At first glance we thought, “sweet, a makeshift SSD for all of our disparate memory cards.” That is, until we figured out from the machine translation that the MR-C12 series of card readers from Elecom has more in common with a cigarette case than a solid state drive. So in addition to providing a convenient-if-bulky place to tote all your memory cards around, it also features a baked-in USB 2.0 cable and single media slot which accommodates all the most popular formats. No accidental jamming your memory card into the wrong slot here kids. In Japan mid October for Â¥2,520 or about $22 in dear departed presidents.

[Via Impress]
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While the HD DVD camp is busy with its 51GB disc, the Blu-ray side has a new creature of its own to talk about. Co-developed by Pioneer and Mitsubishi, the LTH (Low to High) BD-R reportedly utilizes an “organic dye recording layer,” and is said to be a recognized format within the Blu-ray Disc Recordable Format v1.2 standard. Additionally, the two companies boast that this disc won’t require “large-scale plant investments” to manufacture, which is music to the ears of anyone who enjoys lower costs. Regrettably, it sounds like existing Blu-ray drives won’t play nice with the LTH BD-Rs as-is, but here’s to hoping that firmware updates could fix that. Click on for a shot of a prototype drive gettin’ cozy with one of the new discs.

[Via CDRInfo]
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For all of getting jazzed about your future filled with high capacity SDHC cards, we’ve got some stirring information for you. If you bounce over to Amazon’s German wing, you can find yourself knee-deep in a Patriot 16GB SDHC card, selling for the low, low price of 279.99. Of course, good luck finding a device that can access the card’s full capacity — but hey, you’re planning for the future, right?

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It’s been a short while since we’ve seen any news on the P2 HD front, but Panasonic is hoping to extract a few more hundies from those sold on the format by introducing a 32GB P2 card. The device, labeled AJ-P2C032RG, can be installed in sets of five into the AJ-HPX3000 and HPX2000 P2 HD camcorders for recording “up to 2.5 hours (over 3 hours in 24p) of footage in AVC-Intra 100 or DVCPRO HD and 5 hours (over 6.5 hours in 24p) in AVC-Intra 50 or DVCPRO 50.” As you’d probably expect, this sucka won’t run you cheap, as it’s expected to demand a staggering $1,650 when it hits in November.

[Via AkihabaraNews]
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2009 may be the year when we finally see a unified memory format, that is, if Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson have their way. The “Universal Flash Storage specification” would see memory cards travel between cellular devices, digital cameras and other memory hungry devices without the need for adapters — and it’ll likely save us some coin, too. Some big name memory manufacturers are purportedly onboard, with names like Micron Technology Inc., Spansion LLC, STMicroelectronics NV, and Texas Instruments Inc., being bandied about. We look forward to that magical day, when our stacks of memory cards can be reduced to a stack of one type of card, ahhh… progress.

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Neither 32GB USB keys nor 32GB SSD ExpressCards are anything new, but wedding the two ideas into a swank dual interface drive is a commendable twist. Notably, InnoDisk has done just that, as its 32GB Flash Disk plays nice with both ExpressCard slots and USB 2.0, touts a read speed of around 30M/S, a write speed of 20M/S, and also arrives in a few smaller capacities for those not needing all 32 gigs. Unfortunately, there’s no word on price at the moment, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled.

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Seagate has updated its line of Maxtor OneTouch external drives, making the new set the fourth iteration of its cheapo hard drive solution. The new models heading out are the OneTouch 4, OneTouch 4 Plus, and OneTouch Mini, all wrapped in black plastic and metal (which Seagate likes to refer to as “vault-like”). The OneTouch 4 can rock your storage world in 250GB, 500GB , or 750GB varieties, ranging in price from $99.99 to $269.99, the OneTouch 4 Plus is available in 250GB, 500GB, 750GB, or 1TB, from $129.99 to $359.99, and the OneTouch Mini comes 80GB, 120GB, and 160GB, running you an affordable $99.99 to $149.99. All of the drives offer the famous OneTouch backup, which should give you at least a sliver of peace of mind. The whole line is available right this second, so get the credit card out.

[Via Crave]
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