SD Association issues new ratings for running apps off of SD cards

With Android allowing for Adoptable Storage and the integration of SD cards into the actual flash disk on the phone, you’ll want to make sure that the microSD card you’re using is fit to be attached as part of the device’s internal storage in order to run apps direct from the card.

Well, the Secure Digital Association is out with a new specification, SD 5.1, that introduces the Application Performance Class. Yes, another class rating beyond Speed Classes and UHS Speed Classes, but this one is important if you’re storing more than your pictures, songs and video on your card.

The new rating guarantees that an SD card can maintain a minimum amount of constant input-output accesses per second.

The new and only Class A1 rating sets a standard for read rates of 1,500 IOPS, write rates of 500 IOPS and sequential streams of at least 10MB/s. More ratings will be created as cards and requirements become faster.

Of course, UFS 2.0 cards are also coming into play and they’re already speedy enough to be used in Adoptable Storage. It’s a matter of how much consumers are willing to pay in the technology’s commercial infancy.

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Samsung France giving away 128GB microSD cards, VR park tickets to make up for Note 7

Are you ready to forgive Samsung for its poor handling of the Galaxy Note 7 recall? Maybe you’ll take the company’s offer up on getting a Galaxy S8 at a discount? Perhaps you’ll take a few apologies?

Well, Samsung France has decided to make sure its customers know that they are very much appreciated. Former Note 7 owners are now receiving 128GB microSD cards in the mail along with an invitation to an SMS contest where the customer can get one of 1,000 free trip packages to the Samsung Life Changer Park, the virtual reality theme park Samsung has established in Paris. Transport is provided and winners can bring a guest along for a date on Tuesday, December 20. or 27.

SamMobile, which received a letter from a Note 7 customer, points out that these measures are piled on top of a €100 rebate when those users transferred over to a Galaxy S7 or S7 edge.

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Galaxy Note 7 deals from Sprint and T-Mobile may include free Gear Fit 2

Has the “buy one, get one free” offer run its wear? T-Mobile was said to have such a campaign planned for the Galaxy Note 7 as soon as it arrived at its stores. Fast forward to today and we have something that probably won’t need a new line or upgrade to ...

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Samsung’s world-first UFS memory cards go up to 256GB, crushing microSD speeds

You probably don’t remember this, but the Samsung Galaxy S6 lacked microSD support, integrating an innovative technology called UFS (Universal Flash Storage) that would have been severely slowed down by traditional external memory cards.The GS7, however, found a way to mate UFS 2.0 and microSD features without you even noticing it, while back in February, the road was paved for

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Galaxy S7 best-of-both-worlds mod gives you dual-SIM support … AND microSD

The growing decline of smartphones with user-accessible batteries has forced manufacturers to find new places to stow both SIM and microSD cards, and instead of placing their slots under a removable backplate, more and more phones have been letting us get at both through a hybrid side-mounted SIM tray. While that presents an acceptable compromise, the solution’s not without its downsides, especially when you want to use microSD expansion: with the most popular design for these trays, users are ...

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200GB microSD deal lets you supercharge your new phone’s storage on the cheap

Modern flash storage is an almost magical thing: with a little wafer the size of a fingernail, you can double, triple, or easily quadruple the amount of data your phone can store. And while going with as little as an extra 16GB of storage can add $100 to a phone’s selling price, doing a 16GB upgrade post-purchase with a microSD card won’t even cost you $10. But if you’re going to make that kind of investment at all, why not go big? 128GB cards have already been surpassed by 200GB cards, and today we’ve spotted a heck of a deal on them, with Amazon selling

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Give and take of Galaxy S7 storage: system package and moving apps

For most people, 32GB is all they will get on their Galaxy S7 or S7 edge. And then, there’s the system package. Samsung seems to have taken the cake so far this year as it has hit 8GB with its insanely heavy TouchWiz enhancements. Yes, we do mean one-quarter of the storage it’s allowing for most of its consumers.Still, ...

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Apple Music can store songs on an Android phone’s SD card

Spotify doesn’t do it, but Apple Music now can.While Apple has been righteously (and rightfully) promoting its own interests — from mobile OS to audio products — on Android through app development. Some observers thought that this would mean that these Android apps wouldn’t get the TLC that Apple’s iOS apps would ...

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OnePlus X microSD support improves with new OxygenOS update

OnePlus has made some controversial decisions when choosing what features to include – and those that don’t make the cut – for the company’s latest smartphones. And while that’s meant the absence of NFC, we’re thankful that OnePlus decided to bless the new OnePlus X with support for microSD expansion, too often a casualty of modern smartphone design. With only 16GB internal storage, we imagine many users are turning to that microSD support quickly, and today we learn of ...

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Some Galaxy Note 5 units have microSD expansion (FALSE)

Update: After updated coverage from ePrice, we are now able to dispel claims that dual-SIM models of the Galaxy Note 5 have microSD expansion. They do not. Check out source link 2. The original story is below.So, does this mean that we throw out all the editorials that we’ve just written? Does it mean that everyone can stop complaining? Does it mean that Samsung has listened to the thronging internet masses like it says ...

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SanDisk’s 200GB microSD card hits retail

How much storage does your smartphone have right now? 32GB? Maybe 64GB? Or are you a capacity hound who’s taken a phone that’s already packed with tons of internal storage and have augmented that with an extra microSD card for even more space? Earlier this month we told you about the biggest microSD card yet, a 512GB monster (though one with a sky-high $1000 price tag). Second to that, the best option we knew of was the 200GB SanDisk card, announced back during MWC. While quite a bit smaller, this ...

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Some of the awesome things you can do with a 512 GB smartphone

All of the top-end smartphones these days are listing up to 2 TB expandable capacity via microSD card. That’s … well, it’s insane to think about, having all of that space in such a tiny little chip. And it’s still far off; these phones boasting 2 TB support are merely planning for the future, even if the time of such high-capacity cards likely exceeds the life expectancy of the phones themselves. But while 2 TB microSD cards are still but a pipe dream, Microdia did just recently unveil its 512 GB card ...

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Boost your smartphone’s storage capacity with some Amazon microSD deals

In a perfect world, our phones would have all the internal storage they’d ever need. And while capacity options are hitting new highs, far too often we’re stuck with less space on these handsets than we’d like. What’s a data-hungry user to do? If you’re lucky, your smartphone’s manufacturer was kind enough to include support for microSD expansion, letting you pop in a memory card to augment that native storage. If you’ve yet to take advantage of your ...

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Friday deals: iPhones at Walmart, cheap Sony microSD cards

Summer can be expensive: all those tankfuls of gas for road trips to the beach, tickets to the latest blockbuster movie, and you probably don’t even want to look at what that A/C is costing you to keep cool. If you’re trying to keep a handle on spending, though, that doesn’t mean you have to pass up on some of the hottest smartphones and their accessories, and today we’ve spotted a couple solid deals that should help your summer dollar stretch a little farther.Apple’s iPhone pricing has been notorious for its resistance to discounts. That’s not to say ...

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