First! AMD's Radeon HD 3000 graphics cards now DisplayPort certified

After this morning's whispered layoffs, we're digging deep to bring you a bit of good news about AMD. VESA just announced that AMD's ATI Radeon HD 3000 series (and the 780G integrated graphics chipset) are the first graphics cards in the Industry granted DisplayPort certification. About time since Dell's 30-inch monitor has been shipping since December. Way to go Paula AMD, way to go!

ASUS keeps things tiny with NOVA LITE Mini 2L PC

Granted, the Nova P22 is probably small enough for the vast majority of folks, but if you weren't feeling the aforementioned machine for whatever reason, here's another option. The NOVA LITE Mini 2L measures in at 9.09- x 7.24- x 2.00-inches and weighs just a few raisins more than the X300 (3.3-pounds for those taking notes). Apparently, this box was designed to simply "meet everyday computing needs" while keeping noise to a minimum, and ASUS has three lovely flavors for you to choose from. Packed within, you'll find up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM, an 80GB / 160GB hard drive, a DVD burner, Ethernet, WiFi (on select models), built-in speakers, four USB 2.0 ports, DVI / VGA and audio in / out connectors. No word on a price, release date or any of that pertinent information, unfortunately.

SanDisk Thinks MicroSD Is the New CD

By Eliot Van Buskirk March 18, 2008 | 11:34:41 PMCategories: Digital Music News, Gear, Social Media  

Flash memory will eventually become cheap enough to become a viable replacement for CDs, DVDs and possibly Blu-ray discs, assuming people still want to buy music and movies on physical objects in coming years. 

SanDisk is betting they will. The company plans to announce Wednesday the first installment of its plan to deliver music on microSD cards.

So far there's only one offering: Sansa Sessions, a DRM-free promotional MP3 compilation on a 512-MB card. Assembled with the help of Nonstop Riot, the compilation includes 50 songs by bands like All Time Low, Architecture in Helsinki, Magnet, Ladytron, Loquat, Nada Surf, Of Montreal and The Coup.

Aside from being a nice freebie for early U.S. purchasers of the 8-GB Fuze MP3 player (which has a microSD slot), the comp is also meant to demonstrate to the rest of the industry the use of tiny physical media as a distribution platform.

However, Sandisk's plan comes at a time when physical music formats are on the decline.

"It's a pretty tough business proposition right now," said JupiterResearch associate Michael Greene. "We have seen sales of physical formats decline sharply in recent years, we're not expecting that trend to change any time soon."

In addition, those who prefer physical formats may not see the allure of microSD. "The attachment is to the format, the artwork and extras that come with having a CD," Greene added. "It's hard for me to see someone having an emotional attachment to a little microSD card."

The analyst also pointed out that while SanDisk's Sansa Fuze and certain cellphones have microSD slots, the format hardly has the install base of the CD. The cards could be stacked, so to say, against a form of physical media that's not universally compatible.

There's another cause for skepticism. Seven years ago, a DataPlay executive told me that Tower Records would soon be stocking shelves with music stored on his company's physical media format. The DataPlay cartidges never showed up, despite the prototypes, and Tower Records closed its U.S. stores.

But unlike DataPlay, microSD already has an install base. SanDisk representatives indicated that this announcement is just the tip of the iceberg. The company already makes a 12-GB microSDHC card that can hold two DVD-quality movies with room left over. With flash prices expected to continue plummeting, the future could be surprisingly rosy for this physical format, even as the focus elsewhere turns to digital distribution.

Dan Schreiber, senior vice president of SanDisk's A/V division, described microSD as a possible format for music distribution:

"Artists want to give their fans an easy and legal way to experience and share their music, while labels are looking for a form of physical distribution with more usability than the CD. The Sansa Sessions promotion is a great opportunity to explore this new format and gives both artists and labels a glimpse of the potential for music distribution in this medium."

The Sansa Store already sells music, movies and games on CD, DVD, SACD and other formats, and a microSD card section would be a natural fit there. Partnerships with Hollywood and the music industry could follow. The new compilation consists of DRM-free MP3 files, but a source inside the company says SanDisk is working on ways to secure content onto cards, which could help build those relationships.

In the long term, the company's strong alliance with Best Buy could also come into play (SanDisk's Sansa MP3 players sell briskly at the chain). Best Buy also likes to sell CDs and DVDs because they bring in repeat customers who buy other products. The same rules could apply to new forms of physically distributed media.

Retailers and the entertainment industry could see SanDisk's prefilled microSD cards as something of a savior. And, under the right circumstances, users could find reasons to appreciate them too: ease of use, ability to resell media and sneakernet trading, for starters.