or from
30 targets at once.
The unit we reviewed came with
16 of Hamilton’s versatile 1 GB MP3
player/recorders ($39 each or $500
for a set of 16 with the Transfer Express). The MP3 players are USB
The Transfer Express can be
daisy-chained for data transfer to
up to 30 flash drives with a single
press of a button.
2.0 devices complete with earbuds,
built-in microphones, and direct USB
connectors. Although $39 may be a
bit spendy when compared to simple
storage-only flash drives, the ability
to play and record audio is well worth
the investment.
I tested the audio playback and
recording capabilities, and although
you aren’t likely to confuse the sound
quality with a high-end stereo, the audio playback and recording fidelity is
more than sufficient for virtually any
use. There is no external microphone
input, but the built-in microphone is
Hamilton’s 1 GB flash drive doubles
as an MP3 player/recorder.
very sensitive. The buttons and controls on the players are small and a
bit sensitive. The control menus are
somewhat cryptic and probably not
well suited for younger students. Additionally, the extra features make the
devices more complicated and thus
much more likely to break than a
simple memory stick.
Fortunately, the Transfer Express
works well with the company’s player/
recorders or without them. You can
even mix and match various devices.
I put an “antique” 64 MB USB 1.0
device on the machine. Obviously,
