Memory

SanDisk

The Titanium series is in truth housed in a metal alloy similar to titanium and is very robust. SanDisk claims it has tested its durability by driving over it with a vehicle.

Flash memory specialist SanDisk has realized that the development and production of memory in itself may not be enough over the long haul. For that reason the company now offers a number of add-on and specialized memory products. These include flash card readers in the compact USB stick format and as a tabletop version with USB port or even an MP3 player. Ultra-compact memory modules for mobile telephones are also gaining in importance.

The Ultra II SD Plus is extremely convenient, an SD card that folds in the middle. It has a USB plug sticking out allowing the product, actually intended as an SD card, to also be read and written in a USB slot. So if you are using a digital camera with an SD card and don't want to drag along a card reader, now you don't have to. With read speeds of 10 MB/s and write speeds of 9 MB/s, the Ultra II is pleasantly fast. Prices are above those for conventional SD memory by about the same amount as the cost of a card reader. Progress is also being made in the XD area, where you can now get up to 1 GB. With CF cards the manufacturer even goes up to 8 GB.

The Ultra II SD Plus handles up to 2 GB memory and boasts two USB ports. Just fold it once in the middle and the memory card can be plugged into a USB port without requiring an extra card reader.

The Ultra III series is still quite new and offers reading rates of up to 20 MB/s more transfer capacity than most card readers even support. Of great interest for mobile phones is the tiny TransFlash card, which can be also used with SD reading devices with the help of an adapter.

The TransFlash series of new micro flash memory is said to handle up to 1 GB and is intended mainly for ultra-mobile devices like cell phones. Using a TF-to-SD adapter, this tiny element, the size of a telephone keypad button, can be used in an SD reader. The transfer rate is supposed to be less than 5 MB/s, but this should be adequate for such applications.