Storage specialists SanDisk will release a new addition to their product range next month – and we think that PocketPC users will get quite excited about it. It’s an SD memory card with a 802.11b transceiver built in.
The low-power card is compatible with devices running the PocketPC 2002, PocketPC 2003 and Windows Mobile 2003 operating systems and will provide a theoretical 11Mbps bandwidth over a range of about 800 feet.
SanDisk’s marketing manager Dave Smurthwaite made a bold statement with the card’s unveiling: “We think we’re about a year ahead of competitors.” So expect the market to be flooded with competitors’ versions in about four months’ time.
The card won’t be available for another month, but when it does appear it’ll be about US$130 (€107). Not only does that work out at about US$20 (€16.50) cheaper than buying a memory card and a WiFi adapter, users get the added convenience of only using one slot on their PDA.
SanDisk
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Fraser Lovatt
Fraser Lovatt has spent the last fifteen years working in publishing, TV and the Internet in various capacities, and believes that they will be seperate platforms for at least a while yet. His main interests at the moment are exploring where Linux is taking home entertainment and how technology is conferring technical skills on more and more people.
Fraser Lovatt was born in the same year that 2001: A Space Odyssey was delighting and confusing people in the cinemas, and developed a lifelong love of technology as soon as he realised that things could be taken apart, sometimes put back together again, but mostly left in bits or made into something the original designer hadn't quite planned upon.
At school he was definitely in the ZX Spectrum/Magpie/BMX camp, rather than the BBC Micro/Blue Peter/well-behaved group. This is all deeply ironic as he later went on to spend nine years working at the BBC.
After a few years of working as a bookseller in Scotland, ("Back when it was actually a skilled profession" he'll tell anyone still listening), he moved to England for reasons he can't quite explain adequately to himself. After a couple of publishing jobs punctuated by sporadic bursts of travelling and photography came the aforementioned nine years at the BBC where he specialised in internet technologies and video.
These days his primary interests are Java, Linux, videogames and pies - and if they're not candidates for convergence, then what is?
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