MicroVault
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Sony's Micro Vault MACH thumbdrives move fast, look good doing it
120 MB/s reads and 90 MB/s writes are far from the fastest in the thumbdrive game, but they're nothing to sneeze at either. While Sony's Micro Vault MACH may not lead the pack in raw speed, it holds its own and looks damnably good doing it. The USB 3.0 stick is cased in a brushed aluminum shell and sports a red indicator LED that, if it moved, might make it look like you had a Cylon attached to your PC. The drives should be available later this month in 16, 32 and 64GB varieties, though, pricing is still a mystery. Check out the gallery below and PR after the break.
Sony loads music and movies onto MicroVault Click USB drives, can't locate any buyers
Gee, Sony. We wonder how well this initiative will go over. In fact, we wonder what bigwig signs off on such a blatantly bad idea? In case you missed the memo, selling overpriced music on flash drives is not the next big thing in content delivery, though in fairness, we will give you the movie side due to file size limitations alone. All rants aside, Sony has just introduced new pre-loaded MicroVault Click USB drives, and the first three include Michael Jackson's Thriller (2GB; $19.99), The Da Vinci Code (4GB; $29.99) and Men In Black (4GB; $29.99). What's odd is that the outfit doesn't bother sharing how much free space is left for other uses, nor are we told that the likely DRM-laced material can be exported elsewhere in order to liberate memory on the stick. In other words, we'll pass. Gladly.[Via CNET]
Sony reveals limited edition 007 VAIO TT, USB Micro Vault and Reader Digital Book
In a move to pump up the impending theater debut of Quantum of Solace, Sony is simultaneously opening up a new promotional game and introducing a few new pieces of limited edition gear. Obviously, we're a touch more concerned with the kit than the game, so we'll skip over those details and head right to the meat of it. The outfit will be offering up 100 limited run VAIO TT laptops that are emblazoned with a 007 logo on the palm rest and a matching leather protection case. Additionally, a Special Edition Bond bundle for the Reader Digital Book will feature an embossed cover with a 007 logo and coupon codes for free downloads of Ian Fleming's novels Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. Lastly, we've got the 007 USB Micro Vault in 8GB and 16GB flavors, both of which come pre-loaded with the Quantum of Solace trailer and other miscellaneous "bonus content." Wild guesses as to price / release dates are being accepted now.
Sony's MicroVault Click Excellence drives are Bill and Ted approved
Sony's MicroVault Click and Click Excellence range of USB drives were just announced in Europe. "Click," as in a clicking, retractable design with up to 16GB of flash capacity. "Excellence," as in an un-heinous 32MBps read and 11MBps write speed with a comforting, blinky-LED light for visual data flow. Unfortunately, the most excellent model is limited to a non-triumphant 8GB max capacity. Whoa, dudes.[Via Engadget Spanish]
Sony fesses up to another rootkit snafu
While everybody was busy with that BioShock "rootkit" false alarm -- and subsequently busy playing BioShock -- the folks at F-Secure were uncovering a new, legitimate rootkit problem in the software packaged with Sony's MicroVault USM-F fingerprint reader drives. It took Sony a little while to respond, but now the company says it has launched an investigation into the software, which was developed by a third-party, and will offer a fix by mid-September. The drives models had already been discontinued, though you can still pick them up at a few stores, and the rootkit is not as serious as the Sony BMX XCP DRM, but the software is still dangerous enough to allow malware authors to hide folders, so we're glad Sony's going to run clean up here.Read - Sony confirms security problemRead - Sony's USB Rootkit vs Sony's Music Rootkit
Sony announces 007 Micro Vault USB drive
Looking to leave no corner of your gadget bag untouched by its license to cash in, Sony is following up its Bond-themed laptop/digital camera bundle with a 007-branded Micro Vault USB drive. Available in only a 1GB model (Q would definitely not approve), the drive sports a sleek piano black finish and comes pre-loaded with the Casio Royale movie trailer, as well as four 1,920 x 1,080 Bond-related wallpaper images. Other than that, however, it's a standard Sony flash drive, with the trademark retractable USB connector and Virtual Expander compression software to squeeze as much data as possible onto the drive. No word on how much of a premium it'll cost you over a regular Micro Vault, if any, but it should be available sometime before the movie's premiere later this month.[Via Photography Blog]
Sony ups Micro Vault "Midi" storage to 8GB
Sony's boosting the storage capacity of its Micro Vault flash drives (again), with the USB sticks now reaching the magic 8GB mark -- territory previously reserved for Sony's larger, squarer Micro Vault Pro drives. Other than doubling up on gigabytes, the new drive remains the same as previous Micro Vault drives, featuring a retractable USB connector and Sony's pre-installed Virtual Expander software (Windows only), which promises to triple the storage capacity by compressing files that are transferred to the drive. No word yet on how much the voluminous new drive will cost, though it should be on store shelves sometime next month -- with 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB models still available for the less demanding among us.[Via Photography Blog]
Sony's Micro Vault Tiny now officially shipping in the US
Hey "fashion-forward consumers," yeah you. Sony's uh, "byte sized" Micro Vault Tiny USB drive is now shipping in the US. That's the official Sony poop although the Tiny, as Sony likes to call them, was spotted weeks ago giving some of you that 1.0 x 0.5-inch storage fix you obviously crave. About the thickness of a US quarter and weighing in at 1.5-grams, the drive ships in 5 capacity/color combinations: 256MB (orange), 512MB (violet), 1GB (blue), 2GB (green) on up to 4GB for the full-sized purple-nurple. Tiny comes preloaded with Virtual Expander built-in to automatically compress and decompress data albeit with a hit on access speed. All but the 4GB model are shipping now at an MSRP ranging from $30 to $200.
Sony to offer fast, high capacity Micro Vaults
Sony will soon be bulking up its line of Micro Vault USB thumb drives, so to speak, by adding several new models that offer either increased capacity, increased transfer speeds, or both. Though not reaching the 8GB plateau of the Micro Vault Pro, the upcoming units still manage to pack between 256MB and 4GB of data into a pocketable design, and all feature Sony's Virtual Expander software for automatically compressing your bits to store up to three times the drive's labeled capacity. Besides the storage boost, Sony will be offering the same size drives in a lineup called the Excellence range, which promise zippier read and write speeds of 29Mbps and 23Mbps, respectively. While all the new models are expected later this month, Sony is keeping pricing details...hold for terrible pun...locked up in the "vault."
