I got one of these to read SIM cards. Tried putting the card in with the diagonal notch first (like memory cards). It seemed to stop against some sort of barrier but did not work. Read the manual on the CD card which said look at the leaflet which appeared to suggest that the SIM should be inserted with the notch facing outwards. So I tried that. SIM card went straight in, into the inside of the device. I had to peel the label off, undo two screws, take a lid off and lever up the circuit board before I could get my SIM back. There is a white line printed on the circuit board to tell you how far to insert the card, but unfortunately this is not visible from outside the device.
The protective cap for the USB connector was split too. Have a look at the photos I have uploaded.
The SIM reader works with Windows XP (but not with WINE).
It is not entirely clear which categories of txt messages the software shows. The messages it displayed to me contained a large number with garbage in them, which could have been unused memory or messages in a foreign script. It can't show messages from the Outbox on my Nokia.