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WD & SanDisk launch two new portable SSDs for photographers, filmmakers and drone users

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When Western Digital announced the My Passport Wireless Pro in 2016, it was a nice little improvement over the original. But it still wasn’t quite what people were hoping for. It was still a very handy unit, it was still a little slow and underwhelming. Now, though, its latest iteration, the My Passport Wireless SSD takes things to a whole new level. As well as the obvious addition of the SSD, the Wi-Fi’s been upgraded, as has the built-in SD card reader.

And next up is a new SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD. I knew Western Digital buying up SanDisk would lead to great things. The new Extreme SSD offers the speed and performance you’d expect from an external solid state drive, but with a ton of durability.

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SanDisk’s new “Industrial” memory cards are designed for very extreme conditions

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We’ve seen memory cards that have survived the wash, explosions, four years in the ocean and more. But as if memory cards weren’t tough enough already, SanDisk just had to go and make them tougher. Their new line of Industrial and Automotive cards designed to stand up to the intense extremes to which they’re exposed.

The Automotive SD is designed for use within vehicles and drones. The Industrial SD, Industrial microSD and Industrial XI are intended for more mainstream use. The standard Industrual can withstand temperatures of between -13°F (-25°C) and 185°F (85°C). While the top end remains the same, the Automotive and Industrial XI cards are rated down to as ridiculous low of -40°F (which is also -40°C).

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Lexar to carry on under new ownership with potential grand plans for the future

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There was a lot of upset with the recent announcement that Micron were to discontinue the Lexar brand. A lot of previous and potential customers became concerned. Is support going away? Should they switch to a different brand? If they buy now, are their warranties still good? I know quite a few photographers who made the overnight switch to SanDisk without a second thought.

But now, it seems that Lexar will be just fine. Micron have sold the brand to Chinese flash storage company, Longsys. As a leader in consumer flash storage, it seems that the Lexar brand is definitely staying. Their mission is “to make Lexar the go-to brand for high-performance removable storage”. They also say they’ll be expanding on it to provide even more solutions in today’s big data and wireless landscape.

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Western Digital launched its first portable SSD drive since merge with SanDisk

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Many thought Western Digital were a bit stuck in the times, clinging onto HDD technology. All the others were making the big push towards solid state, especially Seagate, and WD seemed to lag behind. Then, last year, Western Digital completed its acquisition of memory card manufacturer, SanDisk.

Now, Western Digital have unveiled its first portable SSD; The My Passport SSD. It’ll come in three capacities of 256GB, 512GB and 1TB, with a Type C USB3.1 interface. Set to compete directly with the Samsung T3 line of mini portable SSDs, it could see the prices dropping sharply over the next little while.

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Western Digital becomes one stop shop for digital storage, completes acquisition of SanDisk

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In an effort to branch out from the spinning disc technology of its hard drives, Western Digital have announced that they have completed their acquisition of SanDisk.

In a deal costing Western Digital $17 billion in cash and shares, it puts the company in a great position to compete with companies like Samsung in the solid state memory market.

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World’s Fastest microSDXC UHS-II Card Released by SanDisk – Up tu 275MB/s

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As some of the devices we use as photographers start to get smaller and less obtrusive, so do their storage formats.  While their physical size is getting smaller, however, the data they’re collecting and recording becomes more demanding.

Going from basic stills to 720p, then to 1080p, and now with 4K starting to become standard in many new devices being released, they’re becoming more demanding than ever.

The days of  smaller storage formats like microSD being relegated to simply storing contacts in your mobile device are long gone.

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Western Digital will pay $19 billion to acquire SanDisk

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About a week ago reports began circulating that SanDisk is looking to be bought out, with Micron Technology and Western Digital both showing interest.

Several hours ago it was officially announced the latter was successful in sealing the deal and the leading hard drive manufacturer will pay $19 billion in cash and stock to buy the leading flash storage solutions company.

With WD’s hard disk drives and SanDisk’s solid state drives and other flash storage products, the combined company will offer a broad range of products from the consumer level to datacenters.

The board of directors of both companies have approved the deal and it should go through in the third quarter of 2016, pending the approval of SanDisk’s shareholders.

How will this move affect consumers?

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Microdia Announce World’s First 512GB MicroSD Card

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The record for the highest capacity MicroSD card was smashed and surprisingly the card was not revealed by SanDisk, but rather by a company called Microdia – located just a few stands away at the Computex tradeshow.

The Microdia Xtra Elite will use version 4.0 of the Secure Digital standard, meaning it will have an additional row of pins on the back of the card. Thanks to this extra row, the Ultra High Speed (UHS) bus will be capable of reaching data transfer rates of up to 300MB/s.

Older devices, not supporting the SD 4.0 standard and its second row of pins, will still be able to use the card at maximum speeds of approximately 150MB/s.

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Watch How to Squeeze 350,000 Photos on a 512GB Memory Card

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It’s been over a year since the first 512GB memory cards were announced, but it was usually their price that drew most of the attention, and it’s quite understandable why considering they can cost more than some DSLRs.

While we all knew that 512GB is massive, Jared Polin (aka FroKnowsPhoto) really drives it home in this video. After sharing with his viewers that the D4s can shoot over 13,000 RAW files, he was asked how many JPEGs could fit in the card.

It took a while for the card to load due to its ridiculous capacity but, the results show that some people will never again have to swap their memory card. EVER.

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