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Add 8GB of Storage to Your Cell Phone
gd writes "MobileTechNews is reporting that a company called US modular has put out a device that taps into your existing mobile phones microSD or Tflash slot to add up to 8GB of storage. The Stik&Stor adds a memory chip to the back side of the battery pack and only costs $199 to add 8GB to your music phone."
Will it REALLY enable you to transport your data to your new cell?
First of all, will your new cell be compatible?
Will the DRM in your downloaded ringtones, mp3s, whatnots allow you to run it on another device?
Will it allow you to transfer to and from it?
And if all those are answered yes, how long will it take 'til the lawsuits start to spring up?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Tied up in DRM, all this memory kicking around is going to cause problems.
"Where did I put that Elton John Album? On my IPod? No... On my mobile? No... On my works mobile? No... On my PC? No... On my IPAQ? No... oh bugger it, I'll just buy another electronic copy."
Glad I stuck with LP's
Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
What's next? Adding a 3ghz on board graphic's card to play Doom3? Come on! I want a cell phone to make calls!
Most people get their cell phones cheap (or free) on various plans because people are CHEAP. they won't want to spend a couple of hundred bucks for extra memory when they likely already have an MP3 player, PDA, etc.
This thing will fail miserably.
Trolling is a art,
Porn
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
I'd be a bit hesitant to add a microdrive to my cell phone. I'm a fairly careful person, but I tend to keep phones for roughly 2 years (for Verizon's New Every 2 Program), and my phone tends to have fallen at least a handful of times over that period. I've already heard stories of people with Palm LifeDrives which failed from less.
Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
I have one of the listed phones (V635) that takes transflash, and I can play any MP3 in the player, use any MP3 as a ringtone, re-encode any video I want to .3gp format in mplayer and upload it - including full movies. I have re-encoded whole DVDs into 20 MB .3gp files and watched them on my phone while on the bus.
There is no DRM issue whatsoever. You can plug a transflash card into any SD reader to download or upload whatever the hell you want on it. It's no different than CF or SD or XD or any other memory card, there is no DRM involved.
The parent poster is pretty ignorant to this technology. Personally I can't wait to get one of these - the highest storage transflash card right now (I am aware of) is only 512 MB. 8GB would rock.
From the article I couldn't guess the size of the 8GB microdrive. Anyone has any idea ? One from Lacie is rather big to be tagged along with a cellphone.
Next you want a game console just to play games? Or a TV Set jut for watching TV? Or a stereo just for listening to music? Or a computer just for ... erh, bad example.
The world's moving towards "multi functional", baby! How else could you sell those NEW and IMPROVED goodies on various items.
Buy the new cell, it now has a camera! No, buy this, it has an MP3 player! Buy this console, you can watch videos on it, not only play!
If you made a cell that just, well, makes calls, how do you want to market that? You can't sell cells that make calls anymore, a cell has to play games you didn't even want to play on your C64 anymore 'cause they looked crappy and the graphics sucked, but hey, IT'S MOBILE NOW! Wow!
Next PSP generation will be able to make phone calls, I'm sure! And maybe you will even get a keyboard and mouse to the next sequel of the XBox, that would... eh...
Never mind.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I also already have a toaster and an oven. That doesn't mean there's not a market for toaster ovens.
/.'ers can't understand that?
People don't want to carry 15 different devices when one can do the job of all good enough. Why is it some
My V635 is a perfectly capable MP3 player and also a very decent phone. Why should I have to carry around a whole other device to listen to a bit of music one in awhile. Simmilarly, the 1.3 MP camera is "good enough" for what I use it for, quick snapshots.
RTFM: Memory Chip != Microdive
Nice! Now I can have 8GB of storage for all my phone numbers! Oh wait, that already fits on my 32k SIM. Nevermind.
Is this anything like that other phone accessory that stuck on to your phone that was on slashdot a while back?
The picture in the article does not truly represent how big the patch is - a better example is on the mfr's page here
T.J. Schmitz - the man, the myth, the legend - o
[wait for it...]
Windows Vista !!
Bill Gates will be so pleased.You were 80% angel, 10% demon. The rest was hard to explain. - Over The Rhine
"Math in a song is good."-Linford
Those were the "any" MP3's you refer to above.
They aren't seen by my phone. So clearly, your claims of technical ignorance and that "any" phone can play "any" MP3 are far overblown.
Obviously, there probably needs to be some other additional update to the phone for MP3's, but since Samsung doesn't see fit to include a USB cable with their phone, and Verizon does see fit to neuter the Bluetooth capabilities of all their phones, I'm not in a position to do it "the right way" to find out how to do it "my way".
Am I bitching about Verizon? Not really. This is a CELLPHONE for me, not an MP3 player, not anything else. And from that perspective, Verizon is the best of my options where I am at. But I was curious, and find it somewhat ironic that they market all the amazing capabilities of these phones when in fact they *aren't* as simple as you want to claim, much less how they market them. Unless of course you *like* paying three times for your music.
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
Sigh. Now if only I had someone to call.
It'd be much easier to just use an 8 gig flash drive, not to mention that there are SD cards out now that are half that size. It's not really a question of space, though, for cell phones. It's all about functionality. The two ideas have to work together to make something useful; they are mostly useless, or equatable to today's cell phones, if you have one without the other.
I think that the cell phone market has it all wrong if they are aiming to add massive amounts of storage to a cell phone.
If I was a supposed industry leader in the cell phone market, I would announce that my phones would NEVER have more then a few megs of storage in them. Here is why!
Cell phones are ALL ABOUT SUBSCRIPTION and PAY PER USE services. The only reason why you have a camera on your cell phone is so you either pay a monthly service charge to allow x number of pictures/kilobytes to be transmitted for free, OR you pay $.10 - $.20 for each picture sent. Same with text messaging, same with video on a cell phone, same with music on a cell phone. These features are not added to benefit mankind, but to drive up your cell phone bills and make the phone companies more money.
I.e. the cellphone is a money making device. It makes money from its very existence, you can't use or even have a cell phone without spending money.
This is unlike mp3 players, PDA's, computers, etc, where you buy the device, it comes with X amount of storage, and you fill the device with hopefully legal content that you can listen or watch at your convenience without paying a dime extra.
So, when someone decides to turn a cellphone into a ubiquitous multimedia player with ample storage, why should ANY cell phone maker rush to implement these feature? Why should a cellphone company allow the user to store gigabytes of high resolution pictures so they can return home to their PC and download the pictures FOR FREE to their computer. Why should a cellphone company allow people to listen to hours of music or watch hours of video FOR FREE. Why should a cellphone company allow ANY feature to be used for free on a cellphone.
Instead, the future of cellphone multimedia lies squarely in subscription services. You can stream music from the cellphone network, FOR A PRICE. Stream pictures taken to an online storage facility, FOR A PRICE. Stream video and data services FOR A PRICE. Even for those people that want to buy a song online with a cellphone, buying the music only puts the song into some online storage container that is streamed to your cellphone, for a price of course.
I can't see cellphone companies embracing technology that effectively ruins their subscription based market. Allowing users to store gigabytes of pictures, music, video, or text might get people to buy the cell phone, but cellular service providers won't want to carry a phone that doesn't force the end user to buy into some subscription or pay-per-use service.
Unlike digital multimedia players, cell phones are tied to a network. Given sufficient bandwidth, constant "always-on" music and video and data streaming should be possible, if for a price. I think cell companies are going to want to implement these subscription based features rather then slapping 8gb of hard drive into a cellphone so the end user doesn't spend a dime on ring tones, games, music, video, and other subscription services because they can find content on bit torrent or eDonkey.
In the end, perhaps only PDA based cellphones will get the boost in storage, but I can't see the average cell phone coming with gigabytes of storage, it just doesn't make sense.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
I can't stop wondering where this is going to take us. In the near future, all of us will be carrying all our data right inside our pockets. Will PCs be reduced to a dumb terminal instead of the computer it is now? Only time will tell.
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I can guarentee you if you bought it stock or from a 3rd party you'd have the cable and software to transfer whatever the hell you want.
And my phone (and all the ones this thing is for) has a removeable transflash card I can just plug in my PC. Also my phone came with the cable - and I can set it so that when I plug it into the PC it shows up as a USB flash drive.
The utility of having this much space on your phone isn't just storing MP3s, videos, and whatnot. The real potential is in what this means you can create.
I'd like to have my phone be a constant or voice activated recorder. I have my phone on me at all times, it has a microphone, why not have it provide me a 'cockpit voice recorder' of sorts for life? No more guessing exactly what my wife told me to do, or having to write down phone numbers.
Generation 1, your phone just records MP3s of life as it happens to you. If anything interesting happens during the day, you save the file on your computer.
Generation 2, it meta overlays GPS data and is automatically stored as part of your 'diary'. You store it in an encrypted location so it can't be used against you unless you choose to release it, and you have a perfect alibi showing what you said and where you were.
Generation 3, combine voice processing to index everything spoken around you into a searchable form, recognize phone numbers, voices, etc, and create a full digital assistant. At some point around here, it can also store a digital video feed from any cameras you or your personal equipment might have that's synchronized with everything.
Generation 4, it hunts down Sarah Conner.
Everytime someone puts a bunch of storage into something, someone else says "what's the use?" And human nature being what it is, some other asshole decides to invent something cool to use that storage/capabillity for just so they can give the finger to the first person.
Look at the shadows & bright spots on the "memory chip" and the cell phone. They don't line up.
If this thing is real, why'd they have to photoshop an image of it?
However, just look at the flimsy ribbon connecting it, imagine the poor quality adhesive that will rip the bugger off when my phone is in the same pocket as my keys. Nah, I'll wait until they get it out of prototype phase.
They aren't seen by my phone. So clearly, your claims of technical ignorance and that "any" phone can play "any" MP3 are far overblown.
Are they VBR MP3s? If so can your phone handle those?
Are they using extended filename syour phone can't reconize?
Do you have your primary memory device even set to your TF card?
There's a plethora of reasons these may not show up, none of which have to do with DRM. If you're talking about the a950, I can assure you it can play MP3s fine. You're doing something incorrect.
Don't know about Samsung phones, but Motorola phones have transfer cables that are easy to come by... $10 or so on froogle. http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=samsung+transf er+cable&btnG=Search+Froogle (16.99 for the first result ... I don't know what model you have ) thats how I moved stuff onto my v265. I'm a Verizon customer too. Good cell phone forums for this kind of thing are www.howardsforum.com (may be misspelt, google it, I don't look up this kind of thing at work).
A memory card in a memory slot!
What kind of LOSER would want to watch porn on an inch-and-a-half screen? Other than, of course, those majestic shitheads who proclaim loudly and consistently that they love porn and then expect me to be impressed because they're rebelling against societal acceptability.
-
Inventor of the term 'pardon my French'.
I think for that kind of money you could buy an Ipod or another mp3 player
It's never too late to stop doing something wrong, or to start doing something right.
You should not forget that that "inch-and-a-half" is everything some people have ;P
It seems that this might be the same case. First, the connection seems a bit fragile. Second, the current specificatins for some motoralo phone already include a memeory slot, but the maximum memory is listed at 256MB even though the current maximum memory module is 512K. This indicates that phones may have a less than GB limit, perhpas they do not include 32 bit addressing.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
When looking at the list of available audo files, hit menu and select the TF Card as the primary memory device. You should now see your audio files on the card.
by default, it's reading your phones memory, not the TF card.
What's next? Adding a 3ghz on board graphic's card to play Doom3?
yep
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02
hope you are still enjoying your black & white TV
I like mountain biking, hiking and inline skating. The following is a single device that I would like to see hit the market,
1) A cell phone with a local phone directory loaded into memory.
2) A GPS unit with detailed local maps.
3) A music player that holds at least a thousand songs.
4) A few movies to watch while camping or resting along the trail.
5) A built in camera that takes at least 500 quality photos with little compression.
6) A 12-hour battery life no matter what purpose I am using the phone for.
I think 8GB's is a good start but not nearly enough.
At the risk of feeding a troll...
What kind of LOSER would want to watch porn on an inch-and-a-half screen? Other than, of course, those majestic shitheads who proclaim loudly and consistently that they love porn and then expect me to be impressed because they're rebelling against societal acceptability.
Not me, because I don't have a phone. But I know plenty of so-called "majestic shitheads" who like nothing more than seeing porn on their phones, and spend lots of money downloading it and/or sending it on to others. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean there is no market for it.
As far as telcos are concerned, the more data you have, the more likely you are to send/recieve data through them, the more money they get. Same goes for third-party companies that make movies, ringtones and all the other crap that people put on their phones nowadays.
Take the internet as an analogy - porn and piracy have been two of the dominant driving forces behind it to date. Obligatory geek reference As storage capacity increases it's hardly surprising that traffic in these increases too, and where there's traffic there's usually an opportunity for money. Why should phones be any different?
The post to which you were replying was asking about your next cell phone, not your current one. There's no way you can guarantee what kind of DRM your next cell phone will have, or for that matter what file formats it will support. I happen to own a phone that takes transflash but doesn't play MP3s, only WMAs. Apparently MP3s were supported in an earlier version of the firmware, but it was taken out specifically in order to force users to adopt WMA format. Was this a good decision by the marketing team that made this phone? I don't know, I may have to return this phone, and avoid them in the future. But as far as I can tell, they're all equally evil, just in different ways. Will I be able to rewrite the phone's microcode to play MP3s? Probably not. Will I transcode MP3s into WMAs in order to listen to them? If I decide to keep the phone, I have to. Maybe I chose a bad phone. But maybe Microsoft will offer all the cell phone manufacturers a billion dollars apiece to drop support for non-MS formats, and in two years there will be no more cell phones that play MP3s. For better or worse, hardware manufacturers have already demonstrated that they are more interested in telling the consumer what to do than in doing what the consumer wants.
My suspicions are aroused by the fact that they're starting off on 8GB. To demonstrate that it is an effective storage technique, I'd expect them to come out with a more profitable-per-byte lower capacity model, such as a $120 4GB one, possibly even less.
Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped. Calvin Coolidge
Are you expecting me to be impressed by your conformity?
I don't know about your Motorola, but my U6 PEBL, and for that matter, the V3 RAZR a bunch of friends have, uses the same standardized mini-USB2 cable that came with my digital camera. And even if it hadn't done, the phone came with another I can leave at work.
So Motorola are pretty good at that sort of thing at the moment. Which is nice, because I've got Katamari tunes for ringtones.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
Agreed, I have a Samsung D600 and am always transfering music/movies to my TF cards for it, and often watch South Park/Futurama on the bus. Which was all ripped from DVD to .3gp using the provided software that came with the phone.
I can see problems occuring in the future but for now I don't know much they can do.
I have 2 x 512mb TF cards, I know there is a 1gb comming out early march, but I'd love to have a full 8gb that would be awesome, not just for media but as a file store for work or software.
Also with some programming maybe a linux distro?
My phone allows me to do all of the above and more, including switching to another provider's SIM and a very smooth way to use calling cards to get around the extortionate international rates available on pay-as-you-go SIMs in Europe.
a 10 second search on several sites and a SEEM edit and you can enable obex on your verizon phones.
My e815 is now an e815m and plays anything I want it too, within reason. Mp3's video, etc.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order- Ed Howdershelt Via Tass
Yep. I have a Nokia 6236i from Verizon, they DRM'd the crap out of it but if you can find a copy of Nokia's Diego (v3.xx) program and buy a DKU-2 cable on eBay ($5) you can reset everything back to the defaults. Now I can upload my own MP3 ringtones, screensavers, and backgrounds, download pics from the phone to the pc, run any java J2ME apps / games I want, and get on the internet for free (uses regular minutes, free nights & weekends).
B site%3Ahowardforums.com&btnG=Search
http://www.howardforums.com/
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=6236i+%2
I'm sure the iPod nano 200 gb upgrade could be applied with some tweaking!
Yeah, my digital camera uses a mini-USB transfer cable. Motorola uses a universal transfer cable for all of its phones (Going back for 4+ years at least ...) The cable I have is USB and the cool thing is you can recharge the battery via the USB port too. Also works as a data cable if you want to use your cell phone as a modem. (Verizon nights and weekends FTW) Best $10 I ever spent :P
Yes actually only verizon screws you in the ass with all these fees that you mention above. I have nextel/t-mobile and I dont pay a dime for any of the pay services that you have mentioned. What you say makes verizon alot of money right now in a near monopolistic environment but market forces are squashing all of that (thank god).
---------
No matter how thin you slice it, its still baloney.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
That's why things are so expensive in the US. People are willing to spend way too much money for things like this. I'm almost mad from reading the word "only" in that sentence. When people decide that they're only willing to spend what the technology is actually worth, prices for all sorts of technology will drop. $80/month for a cell phone? $199 for 8gb? Ridiculous. . . .
I have a even better idea, what happened to...oh I don't know this funy thing about enhancing say...usability? Oh my gosh what a concept? Enhance the UI's of my existing Cellphone? I don't particulalry care if it can play MP3's that's a bonus, I'd much rather see tweaks backported to the existing software. I do care that my PDA doesn't have an exchange policy. I do care that, unlike my computer, I can't get sofware upgrades--for free. Or along the same line at christmas (why not) a free upgrade to a 'improved' model? How about enahnced rugedness? Enhanced readamility of PDF's? Hell my old visor wich was seriously KFA on at least that front could, even my OLD palm can read PDF's no sweat, new palm that costs 4x as much? nope no dice thats a 30$ purchase.
No.....
I have to grab the damn thing off my belt clip and look at it.
Damn idiots.
(And while it might be a clever hack to add a time service phone number called "time", that's a horribly inefficient waste of bandwidth just to avoid having to grab the phone).
You could've hired me.
I have an Motorola A1000...BUT you need to remove the cover to swap the battery which I do every 2 or 3 days.
This product doesn't look like it would last long with constant twisting of the connecting ribbon.
Then there is the hazardous BENDING the ribbon would be subjected through just to get to the outside of the case.
I think I'll just wait for the 1GB (transflash now called) MicroSD card to come out.
xobile.com meets this need right now! I don't work for them, etc., but uhm, a "friend" of mine told me about it... yeah, that's it: a "friend..." and their quality is pretty decent on my "friend's" Motorola v360's screen...
I just bought an A950, picking it over other phones mainly for its music capabilities.
:-) I just know that, as retarded as it is for this phone's "MP3 Maestro" to only play WMA files, I'm just happy I got it to work in the end.
Since the Verizon outlet I bought it at was inside a Circuit City, I picked up a 256MB microSD card and a USB SD card reader for $20 a piece so I could have my music on the phone.
However, after formatting the card as FAT32 and inserting it into the phone so its directory structure was created and then filling it up with my MP3s, I was annoyed to see the phone's "MP3 Maestro" didnt recognize a single of my songs. After lots of screwing around with CBR/VBR and filenames, and then a good solid hour of research, I discovered the problem: apparently, in mid-January, Verizon started using a new firmware in these phones that only recognizes WMA files. If you use the USB cable they sell you and WM10 to transfer songs, WM10 silently converts your files into WMA files before transferring them to the phone. So, one quick run through dbPowerAmp and all the songs I wanted were in WMA format, on my mSD card, and (mostly) playing happily with "MP3 Maestro".
Now, my A950 plays my music off of my mSD card without the need to buy Verizon's hideously overpriced $30 USB cable.
Of course, if you didn't buy your phone directly from Verizon, or if you've had since before January, then I don't know...
Perl - $Just @when->$you ${thought} s/yn/tax/ &couldn\'t %get $worse;
I was going to point that out. Actualy, I am pretty sure that is just a real live sticker :P
Terrific. I have it syncing under Linux. TF card (with SD card adapter) just mounts nicely. A1000 is Symbian OS, so I added an Ebook reader, GPS program, and MP3 program. Oh and some nice file management tools:) The ONLY issue is the limit on the TF capacity. 8gb would mean my dream all in one device is not so limited, and no ipods for me. Thats exactly what I wanted!!!
Nothing - well thats something.
I have a Imate sp3 which takes minisd which should be compatible with micro sd. I wonder if this will work with my phone as well.
My Imate sp3 runs the Microsoft Smartphone OS, it too can play mp3and 3gp, plus mpeg, wmv movie files, with no DRM, I've watched movies on it on budget airlines with no onboard entertainment (with the phone in flight mode of course). The thing I love about the Imate sp3 is that its quite small... almost the same size as my nokia 6100.
I too currently have a 512Meg MiniSD, I've been searching for quite some time to find something larger than 512M... Getting 8Gig would blow me away.
Well, I think you've hit on a great idea, a global - built in - phone book.
Forget calling information, when you could store all the white pages of all major US cities,
and even add in the yellow page ads to display on the little color screen...
Great Idea!
Sure I can enable it. If I want my brand new phone's warranty to be completely void.
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
But does it run Linux?
I have had my phone in for service since doing my SEEM edit. Verizon, for the most part, could not care less. As long as your water indicator sticker is okay, that is really all they look for.
If you are paranoid, back up your unedited SEEM first, and if you need service, restore to that point before taking it in.
Now, before you say it... if you can boot it, odds are you can restore it. If you can't boot it, they are not going to either when you take it in.
I have returned edited phones under warranty 3x (company "phone go-to guy") I have never had a problem.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order- Ed Howdershelt Via Tass
If it's a Motorola, you have to delete /a/audio/TempTones.db and /a/audio/MyTones.db and restart your phone. Beware this scrambles your ringer selections, and if something is unusable you get kicked out of the settings screen. (choose a valid file in multimedia and "set as ring tone")
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Yeah, that's what I couldn't put my finger on. It looks totally flat.
Would you buy a product from a company too retarded to spell Stick and Store?
OK, so they do it because it's easier to get a trademark on "Stik&Stor". But it's a disturbing trend. Handi Paks, Intel's unpronouncable "VIIV"... every new product or technology has to have a stupid name now. In Nero, they don't say "we put in a buffer so you don't get underruns", they say "UlraBuffer!!!!!!!!!!!" How times have changed.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Damn. You'd think they could package something up for us treo users too.
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
pugs is here.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
Exactly... For Chinese New Year, I took an A1200 to Hainan, a tropical province, and connected both cameras and my mobile phone to my laptop (gf wanted to check MSN) with the same cable (not at once mind you, but made for simpler packing). The phone charges from USB, too.
If I lose my cable, I don't need to order one, I go to the little shop on the corner, and they have one. I guess Motorola realized it's not in the Cables and Wires business.
Crazier still is that the Airport Extreme AP has a USB port, and will talk the more basic protocols, so I don't have a charger: I just have a standard USB cable from the A.E. AP. I have to make sure the phone is in Modem or USB Storage mode, since A.E. AP has no USB-Net compatibility. USB-Net through the A.E. AP would rock for transferring MP3s! (and sexy photos of afore-mentioned gf)
The A1200 has only a 10MB userfs, so a Tflash is quite necessary.
MacOSX doesn't like the factory-format of the TFlash, and A1200 doesn't like the format of a Mac-formatted TFlash (via USB-disk), but letting the A1200 reformat the TFlash makes a perfectly functional filesystem.
Dude, in 1994 it cost me $800 for 16meg ram. 4x4meg.
$800 those days, was 2.5weeks work, today thats more than $3000.
I would never spend $3000 today for even a whole pc or laptop.
OK
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.