My ongoing dilemma, sharing my digital pictures while traveling

In my continuing research to find a good solution for sharing pictures from my Sony digital camera while traveling without a PC (see previous post), I found a German company which makes portable backup and viewing devices targeted to professional photographers. The company is called Jobo. They produce a device (about the size of an iPod), the Spectator which allows for the selective backup and copying of files from CF/MD/SD/MMC/MS memory cards. It also allows you to view of JPEG files on the 2.5" screen or an external TV. The Spectators comes in a 40GB, 80GB, or 120GB model.

The Spectator would allow me to selectively copy pictures from my Sony camera's Memory Stick to the Micro SD card used in my AT&T Tilt via the internal hard disk. I would then share the pictures using the Kodak Gallery email service using Exchange ActiveSync on my Tilt. I could also use the Spectator as a backup for my camera and not have to worry about running of space on my 4GB Memory Stick.

I priced the 40GB model for $245 at Adorama.com (link). A little pricey for a single purpose device and would mean traveling with another device but it would help solve my dilemma. It is really too bad Apple has discontinued development and support of their iPod camera adapter. It would be a great a great accessory for the iPhone or Touch. Maybe a third party will step up after the iPhone 2.0 firmware is released...I can only hope.

The Jobo Spectator, it won't win any design awards but it is a utilitarian device.