The SD Association makes it easier for customers to buy the right SD memory card with the App Performance Class symbol-- a logo marking whether an SD card is able to run applications as well as store data.

According to the organisation, SD Specification 5.1 establishes the Application Performance Class, or the technical and market requirements to run and store applications from SD card while still providing storage for pictures, videos, music, documents and other data. In addition Android Marshmallow adds SD memory card support (as "Adoptable Storage Devices") with a minimum execution time benchmark determining whether a card is best suited for apps or image/video capture.

According to Seagate the latest version of the Backup Plus Portable is its biggest mobile drive yet, thanks to a BarraCuda internal HDD allowing the creation of a 5TB model.

Announced last month, the BarraCuda HDD features a 2.5-inch 1TB platter, the highest capacity drive of its kind. The 5TB Backup Plus does not require a separate power source, making it a proper mobile storage option, while the aluminium casing is tough and relatively slim  at 20.5mm.

LaCie has a storage solution ready for the users of high-end laptops such as the latest MacBook Pro-- the Bolt3, an external HDD featuring two Thunderbolt 3 ports.

Providing the actual storage inside the Bolt3 is a pair of M.2 PCIe SSDs making a single 2TB volume. LaCie claims transfer speeds reach up to 2800mbps, making the drive ideal for 4K and even 6K video editing. Thunderbolt 3 allows for the daisy-chaining of either one USB-C or up to five Thunderbolt 3 devices, and users can also connect two 4K displays and a laptop simultaneously.

Western Digital announces the My Passport and My Book external HDD lines now have new "modern and innovative" designs, the result of a partnership with branding firm fuseproject.

Supposedly built with the customer in mind, the updated HDDs also feature password protection and 256-bit AES hardware encryption to further the protection of the data inside, as well as increased storage capacities.

“As the storage landscape continues to rapidly evolve, and the bars for design and user-experience have increased, the team focused on the design and user experience to catapult My Passport and My Book to the next level,” WD says. “Through the reimagined design language, we want to engage consumers in a conversation about how storage is core to their lives and how they feel more empowered by the real benefits of capturing, protecting and enjoying life’s precious memories.”

Seagate announces two of what it describes as its "most advanced mobile consumer drives yet"-- the 5TB BarraCuda and 2TB FireCuda, both based on the company's 2.5-inch 1TB platters.

The BarraCuda HDD promises best-in-class versatility, performance and reliability for any mobile PC applications. It comes in both internal and external storage options, with either a 7mm laptop upgrade design or a 15mm design for external solutions. As such, customers can either go for an internal model or a no-fuss external option.

Meanwhile the FireCuda a hybrid 2TB drive with 8GB of flash storage for faster booth times, application starts and game loading times. According to the company the onboard flash is made even faster through new firmware managing when and how the platters spin, cutting down power consumption while not sacrificing performance. It also features "Multi-Tier Caching" algorithms able to continuously analyse system use and tweak performance accordingly.

Drobo announces a first storage array equipped with a USB-C port-- the Drobo 5C, a 5-bay self-managing storage solution offering all the features of the original Drobo hardware.

Built on BeyondRAID technology, the Drobo 5C handles a variety of different size HDDs and brand, eliminating the limitations of traditional RAID systems. Drives are easily swappable, with no need for file shuffling or configuration, and installation requires no carriers or screws. A "traffic light interface" promises initial setup takes less than 10 minutes.

Meanwhile the USB-C interface is compatible with both USB 3.0 and 2.0, and offers average performance of 250MB/sec.

Western Digital claims it produced the biggest SDXC card in the world-- a SanDisk prototype with 1TB of storage, larger than that available on most laptops on the market.

Presented at Photokina 2016, such a card would be a boon to photo and video professionals working on 4K and 8K content, not to mention consumers wanting more storage capacity on their mobile devices.

“Sixteen years ago we introduced the first SanDisk 64MB SD card and today we are enabling capacities of 1TB," the company says. "The SanDisk 1TB SD card prototype represents another significant achievement as growth of high-resolution content and capacity-intensive applications such as virtual reality, video surveillance and 360 video, are progressing at astounding rates.”

Micron sets to provide mobile devices with more storage as it reveals a 3D NAND chip aimed at mid- and high-end smartphones based on the fast (and still to be found in mobile devices) UFS 2.1 storage protocol.

According to the company 3D NAND is a solution for the cramming of more storage capacity within a smaller space. The concept behind the technology is actually reminiscent of a skyscraper, since it involves stacking memory cells on top of each other-- and the higher the memory cells go, the more storage is available.

3D NAND dies have multiple layers, with vertical "pillars" intersecting each layer to create memory cells. Each pillar supports up to 32 memory cells, and each die contains over 4 billion pillars.