News flash
SanDisk announced plans to manufacture and sell new Sony Memory Stick-based products. The most noteworthy is a 2GB Memory Stick Pro card--double the current top-line capacity--to be available starting in February. SanDisk said it will also sell Memory Stick Pro Duo cards early this year in 256MB ($105) and 512MB ($225) capacities.

Keychain or thumb drives based on flash storage were also big at the show. Until now, these have been strictly storage devices, but the latest trend is to add new bells and whistles to these pint-size devices. SanDisk's $200 512MB Cruzer Titanium, available this month, is supposed to be virtually bulletproof. Griffin Technologies is showing the ControlKey, a USB drive that offers a different sort of security; it works like a digital key for controlling children's access to a PC and the Internet by duration and application. And Taiwan-based PQI is showing a USB keychain drive that lets you take your Outlook e-mail with you.

Lexar's lineup
A better known name in this space, Lexar Media, made several new product announcements at CES including:

Lexar's 2 GB JumpDrive 2.0 Pro

• A 2GB JumpDrive 2.0 Pro for a cool $1,000
• JumpDrive 2.0 Secure with 256-bit data encryption in 128MB ($50), 256MB ($80), and 512MB ($160) capacities
• JumpGear-MP3 digital audio player for MP3 and WMA files using JumpDrive Sport flash memory. It is $50 if you bring your own Sport drive (up to 512MB) or $90 with 64MB of memory
• Ruggedized JumpDrive Sport available in 128MB ($50), 256MB ($80), and 512MB ($170) capacities
• Stylish, white JumpDrive Elite available in 128MB ($50), 256MB ($80), and 512MB ($170) versions

All of the new products use USB 2.0 for faster file transfers and will be available starting in February, except the Sport and Elite, which should be available this month.

The harder side of storage
The biggest news on the hard disk front was Toshiba's announcement of 2GB and 4GB minidrives that measure only 0.85 inches--not much larger than a stick of gum. Currently they are just prototypes, but Toshiba has a history of successfully miniaturizing hard disk technology, and the company says it will be manufacturing them in volume this year. The minidrives challenge flash memory formats such as SD in handhelds, cell phones, and MP3 players.

Western Digital's 250GB Media Center

Competitor Cornice released a new, compact 2GB Storage Element to be used in the same types of devices. The company's drive technology is currently used in players from Aiwa, iRiver, RCA, Samsung, Sony, and many others. The 1.5GB version of the drive is also used in SoniqCast's Aireo, a Wi-Fi-enabled MP3 player introduced at CES.

Joining drive makers Maxtor and Seagate, Western Digital has unveiled an external hard drive in a box that offers push-button data backup. But Western Digital's model, the 250GB Media Center ($399), has a twist. It offers a built-in multiformat card reader, which accepts CompactFlash, Secure Digital, Memory Stick, and other formats, and is designed to be used with digital cameras and MP3 players as well as PCs. It is also equipped with two USB 2.0 ports and a FireWire port.

Sony's 1GB MiniDisc
The hard drive market has gotten a big boost from portable players such as the Apple iPod. Hoping to snatch a piece of the action, Sony introduced a 1GB version of its MiniDisc, called Hi-MD. The Hi-MD discs, which will arrive in April at a cost of $7 a pop, can store up to 45 hours of music, according to the company. Like MiniDisc players, Hi-MD players should be compact and offer relatively long battery life. To prove the point, Sony released four new Walkmans based on the new format--all of which, of course, use the company's ATRAC3plus codec and will be compatible with the Connect music download service:

• Ultracompact MZ-NH1 with USB cradle ($400)
• Rugged entry-level MZ-NH600D with long battery life ($200)
• MZ-NHF800 with AM/FM/TV/weather tuner remote ($250)
• MZ-NHF800 with AM/FM/TV/weather tuner remote ($250)

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