Luke Judge

January 8, 2011 08.22pm EST

Just how much are you going to have to pony up for SanDisk’s latest CF card? Around $11.70 per gigabyte, or $1,500 (technically, $1,499.99) for all 128 gigabytes of SanDisk’s new Extreme Pro CompactFlash memory card, announced at this year’s Consumer Electronics show.

Yes, that’s right. A CF card that will likely cost you more than that digital SLR you’ll be sticking it into.

To SanDisk’s credit, the company is billing this as, “the world’s fastest high-capacity CompactFlash card.” and with a transfer rate of up to 100 megabytes per second—all of 10 megabytes per second faster than the previous “world’s fastest” card, SanDisk’s own 64-gigabyte Extreme Pro—it’s clear that the company is pushing hard on both professional photographers and videographers with its latest storage announcement.

“The 128GB SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash card is ideally suited for imaging applications requiring Full HD3 1920×1080 resolution, up to 50Mbps bit rate and 4:2:2 color sampling,” reads SanDisk’s press release. “The card’s unprecedented combination of speed and storage lets photographers capture more frames when shooting in continuous burst mode, and enables them to record high quality Full HD videos.”

For consumers with a big bank account, it’s important to note that the speed boost is more designed for the camera itself than the camera-to-PC transfer process. USB 2.0, for example, has a raw data limit of roughly 60 megabytes per second–bumping up to a super-fast memory card would do little to boost transfer performance from a camera to a PC if one’s card already pushes past that limit to begin with.

The same holds true for those sporting standard FireWire 400 connections (or card readers). only those connecting via FireWire 800—or a different connection entirely, like a PCI Express-based reader—would even have a chance to see any difference in transfer speeds.

CompactFlash is currently the de facto memory card specification sitting atop the high-end camera market. while SD cards can at least rival CompactFlash’s capacity sizes, the former simply can’t compete with the speeds of the latter just yet.

Even the fastest of SD cards only hits roughly one-third the read and write speeds of conventional CompactFlash cards. but that fact might change once the recently announced upgrade to the cards’ Ultra High Speed bus interface hits in 2012.

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At a June 7th press conference in Basingstoke, Motorola announced the introduction of their latest Android phone: the MILESTONE XT720. Pushing the envelope of hardware and features, the MILESTONE XT720 is one of the thinnest 8-megapixel Android phones currently on the market, and is the first to come equipped with a Xenon flash for improved camera functionality. Also featuring HD video support and enhanced media and internet functionality, the MILESTONE XT720 brings some of the latest smartphone technology to users to create an unrivalled experience. According to Ralf Gerbershaben, the Vice President and General Manager for Motorola’s Mobile Devices division in Western Europe, the “MILESTONE XT720 is one of the most powerful phones in Motorola’s current smartphone range.

Slim, sophisticated and technically savvy, MILESTONE XT720 is a high performance device designed for those who are actively engaged in both their work and social lives.” Motorola is making it easier and more practical than ever to stay connected with friends and family as well as create, share, and view media on the go. With preorders already under way, currently the MILESTONE XT720 is available in for £450 before taxes and subsidies, or for free on the Vodafone, T-Mobile, and O2 networks with their Motorola MILESTONE XT720 deals. The slim, sleek 6.1 x 11.6 x 1.09 cm phone weighs just 160g, and is currently available in a modern glossy black finish with silver complements and a navy blue rear cover.

Running on the Android 2.1 OS, the MILESTONE XT720 has access to plenty of functionality right out of the box, and with a possible upgrade to Android 2.2 upon its release, the MILESTONE XT720 will gain quite a few extra features and Flash 10.1 support. A soft-key on screen QWERTY keyboard makes it easy to write notes and send messages, while the capacitive touchscreen with multitouch capabilities allows for quick, intuitive interaction and navigation. Utilising Motorola’s touchscreen user interface, the MILESTONE XT720 allows for quick, smooth transitions, smooth scrolling and screen flipping, and the ability to easily switch between up to five customisable home screens to help maximise ease of use and accessibility.

Along with Android 2.1 comes the Google mobile application suite, integrating essential apps such as Google Search and Google Maps, as well as services such as Gmail and YouTube. Google Maps or MOTONAV can work in combination with the MILESTONE XT720’s onboard GPS and e-compass to provide turn-by-turn navigation and help you find where you’re going or where you need to be. Along with the prepackaged apps, the MILESTONE XT720 has access to the ever-expanding Android Market allowing you to browse the more than 38,000 applications and games available for download to find what you need to make your phone perfect for you. Although the MILESTONE XT720 doesn’t have the most powerful processor on the market—it is sporting a fairly middling 550 MHz processor—Motorola touts its real-world performance; it handles most applications and multitasking with grace, making your smartphone experience smooth and enjoyable.

One of the more notable features on the MILESTONE XT720 is the camera; able to take 8-megapixel photos and record video in 720p, the camera also offers a number of features you might expect from a professional dedicated camera. Xenon flash provides bright, even lightning for your photos, or continuous lighting for your video to allow you to capture images and video in almost any lighting condition. 10x digital zoom allows you to visually get close to the subject from wherever you may be standing, allowing you to snap great pictures from up in the stands at your kid’s sports game, or record video during a concert.

Additionally, a number of smart imaging technology options such as easy panorama, face detection, multi shot allowing up to six shots in a row, face filter, red eye reduction, scene controls and effects, and camera shake prevention help to create the highest quality content possible, and HDMI port and social networking integration allow you to easily share your media to let friends and family see what you’ve seen. Utilise the HDMI port to stream your HD video to a HDTV or projector and view it on a much larger screen, or instantly share your images and video on Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr with integrated applications. The included 8GB microSD card allows you a decent amount of storage right out of the box, with support for up to 32GB to allow you to store plenty of music, images, video, and apps.

In addition to the impressive camera, the MILESTONE XT720 includes some essential mobile internet features that make accessing the internet on the go quick, easy, and enjoyable. Android’s WebKit browser offers full HTML 5 support and allows for up to eight separate browser windows to make viewing websites much easier. With a 3.7 inch 480×854 WVGA touch screen display, the MILESTONE XT720 has plenty of screen space to display web pages, streaming video, and images in high resolution. 3G HSPA network support and wireless 802.11 b/g connectivity provide high-speed internet access almost anywhere, and Flash support makes it possible to use all of the features on your favourite websites and stream videos on YouTube. In addition to streaming video, the MILESTONE XT720 is capable of playing MPEG4 H.264 encoding and WMV v9 video, so you can bring your favourite shows and video clips with you everywhere you go. Audio playback support also allows you to listen to music in most of the standard audio formats via either a 3.5mm headphone jack or Bluetooth 2.1 A2DP wireless stereo.

Though the MILESTONE XT720 doesn’t include the MOTOBLUR social aggregation service as it is catered to the “power user”, it is still a fairly capable social networking platform. You can keep up with friends on Twitter and Facebook, and can handle SMS text messaging, multimedia messaging, native instant messaging support via Google Voice and push updates from Gmail. Additionally, you can sync multiple email accounts at once, allowing you to access your work and personal email simultaneously—you can even use the MILESTONE XT720’s document editing capabilities to view attachments and make changes, then send the file back with ease. Leave your views on this new Motorola Android on the Motorola MILESTONE XT720 reviews page.

Tags: Google-Android, Motorola, Motorola-MILESTONE, Motorola-Milestone-XT720

This entry was posted on Monday, June 14th, 2010 at 8:41 am and is filed under Motorola Phones. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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