Archive for: sd
If it would have been up to us, the 3G/4G Motorola XOOMs would have launched with all the necessary hardware from the get to — none of this buy it not and mail it back later for a hardware radio swap or future update crap. Add to that a similar though not as “serious” issue of Motorola also including an SD card reader that has thus far remained utterly useless. Both Google and Motorola have been fairly quiet as to when the Android 3.1 update would address the dormant SD card. But that changes today.
Per Motorola:
@Motorola: @portareaf Google is refining the SD card solution for U.S.-based Motorola XOOM devices & we’ll share timing info as soon it’s available.
What exactly does Google have to “refine” for U.S. users that they were able to already “refine” for European users? Is there a different feature that European XOOMs feature that hasn’t passed Google’s own testing? No body knows. Either way, Motorola’s handling of the numerous hardware issues with the XOOM have been atrocious at best. If you don’t have all the advertised features ready to go, don’t release it.
Here’s to hoping XOOM owners get their promised features before the XOOM 2 drops.
Source: @Motorola
Via: AndroidCentral
Already picked up a fancy Mushkin SSD and paired it with a super sexy pack of Mushkin RAM? Why not make your hardware party the perfect trifecta? Popular SSD and RAM manufacturer, Mushkin, is branching out into uncharted waters today with the announcement of their new line of SD and microSD cards.
Starting at the lower end, the Class 2 cards will come only in 2 GB capacities while moving up a level to Class 4 opens the doors to larger 4 GB, 8 GB, and 16 GB capacities. The more enticing top of the line Class 10 cards will ship in 8 GB, 16 GB, and 32 GB capacities and feature 10 MB/s transfer speeds.
Ending on a good note, it appears that pricing won’t break the bank. The high-end 32 GB SDHC Class 10 card retails for a reasonable $57.94. Whataya say…?
Business looking for the ultimate security in digital media (and needlessly wasting planetary resources) should take a look at Toshiba’s recently announced “Write-once” SD cards. The cards (as the name suggests) can only be written to once. After the card is filled you can neither erase/re-write or reformat it. Pricing is said to be “open”.
Toshiba hopes the new uber secure card will appeal to governmental and other security-minded corporations. We on the other hand see this as an unnecessary waste of resources. To each his own…
The aging SD-card spec gets pushed higher and higher with each passing year. A couple of years ago, the big thing was SDXC and it’s promised 2TB capacities. But in 2011, we’re on to bigger and better things. Built on top of current SDHC and SDXC hardware, the new UHS-II spec aims to push transfer rates higher with additional rows of pins on the cards themselves. Speaking of transfer rates, we’re hearing a stout 312MB/s is the goal. Even if we see half of that, it’s still a lot faster than what’s currently possible.
In other flash memory news, SanDisk has started offering a 128GB Compact Flash memory card. This power Core controller and a UDMA-7-equipped slab of plastic features 100MB/s transfer rates as well as a heart-stopping $1,499 price tag. Then again, the type of crowd who needs such luxuries shouldn’t have too hard of a time finding the spare change required.
Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a lot of attention paid to WiFi-enabled memory cards from the likes of Eye-Fi. At this year’s CES, the company is taking the wraps off of their newest Eye-Fi X2 card upgrade which brings new functionality to new and old cards alike. With the new X2 upgrade, Eye-Fi users can now extend wireless sharing and uploading to a nearby smartphone or portable device. Combined with other Eye-Fi features such as wireless backup and media sharing and you’ve got yourself another reason to buy more memory cards. Hey, you can never have too much, right?
- November 17, 2010 11:04 am
Those who frequent the tech-laden web no doubt know about the whole Windows Phone 7/SD card drama. Well as it turns out, the real reason we can’t swap (or even reformat) used WP7 SD cards once they’ve been assigned to a particular device is because Microsoft designed Windows Phone 7 to use SD’s “security” feature that buries a password deep within the card. No password. No luck. It’s a low level thing that not even reformatting can get to. However, as it turns out, Symbian uses the same security feature. As such, simply pop your old Windows Phone 7 card into a Symbian device, reformat it, and viola. Good as new.
Furthermore, the whole issue of “certified” cards is because all of these tweaked SD cards are geared towards sequential writes. In the case of a smartphone using a card as part of it’s system memory, random read/writes are best.
An end to a bitter story. Happy indeed.
- November 10, 2010 6:40 am
In a move that sounds like it’s straight from an Apple ToS policy, it’s come to light that the Dell Venue Pro’s SD card slot isn’t user accessible. Well, accessible in the sense that you can freely swap out microSD cards as you please. The consumer unfriendly microSD placement isn’t a Venue Pro issue alone, however. Several new Windows Phone 7 handsets from HTC also bury the microSD card deep within the phone’s case, making it extremely difficult to get to. But what’s even worse in this particular instance is that Dell slapped a big ‘ol warranty sticker across the microSD card, requiring you to remove it, and subsequently, void your warranty to replace it…
Feats of modern science come in many forms. For some, a new, life altering medicine is what constitutes bleeding edge technology. For others, a new display technology showcases the latest and greatest. While other still don’t focus on any one gadget or area, instead looking at the bigger picture — or smaller picture that is. The shrinking of technology is what everyone really wants. Instead of multiple gadgets or one large gadget, those multiple gadgets are being consolidated into one, and that large single gadget downsized thanks in part to the miniaturization of transistors, capacitors, etc., etc. And what better way to highlight miniaturized technology than a super small digital camera?
This super agent man edition camera is downright minuscule, “stretching” the tape at a mere 4.3 x 2.8 x 1.5 cm L x W x D. Not even a few years ago, something this tiny was more-so a gimmick rather than an actual picture taking solution. In 2010, this midget camera is capable of 5 megapixel stills and even 1280 x 960 video recorded at 29fps! As far as saving all of that secretly recorded bounty, storage options are rather robust for what the small size would lead on to — Micro SD/SDHC Card/TF Card.
Even with a higher than expected megapixel count and pretty eye raising video recording capability, I’m still going to have to hold off. I just can’t see this thing taking too decent of pictures. But then again, this isn’t being marketed as a photographers dream, instead aiming more squarely at that “wanna be secret agent”/need a super tiny camera category. So exactly how small is too small now?
Geeky-Gadgets
- February 22, 2010 8:42 pm
Well, time to be envious Android users. Microsoft has upped the ante on *stock* features out the door by now allowing Windows Marketplace apps to be installed on SD cards. Android users have been after such a thing for some time now. But if you are fairly knowledgeable around 1′s and 0′s, adding in said feature after the fact isn’t too hard. So perhaps more of a “draw” is in order, no?
Either way, WinMo users who are sticking with older hardware and looking at a near future without any WinPhone 7 upgrade paths can at least snack on this treat for the time being. With pretty much every WinMo device having a pittance of onboard app storage, movin’ on up to a 1, 2, or 16GB microSD card is sweet, sweet music to many Windows Mobile users’ ears no doubt. I’m sure once they get their hands around a nice, new WinPhone 7 device all things will change though. It sure did look might pretty…
Engadget > MobileTechWorld
