A year has passed since the announcement of the 4GB model of the Sony Memory Stick PRO Duo, time for the 8GB!

According to Mike Kahn, senior manager for Memory Stick Media at Sony Electronics, 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.

Owners of PSPs, Cyber-Shots, and new 2007 Handycam camcorders, watch out for this in February. Expected to cost around US$300.

Both Sony and SanDisk have announced the new Memory Stick PRO-HG format. Hurray for all PSP gamers and Sony Alpha DSLR shutterbugs, as it provides three times faster writing speed (60MB/sec) and a max capacity of 32GB.

Unlike SDHC memory cards, the Memory Stick PRO-HG is backward-compatible with PRO-only devices, although it will no longer run at only PRO speed.

The sticks are expected to launch at CES this coming January.

Well, not straight up free but rebate instead. Nonetheless, it is one of those times when I wished I were staying in the States instead of Singapore. We hardly get any rebate offers here.

Print out this coupon, bring to any GameStop, Circuit City, or Best Buy store, and you get $25 off that $19.99 512MB SanDisk Gaming Memory Stick Pro Duo.

Go on, give your PSP, Sony Ericsson cells and your future PS3 some love.

Gee, not another proprietary Sony memory media. Come March, new Sony gadgets will go with the new Memory Stick Micro aka M2 for removable storage. This new highly-compact format is only about 1.2mm thin and will be available in 256MB, 512MB and 1GB (1GB will probably only be available in May). An adapter with the size of a standard Memory Stick PRO (not sure about PRO Duo) will be available to provide compatibility with older generation products.

The price of the M2 is expected to be in the range of current Memory Stick PRO Duo’s price. And the very first gadget to take advantage of this tiny storage is the new Sony Ericsson M600 cellphone.