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Bluetooth Enabled External Harddrive

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the mobile-wireless-battery-powered-storage dept.

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!"

11 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Thankyou babel fish by nounderscores · · Score: 5, Informative

    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

    1. Re:Thankyou babel fish by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      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).

  2. Why not USB? by Fubar411 · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  3. Re:Bluetooth stereo headphones? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    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.

  4. Re:Doesn't seem so cool... by troc · · Score: 3, Informative

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

    Troc.

    --
    Troc's dubious podcast and blog: http://www.trocnet.net
  5. In case you were wondering, 49800 Yen is... by Tidan · · Score: 3, Informative
    the same as $401.61.

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

    --
    free ipod? yeah.
  6. Re:Warsurfing? by Bud · · Score: 5, Informative

    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

  7. Re:Terapin Mine? by pwagland · · Score: 4, Informative
    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....
  8. Comparison with 802.11 by 6Yankee · · Score: 2, Informative

    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...

  9. Re:Warsurfing? by Troed · · Score: 1, Informative

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

    --
    it's in my head
  10. Re:Bluetooth RAID? by unDiWahn · · Score: 2, Informative

    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. =]