REPOST: The Next Big Little Thing
You can't buy it yet, but a stealthy company called DataPlay has invented a
miniature optical-storage drive, about the size of a matchbook, that can
store up to 500 megabytes of data on a $10 removable platter not much
larger than a quarter. Yes, the picture here is actual size. The implications
are huge for digital cameras, MP3 players, electronic books, Web-enabled
wireless phones, videocams, and pocket computers, which today are forced
to rely on either wildly expensive flash-memory cards or bulkier storage
solutions. Toshiba, Samsung, Sonicblue (maker of the Rio 800, below),
Universal Music, and other big names are planning to use the DataPlay
technology in products coming later this year. The little disks can be
"mastered," enabling record companies, for example, to distribute new
copyright-protected albums along with music videos and other material.
Consumers can also use them to record digital picture archives and MP3
music files. One potential drawback: There's no way to re-record the
DataPlay disks--they're write-once devices that can't be erased--but at $10
a pop for half a gig of storage, who cares? Some consumer electronics
companies are waiting to make sure the DataPlay drives are reliable
enough for portable devices, and for the cost of the micro-optical
drives--believed to be around $200--to come down. Even so, the cost of the
drive is not all that much more than a standard flash-memory card with a
fraction of the capacity. And there's more: DataPlay says it is already
working on a second-generation micro-optical system that holds the
promise of multigigabyte capacities.
AI
