Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Comodow USB SIM Card Reader/Writer


While prowling around Funan during the weekend (and giving SITEX a miss), I found a device I have been hoping for some time that somebody would produce.

The unit in question is the Comodow PD882U Sim Card Reader.

Why the enthusiasm? This little device allows one to read and write to the SIM card in your mobile phone. Having recently suffered the loss of my cell phone, I can attest to the pain of suddenly being cut off from all the names and numbers collected over the years.

While most phones come with some sort of backup software, it is usually proprietary or works only with one model. Inevitably, even if you back up religiously, it is impossible to buy the same model of phone again.

What the PD882U does so simply and elegantly is behave just like a USB flash memory card reader (which the SIM is after all). After inserting the reader into a USB port, it is just a matter of inserting the SIM card. On the PC, a small program is run which allows one to display the contents, edit entries, and manage SMS messages. It is also possible to save the data to a clean text file, and to print both the address book and the SMS messages.

The only thing missing is the ability to sort the phone book entries, which seems like a trivial feature to add.

As the number of phones in the family has grown from mine, to the spouse, to the daughters, moving data from SIM to SIM has become a regular occurrence. The PD882U does it all without fuss.

A great addition to the toolbox.

4 comments:

whanafi said...

I just checked the site link, and you are right, it has disappeared. The DNS registration is still active, so maybe they are just down because of the holidays.

As for usability, I have had no problems on a number of different machines. I DID have an issue at first, which I thought was the device not working. I actually had the SIM card inserted incorrectly...

Anonymous said...

I´ve just bought the same device and I have the same problem
Where can I get the good driver/reader?

I´ve found Comodow at this site but I can´t contact them

http://envip.busytrade.com/eianonono

I´ve also tried with Dekart USB Sim Card Reader. No solution.

Any clue?

enrique_brito AT yahoo DOT es

whanafi said...

Thanks for the new link. It looks like the company is using a business hosting service.

I used my SIM reader with XP Pro SP2, so did not load any drivers, sorry.

Seriously, try inserting the SIM card differently - that was my problem.

Anonymous said...

Would you be so kind to send me your SW?

enrique_brito AT yahoo DOT es

Thanks.