Need a little more proof that Intel's got some fly SSDs about ready to roll? We have confirmation from Micron that it's working on new and improved 34nm chips in capacities of 8, 16, and 32Gb. These lovelies are 17 percent smaller than the previous rainbow colored flash delights, and are faster too, offering 200Mb/s transfer speeds and when combined into an SSD, able to keep up with SATA 6Gb/s transfers. This press release confirms the chips will show up in flash memory from Lexar, but we're guessing that official Intel announcement can't be far off now.

It's three days until Christmas and you're looking for last-minute gift ideas for tech-inclined friends and colleagues. You decide on a USB drive, but how do figure out what's best to get -- attraction to hammers, ability to open beer bottles, or some other, clearly inferior metric entirely? Kristofer Brozio at Test Freaks Blog took 21 drives of various sizes (5 each of 1, 2, 4 and 8GB and one 64GB Patriot Magnum) and models and tested their transfer speeds. Top marks went to the 4GB OCZ, Sandisk, Lexar, and Super Talent models, as well as the 1GB SanDIsk. Given the small sample size, we can't really say if the speeds were the result of the capacities of the drive or the company who makes them, but it's definitely some flash-based food for thought. Hit the read link for the full results.

Frustrated by somewhat sluggish transfers from your otherwise spectacular Eye-Fi card? Fret not, as the company has just announced a forthcoming update at Photokina that will reportedly enable new and existing Eye-Fi owners to make "the upload of digital photos from camera to computer twice as fast." Also of note, as of October 5th, users can even add features that aren't already included on their card and renew annual services by tapping into the updated Eye-Fi Manager Web application. In related news, the outfit will be pushing its wares to Japan and Canada by the year's end, and in even more related news, Eye-Fi now supports direct photo uploads to Apple's MobileMe and the AdoramaPix service.

Read - Eye-Fi getting 2x faster
Read - Eye-Fi going international

We know, it's so exciting.

We'd heard Lexar and Eye-Fi were getting snuggly back in January, and look at that -- nine months later the Lexar Shoot-n-Sync WiFi SD card has arrived on our doorstep. The 2GB card is basically just a Lexar-branded Eye-Fi Share, so you pretty much already know how it works -- you shoot, it uploads -- and it's even the same $99 price, so yeah, yawn. Hopefully these two will do something a little more interesting now that they've gotten used to working together. Lexar also kicked out a number of other cards, including a new 4GB Memory Stick Micro M2 card, a 16GB Platinum II 60x SDHC card, and a 16GB Platinum II 80x CompactFlash card -- no pricing or availability on any of those yet, but we'd expect them soon.

[Via Gearlog]

Read - Shoot-n-Sync
Read - Platinum II cards
Read - M2 card

It's hard enough to get noticed in the camera storage market, and while Eye-Fi's 2GB WiFi SD cards have certainly gotten some play, the company is teaming up with Lexar to promote the tech to a larger audience. From what we can tell, Lexar won't be making any changes to the core product, just lending its brand name, but details are slim at the moment. Lexar will be showing off Eye-Fi's stuff this week at CES, maybe they'll let some release info slip in the coming days.

The SSD market is starting to get pleasantly crowded -- Lexar just announced a new line of Crucial-branded SSDs in both 32GB and 64GB capacities. The 2.5-inch SATA drives will offer sub-1ms latency, and Crucial will also be offering an external drive enclosure and 3.5-inch internal bay kit, which will allow you to pull your drive and take it with you on the go. No pricing is available yet, but Crucial says these'll hit sometime in Q1.

Lexar just added another USB flash drive with an E-Ink capacity meter to their lineup: the JumpDrive Secure II Plus. In fact, that meter is the only thing differentiating this product from their JumpDrive Secure II with 256-bit AES encryption. Well, that and a higher price tag. The new drives are in stores now in capacities up to 4GB with an 8GB version "coming soon." We tracked a 2GB model down online for $50, we're sure you can do the same.

While Lexar does a fine job competing in the flash memory arena, it appears that the outfit is giving it a go in the solid state disc realm as well. According a marginally descriptive product page, Lexar is offering up an 8GB ExpressCard SSD, which should go nicely above that 120GB PCMCIA NAND drive as you attempt to cram more storage into peripheral slots than inside your laptop's casing. Moreover, the device features a peak data transfer rate of 250Mbps, and while it doesn't appear to be available for shipment just yet, it'll run you a penny under $200 when it formally launches.

[Thanks, Anthony P.]

Lexar has already given its SDHC cards a boost this year, and the company doesn't seem to be wasting any time bringing its CompactFlash offerings up to speed as well, today introducing a series of new 300x UDMA CompactFlash cards, as well as a pair of card readers to go along with 'em. Available in 2, 4, and 8GB varities, the cards are said to be 125% faster than the company's current CompactFlash cards, delivering a sustained write time of 45MB per second. To hit that top speed, however, you'll need to use them with a UDMA-enabled device, which are currently a rare breed, although Lexar says it expects "several" UDMA-enabled digital cameras to be announced later this year. In addition those mystery cameras, you'll also be able to get the most out of the cards using one of the two UDMA card readers Lexar's set to release this spring, available in your choice of FireWire or USB 2.0 models for $80 and $50 respectively. The cards themselves should also be released about the same time, although Lexar doesn't seem willing to spill the details on how much they're gonna cost just yet.

Read - Photography Blog, Lexar Professional UDMA 300x Memory Cards
Read - Photography Blog, Lexar UDMA Card Readers

Lexar announced today that it will be releasing SDHC cards in both the Platinum II and Standard lines in 4GB and 8GB capacities, which should hit "later this year." The 4GB Platinum II, which are rated to sustain transfers of 9MB per second, will retail in February for $100, while its Standard counterpart will cost $80. We're not sure how much the 8GB cards will cost, but we're hoping it won't be more than double, because that would be just plain silly.