Hi,
I have ben using the USB meter for a few months now and I think it is one of the best around. I got mine free from my diabetes centre during a carb-counting course. However, 2 weeks ago I was offered a "Freestyle insulinx" meter as a trial. Now I'm torn between the two.
The USB meter is so small, but has a fantastic display screen (I'm partially-sighted, so that's a big plus) and gives really useful, easy to read graphs (once you work out how to get the software to work) and is all I thought I needed in a meter. But this new Freestyle meter has a very clever insulin dose calculator which, with carb-counting, has seen a real improvement in my control within the first week of use. It is a bit bigger than the Contour USB (like a Blackberry phone) and has the software built in for computer downloading results. The biggest downside is that the touch screen is not very easy to see in poor light. If I could get test strips for both meters on my prescription I think I would use the USB for general use, with the Freestyle for keeping a insulin dosing check every few days.
But overall, I'm amazed at how good blood test meters have now become and , as you say, the best thing is that we don't need to keep those books up to date any more!