This maybe a stupid question but......

J

JPF_

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 30, 2011
Messages
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With all of the ultra books, light weights, thins and what not missing the dvd drive is pretty much a known.

With that said, is there anyone working on wireless dvd drives, or wireless portable hard drives? Via blu tooth or something else? IE; use a dongle for 2-way communications for a hard dive/dvd drive?
 
There are portable storage drives on the market but I don't think in the capacity you are looking for. Kingston has some on the market but the sizes (both in terms of physical size and storage size) is aimed more at smart phones and tablets.

I'm not sure about optical drives.

The issue with wireless isn't data transmission but powering the device. Such devices would then also need to incorporate a battery as well as a charger. Power draw would not be a trivial issue either meaning you'd need a rather significantly sized battery (size and weight) or consumers would have issues with inconvenience (running out of charge). A connected USB based device has the added simplicity of being able to draw power from the laptop (or whatever device it is connected to).

I don't believe Bluetooth would be considered acceptably fast enough for this type of application. Wireless N or higher speeds would likely be needed (going off some sort of standard), and even with Wireless N you're likely going to get significantly slower real world speeds than USB 2.0.
 
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OP, are you looking for portable drives like you mentioned, or just external? There are plenty of wireless hard drives available, but of the type that connects to your network. I imagine you could create an ad hoc network on your computer to 'direct connect' to the hard drive, though I can't verify that for any/all of such drives.

I don't know about such optical drives.

Keep in mind, Bluetooth data transfer is VERY slow; not viable for pc data transfer.
 
One thing to note: Mac users can take advantage of Remote Disc, which basically "borrows" another computer's optical drive (even that of a Windows PC) over the local network. It's not the same as a completely wireless drive, but it's handy if you need to install that rare piece of software that still needs a disc.
 
For hard drives you can get a mobile 1TB unit with battery and wireless than can even piggy back onto another wireless with internet so a device can access the HDD and internet at the same time lol. It can even do so on the battery so yeah plenty of options HDD wise.

Optical wise just use an external USB since you don't usually need more than one.
 
Hmmm... Maybe I was just dreaming this, but 2 months ago i did see on a shelf a wireless optical drive from Samsung. How it works, I do not know. Check on samsung site, they should have more info about it.
 
Meaker said:
For hard drives you can get a mobile 1TB unit with battery and wireless than can even piggy back onto another wireless with internet so a device can access the HDD and internet at the same time lol. It can even do so on the battery so yeah plenty of options HDD wise.

Optical wise just use an external USB since you don't usually need more than one.
Click to expand...

This is kinda what I was thinking.


I am not looking for a solution I was just curious if this existed.


Say I have a backpack and a tablet in my hands, in my backpack is a hard drive....is there technology where I can access that drive while its in my backpack?

Same for dvd/blu ray etc.....

I do understand the power restraints which sucks.....but just curious if this will ever come to pass....
 
Yes there are wireless hard drives and usb sticks out now that will let you do exactly what you want.
 
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