Yes Mary, you are reading right. There are several softwares that allow you to download free or purchased designs from the internet to your computer. Then you transfer from computer to the 'cardwriting box/card' for using in your machine. The most popular is the Brother PED Basic that I mentioned above. It only writes .pes format, which is what the 270 uses, and can be bought...sometimes used, from ebay. Normally, you can find new there, as well as Walmart on line, Allbrands.com, and other sites. You may pay from $50to $100+. Then you can download a free software to change other design formats to .pes for your machine to use. There are many many free designs available and a good place to start is to join Sewforum.com. It is a forum for embroiderers, where you can ask questions, request someone create a design for you free or for fee. It is not very active now as the site is also on Facebook, but still, there are thousands of free designs still there. I hope I have explained-helped you. Good luck!

It's not the Memory Stick. If it were a problem, you likely would not be able to view the pictures at all (the picture files would have been corrupted). It is far more likely that one of the following happened: - camera was not held steady as the shot was taken; - camera could not auto-focus itself in the light conditions it encountered; - light was too low for the ISO ("speed") setting that was in place at the time and the shutter was open so long that the picture blurred from your motion or the subject's.

You can, but you don't have to. There should be a button or such near the Memory Stick that will let you eject it. The manual for the camera should have instructions. Or you can take it to the photo shop the first time and ask them to show you how to do it.

I use a Vosonic portable storage & media device. The device without a hard drive is $99-$400 depends on the model. A 2.5" hard drive (laptop size) of your choice can be installed quite easily. When it's fulled, pop it out and change to a new one. I have one with 60GB and a later model with 40GB. I store not only photo but also music. Since it uses USB connections, I used it for computer back up as well. It is like an external hard drive but what so nice about one of these is that it allows any type of memory card to be downloaded and it fits in my purse! I wouldn't need to bring my laptop with me on trips. On my brother's wedding trip to California, many of my relatives also brought their cameras. I was able to download their photos into the device and had a collection of photos that otherwise, I wouldn't be able to have. The device costs a bit more than 1 or 2 memory cards but it's cheaper than purchasing several memory cards.