ASUS announces Wi-Fi 802.11g Hard Drive

[Len M.]

At the Hanover Fair in March, ASUS announced a Wi-Fi 802.11g Hard Drive:

[Begin]

The WLL-HDD will change your perception on data storage. This latest hard disk drive box enables wireless file sharing through 802.11g OFDM technology for fast data transfer at 54Mbps. It is also backwards compatible with 802.11b devices and can be adopted in wired environments.

[End]

http://usa.asus.com/news/2004/20040311.htm

This could be the easiest way to add really large amounts of fast storage to your PDA.

Until now, the only way to use large portable hard drives with a PDA was Addonics' Pocket ExDrive via a PC Card interface (http://www.addonics.com/products/external_hdd/pocket_exdrive.asp). That was limited to PDAs that could accommodate PC Cards (iPAQs that could use the HP single and dual PCMCIA Expansion Packs). Once the WLL-HDD arrives, any PDA that can communicate over Wi-Fi (802.11b or 802.11g) will be able have a large hard drive available.

It won't be as small as the upcoming Simpletech and Lexar 8 GB CF memory cards, but then the WL-HDD won't cost even a quarter as much.

No more 4 GB (Hitachi CF Microdrive) or 5 GB (Toshiba PCMCIA hard drive) limits!


Len Moskowitz
Core Sound
www.core-sound.com

[arnage2]

cool!

[spacerace]

Yes I like the sound of this. I wonder what the battery consumption of powering WiFi is compared to powering a CF Microdrive....

[Trimac20]

The future's looking pretty rosy from here, although this will of course not be a perfect solution. For instance you can only access the HD within Wi-Fi range: perhaps 30 metres at most. Good for using your PDA at home, but what would really be good would be a radio-wave transfer HD where you can access your computer/external radio-enabled HD anywhere in the world! That should come soon...

[Kati Compton]

I hope there's some good security on that. 8O

[Len M.]

It will offer the usual crypto features. Pretty secure.


Len Moskowitz
Core Sound
www.core-sound.com

[Len M.]

Well, here it is three months later and Asus hasn't yet made the HL-WDD wireless hard drive available. They responded to my last inquiry saying that they didn't know when or if it would be released here in the US.


Len Moskowitz
Core Sound
www.core-sound.com

[jgrnt1]

I keep checking their site. If it is ever sold here in the US, I want one under the passenger seat in my car, with all my mp3's on it.