If you thought that anything with EXTREME in the title meant that it was the absolute best of its kind, think again! SanDisk’s Extreme CompactFlash cards have just been karate-chopped by its own newly-announced line of Extreme Pro cards. Extreme… PRO!

The cards come in capacities between 16GB and 64GB and feature maximum read/write speeds of 90MB/s, “doubling the performance from previous SanDisk high-end camera memory cards,” according to the company’s press release.

That 90MB/s transfer speed is on par with many solid state drives, so maybe we’ll start seeing some super slim systems featuring these new cards from enterprising modders in the coming months.

They’re not cheap, though. Not… at… all. The 16GB version has an MSRP of $300 while the 64GB model tops out at a wallet-exploding $800. The cards are shipping out now and should hit retailers in the near future. If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, SanDisk also announced availability of spec-bumped Extreme cards. They’ll do up to 60MB/s and will be available in capacities between 8GB and 32GB, priced from $130 to $375.

“We are no longer planning to pursue the acquisition as there has been no progress since we withdrew our offer as of Oct. 22, 2008,” said Samsung, the world’s top maker of memory chips, in a filing with the Korea Exchange.

The control pad’s now square instead of round and there’s a microSD expansion slot included for good measure, so you’ll be able to add up to 16 extra gigabytes if you like. At around 15 hours, battery life seems to be about the same as before and there’s still a built-in FM tuner, voice recorder, and extended file support (MP3, FLAC, Ogg, Audible, Rhapsody, etc.). The player also supports SanDisk’s new slotRadio initiative.

The Clip+ will be available starting tomorrow in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB for $40, $50, and $70, respectively.

Product Page [SanDisk via CNET]

HTC may have won the morning, but SanDisk also dropped a bit of news that may interest you. Its got a 32GB SDHC cards, which is due for release this August, that is said to be the world’s fastest, with speeds topping out at 30MB/s.

The card, which has been available in capacities of 4, 8, 16GB for a little while now, is being launched with an eye toward the new MacBook Pro. And now that all these digital SLRs are coming out with support for HD video! See, there’s plenty of use for an SDHC card so fast.

No word yet from SanDisk on how much it wants for this 32GB model. The 16GB model goes for $195, so expect to pay a lot.

As king of the hill, Apple has nowhere to go but down. They need to continue to improve on their core offering, which will make them necessarily averse to taking too many risks with new product features or functionality. SanDisk, on the other hand, can afford to be a little more freewheeling — if not outright unconventional — with their features and functions, because they have room to move up the totem pole.

The Sansa line isn’t even SanDisk’s core product: that would be their flash memory business, from which they earn substantial revenues from patent licensing. So SanDisk has even more latitude to get funky in the portable music player market. Sometimes being #2 ain’t so bad.

Via CNN Money.

Short Version: SanDisk’s slotRadio player provides good value as it pertains to content, with the $99 kit featuring 1,000 popular music tracks and an attractive hardware player. The “radio” portion of the slotRadio name should be given close attention — you can skip tracks but you can’t go backwards, and everything’s played in random order, just like conventional radio.

Long Version: If you read CrunchGear regularly, you’re probably savvy enough to know how to load songs on an MP3 player. If that’s the case, the slotRadio player isn’t for you — unless you’re open to the idea of a portable device with a ton of music on it that you didn’t download yourself and can’t access track by track.

I can’t stress enough that the slotRadio player is NOT an MP3 player. It looks like an MP3 player, it feels like an MP3 player, and it works like an MP3 player, but it’s somehow not an MP3 player. I spent the first ten minutes going “What the f@%k was SanDisk thinking?” before realizing that I needed to look at the concept from a lay person’s point of view, not the point of view of a handsome technology blogger.

So here’s the deal: you pay $99 and you get the cracker-sized slotRadio player and a microSD card filled with 1,000 popular songs from Billboard’s music charts. The player has an On/FM/Off switch, volume up and down buttons, a combination next track/play/pause button, and two buttons for toggling back and forth between playlists. The hardware looks and feels pretty nice. The brushed aluminum body is solid and there’s a sturdy belt clip on the back side. The 1.5-inch OLED screen is greyscale but is super readable and there are cool little animations depending upon which playlist you’ve selected.

Think of the playlists as “stations” — there’s Rock, Country, R&B/Hip Hop, Contemporary, Alternative, Workout, and Chill — with all 1,000 songs appearing on one or more of the playlists. The player itself has no on-board storage, so you can either buy preloaded cards from SanDisk or you can load your own tunes on a blank microSD card.

You start playing a particular playlist and if you don’t like the song you’re listening to, you can skip it. If you move to the another playlist, whichever song you’re currently listening to will pick up where it left off when you select the playlist again. You can not, however, go back to a previous song no matter which playlist you’ve selected. Similar to how the real-life radio works, things just move forward and in real time. The only difference is that you can skip tracks you don’t like. It’s very similar to online streaming audio services like Slacker or Pandora, except that you get unlimited skips.

This, in my opinion, is the biggest strike against the slotRadio idea. It’s simple to a fault. The two big left and right buttons on the face of the device are used to navigate between the seven playlists when they should be used to toggle back and forth between songs. Instead, the small-ish play/pause button on the right side of the device is used to skip tracks. Even the noobiest of noobs will wonder why they can’t go back to the song they just accidentally skipped over. If there’s a second iteration of the player, SanDisk should seriously consider letting people go back to recently-skipped tracks.

Once I got the hang of this newfangled concept, I immediately thought, “Oh boy, I’m gonna dump these 1,000 songs on my computer.” No, no, no I’m not. The microSD card that comes with the slotRadio player is locked down tighter than Peter Ha’s bicycle and the music on that particular card can only be played on the slotRadio player. I’m sure that was a concession by SanDisk in exchange for being able to sell 1,000 songs for under $100 when the regular bill would be ten times that amount. If you want to keep these songs, you’ll have to record them in real time — hey, just like how regular radio works! — until someone figures out how to crack the card. To SanDisk’s credit, other microSD albums and compilations that it’s selling are DRM-free and can be copied willy-nilly.

All that aside, what you end up getting is a setup that’s good for a) people who don’t care/can’t/are too lazy to download a bunch of stuff and transfer it to a regular player, b) an okay impulse buy at an airport, and c) something to hook up to your stereo if you’re having a party and want to make sure that there’s music to suit anyone’s tastes. I’d consider myself a fairly picky music snob and there are enough tracks on this microSD card to keep me happy and listening for quite some time. There’s plenty of crap, to be sure, but it’s not all crap.

Battery life is rated at around 13 hours, which is accurate (I left the thing playing from 9PM to about 10:15 AM) and the kit includes earbuds, a gel skin case, and a USB cable that plugs into an included AC adapter. The player has no menu; there’s no shuffle or repeat settings, no equalizer, none of that stuff. The audio quality is okay but not great. You get a more-than-capable FM tuner, as well, and you can easily add station presets.

All in all, it’s an interesting concept that serves to bridge the gap between those who download and those who don’t. The interesting thing to watch will be if there are enough of those who don’t that’ll be willing to dip their feet in the digital music pond without getting overwhelmed. While only being able to skip forward over tracks is this whole idea’s Achilles heel, if SanDisk can sell the overall concept to the masses, it just might catch on.

slotRadio [SanDisk]

Be on the lookout for fancy, new memory cards from SanDisk. They’ll go by the name of SanDisk Special Delivery Card, or SDC when speaking in mixed company, and are basically gussied up microSD cards. SanDisk made ‘em for people like Verizon Wireless and AT&T to load up with hot, exclusive content. Ring tones, videos and the like, I suspect.

These hot little numbers will make their début at CTIA in Las Vegas this week, where our own Greg will be, running around like it’s his job.

I couldn’t find any photos of the cards, so I’ve gone ahead and fashioned my own interpretation.

To be fair, here’s a real photo of the device, which is actually called the SanDisk Service Delivery Card. I had confused it with the Sam and Dave Special Delivery Show, which airs on Sirius XM from time to time.

Most likely it’ll be the same situation as last year, when Sandisk told Samsung to take a hike. Money will no doubt talk, but Sandisk is looking for $60 a share, and Samsung is only willing to pay $25 currently. Kind of a gap there.

About two weeks ago SanDisk announced their refreshed ImageMate memory card readers and most times we’d pass right by it without a second thought, but these seemed different. The transfer speeds that SanDisk boasted seemed intriguing and the one-touch transfer button seemed like a novel idea, but it’s all a sham, folks. Well, we haven’t tested the transfer speeds yet, but the transfer button is pretty rubbish.

It’s supposed to open images up in Photoshop or upload to Flickr, but the transfer button app itself sucks something fierce. It doesn’t allow you to customize which application or website to dump images into and the image that’s opened/loaded is user defined. You can’t load more than one at a time. The image I choose uploads lightning fast in Preview.app, but I don’t want it to open up in Preview.app. Maybe it’s a Mac thing, but so far this feature is a total sham. I’ll be testing it on a Windows machine in a bit.

On the flipside, these ImageMate readers look great. The USB-powered readers sit atop metal stands and are held secure by magnets. You have to be rather gentle when the reader is placed on top of the stands, though. The magnets aren’t that strong, so the reader could easily be knocked off its perch. The transfer button is inconspicuously placed on the top corner of each reader by the card slots, which is nice but only the back half of the button works. The front half of the transfer button doesn’t move.

All in all, they’re still card readers and in that capacity they work fine. I’ll have to tinker with the transfer button settings and test speeds in the coming days with a full review sometime in the near future.

Product Page

Product Page

SanDisk is claiming that their ImageMate memory card readers have wicked fast transfer speeds.

The All-In-One memory card reader can reach speeds of up to 34 megabytes per second (MB/s)1 when using a SanDisk Extreme® IV 45MB/s CompactFlash® card, and the Multi-Card reader is capable of up to 30MB/s2 read and 27 MB/s write data transfer rates when using a SanDisk Extreme® III 30MB/s Edition SDHC™ card.

I’m sure it’s quick, but I’m not so pedantic that I would be testing transfer speeds. It looks pretty killer with the black and silver scheme (for a rendering) and I’m interested in the one touch transfer feature that launches and dumps images to apps like Photoshop or Flickr.

The All-In-One retails for $30 and it supports SD, SDHC, miniSDHC, MMC, MS, MSPD, xD and CF. The Multi-Card reader plays nice with xD, MS, SD, SDHC and MMC and goes for $20.

SanDisk thinks the current setup of plugging your mp3 player into you computer to load up on songs is far too complicated. Okay. That’s why it’s using CES to introduce the slotRadio, a 1GB flash-based music player that comes pre-loaded songs.

The slotRadio’s 1GB of storage holds such 1,000 songs. Big songs, too. Like, Billboard-big. SanDisk will sell separate flash cards: cards organized by artist, genre, etc.

SanDisk wants $99.99 (say that price in your best QVC voice) for the device, which has a 1.5 OLED screen. For the anti-iPod in you.

A better pic should be forthcoming. Sorry about that.

via Oled-Display

[Editor's note: We'd like to ask that SanDisk send pictures of the actual objects they will be selling and not CG renders. Unless you guys live in Immaculate City in Uncanny Valley and those are the real thing. In which case you're creeping us out, SanDisk. -Ed.]

USB drives come pre-loaded with tons of security rubbish these days and if you’re a Mac user that want to utilize these options, the SanDisk Cruzer Enterprise is for you. Both the PC and Mac users can use the tools that includes a secure, encrypted storage area to hid all your little nasties protected by 256-bit AES encryption. The Cruzer Enterprise is available in 1-, 2-, 4-, and 8-GB flavors now.

Sandisk announced a 16GB micro SDHG card back in September and is now followed by Toshiba, whose model (SD-ME016GA) will be released in Japan in January next year [JP]. According to Asahi Shimbun [JP], one of Japan’s biggest newspapers, it will cost around $200 (Toshiba itself speaks of open prices).

Toshiba also announced two SDHC cards. The SD-C16GT6 holds 16GB and will cost $200 when it hits Japanese stores in April next year. An 8GB model (SD-C08GT6) will be available in Japan for around $100 next month.

Toshiba hasn’t said yet if or when the cards will be available outside Japan.

Avoid the stampede at Walmart next Friday by picking up that Memorex Blu-ray player for $149 at Buy.com (free shipping, too). While you’re at it, you can also get the first-gen iPod Shuffle-like Sandisk Sansa Express for $10.99 (refurbished).

Hurry, though. These things are going to sell out quickly.

LINK [Buy.com]

Oooh, that’s a good deal. Woot.com has the 2GB SanDisk Sansa Clip (see our review here) for a paltry $15.99 + $5 shipping. It’s refurbished, yes, but come on: you could spend on coffee, donuts, smokes, and sodie pop before you even make it into work. Why not pick up a little MP3 player instead? Makes a great stocking stuffer, too.

Sandisk Clip 2GB MP3 Player [Woot.com]

Owners of the SanDisk Cruzer line of flash drives might be interested to learn that its now possible to launch the Veoh Web Player directly from the U3 interface that pops up when the drive is inserted into a USB port. You can use the Veoh software to schedule and download various types of web video directly to your Cruzer drive to create and ever-changing, on-the-go content library.

The Veoh feature will be available on new Cruzer flash drives and can also be installed separately onto existing Cruzer drives by going to www.sandisk.com/veoh and downloading an update. Full press release after the jump.

SanDisk and Veoh Networks Launch Portable Video Web Player for SanDisk Cruzer® USB Flash Drives

The Veoh™ Web Player for SanDisk Enables Portable and Secure Video Consumption on Any PC

MILPITAS, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) and Veoh Networks Inc. (www.veoh.com) today announced the availability of the Veoh™ Web Player for SanDisk, a portable video player that is initially available only on SanDisk® Cruzer® USB flash drives. The Veoh Web Player for SanDisk, allows on-the-go viewers to browse, search, and enjoy millions of videos available through Veoh.com on any computer¹at any time – including TV shows, movies, web series and popular independently-produced content from all over the Web.

The Veoh Web Player combined with SanDisk Cruzer USB flash drives provides users with a broad selection of video content on Veoh.com and the power of a peer-to-peer client in a single portable and password-protected application. With the Veoh Web Player’s Library and Import features, users can easily manage their personal video collection, both online and offline. When permitted by the publisher, users can schedule downloads of videos to their library to watch later or at another location. U3™ Smart technology, which was developed by SanDisk, allows applications to run from a SanDisk Cruzer USB flash drive, without having to be installed on a computer.

The Veoh Web Player and SanDisk Cruzer USB flash drive offer enhanced security features as well. Password protection on SanDisk Cruzer USB flash drives prevent unauthorized access to personal video files in case the drive is lost or stolen. And since U3 Smart technology doesn’t require a separate video application to be installed, users can enjoy video content without leaving any traces on the host PC.

“The Veoh Web Player is a perfect companion for SanDisk’s Cruzer USB flash drives because our customers often want to watch videos when they’re away from home and it often isn’t possible to install software on the computer itself,” said Yaniv Lavi, Director of Product Marketing for the consumer retail business unit at SanDisk. “Our SanDisk Cruzer USB Drives are ideal for watching and downloading videos because they come in capacities of up to 16GB², are technologically capable of streaming high definition content and come equipped with security features that help protect user privacy.”

“SanDisk’s reputation for innovation in flash storage devices and portable applications makes them the ideal distribution partner to make Veoh’s extensive Internet video services more portable for our viewers,” said Joshua Metzger, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development for Veoh Networks. “SanDisk Cruzer USB flash drives are ideal for video and Veoh.com users. This partnership puts Veoh in their pocket – so videos are ready to enjoy whenever and wherever they plug in.”

Users who previously purchased SanDisk Cruzer^® USB flash drives can download the Veoh Web Player onto their drives for free by visitingwww.sandisk.com/veoh or by accessing the SanDisk Cruzer Program Wizard of the U3 Launch pad. More information on U3 is available atwww.sandisk.com/U3.

Quick Version: Starting at under $40, the Sansa Clip from SanDisk makes an excellent wearable MP3 player if you’re looking for something small that still has plenty of features.

Overview and Features:

• 1.35 x 2.17 x 0.65 inches (W x H x D), less than an ounce heavy
• MP3, WMA, WMA subscription services, and Audible file playback
• OLED screen
• Built-in FM tuner with 40 presets
• Built-in microphone for voice recording
• Rechargeable battery lasts about 15 hours
• Pricing: $39.99 (MSRP) for 1GB storage, $59.99 for 2GB, $79.99 for 4GB, $99.99 for 8GB. You can find them online for about $10 to $20 cheaper, though.

It’s good for…

…Windows users, people who use subscription music services, people who still listen to the radio, and people who want a small MP3 player with a screen. The Clip has been (and will continue to be) compared to the iPod Shuffle and while I don’t want to get into a whole Mac versus Windows thing here, I’m happy to report that the Clip is a perfectly capable digital audio player that can be clipped to your clothing like the Shuffle yet it has features the Shuffle doesn’t, such as an FM tuner, voice recording, subscription music compatibility, and a screen.

Setting up and using the Clip is easier than falling in love. You plug it into your computer’s USB port, it starts charging, and an explorer window pops up allowing you to drag and drop files onto it. It syncs with Windows Media Player as well.

Sound quality is excellent for such a small device (bring your own headphones) and battery life is long enough that it never seems to be an issue. I’ve used the Clip on and off for the past month or so and I think I’ve only recharged it once or twice. The little OLED screen is nice to have and navigating the UI works well enough, although the buttons on the player are a tad bit confusing at first. Nothing serious, though.

It’s not so good for…

…Mac users and/or people who don’t need any features beyond basic music playback. It’s about as simple as it can get without actually being an iPod Shuffle, but you still do have to navigate the menus to get your music playing and the Clip is a tiny bit larger than the Shuffle. Not a huge deal either way, but there you have it. On its own and without being compared to other MP3 players, though, I find the Clip to be an excellent choice for the money.

I wish it had…

…the headphone jack mounted on the top of the device instead of on the right-hand side, and a flip-out USB connection. The headphone jack isn’t a deal-breaker by any means. I just found it to be kind of awkward for some reason. I do wish the USB connection was built into the Clip, though. I think Apple had the right idea with the first-generation Shuffle’s built-in USB connection — it’d be cool if the Clip had a switchblade USB connection similar to the one found on the Flip video cameras.

Finally, I like the included voice recording feature but it would have been cool to extend it to recording the radio as well, kind of like the iRiver players. Not that I’d ever actually use that feature, but some people might. Just a thought.

Recommendation:

If you’re a Windows user looking for the best bang for your buck, the Clip is a hard player to pass up. It’s definitely a good choice for working out and for people who use subscription services. The voice recording and FM tuner are nice additions, too.

Product Page [SanDisk.com]

Nice and simple. The SanDisk Sansa Clip now comes with 8GB of memory for $99. It still has the same OLED screen, 15 hours of battery, and yes, a clip. Available now.

SANDISK ROLLS OUT NEW 8GB VERSION OF THE POPULAR AND TINY SANSA(R) CLIP MP3 PLAYER

Capacity increase doubles available space on tiniest player in Sansa line

WHO/WHAT 

SanDisk Corporation, a leading seller of MP3 players in the United States, today announced a capacity increase for the Sansa(R) Clip MP3 Player. One of the most popular flash-based players in SanDisk’s Sansa line of MP3 players, this tiny Sansa(R) Clip has a new capacity point of 8 gigabytes (GB).

The new 8GB Sansa Clip can store up to 4,000 songs and runs for 15 hours on its rechargeable battery.

WHEN

The new, black 8GB Sansa Clip is expected to be in stores and online (www.sansa.com) in the U. S. the week of November 10th with an MSRP of $99.99.

MORE

The matchbox-sized Sansa Clip can fit into the palm of the hand and clip onto clothing and a perfect holiday gift for people who love music on the go, including runners, walkers, or gym goers.

The Sansa Clip stands above the leading wearable music player because of its bright OLED color screen – allowing users to select the music they hear, not just wait for songs to come around at random.

The Sansa Clip boasts a long list of advanced features, including:

• Audio formats: support for MP3, WMA, WAV and Audible audio books.
• Music services: support for many music download and subscription services, including Rhapsody To Go(R), Napster, eMusic and others.
• Recording: built-in microphone for voice recording.
• FM radio: built-in FM tuner, with user option to create
• station presets.
• Accessories: earphones and USB cable.

The featherweight Sansa Clip, weighing only 0.9 ounces, comes with a clip that makes it easy to attach the device to clothing, a backpack or purse. The clip is detachable, so the device can become even smaller when the clip isn’t needed.

Sansa Clip Family Pricing

The Sansa Clip continues to be available in 1GB capacity with an MSRP of $39.99, 2GB capacity with an MSRP of $59.99 and 4GB with an MSRP of $79.99. The 1GB Sansa Clip is available in black; the 2GB Sansa Clip
is available in black, red, pink and blue; the 4GB is available in silver and the 8GB is available in black.

The Sansa Clip requires a computer running Windows XP or Windows Vista.