By Martin Vedris

SYDNEY: If the future is flash, the future is shrinking, with more storage space and faster interactivity being built into smaller products. Two recent examples are Imation Atom USB Flash Drives and Samsung’s HMX20C dual HD camcorder and digital still camera.

The latest addition to Samsung’s flash camcorder lineup, the HMX20C (RRP $1,299), records video in Full HD 1920 x 1080, and also takes still photographs.

It features a Quick Start function and also has a high-speed capture that records video at 250 frames per second for detailed slow motion photography. The camcorder has 8GB of onboard flash memory and Samsung says it can shoot four times faster than a standard DVD recorder.

Samsung says it also doubles as a competent still camera that takes up to four megapixel images with its F1.8 wide aperture lens, with a 10x optical zoom.

Meanwhile, Imation’s new Atom USB Flash Drive (currently in stores) measures just 12 mm x 32 mm x 4.8 mm in size — it’s slightly larger than a standard sized paper clip, however it can store up to 8GB of data.

It has password protection and partitioning software for file management. Imation says it is also waterproof and dustproof and therefore more durable than other flash drives.

The Atom USB Flash Drives carry a five-year warranty and are available in 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB capacities for RRP $14.80, $20.60, $33.25 and $59.55 respectively.