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Sony Combines Pocket Drive with 802.11
Ernest writes "They presented this at Net&Com 2003 in Tokyo. I've found this announcement in German at ComputerWoche
Sony selected Linux as the file server's operating system. They'll start selling this little 390 gram thing on the japanese market at the end of March for 585$. Inside is a 20GB 2.5" disk of which (only) 17GB will be available for files."
They're probably just testing the market to see if such a device is worth investing in in the long run. Makes sense, since 802.11b is currently the most widespread WiFi technology (although I heard something about 802.11g being compatible with 802.11b, at least when talking about the WAPs).
Seems unlikely since it's running linux.
Never trust an atom. They make up everything.
I ask this question because it is going to be very, very tricky for Sony to pack much of a battery into the case with the size specs given (especially when using a 2.5" drive) and 802.11b is not exactly the most power-efficient spec. I guess that Sony was between a rock and a hard place on this particular choice, 802.11g is too new and there are not going to be any low power chips any time soon while bluetooth is too slow. By eating up the battery with a wireless link you are going to increase the number of charge cycles on the battery and decrease the lifespan of this battery.
I kind of agree with you there. Pulling the traditional /. "lets not read the article and jump the gun", I hope it is also equiped with firewire. If it does, then thats just fine. I've had the need for a removable HD many times, but maybe once or twice would a wireless drive been a big blessing. Its kind of cool though, but nothing spectaular, especially with the price.
With that price, you could put together a cheap PC to be used for your own SAN. Just equip it with multiple connection types (1000/100/10BT, firewire, usb2/1, 802.11a/b/g-when-available, fibre, and irda). Then slap on samba, nfs, and CIFS and youd have a not-so-portable but very well equiped "storage server" -- hell for their price of nearly $600 you could habe over 5x the storage capacity they have.
While the thought of this little baby makes me drool, Sony's history on DRM is enough to make me sit back and wait for the new and inevitable Apple risponse with .11g. There's been so much talk of new iPods with 40G Tosh drives, Bluetooth, WiFi etc that something mighty fine must be imminent.
First, it's absurdly big. Either that's a really small hand in the picture, or it's huge.
Second, $585?!? Get outta here.
--
the strongest word is still the word "free"
One point at a time:
expensive
Some people will be willing to shell out the cash; anyone else who finds it useful will wait until the price comes down a bit.
easily lost or stolen
For many people, this phrase translates to "portable"--not quite so negative a word as you'd like, but equally accurate. If you're worried about it getting stolen, zip your pocket.
why not connect to your pc with your wireless devices, easier to back up, maintain, expand, view files
PCs tend to remain on desktops, no? See previous point.
and did i say stupid?
Yes, in your subject line you admitted you were stupid. No need to repeat yourself.
ummm, you stupid...and ummm stupid...did i say you are stupid?
Ummm, saying stupid a bunch of times only makes it true for you...the rest of us are just as intelligent as we were before we read that.
I found the meaning of life the other day, but I had write-only access.
Carry it around as a mobile classroom: serve up notes, audio, video of your presentation when and where you give it. No more "I'll email you my presentation when I get back to the office" stuff.
You could hide one of these things in an airport or some other public place and use it to broadcast advertisements in the form of SSID and/or a 192.168.*.* intranet web site to anyone stumbling for accesspoints. Imagine a bus or taxicab service giving out dispatcher phone numbers or transportation rates. Suddenly advertising in an airport terminal isn't quite so expensive.
http://tinyurl.com/4ny52
Yeah. What about it?
Get a life, Nerd!
I'm really sick of this idiocy when a company announces a product and some broke nitpickers come out of the woodwork and say "But does it do XYZ?".
Jesus Christ, get a grip. Technology will finally catch up. If Sony or any other company for that matter, created a killer product that did everything in one small package, there wouldn't be much competition left, or companies wouldn't be able to make any money.
It's called steady progression. Suppy and demand. Simple case of Macroeconomics. Your opinion is utterly useless and insignificant in this case. If you're too eager to possess such a small toy with 802.11b AP built in, with 17Gigs of storage and have SSH, make one yourself and quit wasting slashdot's bandwidth with useless crap like feature suggestions only 0.001% of people would use.
Realisticly speaking, how many businesspeople do you personally know who have the slightest fucking clue about SSH? I would guess none. Simple authentication is enough. This is not geared towards companies like Lloyds of London or Dell R&D Division who have valuable company secrets. This is geared towards people in SOHO, and we all know what they use these types of gadgets for.
No self-respecting cracker would bother sniffing packets coming from a company who's annual budget is 10,000,000 or less.
You're a poser.
You could hide one of these things in an airport or some other public place...
You want to hide one in an airport???!!! Are you just begging to be on CNN for a week as the new terrorist threat?
If it's a file server you use much, it's nice to have it on a UPS. (Also, if it's a DNS server or DHCP server, you really want it on a UPS as well.) For a low-end device, laptop-style batteries are fine.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks