User:
Joe Martinet, Mountaineer
Location:
Everest Base Camp
Type of User:
Traveler and blogger
Product Used:
USR8420 All-in-1 USB 3.0 Card Reader/Writer
The Challenge: Download and Transfer Photos at Altitude
Getting up to Everest Base Camp is quite a feat in itself, not to mention the summit attempt. But when you are living out of a tent at 17,000' for months at a time you have to pack to lightly and efficiently and usually need to keep technology items at a minimum. Joe needed a small and light card reader to download and share his photos on his blog. Like most climbers he didn't want to have to worry about card space while up on the mountain. He needed to download photos, backup files, clean the cards, and reuse them.
In addition, many of the other climbers realized once at base camp that they had no way to download their images with no card slots on their small netbooks or ultralight laptops, they all needed a card reader that would work with any system - Macs, PCs, tablets and ereaders.
The Solution: Compact, Light Card Reader
The USRobotics All-in-1 USB 3.0 Card Reader with dual SD card slots provided an easy way to download photos from Joe's camera, as well as other climbers who had other card types and systems whether it be a Mac or netbook. Many of the climbers had different cameras and card types - many with mini memory cards.
In addition to a card reader the USR All in One also acted as a mini hard drive to transfer photos onto other USB devices like tablets with photo connectors since wifi wasn't consistent. It was also used to transfer and share files, like the trip schedule, to other team members. With the multiple card options, 2 cards could be inserted and files transferred easily from one to the other, all from 1 system.
Joe also journaled on his ereader/tablet which didn't use up battery power as quickly as a laptop and took up less space. Once prepared, he would take the memory card from the tablet and use the USR Card Reader to read and transfer those files from the card over to a public computer which would then use the BGAN Hughes Satellite terminal to connect to the Internet and the rest of the world so friends and family could follow along on the ascent.
The Benefits
The USRobotics All-in-1 USB 3.0 Card Reader with dual SD card slots was used throughout Base Camp, not only by Joe but by many other mountaineers to download and share photos, schedules, and journals/blogs. Many didn't realize the difficulty of getting photos on and off their tablets and this reader was in huge demand.
