Drives ahead of their time

As a frequent traveler, I never cease to be amazed how annoying technology can be.

Case in point: the comedy of errors surrounding my attempted review of the Hewlett Packard M820e during the last few weeks. The nifty readable/writeable CD-ROM drive isn’t a new product – it’s been around since mid-summer.

But what is noteworthy, the company assures me, is that more and more travelers are buying the palm-sized device. About 88,500 travelers are using the M820e at the moment; in 24 months, HP expects that number to more than double.

It isn’t the only product of its kind, either. The Sony Spressa CRX100E/CH CD-ReWritable drive does roughly the same thing, although it hasn’t gotten the same rave reviews of the HP.

No matter. Thanks to a series of gadget-related snafus, the disk drive is still sitting on my desk. It sure looks pretty, with its slimline design (only 5 inches by 6.5 inches and less than 1 inch thick) and promised 20X transfer speed.

But it ain’t goin’ nowhere. And I suspect I’d have exactly the same problem with the Spressa.

What’s the trouble? Well, part of the reason I haven’t been able to take the HP for a spin is that it’s configured for my PC. You plug it into the PCMCIA type II slot, which my Dell desktop lacks. I mention this deficiency because my laptop’s pointer device still doesn’t work. (In fact, I had to return the demo PC before I could fix the button.)

What’s the relevance of plugging a readable/writeable into a portable that doesn’t run? “If there’s a shortcoming to this product at all, that’s it,” agrees Martin Dean, an attorney and electronics expert with Essential Publishers, Inc., in San Francisco. “You need two kinds of adapters to use it on a desktop. But you can’t blame Hewlett-Packard for that. It’s not their fault.”

True, HP isn’t to blame for the incompatibilities between the PCMCIA slot and the SCSI interface. No point, either, in addressing the thorny question of who is. Suffice it to say that until USB saves us – and I’m hoping it will soon – we’ll have to deal with this confusion.

I imagine most road warriors would gladly tolerate the wiring problems in exchange for the benefits. And the benefits are considerable. Says Dean: “I think the drive is incredible. It was really simple to install. The drive weighs less than the power supply. And it’s solid as a rock – it runs well, it’s fast, and it’s reliable.”

There’s more. CD-RW drives are highly versatile, letting you create, write, re-write, and store everything from data to video as if it were a floppy disk. The CD can hold up to 650MB of data, however, which is the equivalent of more than 400 standard high-density floppy disks, or 20,000 scanned pages of text.

Atlanta computer reseller John Boghosian is also upbeat about the M820e, describing the device as “the most significant advance in computing since the introduction of the portable notebook.” He sells most of the $399 drives to traveling software developers and consultants who work with large corporations.

“If someone is on-site developing a custom solution, they can grab a tremendous amount of information and return to their hotel room,” Boghosian adds. “Then they can stay up at their hotel room until four in the morning drinking Jolt Cola and return the next day, bleary-eyed, with a solution.”

Oh, lovely. If that’s meant as a sales pitch, then I’d like to hear about the downside of carrying one of these ultra-portable readable/writeables around. Even without having tested the gadget (and I promise that when I do, I’ll follow up with more information), I can think of one other drawback – something that Dean alluded to earlier: the power supply.

If there were a way to run the HP off the laptop’s power, it would simplify matters greatly. Right now you have to lug the adapter around with you. As a short aside, I have to note that I understand why HP decided not to attempt that kind of hardware configuration. The LifeView TV unit that I reviewed a few weeks ago failed precisely because its designers had been too ambitious and tried to run the convergence device off the computer’s power supply.

But, as I mentioned in that particular column, I think the gadget is slightly ahead of its time. Same here. The HP’s capabilities belong inside the laptop, not alongside it. I’d be surprised if, within a year’s time, the portables that travelers use didn’t ship with a standard readable/writeable drive. At the same time, I’d be surprised if professionals will want to pay a steep premium for having said drive installed in their laptop PC.

Then again, technology is full of surprises. Almost as many surprises as annoyances.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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