These new options are tacked on to the 1TB drives that Apple initially only offered (either a traditional 5400rpm drive, or a “Fusion” drive). Of course, not everyone needs 1TB of storage, so offering lower space but with faster speeds is always welcome. However, it’ll cost you a pretty penny, as the 256GB option costs $300 extra, while the 512GB version costs $600 more.

Apple has offered solid state options with the 27-inch iMac, but only offering 768GB of solid state storage for a $900 upgrade price. The company also gave the option of either 1TB or 3TB hard drives, with Fusion drive options available as well. However, this is the first time that the 21.5-inch iMac is getting the choice of flash storage.

Apple’s Fusion drive includes a mixture between flash storage and hard drive storage, meaning that packed in there with a traditional 1TB hard drive is a 128GB flash drive to keep things fast, while still providing a lot of storage space to play around with. Hybrid drives like this have been a go-to choice for users who want SSD-type speeds without paying a fortune for it.

[via MacRumors]

The Transcend 64GB microSDXC Ultra-High Speed Class 1 memory card offers high transfer rates that go up to 45MB per second, giving users very high performance for demanding tasks. The memory card is being marketed towards smartphone and tablet owners, but is also applicable to other devices with support for microSDXC cards with this high of a capacity.

This card is boasted as offering data transfer speeds that 300 times faster than its non-Ultra High Speed equivalents, making it a good choice for those who watch, process, or record high-definition video, such as those utilizing the 1080p camera on their smartphone. It is also a good option for use with apps that are memory-intensive.

To help put the 64GB in perspective, this tiny microSD can hold approximately 10,000 high-res JPEG photographs taken at 12-megapixels with an average size of 6MB each. Or, for those who spend more time recording video than they do taking pictures, this newest Transcend card can hold 16 hours of video recorded at full 9Mbps 1920 x 1080 H.264 video. The card is available now for $109.

[via Transcend Info]

It’s certainly not as fast as most of the SSDs that ship in many of today’s laptops, but it’s definitely plenty fast for a storage device that fits in your pocket, and we’re assuming that most people won’t expect SSD-type speeds anyway, considering it’s just a flash drive and nothing more.

The HyperX Predator comes in at a size of 2.84″ x 1.06″ x 0.82″ without the attached keyring, and it jumps to 3.49″ long with it on. It’s a pretty average size for a flash drive, so don’t expect anything spectacular in that respect once you get your hands on it. Either way, it’s still plenty portable to take with wherever you go, and the zinc metal alloy casing keeps it safe from the elements.

The 1TB HyperX Predator will be available later in Q1, and while the price hasn’t been disclosed yet, the 512GB version of the same flash drive model is available now for a staggering $1,750, so we’re guessing the 1TB version will be at least double that. The company is also releasing 32GB and 64GB versions for those who don’t quite want to spend that much dough.

The cards are available in 64 GB and 128 GB capacities and use the exFAT file system. That file system is designed to handle large amounts of data and files larger than 4 GB. The Class 10 rating promises a minimal sustained transfer rate of at least 10 MB/s. That means that the memory cards should be fast enough for most needs.

Kingston says that all of its memory cards are tested and are backed by a lifetime warranty along with free live technical support. The memory card is designed to be secure with integrated write protection switch to prevent accidental data loss. As with all SDXC memory cards, the Kingston products aren’t compatible with all devices.

The memory cards are the same size as standard SD and SDHC memory cards. They’re designed to operate in a temperature range of -13°F to 185°F and require 3.3 V. The 64 GB card will sell for $80, and the 128 GB card will sell for $182. Kingston also points out that these cards are aimed at HD video recording but don’t support some simultaneous video and still photo capture features.

It also means a big boost to photographers looking to shoot multiple frames at speed, without hitting a data transfer wall. Sony claims it slotted one of the cards into a Nikon D4 and managed a whopping 108 shots in ten seconds.

Sony doesn’t make any specific claims about what sort of bitrate video you can capture to the S-Series cards, but with 168 MB/s to play with there should be no problem filling it up with high-def footage. You’ll probably need a Thunderbolt card reader to make the most of the transfer rates copying footage back to your PC, the company says.

The new Sony XQD S-Series will go on sale July 11 in Japan, priced at around 60,000 yen ($754) for the 64GB model and 40,000 yen ($503) for the 32GB model. Expensive stuff, but speed costs money.

The folks at Mimoco don’t mess around when it comes to releasing these lovely little beasts, both of them fabulous examples of how the group can go big with a release in the video you’re about to see below. These bots are released in collaboration with Warner Bros. Consumer Products on behalf of DC Entertainment and will be busting out extremely soon! Also note: the Bane character will be limited to 500 pieces and will be released at SDCC for people at the convention in-person only!

Superman is also about to be available with his lovely blue curled hair and Yellow S-symbol on Red Cape, a classic container for no less than your most valuable data in need of transport. The same is true of The Flash, made into a MIMOBOT designer USB flash drive in as ironic a was as possible. As Mimobots note: “Could there be a more perfect character for a character-based flash drive?” Heck no! Head over to Mimobots online shop to see what’s available now – no one drive is unlimited!

If paying a tax to music companies on a memory card for taking pictures wasn’t bad enough, German authorities have now massively increased the blank media tax on flash drives. The blank media tax on a flash drive used to be about $.10 per drive reports geek.com. That blank media tax has now been increased to $1.93 for any flash drive up to 4 GB capacity.

Any storage device that’s larger than 4 GB is now hit with a $2.42 storage media tax. That works out to 1850% increase for flash drives 4 GB and under and 2338% increase for flash drives greater than 4 GB in capacity. Germany has offered no clear reason for the massive increase other than the claim that the tax is to compensate for private copying. I guess we can assume alleged piracy is the reason for the massive tax increase.

[via Geek.com]

The My Passport Studio drive features a 15mm 5400 RPM hard drive inside and its 2TB storage capacity is enough for about 400,000 photos, 240 hours of video or 500,000 songs. The drive is bus-powered, freeing it from the need of an additional power cable, and its two FireWire 800 ports allow for daisy-chaining hard drives.

Its huge capacity and portability is perfect for photography and video professionals that need a convenient backup solution for both in studio and on location. The minimalist all-metal casing of the My Passport Studio also aesthetically complements any Mac setup. The drive is available now priced at $299.99.

[via MarketWatch]

It’s not the first time Apple has experimented with faster flash. Back in April, the company quietly switched from Toshiba’s storage to Samsung’s, boosting potential read rates by around 50MB/s to 261MB/s, and write rates by around 35MB/s to 210MB/s.

The newer memory would allow for even quicker resuming from sleep mode – where Apple saves the current system state to the NAND flash rather than to the MacBook Air’s RAM, thus preserving battery life – as well as more impressive performance in-use. According to the latest batch of rumors, Apple is preparing the tweaked Airs for July 14. Among the changes expected are an update to Intel Sandy Bridge processors from the 2011 range, and the addition of a Thunderbolt port for high-speed connectivity with external storage and other devices.

Mushkin offers all the way up to Class 10 SD cards with 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB capacity. The class 10 cards guarantee up to 10Mb/s data speed. Mushkin also offers Class 4 microSDHC cards in 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB as well as a class 2 microSD card in 2GB capacity. The class 10 cards are only offered in SDHC flavor with the 32GB selling for $57.94.

“We have very carefully prepared and tested our SDHC and microSD product offerings to ensure that they deliver the superior level of quality for which Mushkin products are known. Both amateur and professional photographers will value the data reliability and speed of our Class 10 SDHC cards, and those shooting video will appreciate the ability to save hours of high-definition video to them. Owners of the latest smartphones and tablets now have an elite option with our microSD products to upgrade storage capacity and get more from their mobile devices.” – Wade Shiflett, director of marketing, Mushkin, Inc.

A company called Kingmax has unveiled a new microSD card that has a whopping 64GB of storage. It’s hard to imagine that much storage in such a small amount of space. The 64GB card is also a speed class 6 storage card making it fast for storing and transferring data. The 64GB capacity in a microSD card is a world’s first. The memory card also has integrated ECC to detect and reconstruct lost data during transmission.

The card also uses a wear leveling algorithm to allocate information to different sections of the card. The microSD card also complies with the latest SD 3.0 specifications. It has an energy efficient design to extend the battery life of the device it is inside of. There is no word on pricing and availability at this time. As with all high capacity memory cards this 64GB Kingmax microSD card will probably be very expensive when it launches.

That’s exactly what this USB floppy is. You get the obvious floppy disk there, which will hide your USB cable as well as your flash storage, all in a neat little package. You just slide the metal disk protector to the side, and you’ll be able to access the single USB cable inside. Just plug that into your computer, and you’ll be able to access what’s there. To make it better, the designer put a small red LED in the write/protect switch, which will tell you when the flash storage is being accessed.

Unfortunately, the USB floppy isn’t available to everyone, as it was just a do it yourself project. However, if you want to take the time, and you like floppy disks that much, you could probably get the job done on your own.

[via Technabob]

The drive comes in a gold color that is designed to look like a bullet. The thing is specifically designed to look like a .50 caliber bullet and the case of the bullet has the AMP logo on it. The flash drive has a keychain included to connect it to your keys.

It is waterproof and shock resistant and can be used on Mac and PC computers. It is offered in 4GB or 8GB capacities and measures 3″ x 0.6″. The 4GB version of the drive sells for $12.45 and the 8GB version is $21.95 with both on Amazon right now.

Keyport has announced that it is now offering up a USB flash drive that can go into one of the ports on the Keyport. The flash drive has 4GB of storage and is something that I bet lots of folks have wanted inside the Keyport before.

The best news is that the Keyport has come down in price quite a bit since it first launched. You can now get the Keyport with one auto key for $99. You can add additional keys and drive the price up some. Right now the flash drive accessory isn’t priced and isn’t on the official Keyport site. I can’t see 4GB of storage costing that much.

The silica also has ridges to make it easy to grip the drive. The drive claims to be the first on the market to fuse metallic accessories with the silica gel material. The metallic accessories promise to withstand as much as 10kg of pull force making it likely to survive living on a keychain or in a bag where it might be pulled.

The flash drive has a chip on board packaging technology and is waterproof, shockproof, and dustproof thanks to that gel overlay. The drive ships with software for backups and security functions. No lid is used and the connector has a slide out design for protection. The drive measures 56.18 x 20.14 x 9.09 and weighs 9g.

The Rage drives are quad-channel devices with read speed of up to 27MB/s and write speeds of up to 25MB/s. The housing of the drive is lightly coated with rubber and the housing has no cap.

The drive has a retractable USB connector for convenience. Patriot offers no mention of the price of the Rage or when it will ship.

The modules are designed to plug directly into any IDE port and come in two versiosn to support different IDE connector types. The Type-1 supports 40-pin IDE ports and the Type-2 supports 44-pin headers. Both of the devices use MLC flash storage.

AMP claims that the devices are both compatible with a number of motherboards from different makers. The devices have power saving circuitry and ECC functionality. Pricing for the devices ranges from $62.95 to $159.95 depending on the storage capacity.

The new NAND uses MLC 32Gb tech and is built on the 20nm process. The NAND will be used in smartphones, memory cards, and other devices. Samsung claims the new 20nm NAND has 50% higher productivity than 30nm MLC NAND.

The write performance of memory cards using the new NAND of 8GB and higher will be 30% faster than 30nm NAND memory cards with 20MB/s read and 10MB/s write. Samples of memory cards using the new NAND are shipping now and production will be expanded later this year.

The new memory cards include the 16GB SanDisk M2 gaming card for the PSP go. A 32GB Memory Stick Pro Duo and Pro-HG Duo card is now available as well. These cards are for the PSP-2000 and PSP-3000 user and will work in certain Sony digital cameras.

SanDisk is also unveiling a new 8GB SDHC card for the Nintendo DSi that can be used for game storage and music. The M2 card in 16GB capacity sells for $142.99, the 32GB memory Stick Pro Duo card is $229.99, and the 32GB Pro-HG Duo card sells for $279.99. SanDisk’s 8GB SDHC card for the DSi sells for $47.99.