sd
Latest
Nikon D300S screen leaks out
It's been removed now, but Nikon Rumors says this screenshot from a supposed Nikon D300S was briefly posted on Nikon USA's site earlier today. There's not much to go on here, but that SD icon in the corner seemingly implies the update to the D300 will somehow feature an SD slot -- whether it's in addition to CF as previously rumored is obviously up in the air. Either way, it seems like we'll find out soon enough -- stay tuned.
Eye-Fi Pro wireless SD card hands-on
We're all pretty spoiled in these digital days; not that long ago taking a look at a vacation's worth of photos required a trip to the store, a couple of hours (or days) wait, and then the better part of an afternoon getting fingerprints all over a stack of poorly composed shots that you daren't throw out because you just paid good money to have them printed. Now you pop a memory card into your computer, wait a few seconds for them to fly into an appropriately labeled folder, and then... probably forget you took them. It's so much easier it's hard to fathom the process getting even more simple, but that's what Eye-Fi has done with its line of wireless flash memory cards, which beam pictures directly from your camera. The company has just announced the $149, 4GB Eye-Fi Pro to make the process even more direct, letting you send pictures straight to a computer while also adding some additional features that pros and semi-pros will appreciate. We put it through its paces after the break.
Apple's new MacBook family: non-removable batteries, lower prices
Apple just let loose a new 15-inch MacBook Pro at WWDC 2009, with what appears to be the same built-in, non-removable battery (or, non-user serviceable, if we're being proper) as in the current unibody 17-incher. Phil asserts that the cell will last the average user around five years (1,000 recharges), and could last around seven hours under ideal conditions. There's also an SD card reader rather than an ExpressCard slot (seriously Apple -- replaced? -- why not just add it like every other Wintel laptop available today?). Oh, and the starting tag just dropped to $1,699. Starting at $1,699 (down from $1,999 in prior lineups) $1,699: 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 250GB HDD, SD card slot, no ExpressCard $1,999: 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT graphics, 320GB HDD, SD card slot, no ExpressCard $2,299: 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT graphics, 500GB HDD, SD card slot, no ExpressCard 17-inch unibody MacBook Pro remains the same specs-wise (it's the only Apple laptop left with an ExpressCard slot), but it's getting a price cut to $2,499. Shipping today Not enough for you? The 13-inch unibody MacBook has been beefed up and revised, and it's now part of the MacBook Pro line as well. Yep, all the aluminum machines are now Pros, with the same built-in battery promising seven hours of life. The littlest Pro also gets the SD card slot, a FireWire 800 port, up to 8GB of RAM, upwards of 500GB of storage and a backlit keyboard as standard. You just knew Apple couldn't let its remaining white MacBook outperform its more expensive unibody for long, right? It'll be available (today, we expect) in two configurations. $1,199: 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 160GB HDD, SD card slot, no ExpressCard $1,499: 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 250GB HDD, SD card slot, no ExpressCard Wilder still? A new MacBook Air, which starts at $1,499 (while the SSD unit gets going at $1,799). Yeah, that's $700 less than before. $1,499: 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 120GB HDD $1,799: 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 128GB SSD
SanDisk designs "netbook-specific" SDHC card, grossly overcharges for it
SanDisk, the company famous for making device-specific SD cards that are actually just regular SD cards with stupidly high prices tags, is back again -- and this time, things are just too offensive to laugh off. Designed to provide "extra storage" to netbooks with a multicard reader, these Netbook SDHC cards are priced at $39.99 for 8GB and $79.99 for 16GB. Isn't this kind of stuff criminal in some countries?
ATP PhotoFinder Pro loses the base station, takes us to geotagging nirvana
Despite new cameras being riddled with borderline useless features and modes, useful functionality like automatic geotagging is getting little love from the big players. All the more reason for third parties to sneak in and make a few bucks, and ATP certainly seems to be on top of it. We liked the idea of the company's PhotoFinder, but that base station looked like needless desk clutter. The new PhotoFinder Pro does away with it, featuring an integrated SD, Memory Stick, and MMC card reader. Just sync up the clock in the unit with that of your shooter, clip it onto your camera bag for a day of scenic photography, and then pop your card in before downloading the pics that night. It'll automatically add coordinates to each photo's EXIF information, drastically reducing the likelihood of future spousal arguments about the whereabouts of certain Kodak moments. That sounds like a beautiful thing, and at $119 a good deal, too. Update: Dan commented to point out that, with the help of an external USB card reader, the PhotoFinder Pro can also tag pics on CF, xD, or any other FAT/FAT32 formatted cards you might have sliding around in the bottom of your junk drawer. [Via Photography Blog]
Panasonic's Class 10 SDHC cards make the wait for SDXC easier
A full 15 months after Panasonic dropped jaws with its 32GB Class 6 SDHC card, the company is hitting us up with another world's first. Announced today over in Europe, the outfit has revealed a new line of SDHC memory cards that boast a Class 10 speed rating. Said spec was recently given the green light as part of the SD Card Specification v3.0, and as you could likely surmise, the increase in transfer rates should enable the cards to better handle all that HD video your DSLR seems to be capturing these days. Still, the boost is relatively minimal (particularly compared to the forthcoming SDXC format), with Class 10 promising maximum speeds of 22MB/sec and Class 6 cards already offering top-end rates of 20MB/sec. Mum's the word on price, but Panny expects these to ship next month in the UK before heading to other markets sometime later.
Dexim MHub mixes up an iPod dock with a USB hub
We're actually sort of surprised that we haven't seen many more iPod dock / USB hub / card reader hybrids, but the Dexim MHub here is the only one we can recall seeing apart from the Griffin Simplifi. At a steep $70, it's certainly not the cheapest way to add three USB ports and an SD card reader, but it certainly does look nice. Should be on sale now.[Via Gear Diary]
LaCie DataShare recycles your bits, will never say goodbye or hurt you
As gadget nerds and Type-A early adopters, you no doubt have a few microSD and SD / SDHC cards laying around that Cheeto-farm you call an office. LaCie's $10 DataShare USB card readers let you recycle those cards into make-shift USB drives. Not bad for a ginger. Watch the uncomfortably arousing video after the break -- go ahead it's safe, LaCie wants you to.[Via Pocket-Lint]
Unitek's 3.5-inch SATA HDD bay / MicroSD card reader is more fun than it looks
Aside from his stunning portrayal as Col. Kurtz ("I swallowed a bug"), Brando is our go-to guy for drive bays and memory card readers. If you're not holding out for a dock that plays DivX movies (or tells the temperature in your cube) this device should be right up your proverbial alley. The Unitek 3.5-inch USB Multi-Functional Bay sports a 2.5-inch SATA HDD enclosure, SD(HC) and MicroSD(HC) card readers, and a four pin power port -- 'cos you can't have too many four pin power ports. Since this is Brando, we were hoping to see something with a little more kitsch appeal, but we suppose that we'll just have to hold out for something from the Happy-Kid line. If a sane and sober-looking approach to portable storage is what you're after, be sure to size this guy up in the gallery below.
Eye-Fi's 4GB WiFi SDHC cards start to ship out
Nah, Eye-Fi's latest Secure Digital cards still aren't nearly as capacious (nor as cheap) as other alternatives on the market, but good luck getting that free-after-rebate 8GB SDHC card from IAWANNA Corp. to upload images via a wireless hotspot. We pinged the company today to see if the company's 4GB Explore Video and Share Video SDHC models were shipping out, and we were informed that orders placed over the web were indeed leaving the docks. If you're not kosher with handing $99.99 or $79.99 (respectively) over through the intertubes, both devices will splash down in stores starting on April 19th.
Panasonic adds native iPod dock to D-Docks, drinks the Kool-Aid
Sony gave up on ATRAC (outside of Japan anyway) and to being an iPod accessory shill long, long ago. But Panasonic, through its own inertia or arrogance has persevered with its D-SNAP and D-DOCK rigs long after its market share was doomed. After all, there's no need for Panasonic to continue pushing the SD card, they've won. Still, it does a Japanese heart good to know that it can now coax its fleshy keeper into buying a D-Dock with a native iPod dock connector and sliding panel that reveals a preference for 90's- or noughts-era music media. SD and SDHC card too, of course, this is Panasonic. [Via Akihabara News]
Dreamcast SD adapter could make for homebrew magic
9.9.99 will always hold a special place in our hearts, and so long as hackers are making the most of Sega's last great console, we'll continue to pay attention. Today, we're doing our best to wrap our minds around the Dreamcast SD Adapter, which could be used to easily bring SD-based homebrew apps and emulators over to the console. It's still a touch unclear what exactly the device would be used to deliver, but needless to say the potential is mind-boggling. Right now, the creators are feeling out the market to see just how many Dreamcast loyalists would be willing to hand over €20 ($26), so if you think you're willing to pony up, tap that read link and let 'em know.[Thanks, Craig]
Nintendo launches Wii System Menu 4.0, including SD card WiiWare playback
Nintendo's finally patching WiiWare's biggest hangup: storage. Not only can you back up titles to SD, but games can now be played straight from the cards, so there should be very little hassle to data management going forward. The "SD Card Menu" can be accessed straight from the main Wii System Menu 4.0, an update that's being pushed out as we speak, which also enables the Wii to work with memory cards larger than 2GB, all the way up to 32GB -- which should make room for a good many NES carts. Nintendo's also pushing out the new Virtual Console Arcade, which brings old school arcade titles to the Wii. Hit up the read link for Joystiq's walkthrough of the SD card functionality, or just fire up your Wii and find out for yourself -- the water's warm!
PRETEC pointlessly announces world's first SDXC card without a ship date
Here it is, the world's first SDXC card... announcement. Unfortunately, PRETEC's take on the new SD eXtended Capacity storage format falls well short of the 2TB theoretical maximum at 32GB (a 64GB card is promised for later in the year), as does the card's 50MBps transfer rate when 300MBps data rates are possible. Still, a first's a first, at least it could be if this is the first SDXC card to go retail -- PRETEC doesn't list a price or a ship date. Let's just hope that devices supporting the SDXC standard appear at about the same time these SDXC cards do ship, eh?
Thanko's latest USB pen sports four SDHC card slots (just because it can)
As our coverage from 2004 indicates, SD card-reading pens are amongst the oldest, most reverent gadgets on the face of this planet. That said, even they aren't immune from upgrades, as Thanko has just produced one that's approximately four times superior than the one you're still trying to squeeze ink from. It's latest USB pen contains not one, not two, not even three -- but four integrated SDHC card slots. We get the feeling that actually writing anything while transferring data from a foursome of flash cards will be near impossible, but aren't you strangely inclined to hand over ¥1,480 ($14.87) in order to find out?[Via OhGizmo]
Eye-Fi does video with new 4GB Explore Video and Share Video cards, launching an iPhone app
Just like Eye-Fi promised in January, the WiFi SD card maker is adding video sharing to its repertoire. The new Explore Video and Share Video cards bring video sharing and 4GB capacities to the existing photo sharing lineup. The new cards go for $99 and $79, respectively, while the old 2GB Eye-Fi Home and Eye-Fi Share cards have been marked down to $49 and $59 each. The cards can handle uploads to YouTube and Flickr, and are built for HD uploads, and naturally the Explore card adds the hotspot service and geotagging on top of regular service. You can pre-order the cards today, and they should be shipping by the end of the month. Eye-Fi is also releasing a free iPhone app (as promised) this week, which works with your existing Eye-Fi account (yeah, you need to own a card) and allows you to upload iPhone shots to the same 25 services the SD cards work with, along with the computer syncing Eye-Fi is known for.%Gallery-46264%
Sanyo's PLC-XF71 projector packs 10,000 lumens for extreme brightness
While not high definition like the company's most recent projectors, Sanyo's PLC-XF71 manages to compensate with 10,000 lumens for some serious brightness. By comparison, the recently-unveiled PDG-DHT100JL sports 6,500 lumens and its sub-$2000 PLV-1080HD just 1,200. Beyond that, it's got a 1024 x 768 picture and a 3000:1 contrast ratio. If you don't mind trading resolution for intense luminance, look for it to show up this month for a papered Abe Lincoln under $17,000.
New SDXC cards to allow for greater MMO portability
Massively multiplayer online games tend to take up less space on your hard drive than your standard PC game, as the bulk of the data is stored on farms of servers that power your MMO of choice. However, despite the fact that most of the underlying magic is happening far away from your own screen, MMO clients still take up a number of gigs of space, as laptop users who regularly play different titles know all too well. But since an MMO client is really just an access point then, there's no reason why it has to be tied to any one machine or location, particularly if you're on the go for much of the time.While the typical solution for some MMO gamers with a preference for portability is to keep their game clients on a portable drive (myself included), even these small drives are beginning to look downright clunky compared to some of the other options available, or soon-to-be available.
Warner and Paramount sign up for movies on SD cards
If you've ever wished out loud for movie distribution on solid state memory, a glimmer of a speck of hope has just popped on to the radar thanks to a partnership between digital media delivery system company MOD Systems and movie studios. Anchor Bay, First Look, Image Entertainment, and -- wait for it -- Warner and Paramount are among the studios signed up to set 4,000 titles loose at a kiosk near you. The bad news is that only standard definition titles are going to be set loose to devices or SD cards. That standard def limitation is a whine, we know -- we like where this is headed.
SanDisk releases 2GB Rock Band 2 SD card for all your downloadable content
Okay, so we were actually pretty stoked about SanDisk's 16GB Ultra microSDHC / M2 cards, but this is just laughable. In fact, we just had to pass it along for the image alone. For those who don't understand that any SD card will work in your Wii, the 2GB Rock Band 2 Secure Digital card will reportedly hold up to 75 downloadable songs -- or 2GB of anything, actually. For those in love with the logo (yes, we're talking to you), it'll ship this Spring for the low, low price of $12.99. Full release is after the break.
