Why is usb so slow?

I have a Mac mini intel version copying files to a memory card is slow
I copyed 78mb it took about 15mins if i do this on windows it takes a few min or so
its soo much quicker why??

but when i upload a video to my ipod from itunes like 586 megs it well quick

It it my card reader ive got a belkin usb card reader

would buying a new card reader help mine is about 3years old

I wouldn't blame it on USB, it ia more likely the memory card itself. They are usually slow. I wouldn't think it's the reader, but I guess that's possible too. I blame the memory card.

ive got a gp2x i used the memory card in that transfer files with the reader is slow if i use the usb cable and conect it to the gp2x it seems much quicker at transfering files

The card readers (especially if it's CompactFlash) are only meant to be fast in one direction (download). I suggest buying a USB flash drive.

If the card reader is three years old then it's possible that it's usb 1 and not USB 2 compliant. That would slow it down.

Two things come to mind quickly:

1/ Make sure it is USB2.0, not USB1.1 - HUGE difference in speed!

2/ Make sure that the card is formatted for Mac not Windows. I noticed when I got a USB ZIP drive, that it just crawled when I wrote to it. On a hunch, I reformatted a Zip disk to Mac HFS and tried again. This time it flew! So, Mac OS X, not surprisingly, seems much more adept (and faster) at writing its native format than the Windows format.