Okay, attention all business backpackers: If you’re looking for a storage drive that you can take with you anywhere despite rain, shine or mudslides, look no further than the Verbatim Store’n’Go Plus. You won’t be the only one wearing a suit or traveling into unknown destinations; this sturdy, heavy duty USB comes with a “suit” to protect it, too, and it can travel anywhere with you.

Remember when we announced Verbatim’s release of the marvelously tiny Tuff’n’Tiny? It’s the “penny” drive, smallest USB ever created, that fits, barely noticeable, right on the keychain. Well, the Store’n’Go Plus is a little bigger, but it can also fit right on the keychain, and it has a flexible but tough cover to protect all your important files.

This all-purpose USB drive is a keeper, whether you’re a photographer out on the trail, business person roughing the office, student traversing classes or dirt biker writer. Available in sizes from 4 GB to 32 GB and starting out at $19.99, this USB drive is an affordable and durable investment. This puppy has USB 2.0 capabilities and connects with any USB port. Plus, just like most Verbatim products, it’s backed by a Lifetime Warranty! No planned obsolence here, folks.

The Consumer Electronics Show is an annual gathering of companies unveiling their latest techno-gadgets for all consumers to enjoy. With 140,000 visitors and 2,700 exhibitors in the flashiest place on the planet, Las Vegas, it’s nothing less than a 4-day long spectacle, a giant toy room and a zoo full of the latest and greatest.

Here are some of the most interesting highlights:

1. Earbuds that Monitor Heart Rate:

Gym fanatics and runners are going to love this one. Instead of having to deal with all the extra weight and wires that come with carrying a heart rate monitor around the chest or arm, plus an iPod tucked into an arm strap with headphones, a company called Valencell demoed some of their 2-in-1 earbuds this year. The earbuds would monitor heart rate without the need for additional equipment. Talk about being light on your feet! And cyclists note: only one earbud is needed to check pulse, so you can still listen for traffic. Let’s hope the demo went over well so we can see these available for purchase soon.

2. Microphone USB:

As gadgets get more and more streamlined, here’s one to add to the list. Rather than using recording technology and then transferring it over to the computer, Blue Microphones propose using their handy dandy microphone USB. It plugs right into the computer so you can record and then plug in with one single motion. The company touts the Tiki device as having as-good human voice recognition through voice isolation and noise-cancelling technologies. Tiki goes for $59 on the consumer marketplace.

3. A Projector for iPhone Photos and Video:

Epson, the leader in printing technologies, now adds iPhone projectors to its long list of technological advancements. White it’s great to look at photos and watch videos wherever you are by powering up the iPhone or other Apple devices, it’s even better to watch them in full big screen glory. Now you can share photos and videos with friends by popping your iPhone into the Epson MultiPlex, which has a dock for Apple products and can also be connected to any laptop or Blu-ray player. Then you just need to find a nice big white surface, and voila! Instant projection of your favorite media. These bad boys retail between $599 and $699.

The ho-ho-ho holidays are upon us. And that means this string of blog posts are all about some great gift ideas.

We’ve already covered the excellent, thoughtful gifts you can make at home with some CDs, DVDs, high quality photo paper, a good printer and a little creativity. We’ve also given some pointers on making personalized Christmas cards from home. And now, how about some stocking stuffers?

The kids love to see their previously empty stocking filled to the brim with joyous gifts from Santa. This year, why not let Santa surprise them with cute, adorable, fun mini USB drives? Even the youngest darlings are using computers, on their own and at school, and the world of technology is only growing. School projects, essays, reports and videos are all going to be the stuff of evening homework, and giving the gift of a fun USB will not only delight them, it will also prove very useful in storing and transferring media files. And as a parent, who doesn’t love fun and practical?

USB flash drives are preferred to CDs or DVDs for storing information, especially for young ones. USBs are re-writeable, which means data can be stored, deleted, and stored again, a countless number of times, and they’re small enough to fit in a pocket. Most also come with a keychain so they’re hard to lose. And the thing about USBs that turn them from a boring storage tool into a fun, lovable toy is the wide variety of shapes, colors and characters they come in. Shopping around is sure to uncover the perfect drive for your recipient’s personality.

From cute to funny to glam, here are just a few suggestions, of the many, many types of fun USB drives out there:

For Sanrio lovers, the Hello Kitty USB drive:

For chocolate lovers, the Hershey’s USB drive:

The watermelon USB drive:

The fortune cookie USB drive:

Cute little panda USB drives:

For the glitzy glam girl, the jeweled USB drive:

For the Alien lover, an Alien USB drive:

For the comedian, the funny USB drive:

Giving the gift of a fun USB drive is sure to make them smile. And the best part? Because it resembles a toy more than a tool, the kids are sure to keep them close, making them less likely to be lost than any of the traditional flash drives. You’re sure to find the right one to stuff that stocking with.

As laptop computers get thinner and thinner and computer chips get smaller and smaller, USB drives seem to be also a part of the disappearing race. Earlier this summer, Verbatim unleashed two ultra-tiny USB devices, the Store’n’Stay and Tuff’N’Tiny. When shopping for the perfect mini drive, you can compare the two to see which might better fit your needs.

USB drives, also known as jump drives, flash drives and thumb drives (because they’re about the size of a thumb) are widely known to be secure, compact and easily transportable devices to store and transfer data. Most USB devices hold between 2 GB and 64 GB of information, and the capacity you choose will depend on what sorts of files you are moving. For video games, graphics or other large multimedia files, the bigger the storage capacity, the better. For everyday files like documents or low-resolution images, a smaller capacity would work just fine.

So, small is standard for all USB drives, and that’s part of the nature of them. However, “thumb drive” doesn’t even accurately describe the new generations of USB sticks anymore because like many turns of phrase, something new has come along to turn it on its head. The Verbatim Tuff’N’Tiny USB is the smallest USB on the market now, and not even the size of a thumb – in fact, it’s not even as thick as a penny nor as wide as a dime. This puppy is seriously small, and might better be nicknamed the “penny drive.”

Penny-thin, travel-tough and water-impermeable, the Verbatim Tuff’n’Tiny USB drive fits on any keychain, in pockets or wallets and is tailor made for those who are constantly on the go and need something that can travel lightly with them. It is not, however, probably so great for children or people who tend to lose things since it is barely an inch by a half-inch in size.

Like that old catchphrase, the Tuff’n’Tiny may be small, but it is mighty. Durable, rugged and resistant to dust, water and static, this device is made to go places and last. In fact, it has a lifetime limited warranty and fared well in torture tests, including having a brick dropped on it. The reviews have been generally positive as to overall durability, and of course, it is revolutionary in its physical size. The Tuff’n’Tiny fits in all standard USB ports and is compatible with Windows, Vista, Mac and Linux. It is offered in different colors in sizes of 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 GB, and offers password security.

Now how much, you say? Well, for such a little work of art, the price is not necessarily any higher than other typical flash drives. The 32 GB Tuff’n’Tiny goes for $97.50 straight from the Verbatim website, with the 2 GB costing only $9.75.

For comparison, Verbatim has another super small flash drive on the market with a different marketing angle. The Store’n’Stay is not as superhumanly tiny as the Tuff’n’Tiny, but is still no bigger around than a dime. Its shape is different, made with the person on the go still in mind, but this time, the perk is that you can easily keep the drive in your computer as you pack it away in its carrying case, snag free.

This device is perfect for those forgetful folks who might not remember their flash drive is in the laptop before hurriedly packing up and jetting out of Starbucks. And this one comes in three sizes: 4, 8 and 16 GB, ranging in price from $19.99 to $59.99, with the same general fine print as the Tuff’n’Tiny.

So whatever your personal preference for almost unbelievably small USB devices, Verbatim has a few to choose from that you can tuck happily away in your pocket, wallet or keychain. Size it up and see.

Introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show, the latest in the line of CompactFlash from SanDisk features 128GB of storage and can process at 100MB/sec write speeds. SanDisk Extreme  Pro CompactFlash is ideal for products, DSLR cameras in particular, requiring Full HD3 1920×1080 resolution, up to 50Mbps bit rate, and 4:2:2 color sampling.

“No other product on the market can match our new card’s combination of speed and storage capacity,” said Susan Park, director, product marketing SanDisk.

The card is specifically designed for photographers and videographers using HD cameras and is backed by best-in-class quality assurance and lifetime warranty. With the UDMA-7 interface the card allows for maximum data transfer — up to 20MB per second.

Consumers can now preorder for $1,499.99 for delivery in Q1 2011.

Gotmedia offers a full-line of Flash Memory. Give us a call for specific requests.

Verbatim has announced the Store ‘n’ GoÒ Clip-it USB drive, featuring an award-winning design. Modeling a lightweight paperclip design, the USB drives are fully functional flash storage devices that feature an attached clip.

The USB drive can snap on to office paper products — files, documents, envelopes — and can store up to 4 GB of memory. Available in pink, green, blue, orange, and black, the device is designed by the award-winning Berlin-based industrial designer Arman Emami, winning the Red Dot Design Award and recognized as “Best of Best” in 2010.

“We’re very excited to launch the Clip-It USB drive, a unique and ultra-convenient way for consumers to consolidate their digital files and paper documents at home and in the office,” said Mark Rogers, Verbatim Product Manager of Flash. “The new unit makes it easy for users to keep all their data in one place, and, with its diminutive size and light weight, the Clip-it is a great option for physically sending and sharing files.”

Both stylish and functional and the USB drive is so lightweight it can be shipped without needing extra postage. Available Dec. 1, 2010 the USB drives will be sold for $19.99; a great gift idea for the holidays.

To boost the speed of traditional CompactFlash memory cards, the major manufacturer Transcend has begun selling CFast flash memory cards with SATA (Serial ATA) technology. The CFast memory cards offer 375 MB/second transfer speeds, compared to 90 MB/second performance speeds of CompactFlash cards. These new transfer speeds will allow the new memory cards to compete with also new and fast SDXC SD card format.

The CFast memory cards will be issued in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB format sizes, but will not be compatible with current CompactFlash memory cards. While no prices have been quoted, the CFast cards will not be sold to a consumer market at this point.

While analysts don’t predict a swift sweep of the CFast cards, their speed will play a large role in marketing penetration; the use of a serialized interface, compared to the UDMA technology currently employed, seems to be the way the market is shifting.

Although their competitors have largely avoided any new investments into flash fabricator production facilities, SanDisk Corp and Toshiba Corp. think otherwise. The two powerhouses have announced construction on a new NAND flash chip fabrication facility at Toshiba’s Yokkaichi City plant in Japan.

Referred to as “Fab 5,” the facility will be able to produce 210,000 NAND wafers a month when in full production. The name is derived from an existing partner facility, “Fab 4,” and will be comparable in size – Fab 4 has a ground area of about 125,000 square feet and a total floor space of 613,517 square feet. The first phase of the two-phase process is scheduled to be complete next spring; the facility will employ about 4,300 people, including 250 engineers. This will be the fifth flash memory fabrication facility for in Yokkaichi City for Toshiba.

Demand for the NAND flash chips has been on the rise, with prices recently leveling off, but the sheer investment cost of constructing fabrication plants – in the hundreds of millions – has kept most companies, including Samsung and Micron, static in the market.

Toshiba, on the other hand, has jumped head first into production, believing that the demand is poised to increase based on the rise existing and emerging applications in smartphones and solid-state drives using flash.

“With our partner SanDisk, we will increase the manufacturing capacity gradually in accordance with market conditions, in a way that further enhances our competitiveness in the memory business,” said Koyoshi Kobayashi, a Toshiba corporate senior vice president.

The plant will initially use Toshiba’s 20-nanometer lithography technology – the company’s smallest – which will allow the company to fit more data on a single NAND chip.

After years of waiting, the market has gotten its tablet and the people are more than a little excited, not to mention SanDisk – the company Apple chose to make the flash memory used for its latest innovation.

Flash memory, already used in digital cameras, mobile phones, and some laptop computers, takes up less space and speeds up operation – two key drawing points for Apple when creating the iPad. But SanDisk wouldn’t be in this position today if it weren’t for the near soothsayer abilities of SanDisk founder, Eli Harari. Harari established relationships with mobile handset makers so early in the game that now almost half of the company’s revenue comes from the mobile handset market.

Being asked to make anything for an Apple product would be a big deal for any company, but with statistics being thrown around like “an iPad is now sold every three seconds” it looks like SanDisk has hit the jackpot. Morgan Stanley predicts that iPad sales will top 10 million by the end of this year – an increase from its previous projection of 6 million. And this could only be the beginning for SanDisk.

Like the iPhone for the smartphone market, the iPad is setting the bar for tablet computers. HP is set to release its ­­­TouchSmart 600 tablet PC and Sony, which already uses SanDisk flash memory in its netbook machines, and Asustek Computer will be following suit.

“If Apple does well with their products, then the whole mobile market does well,” says semiconductor analyst Dinesh Moorjani of Broadpoint AmTech, which could only mean more business for SanDisk.

Right now, solid-state drives, which use flash memory, are being positioned to replace the traditional rotating hard drives in laptop computers. Cost is the limiting factor. An SSD drive is currently priced at about $1.90 per gigabyte of flash, but Moorjani sees the pricing sweet-spot falling at about the $1 range. With prices looking to drop about 50 cents a year, he suggests that mass adoption may only be about two years away.

That’s not very long to wait for SanDisk to rein king.

“Secure ‘n’ Go,” a new series of products offered by Verbatim, features an enhanced USB products and SSD drive, addressing the need of professional and private users to secure data on mobile storage devices. Verbatim’s Secure Data USB Drives and SSD ExpressCards offer industry-first AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) 256bit hardware security encryption and integrated password protection.

The added feature on Verbatim’s new product line allows the user to implement a personalized form of data security via the Web. The SSD ExpressCard or USB drive can be registered online to activate the use of a lock, unlock, or erase feature. Remotely, from the Web, users can initiate “lock” mode, restricting access to the device by disengaging password entry, or “erase all data” mode in case the device becomes lost or stolen.

And, Verbatim reports, the SSD ExpressCard is portable and convenient, fitting inside a laptop PCI ExpressCard slot.

Other products in the series include: Solid State Drives, DVDs and Central Remote Management. Verbatim launched the products at the Infosecurity Show in London at the end of April and made them available as of May 2010.