With the latest flash drives capacity matching that of hard drives, only the high prices prevent consumers from making the switch to these storage devices.

Adtron recently unveiled its 2.5-inch flash disk products with storage capacities of 32GB, 96GB and 160GB equalling the capacities of the most notebook hard disk drives and making a viable option for the replacement of desktop PC hard drives dedicated to running the OS.

The emergence of these models looks set to lead a string of new solid state drives that the manufacturers are hoping will take market share away from the currently dominant hard disk drive format. Advances in NAND technology mean that the performances of these new drives are comparable to that of hard disk drives.  

Before you rush out and see if you can purchase one of these super slick drives, the 56GB Adtron Flashpak drives retail for around $16,000! Hopefully more affordable products from companies such as Sandisk (they currently have a  32GB SSD for $600) will help push the retail price down making them perfect replacements for the current OS favourite,Western Digital Raptor drives.

After two years Seagate is finally shipping its full-disk encryption product, and you can get your hands on it in a laptop from system vendor ASI.

The groundbreaking 2.5 inch Momentus 5400 FDE.2 (full disk encryption) has had a long and winding gestation, but is now set to be put on sale at the end of March in a real laptop, ASI’s C8015+, costing $2,150 (£1,100).

As well as on-the-fly encryption integrated into the drive itself using chip acceleration, the laptop also features a trusted platform module (TPM), and fingerprint reader, security add-ons that have added roughly 20 percent to the cost of what is otherwise a mainstream Intel Core 2 Duo laptop.

The drive to ship in the ASI machine will be the 80GB version, but 100Gb, 120Gb and 160Gb versions are also waiting in the wings, all based on a 3Gb/sec SATA interface and spinning at 5400 RPM.

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God bless the Fujitsu boffins and their ultra fast, ultra quiet storage devices. Their name might sound like a Jackie Chan kungfu move but don't let that fool you. The brand new MHW2 BJ series of 2.5-inch hard disk drives from Fujitsu are the latest 7,200 rpm  3.0GB/s  serial  ATA  marvels to come  from the land of the rising sun.

Featuring the world's highest storage capacity of 160 GB(3) for a 7,200 rpm 2.5" HDD, the new series is targeted primarily at high-performance notebook PCs. The new series will be available on global basis at the end of May, 2007.

In addition to achieving the world's leading storage capacity, MHW2160BJ is capable of data transmission speeds at up to 300 MB/s, the fastest rate in the industry. The series also features best-in-class acoustic noise level of 2.5 bels(4) at idle, and low-power consumption, operating at 2.3 watts or less when reading or writing data.

As the use of notebook PCs becomes even more popular, there is demand for high reliability notebook PC HDDs that offer high-speed and high-capacity performance on par with those used in desktops. The MHW2 BJ series meets this demand with a speed of 7,200 rpm, the highest of any serial ATA 2.5" HDD. These HDDs boast the high quality Fujitsu customers come to expect, and they can be easily incorporated into high-performance notebook PCs and flat panel desktop PCs, both of which are expected to gain popularity. They are also RoHS(5) compliant. 

Transcend unveiled yet another Flash Drive, but this time, there’s more to it. The newly launched JetFlash T2K USB 2.0 Flash Drive is the lightest flash drive in the world. It measures just 42.6mm x 16mm x 3.1mm, and weighs just 2g. This makes the Transcend JetFlash T2K Flash Drive the lightest portable memory storage in the world. This drive is strikingly similar in appearance to the OCZ Mini Kart flash drive but the similarity ends there.

The Transcend JetFlash T2K deploys an advanced sealing technique to assemble the memory chip and casing into the neat and classic packaging. Besides, its design includes a hook for use with the neck strap to prevent users from misplacing the JetFlash T2K Flash Drive.

The Transcend JetFlash T2K Flash Drive can be used with software applications of the JetFlash elite software package which is available for download on the Transcend website. Basically, the JetFlash elite software pacakage focuses mainly on the users needs allowing him to work efficiently.

The Transcend JetFlash elite includes eight functions namely, AutoLogin, PC-Lock, Favorites, Secret-Zip, E-mail, DataBackup, Online Update and My JetFlash.

The JetFlash T2K Flash Drive from Transcend supports Windows 98SE/2000/Me/XP/Vista, Mac OS 9.0 and Linux Kernel 2.4.2 or later. The new Flash drive from transcend is available in 1GB, 2Gb and 4Gb capacities.

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Seagate has announced a new mobile HDD product, called D.A.V.E., or Digital Audio Video Experience.

Seagate's latest product is a mobile hard drive, but one that's really compact and comes with Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, making it an ideal add-on storage solution for mobile devices such as phones or PDAs. The device can be kept anywhere — in your bag, for example — and still be accessible from your cellphone. You can buy a phone with a miniscule amount of internal memory and carry D.A.V.E. along for ample storage. You should even be able to use it with Bluetooth enabled car stereos!

The D.A.V.E. will make sense for music/video hungry users who are often limited to 1 GB or 2 GB capacities of memory cards in devices. It will also work well for media professionals, because it supports wired USB connectivity also, along with On-the-Go support for PC-less transfer of media.

The device runs on a rechargeable Li-Ion battery that claims around 10 hours of data transfer or up to 14 days of stand by.

D.A.V.E. will be available to OEMs around the second quarter of 2007.

Kingston unveiled the Kingston DataTraveler Mini with Migo at CES 2007 earlier this month. As the latest addition to Kingston 's family of miniature USB Flash drives, the DataTraveler Mini with Migo uses the Migo Software, Inc. technology to give consumers the ability to seamlessly transform any PC into their personalized workspace, making it one of the most convenient, customizable multifunction USB drives on the market.

Measuring 0.70 x 1.42 x 0.40 inches, the new DataTraveler Mini is a colorful alternative to traditional USB drives. Available in three colors, varying by capacity, the DataTraveler Mini with Migo is available in red for the 512 MB, light blue for the 1 GB and light purple for the 2 GB version. A sliding retractable USB connector, or 'capless' design, eliminates the possibility of losing the cover during transport.

The DataTraveler Mini with Migo automatically synchronizes data, keeps versions current and leaves no trace of personal data on other systems, giving consumers the freedom to work safely on multiple PCs.

Migo allows you to use your own Microsoft Outlook® Express/Mozilla Thunderbird email contents, Microsoft Internet Explorer/Mozilla Firefox settings, favorites, cookies and history, plus your files, folders and icons. Take DataTraveler Mini — Migo Edition anywhere you go — your field office, home office, Internet café, or school computer lab — virtually anywhere you have access to a PC with the applications you use. When you return to your PC, Migo synchronizes your data to keep you current.

The 2 GB capacity will be available mid-February. All Kingston USB drives are backed by a five-year warranty. The prices for the 512 MB and 1 GB version are $13 and $15 respectively. The price for the 2 GB version will be announced shortly.

S. T. Dupont have released a USB memory stick as part of their new reinterpreted signature diamond head pattern collection. The new diamond head pattern features a mixture of both large and medium sized diamond heads.

The USB memory stick is made of palladium and has a capacity of one gigabyte. S. T. Dupont also make a USB memory stick in their regular diamond head pattern but it only has a capacity of five hundred and twelve megabytes.

These drives set you back by 290Euros (inc VAT). Anyone interested??!

Kingmax, the leading Taiwan-based manufacturer of memory storage products, announced world's first 4GB SD 2.0 compatible microSDHC memory card. This card is manufactured using Samsung’s 63nm and offers twice the capacity of its rivals.

However, this card is not all about storage. It performs too! This Kingmax card uses Silicon Motion’s SMI 268 controller. This enables the card to support dual channel read speeds right up to 22.5MBps (150x) and read speeds of up to 127x (19.1MBps).

As more and more mobile manufacturers are adopting to MicroSD slots in their phones, this is something good as the latest mobile phones are always hungry for more storage. This card is ideal even for the latest digital cameras as the speed is enough to work with cameras.

No word on pricing and availability yet but its expected to ship very soon!

Seagate today unveiled a new version of its Savvio hard drive that it says is the world's fastest hard drive. Though it spins at the same 15,000rpm speed as the fastest desktop hard drives, the Savvio 15K is even quicker to access information due to its smaller, 2.5-inch frame: data can be found in as little as 2.9ms, Seagate claims.

Though not immediately intended for notebooks, the updated Savvio's similar characteristics also make it more power-efficent than its larger counterparts and consumes only 5.8 watts at idle versus the 8.4 or more seen on the desktop. HP says it has already begun shipping ProLiant servers with the drive in 36GB or 73GB models.

The 15K Savvio disc drive offers a number of advantages over 15K 3.5-inch drives including: size (70% smaller), weight (1.12 lbs less), power (30% lower), drive seek time (12% faster than any other drive) and reliability (1.6 million hour MTBF). These advantages translate into system level benefits never before seen in a 15K-rpm drive.

SanDisk, the leading flash memory maker, unveiled their very own Memory Stick Micro (M2) cards for Sony Ericsson mobile phones and other products that use the new smaller memory card format. SanDisk's M2 cards are available in larger sizes like 512MB, 1GB (MB2) and 2GB (GB1). The M2 format is compatible with recent Sony Ericsson phones such as the K790i, W710i and the Z550i.

SanDisk's M2 cards also come with an adapter that let you use the cards in devices that only take the older Memory Stick PRO Duo format. The 2GB card is expected to cost $119.99, while the 1GB one $54.99, followed by the 512MB for $44.99.