Steve's Digicams - Breaking News - Lexar 02/27/2006 Press Release

Corel and Lexar Team to Automate Digital Imaging Workflow

Corel® Paint Shop Pro® Family of Software Supports Lexar® ActiveMemory™ System to Enable Automatic Processing of Photos During Download

Ottawa – February 27, 2006 – Corel Corporation today announced a partnership with Lexar Media, Inc. (Nasdaq: LEXR) to provide customers with a unique automated solution for transforming photos as they are downloaded from a memory card. Corel® Paint Shop Pro® X and Corel® Photo Album™ 6 software will now support the Lexar® ActiveMemory-enabled flash memory cards for digital cameras. By storing their Paint Shop Pro X automation script on a Lexar AMS-enabled flash memory card, customers can download and preprocess their photos in a single, seamless process.

Savvy digital camera users are looking to transform each photo they take into high quality images. But, transferring large batches of photos from the digital camera to the computer and then editing each photo one-by-one can be time-consuming. By leveraging the new interoperability between Paint Shop Pro X software and AMS, photos may be automatically edited—according to the user’s set preferences—while they are downloaded to the computer. The result is a seamless, customized digital imaging workflow.

"We are thrilled to partner with Lexar to streamline the digital imaging workflow and to dramatically reduce production time for our customers," said Blaine Mathieu, General Manager, Digital Imaging at Corel. "Corel is committed to providing its customers with the fastest, easiest and highest quality solution for their digital imaging needs. Combining the industry-leading automation capabilities of our Paint Shop Pro X software with Lexar’s ActiveMemory System aligns precisely with what our customers want—less tinkering with technology to achieve perfect photos every time."

Using the ActiveMemory System is an easy, two-step process:

• Download and automatically batch process photos – as photos are downloaded from the memory card using the Corel Photo Downloader, the script is also read and then used to batch process the downloaded images in Paint Shop Pro X. The batch processing can include steps such as adding IPTC/EXIF copyright data and applying the One Step Photo Fix. Because everything is scriptable in Paint Shop Pro X, the Lexar AMS processing can include anything that can be done in Paint Shop Pro X. Scripts can be easily created using PSP’s "Record" feature, and can be easily changed using the graphical script editor.

• Upload Script – users can easily combine any number of Paint Shop Pro X commands and save them as a script. The scripts are then uploaded to the ActiveMemory space reserved on the Lexar AMS-enabled flash memory card.

Since the Lexar ActiveMemory System preserves the AMS portion of memory, the script remains even after the card has been reformatted in the camera. As a result, the AMS card is always "automation-ready" until the photographer removes the script using Paint Shop Pro X.

"Partnering with Corel was a natural choice. Both companies were looking to make the digital imaging workflow more productive and satisfying for our customers," said Dave Klenske, director of product marketing, memory card business unit, Lexar. "By creating a technical link between Corel’s Paint Shop Pro family of software and our Lexar ActiveMemory System, we are able to help our customers achieve the quality photos they want - with so much less time and energy dedicated to the process."

The Lexar ActiveMemory System is supported by the latest releases of Corel Paint Shop Pro (10.03 or later) and Corel Photo Album (6.3.4 or later).

About Lexar Media, Inc.

Lexar is a leading marketer and manufacturer of NAND flash memory products including memory cards, USB flash drives, card readers and ATA controller technology for the digital photography, consumer electronics, industrial and communications markets. The company holds over 92 issued or allowed controller and system patents, and licenses its technology to companies including Olympus Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., SanDisk Corporation and Sony Corporation. Lexar sells its memory cards worldwide and through an exclusive agreement, also sells memory cards under the Kodak brand. Headquartered in Fremont, California, Lexar has operations in countries around the world. More information is available at www.lexar.com.