Sansa Nation

Solid State Drives have grown in popularity recently and many companies are jumping on board the trend. This article on TheDeal.com talks about how the Solid State Drive market may not be as lucrative as once predicted:

A piece in EETimes Wednesday covered this trend, tantalizing us with the headline “Shakeout looms in SSDs.” It didn’t go into much detail about what the shakeout would look like, however, and naturally we wondered whether the plethora of technology producers in this arena — 50, by some counts — would lead to M&A.

The general answer is no, according to analyst Jim Handy of chip market research firm Objective Analysis. You’ve got the big SSD chip specialists like Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., as well as Intel Corp. [INTC], Micron Technology Inc. [MU] and SanDisk Corp. [SNDK]. For the most part, these companies will build their SSD offerings via internal development, Handy says.

“The big companies will continue to work to get this right,” he says. “The ones that emerge will be the ones that can do their own R&D.”

Some of the deals that have been struck in this area haven’t necessarily provided a technological jump-start to the acquirer, Handy notes. SanDisk shelled out $1.6 billion in 2006 for Msystems Ltd., which had been supplying SSDs for years. But SanDisk ended up yanking the technology it acquired from the market in order to work on a more advanced version, the analyst says.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are dozens of tiny companies that produce their version of SSDs by building a simple controller chip and combining it with flash memory.

“It’s the classic low barrier to entry issue, but many of the SSDs made by these companies don’t perform any better than hard-disk drives,” he says. Most of these companies will simply wither on the vine, Handy adds.

There are handful of small companies, however, that possess strong SSD technology that could draw the interest of larger players, including SiliconSystems Inc. and Bitmicro Networks Inc., Handy says. The acquisition of these companies wouldn’t quite amount to a shakeout, but could help some of the established companies speed up the development of their SSD offerings, especially as enterprises start trusting this technology for their storage needs. - Olaf de Senerpont Domis

-Ray

[Source: thedeal]

SanDisk’s pushed both Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo and regular SD cards to 30MB/s transfer rates before, and now it’s SDHC’s turn with the new Extreme III series. Yep, it’s a really fast memory card for DSLRs, and it’ll cost you: 4GB will be $65, 8GB $110 and 16GB will set you back whopping $180 when these hit in October.

-Jameson

Looks like SanDisk is at it again when it comes to improving their already stellar products. They’re pursuing a way to create 3D memory device technology that may one day replace the flash drives all use today. This is pretty interesting, we’ll see how this goes in the near future.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — At the Flash Memory Summit, SanDisk Corp.’s top executive provided more details about its efforts to devise a rewriteable 3-D memory device–a technology that could replace today’s flash parts.

SanDisk is developing the technology with its NAND flash partner, Toshiba Corp. The companies recently announced plans to devise rewriteable 3-D memory.

This appears to advance SanDisk’s one-time programmable 3-D technology, which was obtained through the acquisition of Matrix Semiconductor Inc. in 2005. Matrix had been developing a one-time programmable antifuse-based memory.

In a brief interview, Eli Harari, chairman and chief executive of SanDisk, said the company hopes to move beyond the fuse-based technology. Instead, SanDisk is looking to devise ”3-D diode memory arrays,” which are based on a 4F2 architecture, he said during a presentation.

The arrays would make use of a switching element, which could be in the form of phase-change memory or resistive RAM (RRAM), he said. The technology would be ideal for the 32-nm ”half-pitch” node, he said.

“Flash and 3-D is the place to be in the coming decade,” he added. Toshiba and others have also announced various 3-D device technologies as well.

-Ray

[Source: pldesignline]

Sansa manufacturer SanDisk has now introduced two new memory cards that are part of the Extreme III series. The additions includes 4 and 8GB Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo cards which offer transfer speeds of up to 30 MB/s and come bundled with the RescuePRO recovery software. The 4GB card will cost $89.99 while the 8GB version will go for $149.99. Both of them come with a lifetime warranty.

-Ray

[Source: SanDisk.com]

Here is another great article from the Shop Sansa Blog on how to extend the battery life of your Mp3 player:

One of the reasons you love your MP3 player is because it allows you to watch a movie, listen to your favorite music, or record a lecture without being plugged in. In the car, at the beach, on a run, wherever you are, your MP3 player can keep you company. Having to plug in your MP3 player to recharge the battery may cramp your mobile style a bit, so why not figure out how to make the most out of your battery life? The manufacturer presents the best-case scenario for battery life in their product specifications. How long you can go between charges depends on a lot of factors.

Most electronic products on the market today, like your MP3 player, use Lithium Ion batteries. They have become popular in these types of products for a few different reasons. They have a high energy density, so you get a lot of power in a small battery. While other kinds of batteries can lose their maximum energy capacity if they are repeatedly recharged after being only partially discharged, the lithium ion batteries do not. They offer a slow loss of charge when not in use too, another plus. MP3 players are known for being portable and lightweight, and the Lithium Ion battery that charges it is also light, especially compared to other forms of batteries.

Some general tips for extending the life of your Lithium Ion battery

• Lithium-ion batteries should be charged early and often. Lithium-ion batteries should not be frequently fully discharged and recharged like Ni-Cd batteries, but this is necessary after about every 30th recharge to recalibrate any external electronic “fuel gauge”. This prevents the fuel gauge from showing an incorrect battery charge.
• Li-ion batteries should be kept cool, but not frozen. The high temperatures found in cars cause lithium-ion batteries to degrade rapidly.

Batteries in MP3 Players face unique challenges then batteries used in other electronics. What is drawing on the energy of your MP3 player’s battery?

• Media Files
  • While MP3 players support different file formats, battery life is usually established with a certain file format in mind. Different formats take MP3 players longer to decode than others.
  • For example, in the Sansa Fuze’s User Guide, you can read that “the Sansa Fuze supports MP3, WAV, WMA, secure WMA, and audiobooks formats” and that “rechargeable battery lasts up to 24 hours of audio playback or 5 hours of video playback.” The guide also tells you that the battery life predictions are based on “continuous audio playback at 128 kbps MP3; video playback at QVGA 512kbps H.264; battery life and performance may vary depending upon usage and settings”.
  • Read up on your specific MP3 player’s battery life calculations and know how to make the most out of your battery!
• Habits
  • Are you a serial skipper? Do you only get through about half of a song before skipping on to the next? Do you browse photos while listening to music, or watch videos as brightly as possible? Think about how you use your MP3 Player, and how that use affects your battery life. Multi-tasking may be a skill, but it can be pretty taxing on your battery’s charge. When you’re going for long time spans between chargers, think simplicity.
• Earphones
  • Some headphones come with efficiency ratings. The more efficient your headphones, the less likely you are to have to pump up the volume. Personal preferences come into play when choosing an earphone, the best bet for your battery is to get a pair of earphones that you can use with the lowest level of volume and still get the right sound quality. Check out the note on volume below.
• Non-Essentials
  • Brightness
    • 1. Scroll down to Brightness and select it.
    • 2. Use thumbwheel to adjust the Brightness level. The brighter the screen, the more energy you’re using.
    • 3. Press the Select button to accept the changes.
  • Volume
    • The louder you listen to your music, the worse it is for your hearing, and your battery. Be kind to your ears, and your battery, listen to your media without blowing out your eardrums. Check your user guide, either the one you got with your product, or online at the Product Support site, and read more about safe hearing levels. (Just select your model, and click on the User Guide in the right menu.)
  • Backlighting
    • After idling for predefined seconds, the player will trigger the timer automatically and cease the backlight. You can press any button to wake the backlight up. The longer your backlight time, the more battery power you use.
    • Scroll down to Backlight and select it.
    • Use thumbwheel to select desired backlight timer (from 5 seconds to always on).
    • Press the Select button.
• Bonus tips to maximize your battery’s life
  • Power Saver Option
    • You can set the timer under Power Saver to automatically turn off the player when the music is paused or when there is no activity.
    • Scroll down to Power Saver and select it.
    • Use thumbwheel to select desired timer (from off to 120 minutes).
    • Press the Select button.
  • Hold Button
    • Utilize your device’s Hold button, so that you don’t accidentally switch songs or even turn it on when you don’t want to. This will save some accidental power use when storing your MP3 player in your pocket or bag.
  • Where are you charging?
    • Some low-power USB ports may not provide enough power to charge the Sansa player. If the device does not charge, use the USB port located at the rear of the computer.

Getting to know your MP3 player is the best way to figure out how to extend your battery life. Look to your user guide for tips, and be conscious of how you use the player. All these tips may not apply to you, but you’ll figure out the most practical and convenient ways for you to stretch out the time between recharges. After all, the convenience and mobility may be why you purchased an MP3 player, but your files and how you use it really make it all your own. Figure out which of these tips work for you, and maybe you’ll discover some tricks of your own!

-Jameson

[Source: Shop Sansa Blog]

It sucks losing important data, we’ve all been there. With the advent of external hard drives and high capacity flash drives to help combat this problem even those can still fail us once in a while. The SanDisk Ulta Cruzer Titanium plus flash drive goes a bit farther than other flash drives by backing up its contents to a remote server automatically whenever it’s connected to a computer with internet access. SanDisk partnered up with BeInSync to build the online backup software used in the new Cruzer flash drives. The software includes 256-bit SSL encryption to protect your files as well. The SanDisk Ultra Cruzer flash drive goes for $49.99 with a $29.99 a year fee to back up your data, it does include a 6-month free trial to let you try out the service first.

-Ray

[Source: ohgizmo]