I don’t know that this title make you think off, but i couldn’t express better the subject. We’re talking about SD cards that are not what you’d expect them to be. Sparfun electronics accidentally discovered while looking inside an SD card that it actually contains a micro SD card soldered to the SD pins. The job looks like it is hand soldered so the guys from sparkfun think there must have been a huge batch of microSD cards and a perceived shortage of full size SD cards.
The Truth Behind SD Cards: [Link]
Adafruit Industries just announced their next kit: a SIM card reader. Using the kit, you can read or write any SIM card. You could use this for fun things like recovering deleted contacts and SMS messages. The kit looks like a very straight forward design (based on Dejan’s work); the only chip is a hex inverter and the board is powered by a regulated 9V battery.
With all through-hole components, it should be easy to assemble. You can talk to it using the board mounted serial port or connect to the extra pin header using an FTDI USB cable just like the Boarduino. The FTDI option is bus powered, so you won’t need the battery. ladyada has collected some resources in case you want to learn more about smart cards.
SIM card reader/writer: [Link] - [via]
The HandySwipe provides a portable magnetic card reader interface and display. It collects card data from a “Type 2″ card reader (shown here), and displays the data on a small character LCD screen. Type 2 stripes are by far the most common in use, such as on credit cards and drivers’ licenses.
The device can store up to 50 cards, runs on four AA’s, and has a serial connection to download its memory to your computer in CSV format. It can also download data in a raw bistream format compatable with StripeSnoop, so you can take advantage of StripeSnoop’s powerful parsing and analysis features (LRC error checking, backwards swipes, card type/contents/issuers/etc.)
Portable Magnetic Card Reader: [Link]
This news got my attention because I am a fan of flash memory and I’ve been waiting for some time a big capacity flash memory that can replace the Hard Drive from a computer. I don’t know if this memory could replace a Hard Drive but is definitely a big step forward. Samsung announced an advanced process to pack the maximum of 16 of the multi level cells just 30 nanometers. That means they are able to deliver 64 gigabits of flash memory onto one chip.
The process was called self-aligned double patterning technology (SaDPT). By using the process described above, Samsung can produce 128 GB NAND memory card. Consequently, the price for memory cards will drop, which is a good thing for the consumers. Also, the high storage cards could replace the traditional hard disks being more efficient. But we have to wait till the technology will be released, maybe in 2009.
A former Cisco Systems engineer is behind all these. He was thinking what good are digital cameras if many of the pictures they take remain forgotten on their memory cards because of complicated ways to upload them to computers. Convinced that users would pay for an easier way to upload their pictures, Koren left Cisco, assembled a team and founded Mountain View, California
The company raised $5.5 million from Silicon Valley firms Shasta Ventures and Opus Capital and the result is an orange 2-gigabyte memory card embedded with a Wi-Fi chip that allows cameras to automatically and wirelessly upload digital pictures. Priced at $99.99 the wifi memory card is already available on stores like Amazon and Wal-Mart.
Here is a few words about how Eye-Fi works: Camera owners set up their Eye-Fi account online and choose where they’d like to upload photos online and on their desktops. Photos can be sent to 17 photo-sharing and blogging sites, including iPhoto, Flickr, Shutterfly and TypePad. They then pop the Eye-Fi card into their camera’s memory card slot and snap away. A Wi-Fi chip (made by Santa Clara, Calif.-based Atheros) then communicates with their home network and automatically uploads photos to their computer and the Web. This is pretty simple.
As you may know this isn’t the only wifi camera technology available… there are other cameras available with integrated wi-fi technology but their price make’s them unaccessible to ordinary people. The coolness of Eye-Fi’s WiFi memory card aside, some analysts say the company’s real value derives from the software it’s developed to automatically send photos to multiple websites and locations on a computer. While uploading photos via WiFi can take longer than using your USB cable, it’s the simplicity that makes Eye-Fi more attractive to people.