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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!"
The Mobile HDD sale of Toshiba and Bluetooth correspondence
//www.toshiba.co.jp/
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:
BizTech compilation
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
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 ;-)
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
This still seems Japanese to me :-)
thank you babelfish
(English -> Japanese -> English)
The babelfish appreciate in you
"Son, in a sporting event, it's not whether you win or lose, it's how drunk you get" - Homer J. Simpson
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?
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.
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?
What has it got on it's sectorses?
Ahh - My eye!
The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
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.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!
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.
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
Toshiba will be selling a Bluetooth enabled 5 gig external hard disk called the "Hopbit".
Is the firewire version called the "Sauron"?
I prommise I won't type caps again, I'm just real excited.
Better start saving up. And I'm guessing that price doesn't include shipping.
free ipod? yeah.
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!!!
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.
The article failed to mention that Hopbits are typically smaller than Dwarves, usually fat and jovial, with large hairy feet.
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!").
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.
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.
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...
If there were Bluetooth-enabled digital cameras, this would be the perfect solution for storing high-resolution, uncompressed images.
Quality or Quantity, don't tell me they're the same.
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?
...
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.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi