View Full Version : Toshiba Boosts Small Storage
Jason Dunn
11-07-2003, 01:00 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,113311,tk,dn110603X,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/news/article...n110603X,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div>"Toshiba's new 1.8-inch hard drives for personal music players can store as much data as hard drives on some low-end PCs, the company announced Wednesday. The 1.8-inch drives now come in 20GB and 40GB varieties, Toshiba said in a statement. The company's hard drives are used in ultraportable notebook PCs and automotive applications, a Toshiba spokesperson said in a statement."<br /><br />What do you think - will we ever see Pocket PCs with on-board hard drive-based storage? When I was at Fry's in Las Vegas a few weeks ago, I was looking at the <a href="http://pocketpcthoughts.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php?masterid=1247959&ut=44938f0ff8a6a864&found=2&search=Rio%20Nitrus">Rio Nitrus</a>, which has a 1.5 GB hard drive attached to it's motherboard. It added a bit of weight to the unit, but not much, and the overall size was still amazingly small. Wouldn't it be amazing to have a Pocket PC with that type of storage in it? :mrgreen:
maximus
11-07-2003, 01:22 AM
The 1.8-inch drives now come in 20GB and 40GB varieties, Toshiba said in a statement.
Yay ! 40 gigs is good. No more boring flights ! Any news about the price ?
What do you think - will we ever see Pocket PCs with on-board hard drive-based storage?
Well, I currently got a 5 gigs 1.8" HDD duct-taped behind my axim, and I consider the HDD as 'onboard' (since it always 'on' my axim) ... so, yes, I already seen one on daily basis :mrgreen:
carioca76
11-07-2003, 01:27 AM
At this point why can't you run a full os & call it a 4 inch tablet pc.
I know OQO, tiquit, antelope, vulcan are trying this ... what am I missing here. what is left?
Gremmie
11-07-2003, 01:27 AM
What do you think - will we ever see Pocket PCs with on-board hard drive-based storage?
Did we [well our Japense friends] see one with the e550MD that had a built-in Microdrive?
darius779
11-07-2003, 02:09 AM
How many different types of micro hard drives have we seen now? Pocket PC manufacturers should have taken advantage of these and implemented them a long time ago. No, they will drag their feet like usual and stick with the SSDD.
Sorry for sounding so bitter, but I am somewhat frustrated with the baby steps that pocket pc oems have been taking lately.
yawanag
11-07-2003, 02:34 AM
Sorry for sounding so bitter, but I am somewhat frustrated with the baby steps that pocket pc oems have been taking lately.
My sentiments exactly!
Gremmie
11-07-2003, 02:44 AM
At this point why can't you run a full os & call it a 4 inch tablet pc.
I know OQO, tiquit, antelope, vulcan are trying this ... what am I missing here. what is left?
I think price is expodentially higher for full OSes. Driving up price too far can turn away demand especially when you consider paying higher costs for an argueably less functionable device (it's harder to multitask on a small screen).
OT, but PC Mag seemed to really like all of Rio's new audio player products in a recent roundup -- the flash-based, the 1" HDD based, the 1.8" - 2.5" HDD based... (I don't remember which products exactly)
Cortex
11-07-2003, 03:50 AM
battery life will likely be an issue
Foo Fighter
11-07-2003, 04:29 AM
This is on my list of predictions for 2004: PDAs with built-in hard drives. Oh yeah!
Janak Parekh
11-07-2003, 04:54 AM
battery life will likely be an issue
Not with clever caching. It might not apply for all situations, but I could see it be made practical. Look at the new hard-drive based music players coming out that have nearly 20 hours of battery life!
--janak
Jason Dunn
11-07-2003, 05:58 AM
Did we [well our Japense friends] see one with the e550MD that had a built-in Microdrive?
No - it was bundled with a 1 GB IBM Microdrive, but it went into the CF slot.
Glisson
11-07-2003, 01:44 PM
battery life will likely be an issue
Not with clever caching. It might not apply for all situations, but I could see it be made practical. Look at the new hard-drive based music players coming out that have nearly 20 hours of battery life!
--janak
Yes but you need more processor on PPC's and there is the screen which will drain a battery even further. I agree I would take a 20 battery and that only gives me 8 hours of use if it came with a 10 gig hard drive too but I don't see it any time soon. Look how bad the microdrives kill a battery already.
Glisson
Well why can an IPOD have a 40gb hard drive and not a pocket pc?
ChristopherTD
11-07-2003, 04:13 PM
Well why can an IPOD have a 40gb hard drive and not a pocket pc?
One reason is because the iPod is a specialised device that does only one thing - play music. It has a memory cache into which it reads the current song(s) and then powers the disk down. So in typical operation the iPod plays music for 5 minutes or so, spins the disk for 15 seconds, then plays music for another 5 minutes. So the disk doesn't really impact heavily on the battery life in normal use.
Battery life on the iPod plummets if you keep the disk spinning all the time. The HDD usage pattern on a Pocket PC would be wildly variable and hence battery life much more difficult to predict or monitor.
Cortex
11-07-2003, 04:19 PM
battery life will likely be an issue
Not with clever caching. It might not apply for all situations, but I could see it be made practical. Look at the new hard-drive based music players coming out that have nearly 20 hours of battery life!
--janak
i thought about that. but these dont have large color screens and multitasking operating systems to nurture.
Hooked
11-07-2003, 06:15 PM
Pda designs are always a trade off of portability and functionality.Adding a built-in hard-drive means giving up something, like a CF slot, or accepting a thicker profile with a short battery life or heavier battery.
What we need is similar flexibility in pda configuration as in the desktop.I've read a lot of criticism of HP's CF/PCMCIA/Btty sleeves for the iPAQ's because they turn the pda into a brick. But, it was a viable mechanism for adding functionality.
Most of the time, I don't need a built-in hard-drive for my pda, but it would be nice to have access to that extra storage when I do need it.
A more elegant solution to me is an independently powered, portable hard-drive which I can access either wirelessly or via a USB cable.I think Toshiba had a Bluetooth accessible hard-drive, but the higher transfer rate of Wi-Fi would be a better match.
Why wouldn't Dell create a mechanism for accessing the storage capacity of their DellDJ iPOD clone from the new X3?To me it's a value add for both products.
Janak Parekh
11-07-2003, 06:25 PM
Yes but you need more processor on PPC's and there is the screen which will drain a battery even further. I agree I would take a 20 battery and that only gives me 8 hours of use if it came with a 10 gig hard drive too but I don't see it any time soon. Look how bad the microdrives kill a battery already.
Hang on a second, guys. I actually used a Microdrive in my 3650's CF slot on an everyday basis for over a year. Even with Pocket PCs' simplistic caching, the Microdrive didn't have a substantial effect on battery life (maybe 20%). More aggressive caching schemes (read-ahead, for one) could make typical drive access patterns similar to that of an iPod, so that you'd get decent battery life.
The only time the MD had a serious battery drain was when using it with WMP. That's because WMP didn't cache the songs. Getting a caching music player led to a huge boost in playing time.
--janak
Len M.
11-07-2003, 09:48 PM
The real question is: when Toshiba will issue those new hard drives as PC Cards? PC Card hard drives are stalled at 5 GB.
Len Moskowitz
Core Sound
www.core-sound.com
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