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SanDisk is reportedly eager to sell itself off
SanDisk is a mainstay of the storage world thanks to its memory cards and solid-state drives, but you might not see its name for much longer: Bloomberg sources hear that SanDisk is exploring the possibility of selling itself off. The company is reportedly talking to both Micron and Western Digital about a potential deal, although there's no guarantee that anything will happen. You shouldn't expect an acquisition in the immediate future, at any rate. SanDisk runs memory factories alongside Toshiba, and it'd likely have to get approval before changing that partnership.
SanDisk will help you switch to an SSD for $40
Looking to give your aging computer some new life? Swapping out the hard drive for a new SSD could do the trick, and if you're nervous completing the upgrade yourself SanDisk has a new service to lend a hand. The company's SSD Concierge Service offers live video support (via a mobile device, natch) so that folks of all skill levels are able to make the switch and improve speeds from the comforts of home. The service also includes "all of the tools required to upgrade their laptop successfully" including data migration and installation. If you're looking for some help giving your computer a refresh, SanDisk's virtual guidance can be purchased through Amazon and TigerDirect for $40.
Toshiba's new flash chips hold twice the data
Judging by recent announcements, we're about to enter a golden age of fast, nearly unlimited storage for all the high-res selfies you can shoot. Following an announcement by Intel and Micron last week, Toshiba and partner SanDisk revealed their own 256Gb flash chips. Toshiba already has the smallest flash cells in the world at 15 nanometers, which it stacks in 48 layers to maximize density. The new chips add in 3-bit tech (first used by Samsung) to squeeze even more bytes in, helping it double the storage of chips it announced just a few months ago. The result will be faster and more reliable memory for smartphones, SSDs and other devices.
SanDisk's wireless flash drive gives your phone more storage
For all the advances we've made in mobile computing, transferring files between your phone and your desktop is still kind of a pain in the ass. We've tried using dongles, adapters and even double-sided USB thumb drives, but none of them really solved the problem. Today, Sandisk announced a new solution: a wireless, battery-powered USB flash drive.
'World's smallest' USB 3.0 flash drive is about the size of a dime
Thanks to Moore's Law we've seen flash drives grow steadily smaller and smaller as storage capacity does exactly the opposite. To wit, the new SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 USB 3.0 storage unit is perhaps the tiniest we've witnessed yet. The company claims the device is smaller than a dime and the 128GB of space can store some 16 hours of 1080p video with read speeds clocking in at up to 130MB per second. Gizmodo Australia notes that this isn't the most expedient drive available, but hey, given the rather diminutive footprint it's probably pretty safe to leave permanently stuck in your gadget of choice. That minuscule size comes at a steep price though: $119 for the 128GB model -- or 1,190 dimes.
'Vidity' 4K movies you can download are coming later this year
At CES the long-brewing alliance to push Hollywood movies you can legally download, store and play across different devices finally surfaced, and now its system has a brand name: Vidity. As we learned in January, this is the doing of the Secure Content Storage Association -- a team up behind movie studios (Fox, Warner Bros.) and storage manufacturers (Western Digital, Sandisk) to create a system where users can download movies in the highest possible quality like 4K Ultra HD and HDR. Samsung was the first to announce its Ultra HD TVs with the M-Go app will use the spec, but other big names like Vudu, Kaleidescape, LG, Universal, Comcast and Sprint are on board too. So far 4K movies have generally been all about streaming, but now between Ultra HD Blu-ray and Vidity there are a couple of new options coming.
SanDisk stuffs 200GB into a microSD card for your phone
If a 128GB microSD card just isn't big enough to put your media collection on your phone, don't worry -- SanDisk is coming to your rescue. It just unveiled a whopping 200GB card (the Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card Premium Edition, to be exact) that makes just about anything else seem puny. You won't even have to give up performance, as it should still transfer about 90MB per second, or roughly 1,200 photos every minute. The price could easily be a showstopper, though. SanDisk will ask an eye-watering $400 for the 200GB card when it ships in the second quarter, so it may only make sense if you insist on gobs of room for 4K videos or a gigantic music library. Don't miss out on all the latest news, photos and liveblogs from MWC 2015. Follow along at our events page.
SanDisk iXpand Flash: Bring extra storage to your iOS device
As much as we all love our iOS devices, there's something that some Android and Windows Phone devices usually have that would be really nice to have on an iPhone or iPad - expandable storage. Some of those devices have an SD, mini-SD, or micro-SD card slot into which you can drop an inexpensive flash card, making it simple to transfer files between devices or store tons of content (photos, videos, etc...) on a removable card. Now SanDisk is bringing some of that flexibility to Lightning-equipped iOS devices with the new iXpand Flash drive (US$59.99 for 16 GB, $79.99 for 32 GB, and $119.99 for 64 GB). While it seems unique, the iXpand Flash really isn't something new. A few years ago, I reviewed the PhotoFlash i-FlashDrive HD, an 8 GB to 64 GB solution with an accompanying app that added a file system to iOS for storing just about any type of file. The device worked well; in fact, I still use it regularly to move masses of files between Mac and iPad. SanDisk's solution will have a bit more clout, primarily it's from a company that is huge and well known. SanDisk has a presence in 300,000 retail storefronts, and the company has a 36 percent global revenue market share in the flash drive world, so the brand has gathered both familiarity and trust. Design In terms of design, the SanDisk iXPand Flash is much more polished than the PhotoFast solution. The former was a white plastic device with a 30-pin Dock connector on one end and a USB connector on the other, with a USB to Lightning adapter thrown on for the newer devices. Unfortunately, that design meant that in many situations, cases had to be removed from iPads and iPhones in order for the connector to be plugged in. Not so with the iXpand Flash. It features a sleek metal-looking body with a flexible Lightning adapter that is stowed in one side. Atop the device is the USB connector, protected with a smoked plastic cover. The whole shootin' match weighs a scant .9 ounce (25.5 grams) and takes up a small volume of about 2.48 x 1.46 x .39 inches (63mm x 37mm x 10mm). It looks good - much better than the somewhat kludgy PhotoFast i-FlashDrive HD - but how does it function in the real world? Functionality The idea behind devices like the iXpand Flash is that regardless of how much space you have on an iPhone or an iPad, chances are really good that you're going to take a lot of photos or videos and run out of storage. To offload those photos and videos, you plug the iXpand Flash drive into your iOS device, use the accompanying free iXpand Sync app to grab the content and store it in a folder or folders on the drive, and then optionally use the USB connector to copy the content to a PC or Mac for backup. I tested beta versions of iXpand Sync on an iPad Air. When the drive is connected and the app is launched, it presents a clean layout showing a group of folders (ASSETS, Documents, Music, Photos, Videos), Mac and PC executables for SanDisk's SecureAccess V2 software, and a couple of QuickStart guides. One QuickStart guide shows how to plug the drive into a iOS device, as well as how to interpret the tiny LED on the side of the drive. The iXpand Flash drive does have a battery, and a green LED indicates that it is charged, a red LED indicates a low battery state (in which case you plug the drive into a USB port for charging), and a yellow LED indicates that the drive is being charged. To move something from your device to the drive, you tap the large red plus sign button at the bottom of the iXpand Sync display. You're asked if iXpand Sync has your permission to access your photos, and your photo library is visible once you give the OK. Images can be viewed by individual photos or by albums. To select an image or file, you simply tap on its thumbnail in the app and a large red check mark appears on it. A large "Select Destination" button appears at the bottom of the screen; tap on it, and you're presented with the file system for the device. You can either tap on one of the pre-created folders, or create a new folder with the tap of a button. I used three different pre-release versions of the app and ran into some difficulties; after deleting and reloading the app several times, I was finally able to get it to work consistently and properly. I should note that the competing i-FlashDrive app was quite buggy when it first appeared on the App Store, and it has gotten consistently better with time. One of the app's features includes the ability to do a Camera Sync. This takes all of the images in your Photo Library and saves them to a "Camera Roll Backup" folder the first time it is run, then synchronizes any additions made to the iPhone or iPad by copying those to the drive the next time you connect it. The sync was quite speedy, taking about 17 seconds to copy over ten DSLR images ranging in size from 6 to 10.3 MB in size. The drive had no issues copying some large video files, although it did slow down a bit. There's also a built-in function for transferring contacts to a backup folder, which is always a good idea. Another useful function of the iXpand Flash is for moving large productivity app files between iOS and Mac or PC. I had a number of Keynote presentations that I needed to move from my Mac to an iPad Air, and it was easy to copy them onto the iXpand Flash, then from the iXpand Flash to the Air. You can name your drive anything you want - the test device was blessed with my last name - which is actually quite useful if you end up with more than one of the devices. Conclusion I was quite pleased with both the design and the functionality of the SanDisk iXpand Flash drive. If I have any complaint, it's that the devices are relatively expensive compared to plain flash drives. For example, I can pick up a SanDisk Cruzer 64GB flash drive for about $30 on Amazon; it's almost highway robbery to charge four times as much for one that's had a Lightning connector and some software added to it. Despite the price tag, the SanDisk iXpand Flash drive is still a useful accessory for anyone who needs to transfer a number of large files between iOS devices and Macs or PCs. Rating: 3-1/2 stars out of 4 stars possible
SanDisk's newest iOS storage drive comes with Lightning, too
As great as it was that Apple eliminated the 32GB iPhone in favor of a 64GB model, those whose budget could only stretch to the 16GB model are still in need of more storage. There's plenty of wireless flash drives knocking around, but SanDisk feels that its latest iXpand Flash Drive still has something new to bring to the party. Tailored for gear running iOS 7 and 8, the drive either connects via the built-in lightning cable, pushing photos and videos between the two with ease. A companion app will even let you stream AVI and WMV clips on your iPhone or iPad without having to convert it beforehand. The 16GB base model is available for $59.99, the 32GB is a Best Buy exclusive and is priced at $79.99 and the 64GB-er requires $119.99 of your Earth dollars.
SanDisk's 512GB SD card will hold all the 4K video you can handle
If you've been dabbling in 4K video recording, you probably know that most SD cards won't cut it; you'll be thankful if you have enough space for a wedding video, let alone a magnum opus. SanDisk may have a solution for that space problem in its new, extra-capacious 512GB Extreme Pro SDXC card. It's fast enough (95MB/s) to shoot interruption-free 4K, but also has more than enough storage for a day's worth of movies and high-speed photography. Capture 60Mbps video on Sony's AX100, for example, and you could theoretically keep going for almost 19 hours. You're going to pay dearly for all that headroom, though. The 512GB card sells for a whopping $800 -- unless video production is your bread and butter, you're probably better off "settling" for the Extreme Pro's 128GB or 256GB variants.
Engadget giveaway: win a 960GB Extreme PRO SSD courtesy of SanDisk!
Looking to optimize your gaming PC or breathe new life into last year's laptop? A high-performance SSD should probably be in your bag of tricks. Recently, SanDisk improved its own offerings in that area with its new Extreme PRO SSD. This solid state drive amps up responsiveness, leveraging the company's nCache Pro Technology to handle heavy workloads -- especially graphic intensive ones. That's why SanDisk has provided us with one of its top of the line 960GB models for one lucky Engadget reader this week. With nearly 1TB of space, the drive has tons of room for games, files and big applications, while keeping things flowing with read/write speeds over 520MB/s. And it's compatible with any PC, laptop or game console that can handle a 2.5-inch SATA drive. All you need to do is head down to the Rafflecopter widget below for up to three chances at winning this super-charged SSD. Winner: congratulations to Richard J. of Kaysville, UT.
SanDisk's 128GB microSD card holds 24 hours of HD video
SanDisk just took the wraps off of its new 128GB Ultra microSD card. On sale today for your favorite microSDXC-enabled phone or tablet, the card offers twice the storage of current cards, making it the largest-capacity microSD card on the market. Doubling up the storage space wasn't easy, in fact SanDisk used custom manufacturing to stack 16 memory dies -- each thinner than a human hair -- within each card. It's an impressive engineering feat, but let's be honest, we really only care because it will let us store 24 hours of those HD cat videos that help us make it through the day.
SanDisk's latest flagship SD card supports extremely fast write speeds, 4K video
With affordable 4K cameras from Panasonic and Sony set to ship soon, it's time for flash memory manufacturers to begin readying stockpiles of high-speed SD cards. Today, SanDisk is announcing its latest flagship, the Extreme Pro SDHC/SDXC UHS-II. It exceeds the new UHS Speed Class (U3) spec, supporting continuous write speeds of up to 250MB/s. While the card is most appropriate for folks shooting 4K video, it'll also come in handy when you're snapping continuous RAW stills at high frame rates, letting you unload the camera's buffer just as quickly as you can fill it. The new cards will ship in April in 16GB to 64GB capacities, with prices ranging from $120 to $300. There's also a new U3 card reader that's designed to let you take full advantage of the SDXC card's 280MB/s transfer speeds. That device will also be available in April, with a $50 MSRP. Update: The card supports a 250MB/s write speed, as originally reported. The read speed measures 280MB/s.
Engadget Giveaway: win one of two Kindle Fire HDX tablets courtesy of SanDisk!
This week's giveaway is more or less amazing. More storage space, less wires and all topped off with one of Amazon's newest in the Kindle slate series: the 7-inch Fire HDX. SanDisk has cut the cord with its Connect series of wireless portable storage gadgets and felt that two lucky Engadget readers should get a free taste of this next-gen hocus pocus. The SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive offers up to 32GB of space and works double duty, as both a wireless drive and a standard USB device. The Connect Wireless Media Drive in this prize package is the largest capacity version, with 64GB of internal storage, and is capable of streaming media wirelessly to up to eight devices at once. This is the ideal setup for tuning out on your holiday travels or even just vegging on the couch, or pretty much anywhere. We've got two sets of awesomeness ready and waiting thanks to SanDisk Connect, and you could be one of the lucky winners. Just head on down to the Rafflecopter widget below and get in it to win it! Winners - Congratulations to: Lisette H., Stafford, TX; Dale S., Pontiac, IL
SanDisk's CFast 2.0 card is the world's fastest memory card of any kind
About a year after the CompactFlash Association announced the CFast 2.0 draft spec, SanDisk has revealed its new Extreme Pro CFast 2.0 memory card. The first of its kind, SanDisk says read speeds of up to 450MB/s and write speeds of up to 350MB/s make it the world's fastest memory card, period. Speed isn't the only improvement either, as the cards claim a tougher, pinless design and even unique serial numbers that owners can register with customer support. For now however, its use is going to be quite limited. The only camera ready for it at launch is the just-announced Arri Amira, although the Arri XT and Classic (with the XR module) cameras can also use it with an adapter. For those still using traditional CompactFlash storage for their 4K shooting the company is stretching the limits there too, with a new 256GB card that it says has the highest capacity ever. That extra storage will cost you however, with a price of $1,809 for the new 256GB version. There's no word on a price for the CFast 2.0 cards or their USB 3.0-equipped reader, but pro videographers in the US and Europe should be able to find them soon at specialty shops and Arri-authorized locations.
SanDisk Connect is a new series of wireless storage and streaming devices starting at $50
Flash drives these days, no matter how fast, are a dime a dozen. A jump drive that does double duty as a wireless streaming dongle? Not so common. SanDisk's new Connect lineup can pull off the streaming trick whether it's the flash drives with 16 or 32GB sizes for $50 and $60, respectively, or the Media Drives that pack 32 or 64GB of storage for either $80 or $100. Both sets of devices can stream movies, music or other data to PCs, Macs, iOS and Android devices or even Kindle Fires. All you need to do is grab the SanDisk Connect app for your device, and transferring files is a drag-and-drop affair. Where the Flash and Media Drives differ, however, is that the latter can serve up to eight devices at a time with regular data, or send out five simultaneous streams of 720p video. Plus, it's got an SDHC/SDXC slot for further storage expansion, should 64 gigs be insufficient. Sound good? Folks in the US can pre-order either drive today from Amazon, and if you aren't a Bezos fan, Newegg and Micro Center are taking Flash Drive preorders, too. Save that, you can always go pick one up from Best Buy in August.
SanDisk's Extreme microSD cards promise 80MBps, live up to that claim
No one likes waiting for a file transfer to finish, and thankfully SanDisk is doing something about it. The company's new "Extreme" line of microSD cards (16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities) promises to deliver speeds of up to 80 MBps. Benchmarks done by Android Police have the 64GB card hitting 78 MBps when used in a dedicated card reader. Putting the card in a smartphone, however, yields far different results. Most smartphones, save for the Exynos 5 Octa version of the GS4, don't support the newer UHS-1 standard for increased transfer speeds. When tested in a Galaxy Note II, SanDisk's new card "only" achieved 14MBps read speeds and 14.6MBps write speeds -- that's still between 50% and 100% faster than a previous generation 64GB SanDisk microSD card. So now we just need phones to catch up, and for handset makers who are averse to microSD cards altogether to change their tune.
Sandisk introduces Extreme II SSD, boasts 19nm tech and faster speeds
We haven't heard a peep about Sandisk's solid state drives since CES, so we perked our ears when the flash maker announced a new consumer SSD today. It's called the Extreme II, a SATA III SSD the company claims is fast and responsive enough to please gamers or just anyone hungering for a performance boost. Built with 19nm process and nCache technology, the Extreme II promises quicker boot-ups and faster runtimes. The hardware boasts up to 550MB/sec sequential read and 510MB/sec sequential write speeds, and up to 95,000 random read Input/Output Operations per Second (IOPS) and 78,000 random write IOPS. You can snag one now in 120GB, 240GB and 480GB capacities for $129.99, $229.99 and $439.99 each. Or you can save some cash and get something a little more budget-minded.
Amazon slashes price of select SanDisk offerings for one day only
Happy June. While you're sitting in front of your AC, why not take a minute to click on over to Amazon to check out a pretty impressive deal on SanDisk cards and drives? For today only (or, you know, while supplies last), the mega-retailer is offering some deep discounts on a number of products from the memory maker, including a 32GB MicroSDHC, which has been knocked down to $21.49 from an original $70 asking price, and a $100 64GB thumb drive, which is now $33. After today, they'll all be an, ahem, memory.
Tegra 4 reference tablets use SanDisk iNAND Extreme, mate a fast CPU with fast storage
It's well established that NVIDIA's Tegra 4 is at least reasonably quick. It's only quick when the storage isn't a bottleneck, however, which is why SanDisk has negotiated a repeat partnership as the official storage supplier for reference Tegra 4 tablets. Pop open one of the designs and you'll find either 16GB or 32GB of SanDisk's iNAND Extreme keeping pace with the quad-core processor. The reference deal may be more than just a publicity grab: it raises the chance that companies will use the speedier flash memory in their own Tegra 4 slates. Whether or not SanDisk makes it to shipping devices, the deal could lead to balanced tablet hardware that seldom leaves us waiting.
