Bluetooth Enabled External Harddrive

anocow writes "According to this press release at Nikkei Biztech (Japanese), Toshiba will be selling a Bluetooth enabled 5 gig external hard disk called the "Hopbit". It will be priced at 49800 yen. Apparently it will run on batteries for a maximum of 6 hours continuously. Talk about mobility!"

Comments

for that businessman on the go

[WizardofWestmarch]

Wow 5 gigs worth of portable porn, what will they think of next? *gets ready to be modded down*

Re:for that businessman on the go

[buzban]

5 gigs worth of porn from 100 meters anywhere int he home or office...that's the real fun! ;)

Re:for that businessman on the go

[WizardofWestmarch]

True, and if you don't wanna admit it's your porn you can claim you just happened to connect plausible deniabile porn... man it gets better and better.

Re:for that businessman on the go

[lovebyte]

Wow 5 gigs worth of portable porn
Come on. For the businessman, 5 gigs is just enough for the powerpoint presentation of his company!

Re:for that businessman on the go

[Erik K. Veland]

Bah! I can get 15 gigs of it on my iPod and still have room for 5 gigs of porn MP3s.

If I were so inclined that is.

Re:for that businessman on the go

[Anonymous Coward]

you can claim you just happened to connect plausible deniabile porn...

That certainly would confuse them. It confused me - what the fuck are you on about? And what is deniabile? Bile you just won't own up to?

Re:for that businessman on the go

[spike hay]

Bah! I can get 15 gigs of it on my iPod and still have room for 5 gigs of porn MP3s.

If I were so inclined that is.

Yeah, I don't have any MP3's on my iPod either. All pr0n.

Re:for that businessman on the go

[cioxx]

There might be a need to cross-post this from earlier.

Compare 5GB battery powered toy to a rock-solid 40GB External USB 2.0 HDD. You're just paying a high premium for the wireless connnectivity and miserably small storage space.

Why?

Re:for that businessman on the go

[Anonvmous Coward]

One has wires, one doesn't. Oddly enough, people have uses for that.

You could share a drive with multiple machines without a network.

You could bring a new drive on line just by turning it on, no need to search for the right port.

Heck, you could hide the drive and store your child porn collection on it. Won't be easy to find when you get raided!

In any case, here's a lesson for you: Not everybody wants a hard drive with large capacity or ridiculous speeds, some people have other needs. Wireless is one of them. I personally would like one so I could ferry data between here and home (like backups, for example) without needing to hook up the drive every single time.

As a matter of fact, I have a wireless network at both home and work so my laptop can do that job. It'd simplify my life a lot if just had a cheapy wirless drive to do it for me.

Personally, though I'd prefer 802.11 over Bluetooth. But I'll takes what I can gets.

Thankyou babel fish

[nounderscores]

The Mobile HDD sale of Toshiba and Bluetooth correspondence

Toshiba announced October 9th of 2002, for Mobile of Bluetooth correspondence hard disk " HOPBIT " is sold on November 1st. You sell with the Web sight of the Toshiba digital media engineering. As for price 4 ten thousand 9800 Yen.

As for the new product, the hard disk unit and the place where the Bluetooth is combined with is a special feature, the large capacity data of the picture and music et cetera in the wireless the transmission * retention * read-out possible product. Inserting in the bag, and the like the case where it carries about you adopted the individual packaging technology which holds down vibrating * impact, loaded the HDD of 1.8 type 5GB.

When the power switch is turned on, because automatically it becomes long time stand by, the radio with just operation of the equipment which such as personal computer is connected and PDA, sending and receiving of the data is possible. Because of this while it is inserted in the bag and the pocket sending and receiving it does the data, looks at image with such as PDA of labor assistant, can verify the data. As for communication range with prospect approximately 10m. Besides the fact that also data transmission with the USB1.1 is possible, the Bluetooth USB adapter the same it is densely we to do, even with the personal computer of Bluetooth non- correspondence available.

The continual expecting time by the built-in battery maximum of 200 hours, continual drive time maximum of 6 hours. The height 110× width 70× depth 22mm (the projection section you exclude external size). As for weight 180g. (Akira Kimura)

* Tip of inquiry
* Toshiba digital media engineering
Business technical charge HOPBIT person in charge telephone 0428-33-6791
* Related information
* The Toshiba Web sight http: //www.toshiba.co.jp/

BizTech compilation

Re:Thankyou babel fish

[hplasm]

Bypass the network completely and hack straight into the wireless drive. Wardisking?

Re:Thankyou babel fish

[Anonymous Coward]

October 9th of 2002 it announced the Toshiba and the sale Toshiba of the portable type HDD of agreement of the Bluetooth, because the movable device of hard disk " HOPBIT " of agreement of the Bluetooth is sold November 1st you vision of the net to the design of Toshiba digital medium sells. In regard to price 4 9800 Yen of 10,000. Because of the new product, the unit and the place of the hard disk special function of the image which the Bluetooth is connected, are music and cetera transmission & retention & the read-out possible product of the large capacity data and wireless. So inserting, being about to carry concerning you in case of the sack and the same type individual technology it maintains the packing vibration * it produces effect, being stacked the HDD and the 5GB load of 1.8 types, you adopted. When the power switch is attached, being to become standpoint of the time when that is long automatically, it seems like the device personal computer, is connected and sending the data, the radio which has the fair operation of the thing which is received is the PDA possible. Because of this it is inserted in the sack, to send that, while the pocket which is received does the data, the image like the PDA of the assistant of work, you verify the data it is possible, you see. In addition because of communication range of other prospect approximately 10m. of the fact that, data transmission of the USB1.1 is possible, usb adapter same that of the Bluetooth fault of the Bluetooth which can be utilized the personal computer of our agreements which it should do and is uniformity dense. Time of the expectation which is not during the becoming extinct due to the maximum of 200 hours of the making attaching electric battery, the drive time maximum of 6 hours which is not during becoming extinct. The projection section height 110 à Ì width 70 à Ì depth 22mm (you exclude external size). Weight 180g. (the Akira Kimura) to in regard * the point of inquiry * the telephone which the business technical fullness HOPBIT person takes charge digital medium & related information of the Toshiba which 0428-33-6791 is designed * the http: of vision of the Toshiba net / / Accumulation of www.toshiba.co.jp / BizTech Slashdot requires you to wait 20 seconds between hitting 'reply' and submitting a comment. It's been 3 seconds since you hit 'reply'! If this error seems to be incorrect, please provide the following in your report to SourceForge.net: Browser type User ID/Nickname or AC What steps caused this error Whether you used the Back button on your browser Whether or not you know your ISP to be using a proxy, or any sort of service that gives you an IP that others are using simultaneously How many posts to this form you successfully submitted during the day * Please choose 'formkeys' for the category! Thank you.

Re:Thankyou babel fish

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope.

If you want to discover any BT device, it must be set into "discoverable mode".

Then, you must "pair" any device before they will trust each other. It is done by entering same phrase into each device - so you must have physical access to device, and war-anything doesn't cut it.

Then you can turn off discoverable mode, pairing remains and the device works the way it was set up.

In other words, I can have this harddrive few steps away from you and transfering data from/to PDA and you will not find it (without special equipment, that is).

Re:Thankyou babel fish

[ntp]

> you will not find it (without special equipment, that is).

That is, until someone hacks their cheap bluetooth dongle for the job. Mark my words, it will happen.

Re:Thankyou babel fish

[Yokaze]

Unless you can follow the frequency hopping scheme, stand close enough, and break the encryption/authentication scheme, it seems quite unlikely.

Batteries?

[NeoSkandranon]

I hope there's an option to plug it into an AC outlet, i'd hate for the batteries to go dead halfway through a file transfer

SWEET!

[ottffssent]

Let's see audio players doing this, shall we? I'd love to walk in with a player in my pocket and have it automatically sync with my desktop's current media collection. Granted, plugging the darn thing in isn't terribly taxing, but I'd like not to have to remember.

I'd love to see some more Bluetooth devices coming out. Buzzwords aside, if all my random tech bits could say hi and do something usful when I put them in the same room, that'd be so incredibly cool, and probably useful too. Rather than a Picturebook with a camera you have to carry around with you all the time, I'd rather have separate camera and laptop, but when I take pix with the camera while the laptop's in my bag, it should send the pictures there, keeping the internal storage free. Keep a copy there in case I don't need the space, but mark it as "duplicated" so it can be overwritten Tivo-style if the space needs to be used.

Combine this with some of the wireless power things coming out, and we're halfway to a Star Trek world. Network the tricorders indeed!

Re:SWEET!

[Anonymous Coward]

> [...]when I take pix with the camera while the laptop's in my bag [...]

You mean something like the Sony DSC-FX77?

Re:SWEET!

[Cloudmark]

On the other hand, it might be a little creepy if all the random tech bits could communicate. It's a divide and conquer thing. Combined, I think all the devices on my person have more processing power than me...

My PDA+DCamera+laptop+cellphone+datawatch+tablet+HD will assimilate me...

Re:SWEET!

[elvum]

Combine this with some of the wireless power things coming out, and we're halfway to a Star Trek world. Network the tricorders indeed!

Easy tiger... there's still all that warp drive malarky to invent...

Re:SWEET!

[Rader]

It is a cool feeling. I had a watch that would sync up my running times when I entered my computer room. It was funky. I'm sure my children (10 years from now) will think of this stuff as utterly non-cool as "TV remotes".

Re:SWEET!

[ivan256]

I'd love to walk in with a player in my pocket and have it automatically sync with my desktop's current media collection.

At just under 1 Mbit, you'd better be staying in the room a long time if you want to sync up more than a single MP3. Bluetooth was obsolete before it hit the shelves.

Re:SWEET!

[Yokaze]

>Bluetooth was obsolete before it hit the shelves.

Hardly. It was never intended for that kind of thing, still you can do it.

BTW... How do you synchronise your E-Mail with your PDA?
Or your Address-book? And with your mobile?
How do you access the Internet with your mobile?
And with other people's?

With infrared? Not ... quite ... the ... right ... angle. Now, hold still.

Re:SWEET!

[ivan256]

BTW... How do you synchronise your E-Mail with your PDA?
Or your Address-book? And with your mobile?
How do you access the Internet with your mobile?
And with other people's?

It's very simple. I have a server in my house, and all the data is there. Wherever I am, I can access the data, either using somebody else's internet connection (or my work connection), or through the browser on my cell phone which connects to the internet directly via my carrier. What do I need a PDA for? My phone has a browser, and my server does that.

The best part is that after all that effort, I only use all that stuff as a last resort, because when I'm away from my desk I don't want to be bothered with work.

Other then my CDMA2000 enabled cell phone (Sprint PCS Vision, faster then bluetooth BTW, so If I did have a PDA and it was bluetooth enabled, I wouldn't be able to get my phone's full bandwidth to my PDA), why do I need slow wireless?

Anyway, back on topic: Hardly. It was never intended for that kind of thing, still you can do it.

We're talking about a bluetooth hard drive here. At the optimal transfer speed, you'll need three sets of batteries to read all the data off of this thing. I understand that this is not what bluetooth was designed for, but it's the kind of thing that people want it for, and it should have been taken into account. Hence it was obsolete before it arrived.

Re:SWEET!

[Yokaze]

>I have a server in my house, and all the data is there.
This is of course a solution. (Actually one I use, too. Except for accessing it via a CDMA2k mobile).

>[...]Sprint PCS Vision, faster then bluetooth BTW, [...]
Is this a reproducable fact, or the numbers Sprint gave you?

> At the optimal transfer speed, you'll need three sets of batteries to read all the data off of this thing.

So, essentially you're complaing about the HD being to large?

Re:SWEET!

[ivan256]

Is this a reproducable fact, or the numbers Sprint gave you?

It varies. It is much faster late at night. In the middle of the day I only get ~30-50kB/sec (that's BYTES, not bits) if the on screen speed readout is to be believed. At night, it is much faster. It's not like I'm downloading large files, though. It brings up my (ical2html generated) calendar practically instantaniously. My main complaint about it is that all the software is java, and it's slow ass to load up programs. Also, at $0.02/kB, I try and avoid using it if I'm near a teathered connection. It's great for checking e-mail or looking up directions on the web if you absolutely have to, but I don't like to do that. It's a phone, and I'd rather talk to people considering long distance is included. e-mail is inferior to a telephone conversation if the cost is the same.

So, essentially you're complaing about the HD being to large?

That's rediculous. I'm complainging about the transfer being too slow. It's only a 5GB disk. It shouldn't take more than half a day to read all of it. Bluetooth should be 10x faster.

Re:SWEET!

[Yokaze]

> ~30-50kB/sec

This is, of course, makes it quite enjoyable.
Would it be less enjoyable with 6kB/sec?

> $0.02/kB

This on the other hand, could be quite a downside.
Hmm, 5Gb with $0.02/kB = $1000. It seems you have to pay for the extra bandwith and storage.

>>So, essentially you're complaing about the HD being to large?

>That's rediculous.

It's not ridiculous. Let me deduce my statement.

>Bluetooth should be 10x faster.
Then take WLAN. It is even 11 times as fast. But then you'll have to pay the price (energy consumption).
You want both? Me too. Furthermore, I want a high payed job with no work (not really, just to make a point).

So, Bluetooth exists and is as fast as it is for various reasons (simplicity, costs, energy consumption).

Then there are PDAs with a storage of let's say 32Mb.
It isn't unreasonable to assume that this is currently quite enough for most purposes, otherwise noone would by these things or even ones with 8Mb or less.

So, 32Mb is the total Memory a PDA. Now maybe you need more storage space, (Note the word "storage", not memory). There is a device where you can save the whole memory in roughly a minute and additionally you have a multitude of the PDA's space on it.

It may a ridiculous small disc and a ridiculous slow, but it is intended for ridiculous small devices with ridiculous processing power.
Compared for the targeted enviroment, it would be more appropriate to say it is ridiculous large. But it is probably the smallest capacity one get get these days.

Re:SWEET!

[Cato]

Interesting setup, but Bluetooth is much faster at 700Kbps plus than CDMA2000 1x as used by Sprint PCS Vision (153 Kbps max, probably more like 50 Kbps in reality, and will fluctuate much more depending on distance from base station, radio interference, other users in cell, etc). CDMA2000 1xEV should do 2 Mbps but there will be similar caveats about fluctuating real-world bandwidth - and it's not deployed anywhere in the US.

Bluetooth is mainly a replacement for cables used to connect peripherals, but it's also convenient for ad hoc networking (beaming stuff to other people without the point-and-squint infrared hassles).

It would make more sense to have a 1 GB flash drive with Bluetooth, since battery drain is a problem. But if you have a big enough battery, a hard drive is quite useful, and the idea of having data available to various devices is a good one.

It's entertaining how the component parts of a laptop are fragmenting out into separate devices to some extent - e.g. PDA (small version of laptop screen+keyboard), mobile phone (like a modem), hard drive, etc. A bit like the mecha's shuttle craft near the end of 'AI'...

Bluetooth stereo headphones?

[g.a.g]

I've seen the different BT headsets for phones, but I have yet to see a stereo headphone for music play. Are there any? And could this thingy be used as a wireless iPod? That would be quite nifty...

Re:Bluetooth stereo headphones?

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm, the bandwith is quite limited.
For Synchronious Connections only up to 3x64kbit/s.

So, you'd rather have an integrated Ogg-player in your headset.

Re:Bluetooth stereo headphones?

[NeonSpirit]

I have been looking for this for quite a while, with no luck. I haen't even seen any prototypes or development ideas.

The solution would be reasonably complex and expensive as two bluetooth devices would be required, either a modified player, or a BT tramsmitter that connects to the headphone jack, and the headphones / earpiece itself. Both of these would require an independent power source. I would also wonder about the quality of the audio, as the current BT headsets are for voice and not HiFi quality music.

I would love to be able to keep my minidisk player in a backpack and listen to it without trailing wires, and have the phone interupt the music if someone calls. But at the moment vibrating alert will have to do.

Re:Bluetooth stereo headphones?

[Anonymous Coward]

For Synchronious [sic] Connections only up to 3x64kbit/s.

Pray tell, what point would there be in using a 'synchronious' connection to what is basically an output device?

Warsurfing?

[sdeath]

As though 802.11 wasn't bad enough. Now we can have someone sniffing hard drive accesses as well?

I wonder when "Bluesnort" will be coming out. >;->

Does anyone know if the encryption for Bluetooth is as braindamaged as some of the others out there at the moment, or if it's actually something halfway decent?

-SD

Re:Warsurfing?

[Anonymous Coward]

It uses bluefish encryption algorithims. :)

Re:Warsurfing?

[rassie]

I do believe that the protocol you run on top of Bluetooth is responsible for data encryption.

But I believe Bluetooth does have better authentication - including encrypted exchange of pairing and link keys - than WLAN.

Re:Warsurfing?

[tanveer1979]

As though 802.11 wasn't bad enough. Now we can have someone sniffing hard drive accesses as well?

Every new tech starts with issues. 802.11 is getting there. So will bluetooth when need comes up. But in the case of BT, you will have to be real real close to the person to *snort*. And so it is not really that big a security risk

Re:Warsurfing?

[Bud]

Does anyone know if the encryption for Bluetooth is as braindamaged as some of the others out there at the moment, or if it's actually something halfway decent?

Yes. It's decent. They've written a white paper about it. And while I'm on the subject, Extremetech did a very good Bluetooth overview some time ago. Read it.

--Bud

Re:Warsurfing?

[MobileDude]

>>Warsurfing? (Score:5)
>>by sdeath on Friday October 11, @07:05AM
>>As though 802.11 wasn't bad enough. Now we can
>>have someone sniffing hard drive accesses as
>>well?
>>I wonder when "Bluesnort" will be coming out.

With its 30ft open air range, I think you'd maybe kinda sorta be aware of anyone snorting in your vicinity.

Unless, of course, the snorter uses a BT(tm) enabled Pringles can to enhance reception...

Re:Warsurfing?

[Troed]

The moderation should be "funny", not "interesting", since it's not true.

Re:Warsurfing?

[Troed]

*lol* .. mod me down, and keep moderating the parent up - which is still not true and neither interesting nor informative ;)

Again, for the moderators who know nothing about the crypto in Bluetooth, it's NOT bluefish. The parent post is trying to be funny, so please - before marking this down as off topic again - first correct the moderation of the parent from informative/interesting to funny.

Re:Warsurfing?

[Yokaze]

Class 1 Devices have a range of 100m.

Re:Warsurfing?

[Mike Schiraldi]

But in the case of BT, you will have to be real real close to the person to *snort*. And so it is not really that big a security risk

You only have to be close when you're using standard products. I'm sure some guy sitting outside in a van with a high-powered signal amplifier would have no trouble communicating with your BlueTooth stuff.

Talk about security!

[meringuoid]

I mean, forget wardriving - imagine being able to sit next to someone with a laptop and actually get between them and their hard disk! Oh, the havoc you could cause ;-)

Wow. Uh, why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would you want to cart about a 5Gb drive, without the computer to use it? 6 hours? What happens if you're in the middle of a write operation, and the batteries fail?

In short, why the heck would I use one, if I could just buy a DVD[-|+]R?

Still Japanese

[StefMeister]

This still seems Japanese to me :-)

thank you babelfish
(English -> Japanese -> English)
The babelfish appreciate in you

Re:Still Japanese

[Melantha_Bacchae]

StefMeister wrote:

> This still seems Japanese to me :-)

Don't you mean:

This still Japanese me to seems?

The babelfish translation wasn't (does it ever? ;) rendering proper English word order (prepositions after nouns, etc.). It may take me many hours to translate something that big from Japanese, but at least I end up with proper English grammar and proper word order. ;)

Oh, well. At least babelfish saves us the time of translating stuff. We should be grateful.

Besides being a cool device, that site looks like a cool place to practice my Japanese translation skills. Or will be when I get done with www.godzilla.co.jp and the "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidora: Giant Monster All Out Attack" soundtrack booklet. ;)

"His return is near..." Godzilla 2000 trailer
G Countdown: 18 days (www.godzillaoncube.com)

Re:Still Japanese

[HeyYou82]

for the heck of it, i one upped it english -> japanese -> english -> japanese -> english = "It recognizes the Babelfish with you" :)

Errr... transfer rate?

[altman]

Bluetooth maxes out at 721kbps; ISTR this is the raw data rate, not the rate over the protocol.

Assuming you sustained a full 721kbps, you're looking at over 16 hours to fill the disk.

Hmmm.

Hugo

Re:Errr... transfer rate?

[Anonymous Coward]

At least its better than the crap we have over here

Re:Errr... transfer rate?

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope there's a USB v1 interface on it so I can speed it up! :-) If they're REALLY cool they'll put USB v2. Fuck Bluetooth.

Re:Errr... transfer rate?

[machine of god]

heh, yeah, and back it up.

Re:Errr... transfer rate?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the fact you are still jacking off about your 512 Kbps down cable modem just proves his point. Britain is backward. Jeez, I bet you even think 128kbps ISDN is quite nippy.

Re:Errr... transfer rate?

[Anonymous Coward]

I suppose you're going to pretend you have an OC-3 drop in every room now are you?

Last time I looked, 512Kbps is pretty much all you'll get as a basic option in any country offering broadband, with 1Mbps and 2Mbps options available.

Re:Errr... transfer rate?

[ShooterNeo]

well gee, must be imagining my 1.5 down basic...

Re:Errr... transfer rate?

[hopews]

Most DSL in the US is 1.5Mbps, and most cable is 2.0-3.0Mbps. At least that seems to be the case around me.

Re:Errr... transfer rate?

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps it's time to stop gloating because Assend, Norfolk has nothing and you have 512Kbps cable modem and start looking at the bigger picture. You're closer to Assend, Norfolk than you are to technological utopia.

Re:Errr... transfer rate?

[RoadKnight]

Ummm, yeah, this is the first thing that crossed my mind too.
It would be neat, but really, this is going to be like NFS-mounting something over your DSL connection. :b)

Re:Errr... transfer rate?

[Cato]

At that rate, the HD really needs USB/firewire as well so you can fill it up from a PC. This could still be useful once filled up - you could carry around a huge music collection and stream it to any Bluetooth device including your friends' MP3 players. Or you could have a huge database for some vertical application - the scary part is that you could mislay the disk with the database, so you'd need some serious encryption of all data stored, not just over the air...

Hmmn...

[President Chimp Toe]

49800 yen = 256.638 GBP = 400.792 USD

10Gb iPod on amazon is 400 dollars (same price)
But ther battery life is 4 hours longer
And 6Gb more space.
And MP3 player.
But no bluetooth. I dont think that advantage outways the disadvatages for most users.

Re:Hmmn...

[PerryMason]

Personally I see it as more of a supplement to a PDA. I mean if you could hook up 5 gigs of storage to a Zaurus, you'd have something rivallling a laptop in functionality but fitting in your pocket. I kinda like the idea of having my harddrive in my pocket while I tap away at my Zaurus :)

Re:Hmmn...

[MrFredBloggs]

5 gig though? Why not 50? How much more money does it cost? its not like you`re paying for the storage space - its the `form factor` and the fact its bluetooth and all that shit. Surely the size of the drive is irrelevant?

Re:Hmmn...

[Anonymous Coward]

It /is/ an advantage not having bluetooth. You could buy, install, configure a firewire card, then transfer the files over and STILL have time to spare vs. using bluetooth.

Re:Hmmn...

[Anonymous Coward]

I still haven't filled my 32mb card in my palm, even using it for away-from-the-office backups. What are you using your Zaurus for?

Re:Hmmn...

[upstateguy]

If you don't mind the smaller size, the 5 GB iPod is on Amazon's Friday Sale today for $279...The 20 GB is $499 so if you're gonna for gor the 10, you might as well tack on the extra money to double the size.

Re:Hmmn...

[Cpt_Kirks]

pr0n, duh.

After all, this is /.

Re:Hmmn...

[Anonymous Coward]

A better question is, "What aren't you using your palm for?" I can imagine a plethora of godly things I could do with a Zaurus and 5 gigs of space. Maybe you need to start being imaginative? Start devising some fiendishly awesome shit to do no your Palm?

Doesn't seem so cool...

[Dr. Spork]

I don't know. I think a USB hard drive does a whole lot more for you portability-wise. I mean, most computers worth tranferring data from have USB ports. How many of them can send out over Bluetooth? And even if they do, what's the transfer rate?

I understand that this is more for synching portable devices like cell phones and PDAs, but again: why do you need this sychning to be so damn portable? Why not just buy a Bluetooth card for your PC and do all that work at home?

However, here is one cool idea: A bluetooth-broadcasting digital camera! (Do these things exist yet?) You would have the drive in your backpack and the camera will be able to take quite a few pretty huge pictures before it fills up 5 gigs! Still, I wouldn't want to go backpacking with something as fragile as a hard drive in my backpack.

Re:Doesn't seem so cool...

[troc]

Sony have DV cameras with Bluetooth enabled. I think they even have basic webserving and stuff

Troc.

Re:Doesn't seem so cool...

[Anonymous Coward]

For $45 you can get a USB Bluetooth adaptor...

Re:Doesn't seem so cool...

[Anonymous Coward]

The Sony DSC-FX77 is bluetooth-enabled. Sony also has a bluetooth card in its Memorystick format, and has bluetooth-enabled phones. As a user, trust me, this stuff works and is fun.

Re:Doesn't seem so cool...

[Tim Browse]

I think they even have basic webserving

Oh great, so the next time you take a picture, all you will be able to see on the LCD is "Hacked by Chinese!"... ;-)

Tim

Security

[e8johan]

Does anyone know anything about the security problems this kind of device can cause? How easy is it to sniff out passwords etc from bluetooth and how easy is it to trick the drive into thinking that someone else is the owner?

Re:Security

[will_die]

The real security risk is the otherway around.
It is now possible to just put this device in your backpack put it in range of a computer you have access to, and copy all files you want to.
At least with stuff like drives and USB hard drive devices you had to physiclly connect something to the computer, with this large amount of storage that is no longer needed.

Re:Security

[djupedal]

You can stealth grab a phone book off a Bluetooth phone, and/or dial out thru someone else's device, thus impersonating them. In terms of security spoiled, I think that's pretty real.

Or do mean like plugging an iPod into a store computer and grabbing Office, PhotoShop, Illustrator and Appleworks? There's $2k worth of risk right there...for you if you get caught.

Copying all the files you want takes time and as you said, requires you to have physical access & control over I/O in the least...if you have access, what's the big deal with one type of portable storage over another...nothing unique about Bluetooth in that regard. If I have access, I can email it out or hit an FTP drop box, then wipe the logs.

All of these 'risks' are real. How real depends on who gets or loses or uses what. None of them are standouts and none of them are trivial.

Why not USB?

[Fubar411]

I've found portable USB drives to be a godsend. The model I ended w/, a Storix (Toshiba drive), runs at USB 2.0 speed, is powered by USB, slightly larger than its 2.5" drive size, and gave me 40GB for $200.

Re:Why not USB?

[gl4ss]

doh, what news item would it have been then?

also you have to attach the usb cord.
(Sure usb2.0 is a hell-a-lot faster than bt too, and so is firewire).

but for luggaging data between home/work/study/friends this would be ideal, you could have it in your pocket/bag and not bother even take it out.

obviously this product and usb2.0 40gigger are meant for different users.

Terapin Mine?

[philipsblows]

This was always interesting to me, since it has storage AND the possibility of plugging in an 802.11b PC card (maybe even 802.11a? only supports 16-bit pcmcia), but there hasn't been much buzz about this product (though thinkgeek sells it

Something like this Toshiba device or the terapin mine seems like a great external storage device for PDAs (ipaqs and others with BT capabilities) or maybe a music store for a car player with BT capability (are there such things yet?)

I have my doubts about bluetooth for this, though... will not users suffer the same sort of issues as they do (did) with large-capacity mp3 players with serial or plain old usb 1.1 connections?

Re:Terapin Mine?

[pwagland]

It was always interesting to me as well. The problems with the "lack of buzz" around the terapin mine are entirely their own fault. Here is a shortlist:

• Despite promising a developer kit, it is at least 9 months late
• It is expensive. More than an Ipod.
• No known updates (or ways to update) the linux based OS. And they are not GPL friendly, in that you can't get their mods to the OS.

Bluetooth would not of helped them any. Theoretically, you could plug a bluetooth PCMCIA card into the mine and it would do it as well (runs linux inside) so it should work. I would seriously consider it if these issues could be resolved....

The "HopBit"?

[BluBrick]

What has it got on it's sectorses?

Re:The "HopBit"?

[Dannon]

The post said it used Bluetooth networking, but it didn't mention anything about a Tolkein Ring....

Re:The "HopBit"?

[BluBrick]

LOL!

(I really did! :)

Bluetooth Peripherals Yes...Storage? Maybe...

[Cloudmark]

I can see the advantages of offices and individual users maintaining bluetooth enabled peripherals. It would be nice to walk into a room and be able to print or gain net access, etc. Storage is another matter entirely. Security issues aside, range is a problem. Especially with a battery powered unit. Think of the consequences of someone misplacing the HD or moving it out of range of its users? There is some application for this but it's fairly limited in this format. If you're going to put that sort of storage solution in place, IMHO your best bet is still 802.11b and FTP for remote. I know it's not as portable but the range is better and at this point we know where most of the major security holes are. With this type of device, the potential for...warwalking I guess, becomes that much higher. Also, even with good encryption, there's no real reason to use this device if it's just for a single user. It would lend itself to multi-user applications but all of the functional limitations make this a very challenging goal to achieve.
Still, it does offer a taste of the type of devices we may eventually see that can take full advantage of wireless. I just don't think Bluetooth is there yet and I'd be uncomfortable trusting my data to it even if I could find a good application.

Just my thoughts.
~Cloudmark

Re:Bluetooth Peripherals Yes...Storage? Maybe...

[jmacgill]

Depends on what was being stored, if the right protocols could be set up then I guess a drive full of my MP3 collection that I could just place next to a BT enabled stereo or in my bag for my BT walkman.

The trick is that if its not data that you need to keep secure and if it can be configured for say read only (or even write only) then its a lot safer.

Re:Bluetooth Peripherals Yes...Storage? Maybe...

[johnpaul191]

but bluetooth would be incredibly pokey to transfer a large MP3 connection......

bluetooth is great for things like keeping you cellphone/pda/laptop/desktop in sync. if you have a BT phone and laptop, you can use the phone as a modem for internet access (if you have the right hardware/software). wireless access to printers and scanners is great. printing and scanning in generally slow enough that BT is not going to bottleneck it. as time goes on there will be more additions to what it can do (things 802.11b is not meant for)...... like now if you have a bt phone and a Mac running OS X 10.2 they will sync. if you phone is sitting in your bag across the room and rings, you can have your addressbook on the machine set to pop up a callerID window so you know who is calling you before leaving your seat. you can also dial your phone from your machine (either a number from your address book, or one you find in an online phone listing).

i think it's things like that where bluetooth will pick up. it sounds like there will be a boom of gadgets for it that people are not even thinking of right now. at some point i would think it will be integrated into home automation. at least in the way of connecting a computer to a programmable control box.

Re:Bluetooth Peripherals Yes...Storage? Maybe...

[Cato]

Good examples - with the right software, you could use your phone's UI from your laptop, to reconfigure things or whatever. Bluetooth phones already let you reconfigure a Bluetooth headset over the air, meaning the headset needs a minimal set of buttons and no display.

Re:Bluetooth Peripherals Yes...Storage? Maybe...

[Cato]

This is really intended as a personal device, just as Bluetooth enables personal area networks not LANs. While you can use the HD to serve local users, you might be better off with 802.11b, or just a server with a boring Ethernet connection to a WiFi access point. FTP would be a bit tedious IMO, you'd be better off having Samba/NFS or similar on the HD device so that all sorts of clients can access it, and using FTP only for devices that don't have file sharing support (e.g. most PDAs).

This would be useful for small teams of workers who have to arrive somewhere with laptops and PDAs, and be productive quickly - particularly since the HD should be a lot more reliable than Windows laptops :) Such a HD could store documentation for a whole set of large technical consulting projects, as well as a huge source tree and online reference manuals for development projects. Of course, backups become a big issue with this sort of data - you'd really need to have a USB/firewire connection and to be very disciplined about running backups every night. Or perhaps you could incrementally backup throughout the day via a Bluetooth access point to a server.

Re:Wow. Uh, why?

[jpop32]

In short, why the heck would I use one, if I could just buy a DVD[-|+]R?

Well, for example, to use it as a storage device for a PDA. Or as a data source for a portable MP3 player. Or so I could hook it up to my home/work computer without having to shut it down.

Mind you, a removable disk is already a part of my combat gear. Wouldn't leave home without it. :-)

Re:Wow. Uh, why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Now call me silly, but wouldn't you think that 5Gb is a little excessive for PDA storage? I can't help but think that something like a flip disk would be large, let alone a 5Gb hard drive.

A data source for an MP3 player...yes, sure, except that most MP3 players already have a data source, I don't want to lug around two components (Not including the headphones) to listen to some MP3's, I don't know of any Bluetooth enabled MP3 players that don't have their own storage, and I don't need a Bluetooth enabled hard disk to store some MP3's anyway...

Re:Wow. Uh, why?

[capt.Hij]

Just imagine how small you could make a laptop if its storage was kept separate from it.

• On an airplane you could be running the laptop while the disk is in the overhead. (After getting squashed by the people who boarded after you...)
• At work you could keep your disk on your desk while you move your laptop around. (And you have to make room for yet another piece of clutter for your office that needs a power source...)
• On the road you could keep your disk in your car while you move about. (And the wardrivers converge on your car from every direction so that they can tell their friends that they saw your hard drive...)

There are some downsides of course, but you could have a really super light laptop.

Because

[magicianuk]

only a few weeks ago /.ers were complaining about why anyone would buy the new Sony bluetooth enabled digital camera ... and don't forget Sony use memorys(t)ick not the neat 1Gb IBM microdrives, so this basically gives you something that can back up your digital camera while you're travelling. So you take your pictures of, say, the Eiffel tower, sit down for a coffee and by the time you're finished the camera has transferred everything to the hard disk and you can clear the memory stick and go take pictures of the Louvre!

Good grief.

[Duncan3]

Is not carrying around a 1m firewire cable really worth giving up a ton of space, almost all the speeeeeeeed, and the battery life too?

Bluetooth is nice for SMS, but anything bigger you're better off with an old fashioned serial cable cerca 1970.

Re:Good grief.

[mbourgon]

Think of it this way (and a lot of other people have said similarly) - it changes the way you view things. I currently am taking pictures of my house. I get home, drag it over to the computer, pull it out of its case, remove the rubber plug, plug in the usb cable, turn it on, hit the "PC" button, start the application on the PC, tell it to load all the images, and save them to disk. *whew*

Now imagine that this thing comes out, in a nice small form factor. And that devices support it. You leave it in a jacket/ purse/backpack, charging it every couple of weeks (hopefully).

Provided the software is good enough (always the key), I would take pictures with my digital camera, and they'd be saved (via BT) on the drive. I get home, all I have to do is hang my coat somewhere near a BT receiver, and have it sync. None of those steps now apply. I decide to listen to some music, I use something like Musicmatch/iTunes to move it over there. Take something like the PalmPilot's keyboard, marry it with some sort of LCD (or glasses, etc), and there's your ultraportable. Hell, have TiVo save things to it on demand - now I can go to a friend's house with an episode of (tv show) and watch it en masse. Only catch on some of these is speed.

Ideally, instead of a "Bluetooth Backpack", this would be solid state, hardened, about the size of a credit card, and I'd have it in my wallet. Or if it was small enough (again, solid state, or just higher tech - how much do those USB keys hold?), on my keychain. Have an inductance charger on my desk (or wherever I hang my keys), and I never have to deal with it... it's just there. Talk about pervasive computing.

Of course, you'd have to buy a ton of stuff. Hard drive, BT-equipped camera, BT-equipped mp3 player (or headphones), BT PDA attachment, BT receivers for my laptop/computer/TiVo, etc. And some nice synchronization software would be a must. But hopefully I'm not the only one who would find this useful. And hopefully some of the manufacturers see the potential to sell me more stuff.

Re:Wow. Uh, why?

[caluml]

There are some downsides of course, but you could have a really super light laptop.

Funny, cos in my laptop, it's the battery and the TFT that weighs the most :o)

Hopbit?

[TummyX]

Toshiba will be selling a Bluetooth enabled 5 gig external hard disk called the "Hopbit".

Is the firewire version called the "Sauron"?

Re:Hopbit?

[JPelorat]

No, to keep the pattern it would have to be called the "Sapron".

Re:Hopbit?

[guidemaker]

Maybe they tried to call it 'Hobbit' until someone reminded them that was the name of a crappy tape drive that was around in the 80s, for use with 8-bit computers.

See also: Phloopy, Microdrive.

Great if I can...

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

...walk around with this in a bag or briefcase, and use one of the new Palm Pilots with embeded bluetooth (comming out in a few weeks). Imagin having gigs of access from your palm? Access speed won't seem so bad compared to getting things onto and off a memory stick. THIS IS A GREAT WAY TO GIVE A HANDHELD GIGS OF SPACE!!! You could have programs that sync with outlook and every folder and subfolder now! Programs could be aware of when the drive isn't around, and not hotsync apps with storage on the drive, so that syncs occur only then the drive and new/old data on it is around. I'd pay good $$$ to be able to hold all my info on this as a consultant. Also, stick in a bluetooth USB adapter onto clients PC and I no longer have to lug around all my CD's and swap all day while doing my thing. One drive, everything on it... PALM DEVELOPERS!!! GIVE ME APPS THAT STORE/READ FROM THIS DRIVE, AND YOU GET RICH AND MY WORKING DAY GETS EASIER? Fair enough?

I prommise I won't type caps again, I'm just real excited.

In case you were wondering, 49800 Yen is...

[Tidan]

the same as $401.61.

Better start saving up. And I'm guessing that price doesn't include shipping.

DEAR APPLE...

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

...if the next iPod was 30gig and had build-in blue-tooth and color screen, and appls so i could access the HD from my Palm to store docs, email, etc (say I could devote 10 gig of iPod to the Palm) I'd pay $600 plus. OK, forget the color screen, but GIVE THE iPOD BLUETOOTH!!! Let me use my palm with it, or put a USB BT adapter into a clients PC and I'd be consultant from heaven, one little iPod with ALL my needed data!

The part of the iPod that is reserved for the palm or whatever BT device accesses it could be allowed full transwer two-and-from except for .mp3's so RIAA doesn't have a shit fit. Do this, Apple, and I'd buy a basket of the little things!!!

Re:DEAR APPLE...

[guacamolefoo]

Let me use my palm with it, or put a USB BT adapter into a clients PC and I'd be consultant from heaven, one little iPod with ALL my needed data!

It looks like you're looking to have your storage, your palm, and your client's computer all able to access everything more or less simultaneously.

I have a suggestion that may be cheaper than what you propose:

1. A firewire or USB laptop drive enclosure ($20-$50) with an el-cheapo old laptop drive (maybe $50.00 for a few gigs)
2. A USB IR port
3. Palm Pilot

If you have to stick something into a client's computer anyway (the aforementioned USB BT card), just plug in the drive to a USB or firewire port and plug in the USB IR card.

Surely, there is an app allowing you to do some "Direct Connect" type stuff with the palm to the client PC, and the data transfers would be from the USB drive to the client computer and vice-versa. The IR port would just handle commands -- it wouldn't do any heavy-lifting.

The software side of this is what I am not sure about, but Pebbles looks promising. FWIW, the Pebbles team suggests the serial port be used rather than IR. Bluetooth support is evidently on the way.

Hope this helps.

Guac-foo

Re:DEAR APPLE...

[Jonboy X]

P.S.: Also, could you add a keyboard and pointing device and speakers, and keep it small enough to sit on TOP of my LAP?

P.S.: Also, could you put lasers on the sides so I could zap all those who stand in my way?

My only comment

[gvonk]

The way I could see this being really really useful is to finally enable the persistent computer following you around. If they could beef up the battery capacity to a few days, just keep it in your pocket and have terminals at work and home (and in the car for streaming mp3s and on a job site for your tools etc) and have your computer seamlessly be wherever you are.

lots, apparently

[djupedal]

Many Bluetooth consumer products now shipping are at risk due to scanning (near-field RTR connections) being enabled by default. Bluetooth phones are a prime example.

Retailers are going to need to examine these types of things rapidly, or there will be a backlash to the technology and it will go back on the shelf.

The Hopbit

[techstar25]

The article failed to mention that Hopbits are typically smaller than Dwarves, usually fat and jovial, with large hairy feet.

Comparison with 802.11

[6Yankee]

This Google-mash of a PDF gives a comparison of security betwen 802.11 and Bluetooth. Essentially it seems to conclude that it's much harder work to get into BT than 802.11 unless you do it during the initial pairing of the devices.

What isn't mentioned is that Bluetooth is almost continually changing frequency, so I guess you'd have to be pretty lucky to follow it for long enough to get something useful if you weren't known to the "network". I must confess to being completely ignorant of 802.11 - does it do this too, or is the frequency relatively fixed?

My Bluetooth headset died a couple of months ago. Mind you, I did drop the thing in a fish tank a few months before that...

Some evil use...

[heretic108]

Based on an idea that's been /.'ed before...

I wonder if it might be possible to install some of one's software on such drives?

If so, I could just imagine hordes of stressed-out execs on the Tokyo subway, turning their drives on in the train, then sitting down with some hot sake' and enjoying all the pr0n and mp3s the drive collected during the trip home. /me envisions a disturbing scenario where people in crowded public places are randomly searched for bombs, chemical weapons AND illicit wireless stor age devices

Lack of Google translation

[dazdaz]

http://translate.google.com/translate?sourceid=n av client&hl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fbiztech%2Enikkeibp%2Ec o%2Ejp%2Fwcs%2Fleaf%2FCID%2Fonair%2Fbiztech%2Fpc%2 F210916

I've noticed that Google translate seems to work less and less lately, anyone got a technical reason why?

So what's the "darchalk" symbol for an open HD?

[gmjohnston]

Also, due to the short range of bluetooth, I'm guessing we'll need things like little tent cards to set on coffee shop tables next to some unsuspecting HD owner. Or maybe post-it (TM) notes. You could darchalk (darpen?) the post-it, palm it cunningly, and give the "HD provider" a friendly slap on the back ("Hey, nice system!").

Re:Wow. Uh, why?

[Anonymous Coward]

On an airplane you could be running the laptop while the disk is in the overhead.

Sure you could! Assuming you can find an airline that allows you to operate microwave frequency radio devices on board :)

5 Gigs, big fucking deal.

[Anonymous Coward]

I originally was thinking it was 5 terrabytes and was very excited, but five gigs. Wake me when hardware gets real again.

The point?

[DrXym]

Someone explain the point of this to me. What is so difficult about attaching a wire from your computer to a harddrive and getting better performance and being half the price?

I mean what is the point? I could perhaps imagine some highly convoluted situation where it might be useful but it just seems like a solution where no problem exists. Besides, this kind of thing would be utterly useless on a plane where any kind of wireless devices would have to be switched off anyway.

Re:The point?

[Jesus IS the Devil]

The point is the move to efficiency and innovation. At this point it's obviously way too expensive for it to be practical, but can you imagine if this thing gets more advanced and cheaper in price?

Most innovations start out this way. Airplanes, LCD monitors, cars, you name it.

Re:The point?

[Cato]

How about a team of five people with PDAs only that want to edit and refer to online docs held on the HD. Or a bunch of people with laptops, where cabling to each laptop is not really an option - you either carry an Ethernet hub and patch cables, and find another power plug, or you carry a Bluetooth HD.

There are lots of other examples for PDA users who want to have a huge set of data with them (e.g. large databases, huge number of online books, MP3s, videos, ...)

Re:The point?

[DrXym]

That presumes this device is capable of supporting simultaneous access doesn't it? I find it hard to believe that Bluetooth let alone this device would support such a thing. Perhaps a glance at the Bluetooth spec would say, but given its extremely limited range and purpose I doubt it. Even if five users could be supported they'd all have to be huddled around this one device and the contention would be horrible.

If they want to do a network, why not use 802.11b? It would be much, much faster and more importantly is designed for such use. File sharing would be no more difficult than it is over normal ethernet.

One Question

[Anonymous Coward]

SECURITY?

What type of features will it have to stop anyone with a blue tooth device from getting within range and reading all the data off it?

Re:One Question

[Cpt_Kirks]

No security. Portable P2P. Let's see the xAA types stop that!

Digital photography

[sward]

Here's an idea I had that this product would work nicely with:

Take a digital camera. Add a memory card to act as a buffer. Add Bluetooth.

Take this product, but add a bigger battery and stick it in a backpack. Add a Firewire connection.

Now, when the camera takes a picture, with the memory card acting as a buffer, it quickly transfers the picture to the hard drive. If you take several pictures in succession, they are buffered and sent when feasible.

When you're done for the day, plug it into your laptop or desktop with the Firewire connection and move the pictures off portable hard drive.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Bluetooth Security

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparrently, none of you guys know anything about Bluetooth or it's security model.

1. Bluetooth is NOT a TCP/IP based protocol. It is not WLAN, and it is not subject to it's security problems.

2. Bluetooth devices can have a range of 300ft, just like WLAN. These devices are called Class 1 devices.

3. Every Bluetooth device has a unique address which never changes. Lets say that I buy a Bluetooth harddrive. When I take it home to configure it, all I have to do is tell it to only recieve requests from my devices (laptops, PDAs, cameras, etc). END OF STORY. It won't even listen to other devices trying to make an inquiry.

Honestly, some of you guys need to read before you post.

Bruce

a Bluetooth idiot

[photon_chac]

Damn , my boss' gonna catch the bitstream when I upload private movie clips from this all mighty HDD.

Re:Batteries? - Disk Damage?

[mustangdavis]

What happens when the batteries go dead? Is it smart enough to move the read/write heads into the locked position and stop functioning before it causes damage to the disk before the batteries completely die?

Next Phase

[Cpt_Kirks]

How about just a drive case (2.5 or 3.5in) that is Bluetooth (or 802.11b) enabled? Then you could add your drive of choice.

Maybe a bigger version, with a slim dvd drive and a HD bay?

I love the USB/Firewire drive cases. Record SG-1, transfer it over and watch it during lunch at work for 4 days...

Two months to backup...

[Anonymous Coward]

your data - woofriggenhoo. What the hell were they thinking? Bluetooth is too slow to make this device useful.

Me Love You Long Time Standby

[Sir PimpMac]

=) $5 backup?

Re:Wow. Uh, why?

[genka]

Wireless hard drive may help, but wireless battery is what we need! :)

Bluetooth RAID?

[Devios]

I'd love to see these drives and associated management software be smart enough to form a RAID or JBOD array when placed in close proximity to one another. Of course, this would not be very useful given the device's current small storage capacity. They'd also have to be able to run on AC power...

Re:Bluetooth RAID?

[unDiWahn]

Uh. I guess you could mirror the drives for security. But striping would be a nono -- sure, you could get the drives to run twice as fast, and give you 200MB/Burst transfer, or 60MB/Sec sustained... ...over bluetooth's 768k connection.

Sorry, I don't know that it's practical. =]

Might be good for digital photography...

[Joseph Wharton]

If there were Bluetooth-enabled digital cameras, this would be the perfect solution for storing high-resolution, uncompressed images.

Amazing....

[cybermace5]

Using this new technology, we will have access to more data storage than we could fill in a lifetime.

That is, a lifetime of transferring over Bluetooth. This is such a step backwards it's not even funny.

I can't wait for the new 40GB external serial port hard drives. RS-232 baby! When technology really gets advanced, the computer and hard drive will communicate across a room with robotic hands doing sign language. Without thumbs you could do eight bits...how about 01000010?

Show's Over. This "invention" is useless.

[cioxx]

Time to do a reality check. Instead of me trying to elaborate why this drive is an absolute money waster, I'll just point you out to the device which is 1000x better than _this_ particular drive. Just because it's wireless, doesn't mean it's godsend.

External 40 GB Hard Drive. / USB 2.0

Company Hype:

"Best of all, the ultra-portable Pockey does not require any additional power source because all necessary power is drawn through the USB cable. You can take it Anywhere! The Pockey is compatible with laptops and desktops, PC/Mac/Linux, so cross-platform file sharing is a breeze. Plug-N-Play, hot-swappable, and hot-pluggable features make the Pockey convenient and easy to use."

Yes. I am anti-BT. The whole BT bandwagon is retarded. The concept is flawed, and does not bring anything new to the table.

Re:Show's Over. This "invention" is useless.

[Yokaze]

It is certainly a money waster, that's true for every new technology out there. One could say the same for PDAs, Digital Cameras, MP3 players and the like.

>External 40 GB Hard Drive. / USB 2.0

Wohoo. Great. Now how do I connect it to my Sony DSC-FX77? Or my iPAQ 3850? Over a computer?
Do they deliver it with the Harddisc?

Granted it's not a likely scenario, and that's the reason for the price-tag. Few people have a need for it, and they have to pay for the development costs.

>The concept is flawed

What point of the BT concept is flawed?
The idea to keep it small and simple to make it cheep and less powerconsuming? The idea of ubiquitous and cheap network?

The baseband-specification?
The pico-net concept? The small-range? The low bandwidth?

The SDP? PAN? The simple migration paths for old protocols like IrDA Obex? Serial Communictation?
DUN? Basic Printing Profile? Common ISDN Access Profile (CIP)?

Maybe, you didn't notice it, but there are a lot more mobiles out there than PCs.

Re:Show's Over. This "invention" is useless.

[Cpt_Kirks]

What handhelds truly need is USB master capabilities. IIRC, the ARM chipset supports USB master.

Wireless has a certain coolness factor, though.

Apple Replies...

[MosesJones]

Dear Eric_Cartman_South_P,

The iPod is an MP3 player, its selling well. We don't want to turn it into a piece of technical bloatware that geeks can ask for any old crap to be put into because its "cool". The iPod is "cool" not because of all the things it has, but because of the fact it does what it sets out to do well.

We see no evidence that there is consumer demand for the device you describe, and USB and Firewire hard-disks already exist, we know this because we support them.

One product does not have to do everything, to sell well it should do what it sets out to do very well, and we believe the iPod achieves that aim.

Regards

Apple

PS. We had a bet in the office that you've never designed hardware, can you confirm this.

Re:Batteries? - Disk Damage?

[tomstdenis]

Don't normal disk drives [IDE] do that now anyways?

It wouldn't be a far stretch todo the same in a battery powered one.

Tom

Re:Wow. Uh, why?

[qurob]

Many laptops already have the floppy/cdrom seperate, and then you walk around with the screen/keyboard/hd

Take the Dell Latitude X200 for instance. 2.8lbs, 0.8" thick. I'm sure that's small enough.

If they hard drive was wireless/seperate, it'd probably be too slow.

I demand Bluetooth tooth

[Jonny Balls]

I could sacrifice one of my teeth for storage space, i would never forget it then.

Re:Batteries? - Disk Damage?

[mustangdavis]

Yes, IDE drives do that now .... but you'd figure that crashes due to power failure would be much more frequent with batteries .... and that these failures would happen when you need your hard drive the most! People have this stupid tendancy to push things to the limit ... many times over the limit.

How many times has your IDE drive had to endure a power failure? Compare that number to the number of times the batteries would wear out in the blue tooth drive (EVERY 6 HOURS!!!) .... Sounds like you'd better have a good disater recovery plan in place if you use this drive!

lots of applications

[Vulturejoe]

This would be great to use as PDA memory, or maybe you could set up a home theater to stream audio off of it. Also, I imagine that this would be a good way to share files between a laptop and a desktop.

Tech does more than play MP3's....

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone seems to be discounting this event because it's cheaper to buy usb/firewire based hard drives... I would think that Toshiba didn't build this just to play MP3's.. thats a side benefit...

I can think of many profitable uses for this device right off the top of my head and none of them have to do with playing MP3's or walking around with a dinky PDA.

Re:Wow. Uh, why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, battery weighs a large fraction of the laptop's weight.

But the harddrive does not exactly weigh nothing. In addition, when you remove the harddrive from the laptop, you have one less thing to power, and harddrive is a big consumer of power --> you can then have a smaller battery.

New ads...

[dingleberrie]

Blue tooth enabled drive: $400

Trip to Mac section of computer store: free

Free software while you "pose" around the imacs: Priceless

(of course, it's mac software, so depending on your perspective it could be worthless... your call)

Wireless electricity

[anarchima]

All we need now is some wireless electricity and we're set :P

Won't it be slow?

[JebusIsLord]

I have to point out that bluetooth is not a high-speed interface, and probably ill-suited to this sort of application. I would rather see an 802.11 enabled network drive - would be faster and have a better range. If i need to plunk it down beside the laptop anyhow why not just connect the firewire or usb2.0 port and get 100x the throughput?

History repeats itself with your post...

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

About 100 years ago, at Ford...

"You can have your car in any color you want, so long as it's black."

It's not as bad as all that....

[RoadKnight]

Bluetooth security is actually pretty good. It's not perfect, but it's certainly much better than 802.11

Some highlights:
Bluetooth devices can turn "beaconing" on and off at will quite easily. They can also set the number of devices they allow to communicate with them.
Encryption, both seeds and keys can be 128-bit all around(The Apple dongle and Palm SDIO card support 128-bit keys, don't know about others).

Encryption keys are not sent over the air.
The Encryption engine is using the SAFER+ algorithm.

Now the downside:
It's up to the manufacturer to decide what keylength to support(it is POSSIBLE to use an 8-bit key for example).
The key is a single, private, shared-secret kind of key, with all the ads and disads that are incumbent upon them.

Go check out http://bluez.sourceforge.net to see what's up with Linux and Bluetooth.

HTH,
RK

2.7 GB transfer per battery charge

[leighklotz]

Assuming 1 MBit/sec Bluetooth transfer, in six hours this device can transfer about half its contents, running flat out.

ipod+ pocket server

[simpl3x]

i imagine that blutooth will make its way into future versions of the ipod--bluetooth headphones?

yo, slashdot! not that i mind continually getting rejected, but i keep seeing articles posted as news six months after the fact!: 2002-05-10 15:44:31 fujitsu is on a roll (articles,news) (rejected). here is on link to information: http://www.harddiskinfo.com/Sections/News/Details. asp?newsID=498

Idiot! Listen up...

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

...all I'm asking for is a BlueTooth adapter... the size of a postage stamp and available for $129 as a seperate product, but costs $20 at the factory and could be put into the iPod for less than $129, although I'd pay the full price for it.

One small change, including BT, and the device becomes SO MUCH MORE USEFULL!

Remember, there is a REAL WORLD of business and "stuff" going on outside of your little world of comic books, home work, and jerking off.

Dude, this isn't IRC

[Anonymous Coward]

Besides the fact that talking about yourself in the third person is pretentious.

I think you need to schedule a little "down-time" for yourself and get outside or something.

Make it bootable!

[mcraw]

Now all we need is bootable bluetooth hard drives, and we'll be able to take our computer around with us. Then hardware auto-detection would really be a point of contention.

I have 20 gig that runs for 8 hours...

[zTTTz]

...and it's called an Archos Jukebox.

Another flash in the PAN, so to speak

[tchdab1]

This is another node for a Personal Area Network - Bluetooth headphones, a BT-enabled MP3 player (BT input and output - if only this existed yet!), and the independent storage module. BT microphone or BT-enabled phono plugs (to pop onto a stereo amp you just happen to be near) could in theory be used as a ripping/input path to the hard drive. As noted previously, bandwidth might choke - all this stuff would need to use the same limited ~700K of network bandwidth to route the audio through.
There's something attractively geeky about stuffing your pockets with all of this junk and having it work together.

A BEOWULF CLUSTER OF THESE!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

You know what IS a good idea...

A BEOWULF CLUSTER OF THESE!

Sorry. :)

Sweet...

[vonsneerderhooten]

I wanna get 2 of them and use them like bookends.

-D

Ummmm

[MosesJones]

And created one of the largest automotive companies in the world thanks to the economies of scale this gave him. When automated painting became cheep... he switched.

Bad example, insert 2c to try again.

Last Post!

[alpg]

... "fire" does not matter, "earth" and "air" and "water" do not matter.
"I" do not matter. No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers
words. The more words he remembers, the cleverer do his fellows esteem him.
He looks upon the great transformations of the world, but he does not see
them as they were seen when man looked upon reality for the first time.
Their names come to his lips and he smiles as he tastes them, thinking he
knows them in the naming.
-- Roger Zelazny, "Lord of Light"

- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...