Are you reading?

Okay, so maybe you’ve seen a multicard reader or two in your day that wasn’t unsightly to the nth degree, but it’s a rarity, let us tell you. Furthermore, SanDisk’s latest bunch are amongst the first we’ve seen that we’d actually feel somewhat proud to have sitting on our desks, and considering that there’s only so much added functionality you can give these things, aiming for high fashion was probably a good move. The new line of ImageMate readers are currently shipping out to retailers in North America, with the All-In-One reader listing at $29.99 and the Multi-Card reader selling for $10 less.
Gallery: SanDisk ships first ever multicard readers with style
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By Evan Ackerman

Minidiscs used to be the coolest things ever. The players were tiny and awesome, and technology itself was miles ahead of the CD if for no other reason than most Minidisc players could also record. Plus, the little disc cartridges were pretty slick. A company called Vmedia is trying to convince netbook manufacturers that bite-size optical media is still relevant, and that Vmedia drives are worthwhile additions their computers.

Vmedia discs are similar to Minidiscs in appearance, but they’re actually even smaller, measuring only 36mm x 36mm (Minidiscs are not quite twice that size). They can hold 1 or 2 gigs of data and are optionally rewritable. This is all well and good, but Vmedia’s biggest competitor is probably going to be SD cards, which are smaller, cheaper, faster, more reliable, more reusable, and have significantly higher capacities. Why does Vmedia think they stand a chance? They’ll tell you, after the jump.

So why buy a Vmedia disc over an SD Card with preloaded content, like SanDisk is attempting with music and its slotMusic platform?

“Cost is one advantage of VMedia. We are manufactured the same way as optical discs are,” [Marketing VP Wendy] Volan said. “SD is a fantastic medium, particularly as a recordable medium for your photos, music, and video. But the thing that needs to happen, especially in terms of the SD slot, is the industry must develop a standard.” She explained that many consumers think that if they have an SD Card slot and an SD Card with video, it will play. “We really need to get to a point where you have a player that can play it all. Any Vmedia disc can play back from a Vmedia drive.”

And as for the upsell over downloadable content, “Vmedia is about is customer choice. Right now we are in a time when consumers have a lot of choices in how they can consume media and on the mobile side there are fewer choices. The shift to downloaded video is going to take quite a while, and Vmedia fills that gap right now,” Volan said.

While it’s true that we’re not yet at the point where we have ubiquitous access to streaming media, I think a brand new proprietary format that requires significant hardware integration is not the answer. Yes, it would great to be able to watch movies on my netbook, and yes, I think making netbooks with conventional optical drives isn’t the solution. But I’m not willing to pay a premium for hardware and media that will allow me to do that and not much else, and that will be rendered obsolete as soon as mobile broadband (WiMax or 4G) becomes a reality (I’m bullish on that). In the meantime, I’m willing to either rip my DVDs and stick them on my netbook directly, or just suffer and read a newspaper or something.

[ Vmedia ] VIA [ Laptopmag ]

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The last time we heard from Vmedia, the company was on a quixotic journey to bring Minidisc-like optical video disks to cellphones in India — and while we haven’t heard anything on that front since, the company is back with plans to place its tiny 1GB disks inside netbooks, MIDs, and dedicated USB drives. If this just sounds like SanDisk’s futile SlotMusic initiative with weirder proprietary hardware and no installed base of readers, congratulations, you can identify terrible business models. Vmedia says that it’ll succeed because SD and microSD don’t offer consumers a standard set of codecs, while you’ll always know a Vmedia drive will play video from a Vmedia disc. Sure, maybe, but we’d bet the industry adopts a few standard video codecs for SD and microSD long before we see a mainstream cellphone or netbook with a clunky mechanical optical drive in it. In fact, hell, let’s get crazy: we’re willing to bet that UMD will take over as a dominant format before we see a Vmedia drive in a name-brand device. Any takers?
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By Andrew Liszewski

Flash drives are finally reaching storage capacities where they’re actually useful as a backup tool, instead of just for transporting files. So at CES 2009, Sandisk introduced what they claim to be the first USB flash drive to include a dedicated ‘Backup’ button. What innovation! At the push of a button your specified files are automatically copied to the flash drive, and for extra peace of mind the drive’s got password protection and AES hardware encryption to keep your files safe and secure. The drives should be available sometime in April of this year in capacities ranging from 8GB to 64GB, and will sell for between $39.99 and $199.99.

[ SanDisk Ultra Backup USB Flash Drive ] VIA [ Uncrate ]

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It’s not quite slotMusic, but it looks like SanDisk is intent on offering yet another option for memory card-bound content, and this time its enlisted the help of LG to make it happen. This setup is intended to let cellphone carriers offer content that would only be able to be used on “approved handsets” on their network, which is apparently made possible by allowing IP connectivity to the memory card in the phone, which in turn serves as a network node that is able to be remotely managed using the industry standard OMA Smart Card Web Server. That bit of magic has apparently already been demonstrated on an LG KC910 Renoir phone, but it doesn’t look like there’s any carriers that have signed on just yet, or at least any that are ready to announce it.

[Via Phone Scoop]
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