60 GB of Treo Storage
We believe the coolest new technology on display at CES was a 60 gigabyte Bluetooth storage device. Roughly the size of a deck of playing cards, vast capacity and wireless connectivity means users can literally carry an entire desktop computer’s worth of applications, documents, music and video anywhere and access them via smartphone or other mobile device. By comparison, the largest memory cards currently supported by Treo and Centro smartphones are 8 gigabytes.
Code named DAVE, which stands for Digital Audio Video Experience, the device is being manufactured by Seagate and will be brought to market under a variety of OEM brand names. Because Seagate is releasing DAVE on an ODM basis, its brand name will not appear associated with the product in the marketplace.
Although Seagate indicated DAVE is compatible with Treo and Centro smartphones, and Seagate informed us they are talking with Palm about releasing the device under Palm’s brand name, we could not confirm with two palm representatives at the trade show that this was indeed the case. Both a Palm brand manager and public relations executive denied being aware of DAVE.
We believe DAVE is a game changer. With the introduction of 1 gigahertz smartphone processors (check back for our interview with Qualcomm about their new high end processors for Windows Mobile devices), and with the introduction of DAVE, smartphones are going to have have virtually all of the processing and storage capabilities of laptop and desktop computers. Smartphones will become simply one more way of accessing everything you have on your computers at work and home.
We believe the pressure is on smartphone manufactures to adapt. Gone are the days of incremental memory upgrades and specification improvements being important. Winning smartphones of 2009 and beyond will give us gorgeous and large screens, incredible data entry (whether via on-screen or physical keyboard), and will have operating systems that support third party software designed to manipulate desktop files. We wonder if a Palm and Microsoft alliance will be a winner in this regard.
Related Links
Direct Link to DAVE video on YouTube
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Filed under: Editorials
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The largest memory cards supported by the Treo are 8GB, not 4GB. Either way, that’s more than enough media for most people - witness the success of the iPod nano.
By the way: “it’s brand name”?
You’re right that 4 or 8 gigs of memory can hold “enough” multimedia files for most people. That’s certainly a lot of songs or a handful of movies.
But this storage device can accommodate a massive multimedia library as well as desktop applications and documents.
Why carry just a portion of your documents, songs and movies around when you can have them ALL in your pocket?
A paradigm shift in the smartphone market is possible with this device IMHO. Smart mobile phone manufacturers will take notice.
Could have some niche applications, but ladies and gents it’s YADTCWY. Yet another device to carry with you.
Treos like my 680 already handle 16gb SDHC cards flawlessly, excepting (as usual) Palm’s newer downgraded models. Also, apps are already available that allow on to peruse their desktops from a mobile location. This is yet another device requiring syncronization of desktop files which includes the dreaded “do I really have the most recent doc here”? It’s also another device requiring a charger to be hauled around. Finally, by the time this product actually hits the retail market, the 32gb SDHC and 16+gb SD-micro cards will be flooding the market on the cheap.
Personally, I would hang on to my venture capital.
Most depressing of all is dudes assurance of file transfer to the “Treo” via WiFi. Poor soul obviously does not understand the pain and suffering round the parts. Also, can you imagine a 42gb file transfer using Palm’s outdated Treo specs with BT 1.2? Ugggh.
Just my $.02, maybe less.
This is an awesome concept! I hope Palm picks it up!
Bluetooth would be very slow for large data transfers. OEM manufacturers will clearly want to equip it with the possibility of a physical connection. I believe it supports USB connectivity in its present form.
@livefaith: You have to admit that, while it may be “YADTCWY”, the possibility of having the entire contents of your main computer with you absolutely everywhere is compelling. ;-)
I also wonder if smartphone manufacturers won’t simply build a smartphone around it so that we only have a single device. I for one would be willing to sacrifice a little on form factor to have a Treo with this Seagate drive built in! (If only my device dreams would become a reality. Sigh.)
One a scale of 1 to 10 of the “COOLEST new technology on display at CES” I give this a ZERO! Where you there? Are you blind?
“It’s” = it is (and nothing else).
“Its” shows possession.
This article uses “its” correctly. :)
@PumiceT - yeah.. that’s because Tadd fixed it after my comment ;D
@Tadd - I agree, using the drive as a basis for internal storage makes much, much more sense (hmm.. Lifedrive?). I don’t see the attraction in carrying a duplicate of the entire contents of my PC though.
I can’t wait to hear which Federal Agency loses one of these with millions of SSID#s first!
Because it’s not just YADTCWY– It’s also YADIHTL (Yet another device I’d hate to lose). And with BT at that.
I have 8GB and Palm OS5 (Garnet) but there are issues reading/writing when more than 4GB is on the device. The Windows-based ones say 2GB:
http://kb.palm.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,Kb=PalmSupportKB,CASE=41171
For PalmOS5, this URL should help:
http://kb.palm.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,Kb=PalmSupportKB,CASE=34080
Again, original post should be changed back to 4GB (with caveat for older devices).
The seagate dave is something that should already exist, and the Bluonyx is a similar concept, I want one, regardless of how obviously simple it is.
Hi,
I see a major flaw. BT has a normal data rate of 720kbits/s, that is about 100kBytes/s. A 1GB file will take about 10000 seconds (2h45min) to download on the device. Doing this, it will drain the battery of the device, BT is not THAT low power (you will have to recharge it somewhere, probably on USB).
In comparison an average SD card does about 10MB/s: it depends on the controller of the device you use to load the SD, usually the PC/Mac/whatever. This 100x higher throughput than the BT normal speed, your 1GB file takes about one minute and a half, which is a usable thing.
Well, there is and extended data rate of 3Mbits/s so your 1GB file would take about 45minutes to load. Still to much for me.
Therefore I think I’ll stick to swapping SD cards. I am not into movie viewing on my 650 anyway….
Sorry I meant a 1GB file will take 2h45m UPloading to the device.
I think this thing could be, and I emphasize could be, quite awesome. The thing I think about is the applications for you car and if you own multiple devices, although I would hate to lose it and am not all that interested in carrying another device… but the loss of any portable storage would suck, so I wonder what kind of security it will provide.
I imagine working on a doc on my Treo and then hopping in the car and using it to hear my favorite tunes… but then I could get in my husband’s car and have the same tunes. I think the power of this device will be the multiple applications with one device. I can’t use an SD card in my car ya know.