August 26, 1999

SanDisk yesterday announced their Secure Digital Memory card standard, developed in partnership with Panasonic and Toshiba. The new card is based on SanDisk's MultiMediaCard, only with nine pins instead of seven. When released to the public in the second quarter of 2000, the first size will be 32MB, with 64MB expected to follow soon after. By 2001, it is believed capacities of 256MB will be possible in the same 24mm x 32mm x 2.1mm package (about the size of a small postage stamp). Data transfer rates will start at 2MB per second, with expected future potential of 10MB per second. As the name emphasizes, Secure Digital will conform to the SDMI (Secure Digital Music Initiative) standard for security and copy protection. The cards are designed for storing photographs, movies, data, and music. (Shawn Barnett)

Sprint has announced plans to deploy Trend Micro's InterScan VirusWall software on their Internet access points for future landline and wireless network offerings to "detect" viruses traveling via HTTP, FTP, and SMTP. Pricing for this service was not disclosed. [SOURCE: Brian Riggs at Information Week www.informationweek.com]

Business Wire is reporting that iBIZ Technology's new "KeySync Keyboard" for Palm OS devices has received "positive reviews" from TAP Magaine and Palm Guru website.

Motorola's president of StarFish Software -- Philippe Kahn -- has some interesting comments and perspectives on the future of wireless communication published in the Jul/Aug'99 edition of IT Professional. Kahn notes that in the near future wireless devices will be more text based, and users should not be 'tricked' into believing that live video pictures will be crisp and clear on future smart phone type devices. [SOURCE: Innovation 23Aug99]

Sierra Wireless has announced that they are now shipping their first "Type II wireless wide area network interface PC Card" called the "AirCard 300 for Windows" that supports Windows CE/95/98/NT.

-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com) eFax: 978-246-3067