Review: Griffin Simplifi makes mediocrity easier

The Simplifi combines a bare-bones dock with a bare-bones-card reader.

(Credit: Griffin Technologies)

It's hard to make an iPod dock sizzle, but Griffin's Simplifi barely approaches room temperature.

By consolidating a memory card reader, USB hub, and iPod dock, the Griffin Simplifi has good intentions. Unfortunately, its card reader only accepts three formats, you only get two USB ports, and the dock doesn't offer a stitch of audio or video connectivity. The Simplifi is pretty looking, granted, but $70 can buy you a lot of pretty things.

Part of me was also hoping that the Simplifi would allow some sort of direct transfer between my memory cards and my iPod (like the old iPod Camera Connector). I guess some wishful part of my brain presumed that the card reader and iPod dock had something to do with each other, instead of being a random kludging of products. For what it's worth, the capability to offload photos from my camera directly onto my 120GB iPod Classic would be a feature worth paying $70 for, but the Simplifi won't get it done.

There are some good things going for the Griffin Simplifi. First off, it's iPhone 3G compatible. Also, while it may not read 62 types of memory cards, it does read the three most common card types for consumer cameras (SD, CompactFlash, and Memory Stick).

To find out more, read my full review of the Griffin Simplifi over at CNET Reviews.

[Cruton502]

For me SDHC is more standard than regular SD, more card readers should have it.