Digital storage replaces camera film

The British government has jettisoned 35mm camera film from the typical 'shopping basket' - owing to dwindling demand - and replaced it with digital storage media, says Amateur Photographer.

Announcing the removal of 35mm film - which follows the 35mm camera dropped last year - the Office for National Statistics (ONS) states: "Spending on camera films has naturally declined with the popularity and affordability of digital cameras and photography."

However, growing demand for 'all forms of portable digital storage' warrants its inclusion in the Retail Prices Index for the first time, asserts the ONS - which uses price information to measure inflation and spending patterns in the economy.

When Japan's SpriteSat research satellite launches in October on its three-year mission to study Earth's magnetic field, it will be equipped with a special type of computer memory that will allow it to operate despite extreme temperatures and radiation in Earth's upper atmosphere, states Scientific American.

The magneto-resistive random access memory (MRAM) made by Freescale Semiconductor (and integrated into the satellite built by the Angstr"om Aerospace Corporation) is smaller, leaving more space for transponders and other signal transmitters and receivers.

"MRAM has the storage capabilities of flash and the speed and endurance of SRAM," says Saied Tehrani, a Freescale fellow and director of analogue and mixed signal technologies.

Intel expects flash-memory prices to fall about twice as fast this quarter as predicted, prompting the company to consider slowing its expansion into the market, reports Bloomberg.com.

Prices may drop 53% for flash chips, which store data such as digital photos and music, CEO Paul Otellini said during an analysts' conference at Intel's headquarters in Santa Clara, California.

The company, which agreed to enter the market in 2005 through a joint venture with Micron Technology, faces an oversupply of a type of flash chip called Nand.

Iomega turned down an EMC offer of $3.25 cash per share, or $178 million, says Boston.com.

Iomega said the offer wasn't a substantial improvement over Iomega's plan for a stock swap deal with ExcelStor Great Wall Technology and Shenzhen ExcelStor Technology of China. That deal would give ExcelStor shareholders a 60% stake in Iomega.

However, EMC recently bumped up its offer to $3.75 a share, or $205.5 million. "The revised acquisition proposal from EMC would reasonably constitute a superior proposal" to the ExcelStor deal, according to a statement issued by Iomega. As a result, the Iomega board has authorised further talks with EMC.