Patent ID: 8359418

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a first Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector; a card holder dimensioned to receive a memory card that includes a second USB connector and that has a shape and size form factor compliant with a flash memory card specification, a Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) specification, a CompactFlash (CF) specification, a multimedia card (MMC) specification, an SD flash memory card specification, a miniSD flash memory card specification, or a microSD flash memory card specification; wherein the first USB connector is positioned to electrically couple with the second USB connector while the memory card is held in the card holder; and a third USB connector electrically coupled to the first USB connector, the third USB connector configured to be coupled to an external host device, wherein detecting electrical power supplied via the third USB connector to a power line indicates that the third USB connector is coupled to the external host device; wherein upon detecting that the electrical power is being supplied to the power line via the third USB connector, the third USB connector is configured to enable the external host device to access data associated with the memory card via the first USB connector conditioned on the memory card being electrically coupled to the first USB connector.