SanDisk Announces TrustedFlash

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.sandisk.com/corporate/press.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.sandisk.com/corporate/press.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Heralding a significant breakthrough in mobile entertainment, SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) today introduced TrustedFlash, a new technology that will enable consumers to buy premium music, movies and games on flash memory cards for use interchangeably in mobile phones, laptop computers, PDAs and other portable devices. The announcement was made at a press conference at the CTIA Wireless I.T. &amp; Entertainment Show, where SanDisk is showing products at Booth 944. Music producers and movie studios will be able to release premium content on TrustedFlash products because it provides the superior security and digital rights management solutions that are required by these providers. Consumers will be able to download premium content from online digital music services through their mobile phone or PC. They'll also be able to purchase pre-recorded content on SanDisk's new gruvi cards, the first product to be released with TrustedFlash."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20050930-TrustedFlash.jpg" /><br /><br />Something else to come out of the SanDisk press room: TrustedFlash. If all goes to plan, this could change the way we view content on our mobile devices. These days, most exclusive digital content is bound to a host device by way of a license. SanDisk hopes to change that by opening up a world where content is bound to the card itself, effectively giving consumers the freedom to use the card (and thus view its content) in any device supporting TrustedFlash. And another key theme featured here is interoperability: where non-secure host devices are present, TrustedFlash cards function just like any other memory card.<br /><br />TrustedFlash might sound like wishful thinking by SanDisk's development team, but it's already on its way to becoming a reality with key industry figures like EMI Music, Samsung Mobile Communications, Yahoo! Music and NDS all signing on to be one of the first to adopt TrustedFlash. But as with every innovation, there are downsides, and I don't think I need to be the first to point just how unwilling Joe User would be to swap cards just so he can listen to his favourite song on his Pocket PC? Food for thought... ;)<br /><br />For the moment, TrustedFlash will focus on digital media content, though there are plans to support mobile commerce applications and secure online financial transactions sometime in 2006. As we speak, TrustedFlash is shipping to OEMs in miniSD, microSD and SD (in capacities up to 2GB), so we might just see the first wave of TrustedFlash content sometime soon.

[beq]

Thanks for the news. Some questions that I'd wanted to hold off from your previous thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=367386#367410):

* What exactly is gruvi, is it just a marketing moniker or something physically/technologically different? The related SanDisk press release implies that it's synonymous with a microSD card with TrustedFlash? Does it just refer to such cards that come sold with preloaded content?


* How exactly does TrustedFlash work? Does it require a hardware (or just software) update to the host reader/slot? Does the card itself contain additional components such as a crypto processor? If so, I thought only the CF format allows the electronic intelligence to be on the card as opposed to the host reader? Sorry I don't really know the technical details.

Some confusing quotes:

"TrustedFlash cards are highly secure, thanks to an on-board processor, a high-performance cryptographic engine and tamper-resistant technology that are designed to provide much higher level security than has previously existed on memory cards and on most consumer electronics devices"

"SanDisk is currently working with a number of leading handset manufacturers to enable their handsets to support TrustedFlash cards through a software upgrade."


* How will TrustedFlash work with existing digital media DRMs? For example, FairPlay and Janus for music. Yahoo Music will support TrustedFlash, so it'll be interesting to see how they integrate that within the Janus scheme?


* Will TrustedFlash also come to other non-SD flash card formats (such as CF, MS, etc)?


* What security does the baseline SD (and miniSD/microSD) specs provide for, anyways? I thought SD is already supposed to provide better support for DRM security as opposed to MMC??

[beq]

In regards to having to swap cards to play different media, I guess you could just stick with online purchases to transfer to your own single TrustedFlash card (as opposed to buying separate cards with preloaded content)?

I also wonder if the TrustedFlash specs provide for a baseline method to "transfer" ownership of content from one card to another?

Will they also allow content to be copied to a limited number of cards (like how some host-based DRMs allow content to be loaded on a limited number of hosts simultaneously)? :D

[SteveHoward999]

SanDisk hopes to change that by opening up a world where content is bound to the card itself


You mean like CDs and paper books? Nah I think they can shove that idea as far as it will go.

[beq]

Well, as long as there's a built-in, universally-supported method to easily transfer ownership of content from one TF card to another TF card, then I can appreciate that the card-bound TrustedFlash DRM model has some advantages (as well as drawbacks) compared to host-bound DRMs...

[Mike Wagstaff]

Good to see yet another short-sighted attempt at DRM.

When will manufacturers realise that people in the real world don't want to spend money on purchases locked down to hardware?

It's pretty simple, really. Hardware gets obselete / broken / lost / abandoned. If that hardware is tied down to a purchase, chances are that purchase is also lost.

Furthermore, I wonder how much extra processing power this card requires to work its magic. I wonder how much extra battery life it chews up. I wonder how much time and effort has been spent by Sandisk on R&amp;D. I wonder how much additional cost is passed onto the consumer.

There's got to be a better way.

[rhelwig]

There's got to be a better way.

There is. Stop using DRM protected stuff.

The real point of DRM is to provide training projects for hackers :D

[beq]

I'm trying to be a realist and at least try to find out more about this upcoming development.

From all reports it would seem that SanDisk is supposedly betting the farm (and its future) on TrustedFlash, and with the developments they've already done with all the big-brand partners, it seems to stand a good chance of becoming pervasive in the market. In other words, we might very well have to just deal with it going forward in the future...


P.S. I'm also still wondering about U3...

[Darius Wey]

* What exactly is gruvi, is it just a marketing moniker or something physically/technologically different? The related SanDisk press release implies that it's synonymous with a microSD card with TrustedFlash? Does it just refer to such cards that come sold with preloaded content?

I believe Gruvi is just a marketing name for a TrustedFlash-enabled card preloaded with media content. As far as I'm aware, it still works in your standard SD/miniSD/microSD slot.

* How exactly does TrustedFlash work? Does it require a hardware (or just software) update to the host reader/slot? Does the card itself contain additional components such as a crypto processor? If so, I thought only the CF format allows the electronic intelligence to be on the card as opposed to the host reader? Sorry I don't really know the technical details.

I've probably done even less research than you have. 8) I think the card itself contains cryptographic technology to secure the content onboard. It is then unlocked when inserted into the card slot - which I believe is both software and hardware driven, though I can't say I'm a hundred percent sure on that.

* Will TrustedFlash also come to other non-SD flash card formats (such as CF, MS, etc)?

Not sure. Right now, they seem very focused on integrating it in the SD/miniSD/microSD form factor, and that could be driven on the fact that SD has that extra support for encryption.

* What security does the baseline SD (and miniSD/microSD) specs provide for, anyways? I thought SD is already supposed to provide better support for DRM security as opposed to MMC??

It does, but I think TrustedFlash goes one step further to bind the content to the card even more than SD currently can.

I'd like to say I have all the answers, but I don't. I'm full of questions just like you are, and I was only alerted to TrustedFlash and iNAND just the other day, courtesy of the SanDisk press team.

[Darius Wey]

When will manufacturers realise that people in the real world don't want to spend money on purchases locked down to hardware?

Right. And that was a point I made in another thread too. Consumers want that freedom of choice to play their content whenever, wherever. Once you bring in the concept of licenses and are bound to a particular piece of hardware, that freedom is lost, and just how many people are willing to purchase such restrictive content? If one day, there is an abundance of TrustedFlash-enabled devices much like how many CD players there are in the world, then we might be talking business here, but until that day arrives, this could simply turn out to be just another marketing dream.

[Joseph Byrns]

I realise that this DRM stuff is a bit of a pain, but maybe someone can clear something up for me, if you burn the mp3s downloaded via iTunes to CD, then rip the CD are the mp3s then DRM free :?:

[Take1]

I realise that this DRM stuff is a bit of a pain, but maybe someone can clear something up for me, if you burn the mp3s downloaded via iTunes to CD, then rip the CD are the mp3s then DRM free :?:

Yes completely DRM free. Many people do this to get around dealing with Apple's Fair Play DRM. Not great for quality, but at least you don't have to worry about losing control of your puchased music!

[Rob Alexander]

In other words, we might very well have to just deal with it going forward in the future...


No we don't; I haven't bought DRM'd music or ebooks yet. Ultimately, we consumers have the power not to spend our money for something that doesn't meet our needs. I still just rip WMAs from CDs and it works fine for me. I only buy ebooks from Baen, which doesn't include any DRM.

No way am I going to carry around a pocket full of these cards, swapping them in and out to hear various songs when I have a device that can easily hold thousands of songs. That defeats the whole point. As Mike said, we don't want to buy content that's locked to any one piece of hardware (including a micro-SD card), and I won't.

[PetiteFlower]

I can see this being a much more attractive option for movies rather then music though. Movies are bigger and people don't usually try to store dozens of movies on their PPC like they store dozens of albums. If we could buy a movie on one of these cards that was already formatted for the PPC, and the price wasn't too outrageous, I might do that....especially since trying to rip and reformat DVDs to play on the PPC is such a pain. Even if I was going on a long plane trip, carrying more then one tiny card in my pocket wouldn't be a big deal, and I'd only have to switch them out every couple of hours.

[SteveHoward999]

I can see this being a much more attractive option for movies rather then music though. Movies are bigger and people don't usually try to store dozens of movies on their PPC like they store dozens of albums.

I can get 4 or 5 movies on my 1 Gb SD card- more on my 2.2.Gb microdrive, but that eats too much power. Pretty soon 4 Gb and larger will be affordable, so we will easily have access to loads of space to carry many tens of movies ...


Plus my biggest issue with these things ... just how easy do you imagine it is going to be to lose the cards :-)