Sony today announced the 8GB Memory Stick Pro Duo.

"The life of the Memory Stick format spans from the dawning of the digital camera to the emergence of today's high-definition video and gaming products," said Mike Kahn, senior manager for Memory Stick Media at Sony Electronics. "Throughout all of these advances in the consumer electronics industry, Memory Stick media has remained a constant source of compact and portable flash memory."

Yeah too bad they have so many flavors of the damn thing. This latest biggie stick sotres up to 1,500 images in 10 megapixel mode, more than 18 hours of 786Kp video or 2,000 128 kpbs songs. Now that's big. Brian Crecente

SONY'S MEMORY STICK PRO DUO FORMAT EXPANDS TO EIGHT GIGABYTES

LAS VEGAS(CES Booth #14200), Jan. 7, 2007 - Here at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, Sony presented the newest member of its Memory Stick media family - the 8GB Memory Stick PRO Duo.

Weighing in at just two grams, 0.79-inches wide, 1.22-inches long, and sporting the ten-pin Serial Memory Stick interface, this new flash memory card can be packed with music, movies and photos.

Memory Stick cards provide reliable and sturdy storage of digital images. It has become the exclusive PlayStation Portable memory source and also allows users to expand the imbedded memory of other products like the Sony mylo personal communicator, Sony Ericsson mobile phones and the new PlayStation3 videogame console. The format also remains a core feature of all Cyber-shot digital still cameras.

Beginning this year, a Memory Stick slot will also be standard on all new 2007 Handycam camcorder models.

"The life of the Memory Stick format spans from the dawning of the digital camera to the emergence of today's high-definition video and gaming products," said Mike Kahn, senior manager for Memory Stick Media at Sony Electronics. "Throughout all of these advances in the consumer electronics industry, Memory Stick media has remained a constant source of compact and portable flash memory."

According to Kahn, the 8GB MSX-M8GS Memory Stick model will store approximately 1,500 images in 10-megapixel, fine mode; more than 18 hours of video at 768Kb per seconds in MPEG4 compression; and can hold a collection about 2,000 songs in the MP3 format at 128 kbps with an average of four minutes per song.

For versatility, Sony Memory Stick Duo media cards are sold with an adapter for devices with a standard-size Memory Stick media slot. Kahn said they also offer the highest durability in the flash media marketplace with a standard operating temperature range of -13 F to +185 F.

Current models of Memory Stick products employ MagicGate copyright protection technology to allow for the secure storage of commercial content such as digital music and downloaded movies.

The 8GB Memory Stick PRO Duo media card will be available in February for about $300 at sonystyle.com, at Sony Style retail stores (www.sonystyle.com/retail), and authorized dealers nationwide.

At the recent ChinaJoy game convention, a reporter from Japanese site IT Media noticed a severe lack of DSes. Everywhere he turned, the ubiquitous-in-Japan portable was nowhere to be seen. However, the PlayStation Portable was much easier to track down. This popular is either caused by or has led to widespread game piracy and bogus memory sticks. "It's so easy to get pirated software," said one user. What does this mean? Sony conquers all as the Chinese people love the PSP. To which Florian just snarked, "They're the only ones." Brian Ashcraft

More Here [IT Media]

Starting next month Sony is going to start selling the Memory Stick Entertainment Pack. The pack includes four PSP-formatted movies loaded onto either a 1GB or 2GB Memory Stick Duo.

The pack will come with special installer software and an unlock code. The idea is that the consumer will go home, slap the disc into their computer and then use the code to unlock one of the four movies. By unlock, I assume they mean it will also load it onto the memory stick.

The movies included in this first pack will be Hitch, SWAT, The Grudge and XXX: State of the Union and again, you can only unlock one of them... legally

The thing will sell for $60 and $100, depending on the size of the memory stick you choose. This sort of feels like Sony is exploring other movie distribution options for their PSP, besides the ill-fated UMD. Too bad there isn't some sort of vast high-speed network of computers out there that could be used to allow PSP owners to download films directly to their own memory cards. Brian Crecente

New Entertainment Pack Comes with Everything but Popcorn [PRNewswire]

Here in Japan, Sony's Portable TV service (P-TV) has hit the ground, jogging. With this service, registered users with 2.60 firmware can download PSP video content. Users access the site via WiFi or USB cable through a PC. While some of the content denoted with a big "F" is free, some isn't. All downloads are timed, allowing users to view the clips for 5 to 30 days before they self-destruct. Don't think about rolling back your PSP's clock. Sony is that clever.

So, what's the prob? The content is lacking. There are movie trailers (meh), five minute summaries of soccer and baseball games (double meh) and an extremely limited pop selection of only Madonna music vids (d'oh and/or meh). There are far more interesting clips like Gundam anime, Korean dramas, manzai and cat shows. And of course, the PSP's old faithful: bikini girls. Still, it's slim pickings.

Any local Japanese video store offers way way more, and the internet is filled with limitless goodness. Does Sony really think that PSP users are so faithfully blind? The portable keeps getting mired in ideas and concepts and short-changed on content. The company promised us the moon with portable entertainment, but has left most feeling slightly disappointed. Granted, P-TV just started (albeit on the wrong foot), but I'm going to sit this one out.

More Here [Japan Chronicles] via ArsTechnica

While the general idea of Lost Magic, an online role-playing game for the Nintendo DS, intrigues me, what intrigues me even more is Ubisoft's official requirement list for the game. It reads: 1 player, Memory Stick DuoTM 288KM, Wi-Fi Compatible.

Wha? A Memory Stick Duo for a DS game. I sure hope that's some sort of typo. It must be, I can't imagine Nintendo would throw money to Sony just for fun. I bet there were or are plans for a Lost Magic on the Playstation Portable and this is screw-up is from that.

Lost Magic [Ubi]

A Tulsa woman picked up a used memory stick for her husband's PSP and to their surprise the stick contained some "adult" content, KOTV reports. In addition to the main feature, there were some assorted clips of "a woman doing very inappropriate things" on the memory stick. Sony should just use this as a marketing ploy. Buy used memory sticks, one in fifteen contains porn. I'm going to give Jack Thompson a call real quick, I'll be right back.

Couple Finds Pornographic Surprise on Used Video Game Card [KOTV]

Who's the Senator who let the gaming industry buy her lunch, after taking a bite out the rating system?

PSP World has word of a new Playstation Portable pack coming out next month. The PSP Giga Pack will sell for $299 and include a Playstation Portable, a 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo, a USB cable and a PSP stand. Unfortunately, the new pack won t affect the pricing of the Value Pack, which will still sell for $249.

PSP Giga Pack Announced [PSP World]

SanDisk is going to start selling Memory Sticks for the PSP with free gaming content. The first batch of Memory Stick Pro Duo Game cards to include the bonus material will come with game data that awards 100 points toward unlocking a new mode in Madden NFL 06. It's a great idea, especially since they won't be charging any extra for it, but maybe they should have included something a bit more useful for Madden, like a patch that works.

Bonus Game Content on Flash Memory Cards [Game Infowire]