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SanDisk Sansa slotRadio takes a page from Slacker's book

What can I say? I'm a big fan of gadgets that play into my inherent laziness. You may have figured this out while reading my various accounts of Slacker's Internet radio service and MP3 player. Now, SanDisk is following Slacker's line of thinking, albeit with a much more basic premise that involves simplicity and a low-cost device, rather than fancy wireless technology and the capability to tailor music to your liking. Instead, SanDisk's new MP3 player, dubbed slotRadio, uses preloaded microSD cards filled with 1,000 handpicked songs arranged into playlists. The device is clearly not … Read more

SanDisk, Samsung tout new Netbook, server SSDs

Both SanDisk and Samsung announced solid-state drives on Tuesday--though that's where the similarity ends. SanDisk's SSDs are aimed at Netbooks, while Samsung's new SSDs are for the high-performance server market.

SanDisk is debuting its new 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB pSSD-P2 and pSSD-S2 solid-state drives at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. Samsung's 100GB SS805 drive, on the other hand, is being introduced on Tuesday at the Storage Visions 2009 Conference, also in Las Vegas.

The second-generation SanDisk drives, designed as drop-in replacements for hard-disk drives, use the Serial-ATA or SATA interface. First-generation … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: A big file-swapping faceoff waits for a decision

A federal judge in Rhode Island has postponed a hearing in a case that may test the legal underpinnings of the Recording Industry Association of America's suits against file swapping. CNET News' Declan McCullagh explains what's at stake.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

Report: Mac sales hit a slowdown

Judge postpones hearing in key RIAA lawsuit

Toshiba, SanDisk to cut flash chip output

Mobile phone market to shrink in `09

Analyst predicts Apple will unveil Netbook

Intel's twist on the Classmate PC debuting at CES

Toshiba, SanDisk to cut flash chip output

Toshiba plans to cut flash memory chip production starting in January, citing the global economic slowdown. SanDisk, which operates manufacturing lines jointly with Toshiba, said it will follow suit.

Toshiba announced on Monday that its Yokkaichi Operations plant in Japan's Mie prefecture will cut NAND flash memory production by approximately 30 percent, effective from January 2009.

"Recession in the global economy and the slowdown in consumer spending are having a significant impact on demand for semiconductors," Toshiba said in a statement. "This is particularly notable in NAND flash memories, where decreased demand for applications such as … Read more

SanDisk eyes year-end production halt

SanDisk is evaluating a production halt over the holidays at its manufacturing facilities in Japan, reflecting an overall slowdown in the flash memory chip industry.

"The joint venture is evaluating plans for operations over the holiday season, including a possible stoppage of some production lines," a SanDisk spokesman said Friday. "We constantly consider manufacturing schedules in light of market requirements and this is particularly true during the holiday season," he added.

Milpitas, Calif.-based SanDisk and Toshiba have joint production lines for NAND flash chip manufacturing in Japan.

This follows a Bloomberg report that said Toshiba … Read more

SanDisk goes halvesies on memory cards

Normally I wouldn't recommend buying directly from a manufacturer's Web site unless that was the only way to buy a product. However, it looks like "Cyber Monday" may be an exception to that rule--at least in the case of SanDisk, which is offering some significant discounts on its flash memory.

For example, an 8GB Ultra II SDHC card that regularly goes for $49.99 is cut to $20.99. The price of a 4GB Memory Stick Pro Duo is cut in half, down to $19.99.

If you take more pictures with your phone than your … Read more

SanDisk firmware update adds OGG, FLAC support to Clip and Fuze

Awhile back, SanDisk released some fairly major firmware for both the Sansa Clip and the Sansa Fuze. Well, technically, the update for each is a different piece of software, but most of the fixes and enhancements are similar, so I'm treating the two as one here.

I finally got around to installing the new firmware on the Clip and I have to say that it's definitely a worthwhile install (most firmware is). If you haven't done it already, make sure you do--I've included some basic steps for updating Sansa players below.

Perhaps the most exciting thing … Read more

SanDisk teams with Veoh on portable Web video player

This is good for those who have grave concerns over others knowing what kind of videos they're watching.

On Wednesday, Veoh announced that its new Web video player (which is still in beta) is now available in a portable version, but only on SanDisk's Cruzer USB flash drive. For those who already own the drive, the download is available for free on SanDisk's site.

That means any TV shows, movies, or other Web videos found on Veoh can be downloaded to the drive and played on any PC, without need for an Internet connection. Veoh has content … Read more

SanDisk cranks up solid-state drive speed

LOS ANGELES--Technology introduced at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference by SanDisk could boost solid-state drive performance in Windows Vista by 100 times.

The largest supplier of flash memory cards unveiled an advanced flash file system for solid-state drives that "has the potential" to accelerate random write speeds by up to 100 times over existing systems.

Despite being generally faster than hard-disk drives (particularly at reading data), solid-state drives fall short of hard disks when they randomly write data. Random writes are generally considered to be the Achilles heel of solid-state drives.

To maximize random write performance, SanDisk developed … Read more