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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!"
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
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
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!
High-speed Road Trip (18.000KPH)
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...
Hurricane Application Group, Dept of Meteorology Control, Ministry of Proactive Defense
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
I am Chaos. I am alive, and I tell you that you are Free. -Eris
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
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.
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.
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?
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?
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
"Be proud to be a fighter" - Martial Arts Adage
- 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.I prommise I won't type caps again, I'm just real excited.
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.
El Karma: excelente(principalmente la suma de moderación hecha a los comentarios de los usuarios)
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.
Wireless hard drive may help, but wireless battery is what we need! :)