Sony Europe Press Release

Berlin, 26th January - Sony Recording Media and Energy Europe today announced at PaperWorld 2005 a 4GB Memory Stick PRO (High Speed) media along with the introduction of its Memory Stick Data Rescue Service, providing additional peace of mind for those worried about losing personal information.

With increased durability, higher data transfer speeds, and compatibility with a wide selection of Memory Stick PRO devices*1 currently available, the new 4GB Memory Stick PRO (High Speed) media will be a valuable tool for users needing to store and transfer large quantities of digital content, including high-resolution digital photos and video clips.

Now this looks interesting - Hama are introducing the Mobile MediaSafe VSV-20, an iPod Photo-like portable device that crucially has a built-in card reader.

Hama Press Release

Mobile MediaSafe VSV-20 - the portable all-rounder

Multi(media) Talent

The world of small technological wonders keeps getting more colourful. Mobile phones take pictures, PDAs send e-mails and USB sticks play music.
Hama will present a mobile device at CeBIT that not only reads and stores photos from memory cards, but also plays music and video files. The Mobile MediaSafe VSV-20 is the same size of a walkman, and combines a digital photo album, picture viewer, mp3 player, card reader, video player and an external 20 GB hard drive that can store up to 25,000 pictures. The data can be loaded from a computer or memory card using USB 2.0 and the MediaSafe 16 can process 16 different card formats.

Marketing people are always emphasising just how many megapixels their latest, greatest camera has got. You, the consumer, still primarily buy a camera based on the number of megapixels it has (at least according to a recent report). So you would expect a compact digital camera with 8 megapixels to be “better” than a digital SLR with 6 megapixels, right? PhotoReview.com.au compares the technical aspects of the sensors in each type of camera to discover if this is true or not (found via Digicamera.net).

“On the basis of new cameras announced in the past couple of months we can state with confidence that by the middle of this year there will be at least five 6-megapixel DSLRs and five 8-megapixel, non-interchangeable compact-type digicams on the Australian market. This creates a quandary for photographers who plan to invest in a new digital camera: which type to buy? Going on the pixel count alone, the 8-megapixel digicams seem to have a significant advantage. But high pixel counts aren’t everything: you need to check ‘beneath the bonnet’ to understand the pros and cons associated with both camera types before you can make a well-thought-out decision. The best place to start is with the sensor.”

Website: PhotoReview.com.au - 6-megapixel DSLR or 8-megapixel Digicam – Which Should You Buy?

Cardmedia have announced the Super X USB OTG, the second portable storage device with the “On-the-go” label featured on PhotographBLOG today.

Cardmedia (Europe) Ltd Press Release

SUPER X USB OTG DATA STORAGE

- Portable Hard disk -
- USB Bridge -
- OTG connection -

Copy direct from a Digital Camera, USB Pen drive or any USB device to the internal Hard disk or to another USB device!

Cardmedia (Europe) Ltd, has announced the availability of the Super X USB OTG, a new Portable storage device providing from 20 to 80GB of storage.

This portable storage device which allows you to copy directly from a Digital camera, USB pen drive or USB Card reader to the internal hard drive using the USB OTG (On The Go) technology.

Hama have announced the Mobile DataSafe On-The-Go portable storage device. This is a product that was introduced at the CES show a couple of weeks ago, but which I missed in the flurry of press activity that surrounded the show.

Hama Press Release

Mobile DataSafe OTG with 20 GB hard drive by Hama

Mobile mini-master
“Just like a small portable PC” would be a good description of the new Mobile DataSafe On-The-Go (OTG) which Hama will introduce at this year’s CeBIT. Housed in a case slightly bigger than a cigarette box, it manages the data of most connected removable media as a portable “commander”. It imports images from digital cameras, adds tracks to MP3 players or copies files from a USB stick. This is made possible by the DataSafe’s OTG interface. The device, which weighs only 134 grams, acts as a so-called master and can perform many tasks which could normally only be implemented via USB on a PC.

The M¼-Card is a new memory card being proposed by a Taiwanese technology consortium. The The M¼-Card, which stands for micro ¼ card, is said to be twice as fast as the USB 2.0 standard and compatible with the SecureDigital (SD) and MultiMediaCard (MMC) formats. Will this new card see the light of day? Yes - fully functional cards will be available by the end of 2005. Do we actually need another new format? Hmmmmm.

“Simplicity derives from the use of USB protocols for the digital portion. But the speed is twice that of USB, and the low-power consumption is only one-third or one-fourth that of USB 2.0, said Liu Chih-yuan, who directed the project at ITRI and is chairman of the M¼-Card Alliance. “That’s our strength. It’s a very low-power, high speed USB compatible interface. So we are complementary to the MMC.”

Website: EETimes - Taiwan consortium readying new memory card format

Western Digital Corp. Press Release

WD ENTERS MINIATURE HARD DRIVE MARKET FOR CONSUMER ELECTRONICS APPLICATIONS

High-capacity 6 GB 1-inch Hard Drives to Ship in Second Calendar Quarter of 2005

LAKE FOREST, Calif. - Jan. 19, 2005 - Serving a rapidly expanding base of customers for mass storage, Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC) announced today that the company will enter the market for miniature hard drives with a family of 1-inch drives that enable a variety of handheld consumer devices, which are experiencing explosive demand.

An increasing number of current applications, such as MP3 players, PDAs, digital still cameras and digital video cameras, rely on 1-inch hard drives. Newly available and future products enabled by innovations in rotating magnetic storage, such as 1-inch drives, have driven demand in the quickly developing market segment that includes combination digital video/still cameras and cell phones.

Rollei Press Release

January 2005

Digital Super Bundle from Rollei

Ever since the dawn of the digital era, Rollei 6000 Series cameras have neatly blended in with the digital workflow thanks to the option of simply exchanging their film magazine (and this without losing a single picture due to their laminar drawslide) for a digital back.

A development that started over 10 years ago with the Chip Back and the Scan Back has been consistently pursued and now culminates in a unique bundle offer. To meet the requirements of extremely discriminating digital photographers, Rollei are offering the Rolleiflex 6008 AF with a db20p digital back – an outfit that covers the entire spectrum from studio work to architectural and landscape photography because it benefits from the extensive line of Rollei-6000 lenses.

Fuji Photo Film Co Press Release

Reuters
Tokyo, January 19, 2005|15:31 IST  

Japan’s Fuji Photo Film Co said on Wednesday it expects its global digital camera sales to grow 21 per cent in the next business year, and unveiled plans to cut production costs by 10-15 per cent by using more common parts.

Fuji Photo, the world’s fifth-largest vendor of digital cameras, is struggling to maintain profit margins along with other players in the industry due to sharp price falls and slowing growth rates in more mature markets like Japan.

Confirming plans first unveiled by the company in an interview with Jiji news agency, a Fuji Photo spokesman said it would aim to sell 8.5 million digital cameras in the business year starting April 1.

The largest UK photography retailer, Jessops, released its latest trading figures this week, and The Independent reports that “Nine out of 10 cameras that Jessops sold over Christmas in cash terms was digital”.

“While other retailers of digital products have struggled against deflation, Mr Hine said the average price of a camera had fallen only 5 per cent. That compared with a 20 per cent annual fall in the cost of a computer. Mr Hine said the introduction of digital single lens reflex cameras, which have changeable lenses, was boosting revenues because they retail at about £650.”

Website: The Independent - Jessops buoyed by surprise demand for digital cameras

Thomson Press Release

5GB of Color Photos and Music All in an Attractive Micro Jukebox Package

January 14th, 2005 - Designed to expand the customer base for the emerging digital audio category beyond the mp3 enthusiast, Thomson has introduced a new line of full-featured RCA LYRA digital audio products at the recent Consumer Electronics Show.

Digital music fans looking for a compact, affordable way to transport volumes of their favorite music and JPEG digital photos will find what they’re looking for with the 5GB RCA LYRA Micro Jukebox (Model RD2765).

Thomson Press Release

RCA Announces Next Generation Audio/Video Jukebox with Advanced Features

January 14th, 2005 - Designed to expand the customer base for the emerging digital audio category beyond the mp3 enthusiast, Thomson has introduced a new line of full-featured RCA LYRA digital audio products at the recent Consumer Electronics Show.

The RCA LYRA Audio/Video Jukebox is targeted at consumers who want all their audio, video, photo, and computer files in one small device that fits in the palm of their hands. Building on the success of the pioneering, award-winning RCA LYRA Audio/Video Jukebox, the second-generation model packs more features into an even slimmer package. The RD2782 only measures 4.9"x 3.1” x .8” but still stores 20 GB of digital music, JPEG images and video content. Like the original model, the RD2782 can hold up to 80 hours of video content transferred from the PC or can record directly from a TV, cable or satellite set-top receiver using standard video and audio connections. A virtual VCR in your pocket, the RD2782 adds a programmable timer function that can be set to record different channels at specific times.

Vosonic Press Release

VOSONIC X’S-DRIVE II Plus VP2160

9in1 Portable Storage Device with 20GB to 80GB Capacity
Fast transfers from memory card to the HD
LCD Panel
Long battery life

Cardmedia (Europe) Ltd, the official UK distributor for the manufacturer Vosonic, has announced the availability of the X’S-Drive II Plus VP2160, a new Portable Storage Device with LCD display, which is to replace the popular XS Drive II VP2060.

The X’S-Drive II Plus VP2160 remains a 2 button operation unit; “Power on / off” and “Copy” with an LCD display for file transfer status, battery power level, capacity on the HD left.

The X’S-Drive II Plus VP2160 allows the transfer of pictures and any other file from any memory card including xD picture cards via the 2 multi-memory card slots to its internal 2.5 inches hard drive.

Nikon have just released a new firmware version for the Coolwalker MSV-01, a 30GB portable image storage device for the organisation of digital images.

Issues addressed with firmware version 1.2:

In some instances, image data recorded to certain Lexar Media CompactFlash memory cards could not be copied to the COOLWALKER.

When RAW or TIFF images captured with the D2H were displayed in full-screen playback, the image displayed in the monitor sometimes did not fill the entire screen.

Website: Nikon Coolwalker Firmware - Windows

Website: Nikon Coolwalker Firmware - MAC

NE Asia Online have published a thought-provoking look at the new Sony CMOS sensor that Nikon are using in their D2X DSLR.

“That isn’t the only reason engineers are watching, though. The other key reason is that there is an excellent chance that the new CMOS sensor will deliver top-class sensitivity (signal/noise ratio, or S/N) in comparison with other sensors of the same pixel area. Pixel pitch, a key indicator of S/N, is 5.49µm (Table 1), which is probably the finest pitch of any imager ever used in a relatively large-format SLR, including CCD imagers. Nikon commented, “High-end digital cameras, including SLRs, no longer have to rely solely on CCD sensors. CMOS sensors are well worth considering.”

Website: NE Asia Online - Sony’s CMOS Sensors to Compete with CCDs

EDGE Tech Corp Press Release

EDGE Tech Corp Introduces Digital Picture Frame Plus MP3 Player; New Digital Picture Frame Product Now Shipping

DALLAS, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/—EDGE Tech Corp, a leading supplier of DRAM and Flash memory upgrades, portable computing products, storage devices, and other experience-enhancing technology solutions announced today the launch of its Digital Picture Frame plus MP3 Player. This product is the latest addition to the company’s growing digital media product line.

The Digital Picture Frame plus MP3 Player by EDGE is now available at the company’s reseller and distribution partners, as well as the EDGE Tech Corp online store at http://www.edgetechcorp.com/ . The picture frame is compatible with most digital cameras that store JPEG images and motion files. Using the built-in digital media card slots, users simply place their flash memory cards in the appropriate slot located on the back of the frame and view photos stored on the card. The device also has a slide show option to automatically display and rotate the pictures onscreen as well as the added ability to play MP3 background music through the built-in speakers on the frame. The picture frame supports up to 12 Mega Pixel image files and has a 5.6” TFT active matrix LCD screen. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price is $199.99 after mail-in rebate.

Steves Digicams have just reviewed the of the Jobo Digital Giga Vu PRO portable storage device.

“Using a SanDisk 1.0GB Extreme CF card I copied 292 files (a mix of JPEG, RAW and BMP) totalling 1020MB in 12:42. The Verify operation took another 13:05. These times were for the default copy and verify method with preview enabled. Using the “Fast” option disables the preview function and yielded a copy time of 12:12, not exactly what I would call “faster.” You can set the Giga Vu PRO to automatically verify after copy and turn itself off for unattended operations. What was very impressive was the copy to the host computer speed - I copied one of the backup folders with 960MB of files in it in just 60 seconds!”

Website: Steves Digicams - Jobo Digital Giga Vu PRO Review

PCWorld have a look-back at last week’s CES show, choosing their favourite gadgets and also the ones that are not so hot.

“From the all-in-one department comes a nifty battery charger—yes, I said battery charger. No kidding, in March Lenmar will ship a $139.95 device that will “speed charge” all your batteries including camera, camcorder, and AA/AAA batteries. It also has adapters to charge cell phones, PDAs, or anything else that can be recharged through a USB port.”

Website: PCWorld - CES 2005: Picks and Pans

G-Technology, Inc. Press Release

G-Technology Inc. Introduces G-PLAY; Your Movies, Music and Photos Wherever You Go

SAN FRANCISCO—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Jan. 11, 2005—G-Technology Inc. (G-Tech) today introduced G-PLAY(TM), a personal multimedia player that lets you take your movie, music and photo libraries with you wherever you go. G-PLAY holds up to 20 full quality DVD movies, over 100 DivX videos, up to 25,000 songs and over 1,000,000 VGA quality digital photos. It is simple to download content from your computer to G-PLAY and then play it on any TV. G-PLAY also doubles as an external hard drive for your data files.

“G-PLAY is the ultimate portable digital entertainment system,” said Roger Mabon, President of G-Technology Inc. “With G-PLAY you can enjoy your movies, music and photos anywhere. Transfer your personal DVDs, DivX videos, MP3s and JPGs to G-PLAY via USB and then play the content on any TV. It’s really that simple!”

G-Technology, Inc. Press Release

G-Technology, Inc. Introduces G-DRIVE mini; Portable Drives Weigh Less Than 9 oz and Sport Storage Capacities to 100 GB

Macworld San Francisco 2005 Booth 1548

SAN FRANCISCO—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Jan. 11, 2005—G-Technology Inc. (G-Tech) today introduced G-DRIVE(TM) mini, a new line of portable storage solutions ideal for people on the go. G-DRIVE mini is equipped with the latest high-performance FireWire and USB interfaces and features a unique “fan-less” cooling system designed to silently dissipate heat for superior reliability and data integrity.

“G-Tech once again trumps the competition with the introduction of G-DRIVE mini,” said Roger Mabon, President of G-Technology, Inc. “G-DRIVE mini features superior design, engineering and performance resulting in an innovative and portable disk storage solution without equal.”