ON A NEW USE FOR PERSONAL STORAGE

A DIFFERENT TWIST

It took me a couple of reads to get what this new product called BluOnyx is supposed to do.  But once it sinks in two thoughts come to mind,

1.  This COULD be pretty useful.

2.  Why didn't someone think of this sooner?

The thing is supposed to be the size of a credit card, and a little thicker than a Razr phone.  What does it do?

Think of it is wireless storage for a range of devices like cell phones, mp3 players, laptops, car stereo systems and the like, that can be shared by a number of people via Wifi or Bluetooth.  Other startups like PixSense (which announced new financing today), offer this kind of service for cell phones online.  BluOnyx seems to be going the other way, by selling a personal device solution.

As this Gizmodo piece explains:

"With USB, SD, and upcoming Wi-Fi, BluOnyx allows you to stream data to your cellphones for on-the-fly playback, just like the data was on the device. The Digital Campfire holds anywhere from 1GB to 40GB of data, which can be streamed to any nearby device as long as it's been authenticated. The price will range from $99 to $250..."

Here's how the BlueOnyx site summarizes the features:

• About the size of a credit card
• Slightly thicker than the Motorola Razr™
• Independent of a PC
• Move content to it from cell phone, camera or PC
• Connect using Bluetooth, SD card, USB and Wifi
• Display your content on cell phone, TV and PC
• Send your content over the cell network, internet, home/corporate LAN
• Broadcast the same or different content on the BluOnyx to Multiple phones at the same time.

The site provides a number of examples of how the device could be used, including:

"The Passenger views a video from the BluOnyx, each of the friends in the back seat get to listen to a different music all played on their cell phone screen in high def! The BluOnyx can connect to the car Bluetooth connection and become the juke box or the map source for GPS system."

Apparently available soon in a number of colors, the device could be cool, assuming of course on how all this works in the execution of the hardware and software.  With the right kind of software, and a little on-board processing, a solution like this could evolve into a personal, wireless server.

For now, I would wait for a review or two on BluOnyx,but the idea of personal, wireless storage, certainly provides some food for thought.

Comments

[Alex Pooley]

Initially I thought this was a portable battery powered device but I can't find any mention of batteries? Which would be a real shame if confirmed :(