228w ago - SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) and Sony Corporation today announced the joint development of two expanded formats that will shape the flash memory landscape for years to come.

Press Release: SanDisk and Sony to Expand "Memory Stick PRO" and "Memory Stick Micro" Formats

Achieving 2-Terabyte Maximum Storage Capacity and 60MB/s Interface Speed, Respectively

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) and Sony Corporation today announced the joint development of two expanded formats that will shape the flash memory landscape for years to come.

"Memory Stick format for Extended High Capacity (Tentative name)" expands the "Memory Stick PRO" format series to achieve a maximum storage capacity of 2-terabytes (TB)1, while the "Memory Stick HG Micro" format enables a maximum data-transfer speed of 60 megabytes per second (MB/s)2, making it one of the fastest-smallest Memory Card formats to date.

Format licensing corresponding to the "Memory Stick format for Extended High Capacity" and the "Memory Stick HG Micro" is scheduled to start in 2009.

• Memory Stick PRO format series - Memory Stick format series for extended high capacity

• Memory Stick PRO - Expanded format for Memory Stick PRO

270w ago - This year is shaping up to be a year of technology battles-Microsoft vs. Google, iPhone vs. Android-but just last month, we saw the end to a momentous tech showdown. On Feb. 19, the high-definition disc format war was finally over. And when the dust settled, Toshiba's HD DVD technology lay beaten on the ground-left for dead by its former friends (Warner Brothers, Amazon, Best Buy) in favor of Sony's Blu-ray format.

HD DVD, someone had to go. Sure, your picture quality was every bit as stunning as Blu-ray's, your price point was mildly more tolerable and your multimedia functionality probably would have been pretty good if it had ever really had a chance to develop. Nevertheless, members of the buying public weren't going to go out and buy two machines, so the world had to pick one-and it just wasn't you.

But take heart. When you reach the sweet hereafter, you'll be in remarkable company, hanging with some of the most promising nonstarters in the history of video technology. Every one of these formats was a brilliantly engineered technological flop--and maybe Toshiba can reap some consolation from the fact that rival Sony's name shows up more than once, proving that for every sip of marketplace success, a company must swallow an ocean of consumer rejection.

10. DIVX DVD (1998, from Digital...