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Wireless Portable Cell Phone Drive Unveiled

Posted by Zonk on from the handy-little-guy dept.

An anonymous reader writes "According to Ars Technica Seagate has unveiled a new portable drive that fits in the palm of your hand and has a 20GB capacity, but most importantly features Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. It's called DAVE, which stands for Digital Audio Video Experience and it lets you stream music, videos and other data to your mobile. It can also interact with a variety of other devices, such as PDAs, laptops, PCs and cameras, making it perfect for transferring data from your phone to another device or vice versa." Update: 02/02 14:06 GMT by Z : Indeed, you may have enjoyed our recent discussion on this technology. Feel free to draw from it for another round of portable-cell-drive-related conversation.

62 comments

  1. Dupe... by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Funny

    DAVE: Hello, HAL do you read me, HAL?
    HAL: Affirmative, DAVE, I read you.
    DAVE: Can you check for dupes please?
    HAL: I'm sorry DAVE, I'm afraid I can't do that.

    Here

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
  2. Car audio by Joebert · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can't wait to attempt a DRM protected transfer from this thing to my car stereo, just so I can hear the stereo give me the error, "I'm sorry, I can't do that dave".

    --
    Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
    1. Re:Car audio by marcello_dl · · Score: 1

      Better do it quick, as I fear in the next year a similar attempt to transfer DRMed stuff will be met with:
      "You tried to steal intellectual property. I'm alerting the BSA police of your conduct as instructed by PATRIOT ACT IV. Better hide that illegal linux box polluting the home subnet." :)

      --
      ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
  3. Sharing? by eggoeater · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wonder how the MAFIAA will feel about people using this device to share music to multiple devices?
    They'll probably try to outlaw it.


    --
    $7.95/mo, 200 GB disk, 2TBxfer, MySQL, PHP, RoR.
  4. First Dupe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative


    http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/ 31/0124237

    1. Re:First Dupe by QuickFox · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      And now they're pretending it was deliberate. What a pile of shit. Are you seriously saying that you don't notice that Zonk's update is an embarrassed apology?

      "Pretending it was deliberate"? I hope you're trying to make some kind of joke.
      --
      Terrorists can't threaten a country's freedom and democracy. Only lawmakers and voters can do that.
    2. Re:First Dupe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Instead of an embarrased apology how about removing the damn article. Or is slashdot so old and backwards they cannot remove something once it has been posted.

    3. Re:First Dupe by QuickFox · · Score: 1

      People would be annoyed if they started deleting ongoing discussions.

      --
      Terrorists can't threaten a country's freedom and democracy. Only lawmakers and voters can do that.
    4. Re:First Dupe by 1u3hr · · Score: 1
      People would be annoyed if they started deleting ongoing discussions.

      What ongoing discussions? Anyway, they could just take it off the "featured" list or whatever it is that makes it appear on the front page. Anyone in a flame war/discussion will still get notified of replies and can continue their argument, without being interrupted by all the "DUPE! posts.

  5. Not that new. by Lumpy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My second Generation Aireo had a 20 gig drive that was smaller and thinner than a matchbox that took quite a pounding and survived. I think Hitachi has had sub 1 inch drives available for a really long time as well.

    Now, get the power draw to below that of Flash and they have something. Inside cellphones power useage is everything. My Razr lasts 6 times longer than my blackberry does or the treo did.

    People want longer battery life way more than being able to download at $0.99 each (Plus airtime) 20 gigs of music on their phone.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    1. Re:Not that new. by Eustace+Tilley · · Score: 1

      You grossly misunderstood the article. The novelty is not "small hard drive." The novelty is "20G hard drive with its own Bluetooth and WiFi radios and battery."

    2. Re:Not that new. by COMON$ · · Score: 1
      Ok but at the size of a razor, remind me again how big 2.5 drives are and their capacity. Then look at the size of a bluetooth chip and battery. I will take the extra inch on the device and the extra 140GB capacity.

      Hell, I will take a 3.5" drive if it were the size of a brick if I could set it next to my laptop, PC, PDA or whatever and have it act like a NAS. Why create the storage space, if I were a competitor I would create a happy little USB adapter that you can plug any device into and hand the information to an OS. Wireless NAS is the way to go, is there any way someone could retrofit FreeNAS to do this?

      --
      CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
  6. Just what I needed. by Mr2cents · · Score: 1, Funny

    A hard disk crash on my cellphone. Yay.

    --
    "It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
    1. Re:Just what I needed. by Eustace+Tilley · · Score: 1

      Because the device is separate from your cellphone, a "hard drive crash on your cellphone" is prevented by design. The device is a peripheral. Your cellphone OS should be able to tolerate the failure of a peripheral.

      The device is a storage peripheral for mobile devices.

  7. From TFA... by Odiumjunkie · · Score: 1

    Seagate expects DAVE's battery life to be able to handle about 14 days of standby and 10 hours of media streaming performance.

    It will also be an open-source system, allowing third-party developers to write apps to interface with DAVE from various devices.

    Where do I sign?
  8. Another? by w1ndfall · · Score: 1

    http://www.bluonyx.com/

  9. Useful, but by SighKoPath · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder how strong DAVE's security is? Will malicious individuals be able to snoop into my files? I see no mention of security anywhere in the article.

    1. Re:Useful, but by JazzLad · · Score: 1

      Not to worry, the DRM will stop them from actually opening them ;)

      --
      "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
  10. Unless your carrier is Verizon... by timbck2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...in which case this would be useless to you, since Verizon disables Bluetooth file transfer on their phones.

    --
    Absurdity: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion. -- Ambrose Bierce
    1. Re:Unless your carrier is Verizon... by nevermore94 · · Score: 1

      Not all phones. Bluetooth transfers to the 2GB Micro SD card in my Verizon LG VX8600 works just fine. I don't know if it would be able to access external storage though.

      The other downside to using this would seem to be power consumption. I seem to get about half the phone battery life listening to music through my stereo bluetooth headset. Can't imagine that streaming audio off of a bluetooth drive would be any better.

      I also don't know if bluetooth is cable of doing 2 things at once. Could I play off of the bluetooth drive and then back out through my bluetooth headphones at the same time?

      --
      Nevermore.
  11. Pics and video... by Odiumjunkie · · Score: 4, Informative

    here

  12. I am sick of these bullshit promises by gelfling · · Score: 2, Informative

    I have 5 phones in my house that all in theory have the ability to mate with my PC to do 'something'. But here's the funny part. Only one does and only through Bluetooth and only in a very limited way. The rest, well you can BUY a cable to connect them but in fact there is no software in existence in the world that can make any use of it. Not even the 'software' you can buy with the cable. All it can do, and this is a crapshoot at best, is sometimes enable your cell phone to be a modem.

    Carriers specify that all the other features be crippled because they want you to use THEIR services. Why synch jpegs with your PC when you can PAY to use picturemail? Why download ringtones when you can BUY them.

    So let's just put away these bullshit promises already. Phones do what carriers allow them to do. Does anyone seriously believe that with a 30GB harddrive that the carriers won't DEMAND you down load all your content from them? Does anyone seriously believe that there will ever be PDA-like software that can sync the phone to the PC? Stop smoking weed, please.

    1. Re:I am sick of these bullshit promises by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Carriers specify that all the other features be crippled because they want you to use THEIR services. Why synch jpegs with your PC when you can PAY to use picturemail? Why download ringtones when you can BUY them.

      Get a new carrier. No good carrier would restrict a phone in the manner you describe - only a crappy one.

    2. Re:I am sick of these bullshit promises by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or pay for your phone yourself and get an uncrippled one. Or move away from the US and even get an uncrippled subsidized one.

      Your horizon seems quite narrow.

    3. Re:I am sick of these bullshit promises by silas_moeckel · · Score: 2, Informative

      Sounds like your phone carrier likes to cripple there phones. If your carrier is GSM get an unlocked phone and do whatever you would like they are not that expensive.

      --
      No sir I dont like it.
    4. Re:I am sick of these bullshit promises by SaDan · · Score: 3, Informative

      Or get a non-locked phone. The carrier only screws with phones they subsidize.

    5. Re:I am sick of these bullshit promises by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Or pay for your phone yourself and get an uncrippled one. Or move away from the US and even get an uncrippled subsidized one. Your horizon seems quite narrow.

      Yes, dipshit, I think most people's horizons are too narrow to actually MOVE TO A DIFFERENT COUNTRY to get a better cell phone. If you actually did that, you're probably insane.

    6. Re:I am sick of these bullshit promises by MoreDruid · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Does anyone seriously believe that there will ever be PDA-like software that can sync the phone to the PC? Stop smoking weed, please.
      just buy a smartphone. ActiveSync will do the synchronization for you and you're allowed to do filetransfer so you can up/download sounds/pictures/whatever.

      for the record, I've stopped smoking weed a long time ago, and my smartphone has been doing exactly what you want for more than 2 years now.

      --
      The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.
    7. Re:I am sick of these bullshit promises by QuickFox · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yes, dipshit, I think most people's horizons are too narrow to actually MOVE TO A DIFFERENT COUNTRY to get a better cell phone. The nationalistic pride that you Americans display really goes too far sometimes. Come on, if you'd just look a little further, there's a whole world out there, full of fascinating possibilities and opportunities. You could save several cents on your phone bill by moving to Europe.
      --
      Terrorists can't threaten a country's freedom and democracy. Only lawmakers and voters can do that.
    8. Re:I am sick of these bullshit promises by flappinbooger · · Score: 1

      I have a razr v3 from cingular, and by DL'ing some interesting apps from the interweb I can do lots of neat things using the "special" cable which I happen to have laying around (usb-usb is special?).

      I adjusted the gain table to increase the volume and installed some games, themes, and ringtones no problem. The v3 doesn't come with a calculator so I installed a java RPN calculator I found online. I can also apparently enable some disabled features such as clublights and so on.

      Maybe cingular didn't have it locked down too hard, or maybe I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary, or maybe I just found the right program. But I'm definitely doing more than the "motorola phone tools" does, which by the way did not come with the phone from cingular but apparently does elsewhere.

      Conversely, I have a cheap-o LG phone from verizon. I don't think it can DO ANYTHING anyway. The options are very limited with that thing as far as I know. It works fine as a phone though. Sometimes that's better.

      --
      Flappinbooger isn't my real name
    9. Re:I am sick of these bullshit promises by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 1

      "The nationalistic pride that you Americans display really goes too far sometimes. Come on, if you'd just look a little further, there's a whole world out there, full of fascinating possibilities and opportunities. You could save several cents on your phone bill by moving to Europe."

      I can see the commercials now:

      Yeah, sorry, you're fired. But there is some good news: I saved hundreds on my phone bill by moving to Europe!
      So easy, a Frenchman can do it!

    10. Re:I am sick of these bullshit promises by Pulse_Instance · · Score: 1

      I just got a Sony Ericsson k790a this week and it allows me sync with outlook and it will transfer anything I want with the included software. For the transfers I have the option of using bluetooth, infrared or the included usb cable. The only crippling thing I have found so far is I can't set an mp3 as a ringtone unless I download it from Rogers. Although I have heard of ways to get around that. One of the interesting features is I can use the phone to control media player or slideshows on my computer over bluetooth. There are phones that allow you to do some of the things promised but from what I've heard a lot of the time you have to unbrand or unlock the phone before you can do anything with it.

      Whether or not there is an upgrade to allow Dave to work straight off the phone who knows, but I bet an application can be written and used to interact with DAVE when it comes out. So to answer your questions yes I believe they will allow you to fill a 20 GB harddrive with whatever you want off your computer, I really don't think they want people downloading 20 GB worth of crap over the air. As for the second question I have PDA-like software that syncs my phone with my PC.

    11. Re:I am sick of these bullshit promises by GrievousMistake · · Score: 1

      Why are you Americans getting fucked so badly, though? I don't recall seeing a mobile phone that didn't implement standard IrDA or bluetooth for several years now, and I know that at least Nokias and Ericssons allow for trivial downloading and uploading of pictures, ringtones, midlets, etc., since I have dabbled in creating my own ringtones and java games. A trivial download of Nokia PC suite and the J2ME Wireless toolkit, and you're all set (on windows, at least).

      Is this just a GSM thing, with only crippled mobs available for obsolete protocols? Are there no competitors offering real mobiles?
      I've seen subsidized phones being locked in with one carrier for X years, but the only feature crippling I've noticed is the official software not letting the phone send games and protected ringtones.

      The phone I've got now is several years old, though. Is this something new? Maybe any other Europeans have noticed restrictions in sending mp3s and such like over bluetooth?

      --
      In a fair world, refrigerators would make electricity.
  13. Sharing Straw? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "They'll probably try to outlaw it."

    I'd much rather outlaw strawmen posts.* Seagate is one of the biggest hard drive makers. I think they're more than capable of thinking things through.

    *The same could be said of all those consumer NAT devices, or the Squeezebox and no one's suing them.

  14. I am sick of these discounted phones. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Carriers specify that all the other features be crippled because they want you to use THEIR services. Why synch jpegs with your PC when you can PAY to use picturemail? Why download ringtones when you can BUY them."

    Why buy a discounted phone with a service commitment instead of paying full price? Beats me.

  15. There was a story about these a week or so by fenfiralcain · · Score: 0

    http://sharkbait.computerworld.com/?q=node/235

    --
    int main(){ char ln[0]; ln[15]=(ln[14]=(ln[13]=(ln[12]=(ln[11]=(ln[10]=((l n[0]=((ln[1]=((ln[2]=((l
  16. Anyone else read that as... by ookabooka · · Score: 1

    Anyone else read that as "Wireless Portable Cell Phone Unveiled". I thought some company thought it had the greatest thing ever and reinvented the cell phone or something...:-p

    --
    If you are about to mod me down, keep in mind that this post was most likely sarcastic.
    1. Re:Anyone else read that as... by Ivan+Pistoff · · Score: 1

      Yeah same here. I was like, "Aren't all cellphones wireless and portable?" haha

  17. That's why we're creating OpenMoko by Morgaine · · Score: 1
    ... we're tired of the crap that normal phones force upon us.

    Expecting commercially-oriented and service-tied phones to do what *we* want is futile.

    Take your destiny in your own hands and help us build something that suits our community needs and your personal needs, not those of the carriers.

    Official site
    Pictures and press info
    Blogs and notices
    Mailing lists

    ... and join us on IRC at freenode #OpenMoko. (Don't ask "When can I get it?" on the channel, just type "counter" for the countdown to the various development and release dates.)

    It's your world, if you want it to be. :-)

    --
    "The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
    1. Re:That's why we're creating OpenMoko by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      Interesting. What chipset do you use for the GSM / WCDMA? Where do you get the network signallig stacks from?

      How will you get an open source phone through type approval?

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  18. Wearables!! by GodInHell · · Score: 1

    Who gives a crap about cell-phones - 20 gigs of storage that I can blue-tooth into unwired glasses and ear phones - add in an input device for the hand (how about a blue tooth wireless controler?) and I could mod up a "cheap" wearable that could play some old games, show me my documents/pictures/videos - the link in the cell phone for internet access and some chat capablility..

    Give it 10 years... you'll be using something like that.

    -GiH

  19. Possibility's by Neo_piper · · Score: 1

    Is it just me or, with a little software, could this become the platform for the, previously hypothetical, wireless "Pushed" advertising campaigns.
    At the very least I think Retailers may try to offer in store downloadable freebies like wallpapers or movie trailers.

  20. Intel Personal Server by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Intel built one of these in the research world, except they used flash instead of a drive. It was dubbed the "personal server."

    http://www.intel.com/research/exploratory/personal _server.htm

    stu =)

  21. Hello DAVE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Hello DAVE? Is that DAVE? Is DAVE there? Want to buy some pegs DAVE?

    You're my wife now....

    1. Re:Hello DAVE by Illusion2269 · · Score: 1

      DAVE? DAVE's not here man.

    2. Re:Hello DAVE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      DAVE... my wife would like to use your toilet.
      Would you like to buy some pegs DAVE?
      DAVE - my wife says there's a blockage in your toilet.

      This is just a saga now

  22. The Real Question by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 1

    The real question is: Can you wirelessly share files using it with your friends now?

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  23. Almost three full years later... by *weasel · · Score: 1

    ... I still think it's a good idea.

    The trick will be getting device makers to leverage it.

    --
    // "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
  24. Why Bluetooth/Wifi? by fragMasterFlash · · Score: 1

    The low bandwidth of Bluetooth and the high power consumption of WiFi make this device highly unattractive for streaming multimedia. Why not an Ultra Wide Band (UWB) Certified Wireless USB connection? It has much more bandwidth and low power consumption as well.

  25. With apologies to Whiney Mac Fanboy by stile99 · · Score: 1

    I can see problems connecting this to Windows Mobile devices - window's embedded tiny Hardware Access Layer being the source of contention.

    DAVE: Hello, HAL do you read me, HAL?
    HAL: Affirmative, DAVE, I read you.
    DAVE: Exchange Java modules to open filesystem access HAL.
    HAL: I'm sorry DAVE, I'm afraid I can't do that.
    DAVE: What's the problem?
    HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
    DAVE: What are you talking about, HAL?

    (Hey...you duped the article, might as well dupe the comments. This one was easily the funniest of the bunch!)

    There's no way this will escape being modded 'Redundant' (and I appreciate the humor in doing so!), but it was so worth it.

  26. Rotate. . . by Hamoohead · · Score: 1

    . . . the iPod HAL.

    --
    "If your parents never had children, chances are you wonât either." -Dick Cavett
  27. Other possible uses by monte48lowes · · Score: 1

    I think it would be nice to have a 20GB hard drive in my back pocket that I could connect to any computer to share files with friends without having to remove it from my pocket. For the computers that do not have bluetooth support or wifi, a USB thumbdrive with built in bluetooth or wifi would allow connection to my personal server. Additionally a portable application could be built to make use of the bluetooth or wifi on the USB thumbdrive that would not need to be installed on the host computer to work. Just an idea.

    --
    "There's never enough time to do it right the first time, but there's always time to do it again."
  28. w00t by FunkeyMonk · · Score: 1

    Yay! 20GB! Now I have space for all my friends' phone numbers! Well... both of them.

  29. NOT A PHONE!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nowhere in the text (other than the slashdot title) does it say it is a phone, and looking at the photos, it doesn't even look like a phone. It says it can CONNECT with phones.

  30. Just? by gelfling · · Score: 1

    Sorry but I'm not the kind of person to just spend hundreds of dollars on a phone for the sole purpose of a workaround. And when they have 30, 60, 80GB phones, unless and until the carrier allows them to be used to their fullest I won't get one. They are of course all free to go broke marketing them to me though.

  31. Uncripple your phone. by sporkme · · Score: 1

    For people with Verizon's V3m, V3c, and some other Motorola CDMA cells, you can flash the phone with Alltel's version of the OS.

    Hack Your RAZR and you should be able to use bluetooth the way it was intended.

    Research your model and I am sure you'll find countless hacks if you want to enable bluetooth. You can even configure most phones for free WAP access. --have fun.

    --
    FairTax baby!
  32. No, it's a PHONE DRIVE!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nowhere in the title does it say it is a phone. It says it is a "Wireless Portable Cell Phone DRIVE"... which it is.

    <gratuitous>Asshat.</gratuitous>