Seagate plans to release its first hard disk drives that will offer wireless connectivity with mobile phones, PCs and other consumer electronic devices later this year.
The company showcased today in Japan the first Digital Audio Video Experience (D.A.V.E.) hard disk prototypes. Announced in early last year, Seagate's DAVE technology provides wireless storage capacity for digital files from mobile phones, PCs and other wireless-enabled devices. The DAVE hard disk drives support the Bluetooth 2.0 EDN and WiFi 802.11b/g technology, allowing easy sharing of data, HD video or music files among other wireless-enabled devices such as mobile phones, portable audio players, car navigation systems or notebooks.
The DAVE hard disk drives will be available in the 1.8inch form factor, will offer storage capacities of up to 60GB and of course they will come with a USB 2.0 interface. Automatic synchronization of content between DAVE devices as well as access of data through browser are also included in the features of the upcoming DAVE HDDs.
Once applied to mobile phones, DAVE technology would allow for example professionals to quickly download and store large business documents from e-mail and also access corporate servers for up-to-date files and information. With the proposed solution, if a professional misplaces his or her smartphone they can pair a DAVE-enabled device to the new handset and get back into business immediately without the risk of losing information along with the original handset.
Seagate plans to offer the DAVE products through the OEM market by the end of 2008.
Seagate also unveiled an external storage solution customized for the entertainment centers. The new "Showcase" is an external storage HDD that could be consider as a media library expander, featuring capacities of up to 750GB, high temperature tolerance (45 degrees C) and quite operation (29dB) in order to seamlessly work together with a media center PC connected through USB/eSATA interface.