These products will be targeting the professional photographer crowd as CF cards are currently more popular than SD cards with high end DSLR cameras. The 600x currently sells for $499.99 in Lexar’s online store while the 300x goes for $249.99.

These flash drives are designed to stay in a USB port so that they can always back up you files. The included software takes care of all the dirty work.

The difference between the two models is that the tiny ZE models are only available in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB, while the slightly larger SE models are available in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB flavors. Prices have yet to be released, but the backup solutions should be available in February here in the States, while Europe will need to wait a bit longer.

The SAFE S3000 FIPS accomplishes this by means of a Gemalto .NET V2.2 FIPS smart card, which provides “tamper-resistant storage, isolation of all security-critical computations, and strong authentication through a stringent PKI-based challenge-response process.”

The metal casing is water proof, and the entire thing is filled with “military-grade epoxy compound” to thwart physical access. This drive has some serious heft to it, compared to other USB sticks. In a pinch, you could probably cause modest pain to someone by throwing it at them. Seriously, this thing is solid.

When you plug this into your Windows or Mac computer, you’ll see a small partition that contains a simple helper program to unlock the drive. If you’re a PC, double click the JumpDriveS3000_PC.exe, and if you’re a Mac, double click the JumpDriveS3000_Mac application.

Upon first use, you’ll be walked through the setup process. You assign a passphrase to unlock the device, and an optional security question to use in case you forget the first passphrase. This security question must be selected from a list of pre-defined questions (mother’s maiden name, name of first pet, etc), which somewhat limits the security of this process. More on this below.

Once configured, you’ll be prompted to type your passphrase to unlock the encrypted partition:

Enter the wrong passphrase too many times and you’ll lock your device. If you provided an optional security question, you can use that to reset a forgotten password:

One unlocked, you get a new USB device attached to your system, named SAFE:

Copy files to this location as needed: everything gets encrypted on the fly. When you’re all done, unmount the drive and remove the USB stick from your computer.

As you can see, once you’ve authenticated to the secured partition, this thing acts like any other USB drive. No problems, no hassles.

The software supplied on the SAFE S3000 is for Windows and Mac only. A Linux machine can see the unencrypted read-only partition just fine, but is unable to access the encrypted partition. Here’s what a Linux system sees when you insert this device:

[1204303.796012] usb 1-8: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
[1204311.357306] usb 1-8: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[1204311.357641] scsi7 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
[1204311.357825] usb-storage: device found at 4
[1204311.357827] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[1204311.372595] input: Lexar JumpDrive SAFE S3000 USB Device  as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-8/1-8:1.1/input/input6
[1204311.393196] generic-usb 0003:05DC:0801.0002: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.01 Gamepad [Lexar JumpDrive SAFE S3000 USB Device ] on usb-0000:00:1d.7-8/input1
[1204316.356127] usb-storage: device scan complete
[1204316.356484] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access     LEXAR    JD SAFE S3000    1511 PQ: 0 ANSI: 1 CCS
[1204316.357228] scsi 7:0:0:1: Direct-Access     LEXAR    JD SAFE S3000    1511 PQ: 0 ANSI: 1 CCS
[1204316.358722] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] 61440 512-byte hardware sectors: (31.4 MB/30.0 MiB)
[1204316.360597] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is on
[1204316.360600] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 23 00 80 00
[1204316.360603] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[1204316.363093] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] 61440 512-byte hardware sectors: (31.4 MB/30.0 MiB)
[1204316.363589] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is on
[1204316.363592] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 23 00 80 00
[1204316.363594] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[1204316.363598]  sdb:
[1204316.366016] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
[1204316.366479] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[1204316.370217] sd 7:0:0:1: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
[1204316.370295] sd 7:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
[1205369.339282] usb 1-8: USB disconnect, address 4
[2354955.204015] usb 1-8: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 5

And here’s what happens when I try to access it:

scott@mgr5:~$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb /mnt
mount: block device /dev/sdb is write-protected, mounting read-only
scott@mgr5:~$ ls /mnt
autorun.inf  doc  JumpDriveS3000_Mac.app  JumpDriveS3000_PC.exe
scott@mgr5:~$ sudo umount /mnt
scott@mgr5:~$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdc /mnt
mount: no medium found on /dev/sdc
scott@mgr5:~$ sudo cat /dev/sdc
cat: /dev/sdc: No medium found

As you can see, I can access the unencrypted /dev/sdb partition just fine; but am unable to access the encrypted /dev/sdc partition. The helper program contained on the unencrypted program works the necessary magic to make the encrypted partition accessible to the computer.

What happens when you enter the wrong password too many times? This is where the issue of the security question becomes important. The product manual does an absolutely terrible job of describing the situation. If you do not set a security question, then after 5 incorrect password attempts you are prompted to “reset” the drive. This purges all the encrypted data, and starts the initialization process.

If you do set a security question, after 5 failed password attempts you are prompted to input the security question answer in order to reset the password used to unlock the device. If you enter an incorrect security question response five times, your S3000 FIPS is permanently locked.

As part of the review process, I intentionally entered the wrong passwords — as would anyone who found one of these drives in a taxi or on a subway — to see how the process worked. I can confirm that I am now the proud owner of a Lexar-branded paperweight. Yay!

I called Lexar to make sure there was no recovery possible. The friendly tech support person I spoke with confirmed that a locked S3000 FIPS is unrecoverable. Jyh Chau, senior product manager with Lexar, provided me with the following response:

By design we enable the owner/end user of the JumpDrive SAFE S3000 FIPS to register a log-in password and a security question and answer (Q&A). The login password is mandatory for accessing the secure storage area.

The security Q&A provides a way for the user to recover from a lost password situation. It is optional but we do recommend users set it up to avoid data loss in a lost password situation.

If the security Q&A is not set, the user has the option to “recycle” the drive. All data will be securely erased, returning the drive to its original state. A new log-in password will need to be registered before the secure storage area can be used.

If the security Q&A is set, the drive is now in a full protect mode. If both log-in and security Q&A attempts are exceeded, the drive will be permanently disabled. In terms of threat model, the design ensures that only the true owner/user is able to use the device after the full protect mode is enabled. In high security computing environments this is a desirable trait (not allowing an unauthorized user to recycle a drive and use it within the environment).

The 8GB model I tested runs $199 direct from Lexar which seems extremely expensive to me. But then again, I’m not dealing with million-dollar research data, so perhaps this is actually a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of losing valuable data.

Bottom Line

If you have government blueprints, or other super-secret data, the JumpDrive SAFE S3000 FIPS is a solid, secure means of transporting that data around. Just don’t forget your password.

Lexar is releasing their Jumpdrive S3000 FIPS, “the world’s first smartcard-based Level-3 FIPS certified USB flash drive”. This means that the data you put onto the drive is encrypted in such a way as to pass the U.S. Government’s security standards. I’ve had a review model for a couple weeks now that I’ve been playing with, so expect a full review soon. Basically, a little shim application is run from the Jumpdrive itself which locks (encrypts) and unlocks (decrypts) the data for use. You assign a password upon initialization, and are thereafter prompted to enter that password in order to unlock the drive. After too many consecutive authentication failures, the data is automatically deleted from the drive. I don’t have the ability to perform a real cryptographic attack against this thing; but my experiences so far indicate that your data will be secure (and waterproof!).

Fujitsu has on display a CEATEC similar secure USB drives. The stand’s label is “Technology for Safely Transporting Sensitive Data Featuring Secure USB Memory”. There’s no indication that this is FIPS certified, and no specific encryption algorithm is mentioned; but the Fujitsu model does list a couple of other features that will be particularly useful in enterprise scenarios. You can limit transfer of data to or from the device to only authorized computers (presumably via some sort of software authentication mechanism). Data can be set to “expire” (read: automatically deleted) after a certain time. And the unit maintains a comprehensive log of operations for auditing purposes.

Note that the Fujitsu website makes it pretty clear this is still in prototype stages, while Lexar’s Jumpdrive S3000 FIPS is a real product you’ll be able to buy.

Crucial

By now most of you have heard of the Eye-Fi Wi-Fi SD memory card and what it’s capable of, right? Okay, good. Earlier this year, January to be exact, Lexar announced that they had teamed up with Eye-Fi to bring a Lexar branded SD card with Eye-Fi technology by year’s end. Well, the time has come — Lexar’s Shoot-n-Sync card is finally here and I’ve been testing it out for the last couple weeks. It rocks, but it does have a hangup or two.

From a casual point-and-shooter’s perspective I doubt you’d have any real qualms about performance, but it’s a slow-ass card (something we already knew) and simply can’t hang when shooting with an SLR. That’s not to say you can’t use it with an SLR, but if you’re shooting in high or lo Drive Mode (or whatever it’s called on your SLR) it will bog down after two shots. I hope Lexar bumps up the speed on these Shoot-n-Sync cards going forward.

My card speed gripe aside, the Shoot-n-Sync works well. Setup took less than five minutes. The 2GB card comes in a card reader that’s embedded with Eye-Fi software, so the first thing you’ll have to do is plug the card reader with the card straight into your Windows or OS X machine. Once the application is installed, you just need to set up your home network within the Eye-Fi Manager software. The next step is to link your Shoot-n-Sync card with the photo sharing site(s) of your choice and pick a folder on your computer where images will be uploaded. You also have the option of enabling Geotagging, but that’s an extra $15/year. On top of that, an additional $15/year can be tacked on if you want access to hotspots. All of this takes roughly 5 minutes and you’re on your way.

During my tests, I had images upload to my Flickr account within a matter of seconds but, on occasion, it would take up to a minute for photos to show up on my desktop. The Eye-Fi servers can be a bit finicky at times, but I doubt anyone is going to be anal enough to count the milliseconds in between photo uploads. I don’t believe the size of the image has a lot of bearing on upload times, but I’d be a fool to say that a 2-megapixel image uploads just as fast as a 10-megapixel image. I’m just saying that the upload times aren’t significant enough that you’d be whining about it. Manually transferring images to your computer and then on to a photo-sharing site would take significantly longer.

I typically shoot in RAW, but that does nothing for me when I’m using the Shoot-n-Sync. The RAW files won’t transfer to my computer and it certainly won’t upload to Flickr. Because of this, I’ve been shooting in RAW+, which solves the problem of uploading to my computer/Flickr. But it does cut down on the amount of images that I can take with a 2GB card. Images are uploaded to Flickr (or the photo-sharing site of your choice) even when your computer is off. As long as it can access the network with your camera turned on, the images will upload. When you do turn on your computer, the images will upload to your desired folder.

The S-n-S can be had for as low as $75 on Amazon, but should you want access to hotspots and geotagging it ends up being $105. Compare that to Eye-Fi’s Explore card, which comes with both services right out of the gate at a price of $96, you’d be saving $11. But the Explore card has unlimited geotagging and you’d only be paying $15/year for hotspot access after the first year. I personally don’t care for geotagging, but this is something you should consider if you’re looking at both cards and want that functionality. The S-n-S really goes head-to-head with the Share card and that one sells for $71.

Lexar’s Shoot-n-Sync Wi-Fi SD card works well with the Eye-Fi service and I’d suggest purchasing this one over the Eye-Fi cards for the one-year warranty over anything else. Eye-Fi only gives you 90 days and paying the extra $5 (or whatever it is) is definitely worth it.

Product Page

Amazon

Lexar is also guilty of packaging a small doodad into a ginormous waste of resources.

Computer components bedazzled with LEDs seem to indicate speed in the same way that stickers on the back of rice-burners do. So with that fact in mind, the Lexar Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR3 memories with LEDs highlighting the memories activities must be super fast. I kid, I kid as the PC3-10600 DDR3-1333MHz memory shouldn’t be sluggish by any means. The modules will be available in 1GB and 2GB, or 2GB and 4GB kits and will certainly complement your gaming rig’s theme nicely.

Soon Memory Stick Micro users will have another manufacturer option besides Sony or SanDisk with Lexar. The memory firm is going to produce the Sony proprietary flash memory drives in both 2 and 4GB capacities and will be available later this year at what we can only guess will be competitive pricing. Just thinking here, but wouldn’t it be nice to only have one or two flash memory formats instead of like, 40?

Last week, Lexar updated the tiny Firefly flash drive to 16GB and today the outfit announced the Secure II Plus line availability too. This model forgoes the diminutive size in favor of a 256-bit AES encryption and an external capacity meter. Either way you go, tiny size or government-level security, the two 16 GB options sport the same MSRP: $99. 

via PR

Lexar’s smallest USB storage drives are getting a huge jump in capacity. Shipping right now, the super small storage drive now comes in a super large size of 16GB and retails for $99. What else is there to say? It’s 16GB USB storage drive for $99. Have a good day.

First up is the 4GB Class 6 133x SDHC. My vessel of choice is the Pentax K200D shooting in JPEG at 10-megapixels. Frankly, my finger got tired after rattling off 83 frames. The only noticeable lag was when the lens was trying to focus. Because of that I switched to manual focus and Hi Drive Mode. The card managed to handle five frames before stuttering to one or two frames and then resumed spouting off four to five frames and so on. Switching to RAW resulted in a much different result. Four frames were immediately snapped and then it slowed down to one frame every second or so with a sprinkling of two consecutive shots thrown in every now and then. In RAW+ mode the card managed three frames before sputtering down to one frame every 1.5 seconds (roughly).

As a comparison I used a Kingston 8GB Class 2 SDHC. In JPEG mode the card managed four consecutive frames before crawling to one frame every 1.5 seconds or so. Shooting in RAW mode almost put me to bed. The initial blast of three shots resulted in one frame being snapped anywhere from four to eight seconds later. Once that initial batch was processed a series of two shots were snapped before it was bogged back down to roughly seven seconds in between shots. Shooting in RAW+ mode yielded similar results with a steady seven-second lag between shots after an initial three shot burst.

Here’s the gist on the Lexar card. It’s wicked fast. Oh, and I almost forgot about the USB card reader that’s included with it. It’s tiny, unobtrusive and results in me not having to lug around a bulky multi-card reader.

Now let’s move onto the UDMA 300x 8GB CF card. This, too, is stupid fast and works best with the FireWire 800 CF card reader. I don’t have a comparable CF card to test it against, but I did use it in a Nikon D3 and managed to snap over 100 images before I got bored with it. In other words, get yourself one of these along with the FireWire card reader because it’s fast and transfers images at lightning fast speeds.

The 8GB Lexar Professional UDMA 300x CF card is $199.99 the Professional UDMA FireWire 800 CF card reader is $74.99 and the 4GB Professional SDHC card is $64.99.

Press Release

In short, no. Although the drive itself is Mac compatible, it is designed for PC use. All of its software is PC only, so its auto-backup function does nothing on Mac.

The drive is optimized for Windows Vista. Specifically for its ReadyBoost function. ReadyBoost allows users to enhance system performance by fast caching data directly to the ExpressCard SSD. The problem is that the card is interpolated through USB 2.0 rather than PCI Express, which means the SSD accesses at just 480Mbps rather than the 2.5Gbps supported through PCI-E.

Consider also that the DDR2 memory typically used in systems transfers at least 3.2GBps and that SATA hard drives have throughputs of 1.5Gbps and 3Gbps. The numbers show that ReadyBoost is only truly valid with PCI-E based ExpressCards.

As far as extra storage goes, it’s an acceptable solution. I achieved access speeds that were exactly on par with my USB 2.0 flash drives — it wrote at about 4MBps and read at about 13MBps. That said, I can’t see any that someone would purchase this over, say, any other flash drive on the market.

It consumes your ExpressCard slot and provides no performance gain whatsoever. So until a PCI-E version exists, stick with the thumb drives. This technology hasn’t come ’round yet.

Product Page

Companies that feature “prosumer” products usually have a good rep. and their products are usually worth the extra cash. However, memory cards I just can’t see becoming “ultra extreme pro” or anything like that. But going against the grain, SanDisk and Lexar have announced multiple high-end memory cards. Lexar will offer a 4GB CF card and 2 and 4GB Memory Stick Pro Duo cards as part of it’s Platinum II line of cards.

SanDisk is doing the same crap with it’s Extreme III line of cards. Expect to see a 4GB SDHC card, a MicroMate card reader, and a 4GB Memory Stick Pro Duo. Prices for all these cards range from $55 up to $180. Lexar’s offerings will be available by April while SanDisk’s are set to drop by May.

SanDisk, Lexar announce high-end memory cards [Electronista]

Hipsters who hang out in the DSLR crowd should rejoice after hearing about Lexar’s new series of CF cards. These new 300x UDMA cards are professional-grade CF cards that will come in 2, 4, and 8GB sizes. Lexar claims that the new cards are 125% faster than previous versions and that UDMA-equipped devices will be able to enjoy a lovely write speed of 45MB/s.

Of course you’ll need a brand, spankin’ new card reader to compliment those new UDMA CF cards, right? Lexar is dropping two models that cost $50 and $80 and are available in Firewire or USB. Lovely.

Lexar intros 300x UDMA CompactFlash cards, readers [Engadget]

The Mercury offers a bevy of features, including an exterior capacity gauge. It also has a nice software set that allows you to encrypt and shred files amongst other features.

It’s available now in 1GB and 2GB capacities for $70 and $110 respectively.

Lexar