For those of you who just can’t get enough portable storage [me too], you’ll be delighted to see that Kingston has launched a 16GB SD Card.
The 16GB Class 4 SDHC Flash memory card joins the 4GB and 8GB versions and will cost around £113 plus VAT. Not cheap though, despite being the only storage card you will probably ever need – well, at least until next year. After all, you can get an Integral 16GB Class 4 card for £54 on Amazon while the Transcend 16GB Class 6 SDHC card with reader comes in at £56 here.
“Higher resolution digital cameras and increasingly popular HD video camcorders require high capacity memory cards with faster data transfer rates (DTRs) to maximise overall performance of the recording device,” said Kirsty Miller, European Flash Product Marketing Manager, Kingston Technology. “Our new 16GB Class 4 memory card answers the performance needs.”
According to Kingston, the 16GB card can hold more than 7,500 images with a 6MP camera and more than 4 hours of HD video (using 6Mbps HD Extended recording). Beats my old 1GB card any day.-Martin Lynch
storage SD Card memory gadget
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To many women it’s no surprise that men are still failing to hit your G-spot and, unfortunately, that’s not going to change in time for Valentines Day.
A new survey from retailer Comet has discovered that men will still be shooting wide of women’s G[adget]-spot this Valentines. Not even close, actually. A staggering 93% of men said they’ll be opting for the boring old ‘choccies and flowers’ while almost a quarter of the women surveyed said they want gadgets. Just 7% of men said they’ll be buying gadgets for the girls – a low G-spot rating by any standard.
The gadget-oriented girls said they’d gladly swap some bling and flowers for gadgets, like a sat-nav, MP3 player, hair straighteners or digital camera.
Comet’s spokesperson Karen Alden, says, ‘We are surprised to see how out of touch men in the UK are when it comes to Valentine’s Day – this proves women really are the better shoppers! We’ve seen a massive uplift in women buying gadgets for themselves over the past couple of years. Chocolates and flowers really won’t hit the spot this year!’
In contrast, women know exactly what men want this Valentine’s Day. Almost a third of women said they’ll be buying toys for the boys. Half of the men surveyed said they’d take a gadget over any other lovey-dovey gifts. Men, return the chocolates, there's still time.-Martin Lynch
gadgets love women
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As predicted, Yahoo has turned down Microsoft’s takeover offer of $45bn, or $31 per share.
This doesn’t mean the deal’s off, just that Microsoft will have to dig a bit deeper into its coffers. If previous reports continue to be correct then it may have to dig to the tune of $40 per share, or $12bn extra, to secure the ailing online company. Here’s the official statement:
“The Yahoo! Board of Directors has carefully reviewed Microsoft's unsolicited proposal with Yahoo!'s management team and financial and legal advisors and has unanimously concluded that the proposal is not in the best interests of Yahoo! and our stockholders.
After careful evaluation, the Board believes that Microsoft's proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo! including our global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms and future growth prospects, free cash flow and earnings potential, as well as our substantial unconsolidated investments.”
Microsoft’s official response went like this:
"It is unfortunate that Yahoo! has not embraced our full and fair proposal to combine our companies. Based on conversations with stakeholders of both companies, we are confident that moving forward promptly to consummate a transaction is in the best interests of all parties."
It is expected that Microsoft will raise its offer but by no means certain that Yahoo will get $40 per share.
Fresh reports this morning claim that Yahoo is planning to reopen merger talks with AOL too, probably to help Microsoft dig deeper faster.-Martin Lynch
microsoft yahoo google
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There’s an alarmingly trend forming around the high-def movie format, HD DVD, which involves everyone dumping it for its rival, Blu-ray.
Online movie rental giant, Netflix, has joined Warner Bros., New Line Cinema and Woolworths in choosing to go with Blu-ray exclusively for its HD movies. And all of those desertions have occurred within the last 6 weeks. The company expects to have phased out HD DVD movies by the end of the year and no new HD DVDs will be added. Last year, Blockbuster showed HD DVD the door in the US by opting to go with Blu-ray only.
"The prolonged period of competition between two formats has prevented clear communication to the consumer regarding the richness of the high-def experience versus standard definition," said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix. "We're now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high-def. Going forward, we expect that all of the studios will publish in the Blu-ray format and that the price points of high-def DVD players will come down significantly. These factors could well lead to another decade of disc-based movie watching as the consumer's preferred means."
The company said that even though HD movie rentals are a small portion of its overall business, Blu-ray rentals far outweighed those of HD DVDs. In total, Netflix ships around 1.6m movies per day.-Martin Lynch
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As mobile phone launches reach fever pitch over at the 2008 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, The Technology Partnership (TTP) previewed the world’s first Bluetooth headset accessory with built-in DAB radio.
The dinky little nanoDAB, will allow phone users to access DAB radio stations through the headset, making it one of the more useful phone accessories on the horizon. I say ‘horizon’ because, like the new Nokia N96, this isn’t arriving until early in Q3. TTP also announced that it is working with DAB broadcasters around the world to create ‘new visual, interactive and download services for nanoDAB’.
This will include the ability to view, navigate and store visual content like images, slides, music tracks and podcasts which will be delivered by the DAB broadcasters. Martin Orrell, General Manager, Digital Media at TTP commented:
“nanoDAB will be a catalyst for the roll out of interactive visual digital radio services in a market where advertising on radio is under threat due to its lack of interaction. This technology's ability to support visual, interactive and download services using broadcast will be an important milestone for service providers and brands worldwide."
It looks interesting so let’s hope the device itself manages to live up to the marketing.-Martin Lynch
DAB phone radio
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
