I'm so late with my xmas cards this year, but I must get this handmade card for someone who just bought herself a new Macbook Pro. The keyboard says "You are the apple of my eye", and the screen is blank to write whatever you want on it.

I know, it can't get any more fanboyish and cheesy than that, but who cares. You only live once, my friends. [Paperpudding via Fretsy—Thanks Annie]

I really doubt that many of us will send or receive Christmas cards like this one, but if you really feel like a DIY project then don't forget to get an iPhone app called Bauble. Yeah, as if buying an iPhone isn't enough, you need to get a $.99 app to make the card. [Bauble App]

There are several apps on the iPhone designed to accept credit card payments but, as far as I can tell, SquareUp has the best set of features. It doesn't require any contracts or monthly fees, and card payments can be accepted through a small device that plugs into the audio jack. Receipts can be sent via email or viewed online and text messages can be used to verify payments in real time.

There are even benefits to using the service for cardholders, much like the points you might accrue for making purchases. SquareUp lets business owners know that you are a repeat customer that may be entitled to a freebie—kind of like punch cards do now. They also donate one cent of each transaction to the charity of your choice.

SquareUP claims the service will roll out to everyone in 2010, which is good news for small businesses. No word yet on how much the swiping plug-in will cost, but you can bet that it will be a hell of a lot cheaper than the machines you currently have to contend with. [SquareUp via VentureBeat]

You can get a day pass of 75MB for $15, a week pass of 250MB for $30, and a month pass of 500MB for $50. The prices aren't absurd if you only use the thing occasionally, but those data caps are something awful. For example, just loading a website will get you to burn a couple megabytes, and a heavy email session with attachments will kill half the day's quota. Better to save this for emergencies at the rates AT&T is offering. [AT&T

These cards are designed for HD video and are marketed with the new MacBook Pros in mind, since Apple's new laptops finally (finally!) have SD card slots. 30MB/s is easily fast enough to comfortably boot an OS from the card slot, which we already know is possible. Plus, with all the new DSLRs capable of taking HD video, more space and faster speeds might be of considerable use to photographers and videographers. The cards will be available this August for an undisclosed price. Press release follows. [SanDisk]

SANDISK UNVEILS WORLD'S FASTEST 32GB SDHC CARD

30MB/s Read & Write Speeds and 32GB Storage Capacity Help
Photography and Video Enthusiasts Do More With Their DSLRs

32GB CardPMA, Sydney, June 25, 2009 – SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), the global leader in flash memory cards, today introduced the fastest 32-gigabyte (GB)1 SDHC™ card on the market. The 32GB SanDisk Extreme® SDHC™ card at up to 30 megabytes per second (MB/s)2 read and write speeds combines industry-leading performance with massive storage capacity, helping digital photography enthusiasts utilize the advanced features of today's DSLR cameras.

"The market for entry to mid-level DSLR cameras is growing, and SDHC is becoming the de-facto card format for these devices," said Susan Park, director, retail product marketing, SanDisk. "Our card's 32GB of storage and up to 30MB/s read & write speeds enable DSLR users to shoot without worrying about storage or speed limitations. SanDisk Extreme SDHC cards provide consumers with a more enjoyable user experience, letting them focus on what is really important – the images that they are capturing."

Lightning-Fast Write Speed Captures Images Quickly
A memory card's write speed plays a crucial role in the overall system of the camera when taking pictures in rapid succession. If a card cannot process data quickly enough then the burst mode shooting may pause unexpectedly as the card catches up to the camera. Burst mode bottlenecks can lead to missing "the" shot, especially at sporting or other fast-motion events. The SanDisk Extreme SDHC card offers maximum data-transfer rates, giving consumers a memory card fast enough to unlock the full capabilities of their DSLRs.

The 32GB SanDisk Extreme SDHC card adheres to the SD Association's new Class 10 specification, which exceeds requirement for today's high definition (AVCHD) video recording. The card offers a sustained write speed fast enough to ensure high-definition video recording and capacity capable of storing 160 minutes of full HD 1920x1080 pixels at 24Mb/s data transfer rate.

Big Files Require Big Storage
Recently-released DSLR camera models like the Nikon D90 and D5000 offer consumers the ability to record HD videos, producing large files that can fill lesser-capacity cards quickly. Today's high-megapixel DSLRs also can generate massive still images like those produced in the RAW format used by professional photographers who want to take advantage of the enhanced picture quality and flexibility that RAW allows during post production.

RAW images demand up to ten times as much storage space as regular JPEG images, and when taken in rapid succession during burst mode can quickly fill smaller storage cards. The 32GB SanDisk Extreme SDHC card can store up to 2500 RAW3 images, providing photographers with piece of mind and confidence that they will not run out of space for their images.

Renowned for their world-class durability, SanDisk Extreme SDHC cards guarantee operation at extended temperatures ranging from minus 13 F (minus 25 C) to 185 F (85 C). SanDisk Extreme SDHC cards are fully compatible with any camera, card reader or other device that supports SDHC cards.

When placed in SanDisk's new ImageMate® Multi-Card USB 2.0 reader/writer, the SanDisk Extreme SDHC card transfers images and video to a computer at rates of up to 30MB/s. The card's fast data transfer rates enable photographers operating under tight deadlines to maximize critical workflow and enter post production as quickly as possible.

Class 10 Performance Sets a New Standard
An SD™ card's speed Class is based on its minimum data-transfer rate, and is used to ensure high-quality video recording standards. The SD Association added Class 10 as part of the SD 3.0 specification released earlier this year. The SanDisk Extreme SDHC card's performance exceeds the requirements of even the highest-quality AVCHD video recording device, and is currently the fastest Class 10 card in the world.

Availability:
The SanDisk Extreme SDHC 32GB cards will be shipping worldwide to major retailers in August. Also in August, the current 4, 8 and 16GB capacity SanDisk Extreme SDHC cards will be upgraded from Class 6 to Class 104.

About SanDisk:
SanDisk Corporation is the global leader in flash memory cards – from research, manufacturing and product design to consumer branding and retail distribution. SanDisk's product portfolio includes flash memory cards for mobile phones, digital cameras and camcorders; digital audio/video players; USB flash drives for consumers and the enterprise; embedded memory for mobile devices; and solid state drives for computers. SanDisk (www.sandisk.com/corporate) is a Silicon Valley-based S&P 500 company with more than half its sales outside of the United States.

Tiny RFID cards are attached to each card, and movements are monitored with four separate HD cameras, all running into a video encoder to create a live feed. A custom bit of software mixes the feeds with the data from the RFID chips, creating a live feed where the viewer can see exactly where each card is and what each player is doing. Even when in a full deck, the RFID chips are thin enough to stack properly, and the viewer would know when each card will be dealt.

Apparently the setup cost Milner about $7000 and three months to build, but it's very impressive for what it is. Why anybody would want to have this sort of thing outside a television studio doesn't make much sense to me, but Milner, a chairman of an IT company, loves the level of detail it brings to his games. [Giz AU]

The Catch: Expect the 9800 GX2's 1GB frame buffer, two 65nm GPUs and 256 Stream processors to make this one seriously expensive graphics card. [[H] Enthusiast]

Similar in theory to the Kingston microSD bundles we looked at yesterday, the miCARD comes with its own USB adapter. In this case, the USB adapter looks like the size and shape of an SD card, but fits directly into your USB port. Quite handy.

Still, another memory card format means we have to shell out even more money, but that's the price of innovation. – Jason Chen

Pretec S-Diamond - First miCARD Customer [Everything USB]

Phew. Snappy name, eh? So snappy there's no room on the headline for a bad pun. Lucky you, I say. Anyway, this is a new ExpressCard/54-compatible sound card that uses Creative's X-Fi Crystallizer and 3CMSS-3D technology to give your laptop surround sound. There's a 7.1-channel speaker docking module and all this creamy white goodness (which raises the question: if it's only Windows-compatible, why did they do it in white?) will cost you $106 from late May. – Ad Dugdale

Creative "XFi" of XCard/54 Correspondence [PC Watch through Google Translate]

The thing ships by itself for $8.99 or with 1GB SD, 2GB SD, or a 1GB microSD card for $22.99, $34.99 and $23.99 respectively. So when you're not using this as memory for your camera, you can use this as a standard USB flash drive. Too bad being small and convenient is only good for these things, or else our Midget Butler business venture would have taken off like hotcakes. – Jason Chen

Kingston

You can get 2 and 4GB models for $65 and $80, which really makes this a lot cheaper than getting a Nano. Too bad you can't use this with the Nike+iPod kit, which we're still cursing as the reason why we're forced to buy a player we otherwise don't really need. Anything to get sexy, we suppose. – Jason Chen

Ultraslim Meizu M3 Music Card Video Preview [TechEBlog]

How fast? How about 800 Mbps? Plus it's going to be nice and thin at only 5mm, so it will fit into the sleeker pro cams that are all the rage these days. The first camcorder from Sony to support this format will be the XDCAM EX series, which are available later this year. – Jason Chen

SanDisk and Sony Announce SxS(TM) Memory Card Specificaation for Professional Camcorders [Japan Corp via Digitimes via Tracy and Matt]

But at this point, we think we're happy if Meizu sets their entire development team on the M8 and gets that thing out as soon as humanly possible. – Jason Chen

Meizu Music Card Details [Anything But iPod via Uber Gizmo]

As cute as having a little DS is, the fact that it can only hold two DS games makes this kinda iffy. However, if one of those games is the DS-Xtreme DS Media Enhancer, then you've got no problems. Plus, it's only $7.90.

By the by, do any readers have any recommendations for a GBA "game enhancer" for the DS? Turns out the DS-Xtreme only handles DS games and not GBA games. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Play-Asia via Kotaku]

Gamestop has it up for pre-order (ships 3/1) for $49.99. That's $10 more than the 64MB version, sure, but if you're going to be spending fifty bones why not spend another fifty and get the 20GB hard drive instead? Oh wait, because you went for the Core version instead of the Premium and you have lousy judgement. That's why. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Gamestop via Kotaku]

Perhaps if enough people buy this once it's released next year, Nintendo will provide some games and/or an official motion sensing card as well. – Jason Chen

Product Page [NDS Motion via DS Fanboy]

The set consists of a cloth and various sized "fake" memory cards with material on the end designed to clean the contacts inside your reader. Useful if you've been having problems with your card reader, not very useful otherwise. Depending on how much these go for, it may be cheaper just to go buy another card reader. – Jason Chen

Clean your memory card readers with EverGreen [Akihabara News via uber gizmo]

Gerry Block, the mohawked playboy of the IGN crew, whose blog has headlines like " I'm going to the 40th Anniversary Star Trek Convention in Vegas!" gives us his take over 10,000 words, and two separate two page reviews. We've read, so you don't have to!

New LLR (Lag and Latency Reduction) technology promised lower pings to any server, and MaxFPS technology promised to remove network traffic burden off the CPU in order to more fully dedicate it to working on game-performance.

Like the real modems vs. "win" modems of old (go ask your dad if you don't remember), the

Killer NIC ... bypass the Windows networking stack. This means, in theory, that the CPU comes under no load for network processing...Cutting Windows' UDP protocols out of the loop also has the potential to lower latency between user and game server.

How?

400Hhz Network Processing Unit (NPU), backed up by 64MB of onboard RAM

What else can it do?

...you'll have your own little LINUX computer running along in the bowels of your PC...interesting applications [can] be developed by the user community. Firewalls and anti-virus software could run on the NPU and screen network traffic before Windows even gets close to it. The Killer NIC also has its own USB 2.0 port, which expands its capabilities even more. A BitTorrent client designed for the NPU could run on the card and use an external USB hard drive for storage, which would make it invisible as far as Windows is concerned. Thanks to the Killer NIC's traffic prioritization capabilities, users will conceivably be able to play the most demanding games while using extra bandwidth for BitTorrent, without any performance hits due to BitTorrent CPU load or hard drive access. There are also plans for voice-chat clients designed for the NPU that'll work with USB headsets to take even more load off the CPU.

That was a big paragraph. Sorry. But it was clearly written, now, wasn't it? Good job, Gerry!

How about some satisfaction? Here's the money shot!

The improvement with the Killer NIC was noticeable and impressive. Pings to server dramatically improved, generally ranging from 17-50ms, averaging [a] 45ms [improvement]. FPS also got a nice bump, jumping our average from 74 to 86 fps.

So, he means to say that it works.

Jerry's verdict? He makes us wait a day...

Stay tuned for tomorrow's full benchmarking and final review.

Only to leave us hanging

Assigning a final score to the Killer NIC at this point in time does not seem appropriate, as we would like to spend more time comparing head-to-head performance figures for more games.

Here, we'll loan you our balls and give it a score for you: On a 10 point scale, seems it earns a 9 for innovation, performance, and the "K" knife inside. (Only missing the perfect score due to price)– Brian Lam

Killer NIC Gaming-Optimized Nework Card [ign]