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A couple of memory card specialists expanded their offerings at CTIA in Los Angeles this week. Kingston Technology launched its highest-capacity microSD card yet, while SanDisk unveiled a 4 GB miniSDHC module. Both the microSD and miniSD formats are commonly used in today's cell phones and smartphones.

The SanDisk offering doubles the amount of storage available on a standard miniSD card, which top out at 2 GB. It is built on the SD Association 2.0 specification, and, as a member of the company's SDHC family, is the first miniSD card in a line that will eventually reach 32 GB capacities.

With 4 GB, users can store more than 2,000 high-res pictures, over 1,000 songs or up to 8 hours of MPEG 4 video, according to SanDisk.

SanDisk is sampling the new 4GB miniSDHC card to OEMs (phone vendors & operators), but doesn't plan to offer them at retail until an unspecified date next year. While they look exactly the same as standard miniSD cards, the minSDHC models only work with devices that support the newer specification. And, only a few devices are currently available that support that standard. More are expected to be available in the coming months.

Kingston is now offering a 1 GB microSD card, its first. This memory card format is even tinier than miniSD, which is already half the size of postage stamp-sized SD cards. microSD cards are only a quarter as big.

While Kingston delivering a 1 GB microSD card isn't revolutionary - SanDisk is already offering a 2 GB model - its version lists for considerably less than the latter company's 1 GB model: $55 to $65.

Kingston microSD cards are bundled with an adapter for use as a full-size SD card. To protect against accidental data loss, the adapter has a built-in write-protect switch.

In general, microSD cards, previously known as TransFlash, and still called that in some quarters, are so small, it isn’t recommended you remove them very often.