So you drop $1,200 on a Nikon digital SLR camera, buy vacation airline tickets to Hawaii and now want a water tight case for underwater picture taking.  Well, save that large roll of cash and purchase the Liquid Image, 5 megapixel underwater scuba mask.  Slap in some microSD memory and you’re set for more pictures than your air tanks can hold.

New this year at CES is the Liquid Image underwater scuba mask.  The small digital lens/camera can take still pictures or record video at VGA quality with either a 5 MP or 3.1 MP lens.  The $99 price point is for the 5 MP version.

Take a close look at the diagram above and you’ll see a AAA battery pack, small storage area, shutter select option, cross hairs for centering and position of the lens along with microSD port & USB port for storing additional images or downloading what you have to PC.

The underwater scuba mask does look bulky but I personally think this is a great alternative to underwater cameras.

Underwater Video Scuba Mask product page.

What is Rockbox?

Rockbox is an open source software replacement for a larger number of MP3 players. Since Rockbox is open source this means an infinitely larger number of developers are constantly working on Rockbox…kinda like WordPress blogging software.

Rockbox aims to provide more functionality and efficiency to MP3 players.

In addition, Rockbox is a great management tool for flash memory. For example, I just found out Rockbox may be used to run microSDHC cards on microSD compatible devices. Although the Rockbox solution might not work for all devices, it’s a great place to start when looking for possible solutions.

Here are some key features of Rockbox:

• Support for over 15 Sound Codecs, including OGG and FLAC
• Gapless playback
• 5-band fully-parametric equalizer, and crossfeed (more…)
  

Here is an out-of-the-box solution for turning those high capacity Compact Flash memory cards into SATA hard drives. The CF to SATA hard drive adapter is ideal for using CF as a bootable device containing OS or application data.

The adapter is compatible with Compact Flash type I and II and will provide a full functioning SATA interface.

The adapter card is also fully compatible with Windows XP, Vista and Linux - in case the application is something other than embedded.

The CF to SATA adapter is $25 without power supply and $35 with power supply so a reasonable price for what you get. (more…)

GetUSB.info just got word from USB Fever they are blowing out an Ultra-Slim USB MicroSD card reader for only ONE PENNY.

The MicroSD card reader fits inside a USB connector and is ideal for those transferring files from mobile phones and PDAs which support the MicroSD format.

Only $2.99 shipping anywhere in the world so total cost is only $3.00 (more…)

Okay, so UDMA is not U-Da-MAn but the new Lexar card reader is cool enough looking to make them “the man.”

The new UDMA (Ultra Direct Memory Access) is a pop-top design which upon clicking the top cover (say on the Lexar logo) the card reader slots pop up for flash memory access.

The Lexar card reader connects to your PC via mini-to-full-size USB cable. The device readers either CompactFlash compatible or SDHC compatible SD cards.

So just to bring everyone up-to-speed: What is UDMA technology?: (more…)

GetFlashMemory posted an article the other day about the world’s first wireless memory card. I was very excited to hear about this technology and recently found a review of the Eye-Fi product.

This is what folks had to say:

Crunch Gear said:

All-in-all, this is a solid device. It is comparable to any 2GB SD card on the market but it gives you the ability to upload your pictures in a much cooler fashion. And if you can’t wait, if you plug a loaded card into the USB reader, it will automatically upload your pictures to your photo service via USB. Yay, all-around convenience - Blake Robinson

Engadget said:

So basically Eye-Fi takes a step forward by cutting out the middleman (in this case, a USB cable to your camera, or a media reader for your vanilla SD card), but two steps back in making the assumption that you want all of the tens (or hundreds) of megs of photos on the card uploaded in full res using your camera’s batteries, and yet don’t need said photos in your photo app, not just some folder - Ryan Block

SlashGear said:

wireless networks are set up using the Eye-Fi website, not through any sort of interface on your camera itself, and you’re limited to secured WiFi hook-ups rather than being able to take advantage of any open cloud you might pass through. Even with 802.11g, transfers of large resolution images could - and do - take a long time, and given that there’s no ability to select which to keep and which to throw (unless you delete them prior to connecting) it could be a frustrating experience - Chris Davies

Putting it all together I am glad to see this technology come to market and appears to be an appreciated process for downloading those oh-so-valuable photos.

Source: SlashGear

Eye-Fi is the world’s first wireless memory card. This means the flash memory not only stores data but has the ability to transmit the data via WiFi to another host system.

“Digital cameras have made it extremely easy to take pictures, but the rest of the process is a hassle,” said Jef Holove, chief executive officer of Eye-Fi. “The Eye-Fi Card removes the barriers and lets users get to the fun part of sharing and printing their memories. We’re putting the magic back into photography.”

Eye-Fi uses home wireless networks for picture and data download to home PCs and laptops. Simply turn on the camera or device and begin transferring data.

Eye-Fi’s patent-pending technology works with Wi-Fi networks to automatically send photos from a digital camera to online platforms, in-home and retail destinations

Visit Eye-Fi

Update:  Reviews of Eye-Fi wireless memory card.

What you are looking at is an IBM hard disk from 20 years ago which holds 1GB of data. Notice the top left, that’s a 1GB flash memory card.

What will 1GB look in another 20 years?

Source: Giz via Spluch

So we did flips for the open source Neo1973, now we’ve got a simplified software platform. Trolltech has introduced the Qtopia Phone Edition for the Neo1973.

The Qtopia Phone Edition is fully accessible under the open source GPL verison 2 license and supports the Greenphone reference platform for mobile development.

Up until now, Qtopia has been ported onto 90 different devices, including 25 phones. There are over 9 million Qtopia-based handsets in the market that also includes mobile devices from Motorola, ZTE and Cellon.

Source: TechGadgets photo via Flickr

Toshiba, like SanDisk, found a grand jury subpoena in their mail late last week. The allegations are related to flash memory NAND price fixing.

The probe comes from the highest level and considering the purchase of M-Systems by SanDisk along with the other big hitter of flash memory makers is Samsung, it’s very possible flash memory price fixing could have taken place.

Toshiba claims no wrong doing, but the filing implicates 23 other companies, who most likely source their NAND flash memory from SanDisk or Samsung, in the allegations.

At this time, the officials from Samsung were not available for comment.

Source: Ziff Davis News