Flash MEdia
Sandisk releases Sansa slotMusic Player
SanDisk is looking to expand its market with the introduction of the Sansa slotMusic Player. The plug & play, portable music player was specially designed for use with the new slotMusic cards available today in the US. SanDisk are pushing slotMusic as a new format of high-fidelity, DRM-free MP3 music on a microSD card, which gives consumers the ability to listen to and quickly swap music between a mobile phone, personal computer, and any MP3 player with a microSD slot. Read More
Gresso's limited edition 192Gb USB pendant
Image Gallery (3 images)
The latest high-end tech offering from Gresso is a cleverly designed USB Flash drive pendant that incorporates three separate 64 Gb memory sticks into a single unit made from 200-year-old African Blackwood with diamond and gold trimmings. A limited run of 99 pieces has been announced for the ENIGMA collection, but prospective buyers will have to dig deep. Read More
Intel introduces solid state drives for notebooks and desktops
Image Gallery (3 images)
The writing is definitely on the wall for traditional hard drives with the continuing rise of Solid State Drives (SSDs) using flash memory. With no moving parts, SSDs run cooler and quieter and are a more reliable option than hard drives so now Intel have joined the party with the announcement of two new SSDs based on multi-level cell NAND flash technology for laptop and desktop computers. The 1.8-inch X18-M drive and the 2.5-inch X25-M promise several advantages including faster overall system response, boot and resume times. Read More
Sony's high-speed Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo HX
Image Gallery (3 images)
Sony is releasing the Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo HX this October, in 4GB and 8GB capacity. The memory card has a reading speed of 20MB/s and a writing speed of 15MB/s - and when used with the supplied USB adaptor, it transfers data one third faster than the Memory Stick PRO Duo (Mark 2). Read More
Micron's next-Generation RealSSD Solid State Drives
Image Gallery (3 images)
August 8, 2008 Solid State Drives (SSDs) have found a happy home in laptop computers in recent times due largely to their size, durability and low power consumption compared to traditional hard drives. Now, with SSD capacities increasing, Micron Technology believe SSDs can also find a new home in enterprise server systems where historically hard disk drives have reigned. Read More
Toshiba launches world's lightest laptop with 128GB Solid State Drive
Image Gallery (3 images)
In the world of laptops slim is definitely in. Toshiba’s Digital Products Division has announced the addition of a 128GB Solid State Drive (SSD) to the latest incarnation of its Portégé laptop series. The 2.4 pound Portégé R500-S5007V with a 128GB SSD is billed as the world’s lightest laptop, beating the much hyped Macbook Air, which weighs in at 3 pounds and, unlike the Macbook Air, even manages to include a built-in optical drive into a unit that measures as thin as 0.77-inches. This does mean that the Macbook Air 0.76-inch high Macbook Air retains its world’s thinnest title and it does feature a slightly bigger display – 13.3-inches to the R500’s 12.1-inches. Read More
World's fastest 2.5-inch 256GB SSD from Samsung
Image Gallery (3 images)
May 27, 2008 Following on from last year's 64GB solid state drives (SSD) with SATA II interface, Samsung has upped the ante by developing a 2.5-inch, 256 Gigabyte (GB) multi-level cell (MLC) based solid state drive using a SATA II interface, which it claims is the world’s fastest. With a sequential read speed of 200 megabytes per second (MB/s) and sequential write speed of 160MB/s, Samsung's MLC-based 2.5-inch 256GB SSD is about 2.4 times faster than a typical HDD. Samsung are also laying claim to title of the thinnest drive with the largest capacity to be offered with a SATA II interface - it measures only 9.5 millimeters (mm) thick, and has dimensions of 100.3x69.85 mm. Read More
SanDisk's new line of premium mobile phone memory cards
Image Gallery (3 images)
May 23, 2008 Using mobile phones for multimedia activities has increased as phones have crammed more and more multimedia capabilities into their ever shrinking housings. SanDisk’s new Mobile Ultra microSD/microSDHC and Memory Stick Micro (M2) flash mobile memory cards, aim to meet the storage and speed requirements of digital photography, music downloads, videos, and GPS functionality that have become standard on such devices. Read More
IronKey 8GB Secure USB Drive
Image Gallery (3 images)
Flash drives are becoming almost ubiquitous these days, and with Flash memory continuing to follow its own version of Moore’s Law, capacities that were groundbreaking a year or two ago are now low-cost promotional items and the overall effect is that all flash drives become disposable within a short time. This is sad, because once the public’s mind has perceived an item as being of no enduring value, that becomes the truth. It’s particularly sad when an item such as the IronKey comes along, because it has all the virtues of a state-of-the-art flash drive and delivers great bang-per-buck for its unique functionality. Read More
IBM set to supercede Flash with superfast, high capacity, low cost Racetrack memory
Image Gallery (2 images)
April 11, 2008 Nanotechnology was more science fiction than fact when Dr. Eric Drexler released his seminal 'Engines of Creation: the Coming Era of Nanotechnology' in 1986. 20 years later, this revolutionary discipline, which focuses on the manipulation of matter at an atomic or sub-atomic level, is starting to bear fruits in a vast array of bleeding-edge technologies. With nanotech innovations spurring the latest advances from solar energy capture that works in the dark, to long-range, high-power, quick charging batteries for electric cars, to fog-free glass and smart self-thermoregulating fabrics already maturing as viable technologies, the latest advances in nanowire data storage from IBM seem set to thrash both hard drives and flash memory at their own games. It'll be incredibly fast, virtually indestructible thanks to no moving parts, its capacity will be absolutely enormous, it'll use next to no power and produce next to no heat - and it will be 100 times cheaper per byte than flash memory. What's more, IBM says the public debut of this amazing "Racetrack" memory "could be closer than you think." Read More
Sansa Fuze rounds out SanDisk’s media player product line
Image Gallery (2 images)
March 13, 2008 SanDisk has unveiled the Flash-based Sansa Fuze MP3 player, a well specced entry level unit which joins the pint-sized Sansa Clip and the video-centric Sansa View in Sandisk's media player line. Read More
Kingston adds 16GB model to SDHC Memory Card line
Image Gallery (2 images)
March 10, 2008 Kingston has doubled its the capacity of what was previously its largest SDHC offering by announcing a 16GB SDHC Flash memory card with minimum transfer rates of 4MB per second. Read More
Corsair to release 16GB Flash Voyager GT high performance USB drive
Image Gallery (2 images)
February 29, 2008 Corsair has announced a new 16GB high performance USB 2.0 flash drive dubbed the “GT” which offers a significant boost to data transfer speeds. Read More
Toshiba and SanDisk to expand NAND Flash Memory production
Image Gallery (2 images)
February 25, 2008 Toshiba Corporation and SanDisk have announced the signing of a non-binding memorandum of understanding to form a new production joint venture and construct a new 300 millimeter (mm) wafer fabrication facility (fab), in Japan to meet the anticipated future demand for NAND flash memory. This latest announcement underscores the commitment of Toshiba and SanDisk to the rapidly expanding market for NAND Flash memory, which has become the storage technology of choice for a growing number of consumer and computing devices, including memory cards. Read More
Mtron develops a 128Gb-1.8 Inch High Capacity SSD
Image Gallery (2 images)
February 25, 2008 South Korean Solid State Drive (SSD) products manufacturer Mtronstorage Technology has completed the development of a new 1.8 Inch ZIF-type SSD for laptop PCs. Mtron’s new SSD with Single Level Cell (SLC) Flash memory supports PATA (ZIF-type) interface and has a maximum reading speed of 120MB/s and writing speed of 100MB/s - more than 6 times faster than the current 1.8 inch HDD. Therefore when it’s used in laptop PC and UMPC, Mtron claims it delivers much faster performance than desktop PCs. Mtron has also released a 1.8 inch SSD with Multi Level Cell (MLC) Flash memory, which provides maximum memory capacity of up to 128 GB along with a maximum reading speed of 110 MB/s and writing speed of 40MB/s. Read More
Sandisk ups the capacity of iNAND embedded flash drive to 16GB
Image Gallery (2 images)
February 15, 2008 Today's mobile handsets and portable handheld media players have become multimedia centers, packed with features such as digital cameras, games and music and video players. As the features for such devices increase, so too does the need for greater storage capacity. To address this SanDisk has announced the 16GB iNAND embedded Flash drive (EFD). The 16GB iNAND doubles the capacity of Sandisk’s 8GB iNAND and, thanks to recent advances in multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash technology, retains the standard JEDEC, (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council), 12x16mm package. Adhering to the JEDEC package and ball-out requirements, common throughout the industry, provides virtually “plug and play” integration and allows the drives to be designed into mobile handsets quickly. Additionally, iNAND devices utilize the industry-leading and field-proven SD interface and are designed to support mobile TV, multimedia downloading and other storage-hungry applications on portable systems such as mobile handsets, digital audio/MP3 players, gaming applications, GPS applications, personal media players and PDAs. Read More
Panasonic to release 32GB SDHC Memory Card
Image Gallery (2 images)
February 13, 2008 The options for consumers looking to boost storage capacity for their increasingly sophisticated Camcorders just keep getting better. In the latest development, Panasonic has announced it will release a 32 Gigabyte SD High Capacity (SDHC) Memory Card with Class 6 speed specification in April 2008. Read More
Intel and Micron unveil world’s fastest NAND Flash memory
Image Gallery (2 images)
February 6, 2008 Intel Corporation and Micron Technology Inc. have developed a high speed NAND Flash memory technology targeting data-munching consumer electronics applications that's five times faster than conventional NAND. Read More
SanDisk boosts speed and capacity for Ultra II SD memory card line
Image Gallery (3 images)
February 2, 2008 In more good news for camera enthusiasts and their memory hungry devices, Sandisk has announced the upcoming release of a 32GB SDHC card with significantly increased read and write speeds along with an 8GB version of its two-in one, USB-ready SDHC Plus line. Read More
Corsair ups capacity of durable USB drives to 32GB
Image Gallery (2 images)
January 14, 2008 USB drives are usually treated pretty roughly whether in the bottom of a bag or attached to a set of keys. Designed to cope with these knocks and bumps that come hand-in-hand with portability, Corsair's ruggedized all-rubber Flash Voyager and aluminum-encased water-proof Flash Survivor line of USB drives have now been expanded to 32GB capacity. Read More
SanDisk launches high-definition video card line for digital camcorders
Image Gallery (2 images)
January 14, 2008 SanDisk were busy at CES 2008 and among the announcements was the release of a line of Flash memory based high performance video cards for use in digital camcorders. The SanDisk Video HD cards will be available in SDHC (high capacity) and Memory Stick PRO Duo formats, and will be identified not only by capacity, but also by minutes of recording time. Designed to overcome the problems consumers face in estimating just how much recording time is available from various resolution settings, the SanDisk Video HD card packaging offers a chart that shows the approximate number of minutes for HD High, HD Standard and HD Extended settings. Read More
SanDisk evaluating 12GB microSDHC memory card
Image Gallery (2 images)
January 9, 2007 SanDisk has announced plans for the world's largest capacity microSDHC card for mobile phones packing a whopping 12GB of storage. Read More
SanDisk announces USB flash drive with automatic online backup
Image Gallery (2 images)
January 4, 2008 While the development of Flash based USB drives have enabled people to store increasing amounts of data on ever smaller devices, they have also increased the risk of misplacing data in the event that these diminutive drives disappear. Recognizing this SanDisk has announced the Cruzer Titanium Plus, a 4GB capacity USB flash drive that offers automatic online backup for every file copied to the drive. In the event that the drive is lost, stolen or if users simply forget to bring the drive with them, quick access is provided to their backed-up files through a personal password-protected online account on any computer connected to the Internet. Read More
Kingston 19-in-1 Media Reader
Image Gallery (2 images)
December 14, 2007 Flash memory formats continue to expand but fortunately, so too do the transfer solutions. Kingston’s latest external, hi-speed multi-card reader supports 19 types of Flash memory cards in a 3.61" x 2.71" package for USD$17. Read More
Microsoft's Mobile Memory Mouse 8000
Image Gallery (3 images)
December 7, 2007 Microsoft’s new USB rechargeable Mobile Memory Mouse 8000 frees up extra USB ports by incorporating 1GB of Flash memory into the transceiver and features magnetic connectors that allow you to continue your work while your mouse is charging. Read More
Wine bottle USB key opens the door to the château
Image Gallery (3 images)
October 29, 2007 If sniffing, swirling and sipping isn’t enough to cure your craving for wine, perhaps this novel new USB key is. Loaded with information about the Grand Cru Classé winery in Bordeaux, the USB key comes in the shape of a bottle of the vineyard’s Pontet-Canet.
TakeTV PC-to-video recording device
Image Gallery (3 images)
October 23, 2007 Most of us watch video content, movies and TV shows from the Internet via our PC or laptops screens but it’s not always the best avenue for viewing quality visuals. In response to this, SanDisk has released a new device that aims to simplify the process of taking videos from your PC and watching them on your TV. Read More
8GB SDHC card for high-performance digital cameras
Image Gallery (2 images)
October 18, 2007 With transfer speed of 20MB/second and the ability to perform at high altitude and in temperatures ranging from -13 to 185 degrees Fahrenheit, SanDisk's 8GB Extreme III SDHC card has been specifically designed with high-performance digital cameras in mind. Read More
Gresso release luxury USB flash drive range
Image Gallery (3 images)
October 5, 2007 In another example of fashion meets function from the world of consumer electronics, manufacturer of luxury mobile phones and MP3 playersGresso has released an alternative to the dreary old plastic USB drive. The high-end collection of 1GB capacity drives called "Adam&Eve" are crafted from materials including African mahogany, blackwood, gold and white diamonds. Read More
Sandisk launches new high-performance Flash memory cards
Image Gallery (3 images)
September 18, 2007 The rise and rise of Flash memory continues with SanDisk, the original inventor of Flash storage cards, launching its Express line of high-performance Flash memory products. Aimed at professional videographers and photographers who demand speed, durability and reliability the new 8GB and 16GB flash memory cards record high-definition video at 35 megabits per second. Read More
Sandisk doubles capacity of Cruzer Micro Flash drive
Image Gallery (3 images)
August 29, 2007 Not so long ago we were using floppy disks with a 1.44mb capacity to save and transfer documents, even more recently a 500Mb thumb drive seemed like a revolution, but now it's all a matter of routine to be counting in gigabytes. SanDisk has introduced an 8 gigabyte model (that's the equivalent to 5555 floppy disks) of its Cruzer Micro USB Flash drive, double the largest capacity previously available in the Cruzer Micro line. Read More
Flash Padlock offers physical security solution for portable data storage
Image Gallery (2 images)
August 17, 2007 With Flash drives becoming a necessity these days, the need to protect sensitive data from theft or simple misplacement is increasingly critical. The new USB 2.0 Flash Padlock from Corsair offers a physical security solution while on the go and addresses the need for secure data storage through hardware technology rather than software. Read More
Panasonic's HVX: pro-level HD digital video camera under $6000
Image Gallery (6 images)
June 28, 2007 Panasonic's AG-HVX200 digital video camera exploded onto the pro-sumer scene 12 months ago, cramming the features and high definition picture quality of a $100,000 movie camera into a US$5,995 package with some key advantages of its own. A truly ground-breaking product, the HVX featured variable frame rates between 24 and 60 frames per second for true slow motion, 4 channel audio, multiple resolutions and formats, and a solid-state P2 flash memory system to replace tape and disc recording and revolutionize the editing process. Enthusiastically received by TV producers, film schools and independent filmmakers worldwide, HVX units have also been snapped up by Oscar-brandishing directors like Peter Jackson, James Cameron and Francis Ford Coppola. Gizmag takes a look at what makes this camera so special, and some accessories that take the Panasonic HVX well into pro video territory. Read More
