The cards, offered in 32-megabyte, 50-picture capacities, are aimed at consumers who are transitioning from film-based cameras to digital photography or who want the simplicity of storing their images without downloading to a computer or saving to an optical disc. The first cards shipped will be the popular SD and CompactFlash formats, followed later in the year by other cards and capacities, including Memory Stick PRO.

Apex Technology are pleased to provide the new facility to recover data for Apple Mac users. Whether you own a Mac G3, G4, G5 or you lost your data on CD DVD USB or Firewire device, we have the equipment to bring your data back. All your hard work for Graphics, Images, Photographs and Multimedia video files need not be lost forever. We recover from HFS and HFS+ file systems and CD’s and DVD’s formatted in the Apple Mac Superdrive. We can return your data burnt to an Apple Mac formatted DVD+-R.

A standard for application hosting on USB drives has been created by a Californian company and is already being backed by software makers Who needs to carry a laptop, when you can store all of your data and applications on a pocket-size USB flash drive? Two companies are launching an effort to answer that question this week. M-Systems and SanDisk on Friday launched an effort the two companies say will define new hardware and software specifications for USB flash drives, the tiny storage devices used by many consumers to plug into a PC's USB port to back up files or shuttle them between devices. The new specifications would create a standard method for allowing the drives to host applications and data. The companies announced the effort, dubbed U3, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

We are seeing an increasing number of corrupt DVDs and films from the new wave of camcorders designed to record the movie direct onto the mini dvd format. The problem seems to arise near the end of the DVD. The DVD does not finalise its recording leaving the DVD in an unplayable state and unrecognised by computer. Our experts who have extensive video file knowledge, have now managed to re-build the film & videos so they are again playable on both computer and stand-alone DVD players.

The Kanguru FC-RW allows you to quickly and easily copy or backup your flash card data onto a CD without a computer. Simply plug it into any wall socket, insert a blank CD and flash card and quickly and easily make copies of your photos to hand out to friends and family. This lightweight portable flash card burner is extremely versatile and works with 7 different media types including Compact Flash, IBM Micro Drive, Smart Media, Secure Digital, Sony Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, and Multimedia card. The FC-RW also works as a CD-RW when plugged into a USB2.0 port (backwards compatible with USB1.1) or even as an audio CD player when headphones and a music CD are inserted.

SanDisk’s Ultra II line of flash memory cards may be what you’ve been looking for! They allow for 2GB in a SD card, 4GB in Memory Stick Pros, and a whopping 8GB for Compact Flash.

Kingston® Technology Company, producer of memory products, today announced the expansion of its DataTraveler USB 2.0 product line. Kingston will add 3 versions to the product line: DataTraveler II, DataTraveler II Plus and DataTraveler Elite. DataTraveler II and Data Traveler II Plus provide high-performance solutions. Performance benefits include Hi-Speed USB 2.0, pre-loaded SecureTraveler security software with private zones and password protection. DataTraveler Elite features Hi-Speed USB 2.0, advanced security and ease of use utilities including a boot utility. The Data Traveler Elite has a data transfer rate of up to 24 MB/sec. read; 14 MB/sec. write speed, making it one of the fastest USB devices on the market today.

Lexar Media, Inc. (Nasdaq: LEXR), a leader in advanced digital media and accessories, today at Photokina (Hall 1.2, Booth-058), introduced JumpDrive TouchGuard, a USB flash drive with an integrated biometric fingerprint sensor to authenticate a user's identity and provide easy access to secured files and password protected web sites. Setting a new standard for secure portable storage, JumpDrive TouchGuard allows users to automatically login to most web sites with the swipe of a finger, eliminating the need to remember and enter usernames and passwords. JumpDrive TouchGuard functions as a USB 2.0 hi-speed portable storage device and personal Internet gatekeeper storing and managing web favorites and up to 200 user names and passwords. Utilizing Fujitsu's compact MBF310 Sweep Sensorä combined with sophisticated algorithms, the device stores and recognizes up to 10 unique fingerprints. The MBF310 Sweep Sensor was developed specifically to provide easy integration into the JumpDrive USB Flash drive. Leveraging state of the art technology, the sweep sensor software and the data encryption technology offer a full solution with an easy to use interface.

Toshiba, an industry pioneer in optical storage technology, introduced a new double-layer, dual-format DVD recordable drive that tops the market in DVD+R double-layer write speeds at 5X, giving consumers the right combination of speed and capacity for video creation and other data-intensive applications. The first DVD recordable drive from Toshiba Samsung Storage Technologies (TSST), the SD-R5372 also features a speedy 16X DVD+R specification that enables easy DVD creation. The double-layer media capability gives consumers twice the storage capacity of a current DVD and 12 times the capacity of a CD at 8.5GB for a wide range of video, music, image and data storage applications

Hi-Speed 15-in-1 Media Reader & Writer from Belkin. Downloading files, pictures and music is now faster with the new Hi-speed 15-in-1 Media Reader & Writer from Belkin. Using USB 2.0 technology, the Media Reader & Writer allows users to transfer files from a digital camera, MP3 player, PDA or mobile phone at USB 2.0 speeds of up to 480 Mbps, 40 times faster than with the previous standard USB 1.1. The 15 in 1 Media reader allows users to move photos, music or other files from a digital media card to a computer, from one card to another or from four cards simultaneously. Four dedicated card slots can accommodate 15 types of media, including XD Picture Card. The unit increases bandwidth for transferring large multimedia files between DV camcorders, hard drives, other peripherals and a PC. As an added feature Belkin have provided Ulead Photo Explorer, photo editor for Macintosh computers - a digital photography package designed to let you capture, view and convert images and share with the web.

With new 16x write speed and latest double layer technology, the LaCie DVD±RW Double Layer Design by FA Porsche allows people to burn single layer DVDs in five minutes or double layer DVDs in 25 minutes*. This all-in-one burner combines all popular CD and DVD formats in a stylish case created by Porsche Design GmbH, available beginning September 2006 in either FireWire or USB interfaces. It should make backing up important data a breeze!

Yet another iPod killer? May be this time Sony can make an impact on the portable audio/video player arena. Sony, a company that used to be the leader in the home audio/video player, have been playing catch-up in the portable digital multimedia arena. Sony HMP-A1 is equipped with a large 3.5" LCD, 20GB hard drive. It supports MPEG, MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV, AVi(DV) and DVR-MS. It can play all your MP3 tunes as well as any WAV files and display various picture format such as JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PNG and BMP.

Sony, Matsushita and other firms are to launch camcorders using smaller DVDs in the Blu-ray format as early as 2005. Sony Matsushita Electric Industrial and Sharp plan to develop a Blu-ray disc eight-centimetres (3.2-inch) in diameter, four centimetres smaller than conventional discs. Firms backing Blu-ray are facing off over the next-generation DVD format, with a rival HD DVD system being developed by NEC, Toshiba and other companies.

Lexar and Kodak Expand Flash Memory Card offering with their new KODAK xD-Picture Cards. The xD Picture Card is one of the smallest flash memory card formats for digital cameras. Lexar and Kodak formed a long-term relationship to gain a larger share of the market for removable digital memory products, driven by surging demand from the mass-market adoption of digital cameras, mobile phone cameras, portable music players and other consumer electronics devices.

The DVD+RW Alliance has announced the release of final draft specifications for 8x rewriting on DVD+RW media produced by Hewlett Packard, MKM, Philips, Ricoh, Sony and Yamaha.DVD recording - DVD+RW media and writers designed to this specification will able to rewrite a full 4.7GB DVD+RW in less than eight minutes. The 8x DVD+RW discs themselves will be based on very fast phase-change materials, which can be rewritten at high speed, while the laser of the drive must be able to deliver short, high-power write-pulses to achieve the right thermal balance between the erase and write steps. The Alliance added that new DVD+RW writers and recorders that are designed to write according to the 8x rewrite specification are expected to become available from manufacturers in the following months.

A re-examination of the patent granted to Microsoft for its FAT file format has led to a prelimary rejection by the US Patent Office. This is a preliminary rejection for a patent previously granted to Microsoft for a Windows file format. Microsoft is already trying to license the technology to flash drive makers and manufacturers of devices, such as digital cameras, that use FAT. It is unclear how a final ruling could affect that effort, because the patent being re-examined is one of four that Microsoft licences as part of its FAT file format program. Microsoft said its licensing of the FAT technology has continued despite the patent challenge and that the company has signed new licensees beyond Lexar, its first, although Microsoft did not name those companies. A Lexar representative was not immediately available for comment.

M-Systems and SanDisk purveyors of flash-based storage are to team up to create a standard for a new generation of USB flash drives M-Systems and SanDisk were the creators of the USB flash drive and the world's largest supplier of flash card. They plan to create a platform that third-party developers can use to deliver flash-based applications for users. An example of going beyond simple flash-based storage is the X-Key product from KeyComputing (an M-Systems subsidiary). This not only provides up to 256MB of storage, but also integrates an embedded ARM processor; relational database; SSL engine; Java application server; and security and encryption applications. This will be typical of the next generation of USB flash drives.

The first one-inch hard disc drive with a capacity of 5GB marks Seagate's foray into handheld consumer electronics devices. Seagate says the ST1 can deliver up to 10 times the capacity of flash memory at a similar price. Hard Drives go mobile. As well as media players, the ST1 will be at the heart of an external hard drive with USB connection due for launch by Seagate in September.

Veritas Software announced that it plans to acquire KVault Software, to expand its email storage and archiving offerings. The technology acquired in the move is designed to protect email from virus problems or data corruption, and for recovering email. According to a study commissioned last year by Veritas, the need for email storage technology is great. 46% surveyed said they would have difficulty retrieving a particular email if it were requested. Only 18% of those who have the ability to retrieve emails, could retrieve emails older than a year, according to the report.

Anti-copying technology that means CD's cannot be played on some sound systems has come under fire. French authorities have launched an investigation of EMI France and music retailer Fnac over anticopying technology included on CD's that allegedly renders them unplayable on some systems. The labels want to prevent consumers from making direct copies of CD's into unprotected computer files, such as MP3's, which can then be distributed over the Internet and peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa. The move has led to a sharp backlash from consumers who cannot make personal backup copies of CD's, something that's currently allowed under copyright laws in some countries. In addition, such digital rights management technology has been linked to problems playing back discs on some devices.

A software glitch that paralyzed the Mars "Spirit" rover earlier this year was caused by an unanticipated characteristic of a Disk Operating System (DOS) file system. On Jan. 21, Spirit stopped communicating with Earth - the rover would reboot itself over and over. After days of tests, the team finally discovered that the issue was tied to what was originally reported as corruption inside the rover's memory. The real issue was an embedded DOS file system whose directory structure kept growing and growing. When the rover's OS told the flash memory to mirror the data structure in RAM, the unexpectedly large file caused a fatal error and an almost continuous reboot cycle

Sony electronics announced on Friday a new version of its Memory Stick Duo card, called the Memory Stick Pro Duo. The new removable flash memory card has a capacity of up to 512MB, up from a maximum of 128MB in the previous version. It will theoretically be able to transfer data at a rate of up to 20 megabytes per second under optimal conditions, according to Sony. With the new cards, Sony is aiming to broaden the role of its removable flash memory line by tackling what analysts expect will be the next major growth areas for portable devices: cell phones and digital camcorders.

The recording industry plans to introduce a new disc format that combines CD and DVD technology. The Dual Disc product has a full album on a CD side of the disc and the album in enhanced sound, such as DVD Audio, on the other side. The DVD side also includes music videos, photo galleries, Web links. Dual Discs are compatible with current CD's or a DVD's. Advanced audio disc technology including the DVD's Audio format is not new, but has not taken off in the market. The new discs combine video, surround sound and Web connectivity in a single CD DVD disc.

Samsung Electronics has a new memory chip technology, PRAM (phase-change RAM). It combines the speed of dynamic memory and the non-volatility of flash. PRAM uses similar material to rewritable DVDs. The material can cool into one of two states with different electrical conductivity, thus storing binary data that persists when power is removed. PRAM tackles problems like long-term storage stability, the number of read/write cycles it can withstand and sensitivity to high temperatures. Samsung claims its chip can preserve data for more than two years, even in high temperatures of 85C, and is a thousand times more durable than existing flash memory chips.

11th August 2006 An Essex man has secured the title of the world's thickest DVD pirate after walking into a Chelmsford Trading Standards office and offering his illicit DVD wares to the staff. The master criminal apparently didn't notice the sign above the door before making his sales pitch. Trading Standards' officers very naturally expressed a keen interest in the bootlegged movies.

Using Near Field Recording (NFR) technology, a new red laser recording scheme has been developed by Ritek and we could see a DVD that holds 100 gigabytes of data. Such a massive capacity surpasses the Blu-ray DVD disc which has a storage capacity of 27GB, and is equivalent to having over a 100 CD Disks on a single DVD. According to Ritek, this is all that is possible, due to the “optical diffraction limit”, of this technique. The near field recording process on the other hand, uses a red-laser to get around this limitation with a shorter wavelength, Ritek explained.

DeMechman asks: "As many on Slashdot may know, storage is one thing which you can never have enough of. Given the current situation with CD / DVD rot (Personally I can attest to a 10% attrition rate) hard drives in a RAID configuration seem to be a better and more economical solution. If you own more than fifty CD / DVD's, it can be a daunting task to find a file. I am wondering if anyone has found a hardware solution that can inexpensively be set up to handle 10 or more 250GB HDD's in a RAID configuration.