OCZ Technology Group, the worldwide leading provider of innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, has recently announced the introduction of its new Gold Series Secure Digital High-Capacity (SDHC) flash memory cards. The fresh OCZ parts are meant to deliver unmatched performance to professional photographers and videographers, while also offering ample storage capabilities for high-resolution pictures and video.

OCZ's premium memory cards are promoted to be able to provide incredible speeds and capacities to photography enthusiasts, allowing them to enjoy the tailored storage they demand. The new OCZ Gold Series SDHC cards feature capacities of 4GB, 8GB and 16GB, while coming with an industry-leading Lifetime Warranty. In addition, the free technical support OCZ offers for the parts is meant to provide the ultimate peace of mind to customers.

“OCZ’s new Gold Series SDHC cards are designed for professional photography and high definition video applications where enthusiasts demand the highest level of performance to match the file sizes and speed capabilities of their specialized cameras and video equipment,” commented Alex Mei, Chief Marketing Officerof the OCZ Technology Group. “The new Gold Series cards make use of premium quality flash and are optimized for shooting large RAW files with the latest D-SLR cameras and exceed the performance requirements of the latest 1080 high definition camcorders.”

The fresh OCZ Gold Series SDHC cards come as the perfect choice for the latest D-SLRs and HD video cameras. They provide exceptional shooting performance, speed and reliability, while accelerating photo and video transfers from card to computer. Featuring Speed Class 6 at 150X write rate, the Gold Series has been designed to offer HD video enthusiasts and photography professionals a great solution for capturing large volumes of high resolution images and video.

More details on the new OCZ Gold Series SDHC flash cards, product specifications and selling points are available on the company's site.

Toshiba, has launched of 16GB microSDHC card offering the largest capacity available in the market.

The company has also extended its range of memory card solutions by adding ultra fast read/write 8GB and 16GB SDHC cards to its line-up. Mass production of the new SDHC cards will start in December, with production of the new microSDHC slated to start in January 2009.All the new SDHC memory cards comply with the SD memory standard Ver. 2.00, and the two new SDHC cards announced today support class 6 ultra fast read/write speed - a maximum write speed of 20MB per second, delivering high performance for continuous shooting of still images and recording video images. The new microSDHC can be used with an adapter that allows it to be used in SDHC slots.

Noticeably late to the solid state storage (SSD) party is Seagate, who earlier said it would offer its first SSDs sometime in 2008. As the year is quickly coming to an end, the company has now pushed its entry into 2009.

"Our history is based on rotating magnetic media," Seagate's senior manager of market development Rich Vignes told Cnet. "But as solid-state comes online, we're embracing this new media type."

Not everyone would agree that Seagate is "embracing" the increasingly popular storage medium. While several companies have made a push to get SSDs into the mainstream market, Seagate's late entry will focus solely on the enterprise market with consumer drivers to be sold "later."So far the company has not yet announced announced plans to manufacturer NAND flash memory by itself like many of it competitors are doing. Instead, Seagate has kept the focus of its flash business to hybrid (flash/HDD) hard drives.

Kingston Technology has announced the addition of 8GB microSD High-Capacity (SDHC) Flash memory cards to its mobile memory storage line. Shipping immediately, the new 8GB microSDHC cards offer greater storage options to the latest mobile phones and digital devices.
"Consumers are demanding more from their mobile phones, expecting them to double as music and portable game players, instant cameras, email communicators, browsers and navigators. Having enough storage capacity, particularly in the form of memory cards, keeps internal device memory free to deliver all this multi-functionality,” said Nitin Malhotra, Kingston Country Manager, India. “Our 8GB microSDHC cards are so roomy that mobile users can easily move entire digital libraries from a PC to their mobile phones - and beyond.”The new microSDHC 8GB card, is identical in physical size to the original microSD card, but is compatible with microSDHC host devices only and not backward compatible with standard microSD-enabled devices or readers.

The card is compliant with the SD Association Specification, Version 2.0 and can be used as full-size SDHC or miniSDHC card with appropriate adapter. The new 8GB card also comes with a High-Speed Class Rating - Class 4 i.e. 4MB/sec (minimum sustained data transfer rate).
Backed by a lifetime warranty and free technical support, Kingston microSDHC Flash memory cards are available through distributors, resellers and retailers for a price of Rs. 2,999.

As some of you might remember, Pretec launched back at CES one of the world's largest CompactFlash cards, providing 48 GB of storage space. Then, at CeBIT 2008, one of the company's representatives talked to Softpedia about the speed of their cards, which was far superior even to SanDisk's most impressive offerings.

However, that was a long time ago, so Pretec has decided that it was about time to upgrade its offering and launched several new cards, each of them breaking some sort of record, whether we're talking about storage capacity or speed.

First of all, the company released two CF models that offer 64GB and 100GB of storage space, respectively, which officially ranks them as the world's largest Compact Flash memory cards (or memory cards, period). While the access speed is not the main point of attraction of these new cards, it's actually not that bad, namely around 35MB/s (or 233X).But if it's speed you're looking for, then Pretec's got you covered. And that's because the company has also released two new CF cards (a 32GB and a 50GB, respectively), which can attain a maximum read/write speed of 50 MB per second, which makes them just about the fastest CompactFlash memory cards the world has ever seen.

It's also interesting to note that the Pretec CF 233X and 333X CF cards use metal housing and ruggedized construction to provide extensive ruggedness, while the Pretec 64GB CF cards can be configured or reused to make a 256GB SATA, the highest capacity 2.5-inch SSD out there, by using Pretec Q-SATA, a very innovative technology of flexible, scalable and modular SATA/PATA design based on up to 4 CF cards.

The new Pretec 233X 64GB and 333X 32GB CF cards should be available by the end of Photokina 2008, for prices ranging between $399 and $630, depending on the particular model. On the other hand, the 233X 100GB and 333X 50GB are expected to start shipping by the end of 2008.source : softpedia.com

Just as vinyl once gave way to compact discs as the main physical medium for music, could CDs be replaced now by a fingernail-sized memory card?Perhaps not entirely, but SanDisk Corp., four major record labels and retailers Best Buy Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are hoping that albums sold on microSD memory cards will at least provide an additional stream of sales. The companies were expected to unveil plans Monday to sell memory cards loaded with music in the MP3 format, free of copy protections.

Called "slotMusic," the new format is meant to address two intertwined trends. Most albums are still sold in a physical format - 449 million were sold on CDs in 2007, while 50 million were sold digitally, according to Nielsen SoundScan - yet CDs are decreasingly popular. Albums sold on CD dropped almost 19 percent last year.Given this, the record labels - Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group Corp. and EMI Group PLC - are hoping slotMusic can be another physical revenue source - and one that is more versatile than CDs, given the kinds of gadgets people carry around these days.

Unlike when the CD was introduced and people had to buy new players, many people already have the ability to play slotMusic albums, since many cell phones and multimedia players support microSD cards.

These new albums will come with a small USB dongle that lets buyers use them with computers, too.

"Particularly in this kind of economic climate, the idea of being able to use an electronic device you already own to enjoy music rather than going out and buying a dedicated player is pretty compelling," said Daniel Schreiber, who heads the audio-video business unit at SanDisk, which created the microSD card format and is working on the technology behind slotMusic.

Schreiber said slotMusic albums will be sold on 1 gigabyte microSD cards, which means they will be able to hold a full album and related content such as liner notes and cover art. Buyers will be able to use extra space on the cards to hold songs and photos from their own collections.

The cards and dongles will come in boxes similar to current CD packaging, and Schreiber expects the cost of slotMusic releases to be "in the ballpark" of current CD prices.

It's not yet known exactly when - or how many - albums will be initially sold in the format, but Schreiber expects retailers to give a "sizable amount of shelf space" to slotMusic albums. The albums are expected to debut at multiple retailers, including Best Buy and Wal-Mart stores in the U.S., and later in Europe.

Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of Universal Music Group's eLabs digital music unit, said the label will initially release about 30 titles in the slotMusic format. The titles will include old and new albums, such as one by singer Akon.

"We want to provide the benefits of digital music to people who go to physical retail environments," he said.

Asked whether he sees the format taking the place of the CD, Caraeff said, "I think we would certainly hope that would be the case, but I don't think we are so tied to that."

NPD Group entertainment analyst Russ Crupnick sees a potential for slotMusic to emerge as a compelling format. He said the industry needs "desperately" to give people a new reason to head back into the music sections at brick-and-mortar stores.

"Not that we want them out of the gaming section, but once they're done looking at 'Guitar Hero' we want them to come look at the music section," he said.

Consumer electronics giant Samsung also happens to be the world’s premier NAND Flash memory manufacturer. It now aims to further strengthen its position by acquiring flash memory maker SanDisk, if reports in the Korean media are to be trusted. The rationale behind such a move is that an acquisition will not only bolster Samsung’s current flash memory production capacity but also save the company about $350 million annually – the amount Samsung pays SanDisk in royalties.SanDisk has been navigating through some rough financial weather lately, but still is coveted by couple of big companies. Of course, rumors of Seagate making a bid for the company have also been around. A possible acquisition would handover a considerable advantage to Seagate in the SSD market. SanDisk certainly seems to have a few takers.

SanDisk has launched a new line of SD memory cards that they claim can provide users with up to 30 megabytes per second for file transfers and that’s nothing to sneeze at. The new card range is called - SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition line. The new cards, will be available in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities and are designed to deliver peak performance when used with the new digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera, Nikon D90.

The Nikon D90 is the industry’s first DSLR camera to support SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition SDHC cards at increased performance. Featuring a 50-percent speed boost from previous 20MB/s cards, the new SanDisk card makes it possible to record 39 images in continuous shooting mode at 4.5 frames per second with a file size of 6.0 MB.“The high capacities and performance of the SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition SDHC cards give users the freedom to shoot lots of high-resolution photos and video clips,” said Susan Park, director of consumer product marketing for SanDisk’s performance cards.

Beyond their high capacities and performance levels, all SanDisk Extreme III cards are capable of functioning in temperatures, from -13 to 185 degrees Fahrenheit or -25 to 85 degrees Celsius. The cards also carry a lifetime limited warranty. SanDisk Extreme III SDHC 30MB/s Edition cards, which have a Class 6 performance rating, are fully backwards-compatible; working in any camera, card reader or other device that supports SDHC cards.SanDisk Extreme III SDHC 30MB/s Edition cards are expected to be available in India by October. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price is Rs. 2,499 for the 4GB card, Rs. 4,499 for the 8GB card, and Rs. 8,999 for the 16GB card.

Samsung is attempting to answer the question of how low can you go while doing the solid state limbo. The semiconductor company this week said it has begun sampling low-density, higher-performance solid state drives (SSDs) measuring just 30 percent the size of 2.5-inch SSDs. Samsung also says they're highly cost-efficient to manufacture, which should help the technology continue to penetrate the mainstream market."We've refined our manufacturing techniques and redesigned our low-density SSDs to get what the low-priced PC market is looking for in the way of improved cost, performance, and availability," said Jim Elliot, VP of memory marking.

Available in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB flavors, the new multi-level cell SSDs will use the same SATA II controller found on Samsung's recently introduced MLC-based 128GB SSD. The company says the 32GB SSD will read data at 90MB/s and write at 70MB/s, while the 16GB will sport read and write times of 90MB/s and 45MB/s. Bringing up the rear, the 8GB model will also read at 90MB, but write at 25MB/s.

Mass production will start in September 2008. And mass consumption? That question remains to be answered.

Reading mind of consumers and working to offer the requisite functionality are the important aspect for a company. To meet the growing demand in the field of compact flash card, Transcend has unveiled 300X 16GB CF card in the Indian market.

Designed for professional photographers and amateurs, the latest release has been claimed to be the world’s fastest CF card to cross the record of 50MB/second read/write speed. With this, users can enjoy successive shooting and non-stop video recording.Tested by the professional digital photography website, Rob Galbraith Digital Photography Insights, the Transcend 300X 16GB Compact Flash card delivers read/write speeds of up to 45MB per second.

Austin Huang, Regional Head - Sales, SAARC & APAC, Transcend, said, “We are extremely proud of the fact that among the 130 memory cards tested, the new Transcend 300X 16GB has emerged as the world’s first CF card to have broken through the 50MB/second barrier. With the impressive transfer speeds and enormous storage capacity of Transcend 300X CF cards, we are confident that photographers, both professional and amateur, and all other power users will appreciate the excellent performance offered by this product.”

Supporting today’s high-performance digital single lens reflex cameras (DSLR), the newest compact flash card works in dual-channel Ultra DMA mode 5 and is IDE PIO mode 6 compliant. It comes equipped with an advanced ECC (Error Correction Code) that can automatically identify and correct errors while transferring data. This will not only maintain reliability but also avoid data corruption. It also complies with the new CF 4.1 standard and ensures multi-platform compatibility as well as low power consumption.

Transcend has taken advantage of top-tier SLC NAND Flash chips and premium quality components for robust, long-life durability and guaranteed performance. In addition it also comes with Transcend’s renowned international Lifetime Warranty.

Available from Supertron Electronics Limited and Mediaman Infotech, the Transcend Extreme Speed 300X CF cards are priced at Rs.4000 for 4GB, Rs.6000 for 8GB and Rs.11000 for 16GB capacities.

SanDisk has announced the availability of SanDisk Mobile Ultra, microSD, microSDHC and Memory Stick Micro (M2) flash mobile memory cards. These cards are a part of SanDisk’s “Wake Up Your Phone” series for multimedia. The cards come bundled with a MobileMate Micro Reader that plugs directly into a USB 2.0 port.
“This product launch further proves SanDisk’s ability to anticipate changing user needs and provide the market with the right mobile storage solutions at the right time.” said David Kerr, vice president mobile research, Strategy Analytics.Michael Romero, vice president of Mobile Retail Business, SanDisk, said, “SanDisk’s new Mobile Ultra line will make consumers’ digital lifestyle more manageable by offering them greater ability to quickly transfer photos, maps, music, videos, games and other large file size content wherever they go. These cards are truly the most convenient way for people to store, move and play content using their mobile phones, so we’re excited to introduce this high-performance, premium product to market to meet this need and growing demand.”
The SanDisk Mobile Ultra microSDHC are available in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB capacities and are priced at Rs. 1,492 ($34.99), Rs. 2,558 ($59.99) and Rs. 5,117 ($119.99) respectively. The Mobile Ultra Memory Stick Micro M2 are also available in the same capacities and are priced at Rs. 1,705 ($39.99) for the 2GB, Rs. 2,985 ($69.99) for the 4GB and Rs. 5,543 ($129.99) for the 8GB models. The SanDisk Mobile Ultra cards also come with a 10-year limited warranty.

Towards the latter part of 2007, a company called Eye-Fi launched the first Wi-Fi enabled memory card. The idea was to make uploading images and documents more convenient. But from a single 2GB wireless card the company has decided it’s time for more and has expanded their list of Wi-Fi Memory Cards by adding 2 more.
The Eye-Fi Home is designed to be used with a home network to upload images etc to your PC’s desktop using specific software for the same. The second card called the Eye-Fi Explorer should give you a small clue as to its use. In case you aren’t sure, the Explorer is equipped with a GeoTagging feature from Skyhook. The very first Eye-fi card is of course still available.The three cards are of 2GB capacities and retail for - $129 (Rs. 5,341) for the Explorer, $99 (Rs. 4,100) for the Home and the first Eye-Fi card is still priced at $79 (Rs. 3,271). They aren’t here yet, officially, but let’s hope it doesn’t take too long.

As the first of a new category of storage media, SanDisk launched the Video HD cards to be available in SDHC (high-capacity) and Memory Stick PRO Duo formats, and will be identified by minutes of recording time as well as by capacity.
"The SanDisk Video HD line takes the mystery out of selecting the proper memory for these new camcorders," said Susan Park, senior product marketing manager for SanDisk's Cards and Accessories Division. "The bright red packaging and the bold labeling of recording times give consumers an easy way to select memory cards for video." The cards are designed to be high performance and optimized for high-definition camcorders, but they can also be used in recording standard video. "Further, the cards work well in point-and-shoot digital still cameras that have video capabilities", she added.The market for flash-enabled camcorders is expected to grow in popularity. Research company IDC predicts that by 2011, some 37 percent of global camcorder shipments will be models that record onto memory cards, and well over half of camcorders will feature HD video capture. "With HD video quickly penetrating the category, it will be critical for vendors to provide seamless recording experiences," said Christopher Chute, research manager of IDC's worldwide digital imaging practice. "The SanDisk Video HD card is well-positioned to service this expanding market by simplifying the memory message for consumers," he added.

The SanDisk Video HD cards are expected to be available starting in March for North America and shortly afterwards for Europe. They will be offered in 60-minute (4GB) and 120-minute (8GB) times – on the HD Standard setting – for both SDHC and Memory Stick PRO Duo formats. Suggested retail prices are $79.99 and $139.99, respectively, for the 4GB and 8GB SDHC cards, and $79.99 and $149.99, respectively, for the Memory Stick PRO Duo cards.

This Micro Projector has a slot in the back for a standard SD (Secure Digital) memory card. On your SD card you might have some home movies you recorded on your SD digital camera, or some snaps of your night out, or even some of your favourite mp3 tracks. This clever little device can play them all!

Just fill as much media as you can from your computer onto your SD card and slot it into the Micro SD Card Projector, find yourself a nice dark room with a suitable projectable surface and get ready for mini viewing pleasure!

No need for cables trailing all over the place, this unique mini projector is a stand-alone unit that simply uses batteries! Gone are the days of transporting all your home movie reels along with a cumbersome projector that takes a rocket-scientist to set-up. This Micro SD Card Projector is so easy to use, all you have to do is sit it down and turn it on!Pack Contains:
1 x Micro SD Card Projector
1 x Set of Audio cables

Please Note: SD Card not included.
Requires 4 x AA batteries.

Dimensions:
Projector: L 165mm W 105mm
Maximum Projection (approx.): L 1015mm W 850mm

Graphics technology company, Nvidia, has announced acquisition of Ageia Technologies, the company behind PhysX software, in order to bring GeForce-accelerated PhysX to gamers around the world.

For those not in the know, PhysX is a chip that Ageia makes that makes killing and blowing up stuff with say a PlayStation controller all the more lifelike -- especially to the satisfaction of an entire generation of video gamers who probably know what it feels like when you hit a fuel truck with an RPG. Ageia acknowledges the fact that the processing power required to simulate events like explosions and smoke and fog is so huge -- that it took them a standalone chip to be able to drive that experience home, somewhat.

In the words of Ageia, its PhysX processor forms part of the "gaming power triangle", comprising the CPU, the GPU (either Nvidia or AMD's ATI), and the PhysX 'Physics processing unit". The company's Web site says that the third leg of this power triangle 'moves and interacts' to take gaming to the next level with pervasive dynamic motion and interaction.
Ageia's PhysX is claimed to be used in more than 140 PhysX-based games currently shipping, or under development for the Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, or gaming PCs.

Coming to the Nvidia acquisition of Ageia, the former hasn't released any further details on the same, which includes the amount it is shelling out to Ageia.

Nvidia's move comes after Intel acquired Irish company Havok in September 2007. Havok Physics, better known as Havok, are designed for computer and video games by allowing interaction between objects and characters in real-time.

The Nvidia acquisition is believed to change things considerably for Ageia -- more so if Nvidia achieves its goal of integrating PhysX into its future GPUs.

And since Nvidia GPUs are amongst the most widely used by gamers across the globe, the acquisition may push developers to include PhysX support, while opposing development of new and improved GPU-based Physics.

All said, it's unclear how long gamers may have to wait before they get to have their hands on Ageia Physics-powered Nvidia graphics cards. Also, whether or not Nvidia's current bunch of graphics cards will integrate the newly acquired technology.

Four people sued the company, saying they expected its drives to offer greater capacity than that actually provided. Seagate manufactures its drives based on powers of ten, with 1KB equalling 1,000 bytes. The claimants argued that 1KB of storage should compromise 1,024 bytes.

On a 1GB drive, this would make the difference between one billion bytes of storage, and 1,073,741,824 bytes. Other manufacturers, such as Samsung and Hitachi, also measure hard-drive capacity with 1KB equalling 1,000 bytes, whereas all operating systems are based on 1KB equalling 1,024 bytes.

Because the lawsuit is a "class action", the settlement is available to all Seagate customers.

Seagate denies any fault, but it has offered to pay the refund for any drive which was bought between 22 March, 2001 and 26 September, 2007. The offer is awaiting approval by the presiding judge.

To claim a refund, buyers have to fill in a form quoting their product's serial number. If they wish to claim the software, they have to use a different online form.

The lawsuit is the latest in a series of similar cases involving the definition of a gigabyte. In 2003, Apple, Dell, Gateway, HP, IBM, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba were sued over hard-disk sizes by a group of users. That case has not yet been resolved.

A suit against Amazon.com over the capacity of an MP3 player bought on the site was also filed in 2003, but was dismissed in 2005.

All the major flash memory card makers, including SanDisk and Kingston, were sued in 2004, but there has been no result in that case yet.
Another hard-disk giant, Western Digital, settled a similar suit in 2005, but it escaped having to pay refunds. The company offered a free download of backup software valued at US$30 and paid half a million dollars in legal fees, while denying liability.

links:
Home page: http://www.harddrive-settlement.com/index.htm
Online Claim Form: http://www.harddrive-settlement.com/submitClaim.aspx
Mail In Claim Form: http://www.harddrive-settlement.com/doc-MailIn.htm