Transcend have announced the smallest memory card in the world, a 2GB microSD memory card. Approximately 20% the size of a full-sized SD Card, the Transcend microSD card can also be used in regular SD memory card slots by combining the card with its provided adapter. The Transcend 2GB microSD Memory Card will cost 68€.

CES 2007: The Polaroid Photo Backup Device allows you to backup photos from your computer by simply plugging the device into the computer’s USB port - you don’t have to install anything, or even click the mouse. The device contains a 2.5” hard drive that will hold up to 40,000 photos. Online sharing and printing of photos via Internet-based services is also supported. Product launch is scheduled for the first quarter of 2007, price to be confirmed.

CES 2007: Toshiba has unveiled a 3 layer, 51GB HD DVD-ROM disc at the CES show in Las Vegas. The extended capacity disc can store up to 7 hours of high definition content. The new disc shares the same disc structure as standard DVD and previously announced HD DVD formats.

CES 2007: The SanDisk Sansa View is a widescreen portable media player with a 4 inch screen, 8gb internal flash memory and flash memory expansion slot. The Sansa View can playback DVD-like quality video, display photos (up to 16 megapixels in size), play music, or even combine the two in a slideshow format. Retailing for US $299, the 8GB Sansa View is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2007, with Canada and Europe to follow in the second quarter.

Macworld 2007: The Apple iPhone is a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and an Internet communications tool, all in a single device. For photographers the iPhone features a 2 megapixel camera and a photo management application. Users can browse their photo library, which can be easily synced from their PC or Mac. The Apple iPhone will be available in the US in June 2007, Europe in late 2007, and Asia in 2008, in a 4GB model for US$499 and an 8GB model for US$599, and will work with either a PC or Mac.

CES 2007: Parrot Press Release

Parrot’s New Bluetooth PHOTO VIEWER 7’’ Displays 500 Shots in Vibrant Color, Freeze-Frame or Slide Show Mode

LAS VEGAS—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Parrot has introduced a new, larger format Bluetooth®-enabled digital photo frame that holds more than 500 images and has a seven-inch active-matrix TFT screen for exceptionally bright, crisp photo images. The new Parrot PHOTO VIEWER 7”™ joins Parrot’s 3.5-inch model introduced earlier this year that holds 120 photos. The Parrot PHOTO VIEWER 7” will be available online and through retailers in the U.S. in the second quarter of 2007 with an MSRP of $249.

Toshiba Press Release

Toshiba Adds New High Performance SDHC Cards and High Capacity microSD Card to Extensive Memory Card Line-up

05 January, 2007 - 4GB CLASS 6 SDHC Card, 4GB CLASS 4 miniSDHC Card, 2GB microSD Memory Card - TOKYO—Toshiba Corp., a leading innovator in memory card solutions, today announced the latest enhancement to its extensive line-up of SD Memory Cards: a 4-gigabyte (GB) Class 6 SDHC Card; a 4GB Class 4 miniSDHC Card; and a 2GB microSD Card. The new SDHC and miniSDHC Cards will be available worldwide from March next year, and the microSD will be launched worldwide next April.

CES 2007: Toshiba enters the personal storage market in North America with new USB 2.0 portable external hard drives. The Toshiba USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive will be on retail store shelves in Spring 2007 at price points starting at $139.99.

Toshiba Press Release

IRVINE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Toshiba Storage Device Division (SDD), the industry pioneer in mobile storage products, will capitalize on its 2.5-inch hard disk drive (HDD) technology expertise and consumer brand leadership with a new line of USB 2.0 portable external hard drives in 100GB, 120GB and 160GB1 capacities. Available in North America, Toshiba’s new personal storage line of 2.5-inch HDDs provides a unique solution for data back-up by enabling automatic power-on and save capabilities for worry-free content management.

CES 2006: Samsung Electronics Press Release

Seoul, Korea - January 4, 2007: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world’s largest provider of thin-film transistor, liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels announced today that it has created the first LCD panel that can produce independent images on each side of a mobile LCD display. Samsung’s new double-sided LCD can show two entirely different pictures or sets of visual data simultaneously on the front and back of the same screen. Other conventional double-sided LCDs can only show a reverse image of the same video data. This new development will replace two display panels with one, thereby reducing overall thickness of mobile products by at least 1mm.

Pandigital Press Release

Pandigital Expands Its Line of Digital Photo Frames with a Stunning 10.4-Inch Model with 256MB of Internal Memory; Following Exceptional Holiday Sales, Pandigital Expands Its Sales Reach by Adding New Retailers

LAFAYETTE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Pandigital today debuts a stunning 10.4-inch Digital Photo Frame following exceptionally strong holiday sales in Q4 2006. Pandigital led U.S.-sales of digital photo frames in Q4 with more than 500,000 units sold at top retailers around the United States. “Pandigital’s break-through product line helped solidify market acceptance of digital photo frames as a great way to view digital images,” said Dean Finnegan, president, Pandigital. “Pandigital frames include the features that let people quickly and easily enjoy their digital photos. This made them one of the hottest must-have gifts for the 2006 holiday season.”

Samsung Press Release

Samsung Samples First 50-Nanometer 16Gb NAND Flash for Solid State Disk and Other High-Density Applications

SEOUL, South Korea—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology solutions, announced that it is now sampling its 16-gigabit (Gb) NAND flash memory with customers – the first NAND flash using 50 nanometer (nm) process technology. The first samples of this high density NAND flash memory have a multi-level cell (MLC) design with a 4Kbyte (KB) page size to enhance both its read and write features. The new 4KB page function improves the conventional 2KB paging system for MLC NAND flash to double the read speed, while increasing write performance 150%.

Planet82 Press Release

Planet82 Exhibits How to Take Digital Pictures in the Dark Without a Flash at CES 2007 January 8-11, 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show

LAS VEGAS, NV—(MARKET WIRE)—January 02, 2007—WHAT: Please join Planet82 at CES as they shed light on taking digital pictures or video in the dark—without a flash. Planet82 will showcase the latest advances in its Single carrier Modulation Photo Detector (SMPD) technology, including a black and white, full-color, and two mega pixel color sensors. These imaging sensors are 2000 times more sensitive to light and enable everything digital—from mobile camera phones to the automobile sensors—to “see” and capture the real picture without the distortion, delay or energy-expense of a flash.

NEC Display Solutions Press Release

Munich, December 14, 2006 – NEC Display Solutions offers discerning users even more class with the new NEC MultiSync® LCD2690WUXi: the widescreen format and high resolution of 1920 x 1200 ensures particularly ergonomic, comfortable viewing. Details and texts are 7.5% larger than on a 24” monitor, which significantly reduces eye strain when viewing. Specially designed for professional use in the fields of CAD/CAM and DTP, banking and insurance, the NEC MultiSync® LCD2690WUXi is also perfect for multi-media applications. The H-IPS A-TW Pol. (Horizontal IPS with Advanced True Wide Polarizer) panel ensures glossy, high-quality pictures. The monitor itself is also remarkable for its innovative X-Light® Pro feature, specially developed by NEC. This constantly monitors variations in background lighting, brightness and colour reproduction and automatically corrects them internally, which is ideal for colour-critical applications.

Just in time for Christmas…another new memory card format. Sandisk and Sony are working on a faster, larger capacity version of the Memory Stick PRO format, called Memory Stick PRO-HG, which is 3 times as fast and has a maximum size of 32GB.

Sony Press Release

Sunnyvale / Tokyo, December 11, 2006 - SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) and Sony Corporation today announced the development of the “Memory Stick PRO-HG” format expanded from the “Memory Stick PRO” format. The continuing increase in the capacity of IC recording media has broadened its usage as a practical way to store high-resolution digital photos, music and video content (from the Internet or TV programs) on portable devices that are designed to handle digital entertainment content. The demand for real-time recording and transfer of multiple gigabytes of data using IC recording media is expected to increase rapidly, due to the growing popularity of high resolution video and digital still image applications.

Refocus Imaging, Inc. Press Release

Every photographer is familiar with the frustration of losing a shot because the camera focused too slowly, or focused on the wrong thing. Recent camera technology innovations at Stanford University provide a new solution to this old problem. The idea is to capture extra information at the sensor, which is missing in conventional cameras. Special processing enables physical functions of the lens to be implemented in software. This approach provides unprecedented photographic features, such as the ability to refocus photographs after the image is taken. The underlying technology also enables dramatic improvements in lighting and sensitivity. For the novice, this means a more reliable camera that makes it easier to take great-looking pictures. For aficionados and professionals, this technology means unprecedented control over the quality of each image pixel.

Don’t get too excited - the new Nikon DS-Qi1 is a scientific grade camera, which still provides an interesting glimpse into the future.

Nikon Instruments Press Release

MELVILLE, N.Y., Dec. 5 /PRNewswire/—Nikon Instruments (http://www.nikonusa.com/), a leader in the development of advanced optical technology, today unveiled the Nikon DS-Qi1 Monochrome Digital Camera, an ultra high-quality scientific grade digital camera specifically designed for fluorescence applications and an excellent choice for high speed and high sensitivity applications in quantitative fluorescence imaging. The DS-Qi1 represents Nikon’s new flagship camera in the DS camera lineup. The camera is a monochrome CCD designed specifically for fluorescence applications and features a 1.3-megapixel CCD that accurately captures microstructures at a high resolution of 1280x1024 pixels. The camera accelerates frame rates beyond previous models and improves resolution, expands dynamic range, and reduces noise by using Nikon’s proprietary imaging technology.

PNY Technologies Press Release

PARSIPPANY, N.J.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—PNY Technologies®, Inc. today announced upcoming availability of their 4GB SD™ High Capacity (SDHC™) card. Based on the SD Association Specification Version 2.00, the new SD memory card allows users to select a memory card according to the performance needs of their storage-intensive applications, such as high-resolution digital images and HD video recording and playback. As personal devices gain greater functionality and require higher storage capacities, the SDHC format was created to support capacities of more than 2GB and up to 32GB to gain optimal performance. SDHC cards adhere to the SD Speed Class Rating specification, created by the SD Association, which defines a minimum sustained write speed. PNY Technologies’ SDHC cards are rated Class 4 and can transfer data at a minimum of 4MB per second to support performance requirements of today’s Class 4 (or lower) rated host devices, such as digital still and video cameras.

Sony Press Release

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 30, 2006 – Sony announced today that its first dedicated Blu-ray Disc™ player, the BDP-S1 model, has begun shipping to major consumer electronics retailers and specialty dealers nationwide. This next-generation device, which is capable of playing both high-definition Blu-ray Disc (BD) prerecorded titles as well as traditional DVDs, adds an exclamation point to Sony’s full HD 1080 line of products, which ranges from BRAVIA™ flat-panel LCD and Grand WEGA SXRD® rear-projection televisions to the new PlayStation® 3 game console, Blu-ray Disc enabled VAIO computers, PC drives and recordable BD media. “I’m thrilled that it’s here just in time for the holidays,” said Randy Waynick, senior vice president of marketing for Sony Electronics’ Home Products Division. “Combining a Sony 1080p HDTV set and our new BD player with an HDMI™-enabled A/V receiver and surround sound speakers provides the epitome of the high-definition lifestyle.”

Samsung Press Release

20” LED BLU Monitor Features Up To 114 Percent Of NTSC Color Gamut - New 20-inch monitor designed for users with demanding color needs

IRVINE, Calif. - Samsung Electronics America, Inc., a world-leading manufacturer of professional LCD and PDP display products, today introduced the SyncMaster XL20, a 20-inch Light Emitting Diode (LED) Back Light Unit (BLU) monitor that features up to 114 percent of the National Television System Committee (NTSC) color gamut. Designed for color critical applications, desktop publishers, video and photography editors and graphic designers, the XL20 supports users that demand extremely accurate color temperature, linearly color tracking, brightness uniformity and color reproduction. Traditional LCD screens typically cover only 82 percent of the NTSC standard color gamut (CRT covers 76 percent), while the new XL20 utilizes a unique light emitting diode back light unit (LED BLU), increasing the color gamut up to 114 percent of the NTSC color gamut. The LED BLU increases the ability to create significantly enhanced images producing a more natural range of color, and covering the full Adobe RGB natural color space / gamut. The LED backlight also lacks mercury or halogen.

HP UK Press Release

Protect, share and simplify your digital life with the HP Media Vault - HP launches multifunction network storage device for the home

LONDON, November 27, 2006 – HP today announced the introduction of the HP Media Vault in the UK, a multifunction network storage device for the home. Ideal for digital entertainment enthusiasts, the sleek stylish unit allows users to easily manage, protect and share data and multimedia files across the home network. The digitasation of media has fueled an almost insatiable appetite for storage as consumers hoard digital photos, film, and music. Managing the mounting volumes of digital files is frustrating and protecting them difficult. Buying more USB external hard disk drives momentarily solves the problem, but ultimately creates more frustration. The new HP Media Vault solves the problem by centralizing the storage into a single location on the network, available to anyone, that can grow as the consumer’s needs increase.