I think data protection is important, but wow they took that to the next level ^_^

Its only pointless if you plan to never drop your SD card in water. Plan is the key word. Stop "sensationalizing" the headlines just so people read them.... i know.. that's the point of a headline, but come on people.

until they make it bomb- and nuclear-proof, those things are WEAK!!!

these days, with all the stuff happening around the world, if it can't withstand C4 or semtax blast, water and dust is least of your worries....

As a public relations representative for Lexar, we've heard from a number of customers about Lexar memory cards that go through the wash or fall into the pool. From just about every person who has told us these stories, they've found that if they let the card dry out overnight, it works the next morning.

This is nice for those of us who use "water proof" cameras that use the SD cards. I camp, hike, raft, etc, and having this as another form of protecting the pics I take during my trips is another way of taking piece of mind with me.

I bought a 128mb usb flash stick on clearance at Target for $1.79. I also have an old 512mb SD card... I had them in my pocket and went to the pool and swam around for about 30 minutes. OOH crap! Thought they were destroyed. I dried them with a paper towel... voila worked fine.

If you can demonstrate that the cards bearing the waterproof feature are indistinguishable from regular cards, then the "pointless" adjective might be warranted. Until then, tell all the outdoor and extreme sport enthusiasts out there (just to name a few that could benefit from this) that it's "pointless" for anything to be waterproof and see how far that gets you.

Just about Every GPS unit for Marine, treking, and outdoor use can take or requires SD cards for maps, tracks, waypoints etc. Combine that usage in harsh conditions in Military or commercial applications and I think there is a pretty good "case," for enviormentally tough SD cards.

Ya...the Author clearly doesn't have enough of an understanding of the uses for SD cards has he needs to make the claimes he is.

Now you just need a waterproof camera / PDA / mp3 player / netbook to put it in.

I agree with Yo Mamma and emverham. Stop put opinion on news headline let's the reader or user decide what pointless from hardware,because one pointless hardware to one person can be a lifesaver for other.

I was thinking of the same usage but problem is, if there is power to the card and the contacts get wet... good luck, its probably hosed

We should get to thumbs up/thumbs down the story.

I think most SD cards are already waterproof. On numerous occasions, I had left my SD card in my jeans and they went through the washer and dryer just fine. So I think they heatproof too!

Yeah, I'm with anhxeom on this one. With no power in the device itself and as long as you use it when it's dry, I can't see why you would need it to be water proof. If the pins are wet and you plug it into a device, you still run the risk of shorting it out, so it has to be dry anyway.

I always figured that flash memory was waterproof, as long as you didn't try to use it until it was dry.

Well, it's either a scam that lets them charge more for the an identical product or there's something to it. It's certainly a niche market item, but there's plenty of wilderness still out there in the world and plenty of people who love going into it. If nothing else, if you put this is a regular device that suffers water damage, you might have some relief knowing your data is safe?

Washing Machine, International Airport Scanners in Asia & US, spilled soda, stored around large electric motors (while running), soup, beer, many many many impacts on concrete.

Still usable - no data lost.

Yea, pointless is exactly what this is. The SD card is waterproof anyway, the only way water could damage it is if it came into contact while in operation. Whats needed are waterproof devices, not the storage media.

In some cases content is more important than the device it's in. It's one thing to ruin a camera due to a dip in the river but to loose the pictures you took the last few days on that river that almost killed you is something else altogether.

Not that I engage in such sports but I totally see the use of ruggedized storage cards. Don't like it? Don't buy it.

I wouldn't want to drop a regular storage card in salt water. Just drying the card won't save it. You'll have to rinse it really quickly to get the salt out, dry it, retrieve the data and call it a loss. That's not to say this model would do any better but that's what they claim so let's have someone test it

this is Jane, you're speaking of. you will bow down and hold your insolent tongue, for she is the greatest of all the writers on staff!

but seriously, as the lexor rep and various others have stated, i've never seen a flash stick.. usb.. sd.. that has stopped working because it was washed or taken for a swim or even chewed on for a bit by a household pet... as long as there is no physical damage to the internals, and even then.. i've seen some truely managled units that still werk, this idea should be truely pointless. to those that would say that the outdoors ppl would still utilize this can reference those that point out that even if you could use these while still wet, the contact surfaces still have to be dry or risk shorting.. and there is no mention of short circuit protection...

next...

Probably they removed the plastic case, and went for a hard rubber case; or coated the plastic with rubber inside.
This is good for the photographers who at times need to take nature pictures in odd positions, and might get wet.
I guess manufacturing price would not be more than $5 added to a regular SD card. In order to make profit they probably ask for 10 or $15 more max per card.