Toshiba unveils 16GB microSDHC card of its own

SanDisk was first out of the gate with a 16GB microSDHC card, but Toshiba's just two months behind with the announcement of its iteration. Slated for mass production in January of 2009, the capacious SD-C16G should provide plenty of room for your EMF albums and that Rage Against the Machine discography. In related news, Tosh also introduced the soon-to-come SD-F16G and SD-F08G, 16GB / 8GB Class 6 SDHC cards that should handle even the quickest of cameras when they launch over the next few months. No prices to chew on just yet, but we'd wager they'll be competitive.
[Via: Engadget ] [Tag: 16gb, 16gb microsdhc, 16gbMicrosdhc, class 6, Class 6 SDHC, Class6, Class6Sdhc, flash, flash memory, FlashMemory, memory card, MemoryCard, microsdhc, SD-C16G, SD-F08G, SD-F16G, sdhc, Toshiba ]

IEEE 1667 pledges secure portable storage for all

If you use a thumb-drive sans security your data is just a vacant USB port away from being thrown up on the internet, assets exposed to the world like some drunken heiress. Even secure devices, whether they use biometric scanners, hardware encryption, or even more extreme measures, all leave a lot to be desired: no standards means limited compatibility, and secure data you can't reliably access might as well be random strings of binary digits. The answer could be IEEE 1667, the "Standard Protocol for Authentication in Host Attachments of Transient Storage Devices." Among other things it would enable you to restrict where your thumb drive will work and, conversely, what thumb drives your machine will accept. If it becomes the standard it was born to be you'll be able to apply the same policies whether you're opening Windows 7, cuddling with Snow Leopard, or making jazz-hands with something a little less mainstream. Will it succeed? CNET's Jon Oltsik thinks Microsoft's support for the standard is a good omen and says "Let's all follow Redmond's lead in this case for the greater good." That's certainly not something you hear every day, but this time we're game.
[Via: Engadget ] [Tag: authentication, encryption, ieee, ieee 1667, Ieee1667, security ]

Western Digital does not believe in SSDs, Santa Claus

The holidays are upon us and, at a time when many are set to celebrate their faiths and beliefs, Western Digital's Senior VP for Marketing Richard Rutledge is clarifying one of his company's: now is not the right time for SSDs. Apparently WD only "enters markets that exist," and while we could understand about him being unsure of the many spiritual entities banded about this time of year, we're rather confident the competition are believers, and they have plenty of milk and cookies laid out for holiday shoppers. Rutledge did indicate WD is looking at creating both low-end SSDs for smartphones and ultraportables as well as high-end ones for "enterprise" applications, but only "when they present appropriate opportunity." Hurry up and get with the program, WD, or you're going to be left crying and holding a lump of coal while all the other companies bring their increased revenues to show and tell.
[Via: Engadget ] [Tag: ssd, ssd drive, SsdDrive, ssds, wd, western digital, WesternDigital ]

Oklahoma town provides real-time streaming from cop cars, free WiFi to residents

Traffic wardens over in the UK have been wielding handheld camcorders for well over a year now, but Ponca City, Oklahoma is making waves here in America with a slightly more sophisticated alternative. In conjunction with Honeywell, the town is implementing a broadband mesh network comprised of over 490 wireless nodes and gateways from Tropos Networks, and aside from providing free WiFi to some 30 square miles of residents, it's also hoping to use the abundant connectivity to help public safety. For instance, the city has installed wireless video cameras in police vehicles so "dispatchers and supervisors can monitor activities during traffic stops, and quickly deploy additional officers and resources if necessary." 'Course, that's just the official word -- everyone and their mother knows this is just the beginning of "C.O.P.S.: Live in Oklahoma."
[Via: Slashdot ] [Tag: citywide wifi, CitywideWifi, cops, honeywell, mesh, mesh networking, MeshNetworking, muni-fi, oklahoma, police, ponca city, PoncaCity, safety, wifi ]

Scosche Passport FireWire-to-USB iPod adapter gets reviewed

Okay, so this adapter doesn't directly convert a FireWire 400 socket into a USB port, but for all intents and purposes here, it does as much. You see, Scosche's Passport was designed to channel the energy from older FireWire-based iPod charging gear into the USB prongs that the newer iPhone / iPods only accept. Macworld was able to get ahold of one for review, and in testing, it found that everything worked well when toying with new iPods, and while it was designed specifically for in-car applications, critics found that it even worked (albeit inelegantly) with dock-cradle accessories. Was it worth $30? Absolutely, so long as you'd rather burn $30 than replace that mess of wires you've got behind the dashboard (and you would).
[Via: Engadget ] [Tag: adapter, firewire, ipod, ipod accessory, IpodAccessory, Passport, review, Scosche ]

SuperSpeed USB 3.0 spec officially released, first chipset demonstrated

It's been nearly a year since we first saw the USB 3.0 connector make an appearance at CES, and after months of corporate infighting, spec-polishing, and technical navel-gazing, the future of consumer peripheral connectivity is here -- in the form of complete specifications and a demo. Yeah, so maybe SuperSpeed USB isn't making the most dramatic entrance ever, but hey, it doesn't have to with 4.8Gbps transfer speeds, improved power management, and backwards compatibility with USB 2.0 along for the ride. As expected, the first wave of devices won't hit until 2010, but Symwave's giving attendees of this week's SuperSpeed conference a taste of tomorrow with a demo of the Quasar USB 3.0 chipset, which is targeted at "sync-and-go" devices like phones and media players. Sounds lovely -- now if you'll excuse us, we have to go back to mourning the death of FireWire 400.

[Via: Gearlog ] [Tag: 3.0, superspeed usb, superspeed usb 3.0, SuperspeedUsb, SuperspeedUsb3.0, symwave, usb, usb 3.0, usb 3.0 superspeed, usb superspeed, Usb3.0, Usb3.0Superspeed, usb30, UsbSuperspeed ]

TDK trots out industrial CompactFlash cards / SSDs

Not just everyone can get away with consumer-level kit, and if you plan on keeping that Counter-Strike server running for another four years without so much as a hiccup, you should probably look into some industrial-strength materials. To that end, we present to you a new pair from TDK: a U.DMA 6-compatible CompactFlash card and a line of PATA SSDs, both of which boast a maximum capacity of 16GB. Both lines combine the original GBDriver RA8 U.DMA 6-compatible NAND Flash memory controller with a high-frequency SLC NAND Flash memory module for read speeds of up to 50MB/sec and write speeds up to 30MB/sec. You'll also find an error correction function scalable to 15 bit/sector ECC to provide high data reliability -- remember, zero hiccups -- and a static wear leveling function to greatly increase the write life span. Sadly, no pricing figures are disclosed, but both crews should start shipping next month.

[Via: SlashGear ] [Tag: CF, CFG8A, CompactFlash, flash, flash memory, FlashMemory, memory card, MemoryCard, NAND, NAND flash, NandFlash, ra8, SDG8A, SSD, TDK, UDMA ]

Kanguru's new e-Flash thumbdrive marries eSATA and USB

It's been a while since we've seen anything truly interesting in the thumbdrive space, but this certainly qualifies. Kanguru has taken a regular-looking USB 2.0 flash drive and slapped an eSATA plug on the other end, finally breaking the performance barrier for thumbdrives. The eSATA is powered, and Kanguru tossed in a eSATA + Power bracket and eSATA + Power cable for whichever scenarios might present themselves. With an increasing number of laptops housing eSATA plugs these days -- not to mention all the other great scenarios that present themselves here -- we'd say the time is exactly right for this kind of mojo. Kanguru is shipping these now in 16GB ($85) and 32GB ($120) capacities, and will add a 64GB version in January of 2009.
[Via: Engadget ] [Tag: e-flash, esata, kanguru, thumbdrive ]

Proxim Orinoco AP-8000 Doubles Wi-Fi Throughput With Two 802.11n Radios [Wi-Fi]

This one's more for the IT dudes, but is interesting as an indication of how we may see more speed squeezed out of the 802.11n wi-fi spec: a new enterprise access point from Proxim uses two 802.11n radios simultaneously, effectively doubling throughput to 320 Mbps (a single wireless N radio maxes out at around 170 Mbps). But it can't just be that simple, right? No. The bottleneck in a setup like this is the centralized wireless controller chipset architecture that routes all of the data coming in and out. Proxim's solution, instead, uses a new distributed wireless architecture for which enables it to smartly share the burden over the two radios. It uses two standard Atheros 802.11n radio chips and a controller processor from Freescale. Of course, your computer only has one radio, so you won't see double the speeds on your local machine. This just helps cram more data onto a huge enterprise network without bringing it down, but an interesting strategy that could, theoretically, find its way into more consumer-type gear. The dual-radio AP-8000 costs $1,099, and also looks like a Dungeness crab after I've eaten four delicious legs already. Sold! [Via: Gizmodo, The Gadget Blog ] [Tag: ]

A hard drive hack for turntablists

Whether you're a budding mix-master banned from touching your mom's old LPs, or a full-fledged master of the cross-fade looking to get some bodies movin', you need a turntable of some sort. Sure, a couple Benjamins will get you into a decent setup, or you could also make do with a webcam and a flat surface, but, if you're looking for something with a smooth feel on the cheap, the solution is the hard drive sitting in your closet that's too small even for backup duty. A group of students at universities in the UK, Austria, and New Zealand all worked together to come up with a homebrew digital DJ interface, and the above HDD-cum-turntable sits at the center. The weight of the disk plus the quality of its bearings won the crew over, and with "a few op amps, resistors and a programmable microcontroller of some kind" you too can be mixing in no time. Full instructions are at the read link, and check out the video below for a little platter-scratchin', oscilloscope-watchin', "wicky wicky" action.

[Via: Hack A Day ] [Tag: hack, hard disk, hard drive, HardDisk, HardDrive, hdd, homebrew, turntable, turntablism ]

Walt Mossberg reviews Autonet: spotty, but still distracting enough to be dangerous

Chrysler's in-car WiFi, Autonet Mobile, has been around for a little while now, and Walt Mossberg has helpfully reviewed it for us. He found the service (which is basically an in-car 3G WiFi router) to be great for email and basic web surfing, but it was too slow to handle anything much more demanding, like streaming videos. Speed test results ranged from 100 kbps to 500 kbps, with an average of 400-450 kbps... pretty average for 3G speeds, and Walt says the connection never dropped. On the plus side, it appears that Chrysler is willing to mount the ruggedized router in the trunk of any car -- not just their models -- which is great news if, like most people, you have no intention of driving a Chrysler around. The Autonet box runs $499 ($399 for the holidays) with a one-year contract and monthly fees of about $29. That may seem expensive, but can you put a price on your kids checking Facebook rather than asking "Are we there yet" every twelve seconds? Hit the read link for the full review.
[Via: Engadget ] [Tag: autonet, autonet mobile, AutonetMobile, car, car wifi, CarWifi, chrysler, mobile internet, MobileInternet, mossberg, mvno, walt mossberg, WaltMossberg, wifi, wireless ]

Eye-Fi celebrates a year with 4GB Anniversary Edition SD card

Eye-Fi has been adding in some pretty swank extras of late for its current stable of wireless SD cards, but we're pretty sure you'll agree that we're due for some new hardware. Today, the outfit is taking the wraps off of a limited edition 4GB Anniversary Edition, which boasts double the capacity of its other cards and "improved memory speeds." Outside of that, there's really nothing too special about it, but those who've already been convinced can procure one right now for $129 at the firm's website or for $99 if you're a Costco member. Full release is after the break.

EYE-FI UNVEILS THE 4GB EYE-FI ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Eye-Fi Celebrates First Anniversary with 4GB Limited Edition Anniversary
Card and the Win of Popular Science's Best of What's New Award
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov. 12, 2008 - Today Eye-Fi Inc. (www.eye.fi)
announced a new, limited edition card - the Eye-Fi Anniversary
Edition - to celebrate the one-year anniversary of its first wireless SD
memory card for digital cameras. Eye-Fi also announced it has been
chosen as one of Popular Science's 2008 "Best of What's New" award
recipients.
"For the past year, we've been reinventing the way people save and
share their digital memories," said Jef Holove, CEO of Eye-Fi. "From
automatic uploading to geotagging to sharing on the go, we've aimed to
help everyday photographers save their memories more often, share them
more quickly, and add more context to their collections."
Available immediately, the new Eye-Fi Share Anniversary Edition doubles
storage capacity to 4GB and features improved memory speeds. Coupled
with the recently announced wireless performance upgrade, the
Anniversary Edition offers a no-compromises Eye-Fi experience. Like the
original Eye-Fi Share, the Anniversary Edition wirelessly sends photos
from a digital camera to a computer and to one of more than 25 online
photo sharing sites.
The card comes in Eye-Fi's celebrated, original slide-out package and is
available only at Costco.com for $99 to club members, or on www.eye.fi
for $129, while supplies last. The Eye-Fi Share card can be upgraded
post purchase to include additional features, such as automatic
geotagging and hotspot access.
Since the Eye-Fi Card launched one year ago, millions of photos
have been uploaded to the Web, and users report that they upload and
share photos with family and friends more frequently.
"With the introduction of the digital camera, the photography
industry faced a real challenge - photos trapped on cameras that were
never shared or printed because of the work involved," said Alan
Bullock, associate director of InfoTrends. "The industry needs pioneers
like Eye-Fi who recognize the bottlenecks, and build innovative
solutions that move the market forward."
Over the past year, Eye-Fi has given more and more people the ability to
effortlessly share their digital memories and offered a rich, meaningful
experience for users. Eye-Fi has:
* Helped Take Geotagging Mainstream: Geotagging is a fast growing
trend, and through a partnership with Skyhook Wireless, Eye-Fi has
automated the process to make it easier and more compelling for all
consumers. Using the Wi-Fi embedded in its cards, Eye-Fi uses Wi-Fi
positioning to determine where an image was captured and adds a
geographic tag to each photo.
* Pioneered Uploads-on-the-Go to the Top Photo Sharing
Destinations: Now users can upload photos away from home at more than
10,000 Wayport hotspots with their Eye-Fi cards - even without a
computer.
* Introduced the "Eye-Fi Connected" Program: Eye-Fi has launched
the "Eye-Fi Connected" program to help other manufacturers tap into the
benefits of Eye-Fi's wireless photo sharing ecosystem. Nikon has
released two Eye-Fi connected cameras, the Nikon D60 and D90, both
optimized for Eye-Fi cards. Lexar introduced the co-branded Shoot-n-Sync
Wi-Fi(r) Memory Card that uses Eye-Fi's patent-pending technology and
online service.
* Integrated Social Networking: Eye-Fi announced integration with
Twitter and the availability of RSS feeds so users can notify their
networks in real time about recent photo uploads, and photos can be
viewed instantly.
* International Expansion: Due to high demand, Eye-Fi plans to
expand into Japan and Canada by the end of the year. Now more people
worldwide will have the ability to enjoy the benefits of Eye-Fi's
products and services.
Also announced today, the Eye-Fi Explore card was chosen as one of
Popular Science's "Best of What's New Award" recipients in the gadgets
category. Each year since 1987, the editors of Popular Science review
thousands of products in search of the top 100 tech innovations of the
year. To win, a product or technology must represent a significant step
forward in its category.
Eye-Fi's family of products include the Eye-Fi Home, Share, Share
Anniversary Edition and Explore cards with MSRPs ranging from $79-$129
USD. Eye-Fi cards can be purchased at Apple Retail Stores, Best Buy,
Circuit City and Ritz Camera Center locations nationwide, and at major
online retailers such as Amazon.com, Walmart.com and Costco.com. Eye-Fi
has garnered numerous awards, including PC World's "The 100 Best
Products of 2008" and Yahoo! Tech's "Last Gadget Standing 2008." For
more information, please visit www.eye.fi.
[Via: Engadget ] [Tag: Anniversary Edition, AnniversaryEdition, Costco, Eye-Fi, Eye-Fi Anniversary Edition, Eye-fiAnniversaryEdition, limited edition, LimitedEdition, SD ]

Fujistu announces world's first 500GB laptop disk with 256-bit AES encryption

Take 1TB and divide it by two and you've got a pair of new 2.5-inch 500GB disks just introduced by Fujitsu. Fujitsu's MJA2 series of 9.5-mm tall, SATA 3.0Gbps, 5400 RPM disks consume just 1.4 watts during read/write -- that's a 33% reduction from its previous drives while still boosting transfer rates by 27%. Model MJA2 CH even adds the world's first automatic, full-disk, 256-bit AES encryption without any performance penalty due to the hardware level of encryption. Take that Seagate and your weak-sauce 128-bit key. To be fair, any successful attack on a 128-AES key would likely apply to a 256-bit key as well. Expect these to pop for retail (with Western Digital branding too, presumably) sometime in the first quarter of 2009, a bit earlier if you can do without the encryption.
[Via: Engadget ] [Tag: 2.5-inch, 256-bit, 500gb, 9.5, aes, encryption, fde, fujitsu, mja2, mja2 ch, Mja2Ch, western digital, WesternDigital ]

DIY'er constructs artsy wall clock from spare HDD parts, tells all

Instructables user grybaz has joined a special crew today with his masterful design, and that would be the oft-unappreciated DIY clock crowd. By utilizing a drill, screwdriver kit, pliers, a basic quartz clock movement and a dozen or so old hard drives, he was able to piece together something truly worthy of den placement. Handymen aren't apt to find this one any more difficult than fixing that pipe that one time underneath the sink, so if you're looking to do something useful with all of those 4GB 3.5-inch HDDs you're still hanging onto from college, roll up your sleeves and hit the read link.
[Via: Unplggd ] [Tag: art, design, diy, hack, hard drive, hard drives, HardDrive, HardDrives, hdd, mod, wall clock, WallClock ]

Virgin Media shows off stylish 50Mbps cable modem

This truly may be a world's first: a cable modem you don't feel incredibly pressured to relegate to the rear of your networking stash. Yes friends, that succulent device you see above is Virgin Media's shockingly stunning 50Mbps cable modem, which unsurprisingly relies on DOCSIS 3.0 technology in order to provide such 1337 speeds. It's still not as speedy as Ambit Broadband's channel bonding modem, nor can it hold a candle to whatever Sigbritt Lothberg had going on in Sweden, but 50Mbps isn't anything to sneeze at. No word on pricing just yet (don't worry, you'll pay it), but it should be available for UK-based speed freaks before the year's end.
[Via: TrustedReviews ] [Tag: broadband, cable, cable modem, CableModem, Channel Bonding, ChannelBonding, docsis 3.0, Docsis3.0, EuroDOCSIS, EuroDOCSIS 3.0, Eurodocsis3.0, fiber, global, high-speed internet, High-speedInternet, internet, UK, Virgin, Virgin Media, VirginMedia ]

Seagate developing mutant hybrid SSD tech to bring costs down

We'd heard that Seagate was prepping its first solid state hard drives, but there was no plan for consumer-friendly products in that vein anytime soon because solid state drives cost far more to produce than the conventional variety. Recently, CEO Bill Watkins hinted that the company intends to overcome that problem by combining relatively inexpensive (but unreliable) multi-layer cells with pricier (but dependable) single-layer cells in some kind of hybrid drive technology. It's all very pie in the sky right now, but surely it's a better hope than sticking to your old fashioned ways and seeking out opportunities to sue envelope-pushing competitors.
[Via: Electronista ] [Tag: bill watkins, billwatkins, hard drives, harddrives, multi-layer cells, rd, research, research and development, seagate, single-layer cells, solid state, solid state drives, solid state hard drives, solidstate, solidstatedrives, solidstateharddrives, ssd ]

SanDisk announces ExtremeFFS for "100 times faster" SSD write speeds

SSDs will apparently get a serious (extreme, if you will) upgrade in the coming year, with SanDisk's announcement of a new technology dubbed ExtremeFFS (Flash File System). It is, as you can possibly guess, a new file system, but it'll use page-based methods so that the data's location on the drive won't be tied to its physical space, as it is now. SanDisk says this means that random write speeds are going to be 100 times faster than they are on drives using current technology. The company hopes that this advance, coupled with other upcoming standards, will lead to widespread adoption of SSDs in PCs (and much, much more money in their pockets). That should fit in nicely with news we just heard that Microsoft's Windows 7, unlike Vista, will include optimization for use with the drives. While actual drives that carry ExtremeFFS have yet to be announced, SanDisk expects them to ship in 2009. Fun times.
[Via: Electronista ] [Tag: extreme ffs, ExtremeFfs, file system, file systems, FileSystem, FileSystems, sandisk, ssd, ssd drive, SsdDrive, ssds ]