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Consumer-electronics device more than just a 'super floppy'

Carolyn Ong

Inspired by the success of its Mavica digital cameras which let users conveniently store images on 3.5 inch floppy disks, Sony has delivered another innovation in an even smaller package which promises higher capacity storage at inexpensive cost.

Called the Sony Memory Stick, it is just 5 centimetres long, 2.15 cm wide and only 0.28 cm thick.

It is available in 4MB ($260) and 8MB ($400) storage sizes and being used in four new Sony consumer-electronic devices.

A 16MB unit will be out next month for $550. By the end of the year, a 32MB unit will be available.

The Memory Stick's product plan suggests its storage size will multiply to 256MB in two years.

The Memory Stick is more than just a super floppy. It records full-motion video as well as still images.

Sony Hong Kong's assistant manager Alex Chung said the firm was trying to present the Memory Stick as the de facto industry standard for small, form-factor removable storage which Sony hopes will become pervasive in cellular phones, palmtops, digital cameras, electronic organisers and printers.

The Memory Stick competes with CompactFlash and Iomega's Clik. The market has been slow to adopt CompactFlash because it is a relatively expensive media. Iomega's Clik, based on the same Winchester technology that drives the Zip and Jaz, has a bigger capacity than the Memory Stick, at 20MB.

There are four Sony products available in Hong Kong which feature a built-in Memory Stick drive - the Cyber-shot Digital Camera, Digital Photo Frame, Digital Photo Printer and Digital Handycam.

The Cyber-shot tips the scales at just 283 grams, with battery. In Mpeg movie mode, the $5,990 digital camera can capture up to 10 minutes 40 seconds of full-motion video and audio on a 8MB Memory Stick.

About 50 Jpeg shots can be captured on a 4MB Memory Stick on SVGA resolution.

The Cyber-shot differs from Sony's new Digital Handycam. The Handycam ($13,380 with Memory Stick) is a higher-end product offering excellent picture quality with up to 500 lines of horizontal resolution.

Basically a video camera, it also can record still images.

The Handycam comes with a Memory stick card slot and can capture up to 100 still shots in VGA Jpeg format on a 4MB stick.

The footage can be played back on the $6,680 Digital Photo Frame, which is a 5.5 inch digital image stand.

Short video footages or still images can be played back in slide-show mode, changing every few seconds, every 15 minutes or once a day on the digital frame.

The Digital Photo Frame features a built-in speaker with volume control and a sensor which allows a user to switch it off with the wave of a hand.

The captured Jpeg images on Memory Stick can be printed on Sony's 1.4 mega-pixel Digital Photo Printer.

The $4,000 printer also has a PC Card slot which allows it to print from other forms of removable storage media such as CompactFlash.

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