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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."

14 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. Uh? eh? by zoftie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    About time? Seriously its pretty cool, except that canon cameras take compact.
    Oh well, others probably to follow suit.
    p.

  2. Nice idea, but at what cost? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How much more expensive are these going to be than normal cards? USB reader dongles can be had for next to nothing these days!

  3. which begs the question, by way2trivial · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Why isn't there a memory card format that's just a USB stub, and a small bit of chip- like a thumbdrive or a diskkey or usb drive or whatever they are called this week.

    how large does a usb key have to be- could it be made to go within a camera?

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    1. Re:which begs the question, by josh3736 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Which would bring another interesting application: If the camera's memory card slot is just a USB port, why not plug an external hard drive in? You'd obviously have to find an external power source for the HD, but after that, you've got gobs of storage for your pictures.

    2. Re:which begs the question, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      When flash makers started putting out their standards, USB was only just coming into vogue, and they all hoped for their standard to reach a monopoly status, as that would mean that everyone would just provide readers for the card, making it cheaper for them.

      Since that hasn't happened...well...

    3. Re:which begs the question, by caino59 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      i've always wondered about that. given the proliferation of thumb drives, etc....why hasnt someone developed a camera/mp3 player/whatever that accepts storage in the form of a usb thumbdrive?

      i've often thought of a smallish mp3 player, with a screen, minimal built in memory (for the OS) and a usb connect to plug in any usb removable storage device

      opens up a lot of possibilities

  4. Re:Really, really cool! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That is truly innovative. I wonder how long it will take for other formats (compact flash, memorytick) to have this capability. I also wonder if its patented technology not that it matters as much on the hardware side. Also, there must be a change in internal layout of the card, does this form factor come with considerably less capacity. 1GB SD (the size used in the article) is fairly cheap nowadays and am curious to see what capacities will be available when this ships. If it is competitively priced I think SanDisk can easily take over the market.

    Does anyone know what percentage of the card actually contains the IC for storage?

  5. How many USB ports would this actually fit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Great idea, but USB ports are often bang-next to other ports, so the other plugs could obstruct it, and front-panel recessed ones may be too near the edge of the recess to fit the extra width of this gizmo.

  6. SD == DRM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Avoid SD cards at any cost. The wide adoption of SD (which means Secure Digital, and not SanDisk) is the next step towards putting DRM control around our data.
    More info are contained in the official SD and SDIO complete reference, which -surprise- is neither open nor free, and costs big bucks/NDA signing to get.

    My answer is thanks but no thanks, I'll stick with more versatile, cheap and open supports such as Compact Flash.

  7. Re:Nice idea, but at what cost? by Bishop · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That was my first impression but after thinking about it I changed my mind. Most users are only going to have a few SD cards. Usually just the one they have in their camera and maybe a spare. For these users having an integrated usb reader is very convinient especially if you are on the road and want to transfer pictures to a friend's computer. With regards to cost as you pointed out USB readers are pretty cheap. It probably costs next to nothing to add the USB bit. (A quick check of a local shop shows SanDisk SD cards are just slighly more expensive then similar USB drives.) I would guess that there will be a higher markup for the convinience factor, then the cost of adding the USB.

    If these USB/SD cards become popular I predict that some camera maker will drop the USB interface from their cameras.

    Don't discount the convinience factor. For a few bucks extra I would by a device like this. If only so that I didn't have to remember to bring the card reader.

  8. Will it fit? by Phoex · · Score: 2, Interesting

    One problem I've noticed, especially with the 'designer' PC cases is that the front USB ports are impossible to plug anything except a cord into.

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  9. Re:Great by geeveees · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I can't believe this... 12 years after I buy a 286 with a floppy drive. Just great!

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  10. Re:What we really need... by droopycom · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Oh yeahhh.... I have a vision of a USB pen sticking up on top of my digital camera... just like i would have flash bulbs stiking on top of my old film camera...

    Theres no way you want a generic usb plug on your camera to replace your media. You want your media to fit tightly inside your camera.

    Now, they could put a USB host interface on the camera so that you could transfer your pictures onto your usb pen or your ipod photo or the latest portable media player. But thats something else...

    In this case they could even do without removable media and just have a fixed flash memory inside.

    That would be really innovating...

    F**k ... I just gave away a good idea....

  11. PC card better anyway. by twitter · · Score: 2, Interesting
    You will get better performance on a laptop from a PC card adaptor. Once again, your choice of Canon and CF has done you well. Like CF in general, PC cards for CF are also cheaper than SD equivalents. I've got them both and I'm still happier with CF performance.

    At the same time, the folding design is interesting. Cool stuff scandisk.

    The scandisk SD to PC card adaptor I have works well enough, but I've had problems fdisking a 512 SD card. It worked but it hurt. Cfdisk could not deal with it so I had to use regular fdisk to set up a ext2 partition, which I then was able to format and mount without a problem. At the same time, I've never had similar problems with CF.

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