Olympus Imaging America Inc. is now offering a 1GB xD-Picture Card for digital cameras. The company also introduced the MAUSB-300, a new portable USB reader and writer for xD-Picture media.
xD-Picture card is a flash media format used by Olympus and other digital camera manufacturers. Paired with a 5-megapixel digital camera, Olympus’ new 1GB card can hold about 800 high quality images, according to the company. What’s more, the card has features exclusive to Olympus cameras, including the ability to store panorama images that “stitch” up to 10 individual images into a single scene. The new card is coming in April; Olympus did not announced a price.
The MAUSB-300 measures 2.5 x .75 x .38 inches; it’s encased in a white plastic body and has a removable clear plastic top-cover to protect itself against shock, dust and static electricity. The USB 2.0-based xD-Picture card reader and writer can be clipped onto a key ring. The MAUSB-300 works without drivers on modern Mac and Windows computers, and operates as a mass storage device, so you can use xD-Picture cards to store any files on the computer that will fit. Olympus plans to release the MAUSB-300 in March for US$19.99.
The Olympus 1 Gigabyte xD-Picture Card will be available in April 2005. The MAUSB-300 Portable xD-Picture Card USB Reader/Writer will be available in March, 2005. Olympus’ Web site was not updated with info about the new products as MacCentral posted this article.