What does a high class manufacturer of motorcycles have to do with a manufacturer of USB sticks? Ducati and Sandisk have decided to create a partnership together creating fast memory products like CompactFlash and USB Flash Drives.

Well, Ducati and SanDisk believe by slapping “Sandisk Extreme Ducati Edition” and creating a 4GB flash drive with a fast 20MB/second transfer rate will be able to command $125 from consumers. Why so expensive? The flash drive was designed in an industrial look echoing “the performance, colors and lines of a Ducati MotoGP motorcycle.” I’m sure someone will buy it, but I can get a 500GB drive that would be faster (and much bigger) for about the same price!

Source: Gizmos for Geeks

Several weeks ago I picked up a 1 penny (yes 0.01) card reader for microSD cards from USB Fever. Today, I set aside some time to see how well the little bugger performs…and to my surprise, very well.

Introduction:

The microSD USB Card Reader is very compact and comes with mini lanyard and plastic case. The device is unique in that all components for the card reader sit inside the USB Type-A connector. It makes for an extremely small and portable reader, and can be, at times, difficult to pull out from a stubborn USB port. However, given the idea of what this product is all about - compact, portable performer - it didn’t bother me too much.

I compared the performance of a direct connect of the microSD card through the USB card reader to the microSD adapter provided to me from SanDisk when I purchased the flash memory. When using the SanDisk adapter, I did need a USB card reader which could contribute to (more…)

The well known ATP Petito USB drive is now available in a limited edition Pink Ribbon version marking the support for the fight against Breast Cancer.

ATP has joined hands with Susan G. Komen against the fight. A percentage of retail sales will be used to support the organization in funding research, supporting education, screening and treatment projects in communities around the world.

“As a leader in the technology marketplace, we were excited about taking the initiative in contributing to this important cause,” said Michael Plaksin, ATP Vice President of Sales. “The Pink Ribbon Special Edition of our Petito USB Drive presents an opportunity for our consumers to make a change in someone’s life and proudly display their support of this critically important cause. With this innovative device, they have the unique ability to keep the all the memories of their loved ones, who have been affected by the disease, close at all times.”

The Petito Pink Ribbon flash drive is available from 512MB to 2GB sizes.

This great news comes on the heels of SanDisk announcing their support for Alzheimer’s; as one can see flash drives are quickly becoming the favored item for fundraising. Nice.

For more info:

ATP Inc.
Komen for the Cure

SanDisk is helping in the fight against Alzheimer’s with a specially branded USB drive and SD card. Look for the color purple which represents “Take Action Against Alzheimer’s”

SanDisk will contribute $1 for each unit sold to the Alzheimer’s Association. The products available are 2GB capacity and carry the same price tag as the regular branded drives.

SanDisk commemorative Fight For The Cause products are now available at SanDisk.com, Best Buy and other participating retailers.

SanDisk would also like to note September 21 is World Alzheimer’s Day, and you can join millions of others in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. If you’d like to make on-line contribution today to Alzheimer’s Association, your donation will help turn $1 million into $2 million. If the Association reaches the goal of $1 million, the Harrah’s Foundation will match it — dollar for dollar. Help make a million dollar difference. Make a pledge today to FUND THE CAUSE.

To learn more about SanDisk’s fight against Alzheimer’s please visit SanDisk/alz/

The announcement of Microsoft developing a UFD platform to replace U3 could turn into a similar battle we saw 25 years ago between VHS and Betamax.

Major suppliers have already dropped the U3 platform because of high royalty fees (around 5%) to bundle less expensive software which does the same thing. As these suppliers, like Kingston and Memorex, begin to choose the alternate like Migo Software, a heated war could surface between flash drive manufacturers.

Originally SanDisk partnered with M-Systems to develop the U3 solution, but as time went on, SanDisk bought out M-Systems and the evolution of U3 continues with this most recent partnership.

Microsoft is developing the software platform and SanDisk will continue offering their hardware for a total solution (yes, it’s a hardware/software thing). In addition, SanDisk and Microsoft will bundle in the TrustedFlash security technology developed by SanDisk.

“The U3 platform was established with the vision of giving customers a consistent and portable computing experience. The existing 20,000 U3 software developers that joined us show the potential for smart flash memory devices,” said Yoram Cedar, executive vice president of the mobile business unit and corporate engineering at SanDisk.

“We expect this relationship with Microsoft will raise the overall experience for consumers given Microsoft’s unique software expertise, and grow the momentum given the large community of 3rd party companies capable of utilizing Microsoft’s technologies.”

The migration process for the 20,000 U3 developers is a straight forward and simple one - Microsoft puts the pressure back on you to make the migration. Microsoft did say there will be tools to ad in the process, but the bottom line is U3 developers better get cracking if they want to see the light-of-day come mid 2008.

SanDisk recently took the most kid familiar shape, a sippy-cup, and turned that into an MP3 player. The Sansa Shaker is a 512MB MP3 player with SD expansion slot to introduce your child into the world of music.

What’s fun about this product is the twist navigation features at top and bottom. A lot like LeapFrog products one might already be familiar with (if you have kids). In addition SanDisk built in a shake feature to aid in the little guy finding the beat (probably bead sound like maracas but no specifics given). (more…)

Today SanDisk announced their largest Memory Stick Micro card the M2. At convenient 4GBs it’s the largest flash memory card for any mobile phone. The M2 was designed, in partnership, with Sony and their line of Ericcson mobile phones.

Norm Frentz, director of marketing believes, “this is the threshold at which mobile phones provide enough capacity to become the user’s all-in-one portable music player, camcorder, photo album and video player.”

And I for one believe him. At 4GBs you can do just about anything and carry just about anything you could imagine. (more…)