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SanDisk stock surges on buyout rumors

Updated at 5:00 p.m. with closing share price.

SanDisk for Sale? The stock price says so.

The world's largest maker of flash memory cards for digital cameras jumped 31 percent, or 4.18 points, Friday on rumors that Samsung would buy the company.

This follows a recent spate of rumors including one that said Seagate was interested in SanDisk. While Samsung already makes flash memory and is a leader in the emerging solid state drive market, Seagate does not sell SSDs and is looking to get into the market.

Samsung doesn't need SanDisk to grow; the … Read more

Samsung contemplating SanDisk acquisition

Samsung Electronics is looking into snapping up SanDisk, according to a late-Thursday post on PaidContent.

The South Korean consumer electronics maker confirmed that it is exploring "various opportunities" with SanDisk, but it noted that no decisions have been made, according to PaidContent, which cited an online Korean report.

Samsung reportedly is taking a look at SanDisk as a means to reduce its NAND flash memory costs, given that it pays the chipmaker roughly $354 million in annual licensing fees, according to the report. SanDisk is a strong player in the market for NAND flash memory, which is found … Read more

SanDisk card perfect for shiny, new Nikon D90

Already saving up to get the new Nikon D90? You might want to add at least another $65 to your budget for SanDisk's new 30MB/s Extreme III SDHC cards.

Available worldwide in September, the cards offer a 50 percent speed boost from 20MB/s cards, and the Nikon D90 is the industry's first dSLR to take advantage of the speed.

That means that with the 30MB/s Extreme III, the D90 can record 39 6MB JPEG images at 4.5 frames per second in continuous shooting mode. Getting them off is almost as fast, too, when used … Read more

While Intel touts Netbooks, SanDisk cites solid-state 'hype'

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--At the Flash Memory Summit taking place here this week, makers of solid-state drives cited their worries about lackluster performance on Windows Vista and, with no small irony, the dangers of hype.

Solid-state drives have become the de facto storage device for the category of small, inexpensive notebook PCs called Metbooks, and they're offered in high-profile laptops such as the MacBook Air and ThinkPad X300.

While Don Larson, product line manager at Intel NAND Products Group, said the tiny size and low power requirements of Netbooks make them an ideal product for solid-state drives (adding that … Read more

SanDisk already looking beyond flash memory

SanDisk sees flash memory maxing out during the next decade and believes 3D technology is the answer.

Flash memory disk supplier SanDisk said this week that it is looking beyond flash memory because of anticipated limitations. SanDisk intends to tap into 3D read-write memory technology it acquired with the purchase of Matrix Semiconductor back in 2005.

3D memory chips can store more data vertically, allowing greater densities. While conventional integrated circuits put all active circuitry on the silicon substrate, SanDisk's 3D architecture deposits multiple layers of active memory elements so that circuitry extends vertically as well.

Speaking at this week's second-quarter earnings conference call, Sanjay Mehrotra, SanDisk president and chief operating officer, said his company is "developing the 3D read/write memory that we believe will replace NAND flash sometime in the next decade when it can no longer be economically scaled."

This follows a Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure earlier in the quarter covering an agreement that SanDisk signed with Toshiba to collaborate on the development of rewriteable 3D memory. SanDisk and Toshiba "will jointly perform research and development" on 3D memory, the companies said in the disclosure.

SanDisk has made progress with the technology since it acquired Matrix, according to Chairman and CEO Eli Harari, speaking earlier this week duing the earnings conference call. "SanDisk has been making good, steady progress since our acquisition three years ago of Matrix Semiconductor...We currently have more than 200 issued patents that cover key elements of 3D rewritable memory technology," Harari said.

Based on these statements and its collaboration with Toshiba, SanDisk believes 3D memory, though challenging, is a viable successor to flash. Commercialization presents "significant challenges" but the "effort is worth the prize as 3D memory is a potential game changer," Harari said. The technology would "achieve the cost structure to disrupt hard disk drive in the coming decade," he said.… Read more

Audiophile MP3 players, by the numbers

When Jasmine and I evaluate MP3 players for CNET reviews, we always try to spend a few sentences describing any noticeable audio performance characteristics we detect during our subjective testing. We'll play around with all of the gadget's different EQ and sound enhancement options, listen back on our reference headphones, and run through a playlist of familiar music. We're only human, however, and hearing loss, ear wax, head congestion, and hangovers can skew our perceptions of audio quality from day to day. Thankfully, we have Eric Franklin.… Read more

SanDisk debuts Mobile Ultra memory cards

Memory card maker SanDisk is launching what it claims is the industry's first premium mobile phone storage cards at the CommunicAsia trade show. Labeled under the company's Mobile Ultra lineup, the new memory cards will offer improved transfer speeds when used in compatible devices. According to a representative at the SanDisk booth, the Mobile Ultra media transfers data at up to 20Mbps, more than four times the 5Mbps attainable with the current SanDisk Mobile flash cards.

The new Mobile Ultra memory cards will be available for the microSD/SDHC and Memory Stick Micro (M2) formats at 2GB, 4GB, … Read more

Best iPod alternatives for Mac

Some Apple devotees wouldn't dream of questioning the Steve Jobs-sanctioned threeway between their Mac, iTunes, and their iPod. But the truth is that there are other fish in the sea when it comes to finding a Mac-friendly MP3 player (in fact, there are some great iTunes alternatives for Mac, too).

Maybe you're shopping for a player with an FM radio, a larger screen, better sound quality, or maybe you're just short on cash. Whatever your motivations, here's a roundup of our favorite non-iPod MP3 players for the Mac.