Battery-Powered USB Enclosure

An anonymous reader pointed us to a story about a battery-powered USB disk enclosure. It operates on AA batteries. It's aluminum, and is sorta meant to offload data from cameras. It's only 2.5 inches, so that's not totally unreasonable, but I'm still struggling a bit with the 'Why' part of the equation.

Comments

Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.

[TrollBridge]

My thoughts exactly. Is there a point to this story?

Re:Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.

[JaffaKREE]

Not sure... I don't make a move until I hear from Roland Piquepalle.

iPod ?

[mirko]

An iPod would be a battery-powered USB device (and Firewire) so what has this that the iPod hasn't ?

Re:iPod ?

[LBArrettAnderson]

a smaller price tag.

Re:iPod ?

[bamf]

so what has this that the iPod hasn't ?

The ability to connect it directly to a camera, and copy all the data across at the press of a button.

Something that's very useful to people taking lots of pictures and storing them in Raw format.

Re:iPod ?

[Anonymous Coward]

USB needs a host and a client. both an iPod and a camera operate in client mode.

For this to work, you'd need an enclosure with a HD that can act as a host to talk to the camera.

Or as both, so it can be connected to a computer later for uploading.

A camera also does not automatically copy files to a USB host it is connected to. As an external drive this device is able to copy from other USB devices connected to it.

Re:iPod ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently you don't have an iPod -- it's quite happy to do that for you.

Re:iPod ?

[MoFoQ]

now if the usb device also has a CF/MMC/SD/etc. reader and it can offload it directly....

Anyways, I thought there was a portable CDRW drive with that ability...

oo...found one that has a hard drive.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1056270&CatId=1203

Re:iPod ?

[Quixote]

Could it be (and I'm stretching for the terms here) that this can act like a USB "master" (or host controller) and the iPod can't?

Re:iPod ?

[svnt]

so what has this that the iPod hasn't ?

The iPod is a USB slave. It can only ever connect functionally to a USB master, such as your PC. This device would function as a USB master device (i.e. the PC side), by which you could copy data from any (I assume FAT-based) USB mass storage devices.

So this means camera, USB drive, MP3 player, anything that uses the USB Mass Storage driver. What would be interesting to know (I can't get the article) is whether or not it provides for the capability to write back to the devices (to view pictures on the camera, listen to songs on the player, etc).

Re:iPod ?

[b1t r0t]

so what has this that the iPod hasn't?

The ability to be a USB bus master?

Re:iPod ?

[learn fast]

Nope, iPod's got that already. With a pricey gadget from Belkin, though...

Re:iPod ?

[djrok212]

Has no one seen the belkin Media Reader for the IPOD? It allows you to automatically read your media onto the iPOD. Why would I want a HD enclosure?

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process ?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=201526&pcount=&Product_Id =158350

Re:iPod ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe because you have a HD but not an iPOD?

Re:iPod ?

[djrok212]

Right, but why would I buy a HD, when I could buy an iPOD. -s

Re:iPod ?

[LBArrettAnderson]

The iPod lovers who are modding this down need to think about it for a second. 6000 yen is about $55. Tell me where i can get an ipod for that price. Please. I'm not badmouthing the iPod.

Re:iPod ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Money is no object to the regular Apple customer, thats why you are moded down. They just don't understand monetary value.

Re:iPod ?

[GlassHeart]

Just for those who care, Belkin has two different accessories for the iPod to address that need. The first one to market was the media reader, where you had to remove the memory card from the camera and insert into the reader. The second one was a direct link, where you transferred data directly from a supported camera via USB.

I own the latter, and I've used it to transfer about a dozen "rolls" totalling over 400 shots with no problems. The major drawback is battery consumption on the iPod (the connector doesn't allow you to power the iPod via AC), where a 128 MB transfer can consume about half a 3G iPod's battery. The second drawback is the slow USB connection. However, it does work, today.

Re:iPod ?

[GlassHeart]

The iPod lovers who are modding this down need to think about it for a second. 6000 yen is about $55.

The write-up isn't completely clear, but judging from the price, I don't think the JPY6000 price includes the hard disk yet. Adding even a 10 GB disk to that should send the price well above $100, which is more than the Belkin iPod peripherals cost.

In other words, as most reviews point out, the Belkin solution is meant for people who already have iPods.

Re:iPod ?

[brokencomputer]

This is not true. You can plug things into the serial port of the ipod, including a compact flash reader.

Re:iPod ?

[knight9]

The belkin Adapter is DAMN SLOW.... It takes hours to copy at 512MB card from a camera. It is so slow that I found it COMPLETLY USELESS because the ipod battery dies. I went back to hauling around my laptop. I will try this solution out and see how well it works. anything better than lugging the computer around

Re:iPod ?

[databyss]

You can find an 80GB hard drive for $25. Best Buy was selling them last week. So for $80 you have a solution cheaper than the iPods attachment alone.

Re:iPod ?

[GlassHeart]

Before you rush off to the store, does that $25 hard drive you speak of fit inside the 2.5" container?

How many AA batteries (the 2.5" version already requires four) do suppose the 3.5" desktop drives would need?

Re:iPod ?

[Anonymous Coward]

$25 for a 80GB 3.5" desktop hard drive

... a 2.5" HDD case that supports battery-powered operation ...

40GB 2.5" laptop hard drives normally run about $70. Still cheaper than an ipod though (what isn't?).

Re:iPod ?

[spectre_240sx]

The iPod is completely different. This is for offloading storage from digital cameras and other flash memory based devices. It allows the user to plug that device directly into it and with one press of a button, it copies all of the data on that flash device to itself. This is VERY useful in the realm of digital photography and a large percentage of digital photographers are already using technology that is similar called FlashTrax.

Re:iPod ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Replaceable batteries

Re:iPod ?

[Anonymous Coward]

With that IPod media reader, downloading some pictures at halftime would:

1) Take the rest of the 3rd Quarter
2) Kill the battery on the IPod

These other card copiers are much faster, and can usually download 5-8GB of data before needing batteries to be swapped out.

Re:iPod ?

[DarkMantle]

Hmm... well, this will probably be cheaper (it's unreleased yet so I can't find a price) it's 80GB rather then 20, works with ALL cameras that have USB 2.0, and there's probably much less risk of loss on it.

I say that last part because a friend of mine only managed to get half of his pictures back off of an iPod that he used while at a wedding in florida. And after buying the expensive iPod, FM Tuner, seperate speakers, seperate adapter to do this, and lord knows how many other accessories he bought for an MP3 player. Give me a device that does one thing, and does it well. It's the KISS princaple, don't give me something that I need 5 or 6 different adapters for, making pay enough to buy a second one.

Re:iPod ?

[kmike]

Does this help?
DVD-writer(!), CD/VideoCD/MP3 player with every possible card reader embedded:
http://www.addonics.com/products/mfr/aemfr842d.asp

Re:iPod ?

[Mr_Whoopass]

Being somewhat of a budding photographer, this has a few things of note to people like myself.

1) This is far cheaper than buying 40 gigs worth of media cards for digital photography.

2) This is much easier to carry into the field than a laptop for offloading pictures in order to continue shooting.

3) Accepting AA batteries means compatability for travel. You won't have to use adapters and remember to plug it in nightly and should you loose the charge in the field, assuming you have batteries with you, you can be back up and dumping pictures in not time.

4) Small and durable metal case. Will fit nicely inside a camera bag and won't be to badly marred if it stepped on, presumably.

I bought something similar but that has a built in compact flash slot called a "Tripper" just for a backpacking vacation to Europe almost two years ago. I came home with nearly 8 gigs of photo's alone, video aside.

Now imagine a professional photo journalist who is shooting hundreds of photos a day on 11 megapixel camera's in Taiwan in the wake of recent events where there is no power to recharge a typical LiIon battery and AA batteries are readily available to keep this unit running to store his photo's. Still think that iPod is going to suffice?

Granted, there are better photo dump solutions out now, this one has the size and AA thing going for it despite its lack of a direct interface with the media card. If only it was available two years ago...

Re:iPod ?

[Anonymous Coward]

The ability to connect it directly to a camera, and copy all the data across at the press of a button.

Exactly the reason my brother got the iRiver H320.

Re:iPod ?

[Anonymous Coward]

the hard drive one is better and bigger but thx for looking.

Is that news?

[fundflow]

My laptop is powering a 60gb HD as we speak

Re:Is that news?

[Anonymous Coward]

Your laptop + drive is also substantially more than 80grams. For people who just want a way to get data off a camera, quickly, in the field... a laptop can be just too much.

Article text for your convenience

[Karma Troll]

Peripherals: Alpha-Data battery-powered 2.5" HDD case

HDD cases for both 2.5 and 3.5 inch drives are a dime-a-dozen these days. Alpha-Data tries to separate themselves from the pack with the "Copy BANK Case" - a 2.5" HDD case that supports battery-powered operation and can be used independent of a PC as a storage device for digital cameras and mp3 players.

[IMAGE]

Alpha-Data will release a USB2.0 external 2.5" HDD case that can operate on dry cell batteries, the "Copy BANK Case", in mid January 2005. It will have no fixed retail price but the street price is expected to be approximately 6000 yen.

Using the included battery box and 4 AA batteries, the case can be used independently as a portable HDD. The case supports hard disk up to 80GB in size.

The case can be directly connected to a digital camera, mp3 player or self-powered USB storage class device. When the case's "COPY button" is pressed, data is copied directly to the HDD.

The case can be used as a removable drive when connected to a PC. Power is provided by the PC's PS/2 port or USB port using the included cable. Supported operating systems are Windows ME/2000/XP and Mac OS9 or later.

The case is made of aluminium. Think about your breathing. It measures W80 x D140 x H14 mm in size and weighs 80 grams. Included accessories include a number of cables (mini USB-mini USB, mini USB - USB, mini USB - USB (female)) and a carrying case for the HDD case and battery box.

[IMAGE]

Inspired by:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2004/1220/alpha .htm

Homepage:
http://www.alpha-data.co.jp/

Re:Article text for your convenience

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Ok, thanks- it was already slashdotted by the time I saw it. But that's OK- saw this in real life (or at least, a cheap Chinese knock-off of it with a bit more functionality) with hard drive and multiple-format card reader for $99 at CompUSA over the weekend. I already have a multi-format reader for my PDA, so I wasn't terribly interested.

Re:Article text for your convenience

[accelleron]

"A dozen a dime"

I beg your pardon... the last I checked these devices were sold for $50 apiece, if not more. They are bountiful, but still expensive. What I'm waitinh for is a $5 IDE-usb enclosure, with a $10 CF2-usb adapter (CF being the master). While I applaud these devices' innovation, they are going in the wrong direction (bells and whistles instead of reliability and affordability).

Re:Article text for your convenience

[Psykechan]

The case is made of aluminium. Think about your breathing. It measures W80 x D140 x H14 mm in size and weighs 80 grams.

[inhale]
Whoa, aluminum. It will match my powerbook.
[exhale]

[inhale]
It's not really that big either. It's about the same size as a HD based audio player.
[exhale]

Re:Article text for your convenience

[LurkerXXX]

Any idea how long a 80 gig hard drive will run on 4 AA batteries?

Re:Article text for your convenience

[Anonymous Coward]

It measures W80 x D140 x H14 mm in size and weighs 80 grams.

What are these mm's you speak of???? the candy? Some of us are from the United States and were publicly educated, so please don't exclude us.

Drugs are sold on the street by the gram so I don't know what kind of crap you are thinkin' I might buy, but I learned to "just say NO!".

Re:Article text for your convenience

[PalmKiller]

I hope you are joking, but just in case . . .

Divide the mm measures by 25.4 to get inches. I am from the southern united states and I have no problems with metric conversions, after all we were taught them in school (I graduated from high school in 1985, so perhaps its a sign of the decline in the US education system as of late). Perhaps grams are just a drug measure in your neck of the woods, but in the south grams in the south is a general unit of measure. A gram is about 0.0022 pounds or about 0.0353 ounces, also I learned back in school, of course I graduated from high school in 1985, so perhaps its a sign of the decline in the US educational system.

Re:Article text for your convenience

[Reducer2001]

People who graduated from high school in the south in 1985 have quite a superiority complex, don't they?
Or would you like me to repeat myself?

Re:Article text for your convenience

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought about my breathing. Do I get a prize?

Re:Article text for your convenience

[AKnightCowboy]

I beg your pardon... the last I checked these devices were sold for $50 apiece, if not more.

Check again. You can pick up a USB 2.0 to 2.5" laptop drive enclosure for under $15 these days. Maybe not in a retail store, but certainly online at MWave.com or Newegg.com for example. I just looked and Mwave has an enclosure for $11.90... that's certainly within my piggy bank account range if I broke it open to impulse-buy a toy without having any regrets about wasting money.

link already broken

[madshot]

already /.'ed.. The power of Slashdot.... :)

Re:link already broken

[tim_mathews]

Well, that's what happens when you run your server on AA batteries.

Re:link already broken

[madshot]

Yeah.. LOL...

Re:link already broken

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, obviously their web server's storage is based on this battery-powered USB disk enclosure, and just run out of juice...

Re:link already broken

[conteXXt]

It's like the saying.

"You'll put somebody's eye out with that"

to which the reply is

"and then it's a sport."

Re:link already broken

[eclectro]

already /.'ed.. The power of Slashdot.... :)

Actually the AA batteries probably died.

Re:AA?

[Anonymous Coward]

GNAA

Good for Photos on the move

[KiwiSurfer]

There are times when I want to go on holidays and just leave the laptop home (or in the hotel room) and just take lots of photos. This HDD would enable me to just copy the photos to a HDD whenever I max out my memory stick. I think this is a great idea, espcially for people who don't use computers when they are on holiday - which is the majority of the digital camera users I know.

Re:Good for Photos on the move

[WinterSolstice]

Got an iPod? Try this. Much nicer.

-WS

Re:Good for Photos on the move

[Anonymous Coward]

When I got my Zaurus 5600, this is the sort of thing I wanted. Battery powered because my Zaurus
had limited battery power as is. I could carry large amounts of data between my Zaurus and other computers. As far as working with a camera, again, good. The battery means you aren't draining your camera's battery. This is good news if you are doing work where you are taking a lot photos using a high pixel setting using RAW files.

Re:Good for Photos on the move

[sql*kitten]

This HDD would enable me to just copy the photos to a HDD whenever I max out my memory stick

There are plenty of devices designed for this, such as the Nikon Coolwalker that are better suited to the task.

Re:Good for Photos on the move

[anonicon]

"There are plenty of devices designed for this, such as the Nikon Coolwalker that are better suited to the task."

That's a nice looking device, but the machine featured in this /. story is expected to sell for 6,000 yen, which is roughly US$60.00. That's a lot cheaper than the 399 British pounds (about US$600) your linked machine goes for.

Chuck

Re:Good for Photos on the move

[Anonymous Coward]

$771.57

Re:Good for Photos on the move

[RatBastard]

Got one. It works, but it's dog slow. But this will work for people without iPods. And $60.00 is a lot cheaper than $300.00 + the cost of the Belkin device. And just how do you know it's "much nicer"? Have you used this new device? No? Didn't think so.

And yes, I do like my iPod very much and it was very nice to be able to backup my photos and not worry about filling up my camera. But not everyone has (or, as shocking as this may sound) wants an iPod. And some people's iPods are *gasp* full!

Re:Good for Photos on the move

[WinterSolstice]

Hmmm.

Ok, I said Got an iPod? Try this (link ommitted). Much nicer.

For the RatBastards of the world, that is a conditional statement. It would say "if you ALREADY HAVE an iPod".

Now, as to the rest, I don't see how your unsubstantiated opinion is any better than mine. If you saw something totally amazing about that device, I certainly will not stop you from buying it.

Not that I really care, but here are some differences:

1. The Belkin device (going for between $50 and $100) is already available.
2. The iPod is easily replaceable, and independantly useful. Some people might even have more than one!
3. I can upload photos to a photo iPod and view them quite easily.
4. iPods can run Linux .

However, my photo rig has only my Canon, 5 1GB cards, two extra lenses, and my two tripods. I like being able to pop the cards directly into a photo printer, and I haven't yet reached the point of having 80GBs of perfect photos in a single shoot. Of course, I never shot 3 dozen rolls of film in a single shoot, either.

If you are in need of tons of storage, these have wireless to dump your pics down to a machine.

-WS

Re:Good for Photos on the move

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

For god's sake people. This thing is a HDD ENCLOSURE. You're not going to be copying jack shit to this device without also buying a HDD to go with it.

Re:Good for Photos on the move

[Anonymous Coward]

$60+costof(AA batteries)+costof(laptop HDD) $600.

Re:Good for Photos on the move

[Fred_A]

And if you don't have an iPod, just get an iRiver H320 or H340 (euro or asian models) which does all that natively (you may have to add a random USB card reader if your camera isn't mass-storage compliant).

I get it

[Ever Dubious]

You're out with a digital camera and without your laptop. And you've filled the camera memory, or exhausted all the removable storage (flash) you're carrying. Connect the camera (or the media adapter) to the disk drive and hit the "copy" button and you're ready to take more pictures.

Re:I get it

[scottjpearson]

Yes.

Re:I get it

[enosys]

You'd probably want to free up some space on the camera or media you're copying from (ie. erase some files). I hope this device can do that.

Re:I get it

[lurker412]

Once you have downloaded from your camera, you simply erase all the pics in its memory. This is a function of the camera itself, so it doesn't need any help from an external device.

Re:I get it

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

Wow! Someone on /. who isn't a complete moron!

Memorysticks don't require any power..

[djrok212]

Why would I bother? With the price of flash media for cameras so low, why would I want to carry around a hard drive that can break? I say buy a bunch of 1gig compact flash cards and put them in your pocket. Alot smaller then 2.5 inches. -shane

Re:Memorysticks don't require any power..

[LBArrettAnderson]

the thing can hold hard drives up to 80 GB in size. Now how much would 80 GB of flash memory cost you?

Re:Memorysticks don't require any power..

[DrunkenTerror]

Only about $6000 if you go buy the cheapest price here.

I'm sure djrok212 could get a nice discount for buying in bulk though.

Re:Memorysticks don't require any power..

[Anonymous Coward]

I say buy a bunch of 1gig compact flash cards and put them in your pocket. Alot smaller then 2.5 inches. -shane

Eighty 1GB compact flash cards sounds pretty cumbersome, not to mention expensive. Even if they were $50 each that adds up to $4000.

Admittedly most people won't need that much space, but the snap happy pros who want to capture everything possible to get *that* award winning shot, or who are out away from their laptops/power for weeks at a time need something like this.

Re:Memorysticks don't require any power..

[AviLazar]

but then you gotta ask, do you really need 80 GB of pictures? In all honesty - how many people take 80 GB of pictures on a vacation?...lets talk the average user - not some /.'er who is going to give us some outrageous number that is most likely a lie anyhow to help prove a point.

Re:Memorysticks don't require any power..

[Spy Handler]

Memory Stick is Sony's proprietary format and they're a lot more expensive per meg than CompactFlash.

If you have a Sony digital camera, you *have* to buy Memory Stick. But with a battery powered HD, you can just use the 16meg stick that came with the camera and dump pictures to the HDD.

Re:Memorysticks don't require any power..

[Dracolytch]

Well, when my family went vacationing in Canada this summer, the three family members with digital cameras all had to stop by internet cafes to put their pictures on CD. I had to do it multiple times, and came back from the trip looking for something like this. This is also MUCH more cost-effective than large memory cards.

With this gadget I could take photos in high-quality raw format, and not worry about storage, and have room for the pics of my family too. That's a lot more convenient than taking trips to the cafe every week to put pictures on CD.

~D

Re:Memorysticks don't require any power..

[Anonymous Coward]

RAW mode on a 6 megapixel camera is only 55 pictures per 1 GB memory card. That ain't very many.

Re:Memorysticks don't require any power..

[CrackedButter]

i managed about 12GB on a weeks trip to japan recently, but I also shot video with my camera as well. Close enough though.

Re:Memorysticks don't require any power..

[NanoGator]

" In all honesty - how many people take 80 GB of pictures on a vacation?"

How many people forget to download the pics from their last vacation? My trip to Universal Studios, many months ago, is still on my camera right now. Hehe.

Re:Memorysticks don't require any power..

[adamfranco]

but then you gotta ask, do you really need 80 GB of pictures? In all honesty - how many people take 80 GB of pictures on a vacation?...lets talk the average user - not some /.'er who is going to give us some outrageous number that is most likely a lie anyhow to help prove a point.

Two years ago I took a 2.5 week trip around Italy and am left with 507 images from my old Canon A70 point-and-shoot. This was after deleting at least as many that didn't come out for whatever reason. I've since gotten even more into photography and am now shooting with a Canon EOS-300D. In RAW mode (required for doing the color-correction later in Photoshop) each photo is ~7MB. Had I been shooting with the 300D in RAW mode, those 507 photos would have taken up 3.5GB, enough to fill one big, expensive card.

I am currently planing a month-long trip Turkey next year. Judging by how my shooting habits have changed, I am imagining that I will take well over a thousand photos on that trip, hence the need for at least 10GB of storage space to be safe. To me, it makes a lot more sense to buy a 40GB hd/reader for $300 than to spend $300 a pop on 4GB CF cards.

Re:Memorysticks don't require any power..

[AKnightCowboy]

In all honesty - how many people take 80 GB of pictures on a vacation?...lets talk the average user - not some /.'er who is going to give us some outrageous number that is most likely a lie anyhow to help prove a point.

Our new 6 MP digital camera says it can hold 667 pictures on the 1GB flash card I bought for it so I think I'm set for awhile. Plus compactflash is so common these days you can just drop into a local electronics store and pick up extras if you run out.. assuming you're not on a hiking trip or something. Besides, if I was seriously thinking I'd fill up a 1GB flash card I'd probably be bringing my laptop along so I could save them on the hard drive and catalog them in my downtime in iPhoto.

Re:Memorysticks don't require any power..

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, when my family went vacationing in Canada this summer, the three family members with digital cameras all had to stop by internet cafes to put their pictures on CD. I had to do it multiple times, and came back from the trip looking for something like this. This is also MUCH more cost-effective than large memory cards.

That is NOT the typical family usage. A CDs worth would be 650 megs.. assuming around 1MB for a 4-5MP JPEG image for simplicity's sake and you come to the equivalent of 650 pictures. Hell, I've had a camera for 4 years and I've taken less than half that amount. 90% of those are of our cats!

Re:Memorysticks don't require any power..

[hozr21]

Unless I absolutely misread the post, 6000yen....less than $60 US...80 GB. 80 CF cards is going to be a LOT larger than this device and 80 x the price.....You wouldn't bother if you want to waste money and space on 80 CF cards. I would like to see a working version for sure.

Re:Memorysticks don't require any power..

[destiny71]

I didn't see anything specific, but I think it's sold as a case only. No drive. So you're looking at the 6000yen, plug the cost of whatever size drive you want.

The reason I say this, is that it says it will hold up to an 80 gig drive.

Re:Memorysticks don't require any power..

[ColdWetDog]

That's only 80 1 GB CF cards (hey, even a slashdotter can do math...) I can shoot 3 - 4 GB per day with my high end digital camera (6 MB per picture) without trying hard. OK, now you YOU do some math. Some people take trips lasting longer than a few days.

Re:Memorysticks don't require any power..

[AviLazar]

Yes apparantly each and every person on /., with the exception of 1, seems to max out their cameras megapixal usage. I still highly doubt that. I know many people who have digital cameras - and with the exception of the person who has no clue about their settings and the exception of the professional photographer - most people go for a lower setting. I can also shoot 3-4 GB a day without trying to hard - i can shoot pictures of the ground, the sky, the trees the birds.... and hey i can shoot the same picture of the ground 20 times. I usually delete the first 19 since they suck and the 20th looks good.

Re:Memorysticks don't require any power..

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, Avi, then you just don't get it then do you? Why don't you go take a couple more snaps of the cat?

Why?

[mumblestheclown]

It's aluminum, and is sorta meant to offload data from cameras. It's only 2.5 inches, so that's not totally unreasonable, but I'm still struggling a bit with the 'Why' part of the equation.

Because for my two month trip to Kerbleckistan, I'd rather a) not bring my laptop and b) not buy 40 1gig memory sticks at USD $300 or whatever the heck they cost for the journey despite wanting to take 40gig of photos.

Re:Why?

[random_rabbit]

when you get back, I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to make it to your slideshow.

Re:Why?

[AviLazar]

so 1024 MB in a gig. 40 x 1024 = 40960 MB. Assuming each picture is 2 MB in size, you plan on taking 20480 pictures? Doesn't that seem a bit high, even for a one month trip to a strange land. What do you plan on doing, taking a picture of every square inch of Kerbleckistan?

Re:Why?

[adamfranco]

The when shooting in RAW (unprocessed) mode each image from the Canon EOS-1Ds is approximately 11MB.

40960MB/11MB = 3700 photos

While 3700 photos is quite a lot, its definately not rediculous for someone who is shooting a lot for a month, especially if they are bracketing many of their exposures. Since you can't really see which one were just right until you get them into Photoshop, something like 2/3 might be later trashed. This leaves you with about 1300 good-quality photos from Kerbleckistan and neighboring Funkministan should you travel there as well.

The last point is that 40GB might not be needed but 20GB most definately is. Since the price difference between a 20GB and a 40GB hd is virtually nill, you might as well just sell the bigger one.

Re:Why?

[TYC]

so 1024 MB in a gig. 40 x 1024 = 40960 MB. Assuming each picture is 2 MB in size, you plan on taking 20480 pictures? Doesn't that seem a bit high, even for a one month trip to a strange land. What do you plan on doing, taking a picture of every square inch of Kerbleckistan?

I have a Canon Digital Rebel/300D. I shoot everything in RAW format. It takes about 6.7MB per shot.

If I had a Canon 20D (probably by this time next year, if I don't switch brands) I would use about 8MB per shot, shooting in RAW format.

In that case, I'd need to shoot fewer than 167 pictures a day. It sounds like a lot, but that's fewer pictures per day than many professionals shoot, and they'll be using higher-end cameras that take even more space per shot (like 10-22MB per shot.) Personally I think that would be plenty of storage for me, since my average while on vacation is about 60 shots per day.

There have been vacation days when I've shot over 400 in a single day. I usually shoot between 400 and 800 at weddings and similar social events. Even that is too many for the flash cards I own. I have to carry a laptop with me to offload them to.

If this trip to Kerbleckistan were a "once in a lifetime" trip, even 167 per day could make me feel like I was cramping myself.

Re:Why?

[spdt]

(Then again, they could do like what Canon has done with their scanners - gotten power over USB).

Giving this device power over USB would not work. It acts as the root hub, which means that it is the one that supplies power to the bus. You can not get that power from the camera or MP3 player, or whatever.

Re:Why?

[antic]

It's not hard to rack up photos when you're somewhere interesting. I took 400+ on one day in Spain while visiting the Alhambra and Generalife.

One of the great things about digital photography is being able to take loads of photos and then cull the weaker ones later. It saves you getting home only to discover the two photos you took of AttractionX were blurred or were oddly lit by a flash going off from another camera.

Re:Why?

[bigredmed]

Good point. Heck, even when I am travelling around the US, carrying a laptop is a hassle. I tried geocaching with a laptop, and it worked, but was very cumbersome. This would also allow a person who bought a normal digicam (eg a canon powershot elph) to use the cheapo CF card they send along as the "film" and simply dump it onto the USB hard disk via the USB cable from the camera, skipping the need for either the big laptop or the high capacity CF cards. If the HD was big enough, and the camera to HD interface was working and stable enough for me to handle, I would snap one up. For 6000 Yen, or about $60 US, this would be a nice addition to many a backpack.

Re:Why?

[}InFuZeD{]

How are you going to recharge your digital camera on an African Safari?

Re:Why?

[anthony_dipierro]

Bring lots and lots of batteries. They've got electricity in some of the lodges, though. And you can use solar powered battery rechargers, I suppose.

Re:Why?

[vandoravp]

Or, you can be uber geek and have this along with you. Probably too hot and bulky for a safari though and quite over-the-top expensive.

Re:Why?

[teknokracy]

Ah alright, I was under the impression that users were using these on a laptop/desktop, not as an image dump vault. I understand now though. However i do still wish more devices would get power-over-USB, at least for desktop purposes (wireless mouse chargers, external enclosures, etc

The reason is...

[Auger Duval]

more than likely it is because most USB ports cannot supply the required amount of current to properly power a USB drive case. Ever notice how these cases come with USB cables with TWO plugs, or an OPTIONAL port for a wall transformer. Battery powered means it is still portable.

Re:The reason is...

[PurpleFloyd]

The reason it's battery powered is so that it can be independent of a host PC. As far as I can tell from the comments (the article is slashdotted), the idea here is to use the enclosure as a host for a camera. Connect the camera, hit a button, and the enclosure looks for any mass storage devices and copies the data found there to its internal hard drive. It then acts as a normal USB mass storage device itself when connected to a host computer, so you can suck the data off of it.

Thus, when it's connected to a camera, it would not only have to power its internal hard drive but also perhaps provide 500 mA to its own port for the camera (although it might not conform to that particular part of the USB specification). The whole idea of this gadget is that it replaces a laptop as a "data vault" for a digital camera - you don't have to have a host PC to grab files off your camera and clear your flash card for more pictures.

AA is kinda low on power

[unclefungus]

How long will a HD last on AA batteries? with the chip to be powered also this could put quite a drian on those litttle duracels and energizers. I would hate to see the batteries fail while the drive was writing data, or updating the FAT.

Re:AA is kinda low on power

[rmarll]

The last AA powered hard drive based MP3 player I had ran about 7 hours under continuous use(spinning up every minute or so). I would suppose that if the drive were spinning continuously 1.5 - 2 hours would be reasonable figure.

Re:AA is kinda low on power

[Anonymous Coward]

I would hate to see the batteries fail while the drive was writing data, or updating the FAT.

Yeah you're right. I'm sure the designers NEVER thought about such a thing happening.

I would hate to see a regular computer fail while writing... oh wait, nevermind, that happens to thousands of people every day with little consequence!

Re:AA is kinda low on power

[Anonymous Coward]

"The last AA powered hard drive based MP3 player I had ran about 7 hours under continuous use(spinning up every minute or so). I would suppose that if the drive were spinning continuously 1.5 - 2 hours would be reasonable figure"

I'd want to see actual metrics on this.

The load is heaviest while the motor is accelerating. It is possible that under some circumstances, a continuously spinning disc draws less total current over a period of time than the same disc that is frequently spinning up and winding down.

Pointless "commentary".

[bamf]

but I'm still struggling a bit with the 'Why' part of the equation.

Just because you can't see a need for it, doesn't automatically make it pointless.

It'll copy the data off of a camera at the press of a button, and takes standard AA batteries which means you can carry a bag full of spares and not have to worry about running out of power in the middle of an important photo shoot.

Re:Pointless "commentary".

[TeleoMan]

...not have to worry about running out of power in the middle of an important photo shoot

Precisely. The money shot can only be squeezed off every few hours. At the most.

Re:Pointless "commentary".

[Tim C]

It's Taco. He has something of a history of not seeing the point - eg the iPod, which he described as "lame" when it was first released.

It's not entirely his fault though - most new technologies and techniques get slammed here. This is unusual in that none of the +5 rated comments (currently) are negative.

Re:Pointless "commentary".

[DrEldarion]

It's not entirely his fault though - most new technologies and techniques get slammed here. This is unusual in that none of the +5 rated comments (currently) are negative.

I, personally, think it's unusual because you'd expect the largest group of nerds on the net to embrace technology rather than bash it.

Re:Pointless "commentary".

[jeif1k]

eg the iPod, which he described as "lame" when it was first released.

The iPod was lame when it was first released: a late "me too" product with poor battery life, Macintosh-only connectivity, and no recharging through USB. (After several product cycles, it has now become a credible, if still somewhat overpriced, MP3 player.)

It's not entirely his fault though - most new technologies and techniques get slammed here.

That's probably because most technologies that are advertised as "new" aren't actually new (Apple is a particularly frequent offender in that department, but it's an industry disease).

Re:Pointless "commentary".

[jeif1k]

you'd expect the largest group of nerds on the net to embrace technology rather than bash it.

They do, when something is actually new and useful. But when old, inferior, or gimmicky stuff gets hyped up as "new", then you can expect the largest groups of nerds on the net to show little mercy.

Re:Pointless "commentary".

[AyeRoxor!]

Just because you can't see a need for it, doesn't automatically make it pointless.

Just because you think you see a need for something like a comma doesn't mean that you can put one in the middle of an otherwise perfectly good sentence.

Re:thanks for caring

[JaffaKREE]

Real Stories != Advertising Revenue
Paid Links/Roland Piquepalle posts = $

When will people learn...

[Stormwave0]

When will posters/editors learn to use Coral P2P cache? Come on guys it's not that hard. All you have to do is add .nyud.net:8090 to the base URL. Look I'll even do it for you: http://www.techjapan.com.nyud.net/modules.php?op=m odload&name=News&file=article&sid=772

Re:When will people learn...

[Stormwave0]

*Bangs head on table repeatedly* Stupid port 8090. Of course, the link still won't work because the page has already been /.ed http://www.techjapan.com.nyud.net:8090/modules.php ?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=772

Re:When will people learn...

[Anonymous Coward]

My works firewall says I cant access port 8090.. (actually I can access it, but not everyone can, im just pointing out why /. Doesn't link to it)

Re:When will people learn...

[AvitarX]

That worked real well. Not.

Re:When will people learn...

[Anonymous Coward]

When will you learn that not all people have their firewalls configured to allow outbound port 8090.

And before you say, "you should allow all outbound ports", think for a moment what you are asking.

Re:When will people learn...

[Anonymous Coward]

SmartFilter in their wonder of catagorization and censoring technology has decided to block that site as Sex.

Maybe I shouldn't be reading or posting on Slashdot from works p Series eServer.

Re:When will people learn...

[AviLazar]

whats that supposed to do anyhow?

Re:When will people learn...

[Anonymous Coward]

Problem in Database Connection

This Website is powered by PostNuke
Although this site is running the PostNuke software it has no other connection to the PostNuke Developers. Please refrain from sending messages about this site or its content to the PostNuke team, the end will result in an ignored e-mail.

Here is the why.

[baryon351]

It's only 2.5 inches, so that's not totally unreasonable, but I'm still struggling a bit with the 'Why' part of the equation.

This drive isn't JUST a drive like other 2.5" USB external drives. It also has the ability to talk to other USB devices, such as a camera (or sound recorder, or what have you). It can mount the USB device - let's use a camera for argument's sake - and copy files from it at the press of a button. Normal USB drives do NOT do this. the iPod doesn't either, without extra hardware.

So the point is - you can run around with your brand new EOS 1Ds Mark II spitting out 10MB RAW 16megapixel images all day long, and not have to worry about a maximum of 4GB on your (expensive!) compact flash card. You can shoot a bunch of images, connect to the drive, press a button to transfer to an 80GB drive... ...and your camera is quickly free, ready to shoot some more. It sits in between the capability of a laptop for storage, and a mere HD for size convenience. When you're running around with a Camera and camera bag and need to get hundreds of photos done, carrying around even a 12" laptop is extremely cumbersome. slip this device inside your camera bag and you're running at an advantage.

Re:Here is the why.

[Anonymous Coward]

I am struggling with the "why was this modded funny?".

Re:Here is the why.

[Lost Race]

10MB RAW 16megapixel images

Shouldn't that be "48MB RAW 16megapixel images"?

(Disclaimer: I know nothing about that camera, how many bpp it uses or even exactly what "RAW" means in this context.)

'Why' part of the equation?

[infinite9]

struggling? well, y = mx + b of course!

Re:'Why' part of the equation?

[Anonymous Coward]

choke yourself for bringing that up

Re:'Why' part of the equation?

[Anonymous Coward]

But you are so linear. :)

Re:'Why' part of the equation?

[Beatbyte]

you, sir, brought up a part of my life i would love to forget.

but cheers for the burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrn :-)

This is actually useful!

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

USB is a "Hub and Spoke" technology designed by Intel to keep a PC at the "hub". There is no equivalency to the Firewire/iLink/IEEE1394 negotiation between peer devices.

What does this mean?

Well, if you want to dump Photos from a USB camera, the HD must be attached to a whole PC and OS! A battery-powered device that manages to maintain a USB root hub, and have an HD attached is a pretty nifty trick, and offers many (not all) of the Firewire advantages. It is certainly compact and lightweight, and I doubt you wait for it to boot...

Re:This is actually useful!

[eno2001]

That's damn smooth. :) Kind of like those laptops and PCs that will turn on just their DVD or CD players without having to boot the OS only cooler. MUCH cooler. But not as cool as the software defined radio peripherals mentioned (GNURadio) earlier today. Thanks for the clarification.

Re:This is actually useful!

[CameronGary]

I was with you until your third paragraph. That's where you veered into fiction. I have a device similar to this, but it does not need to be connected to a PC to work. You do have to take the memory card out of the camera (or whatever kind of device) to copy the data onto the hard-drive.

The new thing with this (I can't actually RTFA) is that you can directly connect to another device via USB and copy data. That is done by 'emulating' a host PC, giving you capabilities almost like Firewire's peer-to-peer system.

Re:This is actually useful!

[DrMrLordX]

USB is a "Hub and Spoke" technology, hmm?

I guess you could say that this enclosure is on teh spoke!!!

Re:This is actually useful!

[Monf]

There is no equivalency to the Firewire/iLink/IEEE1394 negotiation between peer devices.

Actually, there is, its called "USB On-the-go"- see http://www.usb.org/developers/onthego/ which is what this device is an example of, allowing usb devices to negotiate connections without the use of a pc

Re:This is actually useful!

[Anonymous Coward]

YES!

Re:This is actually useful!

[mlyle]

I think you missed his point, FYI.

He was saying that this device was slick because it maintains a USB root hub/stack, whereas a typical USB disk doesn't-- hence the typical USB disk cannot be plugged directly into a camera and requires intervention from a host. This device has its own USB stack, root hub, and drivers to act as a USB host when it is plugged into a camera, and can also act as a USB device when plugged into a PC.

Re:This is actually useful!

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Coool! Now they do it. Of course, the device you have at any time may - or may not - support the extension...

Re:This is actually useful!

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

YES!

Ahhhh... Are you asking for someone to POSIX_ME_HARDER?

Not a banner day for Slashdot editors

[michaelmalak]

See Thanks for the wasted keystrokes.

bus-powered usb / firewire ?

[bani]

wallwarts get really tiring for removable storage. i can only imagine how annoying replacing batteries all the time would be.

are there any bus-powered usb / firewire enclosures?

Re:bus-powered usb / firewire ?

[BenEnglishAtHome]

are there any bus-powered usb / firewire enclosures?

Yes.

Re:bus-powered usb / firewire ?

[syd2000]

I have a small Meritline USB aluminum 2.0 enclosure for 1.8" hard disks. The enclosure cost about $12.95 US. I popped a Travelstar C4K40 40 GB drive in there (~$150) and it uses no external power other than that given by the USB cable (one plug).

http://store.yahoo.com/meritline/usb-hdd-enclosure -hard-drive-external.html

Re:bus-powered usb / firewire ?

[BcNexus]

No. They're all sold out. Too bad there's no mirrordot for /.'ed products, i.e. the Canary Wireless WiFi finder (earlier /. post).

Re:bus-powered usb / firewire ?

[BenEnglishAtHome]

Uh, well, ok. I actually meant my first link to be merely an example to show that such things exist. I expected the questioner to find their own sources. But if want available product, how about this, this, or this

The answer to Why

[Man in Spandex]

Lets ask George Costanza

George: My mom's back went out she's in the hospital. She kept saying "Why George! Why!". Because it's there!

The reason of "Why"

[gato_mato]

You ask why? I here is my $0.02 worth. Because I don't want to have to cary my laptop with me when I go on vacation. I take my laptop because I can then take all the pictures I want and then offload the pictures at the end of the day to my laptop. If you don't have a way to offload the pictures you take then you either have to have tons of memmory cards for your Digicam or are limited to the number of pictures you can take.
I take my laptop with me on every vacation I take because I have to - not because I want to.

Re:The reason of "Why"

[Anonymous Coward]

I find it odd that I haven't yet read what I think is the real reason why. That is, why the article was posted if the editor doesn't like it.

Slashdot got paid to run this story.

MOD+

[Anonymous Coward]

great point!

Re:Posted by Manufacturer

[MobileC]

And yet you still bought it...

Why?

[anthony_dipierro]

Two words: African safari

What about Rechargable Wireless Access Points?

[Phoenixhunter]

A light-weight commerical (non-homebrew) wireless access point that has a rechargable battery I can throw in any RJ-45 port would be the best of all worlds for me. Great for traveling or working in offices without wireless networks without dragging Cat5 all over the place.

Yes this is a little off-topic, but I think there definitely needs to be more battery powered solutions for day-to-day electronics that otherwise require us to carry along a heavy ac adapter.

Re:What about Rechargable Wireless Access Points?

[Fian]

Could you use 2 USB 802.11g adapters? Plug one into whatever you are using (presumably a laptop), the other into any other workstation and do point to point?

Seems to me that USB bluetooth adapters could be useful in this regard, though I have no real experience with them, perhaps they would be bandwidth limited?

The point

[NitsujTPU]

The point is this. CF memory is more expensive that hard drives, so if you fill your CF card, you can dump it to this and keep going.

So, if you have a usb card reader, and this thing, and you're shooting video on a 1 gig CF card, you can then dump that gig to this, and keep going with your video. That way, if you're on vacation, you have a nice little enclosure to carry, instead of a notebook, and you can piece the bits together when you get home.

Not a lot of use if you're carrying a notebook anyway, but if you're a tourist sort in a particular tax bracket, you can get plenty of mileage out of something akin to this.

a battery-powered USB disk enclosure

[sigma3dz]

Cool thing! Anybody knows where I can buy it? Daniel www.unrisd.com

Why?

[teknokracy]

Why? Because hauling around a USB enclosure to, say, a friends house, is very convenient. But when it comes to actually bringing it, you have to take along a stupid wall adapter to plug in! It makes sense to have a battery operated one - just ONE cable going from the box to the computer. (Then again, they could do like what Canon has done with their scanners - gotten power over USB).

This could be good...

[bennomatic]

...but it really depends on how much actual work time one can get out of a set of batteries. If you have to change batteries with every coupld of offloads, that could get pretty annoying.

I want a battery-powered hub

[fo0bar]

I'm really surprised that none of the manufacturers have tapped this. I want a little 5-port hub that takes a couple AA batteries, that I can throw in my laptop bag and use to do diagnostics (tap an ethernet line, etc). I've tried doing this myself, but most hubs I've found are either insanely high voltages (18.5 or something), or weird tollerances (3.2v, where it won't tollerate 3v or 4.5v), or huge wattage consumption.

I came close with a 5-port linksys "hub" that didn't consume much power and took 7.5v, so I chained 5 AA batteries together in a harness and mucked together a connector. It has a decent battery life (about 3 hours normal use), but the 5-port linksys "hubs" ARE ACTUALLY SWITCHES. Stupid linksys.

Anyways, if you happen to work at a networking manufacturer, lightly suggest to them to produce a small hub with a built-in battery bay that takes 4 AA batteries or something.

Re:I want a battery-powered hub

[Rick.C]

This is USB powered but it's a switch, not a hub.

Seems like nobody makes hubs any more.

Re:I want a battery-powered hub

[fo0bar]

Updatelet: I decided to go digging around froogle again, and found this. 5-port hub, 6V, 1000mA (most AA batteries around around 2000mAh, so it should theoretically last at least 2 hours). I'm going to order one and do what I did last time. IE, get a 4-port AA battery harness and wire it to the DC in port of the hub.

Even if this works, it would still be nicer to have an "all-in-one" option.

Re:I want a battery-powered hub

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a battery powered USB hub.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...11&type=pr od uct

I'm guessing that what you really wanted was a battery powered ethernet hub.

Re:I want a battery-powered hub

[Jozer99]

Why use a hub? It just slows your network down. Now-a-days, I can't see that there would be much difference in cost or power consumption.

Re:I want a battery-powered hub

[lachlan76]

If you know how to solder, you could make a simple voltage regulator circuit, which just provides what you need, using something like the LM317.

There are other regulators you could use, but I don't remember part numbers for them.

Re:I want a battery-powered hub

[sammyo]

You can't hang a sniffer off a switch. A hub shows all traffic, pretty important for debugging.

Re:I want a battery-powered hub

[smithmc]

It has a decent battery life (about 3 hours normal use), but the 5-port linksys "hubs" ARE ACTUALLY SWITCHES. Stupid linksys.

Pardon my ignorance, by why would you consider a switch to be less desirable than a hub?

Re:I want a battery-powered hub

[Collin]

a few years back a co-worker and I decided we wanted the same thing so that our workgroup could all hook into the single ethernet wire that was available in most conference rooms. Of course, we could have just brought in a switch and power-supply, but the single-point connection to the network only was a very appealing idea.

I found a NetGear mini 5-port switch that Fry's was selling refurbished for abour $15. It had a small metal case and a wall wart 7.5V power supply. We opened it up and found that it was mostly empty space inside, so I found some 7.5V NiMH battery packs online and my coworker shoehorned that thing in there by resoldering the electrolytic capacitors so they lay down flat on the board. He also hooked up a flip switch so that you could have two modes: run on battery and run on AC+charge battery. The unit worked well and would last about an hour on a charge. Every time somebody from another group saw us using it in a meeting, they wanted one too. (50% of the point of these things, right? :)

in any case, nowdays people would just use wireless so the chances of this type of product happening commercially is just about zero.

Re:I want a battery-powered hub

[beaviz]

Pardon my ignorance, by why would you consider a switch to be less desirable than a hub?

A hub is perfect for sniffing and debugging networks.

Another idea could be two NICs in a laptop and do bridging...

Re:I want a battery-powered hub

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw this comment on meta-mod, and thought I'd add my two cents.

I took a little 5-port hub with a 9-volt DC wall-mounted power adapter, ripped it apart, and integrated it into my PC case, feeding it from my PSU's 5-volt rail. Of course, I only did that after I checked the voltages on the board to see that it was around 4.5 volts after it went through its voltage regulator. Its worked like a charm.

With a little investigation, you should be able to trace the PCB lines from the power plug through some sort of regulator and some caps and/or coils to find out where to check it with a VOM. If you don't trust yourself to do that, find a local EE-type friend; they usually love this kind of s**t..

Anyway, if you do that, and find like I did that it really uses 4.5v instead of the voltage of the wall-wart, just feed at least that much to it via an external battery pack, and you're golden. Good luck.

Reminds me of the Clik drive

[Craig Maloney]

Reminds me of the Clik drive. You could offload your SM/CF cards onto 40MB cartridges back when 8MB flash cards were expensive. Unfortunately they never took off. Wonder if this product is doomed to repeat that success. :)

Looks like some people get it. . .

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out http://www.usb.org/faq/ans6#q1 for more info on "USB On-The-Go" (AKA USB Host Mode).

It will allow connection of USB devices (pretty much digital cameras) and will act as host, allowing uploading of all the files. You could then reformat your memory card (stick, whatever) and snap more pics.

Certainly a lot cheaper to buy one 40GB HD than 40 1GB CF Cards (a lot less space too).

Great for vacations, short trips, etc. The fact that it runs on regular batteries is a plus. If your batteries die on a trip, just run to the local store and buy new ones (no need to lug around a docking station or battery charging cords, etc).

Check out the new IRiver H320 & H340 mp3 players, they have this feature (a definate must for anyone into taking way too many pictures).

Re:Looks like some people get it. . .

[Anonymous Coward]

I was just about to point out the H300 devices as well. Got the H340 (http://www.iriver.com/html/product/prpa_product.a sp?pidx=42) and it works just fine. Connects to USB-Sticks for data exchange as well. One thing to watch: the american version does _not_ have the usb-on-the-go feature. Why? Usb-on-the-go doesn't enforce DRM restrictions. Thus the DMCA probably prevents it. Consider the international version instead.

Re:Looks like some people get it. . .

[efedora]

Unfortunately the IRiver H320/340 sold in the U.S. does not have USB On-The-Go. Don't know why but that makes it a deal breaker. I'd love to find a reliable source for the international version

Re:thanks for caring

[Anonymous Coward]

How about posting something interesting?

You must be new here ;)

Many uses

[Anonymous Coward]

Not all of us primarily play games, some of us do practical work on these things. Photos are an excellent example but on the fly graphics back ups and editing small video pieces on location are two that come to mind fast. I just paid $80 on sale for a 1 gig jump drive. If for around $200 I could set up a portable back up that was 80X the size I'm interested. Images in any form take up a lot of space. Some of us are on the go and don't want to hunt for the nearest outlet to download a back up. Also dry cells are good for a big reason, you can get them anywhere. Waiting for a recharge isn't always an option. I bought an early laptop specifically because it was designed to work not only with battery packs but with off the shelf "C" cells. Came in handy. I'm a massive fan of extenal cases, I recieved my latest one from Ebay on Friday, and I found the story interesting. The whole point is to inform. Useful equipment isn't off topic to me.

Like a terapin mine, but new. Finally!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's an HD with USB host, and TV-out, and MP3.

IDEAL companion for digcams... just too old. :-/

http://www.terapintech.com/fea_mine.html

Hope this new japanese gadget follows the right trend.

A more useful device...

[linuxwrangler]

I saw something similar a couple weeks ago. It not only had USB but also included slots for compact-flash, memory-stick, sd, etc. One model included an MP3 player as well. Just add your choice of hard drive.

It would be great for storing vacation photos without having to take/find a computer or buy expensive extra memory cards. I think that you would be able to get the enclosure + and 80GB drive for roughly the cost of a 512MB xD card.

They also have a device that burns CDs directly from camera cards (with disc spanning as needed).

Unfortunately I don't recall the brand but I would have bought one on the spot if they had one that supported xD cards.

Re:A more useful device...

[whocares11]

http://www.vosonic.co.uk/vp300.html

A coworker bought one for her trip to Africa. She did not want to carry a notebook with her. It works pretty well. It does not support XD cards.

The iPod can do this also, with an accessory

[Radi-0-head]

The click-wheel iPods can be used with an accessory by Belkin (F8E477) which allows USB transfers of photos from a digital camera right into your iPod.

It's about $80 on Belkin's site, probably cheaper elsewhere:

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process ?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=201526&pcount=&Product_Id =173207

Re:The iPod can do this also, with an accessory

[NeoSkandranon]

Ipods dont run on AA batteries though.

Re:The iPod can do this also, with an accessory

[Thu25245]

There's an accessory for that, too.

http://www.engadget.com/entry/0488528073016041/

Re:The iPod can do this also, with an accessory

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem with that is the accessory is very slow, and brings the iPod to near death on its battery life.

If you're shooting sports, and need to clear your CF at halftime, the Belkin accessory will keep you busy copying well into the 3rd and possibly 4th Quarters. Also, your iPod's battery would be dead by the time you copy your photos. Not good when your job (that you are paid for in orders) is to take photos.

Getting a device like this leaves your iPod to what it was meant to do well: Play music.

For digital photography...

[Animaether]

Okay, it's cool. However, it may not be the best pick if you want to offload pictures from your camera / camera's card.

There's lots more options here :
http://fhoude34.free.fr/PortableHD_Main.htm

Most are going to be a good bit bigger, but have more functionality as well.

But much more costly...

[katharsis83]

" Apparently you don't have an iPod -- it's quite happy to do that for you."

The iPod can do this, but it requires a media card reader from Berkins. I checked the price a few months ago and it was ~100 dollars. So:

iPod (20 Gb): ~300
Berkins Media Attachment: ~100

Total: approx. $ 400

That's not very cheap.

Re:But much more costly...

[MesiahTaz]

You mean Belkin, right?
Additionally, most things Belkin tend to suck serious ass. The reviews on this product are very mixed.

Soooooo...

[way2trivial]

it uses pictbridge....

Where is the story?

[Kickasso]

It's one of about 3759 similar products. Google for PHOTO STORAGE USB. Next time you know, /. will post stories about them new cool gadgets you can make phone calls with.

Other simillar products

[enosys]

Several Archos products can read CompactFlash. With an adapter they can also read other flash menu formats. Most of the Gmini series has this capability built in. Some other products support accessories which allow reading of CompactFlash, SmartMedia, MMC and Memory Sticks.

The Innoplus PhotoTainer also does this, plus it runs Linux.

All of these can be used as MP3 players. Some can even play video. The Archos Gmini 120 would be the most economical choice.

Real cameras.... and cloning drives.

[Anonymous Coward]

Real cameras such as the 1DSMkII create digital image files over 20MB per image. I regularly shoot several GB on a shoot. I got the smallest reasonably priced tablet PC I could (Fujitsu Stylistic LT C-500) to offload images from the CF cards as I shoot. Even at discount, CF cards are near $100 per GB.

Also, if you use some of the drive cloning software, you will find that while they support USB ports for the clone image, it has to be a USB connection to another PC, and not just a dumb USB external drive case.

I for one will like to have one of these in my bag.

Re:Real cameras.... and cloning drives.

[anthony_dipierro]

You might also want to look at this. It's a battery powered USB bridge. Probably the more expensive solution compared to this, but it's available today.

I guess you take 'snap shots'

[purduephotog]

I take 'photographs'. Yep it's a distinction. It's also why I've taken about 13,000 photographs since I switched to Digital back in March of this year.

A 4gb CF card holds (on my 10D) about 530 photographs. I transfer said card to two battery backup units- a 20gb and a 40gb.

On my trip to St. Thomas I came back with a little over 2300 photographs; several of which I edited and stitched together to make massive panoramas. A panorama consisting of 14 frames tends to take quite a bit of disk space in the RAW format- and each time you want to capture it again that means 14x6mb each...

So anyways, yes I'm interested in this if it'll actually download the info. If not, I'll stick to my battery backups and leave my laptop at home.

Re:I guess you take 'snap shots'

[Anonymous Coward]

I am sure that he realises that the 10D can save pictures in jpg format. I'm sure that you realize that jpg is a lossy compression format. That is why he takes pictures in RAW format, no compression, no loss of quality. I think that if more "typical" users understood this they might use the raw format as well.

I can fit about 1600 photos on a 4GB card with my camera but I would not want to do that. I take my camera scuba diving. I would not want to risk loosing all my photos at once if the housing floods. I would rather get them off the CF as soon as possible. Even a "typical" user should not keep all of their photos on one card in the camera. What if the camera is stolen on the last day of your trip?

I move all my photos to the laptop at least once a day on vacation. I also burn them to CD(s) before I get on a plane to come home just in case.

Re:I guess you take 'snap shots'

[ColdWetDog]

Some of non professional photographers don't do "typical" picture taking and do use RAW files - not JPEGs. There are a number of advantages to this format, disk space not being one of them. I guess you have an old 8088 PC or the original MAC - it's good enough for "typical" stuff. Can't see the need for more memory or anything like that. Go back to your old 110 film based brownie camera if you like, let the rest of us alone.

Re:I guess you take 'snap shots'

[kalidasa]

JPG is lossy.

Re:I guess you take 'snap shots'

[purduephotog]

110 film wasn't loaded in brownies.

Brownies were about 620 sized negatives- approximately 120 (6x6 cm) film formats today.

The film was processed on long glass tables that ran east/west at Kodak- huge skylights lit the room and 'printed' the image onto paper undeneath the film.

The film was scraped off the glass, destroyed, and the glass was used again.

And if you understand JPG you understand why you shouldn't use it. Unless it's an Extended Jpg (Kodak format) that allows for shiftable exposure.

After all, why shoot chrome when negatives have lattitude?

I don't believe power is the issue

[sczimme]

more than likely it is because most USB ports cannot supply the required amount of current to properly power a USB drive case.

That's probably not the main issue. I picked up one of these the day after Thanksgiving for $129.99. It is a 4GB portable USB hard drive (platters, servos, etc.) that runs from a single USB connection. It might be nice to have a battery assist [on the I/O Magic device] so it doesn't drain the battery of the host, but it doesn't appear to be absolutely necessary

As an aside, the USB connector on the drive folds out and turns 90 degrees each way so you can use it w/ laptops no matter which way the USB port is aligned.

Why?

[Kesh]

I can answer that.

A few years ago, I was a salesman at a small computer shop. We had a guy come in who wanted to buy a digital camera and a hard drive for offloading the photos to. However, they both had to be powered off standard alkaline batteries. Why?

Because he was going gold-mining in Siberia for three months during the summer. That means zero ability to recharge the camera, and he'd fill up a CF card pretty quick. Can't take a laptop... no way to recharge it. So, he needed a HD he could just take a box full of batteries to run it from.

We were able to help with the Camera (Canon rocks), but didn't have any options for a battery powered HD to put the photos on. This would have been perfect for his needs.

It worked perfect

[ulbador]

It has a cache of the Nuke database down page

Mirror

[kschawel]

Here is a mirror

What about Bluetooth

[SirLanse]

Can I get this and a camera with Bluetooth? Have it automatically download to the drive in my wife's purse or out in the car. (patent pending)

Re:What about Bluetooth

[Anonymous Coward]

Canon is coming out with a WiFi attachment for their 1D series of professional cameras. It would allow you to shoot for 2-3 hours "Wirelessly" while uploading photos to a remote FTP server.

I think it could be useful for some sections of the photojournalism industry, but not for me as a sports photographer since 802.11* operates at 11mbps, and we're working with 6-10MB files. That means about 6 seconds or more per photo, while ignoring the fact that some of these cameras can take up to 8 pictures per second... Fast CF media is important here...

Having a good place to unload these photos when your 1GB card fills up after 80-140 pictures is also important, and that is where these battery powered media copiers are useful. It is a useful device, even if some people cannot see "the point" in having them.

Better Solution

[richardtallent]

As a semi-pro photographer, I can see the benefit of connecting a headless hard drive to a camera, but I wouldn't like the idea of waiting for USB-speed transfers from my camera.

Instead, I use a similar device (the X's Drive Pro), which is an external hard drive (USB) that includes several built-in card readers. Connected to the PC, the card readers and hard drives are individually mounted, but when not connected to the computer, the device itself can copy everything on the connected memory cards to the hard drive with a single button click.

This workflow allows me to fill up a CF card, put another in the camera and keep shooting, and put the full CF card in the drive and let it make the backup copy while sitting in the camera bag.

I then *only* reuse cards if I run out, thus protecting against a hard drive drop/failure, errored-out copy, dead hard drive battery, etc.

When you are serious about photography, having an hard drive backup with automated copy capability is a MUST. I just got a call this morning from a friend whose photographer accidently lost some wedding ceremony pictures due to a failed copy to his laptop--he reused the card for Christmas before realizing it, so 15 shots couldn't be recovered (I was there as well in a non-pro capacity and got a few keepers). It's also a heckuva lot cheaper than having an endless supply of CF cards to travel with.

Re:Better Solution

[ColdWetDog]

How many gigbytes of data can you get from one set of batteries with that unit? I've been looking at all sorts of these critters, but the big hangup is that they can only offload a couple of GB before the batteries have to be replaced or charged.

This has been done

[Refusedb]

They have made custom ones for the IPOD
Umm not sure if it's been /.'ed
Here
is where i first saw it.
Yup why pay money? when you can make one for 10 bucks

Re:This has been done

[dragonman97]

If you even read the comments by the others, or the something from the inital story, you'd realize this is not a battery charger, but a storage mechanism. I read the link you provided awhile back as well, but that has no relevance to this topic. This is about how to offload your digital pictures from your camera to a portable HD, powered by AAs in this special enclosure (special because of the mechanism for transferring pictures w/o a computer - like the Belkin iPod gizmo).

Re:This has been done

[Refusedb]

i noticed,
I felt stupid after i put the post =(
but still that altoid thing is pretty sweet.
I just skimmed this article and looked at the picture

iRiver has this... it's called "USB on the go"

[buro9]

And it works very well :)

This was one of two features that stopped me from buying an iPod... the other being that the iRiver is just a USB mass storage device and that the music is stored in a vanilla file system... no database to update if you choose not to use it (meaning no software required to use it (meaning that your use of the hardware isn't limited to the software))

Damn this is silly

[All Names Have Been]

but I'm still struggling a bit with the 'Why' part of the equation

Hey! I've come across this device that is completely useless, but I'd like to tell you about it because I like the sound of my typing. Of course, even this is dumb, because the thing has obvious uses for photographers that don't want to lug around laptops everywhere they go.

Oh, come on. OLD stuff.

[jridley]

Come on. These things have been around for 5 or 6 years, at least. The first were from a company call Minds@Work, but they're out of business now.
Currently the top runners are the Tripper, the Image Vault, and a few others I can't think of.
Belkin makes a device that snaps on the iPod and does this. There's an add-on for at least one of the Archos players that does this.

In other news, I've heard that there are these things that you can put in your pocket that carry data around. They're called "floppies"

Not good for staff photography.

[plutonium83]

I'd never want to buy this for my photoshoots because I need to post my images in realtime.

To have a practically unlimited source of storage can lead to bad photography practices, like taking 200+ RAW photos and then trying to organize and photoshop then all.

Re:Not good for staff photography.

[arodland]

Or good photography practices, like taking 200+ RAW photos and then deleting most of them. Sure, you do your absolute best to make sure nothing goes wrong, but sometimes it does. So you use exposure bracketing, you take lots of similar shots if you can, and see which ones look good after the fact. Why? Because you're not paying for every shot you take. Later on, if you delete 5 of every 6, you know the ones you kept are the best.

Why not FireWire?

[Warhaven]

If they also included a FireWire port on the HD case, it would help to conserve battery life when connected to a computer and being used as an external HD, as the HD could get it's power via the FireWire.

Additionally, the HD case could not only power the HD, but also recharge the battery via the firewire port when plugged into your PC - like the iPod. Of course, you might want to use a single, larger rechargable battery for this. Attempting to recharge a non-rechargable alkaline AA battery tends to have bad things happen.

Perfect for unpowered USB ports

[kindbud]

I have a notebook that can power a 2.5" external HDD through the USB port. The same drive cannot get enough juice to run off my desktop PC's USB ports. It spins up, but doesn't completely mount on my PC. I have to plug in the stupid 110V power brick. A dual-powered enclosure would solve that problem, and let me throw away the brick.

The only thing I can think of to improve this device is if it had a internal battery, which could be recharged when it was powered by the USB port.

Re:Perfect for unpowered USB ports

[Hecatonchires]

You can get usb cables that plug in once to the device, and twice into the ports on the pc, thereby leeching enough power from the bus to run the device.

The one's i've seen have the standard usb logo on one end, and a lightning bolt (I assume it means power) on one of the double ends plugs.

I think it came with a 2.5 inch enclosure.

Taco, drop the commentary.

[Canuck_TV]

but I'm still struggling a bit with the 'Why' part of the equation.

So you enjoy lugging wall-warts around with you? Having to plug in two cables just to get that 2 meg file off your portable drive? Like to find an outlet before being able to dump a flash card? I especially like not being able to plug in a drive at a friends because he's out of outlets.

Drop the commentary and point to the news. If I just released such a useful product, and half my target audience shrugged it off because you decided it was easier to exercise some whit then to stop and think for a second, I'd be pretty cheesed.

Re:Taco, drop the commentary.

[chawly]

I'm also struggling with the "why" part of the equation. That's two of us, eh ? Or one person who should glance round from time to time. One or t'other.

Learn fast - learn faster

[SuperKendall]

You missed the point that it connects to the camera, and does not have a media reader (which is what you linked to). It means you don't need to worry about what kind of media your camera uses, does that it can act as a remote storage device (most do).

Good device, but some downsides

[SuperKendall]

The ability to copy data from any USB device that will mount as remote storage is a nice idea. It's cool you don't need to worry about what media your camera supports, just that it mounts as a storage device.

However, for camera use it has a few drawbacks. Firstly, most cameras are USB Full-Speed - that's the slow USB. I think even the D70 which is supposed to be high-speed (faster USB), is really full-speed. (USB 2.0 does not imply high-speed). That means copying some of that larger cards (1GB plus, becoming very common) will be quite slow.

That brings me to the second point - battery power. Traditional portable storage devices can usually copy a few GB of data before the battery gives out - mostly from the power required to run the HD. But now while transferring you'll also be using up batteris on the camera, and for me that is the most vital component to keep powered. So, while this device seems cool at first I'm going to stick with storage devices that have media readers built in.

Vosonic...

[Anonymous Coward]

An online retailer here in NZ Flashcards sells a brand called Vosonic
These let you store data from off Digital Cameras via Memory Stick, Compact Flash and SD/MMC media as well as being able to play MP3 and having a rudimentary file manager. Then you can download/transfer off to your desktop/notebook via USB2. They are powered by an internal LIon battery and comes with a charger. Very useful if you don't want to carry around your notebook but want to dump from say a Rebel 300D SLR Digital Camera.

Good device, but how about Archos Gmini?

[Geekonomical]

Its expensive for sure, but I use my Gmini to download my photos into it (from the CR card) when I am on the move (who wants to lug a laptop along?)

I use the older Gmini 120, which I picked up on a sale. Quite useful as a external hard disk, mp3 player and a device to download photos from my digital camera independent of a PC/Laptop.

oops

[zmcnulty]

Err, sorry the site went down; wasn't expecting anybody to really care about that article.

I had forgotten to turn Xanthia caching on, too, which doesn't help.

I have one

[MatthewRyan]

Well, one of the other millions of other stand alone devices like it anyway. Cost the equivalent of US$30 plus the disk. Came with charger, leads, etc. Mine won't act as a USB host, only as a smart card reader - but this was available for a bit more.

Works great and is totally transparent - pair of memory sticks and swap them between the machine and the camera. Battery life is about 1000 photos or thereabouts - by which time the battery's dead in the camera anyway.

If I was going on longer trips or taking impossible to retake photos then I might buy a second one to put in my wife's bag and copy all the photos twice.

The fact that I can plug it into a PC without a power adaptor or finding a second USB connection is fairly neat but then most machines I've tried supplied enough power for my 2.5" disk anyway.

-Matt

Been there done that (Many times)

[RotateLeftByte]

This is old technology. As has bee reported, there are many products that already perform this functionality. AFAIK, one vital point has not been raised in this debate. That is the drain on the battery of the camera when you connect to it via USB. I did some tests with my Nikon D100 and found that the battery was draining pretty fast when connected up via USB. This is why there is a separate socket for an external PSU. On my recent trip to Madagascar, I took two different Image storeage devices along with me. 1) A FlashTrax with an 80Gb HDD. Also contained my MP3 collection plus two spare batteries. This has a USB2 interface and reads CompactFlash etc cards directly. 2) An ImageTank with 80Gb HDD. This is an old device and in no longer available. I shot my pictures onto 512Mb CF cards using my D100 & D70 cameras and transferred them to the above devices at the end of the day. I never had problems with batteries running out. As they say, this works for me. This device is nothing really new.

Why:

[Anonymous Coward]

Because USB doesn't carry crap for power. 1394 carries much more, and these little drives could be powered by the bus, and then some.

How's this news?

[kmike]

A lot of similar devices popped up in recent months. And I really mean a lot. Maybe not all of them are powered by AA batteries, some have Li-Ion rechargable battery, some have bundled power adapter. I did a bit of research on this some time ago, here's list of already available devices (as opposed to the one from story, which will be available in mid Jan only):

http://www.macally.com/new/new_syncbox.html, review of this product.
http://www.macally.com/spec/usb/input_device/table ts.html - "coming soon"
http://www.delkin.com/pdf/product_docs/usb_bridge. pdf
http://www.usbgear.com/USBG-OTG25.html
http://www.sarotech.com/cgi/main_eng.cgi?cmd=cutie dx_e
http://www.welland.com.tw/html/otg.html
http://www.welland.com.tw/html/otg/940otg.html
http://www.sitecom.com/index.php?prod_id=308&grp_i d=1
http://www.usbgear.com/USBG-OTG1.html
http://itsupplier.trustpass.alibaba.com/offerdetai l/12276816/Sell_font_color_red_Otg_font_Enclosure. html
http://www.globalsources.com/si/6007000637244/Prod uctDetail/Flash-MP3/product_id-1000452775/action-G etProduct.htm

Make your pick. But remember that some USB devices (like flash drives) are powered through USB port directly, so USB On-the-go host is supposed to provide power both for embedded hard drive and whatever you attach to it. Think about it when buying device powered by AA batteries - they may be not enough for some power-hungry USB appliances, microdrive-based "flash" drives are coming to mind here.

Self-correction

[kmike]

This one: http://www.usbgear.com/USBG-OTG1.html actually isn't USB HDD case, but kind of bridge for transferring files between USB mass storage devices.

Comparison to MindStor

[Pooua]

About 2 years ago, I bought a MindStor PSS-1810, which is a battery-powered, independent (embedded OS) hard-drive with PC Card, USB 1.1 and IEEE 1394 ports. It cost me about $350 for the device with a (2.5-inch) 10 Gig hard drive. It fits very neatly into a small camera pouch, which makes it very handy to wear over my shoulder. I can take pictures anywhere, out in the middle of nowhere, and download all the photos from my camera to my MindStor. When I get home, I use the IEEE 1394 connection to download my files to my PC.

MindStor went out of business about a year ago. There isn't much of a market for external hard drives for cameras. Now, the MindStor is just about obsolete, because several companies offer portable DVR for around $700. The pDVR not only stores photos, it will display them, too, and store and display video and audio files. They can hold and play several movies on battery power.

It's nice that Alpha-Data is offering this $60 hard drive case, but it isn't that large a technological step ahead of where we were 2 years ago.