write-once
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Panasonic launches six new BDXL-compatible DVRs, the media you'll need to feed them
The BDXL format offers 100GB on a single-sided disc, and while that sounds great for archiving content, we're a little leery about Hollywood adopting it to stuff even more deleted scenes on our discs. Why? Because no current Blu-ray players can read the things, and we can't say we're keen to buy another. We're getting a little closer to that kind of support with Panasonic's new Diga-series recorders. There are six in total, all shipping on September 15 and each offering dual tuners used to stuff HDDs ranging from 500GB up to 2TB. From there, content can be dumped onto BDXL discs, so Panny is also announcing availability of its first 100GB, single-sided, write-once media. Naturally BDXLs can also be played back on the things and, in all but the smallest two models, can even be played in 3D. We're still warming up to 3D, Panasonic, don't push too much change too fast.
SanDisk introduces write-once WORM SD cards
SanDisk has been toying with this for eons, but it seems the pieces finally fell in place for the firm to kick out its very first write-once memory card. The cleverly titled WORM (Write Once Read Many) SD card will predictably be aimed at industries where unalterable content is vital, such as police investigations, court testimony, electronic voting, etc. According to SanDisk, there is "no physical way to alter or delete individual recorded files," but we'd wager that hackers at large would have a thing or two to say about that. Nevertheless, said units tout a 100-year archive life when kept under appropriate storage conditions, and while a 128MB iteration is the only one available now (more capacious versions are forthcoming), you'll have to "inquire" to see just how inflated the pricing is.
1GB write-once SanDisk memory cards to cost $5.99?
Remember how Sandisk was flirting with read-only, cheap-archival storage based on their new "3D memory' back in February? Well, it sounds like they're about to commit. We just received a tip from a SanDisk customer who took a survey about a proposed write-once memory card. The most interesting new piece of information is the price: a 400 photo, 1GB write-once card for a proposed $5.99 as described by our tipster. We can't vouch for his claims -- nevertheless, what he says is consistent with what we've heard and certainly makes sense. We'll break it down for you as we received it: The new "memory cards (memory stick)" will be widely available in food, drug, camera, and convenience stores (we already knew that Wal-Mart and Walgreens were involved) The new format fits your existing camera Large enough to store at least 100 photos per card (does that mean 256MB cards for $2.00 or less?) Write-once technology stores your pictures safely for over 100 years (check) Less expensive than standard re-writeable memory cards (duh) No dates were provided in the survey, but at this point, a near-term launch certainly appears imminent.[Thanks, Chris G]
