Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"Panasonic must be mighty annoyed right about now, because Toshiba's seemingly got it trumped -- when the first batch of lightning-quick UHS-I cards ship in November, Toshiba's chips will be faster and larger on day one."

Toshiba is usually second to Panasonic when it comes to SD Card announcements, and so here is their announcement. The new cards are actually faster than what Panasonic has announced, with the full sized SD cards doing 95MB/s read versus Panasonic's 60MB/s read. Writing speed is not shabby at a stated 80MB/s, though we have yet to see how it will be in actual use. There are also microSD versions doing 40MB/s read and 20 MB/s write. Again, remember that the device also has to be UHS-I, else the cards will not perform at their full perfomance.

"SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), the proven leader in flash memory, today announced the availability of SanDisk Mobile Ultra, microSD, microSDHC and Memory Stick Micro (M2) flash mobile memory cards, which are available in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB* capacities -- the industry’s first premium mobile phone storage cards. A must-have product for consumers who embody the digital lifestyle, the SanDisk Mobile Ultra high-performance cards are “best of breed” premium cards that provide fast side-loading speeds. This means that users will experience accelerated transfer rates of digital files to and from their mobile memory card and their computer. In addition to speed, SanDisk Mobile Ultra cards allow consumers to “wake up” the multimedia features of mobile phones by increasing the phone’s storage capacity for maps, music, videos, photos, games and other essential applications. For avid mobile phone videographers, events and experiences captured by the phone’s video camera can be quickly and efficiently transferred to social media or video-sharing websites. For added value and convenience, the card is bundled with a MobileMate™ Micro Reader that plugs directly into a USB 2.0 port to assist in this quick transport and easy management of digital content."



If you own a device with a microSD/microSDHC or M2 slot, check out SanDisk's new Mobile Ultra cards. They're available at capacities of up to 8GB and come bundled with a slim MobileMate Micro Reader to make those card-to-computer transfers a breeze. The 8GB Mobile Ultra microSDHC has a $119.99 MSRP tag, but if you shop around, you can probably find a better deal.

"SanDisk Corporation, a leading seller of MP3 players in the United States, today announced the company will promote DRM-free music from more than 50 new and emerging artists on a microSD card. This U.S.-based program is the first of its kind to use microSD cards, and helps launch the new 8GB (gigabyte) Sansa Fuze MP3 player. The “Sansa Sessions” microSD card is comprised of a collection of rock, pop, and hip hop songs, music videos, and photos from more than 30 labels. Featured artists include All Time Low, Ladytron, Magnet, Nada Surf, Of Montreal and The Coup."



You know, it's funny. Less than two years ago it seemed as though the main-stream music industry was on its last leg. With almost monthly reports of some poor sap (or grandmother) being sued for alleged file sharing, Sony violating their paying customers computers with rootkits, and not to mention the RIAA running amok as if they were Judge Dredd himself - it can almost be considered a miracle that I can sit here and write this post while listening to a fairly high quality legally purchased DRM free album of one of my favorite bands. While the days of yesteryear have left a horrible taste in any music lover’s mouth, times are changing... and quickly! As cool as this Sansa Sessions gimmick is, you do have to purchase a SanDisk Sansa Fuze MP3 player to redeem this preloaded microSD card... but hey, at the end of the day you receive a free microSD card that can be used in almost anything nowadays and it is preloaded with DRM-free content. All in all, this isn't a bad deal if you ask me.