The SDIO capability, present in all Palm OS handhelds with the SD/MMC slot, is very important. Without the SDIO, the SD/MMC slots are useless for any kind of card-based accessories like the recently released Presenter-to-Go for Palm OS machines (at http://www.presenter-to-go.com). In the future, when all the SD/MMC based machines start being released with the SDIO capability (especially the Pocket PC devices), it will finally be possible to imagine the CF standard to be retired. When Sony releases the Memory Stick Duo, the company will have a media card similar in size to the SD/MMC cards. From this point on, we'll probably be facing the only two possible media card standards of the near future: the Memory Stick and the SD/MMC.

I don't anticipate manufactures of handhelds and consumer electronic devices based on the SD/MMC migrating to the Memory Stick standard. I think it's clear to all of us that Sony will not change its entire line of products that are based on the Memory Stick media cards and migrate to the SD/MMC.

We are, however, starting to see several companies already releasing CF-to-Memory Stick and SD/MMC adapters as well as Springboard-to-SD/MMC and Memory Stick adapters. It is very hard to say which one of these two standards will be the winner of this battle. Maybe it'll be both of them. If you're thinking of buying new devices, handhelds, accessories, and whatnot, my advice is to try to stick with one of these two standards from now on.

Judith Tabron thinks the ultimate goal of human evolution should be that enlightened state where we all get dozens of cable channels and Bill Gates gets what's coming to him. She is in charge of instructional technology at Brandeis University.