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SanDisk Spins SD/USB Flash Combo

Posted by timothy on from the but-where-fit-the-bits? dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Flash memory pioneer SanDisk has created an innovative memory card packaging technology that enables memory cards to plug into both SD card slots and USB ports. The new approach eliminates the need to use SD-to-USB adapters when accessing the contents of an SD card on a laptop, PC, or other system that lacks an integrated SD card slot."

8 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. More inforamtional pictures: by zoftie · · Score: 3, Informative

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

  2. Re:Really, really cool! by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 3, Informative

    "Cheap with questionable performance"

    What are you referring to? I really haven't had problems with Sandisk.

  3. Re:which begs the question, by cozinator2 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Like this? http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/102/C3497/

    --
    Final Table Team - Poker Disc
  4. Re:which begs the question, by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 5, Informative

    Because until this year, nobody realized that you could make a thin plastic USB connector. If you think about a normal USB connector, it is actually much thicker than your average memory card, with its (relatively) giant metal rectangle. This year, a company called PQI realized that the metal part isn't actually necessary for the plug, and removed it. The result was this. Suddenly USB drives are actually smaller than and just as thin as regular memory cards! It's one of those great ideas that is obvious in retrospect. PQI has patented this design, and I imagine SanDisk has had to license it to create this super-awesome combined card.

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    main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
  5. Its been done... by Ojamin · · Score: 3, Informative

    Its been done before.

    http://www.pdalive.com/showarticle.php?threadid= 77 39

  6. Re:It's a cartel by Migraineman · · Score: 4, Informative

    The SDA is a cartel, plain and simple. The Host/Anciliary License Agreement (pdf) is truely draconian. In addition to paying the annual extortion fee, you have to agree to license any new developments back into the cartel. You're also prohibited from disclosing any details about SD cards. So once you're a member of the cartel, you pretty much can't work on any open-source SD-related projects. There are even "antitrust guidelines" published by SDA because they're dangerously close to crossing the line.

  7. Re:SD == DRM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Ridiculous statement. 99% of all card readers can not even access the secure area of the SD card. There are less than a handfull of products out there which are even using the secure area of an SD card. One of which is for mobile phones, the other I know if was for some RealAudio product.

    A generic SD card can typically have a much higher throughput than a CF card.

    If you want to reject DRM :) reject the subscription services, not the SD cards.

  8. Rubbish by roesti · · Score: 3, Informative
    The wide adoption of SD (which means Secure Digital, and not SanDisk) is the next step towards putting DRM control around our data.
    This is totally incorrect. If you're referring to the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), they gave up on DRM about four years ago when their watermarking scheme was ruthlessly cracked. The group has been totally inactive since May 2001.

    Nowadays, lots of devices use Secure Digital cards, but mostly because of the "cool" factor: they're a lot smaller than Compact Flash cards, and the capacity of SD cards isn't that far behind that of CF cards. I was looking at a couple of MP3 players that use SD cards, and none of them had DRM at all. Just copy your MP3 files to your SD card, whack it in your player, and hit Play.

    Hence, the schism that Secure Digital really means DRM does have a historical basis, but it has little relevance today. The idea that using SD cards in modern devices will smite your with a plague of DRM is just rubbish. For the purposes of keeping digital photos or music, SD is storage, and nothing more.

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