Tech Shout!

SanDisk, on Friday, released an 8-gigabyte (GB) 1 SD High Capacity (SDHC) card - the highest capacity now available in the SD format. The latest introduction by the US-based company holds over 4,000 high-resolution pictures, as many as 2,000 digital songs or up to 15 hours of MPEG 4 video2.

SanDisk displayed the 8-GB 1 SD High Capacity (SDHC) card was displayed at the CeBIT show in Germany.

The 8GB SDHC card is packed with a SanDisk MicroMate USB 2.0 reader at no extra charge. SDHC cards require an SDHC-compatible reader, so offering the MicroMate reader with the card makes it certain that users will be able to connect the card to their computers. The MicroMate reader also works with standard SD cards.

Susan Park, retail product marketing manager at SanDisk said, “As consumers add more digital entertainment and memories to their lives — especially when they start shooting video with a digital still camera or digital camcorder — they need more storage capacity in flash memory cards. The new 8GB SDHC delivers twice the capacity of what was previously our biggest SD card — the 4GB SDHC — introduced just eight months ago.”

The 8GB SDHC card adheres to the SD Speed Class 2 rating, which guarantees a minimum data-transfer rate of 2MB/sec3. SDHC cards are not backwards compatible -they will only work in devices with SDHC card slots.

“SanDisk is including a MicroMate USB 2.0 reader free with every 8GB SDHC card to make sure that users have no trouble transferring files between the card and their computers,” said Wes Brewer, SanDisk’s vice president for consumer products marketing. “More than 30 digital still cameras and digital camcorders from Canon, Casio, Nikon, Panasonic, Pentax and Sanyo are already SDHC-compatible. We expect that SDHC will soon spread to digital music players, mobile phones and other personal electronics, making the 8GB SDHC card a versatile tool for moving around lots of photos, music and video.”

The 8GB SDHC card with MicroMate USB 2.0 reader will be on shelves in April in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. And will is slated to be released in Q2 of 2007 in Japan and the other parts of Asia later in the second quarter. The bundle will be available in the United States, for a suggested retail price of $189.99.