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

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!

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

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.