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If you're a swimmer, here is another interesting mp3 player. It is called the SwiMP3 and it can be worn and listened to while swimming.

Another interesting thought about mp3 players: Apple's domanance with mp3 players makes it harder for other players to make a solid-state mp3 player with more than one gig of memory. The only non-Apple solid state player with over one gig is the SanDisk Sansa M250 (street price lower); this player is made by a company that makes their own flash memory. This is a shame, since the iPod Nano, in typical Steve Jobs style, uses a proprietary interface which doesn't talk with Linux well.

If one is willing to use a hard disk mp3 player, there are 60 gb 1.8 inch hard disks available; I expect to see a 60gb handheld mp3 player in the near future.

the cap fits very snugly onto the drive's USB connector and has virtually zero chance of falling off

For those of you who don't have degrees in mathematics, "virtually zero" = not quite zero = it's still possible.

the loop for hanging the drive around your neck is on the thumb part, NOT on the cap like some brain-damaged designs

Why doesn't the loop go through *both* pieces? Then it would be still possible for the cap to fall off in your pocket, but you wouldn't lose it. Brain-damaged design, indeed.

I don't understand why USB flash drives have caps at all -- that seems like really brain-damaged design to me. A few companies (like this) make drives that don't have covers, because the plug retracts into the case.

Why hasn't anybody else figured this out yet?

Remember though that working directly on a flash device (and repeatedly writing to it, very noticeable if you're suffering from heavy Savitis and can't prevent your fingers from reaching the CTRL+S keys every 15s or so) could heavily lower it's life expectancy.

I wonder how well thumb drives stack up against CF cards, as far as durability goes. I have been using San Disk and Lexar CF cards in some firewalls (OpenBSD, pf) for more than 6 months without issue. I use noatime and softdeps on each partition. I know of other people who have done the same for years.

San Disk released a flash memory durability calculation document which is interesting. So I wonder if thumb drives use wear leveling too?

Although that link implies this is regarding MMC, the document looks exactly like the CF related document, which is currently a 404. The document also seems to be regarding flash memory generically, so maybe San Disk thumb drives at least do employ wear leveling?

Anyone?

Also for my private data, I have a TrueCrypt volume on the drive so that in case someone gets their hands on it, my not so public data will be safe.

If you're actually intending to put your LIFE on it though also consider a backup strategy so you won't lose everything when your drive falls off your keychain and into the sewer where it's eaten by technologically advanced rodents.

http://www.sandisk.com/pressrelease/20050219a.htm

It's a 1G SD card.. an SD card you say.. what's so special.. OK

1. is x66 speed - great for video/continuous frames on a camera

2. compatible with my Canon compact and TREO 650

3. It has a built-in USB connector!!!!! No need for extra adaptors!!

A great idea.. as a SD card dual use it with an MP3 palyer, camera or phone etc.. plug it in to your USB at work or home!!

No *way* was it left out due to size. I've got a Sandisk MP3 player that's got a built in radio and it's not exactly bulky.

You'd really have to see one to appreciate it, but if this this is the Sandisk you are talking about, the Shuffle is actually _a third_ of the size volumetrically (75.2 x 32.8 x 20.8 mm vs 83.8 x 25 x 8.4 mm) and almost half of the weight (22g vs 40g, with batteries.)

I swapped a AAA-powered stick for a Shuffle and the Shuffle is much better, particularly convenient that it charges through USB rather than annoyingly running out randomly. I'd much prefer the size of the thing as it is over a radio (although a screen _would_ be nice to see what is playing, I'll agree.) Interface on the Shuffle is also better for me in that it is much more responsive than the player it replaced (e.g. next button works _immediately_ rather than after a delay like many flash players, am not accusing the SanDisk of having this problem.)

Dood!

In fact, here's a white paper from Sandisk.

Brett

Looks just like a SanDisk Digital Audio Player, but costs $30 more and supports Ogg.

Gimme a break. As if the Mac worshippers on Slashdot are being fair or balanced with their insane love of Apple, or their hatred and snide insults for linux or Windows.

Last week the Mac idiots screamed that the Pentium was a POS. This week it's God's gift to man and NOBODY sees the hypocricy? THAT'S some fucking Kool-Ade you guys are drinking.

And by the way, the iShuffle gets it's ass kicked by Sandisk's Digital Audio Player, but do I hear one word about it here? No, because it's not from Apple, and Slashdot has become an all-Apple fan site.

I used to think the same way.. About a year ago USB drives were about twice the price per megabyte over CF and SD cards... Now they are cheaper and more popular. So having this functionality is almost useless...

Still, if you still want this functionality, sandisk makes a very popular SD card reader which is just slightly larger than their cruzer Micro drive. It's a little thicker and a littler wider. But honestly this day in age you really are wasting your money to buy a USB drive if you plan on "upgrading" it later on.. as the usb drives are cheaper per megabyte than SD nowadays.

Now... when it comes to mp3 players... upgradeable mp3 players are definately the way to go as far as the near future is concerned... once flash supply can catch up to demand (probably will take another year or so) upgradeable mp3 players won't be such a big issue. But right now the mfg's are charging literally twice as much for twice the flash ram in an mp3 player... Ridiculous when they could just put an SD or CF slot in it and sell the ram for market value, not twice it.

I've had one that did this for over a year now.

Personally, after using the Sandisk, I fail to see what is so hard about developing a simple, easy-to-use mp3 player with lots of flash memory. It installs as a drive letter so I can "drag and drop", it's backlit, and it runs on AAA (one).

I'm not a shill. Just satisfied.....and a little confused by the whole discussion.

You can read all about trans-flash here. And that's all I can help you with.

My friend, you are talking about the PalmOne Treo 650 with SanDisk's Wi-Fi SD card.

http://www.sandisk.com/pressrelease/20050106a.htm

Short answer is yes: There are plenty of camera brands which fail to work with either OS X or Win32, mostly the former.

Also the "universally compatible USB Mass Storge" is actually an illusion. As a Apple switchee, I had to go replace my no-name USB stick with one from SanDisk since the one I had did not work in OS X.

Still, I have had plenty of equivelant experiences with Linux and WinXP. I assume the hardware vendors are hacking their products together at the workstation instead of implementing the specification properly.

Sharp Zaurus + WiFi + Shitcan = TehNirvana

Ars Technica has a pretty good review of USB 2.0 flash drives, for those curious about performance benchmarks.

Someone said something about pictures of the Cruzer Micro. SanDsik has easily available images of their products for press kits, even huge EPS files. Here's a nearly sane JPEG of the Cruzer Micro 512 MB

My SanDisk came with "CruzerLock" software. I wrote the company some time ago and they couldn't tell me about the encryption used. Now a search turns up a page by the authoring company on the software. Here's what they say about the algorithm:

The CruzerLock(TM) 2 software uses the powerful and fast Blowfish encryption algorithm with a 448-bit key length. Blowfish is a symmetric block cipher that has been analyzed considerably and approved by the United States government. It was a finalist in the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) competition.

I wonder if the software has the same flaws as the JumpDrive software. You can download the software here, though I don't know if it will work with non-SanDisk drives.

Both of them should cost about $100 with a 256MB stick.

Why go with ethernet when you could have a SD 802.11b / 256M card? The question is can SDIO cards work on the 49+?

That's why I got one of these.

Here is a nice full review from PalmInfocenter. It goes into full details and testing of the new SDIO Wireless card from PalmOne.

Some have asked how is this different than the SanDisk SDIO Wireless card for Palm that was released a short time ago. This description from SanDisk explains that its card is only for the Palm Zire 71 and products using recent versions of MS PocketPC. The new PalmOne card supports the Zire 72 and Tungsten T3, which the SanDisk card does not (apparently due to driver compatibility issues).

I own a PalmOne Tungsten E, which is the business value model, and there is not wireless support via SDIO cards, and doesn't look to be one available due to the power constraints of the Tungsten E model. Apparently, there have been some tests run with the SanDisk card on the Tungsten E, and it will work, but long-term effects on the SDIO slot have not been studied, and there could be damaging effects on the unit. Tungsten E users that want some sort of wireless connection should check out the Enfora Wireless Portfolio Case which seems to be the only wireless connection available for the Tungsten E.

Personally, I don't need wireless via my PDA since I already have a laptop and wireless card, but I know it is a nice feature, and on a future PDA I would want wireless to be available.

From SanDisk http://www.sandisk.com/retail/256mb-wifi-sd.asp:

SanDisk's 256MB + Wi-Fi SD card combines flash memory and wireless communications into a single card giving SDIO-enabled PDA the freedom to quickly transmit and receive data, images and music from thousands of 802.11b hotspots worldwide.

From Brighthand (older link):

Unfortunately, SanDisk doesn't expect the necessary driver to allow Palm OS models to use this card to be available for many months. SanDisk's Wi-Fi SDIO card with 256 MB of memory will have a suggested retail price of about $150

I still miss my Palm.

What exactly is a miniSD card?

Which means you can't extend the memory storage beyond the present 128MB RAM (with backup battery) and approx 15MB flash.

Actually Sandisk makes a SDIO WiFi card with 256MB memory on it: Connect Wi-Fi SD Card

--AlphaDecay

I have more storage on a tiny card in my digital camera right now than every computer in the computer lab at my Jr. High had combined.

I saw one of these at a computer store a few days ago and was kind of surprised how much storage could be put in such a small package. The card is 20.0 x 25.0 x 1.7mm in size and holds 512MB, with a 1GB version coming soon.

They don't? Why are they selling bluetooth SDIO cards, then? Have a look here

It just is cheaper to buy a PDA with bluespoon built in than to pay through your nose for the SDIO card, unless you happen to have a used to be high end PDA that you absolutely want to have connected to something.

Other options are available as extras as well, such as cameras, WiFi-cards here and lotsa other stuff.

7 models is too many? Why, then, is Sony making so many different models of Clie? Why are cars sold in so many different models and configurations? Have you noticed how many different types of laptops you can buy these days? Nokia and competitors are offering way over 7 different models of cellphones all the time. Variety has a definite plus side: you can buy the one that suits your needs best. I would welcome a new cellphone that doesn't have games, calculators, multitudes of ringtones, background images and all that. I don't see why I need a color display to make a phone call or to receive one.

I think Palm is finally getting to the point where they are trying to give people what they want, meaning a choise. If you want a PDA with a camera inbuilt, you can get it but if you don't and all that.

There is in fact a campact flash wireless 802.11b card available now from Sandisk. It includes 128Mb memory as well.

However I think its more for a pdas rather than a camera to send photos. But the idea is sound, especially for studio photography to get infinite storage.

but why not go the whole nine yards? Put everything you need on a USB drive and boot from there!

If you're talking about those little USB-flash memory things like the Sandisk Mini-Cruzer, that might only work for a while. I've read that these things can wear out after so many writes. You'd be okay for booting, I imagine, but you'd want to avoid having any swap-space set up on the device.

My own personal experience with a '26x high speed' card in a PC-Card adapter (a pretty fast interface) bears this out, CF is dead slow compared to even a 4200RPM HD (like the one in my laptop).

SD doesn't have a controller on the card? Well how do they make SD wi-fi cards and whatnot?

(2) Flash is appallingly slow writing and does not seem to be getting much faster anytime soon.

9 megabytes per second is not good enough for you?

How is the $500 device any better than this $49 device from SanDisk....?

Or how about hooking up a Sandisk Digital Photo Viewer at around $40 it's a hell of a lot cheaper. Next, buy a book on famous artists and scan your favourite paintings in.

SanDisk is also making a SD WiFi. Here It's not as powerful/fast as other wireless cards, but it does exist. Also there are bluetooth cards that are out there and do work.

SanDisk will soon market a solution for you WiFi and memory needing PDA users. Too bad the Pocket PC version comes out first.

They're solid state, not microdrives. I'd be surprised if a camera purchased in the next six months wouldn't support it (CF is notoriously compatible). I believe the incompatibility can come from the difference between CF type 1 and type 2. Microdrives and attachments are type 2, while nearly all solid-state CF cards are type 1.

Here's one.

I think many people here aren't recommending 1GB CF cards because pricewatch.com doesn't go that high yet.

Dude, calm down. I think they mean Sandisk's Secure Digital technology. Open blister pack, remove chill pill, swallow.

There's 4 Gigabyte cards intro'd at CeBit back in March. How long before this takes over the drives used in high end (expensive anyway) MP3 Players.

You need to look up what Secure Digital cards really are before assuming that they're automatically a DRM thing. Secure Digital is a card format that has the ability of doing DRM, but not required. It's a follow on to the MMC cards. Happens to be the same card as the Palm units. See SanDisk for more info.

I have Bonzai USB Mini-Drive that uses SD cards and I am not restricted in what I can cart on it. Works great as a bit-bucket to carry stuff around and I'm not stuck at a fixed capacity like the more popular Disk-On-Key Flash memory USB things.

Also, don't forget that this is a reference design. If an OEM wants to built in CF or Bluetooth, there is nothing stopping them except for some engineering.

forget rotating disk drives. Get a mobo with RAID and a bunch of totally solid state flash hard drives. they're electrically identical to laptop hard drives, so a $25 adaptor will allow them to be used in place of any old IDE hard drive in your RAID, but you'll have to change the "I" in the acronym from "Inexpensive" to "Independent", if you know what I mean.

On the other hand if you think about the performance you'd get from the right kind of RAID where the individual "disks" have specs like these... suddenly everything else seems small.

forget rotating disk drives. Get a mobo with RAID and a bunch of totally solid state flash hard drives. they're electrically identical to laptop hard drives, so a $25 adaptor will allow them to be used in place of any old IDE hard drive in your RAID, but you'll have to change the "I" in the acronym from "Inexpensive" to "Independent", if you know what I mean.

On the other hand if you think about the performance you'd get from the right kind of RAID where the individual "disks" have specs like these... suddenly everything else seems small.

I've been lusting over Sandisk's FlashDrive for about two years now, ever since I bought a Siemens Linux terminal whos primary disk was a 16MB flash with an IDE interface. I still have that box (it only has a 200 mhz cpu, but it runs linux great) and am waiting for the day that the 1GB flash drive hits $300. I will then have a very useful, completely quiet, and almost free of heat PC. :-)

secure digital is a lot like compact flash. it is also used in the zaurus, though the zaurus also has a compact flash slot.

I beg to differ and again. I've posted these before, and Pendrive even has Linux drivers, just FYI.

The advantage to this kind of slot is that it also reads Multi Media Cards which are pretty much like a 1/4 size version of Smart Media Cards and don't have any "content protection" schemes involved. The gain here is that you can stick a MMC in the SD slot and have a bunch of extra storage space for your MP3s and maps and stuff and still have the CF slot open for a modem or network adapter without the extra bulk of a second CF slot.

The advantage to this kind of slot is that it also reads Multi Media Cards which are pretty much like a 1/4 size version of Smart Media Cards and don't have any "content protection" schemes involved. The gain here is that you can stick a MMC in the SD slot and have a bunch of extra storage space for your MP3s and maps and stuff and still have the CF slot open for a modem or network adapter without the extra bulk of a second CF slot.

There has been some controversy (though slight) of late regarding sizing of portable storage, from SanDisk (see their FAQ on this here, search for questions on Compact Flash) and Viking for compact flash and smart media cards.

Again, it isn't a tremendous issue, but it is perhaps interesting that consumer devices (assuming CF and SM cards are aimed at cameras and mp3 players) appear to be adopting a non-technical definition of what a Gigabyte is.

BTW, the MMC interface is quite simple; it's the kind of interface you could build in a second EE course on design with microcontrollers. Much simpler design than CF.