Slashdot Mirror
Toshiba Unveils 80GB 'iPod drive'
sushant_bhatia_progr writes "The Register has an article about a new 80GB drive from Toshiba. Toshiba says it will ship an 80GB 1.8in hard drive in Q3 2005 - a year after it introduced the 60GB version that can currently to be found inside the iPod Photo. The 80GB HDD - model number MK8007GAH - comes in a 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.8cm casing. Toshiba will ship a 40GB version - model number MK4007GAL - that's just 0.5cm thick in the second quarter. It's lighter, too: 51g to the 80GB HDD's 62g. Toshiba's current 40GB and 60GB (model numbers MK4004GAH and MK6006GAH, respectively) 1.8in HDDs are 0.8cm thick, so the new drive should make for thinner mid-range iPods.
Both drives spin at 4200rpm, offer an average seek time of 15ms and operate across an Ultra DMA 100 interface. They can take 500G operating shock and 1500G non-operating shock."
I think the shrinking of the 40hb hard drive from .8cm to .5cm is much more important than the creation of the 80gb model.
I think I would rather have a really thing 40gb model than a slightly larger 80gb model that probably will cost a lot more.
"I see a new, higher capacity iPod in the future..maybe just in time for MacWorld SF 2005..."
*cues fog machine*
This is a good point. From the time the iPods were first announced each iteration that came after continually became less thick and I think this is what really helped the iPod continue at its spot in #1. When you hand someone an iPod, they are first amazed by its dimensions and feel in their hand. As an owner of a 40gb iPod Photo, thickness went up considerably, and I think this would be the thickest portable harddrive/player that I would consider purchasing after owner the thinner previous models. Atleast with the size increase on the 40gb Photo the battery life went up instead of down, so this is probably what has to do with most of the thickness. Guess its a hard balance for Apple to find between thickness and battery life.
How about just adding a small USB port that will hook up already existing external drives, and adapting the software just to read from it? I know it defeats portability a little bit, but then you could place in your car those old laptop hard drives in external chassis, filling them with music or movies, and then switching them on your iPod - like old 8-track cartridges?
That would be kinda' neat, kinda retro.
just a web application developer and instructor in Toronto, ON Canada
A thinner hard drive allows for a fatter battery.
I'd rather see a hard-drive-enabled video cam. No need for tapes, easy editing... don't feel like I have to continue.
And it better be 80 GB, not the measly 4GB like in some recent news...
I really believe that a device like this would win the market... it's beyond me why is nobody making them yet on mass scale.
So this gives approx 22 Days of music. So now if the battery last this long it would be worth it
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
I realized now Apple will have yet another high capacity music player I'll never be able to afford. Thanks Steve
it's an acceleration rate. G = 9.8m/s.
:-)
After a 1s fall, any object will be falling at 9.8m/s (constant acceleration for 1 s, starting at 0, will give that speed). It will also have travelled 4.9m.
If the iPod was stopped, say by the ground, in 10ms (probably in the right order of magnitude. Might be slightly shorter or longer depending the type of ground, whether you have a shock-absorbant casing around it, etc), it would have to take an acceleration of 9.8m/s / 0.01s = 980m/s^2 for 0.01s. That would be an acceleration of 980/9.8 = 100Gs.
So from 5m height, if the ipod falls straight on its side and the shock absorption of that floor + casing stops the ipod in 10ms, the acceleration will be 100Gs. if it stopped in 1ms, it would be 1000Gs.
Feel free to make your own measurements of the time it takes for the ipod to stop
Daniel
Carpe Diem
2. The iPod gets 12 hours now. The iPod Photo gets 15. Whaddaya want? A micro-fusion-reactor?
YES
By my calculation (based on average CD length of 55 minutes, don't know if this is accurate for your collection) it should fit.
1200 x 55 x 60 is a little under 4 million seconds
x 160 KBps = 640 Gbits
= 80 Gbytes
It'll be tight though. You might have to drop some of your least-favourite tracks (with 1200 CDs, I'm sure there are some on there that you actually don't like, right?)
Your head deformed as it hit the ice, spreading the impact out over time. Also, your brain (or what's left of it!) is cushioned by a surrounding layer of fluid.
Personally, I wear a helmet to protect my "money-maker"....
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
The Japanese manufacturer didn't mention any customers by name of course, but having supplied Apple with micro hard drives to date, it seems likely the relationship will continue with the new, higher capacity.
We all remember the fit that Apple threw when they pre-announced Apple's order for the 60-gig. Seems like they're thinking things through this time.
Personally, I wear a helmet to protect my "money-maker"....
That's one thing our sex ed class in high school taught us as well...
oh wait..
Karnal
I know a lot of people say this is too big, to much this or that, but really, if you have over 20GB of storage, you are not really targeting the casual music listener (other than the gullible ones, who think bigger is always better), but people with an interest in having their music collections in a good quality with them.
Of course, the iPod doesn't support lossless compressed formats, but this is about a harddisk that could also be used by better audioplayer manufacturers.
Anyway, a record, ripped in good quality, or even lossless will run between 100MB and 300MB. Let's be conservative and say 150MB per album. That means that on this disc will have space for around 500 albums. (rounded down to be on the save side, if you have only mp3 playback this number might grow to be around 800-900 albums)
500 albums is a medium sized collection for music lovers. (and 800-900 is not excessive) Personally, I would really like to see players with 80GB that are small and have good battery life. I don't care for colour screens and video, image and other capabilities (apart maybe from recording or digital in/out) and I would really like to design a menu for a music player. (is it so hard to have different random modes: artist, album, year, genre? or the ability to schedule songs to play next without generating a playlist?)
Oh well, I guess I'm not a good target market, I want to control how I listen to the music I love...
CC
Focusing on the news of the smaller, lighter 40GB drive, coule there be other applications of this in a device such as the iPod mini or even an Apple branded cellphone?
Or perhaps the 80GB will me a debut not in an iPod for music and photos, but in an iPod-like PDA/Table/Treo type device.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
At what point in your interaction with other people, do you ask if they would like to feel your iPod. I found the whole concept of that a little strange. I carry quite a few electronic gadgets and things around with me. I've never felt inclined to ask anyone if they would like to see them or feel them.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
Audiophiles have plenty of other excuses for not buying iPods, most of them, as near as I can tell, made up out of thin air.
I write in my journal
Audiophiles have plenty of other excuses for not buying iPods, most of them, as near as I can tell, made up out of thin air.
For those that don't know, thin air is a huge problem if you are trying to faithfully reproduce a sound. Thicker air carries and holds sound much better, with less distortion (especially in the upper ranges).
iPods, like most other advanced electronics are manfactured in what is called a "cleanroom environment", where normal air is stripped of all it's suspended particulates. This thinned out air is then included in the iPods when they are shipped are are one of the reasons it tends to attenuate the upper frequencies, leading to muffled highs.
Hope that clarifes things a bit.