Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"Two months after the SD Association announced the new SDXC (extended capacity) format, Pretec has unveiled the world's first SDXC card with a capacity of 32 GB and read/write speed of 50MB/s. Future generations of these cards promise up to 2 Terabytes (2048 GB) of storage capacity and speeds of up to 300MB/s. Currently there are no products compatible with these memory cards."

Well, one of them had to come first: the chicken or the egg. In this case, it's the "egg" in the form of a 32 GB SDXC card. Sure, there's nothing on the market yet that can use it, but at least none of the other consumer electronics companies can say there aren't any cards on the market. No word on pricing of course - knowing Pretec, it's probably going to be quite expensive for the first few months.

"Your next build may very well come configured with dual-SSD drives in a RAID 0 array for the OS, a gluttonous 2TB SATA HDD for storage duties, and a Blu-ray optical drive for movie watching and HD backups. And for quick transfers from one rig to another, does it get any sweeter than a 64GB USB thumb drive loaded with all of your favorite apps? Such a storage scheme is certainly worthy of dream machine status, but our storage options weren't always as fanciful, fast, and fat as they are today. Some of you may remember toting a 3.5-inch floppy to and from school, while others hearken all the way back to cassette tapes. And if you've lived long enough to remember the IBM Punch Card first hand, just ask and we'll SPEAK LOUDER."

Image Credit: IBM

You youngsters probably had optical storage on your first computers. Sadly I've actually handled most of these data formats (except the paper tape). Funny story, when I started my current job, the garland and topper on the office Christmas tree were made of old punch cards and many of the ornaments were made from the internal rings on magnetic tapes. Hey at least they were recycling.

"SanDisk Corporation today announced that it has shipped the latest editions of its popular SanDisk ImageMate® memory card readers, which provide enhanced user experience through increased efficiency and faster data transfer rates. The new readers have shipped to retailers in North America and are available for purchase at this time. Faster, smaller and sleeker than their predecessors, and featuring upgraded software applications, the new ImageMate All-In-One and Multi-Card readers quickly and conveniently transfer data between a wide range of memory card formats and a host computer. The All-In-One memory card reader can reach speeds of up to 34 megabytes per second (MB/s)1 when using a SanDisk Extreme IV 45MB/s CompactFlash® card, and the Multi-Card reader is capable of up to 30MB/s2 read and 27 MB/s write data transfer rates when using a SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition SDHC card. Sporting a stylish glossy black and metallic silver design, each reader's tripod base is detachable, creating instant portability."

There's nothing particularly exciting about memory card readers, but I've got to hand it to SanDisk for trying to sex 'em up. Note that I've adjusted the photo above, lessening the shadow tones, because SanDisk's PR people thought it was a good idea to release images where it was impossible to see the slots. The bigger of the two, which has support for SD, SDHC, miniSDHC, microSDHC, MMC, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro Duo, xD and CompactFlash, will sell for $29.99 USD. The smaller one on the right supports xD, Memory Stick, SD, SDHC, MMC, and will sell for $19.99 USD.

"Many say that SSDs are the future of mobile computing and notebooks, but unfortunately they are still pretty expensive, so what about making one yourself? Many had the idea of doing so but too few were able to make it happen, until today. Thanks to Century and GeekStuff4U.com you will be now able to build up your very own SATA SSD thanks to 3 CF, the very same CF that can buy found in many DSLRs."

This isn't exactly my type of thing, but it's still pretty neat! Lots of pictures and a great video round out this tutorial. Anyone want to give it a go and report back?

"SanDisk Corporation today set a new speed record of 30 megabytes per second1 for SD flash memory cards with the introduction of the SanDisk Extreme® III 30MB/s Edition line of SDHC Cards. The new cards, expected to be available worldwide in September in 4-gigabyte (GB)2, 8GB and 16GB capacities, 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 Extreme III 30MB/s Edition SDHC 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 JPEG L Fine per image.3 The Nikon D90 camera captures high-resolution, 12.3 megapixel still images, and it is Nikon's first DSLR to offer movie recording capability."

30 MB per second? Nice - if only because it will push the the prices of their 20 MB/s Extreme II cards. I really like SanDisk cards, and have never had trouble with any of them, but they tend to be really pricey in comparison to other brands. Of course, maybe that's why - you tend to get what you pay for.

"Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it is adding a 16GB Class 4 SDHC Flash memory card to give consumers greater storage flexibility and faster speed to optimize use of today's higher resolution imaging equipment. The new 16GB card is the largest capacity in Kingston's line of SDHC cards, which include 4- and 8GB SDHC Class 2/4/6 versions. "Higher resolution digital cameras and increasingly popular HD video camcorders require high capacity memory cards with faster data transfer rates (DTRs) to maximize overall performance of the recording device," said Jaja Lin, Flash memory marketing manager, Kingston®. "Our new 16GB Class 4 memory card answers the performance needs and expands Kingston's product line to provide a memory solution for every application." Even with today's high resolution recording devices, a 16GB memory card can store literally thousands of photos and hours of high definition video. For example, the new 16GB SDHC card can capture more than 7,500* images (with a 6MP camera) and more than four hours* of video (for 6Mbps HD Extended recording)."



The march toward more storage continues with Kingston releasing this 16 GB SDHC memory card. It's not just about storage space any more though - with the increasing number of HD video cameras that record to Flash storage, speed matters as well. This new line of Kingston cards is offered in three different speed classes: a class 2 card is rated for 2 MB/s, class 4 cards are rated for 4 MB/s, and class 6 cards are (wait for it) 6 MB/s. A class 4 card with 16 GB of storage will run you $231 USD MSRP, so it's not exactly cheap...but 16 GB in such a small package is sure tasty!