sd

Do you own a Barnes & Noble Nook Color or Nook Tablet? If so, perhaps you've wished for a way to stretch beyond Barnes & Noble's custom OS to enjoy a more traditional tablet experience -- and run whatever apps you want to run, not just those curated by B&N.

N2A Cards has long offered such a way: a bootable microSD card that transforms the Nook into a real Android tablet, complete with the Google Play store and everything.

Originally, that option limited you to Android 2.3, aka Gingerbread, but N2A Cards now offers a … Read more

Spybot Search & Destroy is a free antispyware utility that targets adware, malicious code, and other threats. It also cleans security tracks, shreds files, and tweaks the Registry. The optional TeaTimer feature protects the Registry from real-time attacks. Spybot isn't a replacement for a full antivirus program, though it does detect and remove some threats. It's a constantly updated, on-demand adware and malware scanner you can run regularly to sweep your system. Spybot S&D is free for personal use.

Spybot's Setup screen let us choose which components to install, including skins, languages, and integration with … Read more

If you glance at your iPhone wish list, you may see things like longer battery life, expandable SD memory, a better flash, and an old school 30-pin connector for your shiny new iPhone 5. You can have all those things if you're willing to pledge $75 to the iExpander project on Kickstarter.

The iExpander is a jack-of-all-trades case that crams a whole lot into a relatively small size. You're still going to add 6.3mm of chunk to your sleek phone, but the trade-off is pretty tempting.

Let's start with the flashy stuff. The case has an ultrathin CAP-XX supercapacitor that powers an LED flash that can make a big difference in the quality of your low-light photos. … Read more

COLOGNE, Germany -- Three words describe the Lexar Professional 400x SDXC UHS-I memory card: big, fast, and expensive.

The company is pitching the $900 card at those who need to shoot lots of 1080p or 3D video, a market noted for its capacity-gobbling files, intolerance for hiccups in data transfer, and deep pockets.

The card can transfer data at a sustained speed of 60MBps, and it will ship in October, the Micron subsidiary said. The company does offer faster cards with a 600x rating, but they top out at 64GB capacities.

As usual, ordinary photographers shouldn't bother getting excited … Read more

Nokia's new Lumia 920 smartphone is missing an SD card slot, but that was intentional.

Speaking with tech news site PC Pro, Nokia executive VP Kevin Shields said that a memory card slot would have ruined the clean design of the phone.

"We started with the premise that we wanted an uncompromised physical form," Shields told PC Pro. "To put an SD card slot in it would have defiled it."

The Lumia 820 comes with only 8GB of internal storage but includes a microSD card slot that can handle up to 32GB worth of data. … Read more

Dropbox users who find it a hassle getting photos off their camera and onto their online storage site now have a way to avoid the middleman.

The new Dropbox 1.4 software for Windows, OS X, or Linux can automatically upload photos not just from a camera, but from a smartphone, tablet, SD card, and just about any other gadget that houses your images.

How can Dropbox users set this up? Here's how it works in Windows:

First, install the new version of Dropbox. Then right-click the Dropbox icon in the System tray and select Preferences. You should see … Read more

Samsung is mass-producing a new series of microSD cards that it says are four times faster than the current generation.

Available in a 16GB version, the new UHS-1 microSD card will offer a maximum read speed of 80MB per second, according to Samsung's internal testings. That will provide a significant bump over today's advanced microSD cards with speeds of around 21MB per second.

In tech terms, the cards are made up of Samsung's 20 nanometer-class 64 gigabit toggle DDR 2.0 devices and use a Samsung controller that supports the ultra fast UHS-1 interface.… Read more

Toshiba has announced new SDXC and SDHC cards that support the UHS-1 high-speed interface--and the new Exceria brand name to go along with them.

The Exceria name is meant "to reflect a combination of 'excellent' and 'experience,'" Toshiba said in a statement this week, but I wouldn't have guessed that without being told. Too bad Sony got there first with Xperia.

The new cards come in three varieties. At the top of the heap are models that will arrive in July with read speeds of 95MBps and write speeds of 90MBps; they'll come in 8GB, 16GB, … Read more

It's been a rough week for the Cheapskate. The blog, I mean, not the man. (I'm doing fine.) First that super-cheap powerline Ethernet kit sold out in what seemed like minutes, then yesterday's free DVD ripper caused all kinds of confusion (as these things always seem to do, despite my best efforts at making the instructions clear).

But do I buckle? Do I bend? Hell, no! I come roaring back with a week's worth of goodies in a single post! Because no way can five deals sell out. Bring it on, universe!

1. This is probably … Read more