Hard drive-like flash memory for car stereos

Cars are getting more and more connected these days. So many luxury vehicles have built-in Bluetooth to allow you to keep your hands on the wheel as you chat away on your cell phone, and it seems like an entry-level feature to have a car that is not only iPod-ready, but to come with a car deck that features an auxilliary input right in the front of the player. Don’t want to lug around your portable music player? Then how about picking up a storage device dedicated to your vehicle?

Conventional hard drives are cheaper than flash memory, but are prone to damage when they are shocked, bumped, or hit. That’s why Firstor has developed a flash-based Solid State Drive, designed specifically for in-car use, that has a conventional hard-drive interface.

This means that it can quickly and easily hook up to existing stereo systems (that are designed to take hard drives), but be able to withstand the usual bumps associated with everyday driving. In fact, they’re saying that it can resist “shock which is 1,000 times greater than that of free fall and it operates even in an extreme environmental condition. Available in 16GB, 24GB, and 32GB flavours.