This fresh out of CeBIT: SanDisk rolled out its Mobile Premier line of microSD memory card aimed at cellphone users. The cards will be offered in 1GB ($53) and 2GB ($82) trim, and the company says they’re faster than the average flash memory card, reading and writing at around 10MB per second. Available this spring, they’ll include an adapter so you can use these tiny chips in regular SD-sized slots.
Whether you like it or not, the Mobile Premiere line also comes with so-called TrustedFlash, a piece of DRM junk that lets your cell phone provider decide what’s going to happen to your content, not you. There’s something obnoxious about calling this “feature” TrustedFlash, implying that you’re not to be trusted with ordinary flash cards, just these. Allow me to rant a bit:
Check out this slippery marketing sleaze:
“Created by SanDisk, TrustedFlash technology extends the trusted environment from the device to removable memory — allowing rights holders, mobile network operators, application developers and device manufacturers the ability to offer consumers content portability among TrustedFlash-enabled devices within an operator’s network or environment.”
WTF does that mean? Once you’ve bought the content, wouldn’t you be a rights holder? Guess not. And at these prices ($82? Here’s a 2GB microSD card for $41), you’re being price gouged for that shit; it’s similar to a restaurant charging you extra for that fly in your soup. But wait. The cards read and write faster, right? Whatever. Sounds like a Trojan horse to me.
Press Release [Broadcast Newsroom]
