So you’ve put down an order for a new still or video camera with SDHC slot, eh, now what? Do you pick up a regular ol’ 4GB SDHC card from Toshiba, Panasonic, or SanDisk or maybe splurge on a fat Pretec for 8GB or 16GB of storage? Well SanDisk is here to tell ya (and we’ll agree) that their new Ultra II SDHC Card is the ideal choice to record smooth video or capture multiple still photographs in rapid succession from that new cam with write speeds of 9 megabytes (MB) per second and read speeds of 10MB/sec. Yeah, it’ll cost you $220 for those speeds, but hey, you get a “free” MicroMate SDHC/SD card reader in the kit when these drop next month. So what’s it gonna be boy — performance, capacity or the el-cheapo? Decisions, decisions.

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Since Toshiba covered the high-end earlier, it’s only fitting that it busts out a bevy of low-end hardware to right the ship. The “Mist Gray” Satellite M115 lineup, supposedly targeted at “on-the-go consumers” looking for “productivity and entertainment” on the cheap, doesn’t pack any Merom goodness, but it does manage a decent showing for the price. The Satellite M115-S1061 houses a lowly 1.6GHz Intel Celeron M processor, 14.1-inch WXGA widescreen LCD, Windows XP Home, integrated ATi Radeon Xpress 200 graphics, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, 80GB 5,400RPM SATA drive, CD burning combo drive, WiFi, S-Video out, a foursome of USB 2.0 ports, and a paltry “2.08 hours” of battery life. The S1071 model throws in a DVD burner, while the S1064 is powered by Windows XP MCE. Cranking things up ever so slightly is the Satellite M115-S3094, which rocks a 1.6GHz T2050 Intel Core Duo processor, Windows XP MCE, integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, 80GB 5,400RPM SATA drive, dual-layer DVD burner, 802.11a/b/g, four USB 2.0 ports, video outputs, a 4-pin FireWire connector, and a somewhat more respectable “3.97 hours” of battery life. The S3154 sports a “Smart Indigo” enclosure in favor of the gray, while the S3104 gets a full gig of RAM. Besides the dizzying amount of specs, the real news here is the pricing: the M115-S1061 series starts at just $700, while the M115-S3094 flavors will set you back around $850.

[Via Laptoping]
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Given that we’ve already seen some rather strange memory card readers, it’s high time that a company came out with one that’s actually convenient to use. We’ve always thought that a card reader directly built-in to a keyboard would do the job nicely, no? Fortunately Ainex has used its engineering powers to read our minds, and has released the AKB-88, a new compact keyboard with four, count ‘em four, card slots on the far side of the keyboard, featuring all your favorite types, including CompactFlash, Memory Stick, SD and the oft-neglected SmartMedia. Sadly, this flashy little keyboard is Windows-only, even though we think it would compliment the MacBook nicely, given that it comes in both white and black. The AKB-88 was just made available on the company’s website for the ever elusive “open price,” but if these ‘boards ever surf across the Pacific, we’ll let you know.

[Via Akihabara News]
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Like Acer,and fellow “strong” Blu-ray supporter LG, Samsung is showing the hi-def crowd how to mix it up by opening their Blu-ray love affair to the HD DVD camp. Here we have their M55 — formerly billed as the “world’s thinnest and lightest 17-inch widescreen” at 30.5 ~ 34.4-mm thick and 2.99-kg — only now packing some swank HD DVD action along with an apparent pixel increase to 1920×1200. Just to run down the rest of the specs on this: you get a glossy 17-inch display, 256MB GeForce 7600 Go graphics, up to 120GB of SATA disk, 802.11a/b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, a wide range of in and outs including HDMI and S/PDIF, and suite of SRS audio features all powered by an Intel T2500 Core Duo proc. No drop date but they should pull about €3,000/$3,810 — yeah, we know.

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In a refreshing reversal of pompously named colors, we bring you Sigma’s Rotino laser mouse in, uh, “gross black.” Sure, that’s probably just a machine translation snafu but who are we to argue with the lingual powers of the almighty Google? Oh, and as long as you’re here, you might like to know that Sigma calls Rotino the “world’s smallest” laser mouse with retractable USB cable. Measuring in at 40-grams / 30 x 70 x 20-mm the Rotino brings an adjustable sensitivity of 1000dpi for normal office-type use or a lightning-quick 2,000dpi for you gamers with an especially sensitive trigger finger. At just Â¥2,980 or about $25, can you really afford not to have this in your laptop bag? Also available in French blue or Italian lead-lead (aka, red) if you’re feeling euro-funky.

[Via Impress]
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Now that Samsung swung the doors wide, Scitec can step through with their own version of the MP3 player with integrated speaker. The 25-gram SSF-512 with OLED display brings an FM tuner, voice and line-in recorder, 10-hour playback off AAA battery, and a piddling 512MB of flash to host your MP3/WAV/DRM’d WMA audio. No details about that speaker but really, how good can it be? Available in silver and black ’cause even pirates need to jam. On sale today in Japan for a Â¥8,980 or about $76. Argh.

[Via Impress]
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If you’re looking for a little TV-on-the-go action of slightly higher quality than plain-old analog broadcasts, and happen to live in Japan, then Zentek may have just the solution for ya. It’s just announced what looks to be the first 1Seg (or One-Seg, if you prefer) TV tuner on an SDIO card, which’ll let you pick up those sweet terrestrial digital broadcast signals on your SDIO-equipped handheld or cellphone. Although, not unlike early developments in WiFi on SD cards, it looks like you’ll have to put up with the card protruding more than just a little bit from your handheld device, as it measures about 2.1-inches long. (Hear that? It’s the sound of thousands of these simultaneosly snapping in Japanese pockets). You’ll also have to wait a bit to actually get your hands on one, with Zentek set to offer the device to OEMs in the first quarter of 2007.

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