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View Full Version : Card Wars, Episode 1: The USB Menace


Darius Wey
02-21-2005, 10:00 PM
<img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20050222-SandiskSDUSB.jpg" /><br /><br />We've posted on the <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=35747">weird</a> and <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=36326">wonderful</a> in the world of SD/USB cards. Just in the past few days, two new ones have appeared in the market. (1) The <a href="http://www.sandisk.com/pressrelease/20050219a.htm">first</a> being a higher-performance version of SanDisk's earlier SD/USB offering. This new product is actually part of their Ultra II product line, with write speeds touted at 9MB/sec and read speeds at 10MB/sec. They will be available in both 512MB and 1GB. (2) The <a href="http://www.delkin.com/delkin_news_press_release.php?id=40">second</a> product on offer is from Delkin. However, it's not nearly as exciting as SanDisk's card. Sizes on offer are 128MB and 256MB, although 512MB and 1GB cards are expected to be made available in the second quarter of this year. Nevertheless, with more and more of these SD/USB cards appearing in the market, we can certainly expect prices to drop and a greater range to be on offer in the near future (fingers-crossed). Are any of you looking to purchase one sometime soon?

KTamas
02-21-2005, 10:02 PM
No, not really, cardreaders are very cheap...

Craig Horlacher
02-21-2005, 10:13 PM
No, not really, cardreaders are very cheap...

Card readers are cheap, but getting a usb port *in* the sd card that is already *in* my pocket pc has huge value for me. It's not very convienant to carry a card reader around and I never have one when I need one. This is perfect for me!

How about a 2GB one please!!!

piperpilot
02-21-2005, 10:19 PM
It's not very convienant to carry a card reader around and I never have one when I need one. This is perfect for me!

How about a 2GB one please!!!

Ditto. A 2GB one of these and SanDisk has my business!

duncanhbrown
02-21-2005, 10:22 PM
If these get below $100 for 1 GB, I'd buy one. I was thinking of getting a 1 GB USB dongle for backup purposes, but being able to read from and write to it in my Pocket PC is double the fun and usefulness.

PDANEWBIE
02-21-2005, 10:54 PM
I am just wondering how cheap the little flap is gonna be. Seriously it looks like there will be a bunch of SD cards with tape on them just to get them out of the spring loaded sockts.

Gareth Lock
02-21-2005, 11:09 PM
I do something slightly different. I have a Lexar Jump Drive Trio USB SD reader http://www.camera-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Lexar_JumpDrive_Trio_Portable_USB_Drive.html which is also a dongle and very useful it is too.

Regards

Gareth
www.imagesoflife.co.uk

ctmagnus
02-21-2005, 11:16 PM
I do something slightly different. I have a Lexar Jump Drive Trio USB SD reader http://www.camera-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Lexar_JumpDrive_Trio_Portable_USB_Drive.html which is also a dongle and very useful it is too.

I have one too, but you have to admit that a reader that's small enough to fit inside your reader as well as to be used inside a Pocket PC or other device is very intriguing.

tj21
02-21-2005, 11:17 PM
Ditto. A 2GB one of these and SanDisk has my business!

Actually a 2gb of any type would get my business. What happened to all of the 2gb SD cards that were supposed to be coming soon?

surur
02-21-2005, 11:26 PM
Ditto. A 2GB one of these and SanDisk has my business!

Actually a 2gb of any type would get my business. What happened to all of the 2gb SD cards that were supposed to be coming soon?

It occurs to me that if they had space on the card for a folding USB connector, they had plenty of space for another gigabyte RAM. That must mean the delay is a marketing move, and that they are saving 2GB cards for next year, even though they are technically capable.

Reminds me of an old joke. Guy goes into a bar and asks for a beer. When the barman hands it to him he asks "Do you think there is room in there for a snapps?" The bar man says "Yes, thats £2 extra." The guy then says "Why dont you fill it with beer then!" :beer:

Surur

marcm
02-21-2005, 11:27 PM
I might have considered this a couple weeks ago, but I don't need one as I just got a PCMCIA to SD/MMC/SM/MS/xD reader for my Thinkpad T41, and the family desktop (HP Pavillion) has a reader built in under the Floppy drive. Great concept, and it proves that if they can get 1GB in half a card, they can get at least 2GB in a full card!

Paoac
02-22-2005, 12:30 AM
I am very sure they can even have 10gig if they want to
But why would they jump right into 10gig?

They will juice us out from our wallet by having 1.5gig, than 2gig, 2.5gig, 3gig... so on so on

Even I can think of that, and I am no SanDisk

Janak Parekh
02-22-2005, 12:37 AM
I am very sure they can even have 10gig if they want to
But why would they jump right into 10gig?
I doubt it. Miniaturization takes time. We've reached the point where we're about ready to have 2GB SD cards, but considering that even 10GB CF cards aren't on the market yet... it's a density issue, not a conspiracy one.

--janak

Anthony3000
02-22-2005, 01:09 AM
I am very sure they can even have 10gig if they want to
But why would they jump right into 10gig?
I doubt it. Miniaturization takes time. We've reached the point where we're about ready to have 2GB SD cards, but considering that even 10GB CF cards aren't on the market yet... it's a density issue, not a conspiracy one.

--janak

Wasn't there a 4GB CF card released a while back though?

beq
02-22-2005, 01:47 AM
^ I recall companies like Pretec periodically always rolling out press releases about releasing big-GB flash cards, but I'm not really sure how many they would actually have made...

Anyways, with this combo SD/USB card did SanDisk just take a 1GB miniSD card and house it in the combo casing? :D

Darius Wey
02-22-2005, 02:44 AM
Wasn't there a 4GB CF card released a while back though?

There are plenty of them, but they can go a lot higher than 4GB.

kozak
02-22-2005, 04:00 AM
I think it's a great Idea. I always take files back and fourth from work to home. I hate having to bring a card reader with me, this is much simpler.

ricksfiona
02-22-2005, 07:57 AM
I'll pass. While I think this is very good 'out of the box' thinking, the device looks too fragile and tiny. I think it would be very easy to lose.

Plus with your fingers touching the plating all the time, the connectors could get corroded with the acid from your oil in your skin/fingers. THEN, it would get transferred to whatever this device gets' connected too.

I'll stick with my 1GB thumb drive.

biglouis
02-22-2005, 08:22 AM
... a 4GB, Wifi enabled SD card with inbuilt USB adaptor would be nice!

Will it happen in my lifetime?

Louis

ZaphodB
02-22-2005, 02:25 PM
Wasn't there a 4GB CF card released a while back though?

That's sort of a different matter - the high-capacity CF cards you're referring to are basically hard drives which have been miniaturized and wedged into a CF form factor, unlike 'regular' CF cards, which use solid-state memory. SD cards are physically far too small to accompany a hard drive, so they all use solid-state memory, which is why their capacities are usually lower than CF cards (and why they've not really made major gains in capacity in the last year or so - increasing density is tough!)

gibson042
02-22-2005, 07:56 PM
I thought the maximum sizes people were quoting for CompactFlash cards looked a little low, so I did some research. If you have the money, you can get larger capacity cards right now. All (major) manufacturers have 4 GB cards available, Lexar (http://lexarmedia.com/digfilm/compact_flash.html) has an 8 GB, and Pretec (http://pretec.com/product/SSD/CF_Commercial/cheetah80X.htm) has an amazing 12 GB! Regarding other formats, 2 GB SD cards can be purchased now and should ship before the end of the month, and miniSD seems to currently top out at 512 MB, with 1 GB cards just around the corner (which appear to be the foundation for the SD/USB combo card).