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Pretec, a maker of CompactFlash cards including very high-capacity ones, on Tuesday brought the speed of CF cards to a new high.

(Credit: Pretec)

The company unveiled what we believe to be the world's first CF that offers speed up to 666x, which translates to about 100MBps. This is about four times the speed of a typical CF card and getting close to the theoretical maximum speed of the CF specification, which is 133MBps.

(To further increase the maximum speed of CF cards, the CompactFlash Association has released the new generation of the CF specification, called CFast, which breaks the 133MBps speed limit by using SATA II architecture that allows for speeds of up to 3Gbps while keeping the small and popular original CF mechanical form factor.)

The new Pretec 666x CF card will come in metal housing with a ruggedized construction. Pretec says the new card can resist impact and shock and is at least 10 times more durable than a typical CF card.

The new CF card comes in capacities ranging from 4GB to 64GB and will be available in April. Currently its pricing is unclear.

The LG CF360 (pictured) replaces the LG CU515.

(Credit: LG)

We told you about the LG CF360 yesterday and how its launch was imminent. Well, it just launched, and, indeed, it has all the features we mentioned and even more. These include but are not limited to a 1.3-megapixel camera, access to AT&T Mobile Music, AT&T Navigator, AT&T Video Share and Cellular Video, Bluetooth. It's available now for $29.99 after a two-year agreement and a $50 mail-in rebate.

The LG CF360 (pictured) replaces the LG CU515.

(Credit: LG)

LG seems to be planning a couple more handsets for AT&T. There's the LG Secret, which we talked about a week or so ago, and now apparently there'll be the LG CF360, a replacement to the LG CU515.

Features include a 1.3-megapixel camera, a microSD card slot, and AT&T Navigator support. No word on pricing, but we think it'll be available shortly.

(Via Engadget Mobile)

(Credit: LG)

It looks like the LG CF750 Secret may be coming over to AT&T, according to this listing on LG's U.S. site. Hopefully it'll have many of the features found on its Asian/European counterpart, like the 5-megapixel camera, 3G, a touch-sensitive display, support for shooting video at 120fps into DivX format, Bluetooth, a music player, and also access to Google products like GMail and Google Maps.

No word on pricing or availability of course, but if it's already showing up on LG's site, we could see it soon.

(Via Engadget Mobile)

Pretec announced on Tuesday its latest CompactFlash cards, which are substantially faster and higher capacity than other available CF cards.

The new cards come in two speeds: 233x (35MB per second) and 333x (50MBps), which is for now, as far as we know, the fastest for CF cards. The 233x model comes in 64GB and 100GB capacities while the 333x model comes in 32GB and 50GB capacities.

These cards can be used with digital cameras or mobile devices or reconfigured to work as solid-state hard drives. As I blogged recently, this is also good news for those who want to make their own SSDs.

There's a catch, though, and it's huge: the price. Pretec 233x 64GB and 333x 32GB CF cards are available this month with the hefty price tags of $399 and $630, respectively. The 233x 100GB and 333x 50GB, on the other hand, will be available by the end of the year. It's unclear for now how much they will cost but you probably don't want to know.

The CR2T has the same form factor as a regular 2.5-inch SATA hard drive.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)

No moving parts, shock resistant, and incredibly short seek time are some of many benefits you get from a solid-state hard drive. However, for now, the price for a SSD is so incredibly high that calling "insanely priced" might not be an over statement. It's hard to justify (or to afford for that matter) spending about $1,000 for only 64GB when you can pay about 10 percent of that cost for a regular 200GB laptop hard drive.

So how about making our own SSD?

Sans Digital just released the CR2T CompactFlash card enclosure that might make this possible. The enclosure has the same form factor and works the same as a regular 2.5-inch SATA hard drive. It can hold two CF cards and can even configure them in either RAID 1 (mirroring) or nRAID (spanning), where the two CF cards are combined into one.

The enclosure can take two CF cards in RAID 1 or nRAID configuration.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)

The enclosure costs $99, and a 32GB CF card costs about $150 that would make your homemade SSD's price about $400, which is about half the price of regular 64GB SSD. Of course, you can choose to use smaller size CF cards for much cheaper.

However, there's a catch. Currently the fastest CF card only offers the speed of 40MB per second, which is very fast compared with ATA hard drives, but it is still slower than SATA SSDs (up to 100MB per second or more). So the CR2T is probably not a good choice to be the main hard drive for your laptop. However, it can make a great secondary hard drive or be turned into an external hard drive where data integrity is the main concern.

(Credit: Panasonic)

Panasonic today added a tablet UMPC to its rugged Toughbook line. Sure, you could buy six Asus Eee PCs and still have some walking around money left for the price of one $2,499 Toughbook CF-U1, but we doubt you'll grab your lunch pail and Eee PC and head down to the mine. Panasonic's latest Toughbook is, of course, built for use in the field. It's "engineered for the walking worker," according to Panasonic, and comes loaded with features.

The 5.6-inch LED backlit LCD touch screen is designed for viewing in direct sunlight, and below it is a backlit thumb keyboard divided by a number pad and arrow keys in its middle. On the right side, you can see a hand strap, but should you choose not to tether yourself to the Toughbook CF-U1, you can rest easy knowing it's been engineered to survive a four-foot drop and to resist rain, spills, dust, and vibration. It ships with two batteries, which, according to Panasonic, adds up to 9 hours of running time. The unit measures 7.2 inches wide by 5.9 inches deep by 2.2 inches high. It weighs a trim 2.3 pounds, which includes lugging around both batteries. It's completely fanless and uses a solid-state hard drive and an Intel Atom CPU, all of which should aid battery life.

In addition to a 2-megapixel Webcam and fingerprint scanner, it also features barcode and RFID readers and GPS. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 3G-mobile-broadband are also onboard. Many of these features are listed as options, so they most likely will add to the $2,499 price. Panasonic expects the Toughbook CF-U1 to ship in August.

Full specs after the break. ... Read more

It's languished for a while, but Rob Galbraith's extremely useful and detailed database of performance tests on CompactFlash and SD media has just been updated. If you've got burning questions about whether it's worth the extra bucks for a flashier flash card, this is the place to look. Recent additions include tests with the Canon EOS 40D and Nikon D300.

(Credit: Kingston)

If you own a digital SLR camera or some other device that uses CompactFlash media, now's your chance to stock up on storage: Adorama has a 4GB Kingston CF card for $0 after a $40 mail-in rebate. Shipping runs $5.

Yeah, there's a rebate, but at least we're talking quality media here: Kingston is a top brand, and the company backs the cards with a lifetime warranty. Plus, the rebate itself is through Kingston, not Adorama, so it's probably a safe bet. If you're interested, don't wait: The rebate deal expires Friday (February 8), but I'll be surprised if the inventory lasts the day.

(Via Gizmodo)